One Nebraska senator is single-handedly stopping that state from passing both a bathroom bill and a sex-definition bill. This is the fourth year in a row a different senator has pushed anti-trans bills. She also wants a complete ban on HRT for minors and allow detransitioner lawsuits.

Reporter: Look at these Olympic athletes defying age! They're above 40! Me: 🪦

How dare the Iowa House have its school funding debate while there was third-period and overtime gold-medal hockey happening.

USA USA USA

🚨🏒🚨🇺🇸🚨

PUCK GOES IN NET, LADIES

SF 2174: Ames parents complained about violation of law against critical race theory. Sen. Salmon said there are "loopholes" in the law. Bill mandates that all curriculum and materials, even those provided by volunteers...

At some point in the past hour the Iowa Senate Education Committee meeting scheduled for 3 PM actually started. I'm back in now, and they've already advanced a bill giving more money and power to charter schools, with the main hangup being differences between the governor's and Senate versions.

How yesterday went from great to sad, a thread: I had stacked events in a manner that would result in me being out-of-pocket until at least 7:30 PM. I had a massage, walk, dentist appointment, and then to the farm for the church pancake supper. (I _needed_ that massage.) 1/9

kill the robots

SSB 3175, introduced 2 1/2 days before cutoff on legislation, eliminates ALL requirements to publish public notices and city/county minutes in newspapers. If this bill passes, dozens of Iowa newspapers will die the day after this goes into effect, and I'm probably underestimating. Live-skeeting:

Extremely important foreign leader news

Reminder: "Loophole" is NOT shorthand for "law that I don't like" or "law that I want to exist but doesn't."

Now I'm switching to HF 2336, which based on my interpretation is basically removing the few restrictions Iowa has on homeschoolers, including vaccinations (!!) and explicitly banning adoption of any rules on "independent private instruction."

OK, here we go: SF 2119. "This bill repeals Code section 728.7, which relates to obscenity exemptions for public libraries and educational institutions." Packed crowd in the Senate Lounge. Yes, this bill is being heard in the break room.

At noon if I can figure the video out (no guarantees): SF 2119. "This bill repeals Code section 728.7, which relates to obscenity exemptions for public libraries and educational institutions." This is ALSO related to the one girl who checked out "Icebreaker" from a library.

SJR 2008: TWENTY senators signing on to a resolution "That the General Assembly of the State of Iowa supports federal efforts to eliminate the United States department of education." Homeschool advocate says the Education Department was a "mistake". It's symbolic, but it's advancing.

Contrary to the headline here, these bills, which I live-skeeted earlier this week, advanced out of COMMITTEE, not the entire House chamber. I feel some outlets have been a little sloppy on that distinction this session. (In the grand scheme of things, these bills are soaring through anyway.)

Dress codes? DRESS CODES? (pictured: A "Mom For Liberty" who took a day away from terrorizing trans Iowans to advance a statewide dress code mandate that, of course, does not apply to private schools)

The Morouns have long opposed anything that would infringe on their monopoly control of the only bridge between Detroit and Windsor. They have spent decades stopping another bridge from being built. Canada had to resort to paying for the bridge itself and recouping the money later. So naturally...

ONE minor checked out ONE book she shouldn't have ("Icebreaker") from ONE library (it was in the adult section!) and ONE library board refused to remove it. The Iowa Legislature's response: Abolish library boards by transferring all real authority to city councils. Bill already has a subcommittee.

The Iowa House Education Committee is supposed to meet imminently. Why am I here? Because there are MULTIPLE extremely stupid bills on the agenda. Among them: A bill denying education licenses over celebration of "politically motivated violence, including the unlawful killing of Charles J. Kirk."

Bluesky's update shows the discrepancy between the classic "RoundRect" design style of 1983-2025 (the main reply window) and Apple's "Liquid Glass" that rounds the crap out of the "rects" (the Discard panel). Bill Atkinson, inventor of the RoundRect, died in June. www.folklore.org/Round_Rects_...

Today is "Iowa legislative Democrats introduce message bills that will never see the light of day" day. Meanwhile, the people with power have bills "relating to the Iowa Medical Freedom Act" and dictating the entire K-12 social studies curriculum (that small schools won't have the resources to do).

I hope you appreciated ("enjoyed" is obviously the wrong word) my attempts are reporting on these bills. They will go next to the House Judiciary Committee, which does not currently have its next meeting scheduled. I'm going for a walk to clear my head.

Intro: "If you don't have a seat, we're going to ask you to leave the room." Chair Dunwell also insisting on alternating pro/anti, about 2 minute limit. Holt is sitting slightly closer to Dunwell than Wichtendahl, if body language means anything.

Now: HSB 669, “An Act allowing a person to raise, guide, and instruct a child in a manner consistent with the child’s sex.” It specifies that conversion therapy is not child abuse. It bans adoption agencies from screening out parents who would refuse to accept trans children.

Rep. Wheeler: "You want a thousand different civil rights codes. That's what you're asking for. Think about how difficult that would be to manage." Favor. Holt: "I don't have time to rebut a number of things that were said today regarding things I said last year that were not accurate."

Rep Wilburn: Civil rights has been part of my past, protections, investigations. If the basis for this is the Supreme Court case about higher ed and race-conscious policies, that's only for higher ed. "The court did not specifically ban affirmative action in the workplace."

Last speaker, hearing-impaired woman, I think she's chair of some deaf group. This takes away ability to make accommodations. It hurts a community, and who's next? "Why do you guys hate us so much?"

"Stop being the dog chasing the culture war car, and start acting in the interest of your constituents." Next speaker, against. Provision allowing city ordinances different from state has been in law 60 years. She says there are Section 8 issues. Oh, that's why the Manufactured Homes Assn. favors.

Sean McRoberts, pastor, against: "You are abandoning ... your own soul." "You are inviting discrimination against trans people. You are actively worsening the crisis of homelessness against trans people." Holt said last year that the trans-erasure bill was to push other anti-trans laws, he said.

Cynthia Passion, against: Ames passed protections. She's ina group of women with trans kids. "If you want to fight with a woman, take us on." Council asked everyone to stand if they wanted ordinance passed. Everyone in room stood.

Current speaker: "This bill was born in injustice, please let it die."

I can't get the audio to work. Switching to closed captions. Very sorry.

The one-sentence proposal in HSB 664 directly from the governor's office: "A city or local government shall not enact any ordinance or other law which is broader or has different categories of unfair or discriminatory practices than those provided in this chapter."

First up: HSB 664, a bill that will ban cities from including gender identity in their civil rights ordinances. Comments on this one and the next, HSB 669, are a zillion to one against, but they're preordained conclusions waiting to happen. www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/...

I’m going to attempt live-skeeting 2 Iowa House subcommittees in a row that have anti-trans bills, depending on video availability. Posts may not be threaded but they’ll be in order. Back-to-back starting at noon.

Like a lion would know anything about the Super Bowl.

I can't. I just can't.

1) This is expanding Don't Say Gay to grades 7-12. 2) Notice how, because last year's trans erasure bill also struck every appearance of the phrase "gender identity" from Iowa Code, the coverage uses the phrase "gender theory" because that's what current law says.

Jan. 28: Ames considers city ordinance protecting gender identity. Feb. 4: Iowa governor introduces bill banning cities from protecting gender identity.

You are looking live at Iowa State's football roster for 2026

Taking away our cars can, should, and will be treated as a declaration of war upon rural America.

(and yes, it was so named because the first white settlers were from Ohio and Iowa)

um

My therapist cancelled for today, and while I could have continued to not leave the apartment, I got an emergency massage, and then spent eight hours sorting a Downloads folder that still has >10,000 items in it. This has been an EXTREMELY productive day - and there are still four hours to go!

Her husband is SIXTY?!?

In other news, SBN still had sports writers.

I have very clearly missed some ACTION in the Pop-Tarts Bowl.