It was great talking with @adamjshriver.bsky.social on the Canary in a Cornfield podcast about @ewgofficial.bsky.social's recent geospatial analysis of livestock operations in Iowa. We talked about how CAFOs damage water quality, and much more. canaryinacornfield.substack.com/p/s3-e4-mapp...

S3, E4 Mapping Iowa’s CAFO Problem with the Environmental Working Group

EWG’s Anne Schechinger discusses a new study using aerial imagery to map Iowa’s animal feeding operations

canaryinacornfield.substack.com

Visitors to the US are on track to drop by almost two million year-on-year. “We’re the only major country in the world losing visitation,” the head of the US Travel Association said. “It’s mind-boggling.” www.semafor.com/article/09/2...

New podcast! The Successful Fight Against a Factory Farm Polluting One of America’s Greatest Natural Treasures canaryinacornfield.substack.com/p/s3-e3-the-...

S3, E3 The Successful Fight Against A Factory Farm Polluting One of America’s Greatest Natural Treasures

How a remarkable activist went from working for Exxon during the famous spill, to the Peace Corps, to Fighting Factory Farms

canaryinacornfield.substack.com

Iowa leaders respond to the Senate Agriculture Committee passage of a farm bill

Iowa leaders respond to the Senate Agriculture Committee passage of a farm bill

The Senate Agriculture Committee passed a farm bill Wednesday, leaving out the Save Our Bacon Act.

qctimes.com

Iowa farmers to Ashley Hinson: Stop. https://iowastartingline.com/news/save-our-bacon-act-iowa-farmers-hinson/

Save Our Bacon Act: Iowa farmers concerned by Hinson's bill

In 1998, hog prices collapsed and Chris Petersen lost the family farm. This week, he stood in a barn near Elkhart and said US Rep. Ashley Hinson's "Save Our Bacon Act" could do it again to the Iowa fa...

iowastartingline.com

Umm

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2mo ago

Rick Scott: "With regard to destroying mankind, these companies need to do the right thing on their own. We're not going to get smart enough to regulate them. We're not going to get something done up here."

Really impressive reporting on Iowa’s cancer crisis. And cool to see that Environmental Risk Factors and Cancer in Iowa has officially been deemed a “landmark report”. www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/...

Trump's attacks on US higher ed, and Chinese scholars in particular, has been a gift to China's efforts to surge past the US on science and innovation. One report from Renmin University summed it up: "Thank Trump." 🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/china-than...

China: “Thank Trump”

The big winner of Trump’s assault on higher ed is America’s chief geopolitical rival

donmoynihan.substack.com

Photos leaked of bombed out US Middle East bases, with aircraft in pieces and buildings turned to rubble from Iranian fire. As @gregsargent.bsky.social notes, it's striking imagery, a symbol of US decline. Utter failure of Trump/Hegseth's fascist worldview, with its shallow conception of strength.

Greg Sargent@gregsargent.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Everyone should look at the haunting photos of bombed out US bases hit by Iran that were leaked by service-members. They are Trump's "American carnage." On the pod @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social is so good on the war, US decline, and Trump/Hegseth's imploding fascism: newrepublic.com/article/2155...

❗️👀 CNN: 14 Russian spy satellites reportedly flew over a U.S. military base in Saudi Arabia days before an Iranian strike. U.S. officials said the collected intelligence may have been shared with Iran, helping enable the high-precision attack.

this guy is one of the architects of a war that might rank as one of the worst strategic missteps in american military history and here is on CBS getting a softball interview about his feelings

60 Minutes@60minutes.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth tells 60 Minutes that news of a U.S. fighter jet being shot down over Iran woke him in the middle of the night. His first thought: “S***.”

If the Speaker feels they don’t have enough expertise there’s a way to bring it back - The Office of Technology Assessment! www.liberalcurrents.com/congress-nee...

Congress Needs Its Tech Experts Back

If Congress is to tackle issues from DOGE sabotage to AI to social media, it needs to resurrect its Office of Technology Assessment.

liberalcurrents.com

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2mo ago

Mike Johnson punts on oversight of AI companies: "Congress is obviously less qualified than the people who are pushing this frontier to know the ins and outs of it"

www.tiktok.com/t/ZP83rGVSG/

Iowa Farmers Speak Out Against 'Save Our Bacon Act'

TikTok video by WHO 13

tiktok.com

Ashley Hinson Wrote a Bill to Void Other States' Farm Rules. Iowa Farmers Say It Punishes the Ones Who Already Paid to Follow Them. www.magareportcards.com/blog/hinson-...

Ashley Hinson Wrote a Bill to Void Other States' Farm Rules. Iowa Farmers Say It Punishes the Ones Who Already Paid to Follow Them.

Hinson's Save Our Bacon Act would stop states from setting conditions on livestock products sold inside their borders. Iowa hog and dairy farmers stood in a field in Elkhart and said it would punish t...

magareportcards.com

Iowa farmers argue Hinson’s Save Our Bacon act would hurt small producers iowacapitaldispatch.com/2026/09/09/i...

Iowa farmers argue Hinson's Save Our Bacon act would hurt small producers • Iowa Capital Dispatch

Some Iowa producers argue the Save Our Bacon Act will harm farmers by taking away diversified markets and by sending a message to consumers.

iowacapitaldispatch.com

It would also dismantle a wide range of current state food safety laws : prospect.org/2026/07/07/m...

The Meat Industry’s Tireless Effort to Keep Live Pigs in Coffins - The American Prospect

The Save Our Bacon Act, which would override hundreds of state food safety laws, has triggered bipartisan revulsion. But the pork industry wants it so they can keep confining pigs.

prospect.org

We mentioned IA-Sen earlier. A key issue in the race looks to be the Save Our Bacon Act which GOP candidate Hinson has been pushing & Dem Turek opposes (it got through the House but not the Senate). Looks to pit big business agriculture v small farmers: iowacapitaldispatch.com/2026/09/09/i...

Iowa farmers argue Hinson's Save Our Bacon act would hurt small producers • Iowa Capital Dispatch

Some Iowa producers argue the Save Our Bacon Act will harm farmers by taking away diversified markets and by sending a message to consumers.

iowacapitaldispatch.com

Trump provides evasive answers to questions about exactly where the beef he’s importing is coming from

Kentucky has lost a giant Kentucky writer, farmer and advocate Wendell Berry dies at 92 kentuckylantern.com/2026/08/31/k...

Kentucky writer, farmer and advocate Wendell Berry dies at 92 • Kentucky Lantern

A lover of forests, the farmer, author and former English professor died on Thursday, according to his family and the New York Times. He was 92.

kentuckylantern.com

New, at Can We Still Govern?: I talked to Annie Lowrey about her new book, "The Time Tax" on the administrative burdens that people encounter when they interact with the safety net. On HR1: "People are going to die. Health clinics are going to shut down." donmoynihan.substack.com/p/annie-lowr...

Annie Lowrey on the Time Tax

A new book details the scale of the administrative burdens we face

donmoynihan.substack.com

It’s the alfalfa, stupid How does the USA — a relatively water-rich country — have a huge western water crisis? In the most arid part of the country we’ve assigned the majority of the water to low-value agriculture rather than cities & suburbs. www.slowboring.com/p/the-wester...

Hazardous conditions for workers at animal agriculture facilities could increase as safety training resources and inspection capacity continues to diminish. With fewer inspectors, OSHA “becomes much more reactive than proactive.” Contributor @ninaelkadi.com reports. ⬇️

When It Comes to Worker Protections, ‘Big Ag Rules the Roost’

Safety experts say a lack of inspectors and other cutbacks could result in more farmworker deaths and injuries.

civileats.com

We were on the verge of breaking up Ticketmaster, every music fan's dream for the last 4 decades, until Trump intervened www.wsj.com/business/med...

The Trump Intervention That Got the DOJ Off Live Nation’s Back

Antitrust case started out aiming to force the concert giant to sell Ticketmaster. After two White House meetings, a deal kept the company intact.

wsj.com

Pretty strong WTF here. I noted the sudden retirement of the publisher in my newsletter yesterday -- now, to FIRE someone who is already leaving, PLUS the editor, is quite a thing

Lynn Sacco@urbanexile.bsky.social · 2mo ago

www.stripes.com/theaters/us/...

The US decision to launch a trade war against Canada while it is in the midst of a foolish war with Iran, while China is laughing at its weakness, while the deficit is exploding and bond markets are calling BS... shows that the US government is not acting in US national interest.

🚨 Cook Political Report is shifting 4 key statewide race ratings: #TXSEN: Lean R → Toss Up
 #IASEN: Lean R → Toss Up #TXGOV: Solid R → Likely R #IAGOV: Toss Up → Lean D Read our latest: www.cookpolitical.com/analysis/gov...

Texas and Iowa Senate Races Move to Toss Up; Races for Governor Also Move in Democrats’ Direction

The battle for the Senate is about to intensify ahead of the traditional Labor Day starting gun. Republicans still retain a structural advantage given the partisan challenges of the map, and Democrats still need almost every key race to break their way. But as we recently wrote, in a wave election akin to 2006, even states that President Donald Trump won by double digits could move within Democrats’ reach.

cookpolitical.com

Between 2016 and today, the US has spent almost $9 trillion on defense. It then ran dangerously low in many advanced munitions fighting a country with no air force and navy--after about two months of combat operations. This is an extraordinary scandal.

"Iowa voters reject a China-owned pork corporation pushing to override state authority over animal welfare and food safety.. by promoting the Save Our Bacon Act Hinson, Miller-Meeks, Nunn have jeopardized the livelihoods of independent family farmers selling into markets not controlled by Big Pork.”

Farm Advocacy Group Endorses Turek, Bohannon, And Garriott

From our inbox: About Farm Action Fund Farm Action Fund is a national advocacy organization dedicated to building a fair, competitive, resilient, and healthy agricultural and food system that works…

blogforiowa.com

In March 2015, the International Association on Research on Cancer classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans.” iowaindependentnews.com/elections/as...

Rep. Ashley Hinson received thousands of dollars in PAC donations from maker of Roundup

The International Agency for Research on Cancer has labeled the product’s main ingredient ‘probably carcinogenic to humans’ since 2015.

iowaindependentnews.com

“Zero died because of DOGE," Elon Musk said in his interview with the Economist. This claim is utter nonsense and has been widely debunked. But Musk tried to back this up with additional dissembling that's just as bad. We took it on here: newrepublic.com/article/2135...