Laura Belin and Spencer Dirks began with news from Iowa's U.S. Senate race: Jackie Norris became the fourth Democrat in the field, and Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona came to boost Iowa Dems. Other topics covered: a third Democrat running in Iowa's third Congressional district, Rob Sand's latest comments on Iowa's water quality problems, the Iowa DOGE task force's proposals to change the state's main public pension system and establish merit pay for teachers, a separate proposal to privatize health care in Iowa prisons, federal funding cuts for healthy food access and education, new USDA investments in rural development, Senator Chuck Grassley's hold on some Treasury Department nominees, Grassley's silence about President Donald Trump's purge of inspectors general, and his latest comments about the dust-up with Trump over Judiciary Committee "blue slips."