Letters to the Editor: Same mandate for state athletic programs?

Interesting that the anti-DEI Republicans have voted in favor of HF 516, which mandates that 80% of applicants accepted to dental and medical programs at the University of Iowa be Iowa residents or have some other affiliation to Iowa. I presume the same affirmative action measure will be applied to the university's athletic programs? And UNI and Iowa State athletic programs as well?

David Weiss, Ankeny

Gov. Kim Reynolds’ record speaks for itself

During the past four years, I’ve penned many letters-to-the-editor in protest of Summit Carbon Solutions’ plans for a 2,500-mile CO2 pipeline and its intent to take our property through eminent domain. My most recent letter to the editor expressed frustration with the Iowa Legislature where eminent domain reform bills passed out of the House the past four sessions only to die in the Senate Commerce Committee.

Recently, I received a reply from a reader in Dickinson County asking me to “think about” the possibility that Gov. Kim Reynolds has been complicit in the actions of the legislature and the unfair treatment of landowners on Summit Carbon Solutions CO2 pipeline route. I have given this some thought, and interesting facts support the possibility.

The writer mentions the fact that Gov. Reynolds is a protégé of former Gov. Terry Branstad. This is true. Coincidentally, Branstad is now employed by Summit Carbon Solutions as senior policy advisor. In fact, he isn’t the only Summit executive with previous connections to the governor’s office. Summit’s VP of Government Affairs, Jake Ketzner, previously served as chief of staff to Gov. Reynolds. Ketzner was also an administrative legislative liaison for both former Gov. Branstad and then Lt. Gov. Reynolds.

The connection between Gov. Reynolds and Bruce Rastetter, owner of Summit Carbon Solutions, is also mentioned. Facts support this assertion. Public records show that Rastetter has contributed over $150,000 to Reynolds’ campaigns over the years. Furthermore, a FOIA request filed by Bold Nebraska (2019-2020) and Food and Water Watch (2022-2023) show that Gov. Reynolds and Bruce Rastetter exchanged 800 emails which often included plans for lunch. A more recent FOIA request by Bold Nebraska (2024) was returned with more than 20,000 possible documents.

In contrast, Gov. Reynolds has refused to meet with landowners for four years despite our letters, phone calls, emails and in-person requests made to her staff and to her personally. Reynolds’ response is always the same: She “opposes eminent domain,” but “there is a process,” and “they [landowners] will be compensated.”

Yes, I’ve thought about the assertion that Gov. Reynolds uses the weight of the governor’s office to tip the scales in favor of Summit Carbon Solutions. I think her record speaks for itself.

Bonnie Ewoldt, Milford and Crawford County landowner

Experiencing sadness and anxiety on Easter

I have just returned from my seventy-ninth Easter Sunday service. 

I don’t remember ever returning with such a mixed state of emotions from thankfulness to sadness and anxiety. 

The rural Covenant Church of my childhood now stands in the Onawa City Park, a relic of another era. My father and many other leaders in that church now lie in Fairview Cemetery, united in death as they were united in faith. 

Something else united them: service to their country in WWII and a subsequent return to farming. They raised families buoyed by the economic opportunities bestowed on them by a citizenry appreciative of their (white) sacrifice for democracy. 

Veterans continue to take a front and center role, but this time as targets of a cost-cutting onslaught which will eliminate 83,000 VA workers, about 25,000 of whom are veterans who wanted to continue their service to this nation. The loss of these workers naturally means cuts to health care, housing, life insurance, pensions and educational stipends for veterans.  

Now, the descendants of those veteran farmers are pawns in Trump’s tariff wars. The crops they grow can no longer feed starving populations in Africa. They can’t even feed American children because the administration has teamed up with GOP-governed states like Iowa to deny almost 117,000 Iowa children and seniors food assistance through SNAP. 

Our administration is clever in hurtful ways. It would be foolish to waste tax dollars on trying to educate hungry children. Thus, the proposal to eliminate Head Start, a 1965 brainchild of the War on Poverty. And with no school to attend, the children can stay home and be supervised by unemployed parents. Result: more money for tax breaks for the rich. 

New generations farm the land of my upbringing. Many of them attend a new church in town. I wonder, though, if they, too, came away with sadness and anxiety this Easter.

Karen Heidman, Sioux City