Days after cities across the nation held protests decrying the Trump administration, local leaders look to advance the momentum beyond one day of protest. More than 2,600 protests took place in all 50 states, including Washington, D.C., and Iowa City, in a day of protests known as “No Kings.”
Finch VanDyk, an organizer with Indivisible Johnson County — the local branch of Indivisible, a national nonprofit coalition of political action groups that was one of many organizations that put together “No Kings” — said it is imperative to extend efforts outside of just one day of dissent.
“The nation is tired of [the Trump administration], and they’re willing to get out in the streets and do it, and they’re willing to do it peacefully, which is huge, because the regime doesn’t know how to fight back against peace,” VanDyk said.
Many major cities reported zero arrests and Iowa City had no incidents or arrests. VanDyk said the peacefulness of “No Kings” shows the protests are a “temperature check on the nation,” and exemplifies how
CALL FOR NO KINGS
upset people are with the Trump administration.
VanDyk said the movement will use the energy built from the protests and channel it on the local level by continuing to host meetings, pop up protests, and providing signs to local businesses.
“We are focusing on what are the pillars in Johnson County that hold fascism up, and how can we erode those here, where we are,” VanDyk said.
The Daily Iowan was on the ground at protests in Iowa City and Washington, D.C.
Millions of people marched in cities across the U.S., expressing discontent with President Donald Trump. Over 7 million people participated in the nationwide protest, according to the “No Kings” website. The national protest was the second “No Kings” demonstration, the first was held on June 14.
The protests follow the government shutdown, immigration raids, and Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard in cities across the country, including Washington, D.C.
Thousands of Iowa City community members and University of Iowa students denounced Trump’s actions
IMU celebrates past, faces future
The Iowa Memorial Union on the University of Iowa campus is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, but the building faculty and students are commemorating will look a lot different in just two years’ time. After debate over the design and funding process, the Iowa Board of Regents approved an $81.4 million plan to renovate 120,000 of the historic building’s 326,729 square feet in April.
The project is part of the university’s 10 Year Master Plan to “modernize and improve campus,” according to UI Facilities Management.
Construction began just before the 2025-26 academic year. Phase one of the project is expected to finish in August 2026, with the second and final phase completed by August 2027, Bill Nelson, associate dean and executive director of the IMU, said. This renovation project will mark the fifth time the IMU has been renovated, with addi-
tions and refurbishments made in 1927, 1955, 1965, and 1988, excluding the seven-year restoration project after the 2008 flood. That project cost $21.6 million, according to the university.
The $81.4 million price tag is comparable to a UI project completed eight years ago — Catlett Residence Hall, a modern, sleek student housing option on the campus’ east side, built from the ground up. The price on the project was $80 million, according to Design Engineers MEP, the design firm behind the construc-
tion. At capacity, it can house 1,049 students.
Just a year ago, the university was examining its options to add a new residence hall on the east side of the UI campus. However, it rejected the idea and decided to continue operating Mayflower Residence Hall, and the university is going full-throttle on the IMU’s renovation.
Nelson said the university has three main pillars it hopes to develop and improve upon for the renovations: interior and exterior appearance, student and faculty circulation, and well-being.
The first phase consists of gutting the fourth-floor Iowa House Hotel, which closed in February after 60 years. The entire space is torn “down to the studs,” Nelson said.
One challenge crews encountered while tearing down the hotel was removing the old 400pound cast-iron bathtubs, Nelson said. But progress is otherwise going as scheduled.
He said the space will become a center focused on well-being and student support by holding services such as Student Life, Student Accountability, and Finance offices, as well as for student organizations like Fraternity and Sorority Life.
Several staple UI functions that already exist in the union will relocate elsewhere in the
such as haircuts and shampoo, in the past couple of years, which has infl uenced how much people are buying. She said the salon tries to stick to a consistent price range, of $45 to $100 for haircuts to keep clients happy and loyal. But the rising costs on
and
Protesters sang, chanted “No ICE, no kings,” and gave speeches on the Pentacrest before marching downtown.
Wearing her dad’s World War II army jacket, Iowa Sen. Janice Weiner, D-Iowa City, told the crowd it is “American as apple pie to stand up to would-be dictators and kings.”
There were roughly 50 ‘No Kings’ protests across Iowa Saturday, Weiner said.
“In towns large and small, red and blue, because we are all American and we all appreciate our freedoms,” she said.
Weiner led the crowd in singing “This Land is Your Land” by Woody Guthrie.
Iowa Rep. Adam Zabner, D-Iowa City, pointed to the public detainment of Iowa City resident Jorge Elieser González Ochoa as the beginnings of an attack on democracy.
González Ochoa was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on Sept. 25 in Bread Garden Market in downtown Iowa City.
Zabner also said Trump’s higher education compact is an attack on academic freedom. The compact requires schools to freeze tuition for five years, alter admissions processes for international students, and conduct an annual poll of campus communities on their compliance with the compact.
“These actions are designed to make Trump seem all powerful,” Zabner said. “They’re designed to make us feel scared. They’re designed to tell a story where no one can stop Donald Trump. There is another story. ” Following more speeches from local leaders, protesters marched through downtown Iowa City.
Rather than a protest, John Macatee, a retired physician in Iowa City, described “No Kings” as a day to “celebrate being an American” and exercise free speech.
“We do not need a king,” Macatee said. “The Trump regime is trampling our human rights, our rights as U.S. citizens, and causing mayhem and suffering for not only the U.S. but the world.”
He opposes Trump’s decision to cut off foreign aid, immigration raids, and cuts to funding for the National Institute of Health.
“I hope more people stand up, speak out and express their rights as American citizens — democracy dies in darkness,” he said. “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.”
“No Kings” in Washington, D.C.
Marching on the National Mall, hundreds of thousands of protesters filled Pennsylvania Avenue near the U.S. Capitol, many holding signs reading “No Kings, no fascists, no billionaires.”
Kourtney Thompson, 23, of Maryland, said the national reach of the “No Kings” movement shows
how upset people are with the current administration.
“Everything that’s happening is going directly against what I’ve been learning about,” the law student said. “I do not support this presidency at all. This isn’t democracy anymore.”
Upward of 200 national organizations and thousands of local advocacy groups make up the coalition behind “No Kings.”
In Washington, D.C., the day of protests started with smaller demonstrations held earlier in the morning around the city.
Roughly 1,000 protesters gathered outside the Franklin D. Reeves Municipal Center Saturday morning. With traffic closed off, attendees streamed onto the streets. Dubbed “Remove the Regime,” the protest drew in people from around the country.
Elyse DeGroot and Bob McGowan, of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, hopped on a 6 a.m. flight to participate in Saturday’s protests in the nation’s capital.
DeGroot pointed to the ice sculpture of the word “democracy” appearing on the National Mall on Oct. 15 as a symbol of how she feels about the current administration.
“It’s melting, and it’s disappearing, and that’s how I feel,” she said. “We are feeling like democracy is disappearing.” McGowan works as a physician and said the Trump administration is “undercutting everything about health care in this country, systematically taking apart what has taken decades to build.”
Nadine Seiler ventured 45 minutes from Waldorf, Maryland, to express her discontent with the current administration. Disappointed with the turnout of over 1,000 people, Seiler said the U.S. isn’t reacting with the “necessary gravity” to the Trump administration.
Seiler is no stranger to protest. She traveled to the Republican National Convention in July 2024
Letters of Love sees growth at UI
The nonprofit organization is spreading kindness through handwritten
Madelyn Johnson News Reporter news@dailyiowan.com
At its most recent meeting, the University of Iowa Letters of Love chapter hosted over 600 students working to combat patients’ feelings of isolation by writing heartfelt messages. Three hundred of the students were first-years, a significant increase from the 25 to 30 students per meeting seen in previous years.
Letters of Love is a nonprofit organization providing emotional support for patients in children’s hospitals across the world by creating and writing cards. The UI chapter of Letters of Love was established in 2022 and is one of 284 active chapters across the country, according to the club’s website. Letters of Love meets once a month, writing cards filled with encouragement,
to protest the GOP’s nomination of Trump for president.
“I have tried my best to warn people what’s happening, and if they continue with this tepid, flaccid participation, this country is going to be taken over by fascists,” Seiler said.
Donna Glann-Smyth traveled from her home state of Florida to join in the protest. As a veteran, she said Trump’s use of the military is destroying the U.S.’s reputation.
“He’s controlling the military that I was in,” she said. “I don’t even know what’s going on. I feel like I’m insane, or the whole world is insane.”
She served for nine years, along with her husband, father, and son. She said Trump has “no idea what to do with power except hurt people.”
With “Immigrants Make America Great” printed on her shirt, 26-year-old Franchezka Mendoza, of Baltimore, Maryland, attended Saturday morning’s protest for her family. She said Latinos are being unfairly criminalized and targeted by the Trump administration.
As of mid-September, over 58,000 adults have been detained by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, according to data from the agency. Trump promised to enact the largest mass deportation effort in history during his bid for a second term.
“I’m here on behalf of my grandfather, my grandma, all my family members who are scared to be here,” she said. “I’m a citizen, and I’m going to use my right, and I’m going to speak for the people whose voices are being hushed.”
Rolling out a massive banner of the U.S. Constitution onto the street, the group marched from the municipal center to the larger protest near the National Mall. Holding signs, banging buckets, and yelling chants such as “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA,” the crowd walked over a mile.
love, and support. When the club first began, its membership was much smaller than it is today.
“It used to be amazing if we could fill up the third row [of the auditorium we meet in], which is roughly 20 to 30 people,” Hailey Gojkovich, UI second-year and vice president of marketing for the organization, said. “At our first meeting of this school year, we had over 600 people come, and we filled up the entire auditorium.”
Gojkovich said the growth in numbers is crucial for the club’s success.
“Getting to see the growth that way and getting to spread the word, especially to incoming first-years, has been awesome,” Gojkovich said.
For first-years, the club has been a way to build connections at their school and
The Daily Iowan strives for accuracy and fairness in reporting news. If we’ve made an error or a report is misleading, let us know about it: news@dailyiowan.com.
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President and Publisher Jason Brummond jason.brummond@dailyiowan.com 319-335-5788
Saturday’s nationwide “No Kings” demonstrations were estimated to be the second largest single-day protest in U.S. history. Backdropped by the U.S. Capitol building, the massive protest thrummed with overlapping chants, music, and speakers on a mainstage.
The enormous crowd flooded Pennsylvania Avenue, many wearing yellow, a color chosen by “No Kings” to represent the movement. Locals at the protest denounced the deployment of the National Guard in their city. Trump issued an executive order on Aug. 11 directing over 2,000 National Guard members from D.C. and other states to mobilize in the nation’s capital.
Wearing a bright yellow bandana with a crossed-out crown wrapped around her head and a “Free D.C.” T-shirt, local Sharon O’Donnell said U.S. police and military are being “misused, abused, and mistreated.”
“The fact that our nation now hates these organizations brings tears to my eyes,” she said. Maggie Maloney, of Washington, D.C., said the National Guard doesn’t want to be in the city any more than residents want them there.
“Taxpayer money should not be used to fund the deployment of the National Guard,” Maloney said.
In 2020, Trump deployed more than 5,000 National Guard personnel in the nation’s capital during the George Floyd protests, and U.S. officials told Reuters the deployment cost roughly $530 per guard member per day.
“There’s no reason,” Maloney said. “D.C. was fine before them. We’ll be fine when they leave.”
Piper Goodrich contributed to this report.
give back to the community.
During its first meeting of the year, first-years and returning members alike wrote upwards of 2,000 cards for patients.
“I saw a bunch of people come together to make these cards, and I thought it was really special,” Reena Photopoulos, UI first-year and member of the organization, said. “Everyone was really taking their time and thinking about what they were writing.”
Colorful markers and stacks of paper line the tables as students brainstorm cheerful messages and doodle bright designs.
After meetings, the cards get boxed up and sent to hospitals around the world, including the local UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital.
In total, Letters of Love has produced 425,000 cards at the national level and sent cards to over 18 countries, according to its website.
“Knowing someone is going to see this and it will hopefully make their day a little better is so special,” Photopoulos said.
For participants like Photopoulos, the impact goes both ways. While the cards are sent out to
bring joy, the process itself creates a strong sense of community among those making them.
“It made me feel good helping someone, and it is so inspiring to see people here making a difference,” Photopoulos said.
When Elizabeth Hernandez set foot on the UI campus for the first time, the thought of becoming a club president felt almost impossible.
The campus was large and intimidating, and Hernandez was on the hunt for ways to get involved at Iowa. This was when Letters of Love first came into her life, setting the stage for a transformation that would shape her college experience.
“Letters of Love became a space for me to become unapologetically my self and a place for me to really explore who I am as a person,” Hernandez said.
“One of my goals for every single person in the club is to get comfortable telling someone they love them,” Hernandez said. “The ‘why’ that we have for this organization is to write more letters and spread more love.”
Elise Gan elise.gan@dailyiowan.com
DITV Arts & Culture Director Grace Lathrop grace.lathrop@dailyiowan.com
DITV Tech Director Jasper Murphy jasper.murphy@dailyiowan.com BUSINESS
Gabby Drees | The Daily Iowan
A protester waves an American flag during a “No Kings” protest in downtown Iowa City on Oct. 18. The Iowa City demonstration is part of protests taking place nationwide against President Donald Trump and his administration.
cards.
Ava Neumaier | The Daily Iowan
during a meeting in Tippie College
on
building, such as UI Counseling Services, which will be housed on the second floor. Student Health will relocate from Westlawn to the third floor of the IMU after completion, he said.
“I’m really pleased about that [the addition of student health and relocation of existing UI functions], in terms of how that will reenergize and revitalize our relationship with student organizations in general because of the larger space and the ability to serve more students,” he said.
Aesthetic changes, primarily modernizing the building with floor-toceiling windows around the building’s southeast corner and interior decorative redesigns, will appeal much more to students.
This will include the university reutilizing the union’s south parking lot.
Circulation is the other issue, with the project breaking through several interior walls to create direct pathways throughout the building and a grand staircase at the main entrance to allow movement between each floor.
Moving from floor-to-floor in the building necessitates traveling between different sets of stairs and elevators, an accessibility issue Nelson said the university wants to improve.
The second phase will focus on those remaining structural and circulation changes. Services located in the building will continue to shift as construction is underway, with functions like the Academic Resource Center, home of the UI’s Supplemental Instruction, having relocated permanently from the building to the UI Main Library, Nelson said.
The South Room, a meeting space, and a historic part of the building, will be completely replaced as part of the main hallway expansion.
Student fees are the primary means of funding for the project, responsible for accumulating around $75 million of the $81.4 million project total, Nelson said.
The fee, specifically, is $120 per semester for undergraduate students
and $100 per semester for graduate students, amounting to roughly $5.6 million and $1.2 million from undergrads and post-grads, respectively, in 2025-26, based on current student enrollment.
According to the university, there are 23,407 undergraduate students and 6,269 graduate students enrolled for the 2025-26 academic year.
The remaining $6.4 million, Nelson said, will come in from Student Health Reserves and donor funds. Next month, Nelson and the Executive Director of Development for the UI Center for Advancement, Britt Bergquist, are traveling to Washington, D.C., to do outreach with student government alumni to see if named, gifted spaces are possible.
Nelson said the university has identified eight spaces within the building that could be gifted. Securing those donations would mean existing dollars could be reallocated to other parts of the project.
UI second-year student Lee Nienhaus said she is happy to pay the additional fee for the improved campus experience. She works at KRUI, the university’s student radio station, and, from her time in the union, said the union’s halls are usually empty.
“I feel like having this sort of revival of the facility is going to bring about a lot of students using it more often,” she said.
“I feel like a lot of people use it as a study space because it’s so quiet.”
For the time being, the project’s design and construction will be funded by bonds, leaving the university in debt, according to Iowa Board of Regents meeting documents from June.
According to Board of Regents documents, the average time to maturity for the issued bonds is 15.3 years.
The regents delayed approval of the project in February, citing possible federal funding difficulties. At that meeting, UI Senior Vice President for Finance and Operations Rod Lehnertz said he was confident the university could fund the project beyond tenuous federal dollars.
The student fee aspect was initially
confirmed in 2023 by the university and the regents. On campus, that discussion and outreach was led by the Undergraduate Student Government and the Graduate and Professional Student Government.
USG President Thomas Knudsen said as the project entered its planning phases in 2022 and 2023, USG held a variety of roundtables and student outreach events to gather campus sentiment towards the building and identify important points for the project.
“We got a big opportunity to share USG feedback but also leadership feedback across campus,” Knudsen said.
“And so [Fraternity and Sorority Life] got the opportunity to be there, Housing and Dining, the whole nine yards.”
Knudsen also said USG and GPSG functions would not be disrupted amid the construction, adding the two bodies are actively involved in overseeing small project details pertaining specifically to student life.
Nationally-branded food vendors
can be up to $10 more expensive, caused by tariffs have made consistency Products the salon relies on, like hair color, shampoos, and styling tools, have become more expensive. A 250 mL shampoo bottle now costs $37 retail, creating new challenges for both the business and its customers. “Clients aren’t too surprised when they come in and [refill] on the shampoo they already use,” DeMartino said. “But with the price increases, I do feel like a lot of it came from material sourcDiscussing the financial realities of the situation has been a tough but necessary part “It’s a little jarring to have to sit down with my [sales] reps and be like, ‘I’m scared they [customers] can’t afford it.’ It’s just as simple DeMartino said despite the quality of the products, the price isn’t always justifiable, “These products are really good — they speak for themselves,” she said. “But I’ve had people come in, love a product, and then hear it’s $40 and say, ‘Never mind.’ There’s just this dissonance between how much people value quality and what they can Thompson and Co. Salon and Parlor on Washington Street said they have not seen many price increases as their suppliers eat the costs of their imported products, taking on the finan-
are included in the discussion, though Nelson said brand contracts are not yet finalized and specific brands could not be referenced outside of Godfather’s Pizza, which will continue its existing contract.
Union Station Dining on the building’s bottom floor, for example, will be replaced by a national brand, as well as other spaces within the building.
Knudsen said USG and GPSG hosted a taste test event to gauge student preferences for nationally branded vendors as another method of collecting campus input for the renovations.
“Not a lot of schools do that, and I’m proud that we did it that way,” Nelson said.
The increased access, ease of experience, and modernization of the building to improve student life are all things Nelson said he hopes to establish as the building continues construction through 2027.
“I can’t even tell you how thrilled I am about possibilities for this building,” he said.
cial burden of expenses instead of passing them on.
“Luckily for us, the only thing we would have an increase on is the hair extensions that we buy, as they all come from Canada,” Thompson and Co. Salon and Parlor Manager Lauren Marck said.
“It’s not something that has majorly affected us, but we’re hoping it’s going to stay that way for the future. We would rather eat those costs than make our guests take it.” Salons, however, aren’t the only health, wellness, and beauty businesses seeing tariff-related price increases.
Monica Ferguson, owner of CIELO, a clothing store located on the Pedestrian Mall, said everything in her store, from merchandise bags to the blank apparel they purchase, have gone up in price due to tariffs, which creates a wider gap between large chain stores and local businesses.
“People already pay more to shop with us, and further increasing prices makes our sustainability extremely difficult,” she said. “The margins I had years ago are gone.” Ferguson added she is interested in bringing CIELO’s local manufacturing back to Iowa and running a wholesale operation in which the business buy goods in large quantities from manufacturers and sells them in bulk to retailers or other businesses rather than selling them directly to consumers in order to combat price increases.
“I ran a huge wholesale operation during COVID-19, and although prices for raw materials like fabric are higher, I am passionate about creating my comfort products again,” she said.
More than 2,600 protests across all 50 states Trump administration. the second “No Kings”
Photos by
(Top left) in downtown Iowa City. The Iowa City demonstration is part of protests taking place nationwide. poses for a portrait during a “No Kings” protest in downtown Iowa City. Nearly 7 million people nationwide participated in the protest.
Right) Protestors wear the heads of political figures during a “No Kings” demonstration in Washington, D.C. walk down Washington Street during a “No Kings” protest in downtown Iowa City. against the Trump administration, ICE raids, and National Guard deployments across major U.S. cities. a “No Kings” demonstration on Pennsylvania Avenue and 3rd Street in Washington, D.C. There were multiple speakers that attended, including Bernie Sanders and Chris Murphy. (Center Right) Gerima speaks during a “No Kings” demonstration in Washington, D.C.
(Above) A protestor walks back to the Pentacrest while holding a sign during a “No Kings” protest in downtown Iowa City. Attendees listened to a variety of speakers, including Iowa Rep. Adam Zabner, Iowa Sen., Janice Weiner, and Escucha Mi Voz community organizer Alejandra Escobar.
(Right) Protestors dressed up as handmaids from “The Handmaid’s Tale” hold signs during a “No Kings” protest in downtown Iowa City. The first “No Kings” protest was on June 14, with an estimated 5 million people participating in towns and cities across the U.S. Attendees hold a large banner of the U.S. Constitution during a No Kings demonstration on Pennsylvania Ave. & 3rd St. in Washington, D.C. Federal employees, current and former, marched on what was Day 18 of the government shutdown. (Bottom Right) signs in front of the U.S. Capitol during a “No Kings” demonstration in Washington, D.C. Organizers estimate that there were 200,000 protesters.
KINGS’
protests took place states to condemn the administration. The protest was Kings” demonstration.
Planned Parenthood closures limit access
Genevieve DiChiara Assistant News and Politics Editor genevieve.dichiara@dailyiowan.com
Following the closure of four Planned Parenthood clinics in Iowa, access to reproductive health care — which was strained due to an existing OBGYN shortage in the state — is becoming increasingly limited.
The closures follow the elimination of federal dollars flowing to Planned Parenthood providers nationwide who offer family planning services, sexual health screenings and treatment, gender affirming care, abortion services, and other sexual health services.
President Donald Trump froze federal funding to Planned Parenthood earlier this year, a wishlist item for conservative Republicans who disagree with providing federal funding to organizations that also provide abortion care, though federal dollars don’t pay for abortion care.
On Sept. 11, the First Circuit allowed the Trump administration to block Medicaid patients from using their insurance at Planned Parenthood health centers nationwide, effectively defunding Planned Parenthood North Central States, or PPNCS, including Iowa, among other Planned Parenthood providers.
This decision comes after Trump signed his “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” into law on July 4, which enacted a massive reconciliation package enforcing trillions in spending cuts to pay for tax cuts.
After the Trump administration announced plans to temporarily freeze and review federal funding for Planned Parenthood and its affiliates, U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, renewed her effort to pass the Protect Funding for Women’s Health Care Act.
“I am adamantly pro-life and would much rather see the dollars go to actual women’s health care,” Ernst said in an interview with The Daily Iowan on April 7.
The bill would permanently block federal tax dollars from going to Planned Parenthood or any of its related organizations or clinics.
“I am committed to defending the most vulnerable among us,” Ernst said
in a March 27 news release. “That’s why I will always stand up to protect taxpayer dollars from funding any organization that takes the life of an unborn child. I’m glad the Trump administration is working to end the left’s radical abortion-on-demand agenda.”
The four locations that have closed are in Cedar Rapids, Sioux City, Urbandale, and Ames — leaving two locations available for health care resources: Iowa City and Des Moines.
According to the Iowa Rural Health Association, more than a third of Iowa’s counties are considered a maternal health desert, meaning they have no hospital or birth center offering obstetric services and no obstetric providers.
roughly 2.8 million people in 2023, twothirds of whom had incomes at or below the federal poverty level, and nearly onethird lacking health insurance.
The program was created in 1970 to provide low-or no-cost birth control and reproductive health care to low-income individuals, and was created with bipartisan support, the webpage stated.
“The program was designed to ensure quality family planning is available to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay,” the webpage said.
Title X services include birth control, cervical and breast cancer screenings, family planning education, basic infertility services, STI testing and treatment, and wellness exams.
Hopefully [I can] explain and communicate the truth that I wished I had back then.”
Kristi Judkins Executive Director of Iowa Right to Life
Obstetric services are a medical specialty focusing on the care of women during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period.
“Iowa Republicans continue to prioritize legislation that drives physicians away from our state,” Iowa D emocrats Chair Rita Hart said in a statement to the DI. “We cannot afford to lose more providers.”
According to a news release from Planned Parenthood, these closures leave 15 health centers within the North Central States, along with virtual care that is available seven days a week and serves almost 20,000 patients a year as of May 2025.
Title X funding freeze jeopardizes care
In April, Planned Parenthood North Central States was notified of a freeze of $2.8 million in Title X funding.
According to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund webpage, Title X served
Access to maternity health care in Iowa counties in 2024
Around half of Iowa’s counties have moderate to low maternity health care.
In some cases, people who get services through the program don’t even know Title X exists, the webpage said.
The program requires health care providers to use a sliding-fee scale — a system where the cost of a product or service is based on a person’s income and household size.
Patients with income levels at or below 100 percent of the federal poverty level qualify for free reproductive health services.
The Iowa Rural Health Association said even in regions with some health care access, issues like workforce shortages, limited transportation, and a lack of specialty care can delay or block patients from receiving necessary treatment.
In a statement to The Daily Iowan, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States, Ruth Richardson, said for more than 90 years, Planned Parenthood has served as a key provider of Title X services in Iowa.
“While the federal government has currently blocked patients from using Medicaid to access our care, we will continue to serve everyone who turns to us, regardless of their insurance status, and work with patients to understand their payment options.” Richardson said. “At Planned Parenthood we continue to fight for us all.”
In 2024, Medicaid helped 27,000 PPNCS patients receive more than 300,000 birth control options, 2,500 long-acting reversible contraceptives, 70,000 STI tests, and 1,000 cervical cancer screenings, according to Planned Parenthood’s website.
Richardson said, despite ongoing attacks on reproductive rights, “our patients remain our top priority.”
Recent investments include expanding the Des Moines Health Center to double its capacity, broadening virtual care access statewide, and ensuring abortion services are available in both Des Moines and Iowa City.
Although federal restrictions currently prevent Medicaid patients from using their coverage, Planned Parenthood emphasized its commitment to serve everyone who seeks care, reaffirming “Iowans deserve accessible health care no matter their race, income, gender identity, or zip code.”
Planned Parenthood advocates of Iowa said Iowa politicians have greatly reduced access to sexual and reproductive health care, including passing a near-total
abortion ban.
Planned Parenthood, nationally, will continue to “proudly provide” the full range of reproductive health care, including abortion.
“There is not now, and has never been, a plan to stop providing abortion care in the hopes of preserving federal funding. Providing abortion care everywhere it’s still legal is not up for negotiation,” Planned Parenthood said in a news release.
Under the present federal administration and Congress, the attacks are worsening.
Planned Parenthood said the attack is targeted because, among other things, Planned Parenthood advocates for sexual and reproductive rights and Planned Parenthood health centers provide abortion care where it is legal.”
In 2024, the state’s “fetal heartbeat” law does not violate the state constitution. The law bans abortion after around six weeks of pregnancy.
According to The State Court Report, the “fetal heartbeat” law addresses a 2023 law prohibiting abortion when there is a “detectable fetal heartbeat.”
According to a Planned Parenthood release, six months after the b an, the number of abortions in Iowa dropped 60 percent while Iowans traveling to Nebraska and Minnesota increased 239 percent.
Pro-life advocates say closures are “a great thing”
Maggie DeWitte, executive director of Pulse Life Advocates, said she views the recent Planned Parenthood closures as “a great thing” and said “the state of Iowa does not need abortion clinics.” DeWitte said women can receive quality, comprehensive medical care from the nearly 55 pregnancy resource centers located across the state.
“We don’t believe abortion is health care,” DeWitte said. She said the pregnancy resource centers “are providing all of the same services Planned Parenthood provides without the devastating service of abortion.”
Kristi Judkins, executive director of Iowa Right to Life, said she believes the closures are the result of major political shifts reshaping reproductive health care in Iowa and nationwide. Judkins said many pregnancy resource centers have expanded to meet women’s needs across the state.
“Those clinics are largely supported in their communities by individuals, groups, [and] companies that believe there is a support system that needs to be in place,” she said. “As pro-lifers, we have to put our money where our mouth is.”
Judkins said her personal experience with abortion shaped her perspective and the compassion she brings to her work.
“[It] was a decision made prior to my husband and I getting married,” she said. “What I didn’t know then is the one thing I know now — fetal development and understanding and appreciating the development of the unborn child within the womb.”
She said after her abortion, she experienced suicidal tendencies and depression, but through faith and post-abortion healing ministries, she came to terms and grieved the memory of the child she gave up to abortion.
Now, Judkins said her goal is to meet others with empathy.
“Hopefully [I can] explain and communicate the truth that I wished I had back then,” Judkins said.
The Planned Parenthood-Iowa City Health Center is seen in Iowa City at 850 Orchard St. This location is one of two Planned Parenthood locations open in the state, following the closure of four clinics.
OPINIONS
Pros and cons of pet adoption
Columnists debate adopting a pet and emotional support animals in college.
Sammy and Jedi were raised from kittens alongside me and my brother, but became so emaciated as a consequence of my parents’ binge drinking they had to be put down. I wasn’t told of their fate until years later.
When I was told, I thought back to how Jedi used to let me lay my head on him like a pillow when I was afraid. Sammy, the eldest kitten, would come and check on us anytime we cried — drying our tears with his cow-like, patterned fur.
They were the foundation of my love for animals, and they deserved better; they deserved to be cared for properly. Instead of a good home, they were given to two very damaged drunkards and children so small they couldn’t reach for the cat food.
owner needs to be more rigorous beyond just 30 days.
People need to reflect on whether they can take care of an animal. Getting a pet won’t solve all your woes; instead, it might add a new facet of stress to your life. According to Human Animal Support Services data compiled by Heather Kalman and Angela Gates in 2023, 9,210 animals out of 313,518 intakes were returned.
Young adopters should be required to attend at least a few short training programs before or after adopting an animal so they can learn how to care for the animal properly and understand what they’re signing up for.
Currently, training programs aren’t mandated under Iowa law but should be required by adoption centers before anyone under 21, at least, is allowed to adopt. According to the American Rescue League of Iowa, the legal age to adopt is 18 years old.
A background check would have revealed the troubled history of the family they were going to. In fact, we managed to go through several more animals after that. They didn’t die but were often given away after a particularly bad relapse.
It is beyond wishful thinking to assume everyone can be a good pet owner. We accept the fact not everybody can be a parent of a human child, so not everyone should be allowed to adopt a pet. Precautions should especially be considered for college students.
The process of getting an emotional support animal, or ESA, letter is simple. One has to establish a relationship with a therapist for 30 days to ask them to write you an ESA letter, according to Iowa Senate File 2268.
I’m not here to argue against ESAs entirely, but the process of vetting an
Caring for a living creature is just not for everyone; it’s truly not for most people, especially young, busy college students. Men outnumber women 4-to-1 in almost all types of animal abuse, according to a 2024 study by Mandy Sleight in USA Today. This information is also supported in a study by the International Association of Human-Animal Interaction Organizations stating nonsexual abuse of animals is more likely to occur in men between 20 and 35 years old.
USA Today also reported neglect as the most common type of animal cruelty. When my two cats were put down, they had been starved for so long their ribs poked through their leathery skin. It’s a horrific image I won’t forget.
College students are more likely to neglect their pets with busy lives and a limited budget, so they need to ask themselves if they have the time and resources to care for a living and emotional creature. If there’s even a shred of doubt in your mind, stick with a pet fish.
I can’t recall the number of times my dog, Luna, was able to pull me out of a funk when my mother couldn’t. But I know it was a lot. It more or less goes the same every time. It’s always in the evening, when the weight of the world comes crashing down on me, whether it be body image, the inability to live up to wild self-set expectations, a bad grade, or relationship problems. No matter the cause, my anxiety and depression can spin anything into a consuming void of emotion.
My mom will try to comfort me while I sob and shake, offering comforting words and logic I’m blind to. But then she suggests I see Luna. Or maybe Luna walks into my room to check on us. Suddenly, I’m no longer paralyzed and able to pull myself out of bed to sit with her on the floor.
obtaining a furry friend.
“I brought my cat Matilda, or Tilly, with me to school this year, and she has helped me tremendously. She’s my little piece of home while at school, which brings me comfort and in turn helps keep my anxiety at bay,” University of Iowa second-year Brooklyn McLaughlin said.
Just five to 20 minutes with an animal can lower the stress hormone, cortisol, while increasing oxytocin, the feel-good “love hormone,” according to a study conducted by Jillian Teo in the International Journal }of Psychophysiology.
Furthermore, someone willing to go through the time to set up and attend therapy sessions is already on the right path to aiding their mental health, and I don’t think just anyone would be willing to go through the effort just for a pet.
She’ll kiss away my tears with her nose and let me hug her as long as I need. She asks for nothing in return, doesn’t say anything — at least in any language we understand — and yet she is often the only one able to bring me down from the height of irrational emotions. Sometimes I’ll fall asleep on the floor with her when all the emotional turmoil has rendered me exhausted. There’s something transcendental about the ability of animals to care for and comfort their owners.
Emotional support animals are beneficial and necessary, especially for college students who may be struggling with all the same problems consuming me. College is stressful enough on its own, let alone with the implications of adulthood, relationships, and economic concerns. Restricting access to ESAs risks preventing someone who could truly benefit from emotional support from
Some days, I struggle to get out of bed. The task of brushing my teeth often lords over me. It’s difficult to care for myself. But when another living thing depends on you, it seems like less of a chore to take care of them and yourself.
A dog will let you know when she needs a walk. A cat will come find you when it’s time for dinner. And while you’re up and moving around, you might as well eat something or take a shower. Not everyone is fit to care for a living thing, and it’s important to recognize our own limits may hinder pet care. It’s important to determine whether you are completely disabled by the effects of a mental health condition; a pet will not stop this.
“If someone wants to get an ESA, they know what they need and what they can handle, so we should support and accommodate them,” McLaughlin said.
Ultimately, the choice to care for a living thing is a nuanced thing that should be considered carefully.
Perhaps stronger vetting of potential owners could be helpful to help keep animals free of abuse and neglect, but we must be careful in the vetting process not to bar those who truly need the emotional support and companionship of a four-legged friend.
Best ways to combat ‘gymtimidation’
Introverts can have a hard time at the gym, but that doesn’t need to be the case.
As you enter the University of Iowa’s Campus Recreation and Wellness Center, or CRWC, you’re greeted with a 50-foot climbing wall to the left, bench-pressing machines to the right, and a towering staircase in the center.
Ahead, a toned 20-year-old in a sports bra, Lululemon yoga pants, and a tight ponytail checks in, swinging her bulky Stanley water bottle as she meets up with a muscular exercise science major deadlifting the largest barbell you’ve ever seen. Not the most inviting sight.
When I first visited the CRWC, I showed up in my baggy sweatpants and unkempt hair to walk on the treadmill for an hour or so. Throughout my exercise, though, I couldn’t shake the feeling I was being watched and judged by other more gym-savvy patrons.
After about 20 minutes of walking, I decided to pack up my things and leave in shame.
The gym is a special kind of hell for people like me who don’t regularly exercise, have been diagnosed with social anxiety, or don’t generally like the shape of their body.
I’ve been able to adapt to the CRWC’s environment a bit, but people more introverted or dysmorphic than I might be turned off from visiting the gym altogether.
Disabled people are given a raw deal, too. Granted, the CRWC has done its best to accommodate.
After all, diff erent machines service different parts of the body, and there’s a functioning elevator. The elevator, however, is tucked away down a dark hallway, while the staircase stands as the
centerpiece of the building, demanding attention from all who enter the building.
Introverts aren’t the only ones intimidated by the gym, either. According to a survey from the exercise-based site, Flex, about 35 percent of Americans — of over 1,000 who took the survey — feel uncomfortable at the gym, mostly due to overwhelming noise or judgment.
Extroverted, able-bodied gym-goers might be able to overcome these insecurities, but it’ll take much more for the rest of us to cope with “gymtimidation.”
I asked one of the desk workers at the campus recreation center, UI fourth-year student Gwyn Walters, for recommendations on accessible, entry-level activities.
She told me about a pilates class she is taking, providing diff erent levels of difficulty so she never bites off more than she can chew.
In general, she felt comfortable going to the gym since she sees a wide variety of people across the community stop by the check-in desk. Walters said many people regularly attend the gym, not solely the gym bros I imagined.
In my experience, gym bros are the most intimidating factor at gyms. The natural solution, then, is to fi nd or create a space where there are more people with my unathletic sensibilities.
The best way to accomplish this is to either bring one or more equally unathletic friends to socialize and share the pain with, or to visit the gym when fewer people are there.
According to Walters, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays are the busiest hours, with traffi c slowly decreasing as the CRWC approaches its midnight closing time.
One of my favorite ways to exercise is dancing, so for months I attended “WERQ” classes, following an instructor’s dance moves at the front of the room while I and 20 other young people danced along. I always felt self-conscious during these classes, though, due to the
giant wall-length mirror at the front of the room, inevitably leading me to compare my uncoordinated, off-putting moves to the precise and effortless people around me.
Luckily, I’ve found a safer alternative at the weekly Aqua Zumba classes, where there are no mirrors and everyone else feels just as silly as you do.
So, even though one activity at the CRWC was generally making me uncomfortable, I dug and found something I felt better about.
I’ve seen some websites suggest introverts hire personal trainers to avoid other people, but trainers are expensive, and require way more social interaction than trying to ignore people when the gym is busy.
If all else fails, the fitness centers at the UI residence halls, including Currier, Catlett, Hillcrest, and Mayflower, might work instead. My favorite is the one at Currier Residence Hall because, at any
given time, only one to four other people will be there. I can handle judgmental looks from one scrawny guy far better than I can 20 buff dudes, especially when there’s less social pressure for me to be wearing appropriate workout attire. I realize this all probably seems like more eff ort than it’s worth. For many introverts, leaving the house at all can be a Herculean task most days, much less leaving the house to exert yourself in front of strangers.
Working out shouldn’t be considered a “pretty person activity,” though.
Exercise can improve both physical and mental health. This isn’t a call for introverts and body-conscious people to “get over it” or “try harder.”
This is me, as someone who only ever leaves my apartment for classes, asking others to change their perspective on fi tness centers as a place that can, in certain spaces, feel welcoming and even fun.
IC dental clinic aims to meet soaring demand
The Iowa City Free Medical and Dental Clinic renovations cost $1.3 million.
2024, according to ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer. She said some clinics are feeling the pressure.
In an effort to address soaring demand for dental services, the Iowa City Free Medical and Dental Clinic at recently completed a $1.35 million project for renovations funded by the City of Iowa City and Johnson County.
The clinic had an 18 percent uptick during fiscal 2024, treating 6,715 patients, which is more than the 5,691 patients they treated in 2023. In their 2025 data report, the National Association of Free Charities and Clinics announced 81 percent of clinics reported an increase in demand, amounting to 6 million visits last year.
The renovations began in December 2023 and concluded with a grand opening open house on Oct. 8.
To combat climbing numbers, the Iowa City City Council awarded a $1 million grant to the clinic through the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, in March 2023.
Johnson County awarded the remaining $350,000 through the ARPA-funded Building Nonprofit Capacity Grant Program, which sought to assist local nonprofits following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Demand for free medical care is rising sharply, according to Jennie Schmidt, executive director of the Iowa City Free Medical and Dental Clinic.
Schmidt said factors like new Medicaid work requirements, which require people to verify they’re working to keep coverage, and the upcoming expiration of Affordable Care Act subsidies, financial assistance from the federal government, could be the factors leaving more people uninsured, increasing demand for free medical care. Ultimately, she said, workers in the health care industry are unsure of a definitive cause.
To meet the increasing demand for services, the clinic continues to rely on local funding support, fundraising events, grants, and private donations. The clinic costs around $950,000 to operate in
“The director of a clinic in Cedar Rapids said, for the first time ever this summer, that they had to turn patients away. Demand is increasing so quickly,” she said.
Schmidt said the goal of the newly completed renovations was twofold.
She said one goal of the renovation was to make the space more efficient to accommodate more patients, and the other was to modernize the outdated 1970s building, including upgrading the HVAC system to improve ventilation and overall health.
The upgrades also include three exam spaces in a triage room, tripling the size of the dispensary, containing prescriptions and medical supplies, increasing staff workspaces, and replacing old carpet.
Schmidt said the new triage room is where patients are initially assessed and sorted based on the urgency of their medical condition. This will help cut down on the current three-month waitlist.
“If somebody comes in and they need their blood pressure checked, or they need an injection or something minor like that, they can just go into the triage room and not take up a whole exam room,” she said.
Schmidt said she hopes the upgraded facility will address the facility’s waitlist for dental services by making the space more appealing for volunteers to work in.
“When [dentists] come here, they’re not going to have the state-of-the-art equipment they might have in their offices but they have very good equipment, but we’re hoping that it’ll be more attractive to more volunteers to come and work here now that it’s been upgraded,” she said.
The clinic has hired a dentist for two nights a week and is relaunching the volunteer program in January. She said, ideally, the clinic hopes to have four to six rotating volunteers, with dental services like fillings, extractions, and exams offered on Mondays and Thursdays.
Iowa City Free Medical Clinic sees uptick in visits he free medical clinic has seen a stark increase in the number of visits since 2016, with a slight decrease in 2025 due to space constraints from renovations.
Schmidt said dental care is a major challenge because many people lack dental insurance. According to Care Quest Institute for Oral Health, 27 percent of the nation lacks insurance and even those with Medicaid are often only able to provide low reimbursement rates for providers, discouraging dentists from accepting it.
“With dental, we have the demand of the uninsured. Many are insured, and they just can’t use their insurance because it’s going to pay back 30 to 40 cents on the dollar,” she said.
She also noted the renovated, modernized space will make the clinic’s appeal extend past volunteers.
“It also will help with donors and sponsorships and the support coming into assistance to the clinic as it’s really been modernized quite a bit,” Steigler said.
Rohit Nair, associate professor in the University of Iowa’s College of Dentistry, explained dental coverage is limited for many adults, particularly part-time workers and older adults on Medicare, which doesn’t cover dental benefits.
According to the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, Medicare does not cover standard fillings, removal, replacement, or dental care, including routine dental visits.
“All of that starts painting a picture of significant dental needs in the community,” he said. “Although the cost of dental care isn’t as high as medical care, when you consider that a lot of people don’t have insurance to help cover dental care, the out-of-pocket costs start adding up significantly, and so that forms a major barrier.”
Nair said tearing down such barriers requires multiple approaches.
This leads to delays in care, meaning minor issues become severe, Schmidt said.
“It’s unfortunate that our dentist does a ton of extractions and fewer fillings because of the time they get to us. It’s also true that a lot of people end up in the emergency room with dental pain, which is also a shame, because all the emergency room can do is medicate it,” she said.
Lisa Steigleder, the clinic’s development director, said the extra exam rooms allow patients to be prepped in advance, which should improve patient flow.
“Patients can be roomed and ready to go as the provider moves. So theoretically, that will improve the output of patient volume,” she said.
“Better reimbursement may translate into better access for a lot of individuals, because then more providers will be willing to serve these patients,” he said.
Nair also said additional training for dentists and policies that support preventive care, especially as children transition into adulthood, could further help meet community dental needs.
Schmidt explained while the clinic can’t change policy overnight, the renovations make them more well-positioned to meet a growing demand for care.
“We hope that we’re poised for another 20 years, if not more. Unlike most businesses, our dream would be to go out of business,” she said. “Our vision is to live in a world where there are no barriers to health care.”
ICCSD brings education outdoors
The district is adding five new outdoor classrooms, bringing the total to 17.
The Iowa City Community School District is taking learning outside of the classroom by adding five new outdoor spaces in the 2025-26 school year.
Rather than using desks, the classrooms will include stump or rock seating, activity tables, easels, shade shelters, and small stages to encourage student engagement and hands-on learning.
The outdoor classrooms which are learning spaces built outside school buildings where teachers can hold lessons in direct contact with nature, are part of the district’s Facilities Master Plan, a multi-year district-wide strategy for updating and improving school facilities.
Though the cost of the spaces haven’t been publicly disclosed, the district’s Facilities Master Plan shows the district is setting aside $3 million for the construction of outdoor classrooms and playgrounds from 2025 to 2030.
Fred Meyer, founder of Backyard Abundance, an educational nonprofit based in Johnson County, said the new spaces are an innovative step in the right direction.
“These outdoor classrooms are fantastic,” he said. “It is the best place for us to really learn new material.”
Backyard Abundance helps residents and organizations by planning and building outdoor landscapes.
Meyer has been with the organization for nearly 20 years and has run into countless studies affirming nature’s crucial role in assisting mental and physical health. Meyer said the benefits translate into better learning.
“We humans just feel better when we’re outdoors,” he said. “This is how humans have learned for hundreds of thousands of years, through the outdoors. We’ve only recently come inside and started trying to standardize learning indoors, and we’re learning slowly that’s not the optimal way to engage our brains and our bodies.”
The five upcoming spaces will be sporadically constructed throughout the year and will join 12 other outdoor classrooms under construction or already completed.
Iowa City Community School District
said Kirkwood Elementary School is one of five schools adopting the current system. Danielle Riney, secondary curriculum coordinator for the district, said the district intends to build an outdoor classroom for every elementary, middle, and high school.
All of the high school spaces have been completed, Riney said. The district will begin construction on all of the other outdoor spaces at the remaining elementary and middle schools sporadically throughout the year.
Riney said while the ultimate goal of the classrooms is to enhance student learning and well-being by providing an alternative to traditional indoor settings, there are nuances to each space according to school level from elementary to high school.
“The elementary spaces have opportunities to branch into some nature interests like garden clubs and things like that, whereas a lot of our high schools have connections to some pre-established and higher-level Advanced Placement courses like environmental Science,” she said.
Riney said many of the activity tables used in elementary outdoor classrooms were built by high school construction students in class.
“The elementary kiddos get the activities that are created, but then the high school kiddos are actually building and seeing what the construction aspect of those actually requires for them to be successful and sustainable,” she said. “And so it’s a really awesome connection there.”
Meyer said the outdoor spaces will bring benefits translating into better learning, dropping student stress and increasing curiosity and attention.
Meyer cited attention restoration theory, or ART, as key evidence supporting nature’s role in those benefits. The physiological framework explains how exposure to nature helps people recover from mental fatigue and restores their ability to focus.
In ART, two groups recovering from surgery were observed in a hospital. One group would have a window fi xed on a natural environment, while the other group would have a window facing a dull brick wall.
The group with the window looking out to nature were discharged earlier and were in less pain.
“Of course, when we go outside, engag-
ing with those environments, our mental, physical and spiritual healing really gets a big boost,” Meyer said.
Phoebe Yetley, director of UI WILD, said outdoor spaces also allow curiosity to run the class over a textbook. UI WILD is the university’s outdoor education program, teaching students about nature and conservation through hands-on experiences like wildlife camps, bird care, and field-based learning.
Instead of being fed information, students create their own understanding by holding something like a plant and moving around it how they wish instead of watching it through a video or book.
Yetley referred to the idea as the “turtle conundrum,” where a teacher may have a lesson planned ahead but will adjust it in real time if something like a turtle interrupts the class and sparks the students’ curiosity.
“And so the engagement is increased naturally because what you’re learning about is based on your students’ questions,” she said.
Rubye Ney, the program coordinator of UI WILD, hopes while each school upholds the same mission to enhance student learning and well-being by providing an alternative to traditional indoor settings, she also hopes each school adopts the system in a unique way.
“Each school has their own opportunity to make their outdoor classroom specific to their school, their students, their natural phenomena, their teachers,” she said. “It’d be really cool if every outdoor classroom looked a little bit different.”
Riney said the outdoor classrooms will help students adhere to the “portrait of a graduate” framework, which outlines six key skills: adaptability, empathy, communication, global citizenship, critical thinking, and a learner’s mindset students are expected to have by graduation.
“[Students] get to have opportunities for more hands-on and viewable kinds of tools you wouldn’t necessarily have in the classroom sitting at a desk,” she said. “These are all different types of strengths to support kiddos in their educational goals.”
SPORTS
PREGAME: Iowa vs. Penn State Check The Daily Iowan’s newsstands on Oct. 25 for the latest edition of DI Pregame as Iowa takes on Minnesota.
Jackson Mendoza Sports Reporter
sports@dailyiowan.com
The Iowa Heartlanders were established as an affiliate of the Minnesota Wild in 2021, and just last season, the Iowa team earned its first postseason appearance in franchise history, posting a franchise-best 36 wins and 83 points. The season was certainly a milestone but also one that left players with lingering desires.
Forward Yuki Miura signed with the team at its inception and experienced the early doldrums of the Heartlanders, who compete in the East Coast Hockey League, or ECHL, essentially the AA level of professional hockey — two steps below the NHL.
After three straight seasons lodged in seventh place in the division, playoff action was thrilling, but a game seven loss in the first round against the Fort Wayne Komets left frustrating dissatisfaction.
“That was the best and worst experience I
ever had,” Miura said.
The postseason was only a stepping stone. This season, which opened on Oct. 17, is centered on claiming the Kelly Cup. New head coach Chuck Weber knows the hardware well. He won it twice as coach of the Cincinnati Cyclones in 2008 and 2010. Weber, named the ECHL’s Coach of the Year in 2008, coached against Miura in international competition at the helm of Great Britain’s national team. Miura, who hails from Tokyo, represented Japan.
“He’s really smart, has a lot of experience, and he won the [Kelly] Cup here, which is a really hard thing to do,” Miura said. “He has an open-door policy and is always open to us, and that helps us understand what we want to do on and off the ice.”
Weber, who hails from Lockport, New York, is adjusting well to Iowa City. Back in August, he saw the Iowa football team play against his alma mater, the University of Albany.
“Everyone has been so welcoming, from
my family getting acclimated here to the organization and the Iowa community,” Weber said. “It’s been fantastic.”
Playing with speed is a quintessential aspect of hockey the Heartlanders have been working on during the offseason. Coach Weber said he wants his squad to not just be the hardest-working team but the smartest as well.
“Our guys take a lot of pride in wearing the Heartlanders jersey,” Weber said. “We want to be a team that plays fast, competes, and does the little things well that can make the fan base very proud.”
While speed has been a primary focus of improvement of the Heartlanders’ training camp, Weber also wants to implement some creativity in the offense and believes his squad has the skills to do so.
“We’ve been able to upgrade some talent here, and this team did a great job last year in making the playoffs,” Weber said. “They have a great identity, and we want to take that identity to another level and go deeper in the playoffs.”
Weber likes to describe the 72-game regular season as a marathon, while he describes training camp as a 500meter sprint. His players agree with this description.
“We’ve got to outskate other teams, and that’s why we’re having hard practice,” Miura said. “We know if we work hard these two weeks, that’ll help us get more comfortable playing against other teams in the regular season.”
This season, the Heartlanders will feature eight returning players, leaving room for plenty of new faces. Miura, last season’s captain, said returners need to step up in leadership.
“I’m always trying to be helpful for the new guys, especially rookies, because the ECHL is a lot different than college or junior league hockey,” Miura said.
Fresh names on the roster include HEARTLANDERS | 3B
CROSS COUNTRY BASKETBALL
From small-town runner to Hawkeye role model
Searching for her shot, finding her voice
Jalyssa Blazek makes her mark on the Iowa cross country program. Jonah Frey Sports Reporter sports@dailyiowan.com
“That’s when it hit me,” Blazek said. “This is my last round at everything, so I’m
It felt like any other meet for Jalyssa Blazek until five words caught her attention. Blazek and her teammates huddled before this year’s season opening meet at their home course when fellow senior Ellie Rathe turned to her and said it was their last first meet.
Second-year Chazadi Wright prioritizes assists but is encouraged to score by her teammates.
Matt McGowan Sports Editor sports@dailyiowan.com
The lineage of Iowa women’s basketball’s point guards features one common denominator. From Samantha Logic and Kathleen Doyle in the 2010s to Caitlin Clark and Lucy Olsen in recent years, all made themselves heard on the floor, both with their voice and scoring prowess.
“You can just see the vocal leadership of those personalities,” head coach Jan Jensen said. “When you meet with Chit-Chat today, she is as sweet as they come and quiet.”
That’s right, the Hawkeyes’ latest point guard, Chazadi Wright, owns not only an ironic nickname but a different skillset where passing holds top priority. While her moniker may poke fun at her shy demeanor, Wright is finding her voice on the floor with Iowa.
“It doesn’t have to be critiquing my teammates or anything,” she said at Iowa’s media day on Oct. 14. “I just want to talk more in general, kind of bring it out of me. But it’s slowly coming.” Hailing from Atlanta, Georgia, Wright grew up in a fast-paced culture and received her nickname in elementary school. A set of twins on her AAU basketball team coined the name as a joke, but the name has stuck ever since. After competing in basketball and track at Wesleyan High School, Wright stayed home and played for Georgia Tech, appearing in all 33 games and earning 12 starts.
Her first starting nod occurred at then-No. 3 Notre Dame, where she scored 10 points and dished a teamhigh five assists. Wright posted double-digit scoring 10 times but finished second on the team with 86 assists, a stat she finds just as valuable. Jensen called her “pass first, capital letters on all of it.”
“Since I was a little girl, I just loved to come off screens and pass, make the cool pass,” Wright said. “I’d rather pass than shoot or score.”
Wright averaged 7.2 points, 2.6 assists, and 2.2 rebounds per game as a first-year with the Yellow Jackets. She transferred to Iowa over the offseason and found an
Charlson | The Daily Iowan
morning
with
cross country team along the Iowa River on Oct.
During the 2025 outdoor cross country season, Blazek led the team in the 1,500 meters (4:28.46).
Football
Saturday, Oct. 25
Minnesota Iowa City, Iowa
2:30 p.m
Volleyball
Friday, Oct. 24
Michigan State Coralville, Iowa
6 p.m.
Sunday, Oct. 26
Rutgers Coralville, Iowa
2 p.m.
Soccer
Thursday, Oct. 23
UCLA Los Angeles, California
8 p.m.
Sunday, Oct. 26
USC Los Angeles, California
8 p.m.
Field Hockey
Friday, Oct. 24
Penn State State College, Pennsylvania
4 p.m.
Sunday, Oct. 26
Rutgers Piscataway, New Jersey
11 a.m.
WHAT YOU MISSED THIS WEEK
Iowa volleyball returned to its former home, Carver-Hawkeye Arena, for the first time since 2021 as the Hawkeyes played host to a pair of ranked foes, USC and UCLA, last weekend. In the Friday opener, Iowa dropped a four-set decision to No. 25 USC before a three-set loss to UCLA on Sunday afternoon.
The contest against the Trojans marked a statistical milestone for senior setter Claire Ammeraal, who recorded her 3,000th career assist in the fourth set. Ammeraal finished the match with her sixth double-double of the season, notching 41 assists and 15 digs. Hailing from Madison, Wisconsin, Ammeraal transferred from Central Michigan prior to last season.
“I am glad I got to hit 3,000 career assists here at Iowa,” Ammeraal said. “I really like this team. I love that I’m in a position where my main stat is based on how my teammates are doing. I’m just so glad I can be a part of their success, and I’m so excited I get to celebrate it with them because they’re so awesome.”
Ammeraal posted at least 40 assists eight times this season, including a season-high 58 against Michigan on Oct. 11. For head coach Jim Barnes, Ammeraal’s skillset ventures beyond the stat book.
“Claire’s our leader, and she does so much for this team,” he said. “She plays smart and balances her competitive nature with being so cerebral.” Iowa volleyball sits at 1010 on the season and 1-7 in the Big Ten.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“We want things to work out perfectly the first time you do it. That’s obviously not going to happen. It’s going to be a learning curve throughout the season — a process.”
Iowa’s anchor behind the line
Second-year defender Iba Oching has relied on unique worldly experiences.
it before and stay calm in those high-pressure situations.”
Serving as the last line of defense for No. 7 Iowa soccer, Iba Oching relishes her role. The second-year defender relies on past experiences to make key plays on both sides of the pitch this season.
Hailing from Coquitlam, British Columbia, Oching knew she needed to gain as much experience as possible during her adolescent years to get an offer to play at the Division I level. Oching was successful in honing her soccer skills as a member of the Vancouver Whitecaps Girls Elite Academy, an official Canadian National Development Center.
It was during her time as a Whitecap when Oching got the call, solidifying her spot on the Canadian U-17 National Team. When Canada was eliminated during the group stage of the U-17 2022 World Cup in India, Oching took valuable lessons from her first national team experience.
“I’ve been able to be more composed and not make situations bigger than they are,” Oching said. “It has helped me be grounded knowing I have done
With significant experience on the pitch, Oching accepted an of fer to play DI soccer at Syracuse University in New York. Oching tallied one goal on four shots for the Orange, starting 16 of 17 matches during her freshman season.
Oching’s lone score at Syracuse was a crucial one, tying a match against Maine in the 70th min ute. At the conclusion of the 2024 season and upon going 0-9-1 in conference play, Oching decided to enter her name in the transfer portal in search of a new home.
For Oching, the change to be ing a Hawkeye was effortless, as the coaching staff had welcomed her with open arms.
“Coming here in the spring, I was able to meet my teammates and get used to playing with them. I got used to their playing style and the coaching style,” Oching said. “Coaches and staff have been very welcoming and make it an easy transition.”
Teammate Sofia Bush credits the team’s environment for making transitions smoother for transfers like Oching and other incoming first-years.
“It’s just something about our culture here in Iowa,” Bush said.
“We are going to work hard every single day and be competitive. We like to push each other.”
The smooth transition has allowed Oching to excel on the field, recording two goals and two assists on the season. Practically identical to her time at Syracuse, Oching’s first goal was a crucial score, breaking a 0-0 tie in the 70th minute against Minnesota.
Head coach Dave DiIanni was more than pleased to see Oching in the right place at the right time.
“I thought it was great composure by Wildman running to the touch line at full pace and to be able to clip a nice textured ball to the back post to Oching,” he said. “Iba’s scored a couple of goals for us, and they are all like that.”
As a defender, Oching’s primary goal is to stop attacks from opposing teams’ offenses, disrupting opposing team forwards, and intercepting any passes that come their way.
Despite her defense-oriented role, Oching has already recorded more than four times
Iowa Field Hockey’s Lauren DeRose
Patrick Halma Sports Reporter sports@dailyiowan.com
The Daily Iowan : What got you into field hockey?
Lauren DeRose: I saw a field hockey recreational league out on a field one day while my family was driving by, and I said I wanted to do that.
What is your favorite memory with the team so far?
Our win last year against Ohio State. The whole time before the game, we knew we had nothing to lose, and we played a great game.
If you didn’t play field hockey, what sport would you play and why?
It would definitely be lacrosse. I played that sport alongside field hockey until seventh grade when I chose field hockey fully.
the number of shots she did last season. Now fully embraced in her new role as a Hawkeye, Oching remains hungry to make history. The Hawkeyes won a Big Ten
“It’s just something about our culture here in Iowa. We are going to work hard every single day and be competitive.”
Sofia Bush Iowa women’s soccer player
Tournament title in 2023, but a regular-season championship has eluded them. No matter the hardware, Oching wants to play as long as she can surrounded by her teammates.
“We want to host a first round in the NCAA Tournament and hopefully surpass where the team made it last year in the Sweet 16,” Oching said.
When not playing field hockey, what are you doing?
I definitely like watching TV shows, and currently, [Iowa second-year] Rylie Novak and I are into “Grey’s Anatomy.”
Who do you think is the funniest on the team and why?
Everything Milly Short says is funny.
- Iowa women’s basketball second-year Ava Heiden on team’s upcoming season
STAT OF THE WEEK
Rushing yards for Iowa quarterback Mark Gronowski in the Hawkeyes’ Oct. 18 game against Penn State — a career-high.
What is the most interesting thing you have learned from your teammates’ stories of back home?
A lot of the Netherlands players talk about how they don’t really drive; they bike everywhere. Sometimes, after going out with their friends, they will be biking back at five in the morning.
What team do you enjoy playing against the most?
I actually like playing against Northwestern. I think they are a really good team, and that allows us to do better.
The NBA season tipped off Oct. 21. Sports Reporters Chris Meglio and Matt McGowan debate which team will claim the title.
Chris Meglio Sports Reporter
Oklahoma City Thunder
The last time there was a repeat NBA champion was in the 2017-18 season — the Kevin Durant era in Golden State. Durant’s former team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, will be the first to do so since then.
The stats speak for themselves. The Thunder was the second-youngest team to ever win an NBA title behind the 1976-77 Portland Trail Blazers. They had the biggest total and average margin of victory for a season in NBA history and the highest team defensive rating last season with 107. The Thunder were also the fourth-highest scoring team in the league with 120.5 points per game. This team was one of the
best teams in NBA history last year. The Thunder brought every player back from that team, with the only additions being Georgetown center Thomas Sorber and Northwestern forward Brook Barnhizer in the 2025 NBA Draft. Think about the core players: reigning MVP and All-NBA, All-Defensive Second Team recipient Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, first-time All-Star Jalen Williams, and one of the league’s best rim protectors, Chet Holmgren. Then there are two-time All-Defensive guard Alex Caruso and one-time AllDefensive guard Lu Dort. I firmly believe this team will be better this year — statistically or not. The chemistry grows, the young guys get better, and Gilgeous-Alexander continues to solidify himself as the best guard in the league.
Cleveland Cavaliers
This team is far from its prime. If anything, it’s just the start of one of basketball’s great dynasties.
Thanks to Joakim Noah’s infamous comments on the city, people tend to forget about Cleveland, especially its basketball team. Long gone are the days of LeBron James and Kyrie Irving. The joyous cry of “Cleveland, this is for you!” is now a nostalgic echo. Anything since then has been received with an apathetic shrug, even last season’s 64-18 squad, the Cavaliers’ best regular-season record since the 2008-09 campaign. Yes, both those squads lost in the conference semifinals, but last years’ group was a shell of its former self, logging win streaks of 15 and 16 games over the regular season. Injuries to Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, and Evan Mobley hampered coach Kenny Atkinson’s group, as the Cavs fell to the Boston Celtics. Boston will miss star Jason Tatum with an Achilles injury. Same with
fellow Eastern Conference threat
Indiana and its focal point of Tyrese Haliburton. The Eastern Conference is up for the taking, and with the Cavs’ three consecutive trips to the postseason, this squad boasts the experience. In any potential finals contest, Cleveland will be a matchup nightmare with Mobley, who, while not in the stratosphere of Victor Wembanyama, features similar traits as his San Antonio Spurs counterpart. The 6-foot-11 Mobley won Defensive Player of the Year last season, partially because of Wembanyama’s injury, but still holds superior shooting ability. Averaging a career-high 18.5 points, Mobley shot 55.7 percent from the floor and 37 percent from deep. Mitchell is already a wellestablished star from his days in Utah. Jarrett Allen is an elite rim defender. Offseason trade acquisition Lonzo Ball is the veteran point guard presence who can only help Garland return from injury.
As a Chicago Bulls fan, I love Noah, but his words don’t hold up. Cleveland owns not only the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but a basketball team that will top the charts as NBA champs.
Lauren DeRose Defender Second-year
Matt McGowan Sports Editor
Travis Crabb | The Daily Iowan Michigan forward Ella Jablinskey collides with Iowa defender Iba Oching during the game between No. 10 Iowa and Michigan at the University of Iowa Soccer Complex on Oct. 4.
Trey Benson Sports Reporter sports@dailyiowan.com
Samantha DeFily | The Daily Iowan Iowa defender Iba Oching races after the ball during a women’s soccer game between Iowa and Northern Illinois at The Iowa Soccer Complex in Iowa City on March 29.
forwards Brandon Schultz and Max Patterson. Schultz most recently competed in Germany, where he posted a 53-point season. Patterson played for five seasons at the University of Calgary before a short stint with the Komets. Defenseman Jacob Arsenault arrives for his first professional season after captaining Briarcrest College in Saskatchewan.
Even though the roster has a lot of new
the cup.” All offseason long, the squad built chemistry by having dinners together
to get to know each other there,” Weber said. “The guys have been getting up early to go to workouts and practices, so the team
rolling as they continue to see more success in the standings.
The Heartlanders have already played their preseason matchup against the Komets, claiming revenge in a 6-2 victory that saw two goals from forward Mike Koster.
The Heartlanders opened their season with a 2-1 comback win over the Tulsa Oilers on Oct. 17, then posted a 6-5 shutout victory on the road a night later. Playing in its third contest in three days, Iowa fell, 5-4, in a rematch with Tulsa.
to do it for ourselves.”
Blazek qualified for the Class 1A state meet in all four years of her high school career, never placing lower than sixth place. Soon, Iowa cross country head coach Randy Hasenbank came calling.
“When you see somebody who seeks the front and has that desire to win, that’s the big thing for a recruiter,” Hasenbank said. “We’re looking for people who want to be winners.”
Four years later, Hasenbank’s
uplifting culture promoting unity.
For graduate guard Kylie Feuerbach, the Hawkeyes’ introduction to Wright immediately started with deciphering her nickname.
“She was just a really calm, quiet kind of girl, but ever since then, she’s really opened up, and she’s a really cool person to be around,” Feuerbach said.
Iowa assistant coach Abby Stamp wants the Hawkeyes to continue their up-tempo offense, even speed it up a little to match previous seasons. Wright features the ideal motor for such a system.
“She can play really fast. We like to play fast,” Stamp said. “She’s a great full-court passer.”
When she’s not firing assists on the fast break, Wright, who studies film of the
scouting has paid off. Not only has Blazek been a key piece in the Hawkeyes’ cross country program, but she has made large strides on the oval as well.
“Last year [Blazek] had some good cross races in the fall, and then in track she just exploded,” Hasenbank said.
“Exploded” is no exaggeration, as Blazek led the team in the 1500m with a 4:28 and recorded her personal collegiate bests in the 800m and 5000m. Her previous personal high mark in the 1500m came last season, where she ran a 4:45. When you’re running just under four laps around the track, shaving off 17 seconds is nothing short of impressive.
WNBA’s Courtney Williams, can easily put the ball in the basket. While standing at just 5-foot-4, Wright adjusted to opposing defenses with what Jensen called a “beautiful floater” and a long-range threepoint shot. At Georgia Tech, Wright shot 37 percent from the floor and 32 percent from deep.
The head coach joked she never had to tell Clark when to shoot the ball, but Wright sometimes needs some encouragement. Feuerbach has no problem being the motivator, yelling at her teammate to take a shot.
“We kind of joke around about it. She’s a humorous gal, so she kind of gets the jokes, but she also knows that we’re being completely serious,” Feuerbach said. “Just embracing that and continuing to harp on shooting the ball because we know she’s going to make it.”
Feuerbach said Wright is progressing
Now in her senior year, Blazek has remained injury-free. She has consistently finished as one of Iowa’s top runners and has been a leader for the underclassmen as well.
“It helps me as a younger runner to look up to her because she’s always laser-focused on what needs to be done,” first-year teammate Ella Magallan said.
“She knows when to lock in.”
Blazek was once in Magallan’s shoes as a first-year — new to the team and the culture of a collegiate program.
“Coming here, I was nervous and just trying to figure out what was going on and how everything worked,” Blazek
well and notes her high potential. For Jensen, a reserved point guard isn’t a detriment. She noted past Hawkeyes like Kamille Wahlin and Kristi Smith held similar personalities. Players are never defined by one characteristic but rather a variety
“Mistakes are going to be made, and my job as a coach is to correct those mistakes and build on things going forward,” Weber said. “The biggest thing for us is that, we want to be playing hockey in June of 2026, and if we can do that it’ll be a pretty
said. “Now, having done it for four years, it’s like a routine. I know what I’m doing, and that confidence can take you a lot of places.”
With the final weeks of the season approaching, Blazek knows her time as a Hawkeye cross country runner is coming to a close. Although her name will be off the roster come next year, the impact she has made on the younger runners on the team will continue to be felt for years to come.
“It’s easy to be hard on yourself in this sport,” Blazek said. “I just want to create a little bit of light my teammates can think about when it comes to racing.”
of strengths. For Wright, her versatility is only growing.
“If I get her to score a little bit more, she can score at every level,” Jensen said. “It’s fun to watch because she’s so little and fast. I think you’ll enjoy watching her.”
LIONS ROAR, HAWKEYES SOAR
Iowa defeated Penn State, 25-24, on Oct. 18 at Kinnick Stadium. The Hawkeyes threw for only 68 yards, but piled on 245 rushing yards. Quarterback Mark Gronowski’s 67-yard run set up Iowa’s game-winning touchdown.
ARTS & CULTURE | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2025
University of Iowa community weighs in on exposure to recent violent content on social media.
Violent content muddles social media
Social
media osts slip past content moderation across platforms, driving users away.
Kyrsten White Arts Reporter arts@dailyiowan.com
Bright phone screens illuminate doomscrollers taking one last look at social media before bed. These moments are meant to decom press, but can turn into something stressful depending on what the content contains.
Over the past few months, college students have been shoked by the quantity of objectionable or vio lent videos across the platforms they frequent.
Objectionable posts typically contain explicit material, while violent content contains blood, but neither is content that users would want to see without any form of a content warning.
Sang Jung Kim, an assistant pro fessor at the University of Iowa, notes this upward trend depends on the user.
Within the last two months, following the murder of Iryna Zarutska, the online discussion has shifted the definition of this type of content from “discomforting” to straight-up “violent.”
Zarutska was a refugee from Ukraine who was stabbed to death while on board a Charlotte, North Carolina, light rail train on Aug. 22.
Not long after her death, a video was released on X, formerly known as Twitter, of her bus’ security foot age at the time of the incident.
It showed the gruesomeness and the shock Zarutska felt in her last moments.
Nearly three weeks later, Chandra Mouli Nagamallaiah, a 50 year-old motel manager, was murdered at his motel inn in Dallas.
The footage was also caught by security cameras and quickly made its way over to both X and Instagram. This video showed Nagamallaiah’s brutal death in front of his wife and son.
On the same day as Nagamallaiah’s death, Sept. 10, Charlie Kirk was killed.
Due to the large crowd gathered at Utah Valley University on his tour, there were plenty of phones capturing what happened in detail.
The videos quickly spread to X without any content warning, meaning users were not prepared for the violence they would see while casually scrolling the app.
The rapid release of these videos, especially Kirk’s, which is still circulating, caused discomfort among casual scrollers.
Users, such as journalism UI professor Brian Ekdale, became uncomfortable with what they
might see and took a break from social media.
“I’ll be honest, when Charlie Kirk was killed, I made a conscious decision to take a pause from social media. I did hear a story of someone who said they went on whatever social platform without the intention of watching the video, and it just showed up on their feed,” Ekdale said.
UI graduate student Akachukwu Ikefuama was also disturbed by his social media output the day of Kirk’s death.
He decided to abstain from scrolling for the rest of the week after seeing different angles of the moment Kirk was shot.
“All of those things were really very traumatic; I don’t think I’ve ever had that experience before of going on Twitter [X] and seeing horrific videos of someone being shot,” Ikefuama said.
Javie Ssozi, a UI graduate student, discussed how most social
Student DJ to late night producer
Alumni fellow Eric Leiderman reflects on his long
speech, he was greeted in the Iowa Memorial Union by past instructors and friends. The Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Sara Sanders, introduced Leiderman at the event as a prime example of what the Alumni Fel
“We did this program so we had the opportunity to distinguish alumni who have taken the brand of Iowa and gone out in the world and made a huge dif ference in the field that they are in,” Sanders said, “We know students here need the opportunity to go out and inter act with the field they want to pursue.”
media apps try to get any potentially triggering content either removed or at least covered with a warning.
But, due to the amount of publicity around each of these three e vents, the footage of all of their deaths quickly circulated. It led to large masses of people being shown the content unwillingly.
“In terms of the audience side, though, there has been research [showing] content warnings should not be too specific but also should not be too general. It should be just perfect,” Kim said. “There have been interesting findings that whenever the graphic content is blurred, then people would have more interest in watching that because they're curious about that content.”
It turns out the content warning can be a tightrope walk. In a 2022 Psychology Today article, Renne Engeln discussed how content warnings on sensitive or graphic videos may entice the viewer rather than ward them away.
A lot goes into the process of content moderation, as both human labor and artificial intelligence are involved, Ekdale said.
Social media platforms have algorithms they use to process information, which help scan for mundane posts to categorize.
However, according to Ekdale, these platforms are also looking for "objectionable" content.
There are also sometimes human content moderators who review content the algorithm considers objectionable.
A human can then bring their “human eyes” to make final decisions on whether to publish content or not, Ekdale said.
Although these systems have been around for some time now, there are still a few kinks in them, and content slips through the cracks.
“Sometimes when we think about AI, we imagine it’s an autonomous
Goodwill bins fuel the resale hustle
Shoppers dig through bulk bins hunting for items to resell online for profit.
Rian Barr
As the house lights begin to dim, and music begins to play, an announcement rings out through the studio, “From 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York, it's Late Night with Seth Meyers!” In front of the stage, away from the peering eyes of the camera, orchestrating the madness of late-night television is none other than Eric Leiderman. The class of 1999 University of Iowa alum, who works as a producer for “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” was recently named the 2025 UI Alumni Fellow.
On Oct. 14, when Leiderman returned to campus to give his Alumni Fellow
Leiderman was selected as the 2025 Alumni Fellow after being nominated by the UI Communication Department Chair, Kembrew McLeod. Before the nomination, McLeod had heard about Leiderman from various students and staff and, after getting in contact with him, knew that he could be a positive voice on campus. Eric became a no-brainer, especially after he and I connected on the phone. We had similar personalities, we clicked, and that led me to be like, ‘Okay, this person is going to give a really good lecture or a talk,’” McLeod said. “He's just a funny, engaging guy. I said we gotta get him back to campus.”
Moving to New York after graduation in 1999, Leiderman slept on his sister's couch at night while working as a production assistant on “The Daily Show” during the day. While at “The Daily Show,” he also found time in his 10 to 12-hour days to rehearse drums with his band.
He was working the artist's hustle, finding time whenever he could to write scripts or play music and working his way up the ladder as a freelance producer. Finally, he landed a stable job at “Late Night with Seth Meyers” in 2013.
On the music side, his consistent grind during late nights landed him touring
Carissa Stockel Arts Reporter arts@dailyiowan.com
Every 30 minutes, blue bins barrel through swinging doors, covered in a cosmic black tarp. The tarp — concealing mounds of clothes, toys, cookware, and more — is revealed with a dramatic swipe before swarms of customers tear through the items at high speed. Why are they searching so rapidly? For resale.
Victor and Jackson, juniors at George Washington High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, were looking for a way to scrounge up some extra cash and turned to resale. What originally began as a hobby has turned into a hustle, Victor said. He started thrifting for fun, drawn to
Photo Illustration by Ava Neumaier | The Daily Iowan
Annika Nelson | The Daily Iowan
shopper looks through
at the Goodwill Bins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Oct. 13. Resellers frequent the bins to find cheap clothes and turn a profit.
Emma Calabro | The Daily Iowan
Eric Leiderman speaks during a lecture at the Iowa Theater in Iowa City on Oct. 14. Leiderman is a University of Iowa graduate who has made a career in music and comedy, co-running NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers since 2014.
system right? It sort of is, but AI is trained by individuals,” Ssozi said. “If we as a culture enjoy all kinds of gross content, then we are teaching the systems we’re developing this content is okay.”
Content slipping through the scan more frequently when there is an influx of the same video or within a short amount of time after the content has been posted.
This is why some platforms, like X,offer a system called “Community Notes.” Users on the app can offer insight into some posts, reducing the spread of misinformation or any content a user might require extra context.
“There are not necessarily hired experts, but these folks are a knowledgeable user base, and they go through and identify content they think is problematic, false, misleading,” Ekdale said. “They can essentially put a label on it, and then there’s a system with which a consensus emerges around that label.”
Community Notes has been around since 2021 but was recently introduced on Instagram. In this process, users must apply before they can add their thoughts to others' posts.
Aside from content moderation, simply seeing violent content can be an issue for most users to begin with. It can affect one’s mental psyche, but it also reflects society. “It sort of reconfigures your mind to think about the gross world we live in. The implications of today’s politics, of division, and, for me as an international student, [this content] reminds me the world is not
safe,” Ssozi said. “When you see events like this happening, it takes an emotional toll.”
Ikefuama also noted the way these types of videos show how the public might not care for others as they use the content simply for clicks and likes.
“I think it does reflect our society — it’s a society driven by sensation and virality,”
Ikefuama said. “People want to get viral at all costs, even if it means putting someone in bad situations.”
gigs with big-name artists like Meat Loaf and the Revolver. That music experience gave him a unique perspective when it came to the house band for “Late Night with Seth Meyers.”
The band was led by famous comedian Fred Armisen on the drums, but because of his busy schedule, they consistently ran into issues with his availability.
As a result, Leiderman constructed a system
displayed neatly on racks, the store is filled with large, rolling bins where donated items are dumped in bulk.
“These items are the leftovers from Goodwill thrift stores,” Marvin Mondie, a manager at the Cedar Rapids outlet location, said. Bins are not hand-selected but filled by a machine tipping over massive boxes of unsold goods, Mondie said. Every 30 minutes, a new
where the show had a rotating system of famous drummers stepping into that role.
Leiderman’s network in the music world allowed him to get in contact with agents and musicians who made this unique idea possible.
Now, as his career continues to move forward, he is hoping to give back to his alma mater. One of those ways by giving a lecture on Oct. 14 ithe Iowa Memorial Union.
“I love coming back to Iowa City. But to come back now and feel the love
bin comes out, allowing shoppers to dig through a fresh variety of items, and then pay by the pound.
The tarp, Mondie said, is used to keep things fair.
“If we don’t cover them, people start grabbing before the bins are even in place,” he said.
It’s not about what’s in the bins for Jackson — it’s about who’s in the store. At “The Bins,” there is a reseller for everything. Some people resell clothes, shoes, or pots and pans. Victor and Jackson, how-
and be recognized — it was so nice,” Leiderman said. “I got this great career, and I want to bring more students into the fold and be like, ‘Hey, you can be a part of this, you can be a part of entertainment.’”
Leiderman has gone from the bottom of the call sheet all the way to the top. Now, as a leader of his crew and in the industry, he still focuses on the basics of treating coworkers with respect.
“I love relating to people,” he said. “But also keeping it professional, so it’s about straddling that line, especially in comedy.”
ever, resell streetwear, a style they say is popular among Generation Z. Many times, they run into resellers who want the same items they do. Still, what keeps them coming back is accessibility of “The Bins.” “It’s so simple,” Jackson said. “You don’t need much to come to ‘The Bins’ and find valuable items.”
When the tarp is lifted, the room erupts into a blur of hands as Victor and Jackson sift through the chaos for their next potential fortune.
Ostrich farmers bring unexpected taste to IC
Striegel Acres Farms turns heads with farm-raised ostrich meat at the Iowa City Farmers Market.
strong kick — not exactly your typical farm animal.
“[Marion’s] really good at handling them, and he has to be,” Marj said, interlocking her hand with Marion’s.
This is an installment in a multipart series.
When most people think of farm animals, they imagine pigs or cows. They do not picture 8-foot-tall, 300pound birds with DNA more closely related to dinosaurs than chickens. Among the homemade jam tables and the rows of fresh sweet corn, Iowa City Farmers Market shoppers often do a double-take upon seeing a sign proudly sporting the words “Ostrich meat.”
Upon walking up to the booth, you are sure to be warmly greeted by Marion and Marj Striegel, owners of Striegel Acres Farms and Striegel Honey Farm in Oscaloosa, Iowa. The table sitting in front of them displays an array of ostrich products, including filets, steaks, ground meat, jerky, feathers, and even blown egg shells.
After 32 years of ostrich farming, Marion and Marj can tell you anything you want to know and more about the birds and their meat. Established in 1993, shortly after they got married, the Striegels stepped into the ostrich business and began raising and handling their own birds.
Raising the largest bird in the world is, unsurprisingly, no easy feat. According to the Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, although flightless, these enormous animals can run up to 45 mph, faster than any other bird on land. They can also puncture holes through galvanized steel with one
Although the birds themselves provide a challenge, the state of Iowa surprisingly doesn’t do much to affect their typical warm-weathered upbringing, Marj said. According to Explore Open Sanctuary, ostriches can endure extreme temperature fluctuations, useful for easily braving the blustering Iowa winters.
Alongside selling at a variety of other places, such as fl ea markets and through their online site, Marion and Marj have been setting up shop at the Iowa City Farmers Market for four years. And the stall doesn’t fail to catch eyes; the novelty of the product is exactly what pulls people in.
“I’ve never seen ostrich eggs just sitting out… I don’t think I’ve ever even seen ostrich meat for sale, honestly,” Iowa City local Matthew Pellainen said.
Pellainen, visiting the market with his wife Gaby Pellainen, couldn’t resist purchasing two sticks of jerky upon seeing the unfamiliar, intriguing food — one of the farm’s best-selling products, along with their steaks and fillets.
With a similar flavor and texture to beef, ostrich meat is incredibly lean and healthy.
According to the American Heart Association, the meat is 97 percent fat-free, making it rich in protein and iron, yet lower in fat, calories, and cholesterol than skinless chicken
or turkey.
Yet this macro-friendly meat isn’t the only outstanding ostrich product — just one egg is equivalent to 20 to 24 chicken eggs. Striegel Acres also offers bags of freeze-dried egg yolk pieces, which can serve as a unique, health-boosting snack for pets.
“For the cat, we hit this freeze-dried ostrich egg yolk, and it’s definitely a favorite,” Victor Janey, a regular customer at the market, said.
Janey has been purchasing from Striegel Acres for three years. After walking up to the stall, he promptly bought 10 filets — a quantity not uncommon for purchase from
the business. “I’ll put [the fillets] in a deep freeze and eat them in the winter because I can just sear them in butter. Or you grill them, but you gotta be quick with that,” Janey said. A large chunk of business for Striegel Acres comes from their regulars; once customers give it a try, they’re hooked on the lean, tasty meat. What began as a bold experiment more than three decades ago has since grown into a successful, novel business — demonstrating that even in the corn-renowned, cattle-dense state of Iowa, there’s always room for something unexpected.
Discussing bebop with Warren Longmire
The
poet talks inspiration from programming, hip-hop, jazz, and technology.
Haya Hussain Arts Reporter arts@dailyiowan.com
Warren C. Longmire is a poet and educator from North Philadelphia. He is currently in his second year at the University of Iowa’s Writers Workshop, pursuing a master’s degree in poetry. Well-versed in technology, programming, hip-hop, and jazz, he intertwines every discipline with writing in systematic and digressive ways. Longmire spoke with The Daily Iowan about his writing and discovery of Bebop for his chapbook, a short booklet akin to a novella, “Bird/Diz: An Erased History of Bebop.”
The Daily Iowan: You are from what you call “the bad part of North Philadelphia.” Has the culture there impacted and shaped your writing? Can writers ever dissociate their writing from the places they are raised in?
Warren Longmire: Philadelphia continues to be an extremely segregated city. It is one of the Blackest, one of the poorest of the big Metropolitan areas in the U.S., but you’d never know it if you were inside city centers and things like that. They seem to be very educated and very white. Growing up in that environment and then going to an Ivy League school and being involved in technology, I really got to see the way those divisions played out. I’m still ultimately accepted in academic spaces. As for the culture of Philadelphia, I’m definitely a child of hip-hop. I came of age in the 90s. I even write a lot about urban environments. Certain images were just straight up from my block of Bucktooth streets. Those images come up all the time. I don’t think writers can completely dissociate. Those are your most formative memories. The first things you write are ultimately going to be about home.
When you’re coming from an oppressed and minority group inside the U.S., you feel a certain responsibility to speak to where you’re from and to be representative.
I try not to completely fall into that because, as a writer and as a Black writer, it’s important to let myself be myself. But at the same time, you never want to lose where you came from.
Your new chapbook, “Bird/Diz: An Erased History of Bebop,” is one of your most revered works. It is described as a combination of erasure poems and response pieces to YouTube interviews and performances. What is bebop? How did you research it?
Bebop is a subgenre of jazz born after World War II and out of the swing era. Black musicians were in the war and in a lot of bands. It got more international exposure when it came back from the war. It was the era where it went from popular dance music to more studied, smaller groups, and more technical music.
Jazz was just always played in my home and is still an important part of the African American tradition.
My dad played trumpet, and he was on his way to passing at the point where I was starting this book. My entryway was about doing an erasure project.
I was inside a bookstore and found a biography of Dizzy Gillespie, which was small and tight, and the language was fairly simple, but it went in depth into the history.
An erasure poem is where you take an existing text, go through and find the words that you start to connect with, and you erase or blackout everything else. Part of my research was just watching YouTube and finding these performances and documentaries and interviews.
I just wrote to it, and some of it was transcription, but some of it was poems. Those became the interludes between different sections.
programming and writing?
arts. A lot of musicians, especially when I was teaching, ended up going into tech, and there are a lot of poets who think about text in more systematic fields. What’s interesting about programmers is they have no problem with the idea of using AI to build their stuff. They feel like they’re designing the process, and it takes a lot of understanding to use AI coding well. Some people reject it, but most don’t.
I think for writers, there’s so much investment in, not so much the idea of the piece or the system it lives in, but just the concrete words themselves that you feel like you’re losing a lot more if you have AI do it.
I have ethics around making sure everything on the page is my construction. When I’m making a piece of
programming art, it’s the same thing as when I’m making a piece of writing art, especially if it’s a collection — it’s
“Redundancies” is an incredibly visual prose piece branching from contorted images of what appears to be a house. What was the process for writing this?
I worked in tech, like at Microsoft as an intern, and at Electronic Arts. Coming from the hood to being in a hypercorporate environment and seeing how unhappy people were was a mindf —.
“Redundancies” is about the consistency of row homes, and I was thinking a lot about Daly City, right outside of San Francisco. It was the first time I had really lived in the suburbs. Every single house was the same. There’s this homogeny you get. I still do a lot of programming as a part of my own poetic work.
