IowaWatch (https://www.iowawatch.org/tag/iowawatch-connection/)
In-depth reporting on health and government topics requires a large investment of resources and time by journalists. We talk with three Iowa journalists about work they did behind the scenes for important stories.
Michael Gartner received the Pulitzer Prize in editorial writing in 1997 for editorials published in The Daily Tribune in Ames. He was co-owner and editor of the newspaper at the time. The Pulitzer board praised his “common sense editorials” for covering “issues deeply affecting the lives of people in his community,” including local issues ranging from ordinances controlling where signs could be placed to a proposed lap dancing law.
A big money gap marked the U.S. Senate race between incumbent Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley and his Democrat challenger Patty Judge, according to the latest campaign disclosure reports available earlier this week at the time of production. Grassley’s campaign had $5.2 million on hand back in May, 22 times more than Judge, who had $229,000 as of June 30. Add to that $59,300 in bills that Judge’s campaign owed at that time.
Forty-four people die everyday in the U.S. from overdose of prescription pain killers, according to statistics provided by the U.S. Attorney’s office. Annually those overdose deaths exceed motor vehicle or firearms deaths. Iowa communities are working to address addiction issues, but for some those efforts are too late.
The federal Americans with Disabilities Act is intended to help people access public facilities, but an IowaWatch investigation shows most of our schools are not in compliance with the law.
One split second captured in a photograph defined the dramatic rescue of Patricia Ralph-Neely below Des Moines’ Center Street Dam on June 30, 2009.
A dramatic rescue at a Des Moines dam in 2009 resulted in a Pulitzer Prize for a Des Moines Register photographer. But there’s more to the story.
Iowa’s senior citizens face a number of challenges, from resisting those who want to take advantage of them to making proper plans for passing down the family farm or planning for long term care.
College traditionally is considered a place where open speech and expression are learning tools, taking students deeper into issues. But does a line exist where speech on campus goes too far? This podcast is part of an IowaWatch college media journalism project in which 14 college student journalists spoke to students, faculty and administrators on six Iowa campuses to discuss whether or not limits exist, or should exist, for speech and expression on campus.
There was a time when Chuck Grassley simply was known as a senator from Iowa. Now, following the death of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and President Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland, Americans in all 50 states want a piece of the senator.