The Iowa Legislature wrote some wonderful concepts into the state’s government transparency laws. ... But increasingly, 11 other words in the public records law are causing headaches for Iowans who want to monitor the decisions their government makes.
I sometimes think government officials overlook the important role the public plays in our system of government.
That was my takeaway last week from the monthly meeting of the Iowa
One of the nastiest controversies in local government in Iowa in many years was the impeachment in May of Muscatine Mayor Diana Broderson by the city council. The case isn’t over.
Jennifer Jacobs, whose journey to White House correspondent began in Iowa, will bring back home tales of covering the Trump presidency when she serves as the annual Celebrating a Free Press and Open Government Banquet’s guest speaker in Des Moines on Thursday, Oct. 5, 2017.
It was quite a week last week with the buzz about impeachment. Relax. I’m not referring to President Donald Trump. I’m talking about the mayor of Muscatine.
Envy affects people in different ways.
Some of us are motivated by the old adage of “keeping up with the Joneses.”
But I have no desire to keep up with
Two of my friends are polar opposites when it comes to politics.
One is oh so liberal. Excuse me, oh so progressive. The other is conservative. Quite so.
They don’
OSHA has stopped issuing announcements of enforcement actions. One involving John Deere was made public, though, before a news blackout coinciding with the new Trump Administration began, Fairwarning.org reports.
The Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism-IowaWatch has joined the Iowa Freedom of Information Council as a First Amendment member because it matches the center’s goal of shining a spotlight on institutions and people who have authority over public policies, trends and events.
Iowa’s practices to ensure transparency in lobbying earned an F in a recently released State Integrity Investigation by the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit investigative journalism organization.
The fact that state authorities sought to obstruct disclosure of a police shooting in Burlington explains, in part, why Iowa received an overall grade of D+ in a 2015 State Integrity Investigation conducted by the Center for Public Integrity and Global Integrity.