Episode 109: Democrats in Iowa Are on a Roll! FEMA Fights Back Against Trump. Top 5 Dad Phrases.

Podcast Segments:

* Iowa Coast to Coast (statewide news)

* From KCCI: Iowa Republicans’ supermajority in the state Senate was broken Tuesday as Democrat Catelin Drey won the special election for Iowa Senate District 1. Drey faced off against Republican Christopher Prosch in the election, which was called to fill the seat after Sen. Rocky De Witt, R-Lawton, passed away due to pancreatic cancer in June. According to preliminary results, Drey, a 37-year-old from Sioux City, won the election by 55% to Prosch’s 44%, according to unofficial results published by the Woodbury County Auditor’s Office. Iowa Democrats celebrated Drey’s victory, saying the Tuesday results — alongside results from other special elections this year — mark a turning point for the state party following several election cycles of overwhelming GOP victories. Another Iowa Senate seat was flipped from Republican to Democrat in January, when Sen. Mike Zimmer, D-DeWitt, defeated Republican Katie Whittington in the special election to replace Lt. Gov. Chris Cournoyer as she joined Gov. Kim Reynolds’ administration in December 2024.

* Cauc Talk (political news)

* FEMA is in bad shape - from the Washington Post: More than 180 Federal Emergency Management Agency employees sent a letter Monday to members of Congress and other officials, arguing that the agency’s direction and current leaders’ inexperience harm FEMA’s mission and could result in a disaster on the level of Hurricane Katrina. The letter, on which three dozen employees signed their full names, says that since January, staffers have been operating under leaders — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem, acting FEMA administrator David Richardson and former leader Cameron Hamilton — who lack the legal qualifications and authority to manage FEMA’s operations. This has eroded and hindered the agency’s ability to effectively manage emergencies and other operations, including national security work, the letter says. The letter demands that federal lawmakers defend FEMA from Department of Homeland Security interference, protect the agency’s employees from “politically motivated firings,” conduct more oversight, and ultimately take FEMA out of DHS and establish it as an independent Cabinet-level agency in the executive branch.

* Trump vs. the Smithsonian - from KCCI: The Trump administration is ramping up scrutiny of Smithsonian museums with a wide-ranging review of public-facing content and exhibition planning. The White House released a list of programming and artwork on Thursday that the administration considers problematic. It followed a social media post from President Donald Trump that fueled concerns that the administration is attempting to "sanitize history." "The Museums throughout Washington, but all over the Country are, essentially, the last remaining segment of “WOKE," Trump wrote on Tuesday. "The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future." "I don’t understand how telling the truth can be too woke or too bad," said Shamika Patterson, who visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture on Friday. "It’s our truth as African Americans, and it needs to be said."

* Wider Scope

* Brain implants may tell secrets - from NPR: Surgically implanted devices that allow paralyzed people to speak can also eavesdrop on their inner monologue. That's the conclusion of a study of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) in the journal Cell. The finding could lead to BCIs that allow paralyzed users to produce synthesized speech more quickly and with less effort. But the idea that new technology can decode a person's inner voice is "unsettling," says Nita Farahany, a professor of law and philosophy at