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Fact Checker
Criteria
The Fact Checker team checks statements made by an Iowa political candidate/officeholder or a national candidate/officeholder about Iowa, or in ads that appear in our market.
Claims must be independently verifiable.
We give statements grades from A to F based on accuracy and context.
If you spot a claim you think needs checking, email us.
Members of the Fact Checker team are Tom Bartona>, Vanessa Miller and Elijah Decious.
Gov. Kim Reynolds’s 2024 Condition of the State address was heavy on claims about education in Iowa, but she also talked about the economy and health care challenges facing our state. The Gazette’s Fact Checker team checked nine of those statements -- which Reynolds used to bolster some of her key legislative priorities -- and gave her A’s, B’s and C’s for accuracy.
Linn County lawmaker says the Iowa Legislature did not ban books. Is that true?
Parental rights and transgender-affirming policies have become a rallying cry with conservatives and among those vying for the Republican presidential nomination in the early nominating state of Iowa. And the Linn-Mar Community School District once again found itself at the forefront of the national gender identity debate.
Prices spiked in Iowa last week. An analyst says refinery disruptions are the real cause, and prices should start dropping soon.
An online ad by the Iowa Academy of Ophthalmology asks Iowans to opposed House File 347, which would allow optometrists to do more eye injections and surgeries.
Iowa Sen. Claire Celsi, D-Des Moines, criticized U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Marion, in a March 23 retweet saying “Once again, Hinson leaves out huge chunks of information! The House GOP budget plan chops 2,000 border agents.”
The Fact Checker checked a claim U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, made about fentanyl overdose deaths in the country.
Fact Checker grades an ad opposing the Credit Card Competition Act, which would require large banks to provide merchants a choice of payment networks besides Visa or Mastercard in an attempt to reduce swipe fees merchants pay for credit card transactions.
The Fact Checker checked seven claims Gov. Kim Reynolds made during her televised speech Tuesday night.
An Iowa GOP election bill from 2021 moved 294,000 Iowans to inactive status for not voting in the 2020 general election. Linn County Auditor Joel Miller, now running for Iowa Secretary of State, says 80 percent of Linn County’s deactivated voters still are inactive, which is “one step closer” to being canceled. We’ll check those claims.
The Fact Checker is going to check a statement from Iowa GOP Chair Jeff Kaufmann about whether Sen. Kevin Kinney, an Oxford Democrat, voted in “lock step with liberal progressives.” Kinney has been endorsed by retiring Republican Rep. Jarad Klein.
Liz Mathis, a Democrat challenging GOP Rep. Ashley Hinson for her seat in the U.S. House, recently posted a tweet about Hinson’s support for a “personhood” bill introduced last year.
Gazette’s Fact Checker team looks at claim by U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst that the federal government is spending $3 million a day to guard steel and other materials left over when President Joe Biden ended border wall construction.
The Fact Checker Team checks two claims from the Iowa Democratic Party as the gubernatorial race between Gov. Kim Reynolds and Deidre DeJear heats up.
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