Podcast appearances and mentions of Abby Finkenauer

Daily News Brief Wednesday June 08, 2022 Lies, Propaganda, Story Telling, and the Serrated Edge: This year our national conference is in Knoxville, TN October 6th-8th. The theme of this year’s conference is Lies, Propaganda, Storytelling and the Serrated Edge. Our conference is not your typical conference. We fight, laugh and feast with fellowship, beer and Psalms, our amazing lineup of speakers, hanging with our awesome vendors, meeting new friends, and more. Early bird tickets are available now, but will be gone before you know it! Sign up now at flfnetwork.com/knoxville2022 How to follow Tuesday's primary election https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/07/politics/follow-tuesday-primary-election-june-7/index.html According to CNN It's election day in New Jersey, Mississippi, South Dakota, Iowa, New Mexico, Montana and California. A number of House primary races have captured national attention, especially in California, where redistricting after the 2020 census shook up the traditional political playing field. A former Trump administration Cabinet member is running for a new House seat in Montana, there's a high-profile Democratic Senate primary in Iowa, and incumbent governors in California, Iowa, New Mexico and South Dakota are up for reelection. Here's everything you need to know: California Gov. Gavin Newsom, less than a year after beating back an attempt to recall him, is seeking a second term. Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla, whom Newsom appointed to now-Vice President Kamala Harris' seat last year, is running for a full term as well as in a special election for the remainder of Harris' term. Beyond House primary races, there is a special general election to replace former GOP Rep. Devin Nunes in California's 22nd Congressional District. Under the state's primary system, all candidates run on the same ballot, and the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, advance to the general election. In Los Angeles, developer Rick Caruso has emerged as a top contender to US Rep. Karen Bass in the race to succeed term-limited Democratic Mayor Eric Garcetti. LA City Council Member Kevin de Leon is also running. If no one takes a majority Tuesday, the top two candidates will advance to a November runoff. In San Francisco, District Attorney Chesa Boudin is facing a recall election. If a majority of voters support the recall, San Francisco Mayor London Breed would appoint an interim district attorney. In Iowa, former US Rep. Abby Finkenauer faces retired Navy Vice Adm. Mike Franken and Minden City Council Member Glenn Hurst in the Democratic primary to take on Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley in November. Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds and Democrat Deidre DeJear, who ran for Iowa secretary of state in 2018, are running unopposed in their gubernatorial primaries. And three of the state's four US House members face competitive races this fall. Montana is hosting two US House races for the first time in decades after the state gained a second seat in reapportionment following the 2020 census. Former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who was Montana's member at-large before joining the Trump administration, is running for the new 1st District. In Mississippi, Republican Rep. Steven Palazzo, who is under a congressional ethics investigation, faces a competitive GOP primary. In New Jersey, Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski is vulnerable in the 7th Congressional District after his seat became more Republican in redistricting. And Rob Menendez, a Port Authority commissioner and the son of Sen. Bob Menendez, is the front-runner for the Democratic nomination to succeed retiring Democratic Rep. Albio Sires in the 8th District. In New Mexico, five Republicans are vying for the chance to face Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in the fall. Two Democrats are challenging GOP Rep. Yvette Herrell in the state's 2nd Congressional District, which became more Democratic in redistricting. And in South Dakota, Republican Gov. Kristi Noem, a potential 2024 presidential contender, is running for reelection in the reliably red state. She faces a primary challenge from state Rep. Steven Haugaard, a former state House speaker. Los Angeles and San Francisco voters may rebuke left in primaries nbcnews.com/politics/2022-election/los-angeles-san-francisco-voters-may-rebuke-left-primaries-rcna31877 Two of America’s most famously progressive cities may take right turns Tuesday, when California and six other states hold primary elections. In Los Angeles, long-simmering frustrations with issues like homelessness and crime have made an ex-Republican billionaire the unlikely front-runner to be the next mayor of the heavily Democratic megacity. Rick Caruso, a major real estate developer who only recently joined the Democratic Party and received a rare endorsement from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, has spent more than $34 million on his campaign — nearly 10 times more than his main opponent, six-term Democratic Rep. Karen Bass. While the money helps, Caruso has tapped into growing resentment about the state of the city and the perception that its Democratic leaders have been unable to do much about it. Homelessness continues to rise while housing has become even less affordable. Crime is up, traffic is worse, and high gas prices come with extra sting in a city infamous for its long commutes. Los Angeles County, which has for decades been a magnet for Americans dreaming of a fresh start, saw more people leave during the first year of the pandemic than any other in the U.S., according to census data released in March. With TV ads promising to “clean up LA” and to be “a doer ... not just a talker,” Caruso has portrayed himself as an ideological outsider with the ability and willingness to do what the city needs, even if it angers activists or unions. His plan to hire 1,500 new police officers, for instance, has earned rebukes from other candidates focused more on the LAPD’s civil rights issues. Bass and her allies, meanwhile, have compared Caruso to another party-switching billionaire real estate developer — former President Donald Trump — and highlighted Caruso’s past donations to GOP candidates like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and to anti-abortion causes. “He’s a fraud,” says the narrator of an ad from a pro-Bass super PAC, calling Caruso “a lifelong Republican.” L.A.’s recent mayoral elections have been relatively sleepy affairs where only around 1 in 5 registered voters bothered to turn out. But analysts say that could be different this year, as term-limited Mayor Eric Garcetti leaves office with low approval ratings and polls showing a growing number of voters concerned about the direction of the city. The contest, however, will likely continue into the fall since none of the candidates are expected to clear the 50 percent threshold necessary to avoid a runoff, which is scheduled to coincide with the general election in November. It’s a similar story in San Francisco, another famously progressive city that has been suffering from familiar urban plights — it had an even bigger exodus recently than L.A. on a per-capita basis. But crime has become the central flashpoint here, as polls suggest voters are poised to fire their reformist district attorney in a recall election Tuesday. Idaho Property Taxes With reports that property taxes are increasing around 25% on average here in Idaho, and that is my anecdotal average, it is long past due that we overhaul our taxation system. It should be no surprise to you that I believe property taxes are legitimate theft, that mechanism of connecting taxes to your property ownership is just plain wicked, and this is not to take away from the fact that I believe the government does have real authority to tax its citizens. But to tie taxes to the ownership of your property is to in effect turn your ownership of your own property into a rental, with the government as your benevolent landlord. Now think about this. Imagine if the government taxed your local grocery store the same way they tax your property, the economic damage that would come from this, would be horrendous. So, the government taxes your house by telling you how much your house is worth, and unlike sales tax, you get taxed for the mere fact that you own the house. At least with a gallon of milk, it does not even get taxed until it sales, but with your house you get taxed on the very ownership of it, based off what the government says you owe…based off the value they determine and assess that your house is worth. Imagine if milk was taxed daily before it was sold off the shelf? Every day that gallon is taxed on the shelf just sitting there doing nothing. Do you think your local grocery store will be incentivised to keep more milk on the shelf or less? This is why the housing market is so egregious right now. We assess monthly taxes on the ownership of your house, which dissisentivieses builders to build houses and keep them as inventory, you know on the shelf like a gallon of milk, and then when the government artificially shutdowns the economy, the housing market was already limited (the stocked shelves of the housing market was limited), and then add government driven inflation, wooola, you get this awful cycle all driven by government intervention driven by all these various mechanisms. Boniface Woodworking LLC: Boniface Woodworking exists for those who enjoy shopping with integrity; who want to buy handmade wooden furniture, gifts, and heirloom items that will last for generations. From dining tables and church pulpits to cigar humidors and everything in between; quality pieces that you can give your children’s children, tie them to their roots, and transcend the basic function of whatever they are! So, start voting with your dollars, and stop buying cheap crap from people who hate you! Visit www.bonifacewoodworking.com to see our gallery, learn our story, and submit your order for heirloom quality wood items. Gun debate: With all the talk of gun violence and red flag laws happening since the Uvalde shooting, and we need to clear up some fake news that is going around. Joe Biden and various news outlets have been claiming that before 2020, the number one way children die is due to auto accidents annually. After 2020, and Joe Biden just claimed this five days ago, the number one killer of children is now through guns. Google and you will see a number of mainstream outlets cover this “fact” or is it? Here is a snippet from Forbes to prove this point: The lie: Forbes:https://www.forbes.com/sites/ninashapiro/2022/04/18/the-leading-cause-of-death-in-children-and-youths-is-now-guns/?sh=25d16ffe1705 “In 2000, over 13,000 young people died due to motor vehicular-related injuries. In 2020, just over 8,000 deaths in the young population were recorded, which is a reduction of over 40% over the past two decades. In contrast, there were just under 7,000 firearm-related deaths in those ages 1- to 24-years in 2000, and over 10,000 deaths in 2020. In this time period, while motor vehicle safety measures have increased, in concert with increased federal funding to reduce these injuries and deaths, there was little, if any, federal funding for firearm safety research between 1996 and 2019.” The Truth, and surprisingly this is coming from NBC: NBC: https://www.nbcnews.com/data-graphics/child-gun-deaths-car-deaths-data-rcna31617 “While gun and motor vehicle deaths increased substantially in 2020, the latest year for which final numbers were available, claims that more children and teenagers die due to guns than motor vehicles only hold up when 18- to 19-year-olds are included, a group that accounts for nearly as many gun deaths as 1- to 17-year-olds combined do, according to an NBC News analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The gap between vehicular deaths and firearm deaths is narrowing among 1- to 17-year-olds, and may close entirely, according to the CDC’s provisional and incomplete 2021 data.” Now you need to tune in to last night’s CrossPolitic Show to hear Choc Knox talk about the racist history of gun laws and gun permits. Don’t miss it! Rand Paul unveils plan to slash federal spending over next 5 years to balance budget https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/rand-paul-unveils-plan-slash-federal-spending-balance-budget According to Fox Business: Sen. Rand Paul on Monday unveiled a new bill that includes trillions in budget cuts over the next five years in order to bring about a balanced budget. The Kentucky Republican's proposal would yield a $65.8 billion surplus by fiscal year 2027. Collectively, the plan spends about $4.2 trillion less than the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated during that time period, a person familiar with the matter said. "Five years ago, we could balance our budget with a freeze in spending. Not cut anything. Since then, our debt has skyrocketed to $30 trillion with $2 trillion just from this past year," Paul said in a statement. "We cannot keep ignoring this problem at the expense of taxpayers, and my budget will put our nation on track to solve this crisis that Congress created." The plan calls for cuts across the budget, excluding Social Security, which is racing toward insolvency. What is cut will be determined at a later time through the normal spending process. The goal is to set a parameter that Congress must fit its spending agenda within, rather than identifying specific cuts now. This is Gabriel Rench with Crosspolitic News. Support Rowdy Christian media by joining our club at fightlaughfeast.com, downloading our App, and head to our annual Fight Laugh Feast Events. If this content is helpful to you, would you please consider becoming a Fight Laugh Feast Club Member? We are trying to build a cancel-proof media platform, and we need your help. Join today and get a discount at the Fight Laugh Feast conference in Knoxville, TN and have a great day. Have a great day. Lord bless

Daily News Brief Wednesday June 08, 2022 Lies, Propaganda, Story Telling, and the Serrated Edge: This year our national conference is in Knoxville, TN October 6th-8th. The theme of this year’s conference is Lies, Propaganda, Storytelling and the Serrated Edge. Our conference is not your typical conference. We fight, laugh and feast with fellowship, beer and Psalms, our amazing lineup of speakers, hanging with our awesome vendors, meeting new friends, and more. Early bird tickets are available now, but will be gone before you know it! Sign up now at flfnetwork.com/knoxville2022 How to follow Tuesday's primary election https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/07/politics/follow-tuesday-primary-election-june-7/index.html According to CNN It's election day in New Jersey, Mississippi, South Dakota, Iowa, New Mexico, Montana and California. A number of House primary races have captured national attention, especially in California, where redistricting after the 2020 census shook up the traditional political playing field. A former Trump administration Cabinet member is running for a new House seat in Montana, there's a high-profile Democratic Senate primary in Iowa, and incumbent governors in California, Iowa, New Mexico and South Dakota are up for reelection. Here's everything you need to know: California Gov. Gavin Newsom, less than a year after beating back an attempt to recall him, is seeking a second term. Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla, whom Newsom appointed to now-Vice President Kamala Harris' seat last year, is running for a full term as well as in a special election for the remainder of Harris' term. Beyond House primary races, there is a special general election to replace former GOP Rep. Devin Nunes in California's 22nd Congressional District. Under the state's primary system, all candidates run on the same ballot, and the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, advance to the general election. In Los Angeles, developer Rick Caruso has emerged as a top contender to US Rep. Karen Bass in the race to succeed term-limited Democratic Mayor Eric Garcetti. LA City Council Member Kevin de Leon is also running. If no one takes a majority Tuesday, the top two candidates will advance to a November runoff. In San Francisco, District Attorney Chesa Boudin is facing a recall election. If a majority of voters support the recall, San Francisco Mayor London Breed would appoint an interim district attorney. In Iowa, former US Rep. Abby Finkenauer faces retired Navy Vice Adm. Mike Franken and Minden City Council Member Glenn Hurst in the Democratic primary to take on Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley in November. Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds and Democrat Deidre DeJear, who ran for Iowa secretary of state in 2018, are running unopposed in their gubernatorial primaries. And three of the state's four US House members face competitive races this fall. Montana is hosting two US House races for the first time in decades after the state gained a second seat in reapportionment following the 2020 census. Former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who was Montana's member at-large before joining the Trump administration, is running for the new 1st District. In Mississippi, Republican Rep. Steven Palazzo, who is under a congressional ethics investigation, faces a competitive GOP primary. In New Jersey, Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski is vulnerable in the 7th Congressional District after his seat became more Republican in redistricting. And Rob Menendez, a Port Authority commissioner and the son of Sen. Bob Menendez, is the front-runner for the Democratic nomination to succeed retiring Democratic Rep. Albio Sires in the 8th District. In New Mexico, five Republicans are vying for the chance to face Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in the fall. Two Democrats are challenging GOP Rep. Yvette Herrell in the state's 2nd Congressional District, which became more Democratic in redistricting. And in South Dakota, Republican Gov. Kristi Noem, a potential 2024 presidential contender, is running for reelection in the reliably red state. She faces a primary challenge from state Rep. Steven Haugaard, a former state House speaker. Los Angeles and San Francisco voters may rebuke left in primaries nbcnews.com/politics/2022-election/los-angeles-san-francisco-voters-may-rebuke-left-primaries-rcna31877 Two of America’s most famously progressive cities may take right turns Tuesday, when California and six other states hold primary elections. In Los Angeles, long-simmering frustrations with issues like homelessness and crime have made an ex-Republican billionaire the unlikely front-runner to be the next mayor of the heavily Democratic megacity. Rick Caruso, a major real estate developer who only recently joined the Democratic Party and received a rare endorsement from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, has spent more than $34 million on his campaign — nearly 10 times more than his main opponent, six-term Democratic Rep. Karen Bass. While the money helps, Caruso has tapped into growing resentment about the state of the city and the perception that its Democratic leaders have been unable to do much about it. Homelessness continues to rise while housing has become even less affordable. Crime is up, traffic is worse, and high gas prices come with extra sting in a city infamous for its long commutes. Los Angeles County, which has for decades been a magnet for Americans dreaming of a fresh start, saw more people leave during the first year of the pandemic than any other in the U.S., according to census data released in March. With TV ads promising to “clean up LA” and to be “a doer ... not just a talker,” Caruso has portrayed himself as an ideological outsider with the ability and willingness to do what the city needs, even if it angers activists or unions. His plan to hire 1,500 new police officers, for instance, has earned rebukes from other candidates focused more on the LAPD’s civil rights issues. Bass and her allies, meanwhile, have compared Caruso to another party-switching billionaire real estate developer — former President Donald Trump — and highlighted Caruso’s past donations to GOP candidates like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and to anti-abortion causes. “He’s a fraud,” says the narrator of an ad from a pro-Bass super PAC, calling Caruso “a lifelong Republican.” L.A.’s recent mayoral elections have been relatively sleepy affairs where only around 1 in 5 registered voters bothered to turn out. But analysts say that could be different this year, as term-limited Mayor Eric Garcetti leaves office with low approval ratings and polls showing a growing number of voters concerned about the direction of the city. The contest, however, will likely continue into the fall since none of the candidates are expected to clear the 50 percent threshold necessary to avoid a runoff, which is scheduled to coincide with the general election in November. It’s a similar story in San Francisco, another famously progressive city that has been suffering from familiar urban plights — it had an even bigger exodus recently than L.A. on a per-capita basis. But crime has become the central flashpoint here, as polls suggest voters are poised to fire their reformist district attorney in a recall election Tuesday. Idaho Property Taxes With reports that property taxes are increasing around 25% on average here in Idaho, and that is my anecdotal average, it is long past due that we overhaul our taxation system. It should be no surprise to you that I believe property taxes are legitimate theft, that mechanism of connecting taxes to your property ownership is just plain wicked, and this is not to take away from the fact that I believe the government does have real authority to tax its citizens. But to tie taxes to the ownership of your property is to in effect turn your ownership of your own property into a rental, with the government as your benevolent landlord. Now think about this. Imagine if the government taxed your local grocery store the same way they tax your property, the economic damage that would come from this, would be horrendous. So, the government taxes your house by telling you how much your house is worth, and unlike sales tax, you get taxed for the mere fact that you own the house. At least with a gallon of milk, it does not even get taxed until it sales, but with your house you get taxed on the very ownership of it, based off what the government says you owe…based off the value they determine and assess that your house is worth. Imagine if milk was taxed daily before it was sold off the shelf? Every day that gallon is taxed on the shelf just sitting there doing nothing. Do you think your local grocery store will be incentivised to keep more milk on the shelf or less? This is why the housing market is so egregious right now. We assess monthly taxes on the ownership of your house, which dissisentivieses builders to build houses and keep them as inventory, you know on the shelf like a gallon of milk, and then when the government artificially shutdowns the economy, the housing market was already limited (the stocked shelves of the housing market was limited), and then add government driven inflation, wooola, you get this awful cycle all driven by government intervention driven by all these various mechanisms. Boniface Woodworking LLC: Boniface Woodworking exists for those who enjoy shopping with integrity; who want to buy handmade wooden furniture, gifts, and heirloom items that will last for generations. From dining tables and church pulpits to cigar humidors and everything in between; quality pieces that you can give your children’s children, tie them to their roots, and transcend the basic function of whatever they are! So, start voting with your dollars, and stop buying cheap crap from people who hate you! Visit www.bonifacewoodworking.com to see our gallery, learn our story, and submit your order for heirloom quality wood items. Gun debate: With all the talk of gun violence and red flag laws happening since the Uvalde shooting, and we need to clear up some fake news that is going around. Joe Biden and various news outlets have been claiming that before 2020, the number one way children die is due to auto accidents annually. After 2020, and Joe Biden just claimed this five days ago, the number one killer of children is now through guns. Google and you will see a number of mainstream outlets cover this “fact” or is it? Here is a snippet from Forbes to prove this point: The lie: Forbes:https://www.forbes.com/sites/ninashapiro/2022/04/18/the-leading-cause-of-death-in-children-and-youths-is-now-guns/?sh=25d16ffe1705 “In 2000, over 13,000 young people died due to motor vehicular-related injuries. In 2020, just over 8,000 deaths in the young population were recorded, which is a reduction of over 40% over the past two decades. In contrast, there were just under 7,000 firearm-related deaths in those ages 1- to 24-years in 2000, and over 10,000 deaths in 2020. In this time period, while motor vehicle safety measures have increased, in concert with increased federal funding to reduce these injuries and deaths, there was little, if any, federal funding for firearm safety research between 1996 and 2019.” The Truth, and surprisingly this is coming from NBC: NBC: https://www.nbcnews.com/data-graphics/child-gun-deaths-car-deaths-data-rcna31617 “While gun and motor vehicle deaths increased substantially in 2020, the latest year for which final numbers were available, claims that more children and teenagers die due to guns than motor vehicles only hold up when 18- to 19-year-olds are included, a group that accounts for nearly as many gun deaths as 1- to 17-year-olds combined do, according to an NBC News analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The gap between vehicular deaths and firearm deaths is narrowing among 1- to 17-year-olds, and may close entirely, according to the CDC’s provisional and incomplete 2021 data.” Now you need to tune in to last night’s CrossPolitic Show to hear Choc Knox talk about the racist history of gun laws and gun permits. Don’t miss it! Rand Paul unveils plan to slash federal spending over next 5 years to balance budget https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/rand-paul-unveils-plan-slash-federal-spending-balance-budget According to Fox Business: Sen. Rand Paul on Monday unveiled a new bill that includes trillions in budget cuts over the next five years in order to bring about a balanced budget. The Kentucky Republican's proposal would yield a $65.8 billion surplus by fiscal year 2027. Collectively, the plan spends about $4.2 trillion less than the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated during that time period, a person familiar with the matter said. "Five years ago, we could balance our budget with a freeze in spending. Not cut anything. Since then, our debt has skyrocketed to $30 trillion with $2 trillion just from this past year," Paul said in a statement. "We cannot keep ignoring this problem at the expense of taxpayers, and my budget will put our nation on track to solve this crisis that Congress created." The plan calls for cuts across the budget, excluding Social Security, which is racing toward insolvency. What is cut will be determined at a later time through the normal spending process. The goal is to set a parameter that Congress must fit its spending agenda within, rather than identifying specific cuts now. This is Gabriel Rench with Crosspolitic News. Support Rowdy Christian media by joining our club at fightlaughfeast.com, downloading our App, and head to our annual Fight Laugh Feast Events. If this content is helpful to you, would you please consider becoming a Fight Laugh Feast Club Member? We are trying to build a cancel-proof media platform, and we need your help. Join today and get a discount at the Fight Laugh Feast conference in Knoxville, TN and have a great day. Have a great day. Lord bless

The 2022 Primary Election results are in for Iowa. Retired Navy admiral Mike Franken has defeated former congresswoman Abby Finkenauer and western Iowa physician Glenn Hurst to win the Democratic senate primary. In Iowa's 3rd Congressional District, State Senator Zach Nunn of Bondurant has won the Republican nomination with about 66 percent of the vote.

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Wednesday, June 8. You could wake up to rainy skies Wednesday, but it won't last all day. According to the National Weather Service the majority of the rain in the Cedar Rapids area should move out of the area by 1 p.m. After that it will be mostly sunny, with a high of 73 degrees. The low will be 53 degrees Wednesday night with mostly clear skies. It was election night Tuesday and most races went as expected in Iowa, but there was a bit of a surprise in the U.S. Senate race.  Mike Franken, a U.S. Navy veteran from Sioux City, earned the Democratic nomination Tuesday in Iowa's U.S. Senate campaign, handily beating former U.S. Rep. Abby Finkenauer of Cedar Rapids by 15 percentage points. Franken, who was runner-up in the 2020 Democratic primary for another Iowa U.S. Senate seat, made his second attempt count. Finkenauer had been viewed as a bit of a favorite to win the race after she announced due to name recognition and ties to the national party. With his victory, Franken earned the right to challenge longtime Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley in this fall's Nov. 8 general election. Grassley, as expected, easily survived his own primary challenge Tuesday. But that, of course, wasn't the only race Tuesday night. For more, check out our complete election night coverage on thegazette.com. An Iowa City man who helped organize Black Lives Matter events pleaded guilty Tuesday to lesser charges after injuring police officers by shining laser light beams in their eyes during 2020 protests in Iowa City. Matthew D.C. Bruce, 26, originally charged with six felony counts of assault on persons of certain occupations causing bodily injury, pleaded to two counts of assault causing bodily injury, which are serious misdemeanors, and three counts of assault, which are simple misdemeanors. Johnson County Attorney Janet Lyness said the prosecution will ask a judge to sentence Bruce to 180 days in jail but suspend 150 days, leaving him with 30 days to serve. Bruce was identified in multiple news reports as an organizer of the Des Moines Black Liberation Movement, a group that had organized protests in Des Moines following the death of George Floyd, 46, who was killed while in custody by former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin. The Uptown Marion Market will use the new Seventh Avenue festival street when it returns on Saturday. The market, which takes place one Saturday a month over the course of the summer, runs from 8 a.m. to noon. This year, over 35 local vendors will be selling fresh produce, wine, honey, baked goods and other artisan items. Marion streetscape work and other construction continues this summer, all around the Uptown area, but the market will still be accessible.

This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, May 9th. Today, expect partly sunny skies, with a high near 85, according to the National Weather Service. Breezy, with a southeast wind around 25 mph, and gusts as high as 40 mph. Then tonight, a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 66. Winds from the south, 5 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts are possible in thunderstorms. Crews continued searching Sunday for a city of Cedar Rapids Water Division employee whose fleet truck was found submerged a day earlier in the Cedar River not far from where he was working. Authorities said that 54-year-old Erik Spaw of Cedar Rapids was working a Friday evening shift at the Northwest Water Treatment Plant, at 7807 Ellis Rd. Early Saturday, water division staff reported he had not returned to the J Avenue Water Treatment Plant after working most of his shift at the northwest plant. His own vehicle was found in the parking lot at the J Avenue plant, but the Utilities and Fleet Departments determined the last known location of Spaw's assigned fleet vehicle was near Ellis Road NW. Crews found the city truck submerged in several feet of water about a mile upstream from the Edgewood River bridge. When the truck was brought to shore, though, there were no occupants found inside. Teams were using sonar-equipped boats and draglines Sunday to search the site and downstream in the river. Differences over a hard line on when to send U.S. troops to Ukraine and over ethanol policy were among the few contrasts to emerge during a televised debate Saturday night between the Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate in Iowa. Mike Franken, a retired three-star admiral in the U.S. Navy from Sioux City, was the only candidate to establish a scenario under which he would send U.S. troops to Ukraine to assist in the country's defense against Russia's military invasion, which is in its third month. Abby Finkenauer, a former congresswoman and state legislator from Cedar Rapids, and Glenn Hurst, a physician from Minden, both said the United States should support economic sanctions on Russia and provide assistance like weapons and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, but should not devote U.S. troops. Finkenauer, Franken and Hurst are vying for the Democratic Party's nomination in Iowa's 2022 U.S. Senate campaign. The incumbent is Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, who is running for an eighth six-year term. He also faces a primary challenge, from Sioux City lawyer and state legislator Jim Carlin. —

A crowd of people marched in the streets of downtown Des Moines Wednesday night to protest the potential end of nationwide abortion rights. The Iowa City Foreign Relations Council hosted a discussion on how communities can work to include immigrants and refugees in policy-making. Plus, a conversation with former Iowa congresswoman Abby Finkenauer about her bid for U.S. Senate.

Democratic Senate candidate Abby Finkenauer is responding to concerns expressed by a prominent Democrat over remarks she made about a district court judge last month. U.S Rep. Ashley Hinson says the federal homeland security secretary isn't properly securing the southern U.S. border. And, Iowa's Department of Corrections is working to improve relations with Native communities in western Iowa.

Iowa State Auditor Rob Sand says it was inappropriate for U.S. Senate candidate Abby Finkenauer — a fellow Democrat — to criticize a judge who ruled against her bid to stay on the June primary ballot. Des Moines Public Schools is starting a series of community conversations following a fatal shooting outside East High. Plus, a bipartisan group of Midwestern governors lobby the EPA on ethanol policy.

Tonight on the Last Word: A Michigan Democrat destroys the GOP's poisonous playbook. Also, the GOP uses anti-democratic tactics to attack Democrats. Plus, Russia intensifies its attacks on Eastern Ukrainian cities. Republicans have no agenda going into the midterm elections. And a Ukrainian teacher shares her story of teaching during war. MI State Sen. Mallory McMorrow, Charles Blow, Caroline Randall Williams, Ali Arouzi, Abby Finkenauer and Iryna Malii join Jonathan Capehart.

Iowa's highest court reversed the lower court's decision Friday with just enough time for Abby Finkenauer to appear on the June Democratic primary ballot.

In this episode of the Left or Right podcast, we talk about the 1st round of the French Presidential Election, we also talk about Trump endorsing JD Vance and Dr. Oz for Ohio and Pennsylvania Senate Races, we then talk about how Abby Finkenauer got removed from the primary ballot in Iowa and then put back on it. We then talk about how Jen Psaki blamed inflation on Greg Abbott, we then talk about how New York's Lt. Governor, Brian Benjamin got elected for campaign finance fraud. We then talk about how the Florida Legislature gave the power to Ron DeSantis to draw their maps. We then talk about how Ukraine accused Russia of using chemical weapons, we also talk about Russia's threat against Finland and Sweden if they join NATO. We then talk about how Russia sanctioned 398 members of Congress. Then we have another segment of the Fauci Hour where we talk about how Fauci declared that Americans should assess their own risk for COVID-19

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Saturday, April 16 and Sunday, April 17. This will be a don't forget to bring you jacket weekend. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 46 degrees. It will be a bit breezy with wind gusts as high as 25 mph. The low will drop to 28 degrees Saturday night. On Sunday there will be increasing clouds with a high near 44 degrees. After 2 p.m. there will be a 40 percent chance for rain. The low Sunday night will be 33 degrees. Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abby Finkenauer of Cedar Rapids qualifies for the primary ballot, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled Friday — rejecting a lower court decision and allowing her to continue her campaign for the nomination and chance to face Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley. The court's unanimous decision leaves Finkenauer as the likely front-runner in a race with two lesser-known candidates ahead of Iowa's June 7 primary. The winner will run against Grassley, seeking an eighth term, provided he wins a GOP primary against state Sen. Jim Carlin as widely expected. The high court rejected a lower court's ruling that found that Finkenauer failed to meet a state law that requires candidates to submit at least 100 signatures from at least 19 counties to qualify for the ballot. The justices agreed that a Polk County judge was wrong when he ruled that three signatures from two counties were invalid, leaving Finkenauer without enough signatures. The ruling noted that under the current laws missing or incorrect dates are not one of the current valid reasons for sustaining an objection to petitions.  A Cedar Rapids man was arrested Thursday after he allegedly drove at and struck a construction worker during a confrontation over a roadway closure. Bruce Marlon Schutte, 66, faces charges of willful injury causing bodily injury, assault while displaying a dangerous weapon and leaving the scene of a personal injury accident. According to a criminal complaint, Schutte approached a road closed sign in the 2300 block of 18th Street SW in Cedar Rapids Thursday and tried to move it out of the way. He was confronted by construction workers, who he told to move or he would run them over. Schutte allegedly got back in his car and accelerated toward a worker who had asked him to go a different direction. He hit the worker and sent him onto the hood of his car, injuring the worker's left knee, hip and elbow. Schutte then left the scene. A Cedar Rapids man charged with second-degree murder in ahttps://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/complaint-shooting-suspect-charged-with-killing-1-of-2-victims-at-cedar-rapids-nightclub/ ( fatal shooting at a downtown nightclub )was barred from carrying weapons after drunkenly shooting a sawed-off shotgun in 2012 — but continued to carry arms anyway, court records show. Timothy Ladell Rush, 32, is accused of fatally shooting Nicole Owens, 35, the mother of his child. Another person, Michael Valentine, 25, was also killed in the shooting, which took place early Sunday in the downtown Taboo Nightclub and Lounge. Police have not said who they think killed Valentine and have said they believe a second gunman was involved. But they have not announced any new arrests in the case. In the 2012 case, Rush, who was intoxicated, lead officers on a foot chase before being caught. He originally was charged with possession of an offensive weapon, interference with official acts and public intoxication. But he later pleaded guilty to only possession of an offensive weapon. He was sentenced to three years of probation, court records show. Rush was https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/cedar-rapids-man-faces-federal-weapons-charge/?fbclid=IwAR0OGmuzndFgP8gKF0aCIk7eI2iH6dTixIfOP-NGwgkQniBFey2c9dNDtdM (arrested again in 2014), charged in federal court in Iowa with being a felon in possession of a firearm and being an unlawful user of a controlled substance in...

We discuss the imminent death of the Iowa caucuses, Abby Finkenauer's Senate primary campaign, Biden's big corn pile, and BATMAN! Complete episode notes here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/65154052 https://rockhardcauc.us

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Thursday, April 14. It won't rain on Thursday,  but it will still be very windy. Typical spring in Iowa pick your poison. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 50 degrees. As mentioned it will be windy all day, with a wind of 15 to 20 mph increasing to 25 to 30 mph in the afternoon, possibly gusting as high as 50 mph. A chance for rain and some snow could return overnight into Friday morning. According to the Associated Press, a tornado hit near Gilmore City in rural north-central Iowa as a strong line of storms moved across the state Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, the National Weather Service confirmed later on Wednesday. Up to 10 tornadoes were reported across mostly the northern half of the state as the storms moved through, but only the tornadoes near Logan in western Iowa and near Stacyville and St. Ansgar in northeastern Iowa have been confirmed. Survey teams were headed to those areas Wednesday to determine whether tornadoes had touched down and to verify the intensity of those storms. Fueled by $11 million in federal pandemic aid, the Linn County Board of Supervisors approved funding Wednesday for 39 applicants — including programs to increase affordable housing, reduce gun violence, address mental health needs and support food distribution — in its first round of divvying up the county's share of the relief money. Linn County will get a total of $44 million from the American Rescue Plan Act. Of that, the county will take $11 million for its own lost revenue and administrative costs during the pandemic, a category allowed under the federal rules. That leaves $33 million to dole out — the $11 million awarded Wednesday, and $22 million more after May or June. Foundation 2 Crisis Services received the largest amount in the social services category, at $900,000 for a new headquarters. Foundation 2 Chief Operating Officer Erin Langdon said the award is transformational for the organization. A lawyer for former Democratic U.S. Rep. Abby Finkenauer asked the Iowa Supreme Court on Wednesday to overturn a lower court judge's ruling that kicked her off the June primary ballot, saying she deserves the chance to vie for the chance to run against Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley in November. Finkenauer, whom many Democrats see as their best chance to deny Grassley an eighth Senate term, turned in nearly 5,000 signatures to get on the June 7 primary ballot. But two Republicans argued before the State Objections Panel that she hadn't submitted at least 100 from at least 19 counties, as required by a state law. They pointed to three signatures in two counties that were not properly dated. The high court didn't say when it might rule, but it is expected to do so soon because ballots must be sent to printers by Monday to meet a deadline to mail ballots to Iowa residents living abroad. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa's destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and you can order online through Co-op Cart athttp://www.newpi.coop/ ( newpi.coop).

COVID cases are UP in the QC...Abby Finkenauer's candidacy is up to the IA Supreme Court...Bettendorf's school board will vote on a slightly reduced budget...Humility Homes and Gilda's Club expand...The Bandits were rained out...the Storm lost...It's going to be a windy day!

A judge has ruled that U.S. Senate candidate Abby Finkenauer cannot appear on the June Iowa Democratic primary ballot. Dozens of Iowa school districts are offering bonuses to teachers and other staff members not covered by a program announced by Governor Kim Reynolds earlier this year. Plus, an update from IPR's Katarina Sostaric on the Iowa legislative session.

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Wednesday, April 6. So this is another good news, bad news weather forecast. I'll start with the bad news because that's coming the next few days. According to the National Weather Service there will be a chance of rain again on Wednesday, primarily after 1 p.m. Clouds will increase as the day goes on, with a high of 52 degrees. It will also become breezy, with wind gusts as high as 30 mph possible. The overall chance of rain on Wednesday will be 40 percent. Then it will get even colder on Thursday, and there will be a chance of rain and potentially snow again Thursday night. Now the good news is that temperatures should bump up by the weekend, and I am seeing highs in the upper 60s by early next week.  A bill to safeguard residents of mobile home parks against rapid rent and fee increases, and well as adding protections against evictions, passed the Iowa House on Tuesday night despite criticism it had become too watered down to help tenants much. The bill passed Tuesday includes provisions recommended by the Iowa Attorney General and some that were included in legislation approved by the House with bipartisan support two years ago — only to die on the last day of that legislative session. HF 2562 would extend several protections for residents of mobile home parks, such as cancellation of rental agreements, rent and utility increases, and protection from retaliation for complaints against the owner or landlord. It also would require all sales of homes from the park owner be in writing, and include detailed information about the cost and payments. The legislation is in response to the purchases of mobile home parks around Iowa by venture capitalists and real estate investment trusts that can make what was affordable housing unattainable for people who have lived in the parks many years. These out-of-state purchases date back years in Iowa, but in 2019 inspired louder opposition from park residents. Support came from some Iowa lawmakers after companies announced sharp lot rent increases and higher utilities charges, but Republicans had balked on adding any protections until this year. Iowa elections officials are hoping for the prompt resolution of a challenge to Abby Finkenauer's U.S. Senate nomination paperwork that will determine whether she will be on the primary ballot. A hearing is scheduled Wednesday in Polk County District Court on the https://www.thegazette.com/campaigns-elections/iowa-republicans-ask-judge-to-overturn-state-panel-decision-knock-finkenauer-off-ballot/ (challenge) brought by two Iowa Republicans asking that a state panel's decision to accept the Democratic hopeful's nominating paperwork be overturned, a move that would result in Finkenauer being taken off the ballot. In the meantime, county auditors who oversee elections are being advised to proceed with preparing and proofing ballots for the June 7 primary “all the way up to the point of giving your vendor the go-ahead to print,” said Kevin Hall, a spokesman for Secretary of State Paul Pate. The Republican court challenge arose from the decision by the State Objection Panel to accept Finkenauer's ballot petitions despite questions about some signatures on her paperwork. As a U.S. Senate candidate, Finkenauer was required by state law to acquire at least 3,500 signatures, including at least 100 signatures each in at least 19 counties. The ACLU of Iowa is urging Coralville and three other cities in the state to repeal their ordinances against panhandling, saying the measures violate free speech rights. The organization https://www.aclu-ia.org/en/press-releases/aclu-cautions-four-iowa-cities-about-unconstitutional-panhandling-ordinances (sent letters) Tuesday to the cities of Coralville, Davenport, Dubuque and Bettendorf, saying their ordinances are both unconstitutional and ineffective. With local rules “criminalizing poverty, all they do is...

An attempt to get Abby Finkenauer off the ballot moves to the courts...Unemployment drops in the QC...The winter utility shutoff moratorium ends...2nd COVID vaccine boosters are available...More rain is expected tonight and tomorrow morning...

Emily Parcell is blazing her own path through the political industry...part of the famed 2004 Dick Gephardt Iowa operation, Iowa Political Director for the 2008 Obama Caucus effort, running Indiana for the 2008 Obama general election, starting Wildfire Contact's direct mail arm, helping Democrats win tough races, heading up the Warren 2020 effort as a senior aide...and much more. In this conversation, Emily talks her small town Iowa roots, important stops along her political career, and insights and advice from 2 decades in the political trenches.IN THIS EPISODEEmily talks about growing up in small town Iowa…Emily's hometown connection to Tom Vilsack…Emily's Iowa Politics 101…Emily's memories of staffing Senator Tom Harkin up close and personal…Emily talks being part of the influential Gephardt 2004 Iowa Caucus effort…Emily talks running the Iowa State Senate Democratic Caucus and de-mystifies what legislative campaigns looks like…Emily talks her role as Barack Obama's Iowa Political Director during the magical 2008 Caucus campaign…Emily's memories of running Indiana for Obama in 2008, one of the biggest presidential upsets in a generation…Emily's accidental path to direct mail and her important early races as a mail consultant…Emily talks starting her current firm Wildfire Contact…Emily talks her experiences in a senior role of the 2020 Warren for President campaign…Emily's advice to political operatives early in their careers…AND…the Atlas Project,  BDSM liaisons, battle cries and covers songs, Birch Bayh, Sarah Benzing, Joe Biden, Sherrod Brown, Susie Buffett, Bill Burton, Cheri Bustos, Jon Carson, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, cougars, Abby Curran, Tom Daschle, Sharice Davids, Raghu Devaguptapu, Preston Elliott, fake glasses, Abby Finkenauer, Lee Fisher, Marygrace Galston, Dan Geldon, Jane Gephardt, Grandma Jenny, Al Gore, Mike Gronstal, Josh Grossfeld, Lucinda Guinn, ice cream spoons, Iowa Nice, Jason Isbell, Charlie Kelly, John F. Kennedy, Patrick Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Mary Landrieu, John Lapp, Roger Lau, Andrew LaVigne, Dean Levitan, Jeff Link, Jill Long Thompson, Travis Lowe, Leslie Martes, John McCain, Motorola, mousetrap minds, Andrew Myers, BJ Neidhardt, John Norris, Jen O'Malley Dillon, Kristen Orthman, Rohan Patel, Palm Pilots, Rebecca Pearcey, Aaron Pickrell, David Plouffe, Jessica Post, Joe Rospars, Mitch Stewart, Jonathan Swain, Tailgates with Tom, Suzie Terrell, Kip Tew, Paul Tewes, Caroline Valand, Doug Vilsack, Wartburg College, & more!

Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what's the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts. This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Friday, October 15. This is the first weekend of the year that will feel like a true Fall football weekend, although thankfully that won't come with fans miserable in the rain. According to the National Weather Service there will be a slight chance of rain between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Friday. After that it will be partly sunny with a high near 61 degrees. Friday night the skies will gradually clear, with a low around 40 degrees. A 17-year-old was found soaked in blood outside his northeast Cedar Rapids home Thursday morning. He told officers afterward that he killed parents to take charge of his own life. Ethan Alexander Orton has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the killing of his father Casey Orton, 42, and mother Misty Scott Slade, 41. Police say Ethan Orton told them he stabbed his father to death, stabbing his mother too, but switching to an axe when his mother appeared to still be alive. Both parents worked for McGrath Auto in Cedar Rapids. It is the second multiple family member killing by a young man in Cedar Rapids this year. In June, Cedar Rapidshttps://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/cedar-rapids-triple-homicide-suspect-alex-jackson-to-be-held-on-3-million-cash-bond/ ( police arrested Alexander Ken Jackson, 20, after they say he shot to death his father, mother and sister) — also in a northeast Cedar Rapids home. Investigators say Jackson initially tried to cover up his crime by telling what authorities called a “transparent lie” about an intruder breaking in and doing the killings instead. As a sign of progress in their investigation, Cedar Rapids police have interviewed a 13-year-old boy hospitalized with injuries after an Oct. 1 shooting at a birthday party at a southwest Cedar Rapids hotel. Police Chief Wayne Jerman held a https://www.thegazette.com/k/phones-of-victims-in-ramada-hotel-shooting-friday-have-been-disconnected/ (news conference Oct. 4) to say no one was talking with police about a shooting that wounded six people. Police now report they've talked with the teenage boy and several other victims and witnesses to the https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/multiple-people-hurt-in-shooting-at-ramada-in-southwest-cedar-rapids/ (shooting at the Ramada by Wyndham) hotel. The shooting broke out during a birthday party in a hotel conference room, authorities said. Police were unsure if there was one assailant or more. The shooter could face charges of going armed with intent and attempted murder, Jerman said on Oct. 4. Police are also reviewing all available surveillance video as part of the ongoing investigation Democrat Mike Franken of Sioux City, a retired three-star Navy admiral, is entering Iowa's U.S. Senate race. Franken, who announced his campaign on Twitter on Thursday morning, is the fifth candidate in the Democratic primary. The winner of the primary will likely face longtime incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley in next fall's general election. The other Democratic candidates are former U.S. Rep. and state lawmaker Abby Finkenauer of Cedar Rapids, farmer and former county supervisor Dave Muhlbauer of Manning, physician Glenn Hurst of Minden and veterans advocate Bob Krause of Burlington. Republican Governor Kim Reynolds appeared in Cedar Rapids Thursday for a wide-ranging interview as part of The Gazette's https://www.iowaideas.com/ (Iowa Ideas) conference. She said conversations about preventing legal workplace vaccine requirements are ongoing but this won't distract from the redistricting issue that caused lawmakers to call a special session in... Support this podcast

Tonight on the Last Word: Democrats hold Donald Trump and Republicans accountable for undemocratic acts. Also, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has allowed Texas' anti-abortion law to resume. Plus, a North Carolina congressional candidate apologizes for supporting an anti-transgender bill. Iowa Democrats dismiss Donald Trump's visit. And children make up 27% of new Covid infections in the United States. Steve Schmidt, Rep. Eric Swalwell, NC Rep. Charles Graham, Abby Finkenauer, Dr. Rachel Pearson and Dr. Ebony Hilton join Zerlina Maxwell.

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Friday, October 8. The sporadic rain of Thursday will continue into Friday-- at least until 1 p.m.  According to the National Weather Service, showers and patchy fog could greet you Friday morning. Overall there will be a high of 78 degrees with mostly cloudy skies. It should clear up by Friday night, with a low of around 60 degrees. The three-member Linn County Board of Supervisors indicated Thursday that it is leaning toward appointing a county attorney rather than call a special election to replace County Attorney Jerry Vander Sanden. Vander Sanden, county attorney for 11 years, https://www.thegazette.com/local-government/linn-county-attorney-jerry-vander-sanden-retiring-at-end-of-year/ (announced this week he will retire at year's end). Supervisor Ben Rogers, a Democrat, told The Gazette an appointment makes more sense, given the amount of time left in Vander Sanden's term and given that only one person — First Assistant County Attorney Nick Maybanks — has expressed interest in the job. Special elections not only take additional manpower to hold, but they also are expensive for local governments to hold, another fact cited by Supervisors to explain why they are leaning toward an appointment. Pfizer asked the U.S. government Thursday to allow use of its COVID-19 vaccine in children ages 5 to 11 — and if regulators agree, shots could begin within a matter of weeks. Many parents and pediatricians are eager for approval to protect children younger than 12, today's age cutoff for the vaccine made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech. The desire stems from not only protecting them from serious illness, but also helping to prevent disruption in school attendance when the virus hits the classroom. Recent data has shown that children below the age of 17 have accounted for roughly 1 in 4 new COVID-19 cases in Iowa in recent weeks. According to the Associated Press, Pfizer says its research shows the younger kids should get a third of the dose now given to everyone else. After their second dose, the 5- to 11-year-olds developed virus-fighting antibody levels just as strong as teens and young adults get from regular-strength shots. Bob Krause of Burlington has announced he's seeking the 2022 Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley. Krause, 71, president of the Veterans National Recovery Center, sees an urgency for the defense of American democracy in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. Krause joins former U.S. Rep. Abby Finkenauer, Minden physician Glenn Hurst and Manning cattle farmer Dave Muhlbauer in the race for the Democratic nomination. Grassley is seeking re-election and faces a Republican primary challenge from state Sen. Jim Carlin. Linn County Public Health will receive $250,000 a year for each of the next five years to help the growing efforts of reducing youth gun violence in the community, officials announced this week. The local public health department is one of eight grant recipients across the nation named by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as part of an initiative to address violence impacting adolescents and teens as well as other factors that put communities at greater risk for violence. Strategies used under this grant will align with an initiative already put into motion through the Creating Safe, Equitable and Thriving Communities Fund — or SET Fund. The fund, established in 2018 and overseen by the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation, provides grants to programs that engage with youth on the issue of gun violence. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what's the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else Support this podcast

We travelled to Marengo, IA to attend the Iowa County Democrats 1st Annual Hot Dog Caucus were we listened to several candidates for office speak while also getting about 5 minutes to speak to almost every candidate in attendance. We were able to conduct interviews with US Senate Candidates Abby Finkenauer, and Glenn Hurst. IA-01 Candidate Liz Mathis and State House Candidate Sarah Smith. Ryan and Tyler also make an attempt at creating a new game called Supreme Court and the first topic they tackle are Hot Dogs.

This episode of Great Minds takes a rare dive into the world of politics, featuring Zak Malamed, Cofounder and Executive Director of The Next 50, and Abby Finkenauer, The Next 50's Senior Advisor (as well as former and possibly future member of the House of Representatives). Topics include midterm elections, the state of our country, and much more.

Nicolle Wallace discusses the continuing developments after a bomb threat suspect surrenders to police in Washington D.C. Plus, a new milestone in the pace of vaccinations, the sharp political divide on Biden's withdrawal from Afghanistan, a Democratic candidate for Senate highlights January 6th on the campaign trail, the House is set to vote on federal voting rights legislation next week, how to reckon with the traumas facing our nation, and the Manhattan district attorney charges a friend of Jared Kushner for cyberstalking. Joined by: Frank Figliuzzi, Garrett Haake, Tom Winter, Olivia Troye, John Heilemann, Donna Edwards, Abby Finkenauer, Matthew Dowd, Eddie Glaude, Nick Corasaniti, Mary Trump, and Donny Deutsch 

Tonight on the Last Word: The Department of Homeland Security warns of potential violence fueled by false election claims. Also, Covid-19 cases rise as students return to classrooms. Plus, Sen. Joe Manchin warns about “irresponsible” spending as Democrats work on the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill. And Sen. Chuck Grassley defends Donald Trump pressuring the Justice Department after his defeat in November. Ben Rhodes, Ravi Perry, Ben Collins, Carlee Simon, Dr. Peter Hotez, Stephanie Kelton and Abby Finkenauer join Ali Velshi.

Haweeneydii hore ee hal mar Congress-ka ahayd Abby Finkenauer (fink-in-now-er) ayaa ku dhawaaqday inay u tartameyso aqalka Senate-ka Mareykanka. Maanta waxay noqotay qofkii ugu horreeyay ee Dimuqraadi ah ee la tartama Senator Senator Chuck Grassley, oo ka mid ah mudanayaasha ugu muddada dheer taariikhda soo qabtay taariikhda Mareykanka. Sidoo kale, Dave Muhlbauer oo ah beeraley tartan dimuqraadi ah (mall-bow (sida hadda) -er) oo ka socda Manning. Senator-ka Gobolka Jim Carlin ee Sioux City sidoo kale wuxuu caddeeyay inuu u tartamayo doorashada hordhaca ah ee xisbiga Jamhuuriga. Finkenauer iyo Muhlbauer ayaa la filayaa inay berrito ku sugnaadaan magaalada Sioux City si ay u muujiyaan taageerada ay u hayaan “Meelmarinta Xeerka Pro” ama “Ilaali Xaqa Abaabulka”. Sharciga Pro wuxuu baabiin doonaa sharciyada "xaq u-yeelashada". War-saxaafadeed ka soo baxay Xisbiga Dimuqraadiga ee Gobolka Woodbury ayaa sheegaya in taageerayaasha ficilku ay isugu soo ururayaan Dhismaha Federaalka hortiisa 4-ta

Noticias 07.22.21: La ex congresista Abby Finkenauer ha anunciado que se postulará para el Senado de los Estados Unidos. La ex congresista Abby Finkenauer ha anunciado que se postulará para el Senado de los Estados Unidos. Hoy se convirtió en la primera demócrata importante en desafiar al senador Chuck Grassley, uno de los senadores con más años de servicio en la historia de Estados Unidos. Además, en la carrera demócrata, el granjero Dave Muhlbauer de Manning. El senador estatal Jim Carlin de Sioux City también declaró que se presenta a las primarias republicanas. Se espera que Finkenauer y Muhlbauer estén en Sioux City mañana para mostrar su apoyo a "Pass the Pro Act" o "Proteger el derecho a organizarse". La Pro Act anularía las leyes de "derecho al trabajo". Un comunicado de prensa de los demócratas del condado de Woodbury dice que los partidarios de la ley se reunirán frente al edificio federal a las 4 p.m. El grupo está instando a los senadores Grassley y Ernst de Iowa a que

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Friday, July 23. There could be a hazy start to your Friday morning. According to the National Weather Service there could be widespread haze and the smell of smoke tied to wildfires on the west coast. Afters this, it should be sunny and humid, with a high of 91 degrees. Former U.S. Rep. Abby Finkenauer said Thursday that she still sees “a lot to fight for” and this time she hopes to take the fight to U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley. Finkenauer launched her Democratic campaign on Thursday, challenging for a senate seat in 2022. Grassley, her presumptive opponent, has not said yet whether he'll seek an eighth term in 2022, but if he does he will likely be the favorite in the coming race.  Earlier this year Jim Carlin, a Republican state senator from Sioux City, announced he would be running for Grassley's spot, but this also will likely be affected by Grassley's decision. Finkenauer was defeated after one term in congress last year in Iowa's northern 1st congressional district. It was a historically bad election year for Democrats, with a bungled Iowa Caucus to start the year and election defeats at nearly every level. Finkenauer hopes she can be part of a return to success for Iowa Democrats in what has traditionally been considered a swing state.  Finkenauer joins two other Democrats who want their party's Senate nomination in the statewide race — Manning farmer and cattleman and former county Supervisor Dave Muhlbauer and Glenn Hurst of Minden.  According to the Associated Press, one of two Iowa prison https://apnews.com/article/ia-state-wire-coronavirus-pandemic-health-ce76f739757bba5a82987875897639d2 (nurses fired) for giving dozens of Fort Madison inmates large overdoses of the coronavirus vaccine is appealing her termination, arguing she is “blameless" for the mix-up. The Iowa Department of Corrections fired Amanda Dodson, a registered nurse at the maximum-security Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison, after an investigation found https://apnews.com/article/health-iowa-prisons-coronavirus-509612f3cf96ed86ab98ab679f1d60b5 (77 inmates) received shots containing up to six times the recommended dose of the Pfizer vaccine. Dodson's termination letter, obtained by the Associated Press through an open records request, blamed her for “improper COVID vaccination procedures” that resulted in inmates receiving overdoses on April 20. Although some inmates suffered negative symptoms, all of them eventually recovered without long term effects. The union helping Dodson with her appeal said that the mixup occurred when the prison abruptly switched from the Moderna vaccine to the Pfizer vaccine, without properly training staff about the change in dosage. We'll end with some good news. Marion's cost of recovery from last year's derecho is $11 million less than an earlier estimate. https://www.thegazette.com/government-politics/cedar-rapids-taps-funds-marion-seeks-loan-while-awaiting-fema-money-for-derecho-cleanup/ (In late January,) the city estimated the cost of derecho cleanup would be up to $43 million. This week, a new estimate put the cost at around $32 million. City officials said Thursday that they are considering borrowing less money than they initially planned, which will help their financial flexibility long term. Support this podcast

We lead this episode of The ReidOut with Kevin McCarthy's Republican boycott of the Select Committee investigating Jan. 6. Rep. Madeleine Dean recalls what it was like to live through the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection saying, "They came to hang, to assassinate..." Then, Dr. Bernard Ashby and Dean Obeidallah analyze the conservatives reversing course on their anti-vaccine rhetoric. Plus, voting rights experts explain the For the People Act vs. the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and why we need both. Finally, former Democratic Rep. Abby Finkenauer tells us how Jan. 6 factored into her decision to run for the U.S. Senate for the state of Iowa. All this and more in this edition of The ReidOut on MSNBC.

Iowa could get up to $170 million from a nationwide opioid lawsuit settlement. Former 1st District Democratic U.S. Rep. Abby Finkenauer will try to unseat longtime Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley. And thousands of cyclists are headed to LeMars for the start of RAGBRAI. The annual bike ride across Iowa gets underway Sunday.

Former Democratic representative Abby Finkenauer joins Anna & Anthony as the first inaugural guest on the Happy Hour. Abby was one of the youngest women every elected to Congress and served from 2018-2020 representing Iowa's 1st district. Abby talks about working to double funding for endometriosis, what she learned from her loss in 2020, and how she's now working with the organization The Next 50 to help young candidates fund their campaigns. Abby is an example of why Political Playlist exists - a young, relatable American dedicated to public service!

In this episode, former Iowa congresswoman Abby Finkenauer gives Sunshine her first post-election interview. They talk about the inauguration and cookies and the Magic 8 ball has an important predictions about Iowa's Red state status.

Hospitalizations from COVID-19 in Iowa https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/health/iowa-covid-19-hospitalizations-coronavirus-cases-jan-1-20210101 (are down by half from what they were a month ago). Iowa reported 575 hospitalizations New Year's Day, compared to 1,172 COVID-19 patients hospitalized Dec. 1. And it's more than a blip, with four of the last seven days having fewer than 600 hospitalizations. Of people hospitalized Friday, 117 were in intensive care and 63 were on ventilators. Both numbers were down from the previous day. Iowa reported 2,133 new cases of COVID-19 Friday, totaling 282,439. There were seven new confirmed deaths for 3,898 overall in the state.  Eastern Iowa's two newly elected congresswomen https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/government/rep-ashley-hinson-rep-mariannette-miller-meeks-iowa-us-house-swearing-in-20210101 (will be sworn in Sunday) as members of the U.S. House of Representatives. Marion Republican Ashley Hinson said she is humbled and honored about being among the 61 freshmen who will be sworn in at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Hinson, a two-term Iowa House member, has known since election night when she defeated Democratic incumbent Abby Finkenauer that she would be in the incoming class of the 117th Congress. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, an Ottumwa Republican, only learned this week that she would be sworn in. She will be seated provisionally because her six-vote victory in Iowa's 2nd District is being challenged by Democrat Rita Hart. Hart has asked the House to investigate and determine the winner of the seat replacing retired Democratic U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack. The swearing-in ceremony will be broadcast at 11 a.m. Iowa time on C-SPAN 1. https://www.thegazette.com/subject/sports/iowa-state-cyclones/iowa-state-qb-brock-purdy-from-arizona-fiesta-bowl-20210101 (No. 10 Iowa State will play No. 25 Oregon in the Fiesta Bowl) on Saturday at 3 p.m. in Glendale, Ariz. — just outside of Phoenix. It's the Cyclones first time playing in one of the New Year's Six bowl games. It's also the first time playing the Ducks, who won the Pac-12 Championship to reach the Fiesta Bowl. The game begins at 3 p.m. on ESPN.  The weekend will be mostly calm and cloudy, https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=41.97646000000003&lon=-91.67345999999998#.X9GIXM1KhUs (according to the National Weather Service). There will be some areas of fog Saturday before 2 p.m. Otherwise it will be mostly cloudy with a high near 25 and a low around 12 Saturday night. Sunday will be mostly sunny, with a high near 26, then mostly cloudy Sunday night, with a low around 18.     This briefing is sponsored in part by Corridor Careers. Are you looking for a job? https://www.corridorcareers.com/ (CorridorCareers.com) is a resource to local job seekers where they can get job tips, sign up for local job alerts, build a resume and more. Check it out at https://www.corridorcareers.com/ (CorridorCareers.com).

This week on Erin Ryan and Alyssa Mastromonaco are joined by Professor Melissa Murray to break down Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation to the Supreme Court and how it will affect upcoming abortion cases. Plus Peggy Noonan is up to no good, but Fake Melania is back, and thank goodness! Then, Michaela Watkins and special guest, Michigan State Rep. Mari Manoogian joins to discuss the art of the clapback and why it’s so satisfying to watch women shut down men who are being assholes. Finally, what’s kept Michaela away from that cult life? Find out in I Feel Petty! Show Notes: Learn more about Michigan State Rep. Mari Manigoon Website: https://www.mariformi.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/MariManoogian Candidates highlighted: 1. Desiree Tims, running for Ohio’s 10th Congressional district, support her campaign at https://timsforcongress.com 2. Abby Finkenauer, running to reelection for IA-1, support her campaign at https://www.abbyfinkenauer.com 3. Marquita Bradshaw, running for US Senate in Tennessee, support her campaign at https://www.marquitabradshaw.com Pet Issue Resource: Unchained at Last  https://www.unchainedatlast.org/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Well, at least that was the plan but like so many things, Mother Nature just didn't cooperate but Joe Steffes of Iowa Foam did stop by to drop off supplies from Fleet Farm and explain some of the different options. PLUS our Congressional Candidate Profiles continue as Nathan Fischer takes a look at Abby Finkenauer's agricultural record AND Brian Hoops' expert market analysis.

We continue our candidate profiles, bringing you the information you need to know about Frist Congressional District Democratic Candidate up for re-election, Abby Finkenauer. Nathan Fischer recaps her record on agricultural and rural issues in the November 3rd election.

Host Ben Kieffer is joined by Congresswoman Abby Finkenauer. Finkenauer flipped Iowa’s 1st congressional district blue in 2018 and is defending her seat against Republican State Representative Ashley Hinson in November

Trump spilled the beans to Bob Woodward (and who knows who else!) while keeping the public in the dark about the deadliest crisis in modern history, Congresswoman Abby Finkenauer squared off against State Rep Ashley Hinson and put her on the defensive on her terrible labor record, and Senator Joni Ernst peddles conspiracy theories about coronavirus deaths. Then, Matt and Ivy speak to Iowa State Education Association President Mike Beranek about how Iowa's teachers, staff, and students are faring going back to schools during this pandemic. Links: Follow ISEA on Twitter Iowa Starting Line: Iowa GOP Rep: U.S. Not Racist Because Obama Elected Twice Iowa medical group: Sen. Ernst's embrace of a COVID conspiracy theory 'offensive' --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/progress-iowa/message

This week Erin Ryan is joined by Congresswoman Abby Finkenauer to discuss her successful push for endometriosis funding and her personal story attached to the cause. In news, Megan Gailey and Naomi Ekperigin talk low standards for the highest office in the land and why colleges opening to students just isn’t very smart. Then, fresh off the Ellen Degeneres news, the crew breaks down why we let some bosses off the hook, but demand accountability from others. Plus, is Baba Yaga the best monster in folklore? We unpack in I Feel Petty. Show Notes: Take action and spread awareness for Endometriosis: Endometriosis Foundation of America Endowhat Use and search hashtag #upendo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lyz Lenz is back! Ashley Hinson endorses Abby Finkenauer's positions but forgets to tell everyone, and Governor Reynolds straight up lies about the number of sick people in our state on behalf of big business. Cool. Links: Follow Lyz on Twitter you cowards! Des Moines Register - GOP congressional candidate Ashley Hinson apologizes for plagiarism, cuts ties with consulting firm AP: Outbreak at Iowa pork plant was larger than state reported --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/progress-iowa/message

In the final episode of the #NoFilter podcast series, our very own Secretary-Treasurer Elissa McBride speaks with young, progressive Congresswoman Abby Finkenauer about her efforts defending workers’ rights and her journey to becoming the second-youngest House member ever. We recap the entire series with some Next Wave history and leave you with ideas about how to use this podcast to inspire and activate other Next Wave members to get more involved in our union and in our communities.

When Americans awoke the morning after the midterm elections last November, they found the halls of Congress littered by the detritus of broken taboos and traditions. In the most multicultural, multiracial democratic experiment in the country's history, the newly elected freshman class smashed stereotypes by including more women, people of color, young people or LGBTQ lawmakers than ever before.  This class of Democratic freshmen jumped in head first, shattering routines on the Hill and social media. But getting down to legislating was trickier as their first weeks were marred by the longest shutdown in U.S. history; between moving into their offices and finding the bathrooms, they had to endure a crash course in the roughhouse politics of partisan gridlock.  Now five of these outspoken "Freshmen Furies," as they've become known, are joining the August 25 Conversations On the Green to discuss their history making experiences. The five Democrats -  New York's Antonio Delgado, Iowa's Abby Finkenauer, Connecticut's Jahana Hayes, Florida's Donna Shalala, and Michigan's Elissa Slotkin - will talk about what they expected and what they found, the jubilation of their election and the frustrations of the job, what they've accomplished and what's next on their agenda to move the country forward.    The first person of color to be elected to Congress from upstate New York, Antonio Delgado is a Rhodes Scholar, a graduate of Harvard Law School and a former Los Angeles-based rapper known as AD The Voice. A rock star among the freshman, his magnetic personality catapulted him to triumph over six other candidates in the Democratic primary of his overwhelmingly white swing district before defeating the favored Republican incumbent John Faso in the November general election.    Abby Finkenauer, who was 29-years-old when elected, is the second youngest person - behind New York's Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - to ever serve in Congress and along with Cindy Axne the first women to represent Iowa in the House. The daughter of a welder and a school employee, she won a seat in the state House when she was 25 and defeated two opponents in the 2018 Democratic primary before retiring incumbent Republican Representative Rod Blum in the general election.    The first African American woman to represent Connecticut in the House, Jahana Hayes seemed destined to follow a familial pattern when, like her mother and grandmother, she became pregnant as a 17-year-old and dropped out. But she returned to school and, while working, earned college and teaching degrees before being named 2016 National Teacher of Year. She ran on her dedication to education and her trials growing up in the Waterbury projects, which she said gave her special insight into how policy affects people. "I know what it's like to go to bed to gunshots outside," she said at a candidate forum. "I know what it's like to wake up in the morning to a dead body in the hallway."   A standout in the 2019 class of youthful Democratic freshmen, Florida's Donna Shalala is an academic and Washington veteran who served for eight years as President Bill Clinton's Secretary of Health and Human Services, the longest tenure of any of the department's leaders. The former head of the Children's Defense Fund, she was president of the Clinton Foundation from 2015 to 2017 and headed the University of Miami for 14 years. Previously she was the President of Hunter College and chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and  served as Trustee Professor of Political Science and Health Policy at the University of Miami.    A former CIA analyst and senior staffer for the Director of National Intelligence, Elissa Slotkin said she was spurred to challenge two-term Republican incumbent Mike Bishop when she saw him smile at a White House celebration after he and the Republicans in the House of Representatives voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act. A native New Yorker, she grew up in Holly, halfway between Flint and Detroit, and graduated from Cornell University before becoming a community organizer. She won the general election with a bare majority of the vote, 50.6 percent, becoming the first Democrat to represent the district since 2001.  Moderated by Jane Whitney, former NBC News correspondent & talk show host. Audience members are encouraged to participate in the interactive town-hall style format. All proceeds benefit: Greenwoods Counseling Referrals, Inc. - Helping members of the Litchfield County Community and beyond find access to compassionate and high-quality mental health and related care. New Milford Hospital - helping to secure the latest technology, attract the best medical staff and provide the compassionate, patient-centered care for which they are nationally recognized. Susan B. Anthony Project - promoting safety, healing, and growth for all survivors of domestic and sexual abuse and advocates for the autonomy of women and the end of interpersonal violence.

The very first live episode of Broadband Conversations focuses on the intersection of women, entrepreneurship, and technology. On this episode, Commissioner Rosenworcel sat down with a live audience and Congresswomen Davids and Finkenauer, two women who are breaking barriers and getting things done on the Small Business Committee, to discuss how women can and should build the next big thing online or open a store on Main Street. Listeners will hear the Congresswomen and the Commissioner cover a lot of ground in this episode, including how women need reliable broadband and access to capital necessary to start businesses and how things like student loan debt can hold female entrepreneurs back.

Conversations with three history-making figures from Iowa. Democratic Congresswomen Cindy Axne and Abby Finkenauer share what it�s like to become the first Iowa women to get elected to the U.S. House, plus what they hope to accomplish as part of a record number of women in Congress. And Joni Ernst, the first Iowa woman to get elected to the U.S. Senate, offers some advice for the new Iowa Congresswomen, as well as why she believes more women want prominent roles in national politics.

The midterms are over (though the recounts and runoffs may not be). So we make sense of what happened—and what’s next—with Jenn Taylor-Skinner, the host of our fave new feminist political podcast, The Electorette. Jenn tells us all about why she’s feeling pretty good about the midterms, how she plans to keep up the momentum into 2020, and why having a bilateral pulmonary embolism—yep, the same thing Serena Williams had—made her take a hard pivot into podcasting in 2017. Now she’s the full-time host of The Electorette—one of Teen Vogue’s picks for political podcasts, and a show you’ve gotta add to your rotation. > I just really wanted a space where women could speak without being interrupted. And I had no idea how much I had a hunger for that myself. > —Jenn Taylor-Skinner, host, The Electorette Follow Jenn | Follow The Electorette On the agenda More than 100 women are headed to Congress—including the first Native women, the first Muslim women, and the youngest women ever Florida voted to re-enfranchise more than a million people with felony convictions—and this is really freaking important Protecting voter rights and making sure no one ever has to wait six hours at the polls should be top priority (Jenn recommends Ari Berman’s book, Give Us the Ballot) White women gotta do better Maxine Waters remains iconic Plus: we fucking love all your “I Voted” sticker selfies (here’s Sara’s!), your lil baby voter pics, and…you. Sponsors This episode of NYG is brought to you by: Shopify, a leading global commerce platform that’s building a world-class team to define the future of entrepreneurship. Visit shopify.com/careers for more. Harvest, makers of awesome software to help you track your time, manage your projects, and get paid. Try it free, then use code NOYOUGO to get 50% off your first paid month.  Care/of, a monthly subscription vitamin service that delivers completely personalized vitamin and supplement packs right to your door. Save 25% off your first month using promo code NYG.   Transcript Sara Wachter-Boettcher Harvest is the time tracking and project planning software I rely on to keep my business running smoothly. And you can rely on it too! With awesome features like Harvest Forecast, which helps you figure out who’s assigned to what and keep track of workload, and tons of reports that shine a light on the health of your projects, Harvest makes it easier to focus on getting things done, not busywork. Try it free at getharvest.com, and when you sign up for a paid account, use the code “noyougo” to save 50% off your first month. That’s getharvest.com, code “noyougo.” [intro music plays for 12 seconds] Katel LeDû Hey everyone, I’m Katel. SWB And I’m Sara! KL And you’re listening to No, You Go, the show about building satisfying careers and businesses— SWB —getting free of toxic bullshit— KL —and living your best, feminist life at work. SWB And as I’m sure all of you know, last week was a big week here in the US. We finally had the midterm elections, which I was on pins and needles about. So, we’re going to talk a little bit about that today—we’re going to talk about what happened, and what’s next. And to help us out, we invited Jenn Taylor-Skinner onto the show. Jenn’s the host of The Electorette, an intersectional, feminist podcast about politics. And she is going to tell us more about her perspective on the midterms, as well as what it was like to trade a career in tech for running a political podcast and how she keeps it all together even when she’s talking about heavy stuff all day like voter suppression and reproductive justice. So, first up, Katel, how was your election day? KL It was good, I actually went in the middle of the day, which is a little uncharacteristic for me. I usually go first thing, I think you like to do that too. But I was lucky because there were no lines and it was pretty easy. I definitely was thinking about how that was absolutely not everyone’s experience, but I was extremely anxious the entire day and I think I had my shoulders up around my ears all night. SWB Ugh, yes. I was also feeling very anxious. And I was so upset, you know, watching on Twitter when people were reporting six hour lines at their polling place and broken machines and I mean, it’s not that I think that Philadelphia’s polling locations run super smoothly. [KL laughs] You know, my husband was actually working the polls and he was like, “oh boy, these voting machines,” but we didn’t have those kinds of lines. And I think, I mean obviously that’s just a travesty, right? Voting should not take six hours. You should not have to be waiting through all of this mayhem, it’s just ridiculous. But, luckily that was not my personal experience, so I do like to go early. I meant to get there right at seven when they opened, but I was writing an email or something, so I got there at 7:25 and there was already a good line. And so as I’m shuffling up there, I see none other than Lizz Fiedler, who you might remember. She was a guest back in season one running for the PA legislature in my district, right? And she was out there welcoming voters at my polling location, which was rad. [2:51] KL That’s so awesome. SWB Yeah, so I got to chat with Lizz and even though her candidacy at that point was a pretty sure thing, she was running unopposed because her district is 90% democrat [KL laughs]—for her the primary was the big deal. But even so, she was still feeling pretty nervous because she told me she had spent, you know, fifteen months putting everything she had into this campaign and she just—it’s not real until it’s real. KL That is so cool, I remember going to the party she had when she won the nomination, which was amazing. And this is definitely the first time that I’ve been this close to folks who are actually running in these races. It’s very exciting. SWB Yes. It was really awesome also that I ran into her outside of the polling place and then I got to literally walk inside and vote for her. KL [laughing] Yeah. SWB It was great. And so also like I said, my husband was working the polls and he was there at 6:15 in the morning— KL Ugh. SWB —wrapped up around 9pm and, you know, it was definitely quite a day. [KL laughs] But he noted that turnout was really high in Philly, which was also—that was encouraging to hear. So yeah, I mean it was a stressful day and a lot of—a lot of ups and downs, but you know, here we are. KL So, obviously we didn’t win back the Senate and there were some awesome people running who didn’t win, but it’s been a few days and I think it’s important to talk about some of the bright spots. Like here in Pennsylvania, we are finally going to send some women to Washington. We mentioned before on the show that right now Pennsylvania has 18 reps in the house and none are women, which is changing in January, which is amazing. Four women will join the delegation: Mary Gay Scanlon, Madeleine Dean, Susan Wild and Chrissy Houlahan. SWB That is so reassuring and even though four out of eighteen is [coughs] not enough [KL laughs], it’s still okay—that is so crucial, right? We need those voices. So, we don’t have the representation we need, but there are a lot of really great wins for women and I just want to recap a few of the ones that are so exciting because I know it can get lost a little bit as we are still facing all of the same problems we were facing before, as our political landscape is still a freaking nightmare. It can get a little lost, so let’s just remember some stuff. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib from Minnesota and Michigan, they are going to be the first Muslim women to serve in Congress. And then you’ve got Sharice Davids from Kansas and Deb Haaland from New Mexico, who are going to become the first Native American women to serve in Congress. Veronica Escobar and Sylvia Garcia are the first Latinas that Texas has ever sent to Congress. Which like, come on, Texas? KL I mean, seriously. [5:20] SWB And then in Massachusetts you’ve got them sending their very first Black woman to the House, that is Ayanna Pressley. And then also the youngest women ever were elected in to the House, so New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who obviously everybody was excited about during her primary upset, you know, she was a shoo-in during the election, her district was so strongly Democratic, so of course she won. But now, at 29 years old—she just turned 29—she’s the youngest women who has ever been elected to Congress. KL That’s so rad. SWB Yes! And then it’s not just her. Abby Finkenauer of Iowa is also 29, although she’s going to turn 30 in December, [KL laughs] so she’ll be 30 when she actually goes there. KL That’s a pretty good birthday. SWB Gosh, I know. Can you imagine? We didn’t quite hit this goal. KL [laughing] Yeah. SWB And then finally, one other person I wanted to mention—not a woman, but Jared Polis of Colorado will be the first openly gay governor, which I think is also pretty rad. KL That is also amazing. So, this is all so encouraging and it’s really nice to pause and get excited about all the good news and, of course, we need to know that there is still so much to do. SWB Yes, and I think that’s one of the reasons I was so excited to talk to Jenn from The Electorette because she’s just immersed in this stuff every single day and when we talked to her, she was feeling really positive. She was feeling good. You know, I thought it was so interesting to hear her talk about why she’s feeling positive because there’s a lot of reasons you could point to to not feel good, but she’s choosing to look at all of these encouraging signs and to focus in on, well, what are we going to do next and where do we focus our energy? And so I felt like we had a really good and nuanced discussion about that that I think you all are going to love. [music fades in, plays for five seconds, and fades out] Sponsor: Care/of SWB Care/of is a monthly subscription vitamin service that delivers completely personalized vitamin and supplement packs right to your door. Or I should say to my door because I just got my first Care/of shipment the other day and, Katel, I have to tell you it is pretty cool. KL Ooh, wait, so how do you figure out what you get? SWB Okay, so this is pretty neat. So, you go to takecareof.com and you do this online quiz thing and what it does is it asks you all about your habits and your goals. So, for example, you know I go to the gym a lot, so they’ll ask you about exercise, and if they—if you want vitamins that are going to help you with workout recovery. Or they’ll ask you if you want to sleep better or focus better. And so I took it and I was like “oh yeah, give me some of that good brain stuff.” [laughs] [7:32] KL Ughh. I could use that too. SWB Seriously. So, okay, so then once you decide what you want, Care/of is going to ship your vitamins to you in these awesome, daily pill packs, so you have this personalized mix of stuff that is already organized for you. You don’t have to fuss with a bunch of bottles, I just grab a pack while I’m making coffee. Oh and there are vegetarian options and vegan options if that’s your jam and speciality items like prenatal and postnatal vitamins for all of you mommas-to-be out there. So, for 25% off your first month of personalized Care/of vitamins, visit takecareof.com and enter the promo code “nyg.” That’s 25% off your first month of vitamins, only at takecareof.com, promo code “nyg.” [music fades in, plays for five seconds, and fades out] Interview: Jenn Taylor-Skinner SWB Jenn Taylor-Skinner is the creator and host of The Electorette, a podcast about politics, feminism and intersectionality where she interviews women who are leading causes and making change—from Black Lives Matter organizers to reproductive rights experts. And we invited Jenn here today to give us some expert perspective on the election and tell us a little bit more about her show and her story. Jenn, welcome to No, You Go. Jenn Taylor-Skinner Thank you, I’m excited to be here. SWB First off, can you tell us a little bit about The Electorette? JTS Yes. So, I started The Electorette probably a little over a year ago, so I guess at the end of the summer in 2017 or early fall in 2017. And it was actually somewhat of a long time coming because after Trump’s election and after Hillary Clinton’s loss in 2016, I felt that I needed to do something. And if I look back in my history, I think that I registered The Electorette domain one week after the election. And so it wasn’t until later after, I think the spring of 2017 where I—after I’d gone to The Women’s March in DC and I met a lot of brilliant, brilliant, passionate women there and I thought, “You know what? I just want to talk to women.” I—being in technology had spent most of my time around engineers and lots of male heavy teams, but after being at The Women’s March, there was so much energy there in DC and around the world basically that I just felt that I wanted more of that all of the time. SWB And so now you’re doing that pretty much full time, right? What was that decision like to kind of jump in wholeheartedly? [9:45] JTS So, like I said, I registered the domain right after the election, but I wasn’t quite sure, you know, how we make these kind of big decisions in our head and in our heart, but we don’t quite jump in? [laughs] And sometimes it takes something big to push us? Well so my big thing—and like I said, I’ve never told this story—so my big thing was sometime around late spring in 2017, I had a bilateral pulmonary embolism, right? The same thing that Serena Williams had, you know, a clot in both lungs. And so long story as to how that happened and how that was diagnosed, but basically, it was pretty serious. And I realized that life was precious and it could end at any moment, you know. I am and I was a really healthy person, it was just kind of this medical fluke that this happened to me. I realized that I really needed to stop wasting my time in spaces where my voice wasn’t being elevated and it wasn’t being heard, and I really wanted to do this. So, I just made a hard pivot. I mean, I think after I got—I was released from the hospital, I think I went back to work and I resigned. SWB Wow, that’s amazing. KL Wow. SWB So, what’s it been like this kind of first year, little over a year of the show, both for you personally and then also, you know, as you’ve been running this hyper political show focused on feminist issues in the run up to the midterms in the midst of a truly wild year? JTS So, as soon as I started asking women to come on the show and to be interviewed, I had no idea how much energy there was to do something like this and how much hunger there was for women’s voices to be elevated. So, one of the goals that I had with The Electorette was to kind of counter the incorrect messaging out there around lots of things, around reproductive health, around gun violence and all of these things—but hear it from women. You know, again, this kind of goes back to my experience spending most of my career in technology and, you know, what happens when you work in technology when you’re on male-heavy teams, often women’s voices and their opinions aren’t heard. You get talked over—your ideas aren’t listened to. And I just really wanted a space where women could speak without being interrupted. And I had no idea how much I had a hunger for that myself. SWB Yes! I think that’s something that me and Katel can definitely relate to on this show because I feel like every time we interview people, we’re just like, “how do we friend her?” KL Yeah, we always want to hang out with [laughing] the people we talk to way more. [12:01] SWB Okay, so in addition to talking about making friends on podcasts, I also want to talk to you about the midterms themselves because a lot has happened and, you know, when our listeners are hearing this, it will be just about a week after election day and so, of course, everybody will know we didn’t take the Senate, we did gain control of the House, and we have a ton more women who are heading to Washington and also winning local elections. So, lots of cool stuff, but we also did see some really great progressive candidates get defeated and I’m wondering, how are you feeling now, kind of coming down from that? JTS Maybe I’m being naive, but I feel really, really good. You know, I hadn’t really thought about or talked about The Women’s March in a little while now, but just talking to you now, I’m starting to remember in my heart and in my body what that felt like. And you know, that felt like it was 20 years ago, even though it’s only been two years ago. And I think when we were all together and we were marching and we were doing all of those things, I think that we had no idea what direction we were going to go. And [laughs]—I think that this was the first goalpost, right? This midterm election. Over 100 women are headed to Congress, and that’s a historic number. I think the total is 111 at this point, but 100 women—that has never happened in the history of Congress in over 200 years. I think it’s—Congress, it was 229 years ago I think, it was started. But yeah, I just feel really good about that. Just that number alone. SWB Yeah, and I love that—that pausing to celebrate that, to celebrate those numbers and to celebrate a lot of the individual victories. Katel and I have been talking about things like—we’ve got Native American women who are going to be in Congress for the first time, we’ve got Muslim women going to be in Congress for the first time. And there’s a lot of fucking awesome stuff happening. But the other thing I really noticed and I think everyone really noticed about this particular election cycle was just how messed up the voting process itself is—like how many people were reporting six-hour waits in line and broken polling machines, how many polling places were being closed, often in particular communities, aka Black and Brown neighborhoods. Still dealing with all these issues around disenfranchisement and gerrymandering. And so one of the bright spots that I found in the midterms was the law in Florida that was restoring voting rights to people who have been convicted of a felony, which is like this one, small bright spot in a lot of examples of ways people are being disenfranchised to see an effort towards re-enfranchisement. [14:29] JTS That change in Florida is huge. It’s huge, right? So, if you think about that governmental race between Gillum and DeSantis there, just think about how that would have turned out had these people been able to vote, right? I mean, that’s just incredible. It’s an incredible change. SWB Absolutely. It was over a million people who are going to regain eligibility and the margin between candidates in Florida was like—I don’t know—60 or 70 thousand votes, something like that. It was very small. I mean, you have to really think that a million potential new voters is a dramatic change to the landscape in Florida, and I think about that a lot. Like, you know, how do we start to make progress on ending voter suppression and protecting voting rights when it often can feel like such a self perpetuating cycle, right? Like we can’t get the people who need voting rights to have the voting rights that it would take for them to be able to vote to change the laws. [laughs] JTS Well, it’s been a really terrible time in terms of voter suppression, but the thing that I’ve noticed from, you know, just within the past two years, is that voter suppression used to be an issue for the experts. You know, people who wrote wonky research papers, you know, people who kind of crunched the data and write books about it, but now it’s mainstream. You know, even when I started this podcast, like in 2017, I was reading the book by Ari Berman and I was reading, you know, some other books and I would talk to people and people weren’t really—the average person just wasn’t really aware of the bigness of voter suppression. And I think the fact that we had these really big superstars running for office like Stacey Abrams in Georgia and the governor’s race in Florida—the fact that we really had these people that we wanted to win and the fact that the possibility that they wouldn’t win due to voter suppression was really good for highlighting this as an issue. Now, everyone’s thinking about it and everyone’s talking about it. The only caveat that I have there is that—and it’s something that I need to research and I need to read about—but obviously, Brian Kemp, [laughs] Brian Kemp in Georgia is really good at voter suppression. He’s an expert. He’s a voter suppression expert, right? [laughs] He’s the Secretary of State and the only thing that I’m curious about is why there hasn’t been more focus on the Secretary of State races? I mean, to my understanding, I think that there were 27 seats open—Secretary of State seats open—that we could—could push for. And I don’t understand why that isn’t happening, but I guess overall, I’m just happy that we’re going in this direction where, you know, the whole country is watching what’s happening with voter suppression. [16:58] SWB And I think that this is the kind of conversation that we have to have a lot more of and—another conversation that I think we have to have a lot more of is the conversation about white women. [laughs] So, NBC news exit poll was finding that 50% of white women voted for Ted Cruz, which ughh can you imagine voting for Ted Cruz? [JTS laughs] But people keep doing it! And then in Georgia I know that there was a pretty similar story there and I’m a white woman and I was pretty sad to see that, but I also wasn’t really surprised. It’s well documented the way that a large percentage of White women will vote to uphold patriarchy and white supremacy. But I’m curious—you’re a Black woman, right? So, from your perspective—how do you make sense of the way that the other women that you want to speak to and whose voices you want to hear aren’t necessarily having your back? JTS Yeah… well, I mean, I think you’re talking just generally, right? Like [laughs] I don’t know anyone— SWB Hopefully not specifically! [laughs] JTS I don’t know anyone personally, Black or White, who—who would have voted for Cruz. I mean [laughs & SWB laughs] that would be an instant unfriend. [all three laugh] I mean just—so you’re right about the numbers, and—you know—it makes me sad too. And I’m looking at them right now and you’re right that it was like 60% I think of White women who voted for Cruz and 72% of White men voted for Cruz. We shouldn’t let the white men off the hook, right? But yeah. So, those are the numbers and Black women, I think it stands at around 94 or 95% went for O’Rourke. So, obviously the thing is that for the party, for the Democratic Party, and I think that they are realizing this—where their base lies, right? You know, with Black women and let’s see—I don’t know what the number was for Latina women, I think it was around 65%. But people of color, right? They need to focus on the—on the needs and the issues that affect these communities and put effort and resources into getting out the vote there. I had one of my very first guests, Laura Briggs—she wrote a book about reproductive justice—and I asked that question too because I’m just really baffled and just trying to figure it out. And she had a really good analysis. And I think that as we’ve matured as an electorate, we’ve begun to better understand the psychology behind women who would vote for someone like Cruz or someone who would vote for—for Trump. So, the scare mongering on the right about the caravans and about MS–13 and about immigrants who rape and all this kind of stuff, that’s very intentional, right? So, they’re running on this fear narrative. And so the theory that she has is that White women have a lifestyle that they want to protect. You know, they want to protect their children, they want to protect their homes, they want to protect their safety and you can kind of see that I think mirrored in those viral videos like the ones with Barbecue Becky, where lots of women around the country are kind of trying to police the world of people they think are nefarious. And so, by the fact that conservatives are kind of scaring them to say “hey, there’s a lot more scary people out there and we’re going to help police them for you,” they’ve made this bargain that says “hey, you know what? If you protect me and you keep my environment safe from these nonexistent threats, I will in turn make the bargain to weaken my reproductive rights or all the other things that you want to take away from women generally.” And that was my question to her since she’s an expert on reproductive rights was reproductive rights benefit all women—Black women, White women, Latina women—they benefit all women, so why would they bargain that away? And so I thought her answer was really good and that was that they made this calculation—they made a calculation that it is worth it for us to give up a few rights so that you could protect me and my family and life essentially. [20:32] SWB You know, me and Katel were just talking earlier today about White feminism and probably not the people who would have voted for Ted Cruz, but the people who don’t necessarily want to question the role of race in their feminism or don’t necessarily want to think about what work they need to do to dismantle some of their own assumptions. And I think that often times it’s like that challenge feels really big. And I know you care a lot about intersectionality and touch on that constantly in your show. Is there anything that you’ve learned along the way or that you’ve found really helpful in sort of being able to reach across that—that chasm and get people to understand that we can’t really talk about feminism without talking about race? JTS I think there’s a lot of guilt there. I think that people don’t like to confront their own complicity. I think one thing that happened to me personally was just a personal anecdote. There are two distant relatives that are having a conversation and people always ask me about politics and they were talking about some of the—the race issues that we’ve seen in the country. And actually, I should—I should give you a little more background because they weren’t Americans, right? But they were just talking about the race relations in America. And one was talking about, “well, you know, you have all of these people who come into your country and you know, they want handouts and whatever.” And then the other person wanting to bond with me or I guess take the side—the correct side—said, “no, that’s just racist, you’re racist.” [laughs] And so I noticed that the other person just shut down and so I said “well, you know”—and I lied—I actually said, “well, no, you’re not racist.” [laughs] And then I explained to them why that position was wrong and I gave them some books and then I gave them some facts and then they were open, so in that moment I kind of flipped someone to show empathy for the people that they were kind of demonizing, but by I guess lying a bit and just showing some empathy and seeing that moment when they were shutting down. Because I think that guilt shuts a lot of people down. SWB Gosh, I mean that’s—I think that’s a great story and I think you’re right. Guilt shuts a lot of people down, but that’s also a lot of freaking work to put on you, right? To have to do that for them. And so I guess I think a lot of it too that I would hope that some of our listeners really hear, particularly our White listeners, which I suspect is probably the majority of them, they need to figure out how to get over some of those feelings of defensiveness themselves, right? That talking about race and saying the ways that we have learned to think about race and the beliefs that we have deeply embedded in ourselves about race as White people are not neutral. And sure, you don’t want to be racist, but that doesn’t mean that you are—your desire to not be racist or not be called a racist does not [laughing] absolve you from this and it’s—it’s okay to have difficult conversations about race and it’s not about being a bad person or a good person, it’s about saying, “I’m willing to do some work to talk about this problem.” And I would like to see more White women being able to do that without the labour of women of color coaxing them along, you know? So, obviously there’s been all this talk for months and months and months about a blue wave and then we had progressive candidates like Beto O’Rourke getting a lot of national attention. And when he didn’t win, you know, we had some of these major races not go the way we wanted. I’ve heard a lot of people in my feed or in my social circles expressing feelings of defeat. Now, you said earlier in our conversation that you were actually feeling really good, that you had a lot of positivity and you have a lot of reasons for that, you have a lot of bright spots you’re looking at. But I’m wondering, what would you tell somebody who is feeling that sense of defeat right now? [23:58] JTS Anyone who may be feeling a sense of defeat may have wanted to look closer at the—more closely at the numbers [laughs] before the midterms because the margins for those big races with—you know—Gillum in Florida and Beto O’Rourke in Texas and for Stacey Abrams—they were always really, really close, right? They didn’t have a lock on those races. So, I was always hoping that the media would highlight some of those other races that didn’t have celebrity candidates in front of them, right? And so, I’m not really sure. I think that it’s really hard to feel those big losses because these are superstars. Beto O’Rourke is a really big superstar and he’s not going anywhere. So, the thing is I think that I would tell those people to look at the amount of mobilization and energy that Beto O’Rourke was able to garner in Texas, right? That was a seat that was not supposed to be in play. And the fact that he had—that he was so close is—is really a positive, right? And Congress, winning back the House, which was just something we were supposed to win, which we were predicted to win—we only needed to flip 23 seats and I think as it stands, we’ve flipped—I mean, I think maybe 30 to 31 seats. So, that’s huge. I think that’s really huge. So, one of the other things I wanted to highlight—I wanted to go back to the number of women of color who—who won their seats. You talked that there were two Native American women making history going to Congress and there are two Muslim women going, Rashida Tlaib is one of them. You know, I actually heard Rashida Tlaib talk at the She the People Conference and that was in San Francisco a couple of months ago. You know and she is a firebrand. She is passionate. And if you—if you listen to all of these women who—who won last night, these aren’t just any women in politics, right? These women are fired up, they are passionate and they are—they’re running out of their outrage, they’re running out of frustration and anger. This is a different crop of women. I think you’re going to see a different Congress with these women seated. SWB Well, so speaking of that, now we’ll have a majority of Democrats in the House in 2019. So, what are you hoping that they can focus on? Or what do you think should be the priority? JTS First of all, we’re going to be running some really great committees. For instance, Maxine Waters, she’s going to head the Financial Services Committee. And you know what that means? [laughs] That means that she can subpoena Trump’s taxes. So, she can subpoena Trump’s taxes. SWB Mmm! She has been waiting for this day. JTS So, that’s the thing that’s foremost on my mind, I’m thinking about that, you know? And all of the committees, the investigative committees that we’re going to head. [26:33] SWB And what about for you personally? So, now that the midterms are over, what are you kind of planning to spend more of your political energy on and what’s on your 2019 agenda? JTS You know, first of all, we’ve got a couple of runoffs possibly, right? I think before we started this conversation, there was a possibility that there would be a runoff in Georgia. And then also there is definitely going to be a runoff in Mississippi in the senate race with Mike Espy and Cindy Hyde-Smith. So, Mike Espy is the Democratic candidate and that’s a really important Senate seat. And also, there is an automatic recount being—being kicked off. So, there are a few really important seats that aren’t completely 100% lost and I guess my point is is that I have a feeling that Democrats might do what they have a tendency to do and have done in the past, which is to kind of quickly move on or to fill this sense of complacency or we need to keep this energy up and it needs to ratcheted up on into 2020. So, I’m hoping that if these runoffs happen, if the recounts happen, all of that energy that went into the races before midterms stays there to support these candidates, to get them over the finish line. The work isn’t done. So, for me, between now and 2019 and between now and 2020, I’m going to be focusing on doing my part to keep the energy up. KL I actually wanted to ask you a couple more questions about going back to Electorette. You said you started the show because you wanted to build on a sense of community and strength and I just—I think that’s such an important idea and concept to carry through as we sort of move on from—from this very poignant moment. How has that piece of it evolved for you in context of the show? JTS I wanted to elevate the voices of women without necessarily saying it, right? Because I don’t want to limit my audience to just women. So, what I was hoping to do was to get listeners generally—men, women, non-binary people—to get used to hearing expertise from women, right? Because so often—and I think there’s a study about this—so often, media outlets, they call on men more often as experts in comparison to how often they call on women. Right, so what I wanted to do was get the audience, my listeners, used to hearing facts and expertise from women. And it’s funny, just the other day, there was a list of top political podcasts to listen to from Teen Vogue and Electorette was number one, [laughs] so I was really happy about that. But the—the person who wrote the list was a man and I was really proud of that—that Electorette was at the top of his list for political podcasts to listen to. And that’s kind of what my goal has been. So, it isn’t—it is about elevating the voices of women and bringing women together, but it’s also about kind of nudging, gently nudging our allies to support us as well. [29:16] SWB Yeah, totally! I think about that a lot in the context of our show too. We obviously, you know, we talk to women, we also talk to non-binary folks, but we haven’t really had any men on the show and we’re very comfortable with that. But we do know that men listen, we get emails from them pretty regularly. We hear from men who are like “I didn’t know what I was missing in terms of having access to kind of deep conversations between women.” And for some men, they really crave that. Once they got that, they were like, “oh! This is a perspective that I just wasn’t hearing.” JTS So one of the things I also try to do, not with just men but also with white women, because I do know that there are white women out there—all you have to do is look at the exit polls—who aren’t necessarily on board with the things that would kind of help us all, right? That issue of intersectionality, is that, like I said, I bring on experts because I figured if you hear the voice of an expert and they’re talking about facts and not necessarily opinion, people are more open. So I do have lots of people who come on to talk about race in this kind of factual historical context. One of the ones that is my favorite, is my conversation with Mehrsa Baradaran—she wrote the book The Color of Money, which talks about the history of black banks and you know, talks about the history of black wealth, and why blacks have less wealth than white Americans. And she goes on—and this book is really great, everyone should read it—and she talks about this from a factual point of view and from a historical point of view—everything that’s happened to get us to this point. So that’s one of the roles the podcast, is to talk about things that are really difficult for people to hear and kind of remove that personal finger-pointing element. KL Makes a ton of sense and I feel like—I feel like that is—that is very true. One of my favorite parts of your Twitter bio is “kid embarrasser.” [JTS laughs & KL joins in] Can you tell us a little bit more about that first and basically what it’s like to be a parent while running Electorette, running this podcast and doing this full time. JTS So, [laughs] dancing will do it. You know, calling him silly names like buttercup, that will do it. [laughs & KL laughs] KL Oh gosh. JTS But what is it like? So another thing that embarrasses him is when I play Electorette on the speakers—on the loudspeakers in the house. [laughs] Yeah, but you know, it’s fine and actually he is old enough to—to be able to be there in the room or be in the house when I’m doing a recording or you know. KL So, when you took this full time and started doing a podcast full time, I mean that’s pretty different from having I guess a quote, unquote traditional jobby-job, as we like to say. What has been the difference there and what has been harder or easier? JTS Well, you know, obviously managing your own schedule is—is a good part of it. Although, if you’ve worked in technology, the good thing about that is you do have a little bit more control of your schedule than you do if you were, you know, worked at some place where you have a retail job and you had to go specifically from 9 – 5 or like 8 – 4. So—but I did gain a lot of flexibility in that, right? Which is helpful with having a family. So, I do miss going to the office, I do miss being around a lot of other people, so I always try to get out when I’m not actually recording, get out—go to coffee shops or go to cafes and work. So, one of the things is that if you work by yourself or you work for yourself is that it can be easy to get pretty lonely and spend a day without talking to people. SWB Jenn, we are getting close to being out of time, and so before we let you go, I want to hear a little bit about what’s next for The Electorette. What kinds of topics are you looking to explore next on the show, and what are you excited about? JTS Yeah, you know. So, one of the—a couple of other episodes that I have coming up, which I’m really excited about: I talked to someone who did a long-term, maybe a year or so, research study on women in porn. And that one is going to be really interesting. So, [laughs] that one is coming up. And I’m doing one, I have one in the works, on street harassment and public harassment, and that’s going to be really great. And one of the things that I’ve started to do recently is to have multi-part episodes or episodes where there are more than one expert who are there to give a different perspective on a single topic. And I’m thinking about some other things—you know, how to bring in voices, not necessarily experts—people who write books or people who write podcasts or journalists or politicians—but women who do other things, everyday women. I think that their voices are important too—mothers and people who work and who aren’t necessarily in the business and getting their side of things. So, that’s something that I kind of have in the works as well. And I’m also going to do—try some solo episodes too, we’ll see how that goes. SWB Well, based off of everything you said today, I think they’re going to go really well. So, thank you so much for telling us all about your story and helping us make sense of the midterms a little bit more. So, our last question for you—where can folks get more Jenn in their lives? JTS You can go to electorette.com and I am all over Twitter, of course. [laughs] “JTaylorSkinner”—that’s my Twitter handle and I am obsessed with Twitter, so if you want Jenn, you can get a saturation of Jenn on Twitter. SWB Well, awesome. Thank you so much for being here and everyone, go check out The Electorette. [music fades in, plays for five seconds, and fades out] Sponsor: Shopify KL Time for a break from politics to talk about jobs! This week, Shopify’s director of talent acquisition, Anna Lambert, brings us some much needed advice for anyone looking to hire. Let’s here what Anna has got to say. Anna Lambert Don’t fall into the “done it before” trap. So many employers look for people who have “done it before.” For example, I want a developer who has built an commerce product using Ruby on Rails. I mean, sometimes you’ll want that specific experience, but that shouldn’t be your default. You will miss out on amazing people who bring diverse experiences that may make them great in the role. So, learn how to assess talent without relying on them having done the specific job. The magic comes when teams are made up of people with varying experiences. They may be self taught or come from a completely different industry. Job seekers—learn how to translate what you’ve done to other industries, disciplines, and problems. You don’t have to have done it before, but you’ll need to show how you’ll learn and what you’ll bring to a new team. KL I love Anna’s advice because it’s one way that more diverse candidates can make it through the process. So, if that sounds good to you, you should talk to Shopify. Visit shopify.com/careers to see all their open positions. [music fades in, plays for five seconds, and fades out] [35:35] Fuck Yeah of the Week SWB Okay, so I feel like we already had a bunch of fuck yeahs earlier in this episode. We said fuck yeah to so many awesome candidates who are breaking boundaries and making waves—all these people who are firsts and onlys. But do we have any other fuck yeahs before we go today? KL I definitely think I have one and that is babies wearing “I Voted” stickers. [laughing] Something that made me smile a lot on election day was flipping through Instagram, and I think I was scrolling through and actually saw three photos in a row of babies I know—and I know some cute-ass babies—and they were all wearing their parents’—I presume their parents’—“I Voted” stickers, and it was just so sweet. There were also a few photos of dogs wearing stickers on their floofy heads and butts and that was also great. SWB I also love baby photos in general on Instagram, but I especially love the baby voters. I mean, I don’t think the babies were making the voting decisions, but—I don’t know—babies would probably make better decisions than what a lot of America seems to be making. [laughs] Okay, so I love the voter stickers in general because I feel like they just really normalize voting and they kind of just show you how many people in your community are out there voting. You know, I saw somebody complain about them online saying they felt performative and that taking a photo of yourself after having voted was like wanting to be perceived as doing good without necessarily being very politically engaged. And I get that—maybe some people literally don’t do anything except go vote once a year and put a sticker on and take a selfie, but still I think that’s still—it’s still nice to see those pictures because I think it’s great to normalize voting as a part of people’s lives and a thing that we do and participate in and that everybody—all of your friends, all of your family, everybody is doing it. And so it’s—it’s nice to visually see that, it’s nice to see everyone voting. The other thing I loved was just all of the different voting stickers. KL I know! That was really cool, seeing which ones were different from state to state. SWB And which ones I was jealous of— KL Yes. SWB —we need some better designed ones in Pennsylvania. KL New York has a really cool one. SWB They’re super cool, yeah! Okay, so fuck yeah to everyone who is out there celebrating their vote and then also fuck yeah to doing everything we can to make sure everyone actually has the right and the ability and the access to be able to vote in the future because that needs to change. KL Fuck yeah! SWB And that’s it for this week’s episode of No, You Go. NYG is recorded in our home city of Philadelphia and it is produced by Steph Colbourn. Our theme music is by The Diaphone. Thank you so much to Jenn Taylor-Skinner for being our guest today and thank you to everybody for listening. If you like the show, please don’t forget to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts because that really helps us spread the word. And we will see you again next week! [music fades in, plays alone for 32 seconds, and fades out]

This week, we answer a question from a listener about polling methodology. Then we dive into three House races and a Senate race, all in the Midwest. And finally, we take a look at the governor's race in Florida, following a recent headline-making debate.To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy

Remember that November 9th feeling? We'd like to move in the other direction, so we're donating money, making calls, and shining a light on the people we'd like to see in office instead. We talk with with state-level candidates we're supporting: Cynthia Nixon in New York and Felicia French in Arizona. Christine Hallquist is trans and just became the Democratic nominee for governor in Vermont. Plus, shoutouts to Congressional candidates Abby Finkenauer in Iowa; Lauren Underwood in Illinois; Ilhan Omar in Minnesota; and Rashida Tlaib in Michigan. Reading List Higher Heights Sister District Gettable Senate seats Cynthia Nixon for NY governor Felicia French for AZ state legislature Abby Finkenauer in Iowa congressional race Lauren Underwood Illinois congressional race Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib Christine Hallquist in VT governor’s race Also! STOP KAVANAUGH Day of Action

 Iowa Starting Line Podcast host Pat Rynard welcomes Iowa Safe Schools executive director Nate Monson & Norwalk student Jaden Deal to discuss the Governor’s Conference On LGBTQ Youth, […] The post Ep27: Abby Finkenauer Interview & LGBTQ Youth Conference Discussion appeared first on Iowa Starting Line.

Do you ever wonder what it’s like to be involved in politics? Have you wanted to get a behind the scenes look into the life of a female politician? How hard is her job, how does she find peace in the fast paced environment and how has her values shifted from when she started to now? And maybe you are even wondering how you can become involved in some way too? Today’s guest and fellow Iowan, Abby Finkenauer, is the youngest woman in the House of Representatives for Democrats. In this episode you will… Hear about Abby's life as a State Representative Uncover how to get involved in policy Know the benefits of interest groups Discover the hardest part of her job Identify how her values have shifted Learn what it's like being a young woman in a fast-paced political environment RESOURCES: She Did It Her Way Podcast She Did It Her Way Twitter She Did It Her Way Facebook Abby Finkenauer government website Abby's Twitter Abby 4 Iowa House Facebook “The Four Agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz INSIGHTS: “At first, a lot of candidates would not want to have really great primary opponents because that’s scary but I really look back on it and I’m thankful for that.”-Abby Finkenauer “There’s really no typical day which I actually really appreciate.”-Abby Finkenauer “Not just fighting against things, but being able to tell the story of what we want to fight for as well.”-Abby Finkenauer “I genuinely really like people.I have a real curiosity about why someone feels the way they feel and if they’re struggling why are they struggling.” “I’m all about reading stats and research and all of that, but I think there’s something to be said about actually living it and talking to people going through it.”-Abby Finkenauer “The hardest part is when you can’t do something that you really feel in your heart that needs to be done to help people and you see the effects of what it has when you can’t get it done.”-Abby Finkenauer “I still have all the core beliefs that I came in with, there’s just other things I care about now that I didn’t know I was going to care about before.”-Abby Finkenauer “When you’re running for the first time you have your story...then you hear other people’s stories and that becomes part of your narrative. There’s just certain things you can’t unhear and certain things then become a part of who you are and what you’re fighting for.”-Abby Finkenauer “It’s really important to step back.”- Abby Finkenauer “You have to be able to remove yourself and step back; my peace comes from being able to do that.” Abby Finkenauer “Figure out what it is you care about and then go be around it.”-Abby Finkenauer “Sometimes your best is not always 100% and always the same every single day. You do your best at where you’re at.”- Abby Finkenauer “I did do this basically single and I didn’t wait to have it all together to do it... I didn’t wait until I was married and had the picket fence and had it all together.”- Abby Finkenauer “If you know it and you’re smart and you care about something, it’s important to just go do it.” -Abby Finkenauer