After Iowa’s disastrous 2020 caucuses, Democratic officials are weighing drastic changes to the 2024 calendar. States, angling for early attention, are waxing poetic. Behold, the New Jersey Turnpike!
Tag Archives: Iowa
States Address Child Care Shortages After Federal Efforts Stalled
Federal legislation has stalled, so states are stepping in. In some places, that could mean looser regulations, like 16-year-olds caring for children, without supervision.
States Turn to Tax Cuts as Inflation Stays Hot
Tax reductions and rebates that are being proposed to help people cope could have the unintended effect of pushing prices higher.
Biden Has Already Done More for Rural America Than Trump
Democrats should let voters know about their successes — and run on Democratic values.
Oh, Brother: The Not-Quite-Tell-All Books by Presidential Sisters
Valerie Biden Owens is one of a handful of presidential sisters who have taken the opportunity to dish on their brothers.
Democrats Weigh Shake-Up to Presidential Primary Calendar
The party is accepting applications from states to hold the early nominating contests, potentially shifting away from Iowa.
Gas Prices Force Biden Into an Unlikely Embrace of Fossil Fuels
President Biden has had to walk a careful tightrope on energy and climate change in the weeks since U.S. sanctions on Russian oil and gas sent energy prices soaring.
Biden to Allow Higher-Ethanol E15 Gas to Be Sold All Summer
The White House estimated that the move would shave 10 cents off every gallon of gasoline purchased at the approximately 2,300 stations in the country that offer the blend known as E15.
Could Iowa and New Hampshire Lose First Spots in Primary Calendar?
After complaints about disenfranchisement and logistical snafus, the party is reconsidering Iowa and New Hampshire’s coveted spots in the presidential nominating process.
At Least 6 Killed as Powerful Storms Rampage Across Iowa, Officials Say
The National Weather Service said a preliminary examination of photos and videos from around Winterset, Iowa, suggested damage from a tornado with wind speeds between 136 and 165 miles per hour.
New York Deer Infected With Omicron, Study Finds
White-tailed deer on Staten Island have become the first wild animals with documented Omicron infections. The coronavirus has now been found in deer in 15 states.
Is the Coronavirus in Your Backyard?
White-tailed deer could become a reservoir for the virus, putting people and animals at risk, health experts say.
Winter Storm Expected to Bring Snow From the Dakotas to the East Coast
‘There’s more uncertainty than usual,’ one forecaster said.
Christine Grant Fought for Equity for Female Athletes
Christine Grant, the Title IX pioneer who died in December, often lamented the historically poor treatment of female athletes, asking incredulously, “Can you imagine that?”
Storm Could Bring Destructive Winds to Central U.S.
A tornado watch was issued for parts of six states as wind gusts of more than 70 miles per hour bore down on parts of the Upper Midwest on Wednesday.
Google Temps Fought Loss of Pandemic Bonus. And Won.
When a Google staffing agency reneged on a promise to pay an attendance bonus, temps who are part of the company’s union organized and forced it to backtrack.
How Tyson Foods Got 60,500 Workers to Get the Coronavirus Vaccine Quickly
The meatpacking giant, which was criticized for failing to do enough to protect its workers from Covid-19 last year, has become a leader on corporate mandates.
10 Republican-led States Sue Over Biden’s Vaccine Mandate
The lawsuit is being led by Missouri’s attorney general, Eric Schmitt, and the attorney general of Nebraska, Doug Peterson.
After Rape Accusations, Fraternities Face Protests and Growing Anger
At big universities with powerful fraternity cultures — like UMass, Northwestern, Nebraska and Iowa — many students are demanding an end to Greek life.
It’s Never Too Late to Follow Your Spiritual Calling
After coming out as a transgender woman more than two years ago, Vica Steel never dreamed of forging a path to church leadership. Until now.
Back on the Trail, Bernie Sanders Campaigns for the $3.5 Trillion Budget Plan
Senator Bernie Sanders is barnstorming the country again, but not for the presidency. Instead, he’s making the case for a $3.5 trillion bill that would be a once-in-a-generation achievement.
Iowa Farmworker Gets Life in Prison for the Murder of Mollie Tibbetts
Cristhian Bahena Rivera was convicted in May in the 2018 fatal stabbing of Ms. Tibbetts, which Donald J. Trump used to stoke opposition to illegal immigration.
In Iowa, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz Take Trump’s Baton
At a rally in Des Moines, Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz showed that many Republicans do not plan to move on from the Trump era.
25-Year Sentence for Iowa Woman Who Drove Into Children Because of Their Race
Nicole Poole Franklin, 43 of Des Moines, was sentenced on two federal hate crime charges in connection with the 2019 attacks.
An Iowa County Chooses to Be Named for a Black Professor, Not a Slaveowner
Johnson County selected Lulu Merle Johnson, a Black educator and historian, as its official eponym, replacing Richard Mentor Johnson, the ninth U.S. vice president.
Welcome to Barn-Quilt Country
Take a road trip in the Midwest to see a homegrown art form that creatively combines aspects of Americana.
State Election Officials Are Under Attack. We Will Defend Them.
Republican state laws will be used as a weapon of intimidation against the people who run our elections at the local and state levels.
Rural Areas Are Looking for Workers. They Need Broadband to Get Them.
Rural communities have long complained about their lack of internet access. The pandemic and President Biden’s infrastructure plan are giving them hope for a solution.
Train in Iowa With Hazardous Materials Derails, Prompting Evacuation
About 80 people in Sibley, Iowa, were ordered to evacuate. It was unclear what exactly the train was carrying or what was burning.
Review: Going Home to Iowa With the Queen of Meth
The story of Lori Arnold, drug queenpin and sister to Tom Arnold, is a complicated lesson in Midwestern values.
Why Iowa Has Become Such a Heartbreaker for Democrats
The 2020 carnage for the party was deep in the state, one of many where economic decline and social malaise helped fuel Donald Trump’s rise. Now Democrats face the pivotal question of whether to abandon both Iowa and its first-in-the-nation caucuses.
Iowa Democrat Drops House Election Appeal, Sparing Her Party a Messy Fight
Rita Hart withdrew her request to have Congress overturn one of the closest elections in American history, after politically vulnerable Democrats came under attack by Republicans over the review.
Across States, a Checkerboard of Gun Laws Reflects Partisan Tilt
The political divide on gun policy between red and blue states is another example of the way national issues — including abortion rights and, in the post-Trump era, voting rights — are defining local politics.
Many Iowans Are Uncomfortable With a New Voting Restriction, Poll Finds
A new survey by one of the country’s top pollsters hinted at discomfort among voters in the state about new balloting restrictions.
In Statehouses, Stolen-Election Myth Fuels a G.O.P. Drive to Rewrite Rules
Republican legislators want big changes to the laws for elections and other aspects of governance. A fight over the ground rules for voting may follow.
Nevada Is Moving to Vote Before Iowa in 2024. Harry Reid Makes the Case.
Goodbye, Iowa and New Hampshire. Hello, Nevada and South Carolina? The former Nevada senator is just one voice arguing that it’s time to change the nomination calendar.
A City’s Mayor, Police Chief and Clerk Face Misconduct Charges
The officials of Armstrong, Iowa, and a former city clerk, face charges that include assault with a dangerous weapon, theft and falsifying public documents, the authorities said.
Driving in Winter? Tips From Experts on How to Arrive Safely
Recent pileups in Iowa and Texas amid severe winter weather have analysts and traffic experts issuing vital reminders about how to stay safe. One common refrain: Slow down.
Joe Biden and Tom Vilsack’s Big Plan to Save Rural America
Joe Biden and Tom Vilsack plan to take swift action on climate change proposals.
Biden’s Choice of Vilsack for U.S.D.A. Raises Fears for Small Farmers
Democrats have struggled to win voters in rural America and critics say the return of Tom Vilsack, a former agriculture secretary, won’t help.
States Complain of Smaller Covid Vaccine Shipments Than Expected
The smaller number of expected doses, which appeared to be the result of a scheduling hiccup, reignited tensions between the federal government and Pfizer over vaccine supply.
10 Months Later, Iowa Democrats Blame National Party for Caucus Meltdown
With the future of Iowa’s first-in-the-nation Democratic caucuses in jeopardy, the state party sought to shift blame for a breakdown that delayed results for days after the Feb. 3 contest.
Biden’s Iowa Bus Tour Is Headed for a D.C. Reunion
A year ago, Joe Biden was on a grim bus tour through Iowa, joined by many old friends, including Tom Vilsack and John Kerry. Now Mr. Biden wants to bring some of the crew back to Washington with him.
Holidays in a Pandemic? Here’s What Happened in 1918
The festive season fell between two deadly waves of the deadly influenza outbreak. Families still gathered, often with empty chairs at the table.
African fintech startup Chipper Cash raises $30M backed by Jeff Bezos
African cross-border fintech startup Chipper Cash has raised a $30 million Series B funding round led by Ribbit Capital with participation of Bezos Expeditions — the personal VC fund of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
Chipper Cash was founded in San Francisco in 2018 by Ugandan Ham Serunjogi and Ghanaian Maijid Moujaled. The company offers mobile-based, no fee, P2P payment services in seven countries: Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Africa and Kenya.
Parallel to its P2P app, the startup also runs Chipper Checkout — a merchant-focused, fee-based payment product that generates the revenue to support Chipper Cash’s free mobile-money business. The company has scaled to 3 million users on its platform and processes an average of 80,000 transactions daily. In June 2020, Chipper Cash reached a monthly payments value of $100 million, according to CEO Ham Serunjogi .
As part of the Series B raise, the startup plans to expand its products and geographic scope. On the product side, that entails offering more business payment solutions, crypto-currency trading options, and investment services.
“We’ll always be a P2P financial transfer platform at our core. But we’ve had demand from our users to offer other value services…like purchasing cryptocurrency assets and making investments in stocks,” Serunjogi told TechCrunch on a call.

Image Credits: Chipper Cash
Chipper Cash has added beta dropdowns on its website and app to buy and sell Bitcoin and invest in U.S. stocks from Africa — the latter through a partnership with U.S. financial services company DriveWealth.
“We’ll launch [the stock product] in Nigeria first so Nigerians have the option to buy fractional stocks — Tesla shares, Apple shares or Amazon shares and others — through our app. We’ll expand into other countries thereafter,” said Serunjogi.
On the business financial services side, the startup plans to offer more API payments solutions. “We’ve been getting a lot of requests from people on our P2P platform, who also have business enterprises, to be able to collect payments for sale of goods,” explained Serunjogi.
Chipper Cash also plans to use its Series B financing for additional country expansion, which the company will announce by the end of 2021.
Jeff Bezos’s backing of Chipper Cash follows a recent string of events that has elevated the visibility of Africa’s startup scene. Over the past decade, the continent’s tech ecosystem has been one of the fastest growing in the world by year year-over-year expansion in venture capital and startup formation, concentrated in countries such as Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa.

Image Credits: TechCrunch/Bryce Durbin
Bringing Africa’s large unbanked population and underbanked consumers and SMEs online has factored prominently. Roughly 66% of Sub-Saharan Africa’s 1 billion people don’t have a bank account, according to World Bank data.
As such, fintech has become Africa’s highest-funded tech sector, receiving the bulk of an estimated $2 billion in VC that went to startups in 2019. Even with the rapid venture funding growth over the last decade, Africa’s tech scene had been performance light, with only one known unicorn (e-commerce venture Jumia) a handful of exits, and no major public share offerings. That changed last year.
In April 2019, Jumia — backed by investors including Goldman Sachs and Mastercard — went public in an NYSE IPO. Later in the year, Nigerian fintech company Interswitch achieved unicorn status after a $200 million investment by Visa.
This year, Network International purchased East African payments startup DPO for $288 million and in August WorldRemit acquired Africa focused remittance company Sendwave for $500 million.
One of the more significant liquidity events in African tech occurred last month, when Stripe acquired Nigerian payment gateway startup Paystack for a reported $200 million.
In an email to TechCrunch, a spokesperson for Bezos Expeditions confirmed the fund’s investment in Chipper Cash, but declined to comment on further plans to back African startups. Per Crunchbase data, the investment would be the first in Africa for the fund. It’s worth noting Bezos Expeditions is not connected to Jeff Bezo’s hallmark business venture, Amazon.
For Chipper Cash, the $30 million Series B raise caps an event-filled two years for the San Francisco-based payments company and founders Ham Serunjogi and Maijid Moujaled. The two came to America for academics, met in Iowa while studying at Grinnell College and ventured out to Silicon Valley for stints in big tech: Facebook for Serunjogi and Flickr and Yahoo! for Moujaled.

Chipper Cash founders Ham Serunjogi (R) and Maijid Moujaled; Image Credits: Chipper Cash
The startup call beckoned and after launching Chipper Cash in 2018, the duo convinced 500 Startups and Liquid 2 Ventures — co-founded by American football legend Joe Montana — to back their company with seed funds. The startup expanded into Nigeria and Southern Africa in 2019, entered a payments partnership with Visa in April and raised a $13.8 million Series A in June.
Chipper Cash founder Ham Serunjogi believes the backing of his company by a notable tech figure, such as Jeff Bezos (the world’s richest person), has benefits beyond his venture.
“It’s a big deal when a world class investor like Bezos or Ribbit goes out of their sweet spot to a new area where they previously haven’t done investments,” he said. “Ultimately, the winner of those things happening is the African tech ecosystem overall, as it will bring more investment from firms of that caliber to African startups.”
How Iowa’s Governor Went From Dismissing Mask Mandates to Ordering One Herself
“I don’t want to do this,” Gov. Kim Reynolds said, joining a wave of Republican governors issuing new mask orders as her state faces a spiraling hospital crisis.
Roger Jepsen, Senator From Iowa and Reagan Ally, Dies at 91
A voice for farmers, he lost a re-election bid after it was disclosed that he had joined a health spa that was shut down on prostitution charges.
Joni Ernst Wins in Iowa, Frustrating Democrats’ Push for Senate Majority
The first-term Republican overcame a steep challenge from Theresa Greenfield, denying Democrats a crucial pickup in their path to reclaiming control of the Senate.