Court filings made public this week show Michael Cassidy has been charged with felony third-degree criminal mischief for vandalizing a holiday display at the Iowa State Capitol in December. Cassidy has said he traveled to Des Moines from his home in Mississippi specifically to smash the display from the Satanic Temple (TST). After the attack, […]
Paul Brennan
Posted inCommunity/News
One day after bill undermining transgender rights is defeated, Gov. Reynolds introduces new bill targeting IDs for trans and nonbinary Iowans
One day after a bill that would have stripped legal protections for transgender people out of the Iowa Civil Rights Act was rejected in the Iowa House, Gov. Kim Reynolds introduced a new bill targeting transgender Iowans. Reynolds’ submitted HSB 649 to lawmakers a few hours after Iowa Capitol Dispatch reported on the existence of […]
Posted inCommunity/News, Statewide
GOP bill would require Iowa students be shown womb animation video based on anti-abortion ‘propaganda’
On Tuesday, Republicans on an Iowa House subcommittee voted to advance a bill that would mandate K-12 students receive instruction on fetal development based on the work of an anti-abortion group. HF 2031 would require the health curriculum in both public and accredited private elementary, middle and high schools to include a “high-definition ultrasound video, […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Bill to remove protection against gender identity discrimination from Iowa Civil Rights Act gets a scheduled hearing
Since taking control of both chambers of the Iowa Legislature in 2017, Republicans have repeatedly passed discriminatory legislation targeting transgender Iowans with the full support of Gov. Kim Reynolds, who has signed those bills and other anti-LGBTQ legislation into law. But even when pushing through those bills almost exclusively on party-line votes, Republicans still understood […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Journalist Laura Belin granted press credentials by Iowa House for the first time in five years — days after filing a First Amendment lawsuit
After years of denying Laura Belin press credentials to cover the Iowa House of Representatives, it took the chief clerk of the House less than a week to reverse course after Belin filed a federal lawsuit. On Wednesday, Belin and the nonprofit Institute for Free Speech, which was representing her in the lawsuit, announced Belin […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa House Republicans advance a bill to cut qualifications for running a program giving anti-abortion centers millions in funds
In 2022, Republicans in the Iowa Legislature pushed through a bill creating the More Options for Maternal Support (MOMS) program, which would use tax dollars to fund privately run anti-abortion centers — which call themselves “pregnancy resource centers” — across the state. Gov. Kim Reynolds touted the program as an important part of her anti-abortion […]
Posted inCommunity/News
No-parking zones will be set up on Thursday and Friday, as crews remove snow from Iowa City streets
Temporary no-parking zones will be set up on Thursday and Friday as crews from the Iowa City Public Works Department remove snow and slush from the streets. The department has already posted No Parking signs along the routes to be plowed. Vehicles will need to be moved by 7 a.m. on the day snow removal […]
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘A New History of Iowa’ by Jeff Bremer
“History doesn’t repeat itself,” the saying goes, “Historians repeat each other.” There’s some truth in that, but the bigger truth is that most people just repeat whatever version of history they learn in school, seldom venturing far beyond what they learned in a general survey course. (Many LV readers may be exceptions to that rule, […]
Posted inCommunity/News
After being repeatedly denied press credentials by the Iowa House of Representatives, journalist Laura Belin files a federal lawsuit
Laura Belin, one of Iowa’s leading political journalists, filed a federal lawsuit on Friday after being denied press credentials by the Iowa House of Representatives for the sixth year in a row. “Refusing to credential journalists for arbitrary reasons — or because lawmakers may not like tough coverage or her point of view — is […]
Posted inCommunity/News
‘Buy larger tractors’: Donald Trump says goodbye to Iowa after a sweeping win in the Republican caucus
State Sen. Brad Zaun gushed and pumped his fist in the air as he introduced Donald Trump at a rally in Des Moines on Monday night after the former president secured a landslide victory in the Iowa Republican Caucus. “I am honored to be the first person in the United States to endorse this guy,” […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Cars blocking snow removal in downtown Iowa City will be towed starting at 2 a.m. on Wednesday
Along with ice and snow, temporary tow-away zones are part of winter in Iowa City. Snow removal will begin in downtown Iowa City at 11 p.m. on Tuesday, and three hours later — 2 a.m. Wednesday morning — cars parked in metered spots from Prentiss Street to Market Street, Madison Street to Gilbert Street, as […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Report: Gov. Reynolds has been tweeting about Trump and DeSantis on a semi-secret social media account
There’s no shortage of tweets from semi-anonymous accounts about the Iowa Caucus on the platform Elon Musk has renamed X, and until this week, none of them seemed significant. But on Thursday, the New York Times reported that one of those accounts belongs to Gov. Kim Reynolds. For the past year, Reynolds has tweeted about […]
