'Transparency Matters' presentation Wednesday, Jan. 25

Transparency in public governance and the media and why it matters will be discussed by Randy Evans, Executive Director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, and Laura Belin, Editor of the Bleeding Heartland blog on Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023, from 6:30 to 8 p.m., at the Iowa City Public Library in Meeting Room A.

The presentation is hosted by the education committee of the League of Women Voters of Johnson County (LWVJC). The Gazette and the Iowa City Public Library are League partners for the education series. The presentation will be offered in person and streamed live on the library's channel. Library staff will also record it for rebroadcast on the ICPL YouTube channel and the LWVJC website and the Facebook page.

Randy Evans of Des Moines is the executive director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, a 45-year-old nonprofit, nonpartisan education and advocacy organization that works for better open government and government accountability.

Evans began his newspaper career at the age of 16 working for his hometown newspaper, the Bloomfield Democrat. After graduating from the University of Iowa, he spent two years as the editor of the Albia Union-Republican and Monroe County News, weekly newspapers in Albia. He retired from the Register in December 2014 and began writing a weekly column on government and politics for the Bloomfield Democrat. The column now also appears regularly in eight to 10 other newspapers and news websites.

Laura Belin found her love of politics around the family dinner table. She has followed Iowa elections closely since the 1980 caucuses. Belin began writing as an analyst for the Prague-based Open Media Research Institute and later for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, covering Russian campaigns and elections, parliamentary politics, and media issues full-time from 1995 to 1998 and on a freelance basis for RFE/RL from 1999 to 2005 – a period spanning Boris Yeltsin's presidency and Vladimir Putin’s early years.

As Bleeding Heartland's lead author, Belin writes about Iowa politics. Des Moines Cityview's "Civic Skinny" called Belin "probably the hardest-working — and perhaps the best — political reporter in the state" and "one of the best investigative reporters in the state." The Fix at the Washington Post named Belin one of Iowa's outstanding political reporters in 2020 and named Bleeding Heartland among the "best state-based political blogs.” Politico put Belin on its list of "early state must-follows." Charles Pierce of Esquire has called Bleeding Heartland an "essential Iowa political blog." In 2021, Belin began working part-time as the statehouse correspondent for KHOI Community Radio in Ames (89.1 FM), where she regularly appears on

Transparency Matters in government and the media will be presented Wednesday, Jan. 25, at 6:30 p.m. in the Iowa City Public Library.Photo byLWVJC graphic

the program Capitol Week.