{"id":2499,"date":"2026-04-24T12:07:47","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T17:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=2499"},"modified":"2026-04-24T12:07:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T17:07:47","slug":"congress-sprung-a-leak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=2499","title":{"rendered":"Congress sprung a leak"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?attachment_id=111\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-111\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-111\" src=\"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/webeagle1-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/webeagle1-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/iowappa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/webeagle1.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>On January 19, 2026, \u201ca broken sewer main poured<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>more than 240 million gallons of waste into the Potomac River just outside of Washington, D.C.,\u201d A month later, The New York Times headline read: \u201c<em>A sewage spill pollutes the D.C. area.\u201d <\/em>I couldn\u2019t resist posting it on Facebook with the caption: \u201cMy Congress runneth over.\u201d But it took a month to report this story? Wow! Slow news day, I guess. All of a sudden, I want to stop worrying about Iowa\u2019s polluted waterways and have some empathy for those in our nation\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n<p>There are too many jokes to go with this unfortunate dilemma. It\u2019s as if the Times invited jokesters and obscure writers to begin the flow of memes and gifs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLocal officials have been working for weeks to stop the flow and assess the damage.\u201d If this isn\u2019t the epitome of government in action, I couldn\u2019t describe what is. It has taken one month for the government to stop this \u201ccrap?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But the highlight of this slow to do-nothing fiasco is another government example: \u201cFEMA said today that it was monitoring the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Times published another article on April 23 with the headline: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/04\/23\/climate\/potomac-river-sewage-contamination.html?campaign_id=57&amp;emc=edit_ne_20260423&amp;instance_id=174565&amp;nl=the-evening&amp;regi_id=94700822&amp;segment_id=218769&amp;user_id=6ff77b2144dc020162247951be60c778\"><em>A Huge Sewage Spill Is Over, but Contamination Lingers in the Potomac<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em> Nowhere in the article was there a mention that Congress was the source of the contamination. However, what else could have been the cause?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">***<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Please help Fawkes-Lee &amp; Ryan maintain this website<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>by donating $10, $20, $30, $50, $100, or more.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/donate\/?business=Y8DP2NU226YME&amp;no_recurring=0&amp;item_name=Help+Fawkes-Lee+%26+Ryan+continue+to+post+blogs+and+other+information+by+supporting+us+with+a+donation.&amp;currency_code=USD\">Donate<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Or, you may send a check to the address below<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Your support is appreciated.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Subscribe (It\u2019s FREE): Email\u00a0mrtyryn@gmail.com\u00a0with \u201cSubscribe\u201d in the Subject Line.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Fawkes-Lee &amp; Ryan<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>2516 Lynner Dr.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Des Moines, IA 50310<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Copyright (c) 2026. Fawkes-Lee &amp; Ryan. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><em>FL &amp; R does not share or sell email addresses with anyone.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On January 19, 2026, \u201ca broken sewer main poured\u00a0more than 240 million gallons of waste into the Potomac River just outside of Washington, D.C.,\u201d A month later, The New York Times headline read: \u201cA sewage spill pollutes the D.C. area.\u201d &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=2499\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1393,1169,1392,1390,1391],"class_list":["post-2499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-fema","tag-new-york-times","tag-potomac-river","tag-u-s-congress","tag-washington-d-c"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2499"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2500,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2499\/revisions\/2500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}