Mighty Minis

Climate costs

If you think climate change is a hoax, check with your insurance company. Insurers have lost money each of the last four years in Iowa, according to a New York Times analysis, and are fleeing the state. Just last year, insurers paid out $1.44 in property claims for every dollar they took in from premiums in Iowa. As a result, they are leaving the Iowa market.

We just went through our annual business insurance and found our options limited to Grinnell Mutual Insurance, an Iowa company.

Insurance company executives and state regulators told The New York Times that Iowa’s insurance market started to really erode in 2020 when the massive derecho tore through Cedar Rapids. Even the insurance agent Eldon Neighbor got cancelled by his own carrier when it left Iowa for the extreme costs. Homeowners profiled can’t find property insurance at any price. That puts home loans at risk, and threatens to bankrupt homeowners should disaster strike.

Ten years ago insurers lost money in eight states. Last year it was 18.

Extreme weather will make other insurance much more expensive as damage adds up. Federal crop insurance costs will rise with flooding, hailstorms, barreling wind and drought.

The costs of climate change are here. Check your insurance quote, if you can get one. “We can’t raise rates fast enough or high enough,” Bill Montgomery, CEO of Celina Insurance Group, told The Times. Celina bailed out of Iowa last year.

Bird takes flight

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird is a woman of ambition. She gained the job by unseating Tom Miller, a Democrat who had grown comfortable in office after 40 years, and she has used it to burnish her right-wing bona fides. She is always talking about suing the Biden administration, and she drives Democrats as crazy as Gov. Kim Reynolds does.

Her latest was to show up at Donald Trump’s trial in New York, a trip paid for by her fellow GOP attorneys general. Not that Trump necessarily needed her. There was Vivek Ramaswamy, Doug Burgum — anybody who wants to be somebody — even House Speaker Mike Johnson, along with Bird to stand behind Trump as he railed against the judicial system. What Trump was gagged from saying by the judge Bird, Johnson et al could say aloud for the TV cameras.

It was about being seen with Donald Trump.

Burgum and Ramaswamy would like to be vice president. If former Hawkeye tried star Matt Whitaker can aspire to be Trump’s attorney general, so can Bird. She learned politics working with two masters, Terry Branstad and Steve King. Bird can operate with or without Gov. Reynolds, and appears set on eclipsing her. Bird is positioning herself on a fast track up, where unchecked ambition can lead to a hard fall. It is a story worth watching.

What an Iowan

Iowans were a bit crestfallen when Hawkeye Coach Lisa Bluder announced she would retire after 40 years pacing the sidelines. Everybody loves Lisa Bluder — even Iowa State Coach Bill Fennelly. What is it that we love about her?

First, she is a winner. She won right out of college, coaching the Fighting Bees at St. Ambrose. She led the Drake Bulldogs to national prominence with the help of a star player, Jan Jensen of Elk Horn-Kimballton, who became her assistant at Drake and later Iowa. Bluder inherited a strong program built by C. Vivian Stringer and took it to the next level.

Second, she is loyal. It took a team of horses to pull her away from Drake. She probably could have made more money in a major TV market. Instead, she brought the market to Carver-Hawkeye Arena and would sell out in the days before Caitlin Clark. She was able to manage the Clark sensation and build a team around her.

Third, she appears friendly and humble courtside, at press conferences and during those TV hits in a timeout when other coaches display impatience. Pure class.

That’s why Iowa loves Lisa Bluder. She leaves the program in Jensen’s good hands, and goes out on top. Her goal is to do anything to promote women’s basketball in Iowa. What’s not to love?