Iowa Independent Intro

By Chase Martyn

I want to thank everyone who made it to the free training we offered last weekend.  We had a great turnout, and everyone I spoke to thought it was a worthwhile experience, both for the training itself and for the opportunity to meet fellow bloggers and journalists from across the state.  I know I enjoyed meeting many of you in person for the first time.

Now that the training is over, we have entered into the next step of our projecte: this week, the Iowa Independent went live, and our Fellows started filing stories almost immediately.  So far, things are going quite well:

Fellows including John Deeth, Lynda Waddington, Ben Weyl, and T.M. Lindsey have each filed stories on the Dawn Pettengill defection, amassing what I think is perhaps the most comprehensive coverage of the story available anywhere.  Not only did our one-on-one interview with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy on the subject of Pettengill and Fair Share go up today, but in the past few days we have covered Pettengill's campaign finance reports, her voting record, and her 2006 reelect campaign.

Fellow Doug Burns has posted two parts (in his three-part series) on politics in Iowa, asking an important question: "Why hasn't Iowa ever sent a woman to US Congress or our Governor's mansion?"  His series includes material from interviews he conducted with the likes of Tom Harkin and Joyce Schulte, among others.

And Fellow Dien Judge has filed several reports on the state of agriculture and the issues facing us on the local, state, and federal levels.

In addition to that, our team covered May Day, with background information, photos from May Day events, and an analysis of the different ways groups have tried to co-opt the holiday in recent and not-so-recent times.

All in all, we are very excited about the way things are shaping up.  If you have a chance, please visit http://IowaIndependent.com.  If you are impressed, we would love it if you could link to us to help us get the word out.

In closing, I have said this to many of you before, but it bears repeating: we are here to help grow progressive blogs in Iowa.  If there's anything I can do to help you get coverage for the stories you think deserve attention (or generally to help you improve your blogging), please do not hesitate to get in touch with me.

Sincerely,

Chase Martyn
Managing Edior, Iowa Independent
http://iowaindependent.com
chase@iowaindependent.com
(m) 515.422.1310