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Cedar Falls Takes Center Stage as Internet Leader

Parshotam Lal Tandon
/
Flickr
A harvested cornfield outside of Cedar Falls. Getting reliable rural internet service is one of the struggles both Obama and Branstad are trying to tackle.

President Obama announced a new plan to support community-run broadband in Cedar Falls today.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest says the President wants to support programs like the one run by Cedar Falls Utilities, which provides Cedar Fall residents with the gold-standard of internet speeds much the same way it provides them with electricity or water.

“We talk a lot about infrastructure being a modern airport or a highway that doesn’t have potholes in it or a bridge that’s been resurfaced and expanded to handle the amount of local traffic that it services every day. Another way to think about this is internet access. All of them have direct consequences for the economy.”

On this Politics Day edition of River to River, host Ben Kieffer talks with Earnest about President Obama’s broadband internet plan. Wayne Moyer of Grinnell College and Dennis Goldford of Drake University also join the conversation to analyze Obama’s efforts, the political implications of the attack in Paris, and Grassley’s start as the head of the Judiciary committee.

Ben Kieffer is the host of IPR's River to River