Iowa Public Policy Dude

Stand by your plan

Chuck Isenhart — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 11:04:02 GMT

Iowa’s newly-minted 10-year Wildlife Action Plan was still hot off the presses when the country’s bull in the china shop threw a giant monkey wrench into it.

How’s that for mixing metaphors? Chaos, I know.

Short-eared owls are a threatened species, one step below endangered. Habitat loss, agricultural changes and predation are the main reasons. I am aware of only a few places in Iowa where these owls can be found, usually in the non-breeding season, including this one patrolling Green Island WMA in Jackson County. Credit: Awestruck Nature Photos.

That’s what the Trump Administration unleashed more of on July 17 when the Interior Department pulled the rug out from under the Endangered Species Act, signed 53 years ago by Republican president Richard Nixon.

The biggest change: Damaging the habitat that endangered species rely on to survive is no longer defined as “harming” them. Remember that the next time someone burns your house down when you’re away, snowbird.

No need to look over your shoulder if you want to bulldoze that prairie, that woodland, that wetland, or carve a housing development out of that goat hill overlooking the Mississippi River….as long as any endangered plants and animals aren’t there when you do it!

“Critical habitat” can now be excluded from protection as long as such a move “will not cause the extinction of the species” (my emphasis). In other words, move fast. You don’t want your land to be the LAST place a bird like the ivory-billed woodpecker is seen hanging out.

The new rules also make it easier for the feds to drag their feet making plans to protect threatened species before they become endangered. The Stanford Law School has a good explanation of the impacts.

The official news release states that the changes are designed to implement a Trump Administration directive to “strengthen American energy independence” and “improve regulatory predictability.” The latter are common buzzwords meaning “make it easier for corporations to do what they want.”

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I could translate the rest of the news release. Let’s just say that the political jargon gives the real game away. Even the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service pines about the “importance of the American people’s ability to prosper in the land of the free.”

Not surprisingly, national organizations led by EarthJustice immediately sued to stop the changes. I wondered about Iowa’s response. I contacted the Department of Natural Resources to ask: Is Iowa DNR — either directly or through the Office of State-Federal Relations — in contact with the Department of the Interior and/or the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs regarding changes to rules implementing the Endangered Species Act? Has DNR been in touch with Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird to join a lawsuit to challenge the new rules? The withdrawal of protections seems to conflict with the newly-approved 2025 Iowa Wildlife Action Plan. I will update this post if/when I receive a response.

The Trump Administration has also repealed the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) “Conservation and Landscape Health Rule.” The rationale: Conservation provisions useful to wildlife in leases for public lands are not legitimate. Public lands are typically leased for grazing, mining, and oil and gas extraction. BLM does not manage any federal lands in Iowa, so DNR will no doubt have nothing to say about it.

State Wildlife Action Plans are required by the Fish and Wildlife Service (for now) to qualify for certain federal funding. I wrote about this last December. My appraisal of the approved Iowa plan was in drafting when the Department of Interior War unleashed the drone attack. So, as they say in the reporting business, I had to “rewrite the lead.” My look inside the public input received and how it was handled will have to wait.

Iowa’s plan was coordinated, compiled and drafted by the DNR. As a science report on the status of species, the document is superb. Many experts were engaged. Seven pages were needed to list them all.

The cerulean warbler is a migratory songbird of “greatest consevation need” in Iowa, with a nearly 70 percent population decline across its range since the 1960s. Jon Stravers and the Driftless Area Bird Conservancy has been studying the bird and its woodland habitats in northeast Iowa for decades. This specimen was heard singing at the Mines of Spain SRA in Dubuque. Credit: Awsstruck Nature Photos.

A key paragraph that jumped out as I choked down the news from Washington D.C. was this: The Iowa Wildlife Action Plan (IWAP) outlines “the steps that are needed to conserve wildlife and habitat before they become too rare or costly to restore. Taken as a whole, these proactive plans present a national action agenda for preventing wildlife from becoming endangered.”

I hope Iowans can walk backwards because Uncle Sam now has us facing the wrong direction with its massive policy change. We are now in the business of watching habitat disappear, becoming rare and costly to restore. Even Teddy Roosevelt is turning over in his grave.

As a strategy for change, we are told that the IWAP is not really a road map for state government but rather a voluntary plan for all stakeholders who care about wildlife. As a result, many sentences in the document have verbs and objects, but not so many have subjects. The passive prose often means we don’t know “who” will be responsible for the “what.” So it’s more of a menu than a blueprint, much like Iowa’s so-called “Nutrient Reduction Strategy” that is presumably cleaning up our water. Do you like the food? Do you get enough?

We don’t count wildlife practices being implemented, much less set goals and timelines for achievement. In part this is because no state tax funds are explicitly appropriated to implement the IWAP, so there is no mechanism for public accountability.

Historically, wildlife conservation is financed with hunting, fishing, boating and other fees paid by sportsmen and women. The Iowa Legislature chronically shortchanges the Resource Enhancement and Protection Program (supposed to be $20 million; reduced to $11 million to help pay for tax cuts and private school vouchers). REAP does not have dollars earmarked for wildlife. (I am told that applicants for grants get “extra credit” if their projects address the wildlife plan.)

Iowa’s voluntary “chickadee checkoff” on the tax form generates about $150,000. Natural resource license plates bring in $400,000. The estimated shortfall to achieve the plan: $80 million. Yet no IWAP recommendation asks the Legislature raise the sales tax to seed the voter-approved Outdoor Recreation and Natural Resources Trust Fund. Adding three cents to the cost of an $8.00 craft beer and other retail sales would bring in $400 million a year for numerous public purposes.

The 424-page IWAP starts promisingly enough, rooting itself in the “public trust doctrine.” That legal principle asserts that natural resources, including wildlife and water, are owned by no one and are held in trust by the government for the benefit of present and future generations.

The document addresses the economic benefits of sustaining biodiversity in Iowa. It cites the high levels of public support as reflected in opinion surveys. Example: 97 percent agree that “we need to ensure that our children and grandchildren can enjoy Iowa’s land, water, wildlife and natural beauty the same way we do.”

The rusty-patched bumblebee is endangered in Iowa. This year it became the first federally-listed pollinator with a conservation plan. The bees are threatened due to habitat loss and fragmentation, pathogens and disease, pesticide and fungicide exposure, and climate change. This guy was found foraging in 2023 at the Driftless Area Wetlands Centre in Marquette. They love wild bergamot (bee balm) because the plant is easier for them to feed on due to the b ee’s shorter tongue. Bergamot can thrive in Iowa grasslands as long as we have grasslands. Credit: Awestruck Nature Photos.

As a document covering the history of wildlife conservation in Iowa, the status of species, the aspirations of stakeholders, the identification of challenges and notable past achievements on the ground, IWAP is a splendid piece of work. Kudos to DNR specialist Katy Fullin and her colleagues for getting it across the finish line.

Yet the vision for wildlife the plan lays out seems fundamentally at odds with the public trust doctrine: “Iowa will have viable wildlife populations that are compatible with modern landscapes and human social tolerance” (emphasis mine). I can’t figure out a better way to interpret it than this: “We will (only) protect wildlife that can survive in the environments (landscapes) we create and can put up with (tolerate) our individual and collective human behavior.”

Among Iowa’s goals, the document says “common species will continue to be common” and “populations of species of greatest conservation need will increase to viable (self-sustaining) levels.” Then we deliberately dash our own hopes: “The abundance and distribution of wildlife will be balanced with its impact on the economic livelihood and social tolerance of Iowans.” That vision feeds right into the rationale for castrating the Endangered Species Act.

We hold some in trust, but not all. That is weak sauce as a call to action. If someone can help me read that a different way, please do. Yes, we know that other public priorities may condition or limit what can be achieved at any given moment, but why forfeit the competition before taking the field?

I have very few photos of the 44 amphibians and reptiles of greatest conservation need in Iowa. I found the snapping turtle above at the Green Island WMA. It takes eight to 20 years for snapping turtles to reach breeding maturity. I do have photos of at least 25 migratory waterfowl that are species of greatest conservation need that rely on Iowa’s rivers, streams and disappearing wetlands. Credit: Awestruck Nature Photos.

We are told that Iowa already has the most altered landscape of any state in the nation, mostly to plant row crops like corn and soybeans, acres which voluntarily yield only to urban sprawl. Are those the beaten paths we want to tread forever? How many living things will it be okay to sacrifice so we can achieve “energy independence?” What will be the blowback to the human species? The threat to pollinators alone may do us in. Check out The Little Things That Run The World.

Since the pandemic, Iowans have been getting outdoors in record numbers. Whether we are just learning to walk or can no longer walk, we have a new sense of appreciation for the natural world around us. That includes me. Some of my photographic encounters with wildlife can be found on this page: Awestruck Nature Photos. Let me know if you have any requests for Iowa wildlife picture postings. I will try to oblige.

Above all, let’s not squander that public support as we seek the public policy and investment we need to conserve and restore what’s left of natural Iowa and all its denizens. Let’s stand by our plan.

You’ve heard it here first. Bill McKibben will be the featured speaker at the 3rd annual Dubuque Area Land and Water Fest, Sunday, September 20, at the Dubuque Arboretum and Botanical Gardens. Climate change is a major threat to wildlife. No one writes or talks more lucidly about climate change than McKibben. His most recent book: Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization. I hope you can join us. Check out the details here.

On the ropes

Chuck Isenhart — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 11:30:19 GMT

The century started out with such promise. On July 1, 1999 (technically fiscal year 2000), Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack inaugurated the College of Public Health. The first new academic unit at the University of Iowa in 50 years recognized the growing impact of research being conducted there.

An AI-generated image. Sorry if this means a data center will be built in your backyard.

In years that followed Iowa passed the Smokefree Air Act and the Public Health Modernization Act. Major steps forward in infectious disease testing and surveillance were enabled when the State Hygienic Laboratory opened a state-of-the-art facility at the University of Iowa. Stakeholders were engaged to create the Healthy Iowans 2010 plan, setting state benchmarks to increase life expectancy, combat obesity and reduce deaths from chronic conditions like heart disease and cancer.

Today, public health in Iowa is frayed. Tattered threads are held together by a dedicated corps of health professionals who refuse to let the public down.

On her way out the door, Kim Reynolds has put in motion a process that will sideline local public health agencies and eventually privatize public health in Iowa.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) calls it “public health system alignment.” It kicked off (publicly) with an “update” at town hall meetings in April. The upshot: County health boards will lose access to most state and federal funding they need to ensure the delivery of services to their citizens.

Instead, money for “public health core services” will flow through regional “lead entities” contracted with the state. Lead entities will be responsible for distributing public dollars directly to service providers in their areas.

Counties now teaming with local providers will be stripped of their roles. In Dubuque County, for example, the health department contracts with UnityPoint Health’s Visiting Nurse Association (VNA) to deliver services. VNA will now have to compete for a contract with the lead entity.

What services are we talking about? I asked the department for detailed information about four programs: Local Public Health Services, Immunizations, Childhood Lead, and the Healthy Eating and Active Living program. The first three, and a portion of the fourth, are proposed for distribution through lead entities starting July 2028. Other funding may be affected in 2029.

In 2026, $7.7 million was distributed by DHS to county health departments for local public health services such as disease prevention, home care, health promotion and public health interventions, including emergency preparedness planning, population health data analysis and environmental health surveillance.

Polk County received $876,552. Adams County got $22,227. Everyone else got something in between. Fifteen counties were granted more than $100,000. Dubuque received $211,326. That money will now flow through regional lead entities.

In 2026, $1.2 million was distributed by DHS to county health departments for immunization services. Dubuque received $18,895. That money now is expected to flow through regional lead entities.

In 2026, 48 counties received $268,688 in grants for child lead poisoning prevention and response. Total funding for the program exceeded $1 million. The state served 51 counties directly. Dubuque received $10,000. That money now is expected to flow through regional lead entities.

In 2026, $1.1 million was distributed by DHS to 38 counties for Healthy Eating/Active Living programs. These include SNAP-Ed (if continued by USDA), Pick a Better Snack, 5-2-1-0 and Older Adult Physical Activity. Among the recipients were nine county health boards and 10 county Extension Councils. A portion of that money is now expected to flow through regional lead entities.

In fiscal year 2027 (which started July 1), the Dubuque County Health Department also planned to receive:

· $37,150 for breast and cervical cancer screening;

· $36,108 for public health emergency preparedness;

· $50,505 for private well testing and grants;

· $50,000 for public health response.

Only the money earmarked for private wells is guaranteed to stay with the County. DHS distributes those grants on behalf of the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), allocated by law from the Groundwater Protection Fund.

Since RFK became U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, vaccines have come under increasing attack. We are going backwards on communicable diseases. Shuttering the U.S. Agency for International Development didn’t help, either. Iowa’s Congresssional delegtaion has been silent.

A complicating factor for HHS: State law and the department’s own administrative rules appear to require that state grant funding — particularly for local public health services — go directly to local boards of health as the “contractors.” The rules codify the formula by which the money is distributed. County boards of health “may directly provide or subcontract all or part of the delivery of essential public health services.” Allowing “lead entities” to go around the local boards may require legislative changes to Iowa Code.

Under the proposed “alignment,” the seven regional lead entities may not be public agencies. If larger counties do apply to play the role, they would be self-dealing on their own contracts and sitting in judgment of other counties applying for funds. Counties that directly deliver services with public employees will compete for contracts with private employers.

According to HHS, the RFP for lead entities will be released in August. The deadline to respond will be in October. Decisions will be announced in December.

Why is county public health getting the bum’s rush, if not because Kim Reynolds is still peeved because some local officials dared to think Iowa needed a stronger response to the Covid pandemic?

The governor’s 2025 Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) report recommended legislative and administrative action to “direct the relevant state agencies to develop a comprehensive plan for transitioning county-administered state services to a regional service delivery model. Each Iowa department currently relying on counties in areas such as public health…should identify functions that could be managed on a multicounty regional basis.”

The Legislature took no such action. A complicated bill to reform local boards of health and encourage counties to band together in districts went nowhere. Net effect of the bill: Deny cities the ability to pass their own public health ordinances. A gutted version passed the Senate but died in the House.

Instead, the department is piggy-backing on legislation the governor signed creating “health and human services districts” out of the “behavioral health districts” created when the state took over the county-based mental health system. The consequence: The department could use state and federal monies it controls to leverage counties out of public health business.

Supposedly, one of the main goals of a unified behavioral health system under state control – other than to reduce property taxes -- is to align mental health care services and funds with addiction/substance use care services and funds. For years I focused in the state legislature on barriers to the effective treatment of such “co-occurring disorders,” with few timely answers forthcoming.

The replacement of 13 county-based mental health regions with seven behavioral health districts is a step in the right direction. The effort to streamline access to services and coordinate funding took effect barely a year ago. Why are we mucking up that transition by shoehorning public health into the deal?

Local boards of health are governing bodies with their own statutory existence and duties. The department has its own public health responsibilities and rules.

Overlooked in the “alignment” process is the fact that many public health functions remain outside the purview of HHS: Environmental health programs, including air quality, private septic systems, drinking water and food safety administered through DNR and the Department of Inspections, Appeals, and Licensing. According to a leading public health practitioner, creating a coherent statewide public health system, as opposed to a departmental re-alignment, would involve defragmenting all public health functions across multiple state agencies.

An HHS department spokesperson stated that “Iowa HHS is not proposing to remove or eliminate any responsibilities assigned to local boards of health in Iowa Code.” But the handwriting is on the wall: Counties will have to come up with their own dough to perform their required duties and meet citizen needs if they don’t conform with the state’s demands as communicated through the “district lead entity.”

The other scenario: Rob Sand is elected governor; he forms a Public Innovations and Efficiencies (PIE) task force to figure out a better way.

The Iowa Public Health Association celebrated its 100-year anniversary in 2025. IPHA is an association of health care professionals and allies. I learned during the pandemic that local public health boards don’t have an effective formal vehicle to officially advocate on their own behalf. As a matter of public policy, they are sitting ducks.

To its credit, HHS is hosting an online FAQs page to address questions about realignment as they arise. Some of my inquiries have shown up there. One question and the frank response sums up the predicament:

Q: The current funding (for) local public health agencies is insufficient to do the necessary work. How will the core services be funded with an additional layer of district administration?
A: These are the difficult discussions and decisions facing public health. We need to be clear about whether we are going to prioritize a defined set of services and do them well, or continue trying to address every need without sufficient investment. Without additional funding, public health cannot fully meet all of the demands affecting the health and well-being of the public.

Since the Branstad/Reynolds regime has been in place, no HHS director has defied instructions to recommend more than a “status quo” budget for public health. We all know that “status quo” does not mean doing more with less; it means doing less with the same.

At the top, I referred to dedicated public health professionals who are using bubble gum and shoestrings to keep the engine running. I served on the Appropriations Subcommittee for Health and Human Services for two years in the Iowa House of Representatives. When the Department testified on their budget, members were lucky to get time for more than one or two questions.

To her credit, then-director Kelly Garcia volunteered regular formal meetings with House and Senate committee members and staff. She didn’t need to do that. She did not hide the fact that some decisions were outside her control.

Garcia came on board as HHS director in November 2019. She was confirmed by the Iowa Senate in February 2020. Less than a month later, Iowa shut down for the pandemic public health disaster emergency. In June, Gerd Clabaugh “retired” as director of public health. Kelly was named interim director.

In 2023, Kim Reynolds signed her mammoth 1,500-page state government reorganization and centralization-of-power bill. The Department of Public Health was sucked into the black hole of the Department of Health and Human Services. The state Board of Health was abolished. During the pandemic, they defied Her Highness and dared to recommend a statewide mask mandate. Public health now has no page of its own on the HHS website.

Navigating the pandemic, constant reorganization, the federal investigation over the now-closed Glenwood Resource Center for Iowans with developmental disabilities: Stress-filled times for any agency director.

Kelly Garcia, director of Iowa health and human services, visiting Hills and Dales in Dubuque in 2021. (Photo: Hills and Dales.)

When Director Garcia visited Dubuque to meet with local providers, I observed a caring and compassionate public servant. She tried hard to be true to her calling and, at the same time, loyal to her boss. I admired her for that. I told her once. She seemed surprised and genuinely touched by the comment. Maybe she didn’t hear it enough.

The people who worked for Director Garcia and still toil in the Department are passionate professionals dedicated to caring for people and doing right by them. I have no doubt that “above all, do no harm” is foremost in their minds. The same can be said about the virtuosos at Iowa’s local public health agencies. HHS has not claimed that public health dollars are being used ineffectively. No evidence of waste or abuse is beiong offered. So what drives the massive changes?

Why Director Garcia resigned unexpectedly in 2025 is anyone’s guess. Was the tightrope too unsteady to walk anymore? Perhaps picking public health apart was a step too far, too fast. Nevertheless, the baton has been grasped by the current, Senate-rejected leader of the department, Larry Johnson.

The tightrope. If not the plank, the tightrope is what people are made to walk when we stop investing in public health. No safety net can catch all who fall.

After publication of this post, I received the following statement from Danielle Sample, director of communications for Iowa HHS. I agreed to publish the statement here.

"Iowa has identified the need for more collaboration among local public health providers for many years. Examples already exist, including the public health emergency preparedness service areas created in 2017 and collaborative service areas for child, adolescent, and maternal health put in place in 2019. The Public Health System alignment builds on these efforts to strengthen coordination across the state. Iowa HHS has hosted 11 town halls total this year, visiting all seven HHS districts in April with an additional three town halls recently in July and August seeking input and sharing information along the way. Iowa HHS started discussing this idea publicly with local public health leaders 3 years ago.”

Thumbs up or thumbs down

Chuck Isenhart — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 11:02:36 GMT

“Back in the day” (my day), Siskel and Ebert became famous film critics with a TV show that gave “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” to movies they reviewed.

New fans like my nephews were half the story of the spectacle known as the World Cup.

Let’s break out the thumbs to assess some pros and cons of this year’s World Cup, the first to be held in North America since 1994.

👍🏼 The fans, many new to the game but not to national pride, inside and outside the stadium and at watch parties throughout the world. The generous use of “fan cams” showed that both FIFA and the media realize how spectators are as vital to the spectacle as the players. The “Viking Row” chant invented by Norway ultras became a smash hit. Next time, let viewers vote for “best fan costume” for each game in addition to best player.

👍🏼 Record television viewership, with audiences up 150 percent from Qatar in 2022. United States v. Belgium attracted 30 million sets of eyes on Fox and 12 million on Telemundo, a single game record. (Notably, many English-speaking fans deserted Fox for Telemundo to find less chatty commentators not so obsessed with trivia and more focused on the play-by-play.) Globally, the World Cup Final audience will exceed 1.5 billion.

👍🏼 Revelations: Players not expected to make big splashes, including Jude Bellingham of England, Michael Olise of France, Julián Quiñones of Mexico, Pedro Porro of Spain and, of course, Erling Haaland of Norway, who emerged as the most charismatic personality of the tournament. Oh, and let’s not forget Cape Verde’s 40-year-old goalkeeper, Vozinha!

👍🏼 Teams exceeding expectations: Norway, Egypt, Switzerland, the United States through the Round of 32, and most of the African teams including Cape Verde and Congo (which was the only African team that qualified in 1974, when it was known as Zaire). Cabo Verde gave both Spain and Argentina the scares of their lives. This year, nine of 10 African teams advanced out of the group stage. These nations rewarded FIFA for expanding the tournament to 48 teams. Rumor is that 64 is next, making for a Summer Madness.

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👍🏼 Referee Ismail Elfath and his assistants, Corey Parker and Kyle Atkins, became the first officials from the United States to work a late-stage (semi-final) game at the World Cup when they supervised England v. Argentina. The crew’s work invited no mass criticism. No VAR reviews were needed.

👍🏼 A second milestone: Tori Penso, Brooke Mayo and Kathryn Nesbitt of the United States became only the second all-female crew to officiate a World Cup game. Their assignment to Czechia v. South Africa was the first time an all-American team of women was assigned to a match.

👍🏼 Television and streaming commercials beat the Super Bowl hands down (though we didn’t want to see them during the “hydration breaks”). Best involved the clever use of soccer themes, images, players and celebrities, such as Will Ferrell driving a bandwagon cross-country, picking up unlikely spectators as he goes. In another, a star-studded assembly of players such as Lamine Yamal and Jude Bellingham take on some skinny-jean inner city kids on a concrete high-rise playground. The adidas ad shows how accessible the game is no matter where you live and how deep the game penetrates American culture. Then there was Andres Cantor’s iconic “gooooooool” call. Look for these and more on YouTube.

“Watch parties” were the go-to option for fans unable to afford $1,000 or more for tickets. This crfew hung out to watch the U.S. Mens’ National Team at a “velebration zione” hosted by the MLS team F.C. Dallas.

👎🏼 Video assistant reviews: The VAR system created more controversy than it prevented or resolved. The aggrieved exiting under this cloud included Croatia, Egypt, Switzerland and Germany. Messi and his team benefited. People started referring to “VARgentina,” claiming a conspiracy to get the team to the Final (unfounded, if you ask me). I predict a serious reckoning and significant changes in VAR going forward.

👎🏼 The third place game: France v. England on Saturday determined the best semi-final loser. The pointless contest lets FIFA sell more ads and fill one more stadium. Players like Mbappe can stat-pad. What would make it meaningful? How about: The top three teams get free passes to the next World Cup. Give them something to play for. Still, the 6-4 England win was a thriller.

👎🏼 Sky-high ticket prices, a distribution system and online scalping sites that meant many fans paid $1,000 or much more to attend a game. For today’s final game, on StubHub as of Friday: Nothing below $8,000. The small allotments of $60 “supporter entry” tickets were unavailable to the average family. Still, most games were reported to be “full houses.”

👎🏼 Underperforming teams: Traditional powerhouses Germany, the Netherlands, Uruguay, Portugal and Brazil, along with Turkiye, South Korea, and the United States against Belgium.

👎🏼 High-profile government mistreatment of some guests, failing the promise made to host the World Cup. Travel and housing arrangements of Iran were impeded. A referee from Somalia was deported. (Europe recognized that injustice: Omar Artan is invited to Austria August 12 to officiate the 2026 Super Cup match between Paris Saint-Germain and Aston Villa.) Oh, yeah, and let’s not forget about that bit of presidential interference in the red card suspension of an American player.

👍🏼 After Hours with James Corden. The arrival of “the beautiful game” on the U.S. cultural landscape was secured by Fox’s late night post-game show featuring football greats such as Rio Ferdinand. The episodes celebrated the game in all its aspects and subjected luminaries to comedic wisecracks. A highlight: Co-host Ian Karmel teased the Switzerland coach about his villainous appearance. Murat Yakin submitted an unsolicited, shadowy video response regaling all things Swiss – watches, banks, chocolate, the ibex – concluding as he peered menacingly over his glasses that his only evil intent was to beat other countries at the World Cup.

👍🏼 Community bonding. Each team had a “base camp” in the United States, Canada or Mexico. A love affair developed between Algeria and Lawrence, Kansas. Hundreds of residents greeted the team’s arrival. The “Desert Foxes” responded with an open training session attended by 2,500, where the players interacted with kids. The city adopted the team. Gifts were exchanged. When Algeria played Jordan, in a sign of respect, a local bar cleared room for a non-alcohol watch party.

Norway fans delivered the “Viking Row” chant to World Cup venues. The “Lions” returned the favor after the games.

👍🏼 No incidents inside or outside stadiums to “prove” the fake news that soccer fans are poster children for sports violence. Images and stories of joyous, peaceful interactions abounded, including among the five to 10 million international visitors. OK, so maybe a few England and Argentina fans still had a few things to say about the Falkland/Maldive Islands.

👍🏼 The best player: Messi, playing with a team of cats who seemed to have nine lives. Ten of their 19 goals came after the 80^th minute, with narrow escapes against Cape Verde, Egypt and England.

👍🏼 The best team of players: Spain, led by their captain, Rodri. La Roja gave up only one goal in eight games, shutting down Argentina in the Final. Messi and company were able to manufacture only two shots the whole game, with none during regular time.

In short, World Cup 2026 earned many more thumbs up than thumbs down.

Speaking of Spain, who’s up for a trip to Morocco, Portugal and Spain in 2030? Let’s enter the ticket lottery for the next World Cup. But don’t break your piggy banks before then.

This commentary was originally published in the Dubuque Telegraph Herald, July 19, 2026.

Data centers all the rage

Chuck Isenhart — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 11:02:55 GMT

Cedar Rapids Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell summarized the pinch that Americans are in when it comes to data centers:

The Google data center in Council Bluffs that grows out of the distant landscape like Emerald City.

Every Google search, online bank transaction, credit card purchase, streaming media download. Amazon order, cloud photo backup, Zoom meeting, GPS route map, social media post -- and email subscription to Substack like this one -- depends on a data center somewhere.

Everything we do in our virtual daily lives now requires the processing, storage and transmission of batches of data and information made up of 0s and 1s.

Describing the “necessary infrastructure” as no longer optional but essential, O’Donnell took to her Facebook page to explain and defend her city’s openness to data centers, touching on the topline questions. She concluded: “The communities that embrace responsible innovation will shape the future. The ones that don’t will watch it happen somewhere else.”

Responsible. Ahhhh, yes. Let the definition of “responsible” be our schism.

On a recent trip through the countryside to assess storm and flood damage in Dubuque County, I drove past the farmland a developer has eyed for a potential data center client. According to the Pew Research Center, data centers covet rural locations.

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To start with, the definition of data centers is squishy. Two people would have trouble agreeing on it. Iowa recently expanded public subsidies for the services they provide without mentioning the words.

The Amazons, Googles, Metas, Microsofts and Apples of the world often do not secure their own sites. The firms rely on middlemen to scout communities and sites where they may be welcome, sparing the name brands the time, expense and potential blowback, or hits to their goodwill (an actual asset on corporate balance sheets). Development costs are passed on to the end users of heavy cloud workloads, supercomputing and generative AI.

AI. Ahhhh, yes. Artificial intelligence.

The above-the-ground case made against data centers focuses on energy, water, conversion of farmland, size, noise, emissions, setbacks, information disclosure and public incentives – the usual development-related issues.

But what about the undercurrents? What explains how data centers have become such pariahs, lightning rods, the new carbon pipelines when it comes to setting the hair of Iowans on fire?

For many people, privacy is the central issue. The belief: Data centers are where personal data from our digital interactions are collected by faceless, irresponsible racketeers and peddled for profit, disrupting our lives. Meanwhile, government remains unable or unwilling to protect that privacy.

According to Pew, public opinion on data centers is trending downward. The greatest opposition comes from younger Americans.

A radio broadcast I heard on my rural windshield tour hinted at one reason for this turn in opinion. “The Daily” is a popular New York Times news analysis podcast on Iowa Public Radio. That day, host Natalie Kitroeff and her guest discussed “Young Economic Populists Reshaping the Left.”

Thesis: A generation of young people was advised by elected officials and others to borrow huge sums of money for college educations so they can qualify for the jobs of the future and be better off than their parents. Many have found the opposite to be true. Large numbers of graduates are now unemployed (in their chosen fields), underpaid and underwater on their debt, with no bailouts in sight.

Among the causes: Automation, globalization, dilution in the value of college degrees,the decline of unions. Now, add an “affordability crisis” to the cauldron, a life crisis for many that some attribute to the avarice of billionaires and faceless corporations taking advantage of wars, pandemics, climate disasters and D.C. accomplices.

Construction at the Google data center in Council Bluffs in 2025, Data center owners tend to grow their existing facilities rather than break new ground elsewhere.

My takeaway: Data centers are an incarnation of economic insecurity. Opposition to them is a tangible manifestation of generational frustration. They hold “artificial intelligence” and its propagators responsible for a range of social maladies -- taking their jobs, tanking their future prospects, usurping the public square with deceitful social media, even gutting democracy itself.

Parents – they’d love to see their kids move out of the basement again and pay off their debts. At the macro level, the AI takeover suppresses the “economic optimism index.”

Organizing to oppose a tangible thing is easier than opposing an intangible idea. Most recent example: Public opposition to large “ICE prisons” – super-sized immigrant detention facilities (often converted warehouses) that U.S. Homeland Security is building across the country. Rabbling crowds are flooding public meetings to express their fury, using public pressure to block them where possible. Data center opponents are taking notes.

In the short term, most data center construction will go nowhere fast. Where moratoriums are in place, no projects not already on the table will be proposed. Such projects would become pinatas.

We’ve seen that movie before. In 2025, Dubuque County supervisors spent months working on a renewable energy ordinance. The county zoning commission, bent on “just saying no,” proposed regulations that would have made most projects non-viable. A solar developer working with farmers near Holy Cross withdrew. Nothing has been heard about the ordinance since.

Iowa lawmakers tried and failed to standardize local government regulation of renewable energy facilities. In 2026, the Legislature also failed to adopt modest disclosure requirements for data centers. The issue may yet emerge as a major partisan divide on the November election campaign trail.

The economic and social sky backlighting the rise of “responsible” data centers does not dismiss the fact that serious practical issues cloud their feasibility in many places.

The conversion of farmland -- whether for housing, energy or industry – eventually comes down to a private property rights debate. The closer you get to residential and other developed areas, the more that setbacks, noise, heat, air quality (from diesel generators) and other operational issues loom large.

Data centers need power. They are close to electric transmission lines, like this one that crosses southern Dubuque County.

Water and energy use are the main drivers of public policy scrutiny.

Groundwater withdrawals may be addressed by new technologies that allow for re-use in “closed-loop” systems. Since water is defined as a public wealth in Iowa, state lawmakers can incentivize reuse with an excise tax similar to what other states impose on oil and gas.

In fact, anticipating that hydrogen and rare earth mineral mining may be the next extraction booms in the state, Iowa lawmakers drove a stake in the ground this session by prospectively imposing such a tax.

As I calculated for another essay, even a .0001 per gallon tax (one-hundredth of one cent) on a sand mining company would raise $400,000 a year, based on their projected use of four billion gallons. Such a fee -- spread across all private water users in the state -- could raise a pretty penny to address surface water quality and help communities provide clean drinking water and wastewater treatment for their residents.

A prospective developer approached the City of Dubuque about water. The City just extended service to the airport area. For the site in question, annexation might be required, which would be a stretch. In 2016, the City of Dubuque bought out a nearby rural water system, setting themselves up as the go-to provider for economic development south and west of the city.

Dubuque, not always a role model for public participation when crafting ordinances, mailed a survey seeking input from all its residents. County supervisors, lacking the professional staff to charge with carrying out its directives, describes itself as “going in circles.” The body is considering an outright, permanent ban.

Energy remains the biggest question mark. The company exploring Dubuque County, Karis, develops cold storage, industrial and data center sites for lease. Why did they approach farmers for the 420 acres they are looking for on land in the flight paths of the regional airport?

Simple: Because the center would be under an electric transmission line, next to a large substation and above a natural gas pipeline not far away: Everything needed to power a data center. Or fuel an on-site power plant.

As it happens, MISO -- the “Midcontinent Independent (Electrical) System Operator” – is studying a plan to extend a 340-kilovolt transmission line to the Salem substation in that area. Stated purpose: To serve a 160-megawatt natural gas electric generation facility.

A similar project in Scott County proposed by CIPCO (Central Iowa Power Cooperative) is being entertained by the Iowa Utilities Commission. CIPCO says the project is needed to serve existing rural electric customers. Alliant Energy wants to build a 720-megawatt gas-fired power plant in Linn County for data centers.

Substations like this one in southern Dubuque County take power from transmission lines owned by companies like ITC Midwest and step down the voltage so the electricity can be distributed to utility customers served by companies such as Alliant Energy and Maquoketa Valley REC.

Fossil fuels provoke climate activists. Natural gas and diesel-powered generation create carbon pollution, causing global warming. Heat waves increase data center power demands. A few states with robust climate policies (Iowa is not one of them) require new data centers to run on renewable energy such as wind and solar.

In any case, the transmission and distribution companies tell me that new customers with large electricity demands would be required to pay for the power generation and transmission grid enhancements that “load” would require. Their policies: Don’t make existing customers pay the costs to serve big new customers. ITC Midwest claims that once such high-load customers are brought on line, they can lower the transmission costs assessed to all other customers.

What remains the driving force for elected officials like Mayor O’Donnell? The construction industry likes data centers. Otherwise, data centers don’t directly employ a lot of people. States are not requiring huge job numbers in exchange for generous subsidies. Yet some communities benefit from new jobs when ancillary industries “co-locate” where data centers are being constructed. A Des Moines firm that manufactures electrical equipment for data centers and utilities has asked the state for $2 million in tax benefits to create 160 new jobs.

The pot at the end of the rainbow for local government is $$$. Tax revenue. Iowa lawmakers put cities and counties in straitjackets this year. Property tax increases that city councils and supervisors can collect to pay for higher costs of basic services are limited: two percent max.

The only way out of the pickle: Create new taxable value. Data centers result in new buildings and increased land values, generating new property taxes not subject to the cap. Catch-22: No one knows how much tax revenue a project might generate until an actual project is proposed. A moratorium prevents considering that factor.

So I close out this treatise with an indirect comparison.

John Deere Dubuque Works covers 140 acres and employs 2,800 people in Dubuque County. Assessed value of property in 2026: $15.6 million. Value exempt from taxation: $355,000 (2.3 percent). Property taxes paid: $332,218.

The Microsoft Data Center on Booneville Road in West Des Moines, built between 2021 and 2026, covers 153 acres. Microsoft employs 600 people across the community. Investment in buildings: $1.2 billion. Investment in equipment (servers, storage, networking): $1.1 billion. Assessed property value in 2026: $804 million. Value exempt from taxation: $315 million (39 percent). Property taxes paid: $4.9 million.

Do the rest of the math. Local elected officials are.

West Des Moines, Polk County and the school district use the money to do more nice things for their residents and students. They can reduce the property taxes everyone else pays.

Is that the end of the story? Hardly.

The show isn’t over until somebody sings, as the saying goes, but I have a sudden urge to hear some Judas Priest.

A new video game

Chuck Isenhart — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 11:03:35 GMT

Was the runner safe at first? Did the wide receiver step out of bounds before reaching the goal line? Was the foul flagrant one or flagrant two?

Everyone is weighing in, so I might as well, too, on what seems to have become the most talked about issue of World Cup 2026. The technology designed to eliminate controversy is creating it, instead. Hérculez Gómez, former U.S. national team player and now a sports commentator for ESPN, had this take on use of VAR.

Spectators and home viewers are accustomed to instant replay being used to correct umpires and referees.

Controversy over removing the “human element” from sports (“we all make mistakes”) reached a new level at the World Cup. The United States’ top goal-scorer was ejected from a game for (accidentally?) stepping on an opponent’s ankle.

Folarin Balogun’s automatic one-game suspension was lifted by the rules committee of soccer’s governing body, FIFA. He played in the following game against Belgium. Balogun made no impact and the U.S. lost anyhow.

The reversal set an astonished soccer world ablaze. In addition to the political interference involved in “changing the rules in the middle of the game,” the incident also focused attention on soccer’s use of a “video assistant referee” or VAR.

As a soccer referee for many years, I have my own take.

The system puts an extra official in a remote replay room to help the on-field referee in critical situations. “Clear and obvious errors” can be corrected and unseen incidents of serious misconduct addressed. That’s the story, at least.

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Off-field review in soccer started in 2014 with goal-line technology to certify if the whole ball crossed the whole line to score a goal. Such use of replay is now widely accepted in most sports, including hockey and football. In 2022, full-blown use of a VAR came to the World Cup in Qatar.

Set aside the hullabaloo over Balogun’s get-out-of jail-free card. The way video-assisted review is now being used changes the way referees work, not always for the better. The outcome of games is affected in unforeseen ways.

Chip technology inside the ball allows a computer to automatically determine if and when a ball is touched. That is being used to decide whether a player is offside.

Croatia was eliminated and Portugal advanced when Joško Gvardiol’s dramatic last-minute goal was wiped out this way. No visual replay showed that a teammate “clearly and obviously” redirected the ball on its way through to Gvardiol. No players on the field were “up-in-arms.” Many spectators including me found that outcome unjust.

Penalty kicks (usually leading to goals) and “sending-offs” (punished with game suspensions) often result from VAR reviews.

Folarin Balogun of the U.S. is shown a red card by referee Raphael Claus. Photo Credit © Phil Noble, Reuters via Imagn Images.

In many situations, the referee has not whistled at all. Case 1: The foul by Balogun. Case 2: A penalty kick for Mexico called against England’s Harry Kane in an incident the referee looked straight at in real time. Case 3: A goal denied to Egypt for a “foul” 100 yards away for contact other referees have overlooked under FIFA’s preference to “let them play.”

Both the French referee and VAR did exactly that 34 minutes later when Egypt captain Mohammed Salah was kicked in the penalty area. Argentina went the length of the field to score the deciding goal.

Some referees seem to use the VAR as a crutch, no longer trusting their own eyes, hesitant to make decisions themselves. The VAR simply “re-referees” the game from the booth, making their own judgment calls, even though using slow-motion and stop action replay is supposedly against protocol.

Nothing happens on the field in slow motion. Players, coaches and fans don’t expect to agree with referees on every judgment call. We get on with the game.

What players and coaches really prize is “consistency” within the game, knowing what to expect. The VAR makes consistency on the field hard to achieve. Plus, you never see what you often see in hockey and football – officials huddling to compare notes in efforts to get the call right. That reassures players and fans alike.

So, we get situations that will enrage debate for years. Case-in-point: The send-off of Switzerland’s Embolo in a quarterfinal game. A yellow card against an Argentina player turned into a second caution for Embolo for “diving” (referred to as simulation in the rules). Why? Because the VAR turned a simple misjudgment by the referee (who did not consult his partners) into a case of supposed “mistaken identity.”

Had the protocol allowed the Portuguese referee to use common sense, he would have rescinded the caution against the Argentina player, put his card back in his pocket and wagged his finger at Embolo. "Dude, fool me once, shame on me. Do it again and the shame will be on you.” The situation would have been quickly forgotten in the fog of World Cup history. Instead, Switzerland was forced to play the rest of their game a man down, on their heals, until Lautaro Martinez scored the winning goal for Argentina. The anti-VAR crowd erupted.

Video review in soccer is more accepted when getting it right involves factual situations such as whether a foul occurred inside or outside the penalty area. Or did the assistant referee fail to see that a goal-scorer was clearly offside by more than a toe?

Spectators aren’t interested in seeing great goals wiped out when a body part is slightly past a defender based solely on a microchip in a ball and artificial intelligence that “prove” when the ball was last played.

Technology in the ball and AI were used to detect contact with strands of hair on the Croatian player’s head, putting his teammate offside on the tying goal and put Croatia out of the World Cup against Portugal.

In my experience, if the referee is decisive, a VAR will not often suggest that on-field calls be reviewed. If Argentinian referee Raphael Claus had shown Balogun a yellow card (which is what the clumsy foul deserved) the VAR probably would not have intervened based on a cringy still photo. If he had, Claus could have stuck with his decision. By the time the VAR told Claus to take a look at the monitor, with no other decision made, Balogun was toast.

I attend annual training sessions to keep my soccer refereeing licenses. We are told the role of the referee is to make the game “E-S-E” (easy) – that is, enjoyable, safe and equitable, or fair, for players and spectators alike.

The VAR system, with its long delays and inconsistent use, makes the game harder for referees, squashes the enjoyment of fans, and sometimes robs the players of justice. Let’s find ways to argue more about what happens on the field and less about what happens in the VAR booth.

I foresee a day when soccer takes the route of other sports: Give the team captain two chances to request video review for limited, defined reasons, but not to question judgment calls. Use them wisely. Otherwise, “play on.”

This essay was updated from an article first published in the Dubuque Telegraph Herald on July 12, 2026.

Dunking on data centers

Chuck Isenhart — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 11:02:21 GMT

The specter of “data centers” taking up and casting long shadows over Iowa’s hallowed farmland is kindling a wildfire of citizen activism in Dubuque County...

I thought I could get away from the conflagration for a while by flying to Texas to visit family and take in the World Cup. But nooooo! What I learned on my summer vacation: You can run but you can’t hide.

Turns out my nephew works for an electrical company doing engineering work for data centers. Although he works on hospital design, he said his firm will be focusing solely on data centers in the future. So my nephew is full of opinions he was eager to share.

We listened to some live music with friends at the Truck Yard in Colony (home to The Toilet Seat Art Museum). Turned out one of the friends works for an electrical supply company serving data centers.

I have been a connoisseur of newspapers since grade school (when I published my own), so I was compelled to pay $4.99 every day for the Dallas Morning News. What did I find on page 8A as I waited for my plane to board? “Texas needs better framework for data centers.” ::::sigh::::

In Iowa, data centers are the new carbon pipelines. They would generate more controversy if they could be fueled by ethanol. (Many DO rely on diesel generators for backup power.)

I guess I can now claim a tax deduction for half the cost of my trip as “research” for this post.

Texas is struggling with most of the same issues as Iowa. Land use does not seem to be the top concern. Texas has a lot of it. Less than four percent is tilled for farming. Over half of Texas is used for pasture and grazing. The cattlemen have an axe to grind over water. One-third of the state is in active drought.

North Texas, where I visited, is an epicenter of data center debate. In June, Texas Governor Greg Abbott proposed sweeping legislation. As Laura Huffman and Steven Pedigo of CivilSol described in their analysis for the Morning News: “Data centers should add their own power generation to the grid, pay their own interconnection costs, use closed-looped water systems, and report electricity and water use annually.”

Abbott also wants to repeal state sales tax exemptions for data centers. Very interesting for a governor who touts Texas as the most business-friendly state for 22 years. One reason, if not the main one: Polling data showing collapsing public support for data centers, a sure-fire way to get an elected official’s attention.

But Abbott does not want to give local governments the power to say “no.” Even if they wanted to say no, Texas cities and counties are in a bind due to tax policies that may sound familiar to Iowans, where our governor considers Texas a state to emulate and support with Natioinal Guard and state trooper deployments.

According to Huffman and Pedigo: “The Texas Legislature has steadily stripped local governments of the tools they need to raise revenue. In 2019, lawmakers capped annual property tax revenue at 3.5 percent. In 2025, they tried to push it to one percent.” Sound familiar?

City councilors and county supervisors everywhere notice the tax dollar potential in data center projects, even though they bring relatively few new jobs to communities after construction. That’s the usual measuring stick for local economic developers.

No wonder local officials are conflicted. No wonder so many are turning to moratoriums, extensive public input processes and special ordinances for data centers, hoping vocal citizen-voters are willing to help identify and support a “consensus” that will bail them out of taking tough votes. In reality, many think “no” is the only option that should be on the multiple-choice test.

I put data centers in “parentheses” on purpose. If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen one. There is no commonly-accepted legal definition for regulatory purposes. Every community is is challenged to make one up. The federal government definition: Any facility that primarily contains electronic equipment used to process, store, and transmit digital information that uses environmental control equipment to maintain the proper conditions for operation.

That could include the “back office” of a company that maintains its own servers. Such firms are now outsourcing such “non-core competencies” to the Metas, Amazons and Googles of the world offering “cloud computing solutions” that require….data centers. “Crypto-currency mining” is responsible for numerous smaller digital dens.

At the beginning of the data center craze, Iowa reflexively decided the state had to “compete” with other states by offering sales tax and property tax exemptions, followed by other incentives such as tax-increment financing, local tax abatements and job training.

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This year, the Iowa Legislature doubled down with House File 960, which passed the House 86-3 and the Senate 33-11. DataCenters.com tells the complete story on what the “$150 million annual package” includes and how the “Iowa Data Infrastructure Act” expands incentives for “hyperscale” cloud computing investments.

Debi Durham has been director of the Iowa Economic Development Authority since 2011. She has been the architect for all of Terry Branstad’s and Kim Reynolds’ business incentive programs. Some of those bills were assigned to me to manage for House Democrats. Rarely were we successful in putting tighter guardrails on such legislation.

As a member of the Economic Growth and Economic Development Appropriations subcommittees in the Iowa House, I was invited by Durham to tour Google’s data center in Council Bluffs several years ago, an invitation I regret not accepting.

Not until 2025 did I see the handiwork for the first time. I visited western Iowa on a water quality fact-finding mission for the Dubuque Area Land and Water Legacy. I decided to swing from Council Bluffs toward the small city of Glenwood to find the troubled Glenwood Resource Center, a state-run facility for Iowans with severe disabilities that was closed in 2024.

Emerald City? Heaven? No, it’s Council Bluffs, in Iowa — Google data center.

On the way, in the distance, along the Missouri River, I spied what looked like Emerald City. As it happened, the road took me past the entrance and under the power lines to the massive Google data center that was in the process of becoming more massive. I realized then that data centers would intrude on my consciousness again in the future.

In Dubuque County, that consciousness came with a sign on Olde Davenport Road across from a farm field coveted by a data center developer who has offered to purchase the land. The sign: “Honk if you against the data center.” The now-confirmed rumor led to a one-year moratorium by county supervisors so they can come up with an ordinance to regulate them.

The public outcry prodding the supervisors to act included 7,000 signatures on a virtual petition. Some 500 people showed up to a zoning meeting, in person and online, objecting to the proposal.

The moratorium pushes final decisions well past the November 5 elections. That guarantees that “data centers” will be a campaign lightning rod. One candidate for county supervisor calls the issue “political plutonium.” The Democrat on the three-member Board who recommended 12 months for the moratorium instead of four is retiring. The Republican running for re-election initially opposed a moratorium, which has since been updated and tightened.

In the meantime, the cities of Dubuque, Peosta and Cascade have decided they need to get on the stick and craft their own ordinances. Surrounding counties are doing the same. Maquoketa, in nearby Jackson County, is taking a different approach. No moratorium. No special ordinance. In fact, the city has retained a firm to help recruit a data center for their industrial park.

Why “data centers” are sparking such public attention and blowback is a phenomenon I will return to in a future post. Spoiler alert: The letters A and I will be prominently featured. You may want to review your Sesame Street lessons.

As a public policy egghead, I also feel compelled to dig further into the nitty-gritty issues, illuminating for myself the actors and the moving parts they control.

What new monuments are on the horizon for Iowa’s landscape? Who will ultimately decide?

I’ll make the popcorn. You want butter?

The real World Cup story

Chuck Isenhart — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 11:01:25 GMT

I rolled the dice. Snake eyes, or so I thought.

Traveling to Dallas for the World Cup, I gambled that the United States would finish second in their group and play a knockout game there.

Erling Haaland bangs the drum for the Viking Row chant with Norway fans after beating Brazil for the second time at a World Cup — this year and in 1998, the last time Norway qualified for the tournament.

Or, if Norway had upset France (which they didn’t try to do), and if Ivory Coast had knocked off Germany (which they almost did), I could have attended France v. Germany. Between them, the European nations have won the World Cup six times.

Both were losing bets. But my nephews and I -- along with 69,663 other spectators -- all came away winners after a Norway v. Ivory Coast spectacle. Ivory Coast was better that day, more entertaining. Norway capitalized on their chances when the moments came, winning 2-1 on an Erling Haaland 86^th minutetap-in.

I don’t gamble except fot the occasional five dollars on Super Bowl squares. But it’s worth noting that the 2026 World Cup will likely be the “biggest betting event in history, surpassing the 2022 Cup and the record-setting 2025 Super Bowl, with more than $50 billion projected to be wagered worldwide, according to Macquarie,” a global financial firm.

Who are people betting on? With his Viking visage, the charismatic Haaland is a media darling and a hit with fans, along with Messi, Mbappe, Harry Kane, and others. Haaland’s two goals sent Brazil packing. Norway remains the only team the five-time Cup champions have never beaten at the national level.

However, in addition to the individual players, millions of new and life-long soccer enthusiasts are just as much of the story. Media interviews, Jumbotrons and television “fan cams” highlight the jubilant, costumed spectators at the venues and watch parties around the world.

At the 1994 World Cup, we needed tour guides to find places where people could hang out together. This year, every watering hole selling Michelob Ultra is tuning their big screens into the games. One exception: Lowbrows Saloon in Pilot Point preferred the rodeo. I was in Texas, after all.

My competitive, pre-teen nephews (both baseball nuts) got into the spirit by adopting different teams. One thought Ivory Coast would coast. The other said “Nor-way will we lose.”

Ellis scored an orange Ivory Coast Elephants t-shirt from a passerby he made friends with who later appeared on the giant screen inside the stadium. Otis posed for a photo with the Norway ultra (fan club) leader who invented the “Viking Row” chant that has become all the rage: Fans sitting in rows move their arms in unison to mimic the oarsmen on a Viking ship, rhythmically shouting “Ro! Ro! Ro!”

Norway captain Martin Odegaard (an energizer bunny on the field) banged the drum while Haaland led the team in a post-game rowing celebration in front of their fans. The whole stadium joined in.

The wifi at World Cup venues was overloaded with people posting their selfies.

Soccer has become the one sport where players routinely applaud their fans after the game. All athletes should adopt this custom: Acknowledge the patrons who come up with the coin to pay your salaries and cover your commercial sponsorships.

FIFA exacts a 30 percent surtax on every ticket resold in online marketplaces like StubHub. Presumably, this helps the organizing body cover the $871 million in payouts to participating teams, including $50 million to the Cup winner.

The fees I paid exceeded the ticket price for any Major League Soccer game. At some venues, one beer costs the same as a case of Busch Light on sale at home. The point: Players owe their fans. Big time.

Fans are delivering. That includes teaching each other about their countries, their histories, their traditions, and the role that football (soccer) plays in their national identities.

I reached out to my Facebook friends to tell me about their World Cup experiences. I was blown away by the response, with game reports from Kansas City, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Boston, Houston, Vancouver, Seattle and Monterrey.

Aziz Haffar, the 2025 natiional soccer coach of the year with West Des Moines Valley, made a surprise trip to Kansas City as a gift from friends to watch his home country of Ghana play against Colombia.

Aziz Haffar, national soccer coach of the year from Iowa, celebrates with fans from his home country of Ghana in Kansas City.

Norway is home to the eminent Nobel Peace Prize (far superior to the FIFA Peace Prize). I was intrigued by the Ivory Coast boosters in Dallas who sported the name “Drogba” on their replica uniforms.

Didier Drogba retired in 2018 as captain and all-time top goal-scorer for Ivory Coast. Twice named African Footballer of the Year, he is Chelsea’s top foreign-born goalscorer in the vaunted English Premier League. The 2026 Cup is Ivory Coast’s first appearance since the team qualified three times with Drogba. (Norway’s last appearance was 1998.)

In 2007, Ivory Coast was emerging from a civil war. As a sign of inclusion and national unity, Drogba insisted that an African Nations’ Cup game be played in the “rebel city” of Bouake. According to reports, Drogba made an emotional, televised plea on bended knee for combatants to lay down their weapons.

The gestures were credited with putting his country on a durable path for peace. Today, Drogba continues as a soccer and United Nations ambassador, addressing Africa’s challenges, including education, and women’s and children’s health.

Norway fans have fast become some of the most entertaining fans at the World, especially now that Scotland and Australia have bowed out. Their decibel level is consistently over 100. A lot of pent-up energy: This is their first appearance on the global stage since 1998.

Soccer is always about more than soccer. Devotees of the game recognize that. With a viral social media post, emerging Ivory Coast star Yan Diomande brought attention to the hurdles young Africans face. The paean to his deceased sister lauded the crucial role she played in his success.

Ten African teams qualified for the 2026 World Cup. Nine made it to the Round-of-32. (In 1974 -- the last time the Democratic Republic of Congo qualified (as Zaire) -- they were the only African nation).

Many critics have claimed the tournament expansion from 32 to 48 teams was a mistake, that the quality would be watered down, with more “minnows” eaten by “sharks.” With their performances, Ivory Coast and Congo – along with Morocco, Egypt, Senegal, South Africa and others -- beg to differ. Cape Verde (the lowest-ranked team from a nation of half a million people) took Argentina down to the wire in overtime with a stellar performance by their 40-year-old goalkeeper named Vozinha.

My travel plans upset by the early success of the United States, I hustled back to Iowa to catch the Stars and Stripes team in their knock-out game against Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Iowa and Dubuque have been homes for Bosnian refugees since the 1990s. I have played and officiated with many Bosnians. My friend Hidajet Tica has become the leading soccer referee administrator in Iowa after his tenure as a national referee. Thus, this game had special significance.

World Cup watch parties are all the rage. Virtually every night spot with a big screen is airing the games. Dolph’s in Dubuque will host a party when the U.S. plays Belgium on Monday, July 6. Dubuque Unidos is hosting “Golazo Night” parties there.

The watch party in front of the outdoor screen at Dolph’s was packed. The victory celebration was enthusiastic. Most memorable: 1) Realizing soccer has made a bigger impression on Dubuque than I realized; 2) Seeing friends I have not crossed paths with in months and years who can’t remember the red and yellow cards I gave them.

The “jogo bonito” (beautiful game) is the proverbial gift that keeps on giving: Bringing people together across borders, across differences and across the ages. See you at the next watch party.

A version of this essay was originally published in the Dubuque Telegraph Herald.

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The world at our doorsteps

Chuck Isenhart — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 11:03:47 GMT

By the time I left Dubuque in 1981 for the Marquette Graduate School of Journalism in Milwaukee, I already knew people from every continent and most countries. Not because I was a world traveler, but because I played soccer.

The Dubuque Steamers hosted the Lars Hybel memorial tournament with Palatine Celtic and Ames Hurricanes in 2019, to celebrate the life of our friend and teammate from Denmark. I count six or seven ethnic backgrounds on this team.

A certified “sports nut,” I was cut from the high school basketball team (unfairly, of course). So I took up a game no other “Dubuquers” knew how to play, either. The local colleges, especially the seminaries, were already hubs of diversity.

Over the years, students joined our Dubuque Steamers Soccer Club, along with folks of various nationalities who came to town for work. Ujan Talil of Papua New Guinea, who attended Wartburg Seminary, had tree trunk legs and a cannonball shot that cleared its own path to goal. When Ronald and Marijke van Dommelen of the Netherlands arrived we finally had a decent player-coach.

The notion that Dubuque was a sheltered city unwelcoming to people who looked “different” and had cool accents was a foreign concept to me. The game and the people I met along the way are now part of my identity.

The Eastern Iowa Soccer League was organized by Abu Timbo, an African immigrant from Sierra Leone. I remember the stout German defender who played for Waterloo, the raucous Vietnamese team in Cedar Rapids, the skilled Latinos from the Quad Cities, the multi-verse Hawkeye Club from Iowa City, as well as the Chelsea-loving English player-referee who gave me my first red card (again, undeserved). Despite that, he remains one of my best friends today.

The league had few referees, so I certified as one. Working my own team’s games (so desperate they were), the first person I ejected was a teammate guilty of foul language. The player who remains nameless lived across the street from me and is now a minister in Maryland.

I have traveled the country as the “man in the middle” for youth, high school, college, adult, and a bit of professional soccer. Crews from Dubuque covered the multi-national Postville adult league before ICE raided Agriprocessors in 2008. I also have been a basketball official for most of those years.

With other community members of many nationalities, we started AYSO (led by Moses Prasad, an immigrant from India), the Dubuque Soccer Club and the volunteer-supported high school soccer teams before the sport was sanctioned in 1994. From 1996 until 2015 Dubuque supported the “Campbell Cup” and “America’s River Soccer Classic” adult tournaments that brought teams from six states and players with dozens of ethnic backgrounds to town.

For several years I covered soccer as a freelance writer. That took me to Haiti for the first-ever Women’s World Cup qualifying tournament, later won by the United States in China. The publisher of the magazine I worked for took his wife to China, so he couldn’t afford to send a reporter.

Ten years after the slaughterhouse raid that deprived Postville of many of its immigrant workers and their families, I went back for the first time to officiate a high school basketball game. Who did I run into? My old soccer buddy Francisco Mucia and his family!! Francisco was a linchpin of the Postville adult soccer league. Friends never say goodbye. We just say hasta la proxima!

Fast forward to 2026. Here I am, visiting family in Texas, hanging out with strangers-turned-friends at the World Cup watch parties hosted by F.C. Dallas, a franchise of Major League Soccer. MLS didn’t exist until 1993, when FIFA -- the governing body for soccer (or football as it is known everywhere else) -- required the league’s creation as a condition of the United States hosting the 1994 World Cup.

That year, I scored tickets to all the games in Detroit and Chicago (including the opening ceremony), two quarterfinal games and the semi-final between Brazil and Sweden at the Rose Bowl. (On my way to the quarterfinal between Romania and Sweden at the decrepit Stanford Stadium, I crossed paths with some former Loras College soccer players.)

In 1996, another official and I drove to Florida and Georgia for the Olympic Games, dancing the macarena with spectators from Nigeria and Brazil. No one, though, matched the fans from Australia for sheer laughter.

I will not confess to how much I have paid for the Norway-Ivory Coast “Round of 32” knockout game I will attend with my nephews. Let’s just say: About the same as ALL of those 1994 tickets combined. Even the Methodist church will get $88 for letting us park there (one of the less expensive lots). I hope that cuts a few days off my stay in purgatory.

On the re-sale market (legalized scalping), tickets for the two Argentina (Messi) games in Dallas fetched more than $2,000. No thanks. The giant outdoor screens will suffice. Plus, the barley pops will be cheaper and the restrooms closer. Enough people have been willing to pay the prices that the stadiums are still packed.

At the FC Dallas World Cup celebration zone in Frisco, Texas, with nephews Ellis and Otis Isenhart.

The 3.6 million total attendance record set in 1994 was easily exceeded during the group stage. Take that with a grain of salt, though. FIFA reports tickets distributed, not people through the turnstiles. The “full house” at AT&T Stadium in Dallas for the Argentina-Jordan match was reported as 70,649, even though the official seating capacity of the park is 80,000.

Why would a sane person pay that much coin, given the crass commercialization and diplomatic intrigue surrounding the tournament? That includes the unjust and ham-handed treatment of fans, teams and officials alike by “Homeland Security?”

Here’s why: Players remain focused on their craft, exhibiting talents rarely seen in other venues. Nations new to the World Cup showcase their cultures and personalities. Davids are standing up to Goliaths. Americans learn some lessons about geography, history and international politics, not to mention personal hospitality.

More than anything, we go to meet with “different” people for a peaceful, joyous, collective celebration and display of global communion, on the streets and in the stands. We pay for life adventures everyone should have the chance to experience.