Two students were killed at Brown on Saturday, and while the Vice President has chosen to highlight Ella Cook for sharing his politics, first year student Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, of Virginia, is no less deserving of our sorrow and remembrance. Both losses are tragic

See, here’s how the GOP mind works: Mullin has “taken the risk” of being among the first to publicly defend the indefensible today. He correctly wagers that this is an opportunity for him to raise his stature in Trump’s eyes by showing there’s no bar too low for him to crawl

Robin Opsahl: Governor Kim Reynolds on December 15 ordered all flags in Iowa lowered in honor of Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard and Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, the two Iowa National Guard members killed in Syria over the weekend. bleedingheartland.com/2025/12/15/two…

You can listen to tonight's Iowa politics show right now on any podcast platform or smart speaker: "KHOI's Capitol Week" Tomorrow I'll send the audio w/a detailed written recap on my free email newsletter: "Iowa politics with Laura Belin"

🚨What this story leaves out: 1/FBI agents worried about probable cause for search in May/June 2022, BEFORE they obtained surveillance tapes showing Trump aides secretly removing boxes of records. 2/Senior FBI officials stated the tapes gave probable cause to justify the raid in

This is the bill #IA01 Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, M.D. introduced. It's the central part of her health care message now.

.Rep. Randy Feenstra #IA04 was in #Iowa for a few events related to his campaign for governor. Not sure why Ashley Hinson #IA02 was a no show. I can't tell from her social media where she was yesterday.

Four years ago today: Clark Kauffman, Randy Evans Randy Evans, and I sued Gov. Kim Reynolds and her office for violating Iowa's open records law. The case, brought by ACLU of Iowa, resulted in an important 2023 Iowa Supreme Court ruling known as Belin v. Reynolds. bleedingheartland.com/2021/12/16/wer…

Better late than never: finally finished pulling together my thoughts on last week's special election in Iowa House district 7. The outcome was almost a foregone conclusion. But I think we can still learn some things from the campaign: #Iowa #ialegis bleedingheartland.com/2025/12/16/fiv…

3 key GOP moderates now before the House Rules Committee on the expiring insurance subsidies under the Obama health law. L to R, Lawler R-NY, Fitzpatrick R-PA, and LaLota R-NY.

A deeply dangerous & blatantly retaliatory action by the Trump administration. NCAR is one of the most renowned scientific facilities in the WORLD — where scientists perform cutting-edge research everyday. We will fight this reckless directive with every legal tool we have.

It was another action-packed episode of “KHOI’s Capitol Week”! I always share a written recap as well as the audio file, because I know many of my subscribers would rather read than listen. Thanks, as always, to Spencer for keeping things moving. laurabelin.substack.com/p/divisions-am…

The judge so comically misinterprets the Glorious Revolution and the English Bill of Rights that I don't even know what to do. The settlement of 1689 did not end the disarmament of political dissenters —it enshrined it.

Rachel Burns just lost a special election in an Iowa House district so red that 70-30 was a Democratic overperformance! She's running again in 2026. I asked what she'd tell other Ds thinking about running in tough districts. In last part of this post: bleedingheartland.com/2025/12/16/fiv…

I was in the Speaker's Lobby when this happened. There was a giant wave of screams and shouts from Democrats in protest. Goldman was about to vote to make it 204-204, which would have defeated the previous question.

🚨🚨 This is INSANE. I took this screenshot of the FCC website at 11:52 a.m. ET where it explicitly states the FCC is an independent agency. 25 minutes later, it has been removed following Carr's comments during this hearing! See before and after screenshots below

I understand why Democrats are reluctant to call this behavior out — lest an actual “abuse of power” be equated with this — but why can only Republicans get away with this stuff? No exaggeration: There would be congressional investigations if a Democratic president did this.

I caught up with State Rep Jennifer Konfrst Jennifer Konfrst outside the Polk County Elections Office today, a few minutes after she voted early for Renee Hardman. The Iowa Senate district 16 special election is coming up on December 30. #ialegis youtube.com/shorts/KTgWPqS…

NEW: Jeffries' ACA strategy was mind-bogglingly simple — don't give GOP centrists an inch. It worked. "Our team should've put in the compromise. Now we're voting for the worse one," GOP Rep. Don Bacon fumed to Axios. "It's just sort of dumb." axios.com/2025/12/18/hak…

+ When did Congress approve such a plan? + Where is the money coming from? + How is it non-taxable? Did Congress vote to do that? I'm sure there must be specific bill text.