Free Republic

The Schumer Shutdown is rolling on with no signs of any imminent deals, and some government benefit programs are starting to run out of funds. One such is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the food stamp program. It's about to run out of money, but Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA) has introduced a bill to fund the program through the shutdown.The Keep SNAP Funded Act of 2025 would keep the food aid program funded during the government lapse until the Department of Agriculture is funded through regular appropriations or stopgap measures.The bill is the companion to a...

President Donald Trump notched a legal victory Friday in his lawsuit against Iowa pollster J. Ann Selzer and The Des Moines Register, and the case will now land in Iowa State Court after an appeals court sided with the president and ruled a lower court had overstepped. Trump’s legal team, which has accused the defendants of "brazen election interference" with their final 2024 Iowa presidential poll that showed him trailing Democrat Kamala Harris, originally requested the case be moved to Iowa State Court in May after the defendants "removed" the case to federal court. A federal judge denied the request...

Jackie Norris, the chairwoman of the Des Moines Public School Board who once served as chief of staff to Michelle Obama, has pulled out of the race for Iowa's open U.S. Senate seat as recommended by her Republican opponent, Rep. Ashley Hinson. Hinson stressed earlier this month that Norris, a champion of DEI, had "lost all shreds of credibility" over the role she played in the hiring of the Des Moines district's former superintendent, a criminal illegal alien who was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Sept 26. Ian Andre Roberts, a native of Guyana, has a lengthy...

Today’s “anti-terror” drill in Pottawattamie County, Iowa has been put on hold due to the efforts of true patriots and loyal Americans. The very real threat of a terrorist incident is something that we as Americans have been increasingly forced to prepare for in the post 9/11 world. (Snip) Due to public indignation over the obvious political agenda of the “anti-terror” exercise, local organizers decided to cancel the event. The official response to charges of a carefully crafted political bias in the scenario was predictable. “In no way has our office or any other response agencies favored a political view

Benny Johnson @bennyjohnson: An individual has been arrested for threatening to kill my wife, my four children, and me. He sent a letter to my home saying he hated our views and wanted us dead. He is being charged federally and faces prison time. I want to thank President Trump, AG Pam Bondi, and the Department of Justice for immediately acting and saving my family. We are forever grateful. Left-wing violence is exploding with copycats appearing everywhere. It is the greatest threat to our country today, targeting people for simply speaking the truth. Let me be absolutely clear: We will...

The school district superintendent arrested by ICE this week lied about attending MIT and was the subject of two sex discrimination lawsuits, The Post has learned. Snappy-dresser Ian Andre Roberts, 51, was fired by Des Moines Public Schools after it emerged he was working illegally and had been avoiding a deportation order. Roberts spent over twenty years bouncing around the nation’s education system, holding top posts from coast-to-coast, but also proved controversial. “He ruined our district for three years,” a former colleague in the state told The Post. “He was very smooth, affable, but the overarching feeling you got from...

GLENWOOD, Iowa — When the Friar Family sat down for dinner on Aug. 6, the last thing they expected to hear was gunshots. "A lot of people in the neighborhood light fireworks," said Harrison Friar. "At first, we weren't concerned." But it wasn't fireworks. And the sound didn't stop. "It was so close that I felt there was something wrong, like really wrong," said his wife, Brielle Friar.

News last week shocked Iowans when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested the superintendent of the state’s largest school district for being in the country illegally. Not only was this man here without legal permission, but he also had a rap sheet featuring several previous run-ins with the law, including weapons charges. Yet Ian Andre Roberts managed to land a pretty big gig in the education sector; the school board placed him in charge of molding the minds of future generations of American voters. And if that's not bad enough, when authorities caught Roberts, he carried both a gun and...

Ian Andre Roberts is currently registered to vote in Maryland. When he registered in 2017, he reportedly had been working in St. Louis for years. There’s no indication from his resumes that he’s lived in Baltimore since he registered to vote there.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested the Superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools, Ian Andre Roberts, a criminal illegal alien from Guyana, on Thursday. Roberts, head of the largest public school district in the state, was in possession of a loaded handgun, $3,000 in cash, and a fixed blade hunting knife at the time of his arrest, according to a statement from ICE. He entered the U.S. in 1999 on a student visa and in May of 2024, was given a final order of removal by an immigration judge. He also had existing weapon possession charges from 2020. Authorities approached Roberts...

DES MOINES, Iowa — The superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools, Dr. Ian Roberts, has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to Des Moines School Board President Jackie Norris.Norris said Associate Superintendent Matt Smith will immediately step into the role of Interim Superintendent.“Our priority is to provide a safe, secure and outstanding education for all students and to support our students, families, and employees. The appointment of Mr. Smith as Interim Superintendent ensures that our District continues to operate at the highest level,” said Norris, in a statement released first to staff of the district and then shared...

The Senate and House are on a collision course over whether to repeal comprehensive sanctions on Syria, a rare area where there are bipartisan coalitions on both sides of the debate. Discussion centers on whether to completely repeal the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019, a severe sanctions mechanism that blocked nearly all U.S. and international cooperation or engagement with the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. Legislation to repeal Caesar is included in the Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2026. But an amendment to the House version of the NDAA to repeal Caesar...

A Democratic candidate has defeated an extremist Republican in a state senate election in Iowa, claiming that voters are “waking up” to realise Donald Trump’s party “sold the working class a bill of goods”. Catelin Drey flipped Iowa state senate district 1, beating Christopher Prosch in a special election held on Tuesday to fill the seat of the late senator Rocky De Witt. Prosch had aligned himself with Trump’s Maga movement, floating conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election and climate crisis. He also compared abortion access to the Holocaust. But Drey, a 37-year-old marketing executive, won with 55% of...

Democrat Catelin Drey has flipped an open Iowa state Senate seat, adding to the party’s successes in special elections this year, Decision Desk HQ projected. Drey defeated Republican Christopher Prosch in the race to replace the late state Sen. Rocky De Witt (R), who died in office in June from cancer. Democrats homed in on the Republican-leaning district as a pickup opportunity given their overperformance in many smaller elections through 2025. Drey’s victory breaks a GOP supermajority in the state Senate, giving her party more power despite its minority status in the body. In particular, the extra Democratic vote, which...

tate Senate District 1 Special Election includes Polling Locations for Precincts 1-22 only. All other precincts are in State Senate District 7 and are not eligible to vote in the 8-26-25 Special Election.

Rob Sand is a gun-toting Christian from rural Iowa who goes deer hunting, drives a white Ford F-150 pickup, and opens speeches by quoting the Bible. He is also a rising Democratic star whose run for governor is spooking Republicans in the ruby red state. The father of two, 43, is the only Democrat to currently hold statewide office in Iowa and could hold the recipe for winning over voters in pro-Trump states.

Trump is growing increasingly upset that some of his choices for judicial posts remain stalled and on Monday vowed to take legal action against the longtime Senate custom, which allows senators to block district court judge and U.S. attorney nominees from their home states. And the president has increasingly trained his fire on Grassley, who is tasked with shepherding Trump’s judicial picks through the Senate and has steadfastly stood behind the practice. Trump’s latest salvo grated on GOP senators who were already frustrated with the president’s attacks on Grassley, the longest-serving senator of the current Congress who has been a...

President Trump on Sunday sought to ramp up pressure on Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) over his defense of the “blue slip” practice that allows home-state senators to veto nominees to district courts and U.S. attorneys’ offices. “I have a Constitutional Right to appoint Judges and U.S. Attorneys, but that RIGHT has been completely taken away from me in States that have just one Democrat United States Senator,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform. “This is because of an old and outdated ‘custom’ known as a BLUE SLIP, that Senator Chuck Grassley, of the...

The Army is launching a massive new artillery ammo factory in the heart of the Midwest, Axios reported on Wednesday. The Future Artillery Complex is set to go up at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant, aiming to produce approximately 36,000 shells a month, according to Axios. MSM Group North America, a U.S.-based defense manufacturer under the Czechoslovak Group, will spearhead the facility’s construction with a $635 million contract. “Our principle objective is to expand the depth of the industrial base, particularly ammunition,” MSM Group CEO Jason Gaines told Axios. “The companies we have partnered with are all extremely capable in...

A second University of Iowa employee is on paid administrative leave following an online video that appears to show the employee discussing recent diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) laws and ways faculty members can get around the laws. A video posted to conservative news site Townhall appears to show a University of Iowa employee — identified in the story as Cory Lockwood, the senior associate director of the Iowa Memorial Union — talking about how the university has complied with recent DEI laws enacted by the state legislature. "There's DEI work happening," he appears to say in the video. "I...