POLITICS VIDEO

Iowa’s DOGE task force just released 45 recommendations for the state government. Unsurprisingly, they want to cut more social services.

Iowa faces the nation’s worst cancer crisis, and now federal funding cuts are shaking up promising research. The Trump administration has slashed over $33 million in cancer research funding at the University of Iowa alone. On this episode of Cornhole Champions, Zachary Oren Smith, Amie Rivers, and Avery Staker explore how these cuts are devastating…

Iowa’s two-time Paralympic gold medalist Josh Turek is taking on Senator Joni Ernst. The Council Bluffs Democrat has won twice in Trump territory and thinks he knows how to beat Republicans statewide. On this episode of Cornhole Champions, Zachary Oren Smith sits down with State Rep. Josh Turek to discuss his Senate bid, his personal…

Iowa Republicans are coming for the public employee retirement system—again. Despite promising to “protect and defend” IPERS in 2018, Gov. Kim Reynolds’s handpicked DOGE task force now wants to eliminate pensions for new state employees. On this episode of Cornhole Champions, Zachary Oren Smith, Amie Rivers, and Avery Staker break down how wealthy business executives…

Federal Medicaid cuts are expected to strip health care from 86,000 Iowans over the next ten years, but one rural hospital administrator warns the impacts could be felt in four to five months.

Sometimes the science moves faster than public policy. And it has real impacts on your health. On this episode of Cornhole Champions, Zachary Orne Smith explores this gap with Dr. David Cwiertny, an environmental engineer at the University of Iowa. Toss some bags at the science-policy gap… why we find chemicals everywhere we look… and…

53 million pounds. That’s how much pesticide gets sprayed across Iowa every year—more than any other state in the country. With Iowa having the second-highest and fastest-growing cancer rates in America, the science is connecting some uncomfortable dots between what’s in our fields and what’s happening to our neighbors. On this episode of Cornhole Champions,…

Iowa is hemorrhaging talent at an alarming rate, and the economic impact is staggering. A new report reveals that 34% more college graduates leave Iowa than stay, with the 2023 cohort alone representing a devastating $17.6 billion loss in potential income for the state. On this episode of Cornhole Champions, Zachary Oren Smith, Amie Rivers,…

New recession indicator just dropped: defecting Republicans.

Iowa’s strict scrutiny gun law was supposed to be an “insurmountable wall” against any gun regulation. But surprising new court cases show an unexpected divisions among Iowa’s seven Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices. On this episode of Cornhole Champions, Zachary Oren Smith, Amie Rivers, and Avery Staker break down fascinating cases from the Des Moines Register…