Democrat Christina Bohannan announced on Tuesday she is running for the 1st District U.S. House seat currently held by Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks. Bohannan was the Democratic nominee for the seat in 2022 and lost, just like every other Democrat running for the House in Iowa. Bohannan kicked off her new campaign at the United Food […]
Paul Brennan
Posted inCommunity/News, Statewide
Where do abortion rights start and stop? A quick guide to Iowa and its neighbor states
As of this article’s publication, abortion up to 20 weeks into a pregnancy remained legal in Iowa. But that was only because a state district court judge issued a temporary injunction stopping enforcement of a near-total ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy that Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law on July 14. Unless […]
Posted inCommunity/News
University of Iowa’s plan to purchase Mercy Iowa City gets stamp of approval from the Board of Regents
During its meeting on Tuesday, the Iowa Board of Regents approved the University of Iowa’s plan to purchase Mercy Hospital of Iowa City. The plan calls for UI to pay $20 million for “substantially all” of Mercy’s assets, including the 234-bed Iowa City hospital, as well as the Mercy Family Medical Centers in Kalona, Tipton, […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa’s Department of Education has no plans to offer guidance for school districts confused by new book law
Despite widespread confusion over which books are to be banned from schools under a bill Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law in May, the Iowa Department of Education (DOE) has no plans to offer guidance to school districts attempting to implement the law. SF 496 requires schools to remove all books with “descriptions or visual […]
Posted inStatewide
Gov. Reynolds is sending state troops to the Texas border (again), spending federal COVID relief funds
Gov. Kim Reynolds announced on Wednesday that she is deploying 109 members of the Iowa National Guard to Texas, along with officers of the Iowa State Patrol, to assist Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s state-level border control program, Operation Lone Star. “The deployment will last until Sept. 1, 2023, with the mission of deterring illegal border […]
Posted inStatewide
Iowa’s broad new law for schools prohibiting books with sex lands nearly 400 titles on Urbandale’s ban list, including sexless LGBTQ children’s books
The impact of a bill Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law on May 26, which has provisions banning certain books from schools and certain topics from being mentioned in K-6 classes, is beginning to be felt around the state. SF 496 requires schools to remove all books with “descriptions or visual depictions of a sex […]
Posted inCommunity/News
The new state laws affecting LGBTQ students this fall
In many important ways, the bills passed by Republican lawmakers and signed into law by Gov. Kim Reynolds this year that targeted transgender students echoed the law enacted last year banning transgender girls and women from participating in girls’ or women’s sports at schools or colleges in Iowa. Like the sports ban, the new laws […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa AG Brenna Bird said she doesn’t intend to resume coverage of emergency contraception for rape victims
Less than four months after becoming Iowa Attorney General, Brenna Bird ordered her office to stop paying for emergency contraception for rape victims. The attorney general’s office had previously covered the cost of Plan B pills, and in some cases abortions, for rape victims since 1990 as part of Sexual Abuse Examination Program. The program […]
Posted inStatewide
The state can’t find a contractor to get Reynolds’ ‘pregnancy resource centers’ funding program off the ground
The new draconian ban on abortions that Gov. Reynolds signed into law on July 14, and which was stopped by a temporary injunction issued by a state court judge three days later, isn’t the only part of the governor’s anti-abortion agenda that’s currently on hold. The Des Moines Register reported on Thursday that more than […]
Posted inCentral Iowa
The National Balloon Classic launches in Indianola this weekend, continuing a five-decade tradition
In popular imagination — or at least in ads trying to exploit people’s imagination — hot air ballooning usually happens above the dramatic landscape of the American southwest or romantic vineyards, never over more prosaic locations like Kalamazoo, Michigan or Indianola, Iowa. But Kalamazoo hosted the first National Hot Air Balloon Championship 60 years ago, […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Hamburg Inn has closed indefinitely for the second time this year
This story originally appeared in LV Daily, Little Village’s Monday-Friday email newsletter. Sign up to have it delivered for free to your inbox. Republicans running for president are moving into full-campaign mode in Iowa as the state GOP hosts its annual Lincoln Dinner fundraiser on Friday night, featuring 10-minute speeches from 13 candidates (including Donald […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Student loan debt of more than 10,000 Iowans canceled as Biden administration corrects IDR error
This story originally appeared in LV Daily, Little Village’s Monday-Friday email newsletter. Sign up to have it delivered for free to your inbox. Almost 11,000 Iowans will have their existing federal student loan debt canceled by the Biden administration, according to information published this week by the U.S. Department of Education. It’s part of a […]
