A July 4 wildflower collection and the latest "Capitol Week"

My non-political hobby

Jul 04, 2023

Photos by Laura Belin: Red fruit forming on fragrant sumac, blackberry flowers, Virginia bluebells

If you mainly know my work through this Substack, you may not be aware I’ve been publishing a regular series on Iowa wildflowers in the spring, summer, and fall since 2012.

Guest authors and I have profiled around 250 species so far; here’s the full archive alphabetized by the plant’s common name, and here are all posts tagged “wildflowers,” with the most recent entries at the top. Many readers have told me they enjoy these posts as a break from the negativity often found in online spaces. I usually link to at least one wildflower post in my other free email newsletter.

Another place to go for a wildflower fix (or for gardening tips and help with plant identification) is the “Iowa wildflower enthusiasts” Facebook group, which has around 7,700 members. With the help of fellow admins Lora Conrad and Katie Byerly, we keep spam and politics out of that group.

In 2018, when the Fourth of July fell on a Wednesday, I compiled a special post featuring red, white, and blue on a few dozen kinds of wildflowers. The photo montage at the top of this post doesn’t come from that piece—I just created it today. Those are red fruit now forming on the fragrant sumac shrubs near the top of our driveway, white flowers on blackberry plants, which I photographed on Mike Delaney’s Dallas County prairie in May, and Virginia bluebells from our yard a few years ago (they usually bloom in April and May).

Back to our regularly scheduled programming! Dennis Hart and I took Memorial Day off this year, so we recorded “Capitol Week” at the usual time on Monday, July 3 at 7:00 pm. You can find the full archive on KHOI Radio’s website. Here’s the audio from our latest show.

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Topics Dennis and I covered:

Some news media have reported that Iowa lawmakers were advised to hold July 10 open for a possible special legislative session. Certainly, Republicans will convene for a special session at some point to pass a new abortion ban. I am not yet convinced they will have a bill drafted and ready to go by the end of this week. For now, I view these reports as a trial balloon, rather than confirmation of a deal to convene in Des Moines next Monday;
As I covered in more depth here, some Iowa Republican lawmakers would prefer a total abortion ban, while others want either broader or more clear exceptions to a 6-week ban, to avoid horror stories like these, where women nearly die from infections or have their fertility compromised after suffering pregnancy complications. The 2018 law was drafted in a hurry, and its exceptions would not apply to many survivors of sexual assault, or those facing medical emergencies;
We discussed the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that ended affirmative action as we know it in university admissions. I suspect few Iowa colleges or universities will be affected, but please let me know if you’re aware of selective schools in our state that will need to retool their admission policies;
At least a quarter of a million Iowans will be affected by the U.S. Supreme Court’s majority decision to strike down the Biden administration’s student loan debt relief program. President Biden has promised to use other avenues to try to accomplish the same goal, so it’s not clear whether some borrowers may eventually get relief;
While Dennis and I were talking about Iowa political reaction to that decision, I questioned Senator Chuck Grassley’s claim that the student loan program was “unconstitutional.” Indeed, the majority opinion found the Biden administration had exceeded its statutory authority under the HEROES Act. The conservative justices didn’t declare the loan relief to be unconstitutional (in contrast to the affirmative action decision, which did invoke the Fourteenth Amendment);
Last week I reported exclusively that the state of Iowa’s chronic late reporting of its annual finances had jeopardized the flow of federal funds to Iowa’s three state universities. I explained what happened and how the State Auditor’s office found a workaround. I’ve been chasing this story in one way or another since early 2021;
A Polk County District Court ruled last week that Iowa’s county auditors may print voting materials in languages other than English. The decision dissolved an injunction that had been in place for about 15 years. I’m working on a Bleeding Heartland piece about the lawsuit, which the League of United Latin American Citizens brought in 2021. I don’t know yet whether Secretary of State Paul Pate and the county auditors who are named defendants intend to appeal;
On to our Iowa caucus almanac section: Dennis and I talked about the presidential candidates planning to walk in July 4 parades;
Dennis almost lost it when talking about the “Mamas for DeSantis” initiative that Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis plans to unveil this week at an event featuring Governor Kim Reynolds. Due to KHOI’s non-commercial license, I avoid editorializing on the air. But let’s just say these “mamas” don’t speak for me or most of the mothers I know;
Former President Donald Trump is coming back to Iowa later this week for an event in Council Bluffs. The southwest corner of Iowa gets somewhat less attention due to the cost of advertising in the Omaha media market;
The Federal Emergency Management Agency denied Reynolds’ request last week for a federal disaster declaration in connection with the recent building collapse in Davenport. Despite what Reynolds implied on her official Twitter feed, I haven’t seen any evidence the White House influenced that decision;
The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services reversed course last week, saying they will apply for $28 million in federal funding to provide meals for many children during the summer. For more, check out the Cedar Rapids Gazette article by Tom Barton;
Iowa will receive an estimated $415 million in federal funding for rural broadband, as part of the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law. One angle I forgot to mention on the show: former Democratic State Representative Chris Hall will oversee this spending as part of his new job with the U.S. Department of Commerce;
Some transparency news: the Bettendorf School Board recently settled a lawsuit filed by the Iowa Freedom of Information Council and several Quad Cities area news organizations over an open meetings violation. Randy Evans wrote about this case in his syndicated column last week;
Four Iowa newspapers owned by Lee Enterprises recently shifted to publishing print editions only three days a week (Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday). I covered this at Bleeding Heartland in May, when the newspapers announced the coming change.