Ames Progressive

After casting my 3rd district absentee ballot last week at the Polk County election office (don’t forget to vote progressive June 3 if you’re still stateside), I caught a flight to Poland for a month-long study in photojournalism. Nine students and our professor are in Sopot now, at a small resort about a stone’s throw away from the Baltic Sea.

I don’t know quite what to write about yet without coming off as a gape-mouthed tourist, so I’ll hold back for now. But our professor, Dennis Chamberlin, used to live in Poland and was here in the ’80s during the fall of communism and rise of Solidarity (abbreviated history of that here), so he’s well-connected and speaks the language.

I’m hoping to get in touch with the mayor of Gdynia, a town just north of here, to do a day-in-the-life project, so we’ll see if that works out. Dennis knows the mayor’s cousin.

Suffice to say, partially because of my leaving the country, the new issue of the Progressive got delayed. Nate and Kate and Co. are working on it back in Ames; it should be online soon. Of course, soon is a relative term (but you’re always guaranteed more than what you pay for).

I’ve published intervews with the four 4th Congressional District Democratic primary contenders. You can find links to those on the front page along with fresh thoughts from Selden Spencer, who ran against Tom Latham in 2006.

I’ll blog a bit more on the race prior to the primary when I get the chance and maybe add some final thoughts on Ed Fallon’s efforts to unseat Leonard Boswell in the 3rd.

And if I can manage to capture anything good with my dunce-like photography skills, I may post some snapshots from Poland. Until then, stay tuned for the new issue, good luck to our co-editor Greg (who just moved to Iowa City), and thanks for reading.