Friday Zoom link: Who has influenced Iowa Writers Collaborative members?

A lunchtime conversation

Feb 23, 2023

∙ Paid

Members of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative in Jefferson in early December. Back row: Nik Heftman, Doug Burns, Kyle Munson, Laura Sands, Dave Busiek, Art Cullen, Bob Leonard, Annie Leonard. Tar Marcias. Middle row: Cheryl Tevis, Laura Belin, Beth Hoffman, Joe Gupta, Fern Kupfer, John Naughton, Suzanne de Baca and Erika Macias. Front row: Chuck Offenburger, Richard Gilbert, Julie Gammack, Teresa Zilk, Jody Gifford. Not pictured: Dana James, Ed Tibbetts, Pat Kinney, Kurt Meyer, and Mary Swander.

How is everyone’s week going? I’ve been busy tracking Iowa House and Senate committee meetings on many bills. I also finished a deep dive on Iowa’s new law limiting damages in medical malpractice lawsuits—we haven’t heard the last about that one!

On Wednesday, the Iowa Supreme Court heard oral arguments related to an open records lawsuit against Governor Kim Reynolds. I’m one of the plaintiffs in that case (background here). A Polk County District Court rejected the state’s motion to dismiss last May.

The justices aren’t going to resolve the merits of our claims at this stage, but their ruling on the state’s appeal may shed light on broader questions related to Iowa's open records law (known as Chapter 22), such as what constitutes a refusal to provide a public record, how courts can determine whether a government entity's delay was reasonable, and whether any legal doctrines shield the governor from that kind of judicial scrutiny.

My latest post describes the legal issues and questions Supreme Court justices raised. I also included comments from ACLU attorney Thomas Story, Kathie Obradovich of Iowa Capital Dispatch, Randy Evans of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, and myself.

To keep up with everything I’ve published at Bleeding Heartland, you can subscribe to my other free email newsletter. It goes out a couple of times a week, with links to all recent articles and commentaries (by guest authors too).

The last Friday of the month approaches, which means it’s time for another Zoom call featuring members of the Iowa Writers Collaborative. Robert Leonard will moderate the February 24 discussion, which starts at noon Central. Among other things, we will be talking about which authors have influenced our work.

These virtual gatherings are a perk for paid subscribers to any of the Substack newsletters in our group. If you’ve paid to support my work here, you can scroll down to find the link after the paywall.

But you don’t need to be a paid subscriber to this newsletter to join the Zoom. If you are a paying subscriber of any author in the collaborative, you should receive the link from that writer. Here’s the current list: