As Iowa’s DOGE task force considers recommending cuts to public employee compensation and tying school staff pay to student achievement, public workers organizations are rallying for Iowans to speak out against these proposals. The DOGE task force members met Wednesday to discuss some of the recommendations they plan to include in the report submitted to […]
Community/News
Posted inCommunity/News
Democrat Jackie Norris, Des Moines School Board chair and Michelle Obama’s former chief of staff, is running for U.S. Senate
Jackie Norris, chair of the Des Moines School Board, is running for U.S. Senate. Norris hasn’t run for federal or statewide office before, but she’s been active in Iowa politics for almost 30 years. “Red versus blue isn’t fixing anything. Iowa needs a Senator who doesn’t just talk tough but rolls up their sleeves, and […]
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Hundreds gather for presentation on Polk County water quality report; researchers, crowd call for regulation
More than 500 individuals gathered Monday to hear what comes next following the release of an in-depth water quality report commissioned by Polk County. Another 500 watched online to hear years’ worth of research on water pollutants and key steps forward at the individual, watershed and state levels. One speaker said it was the first […]
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FilmScene begins two-year process to buy their Ped Mall building after Moen foreclosures
In April, GreenState Credit Union surprised Iowa City by foreclosing on some of the city’s best-known buildings, properties owned by real estate developer Marc Moen and business associates. When news broke, one of the questions that immediately lit up social media was, “What will happen to FilmScene?” FilmScene, the state’s oldest and largest year-round nonprofit […]
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Pesticide manufacturer Bayer spent more than $200K lobbying in Iowa
Bayer, the biotech company and manufacturer of Roundup, has substantially increased its spending on lobbying in Iowa since the introduction of a pesticide labeling bill in 2024. In 2025, according to client reports published by the state, Bayer paid lobbyists $123,250. Reports for 2024 show $86,099 spent. Between 2021 and 2023, years before the pesticide […]
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Plain Spoken: More than 40 million pigs are slaughtered in Iowa annually. This author has a word for that.
Are the hills of Iowa enmeshed with a vast network of death camps, comparable in moral terms to those of the Holocaust? This is one of the questions raised, indeed hurled, by Elizabeth Costello in The Lives of Animals (1999), a novella-of-ideas by the Afrikaner-Australian and Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee. In 1997, Coetzee was invited […]
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‘I just keep thinking about it. Why us?’ Pascual Pedro Pedro thanks supporters in Iowa as protests of his deportation continue
The parking ramp across the street from the federal building in Cedar Rapids provided shade and some relief from the heat, so that’s where people started gathering before noon on Tuesday for the biggest demonstration yet in support of Pascual Pedro Pedro, a 20-year-old West Liberty resident who was suddenly and unexpectedly deported to Guatemala […]
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Gov. Reynolds celebrates ‘a culture of life’ one year into abortion ban; Iowans seek care across state lines as reproductive health clinics close
Gov. Kim Reynolds has been a featured speaker at the Family Leadership Summit every year during her governorship. When she took the stage at Community Choice Credit Union Convention Center in Des Moines for this year’s event on July 11, Reynolds — who announced in April she is not running for reelection — reflected on […]
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More Iowans sue Homeland Security over delays in naturalization process
A Bettendorf man and a couple from Perry are suing the federal government over what they claim are years of unexplained delays in the citizenship and naturalization process. Konstantin Konev, a citizen of Belurus and a legal permanent resident of the United States for more than five years, is suing the U.S. Department of Homeland […]
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Le Mars school district bars religious groups from holding events on school grounds
A northwest Iowa school district has agreed to prohibit religious organizations from holding events at schools after receiving a complaint about a Christian group holding National Day of Prayer celebrations on school grounds. The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), a nonprofit organization advocating for the separation of church and state and for nonreligious people, sent […]
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University of Iowa to form new Office of Writing and Communication
The University of Iowa is working to bind its writing centers, programs and initiatives closer together with a new office. The UI announced online Thursday its launch of the Office of Writing and Communication, which will serve as a “strategic hub” and support system for the university’s writing programs. Executive Vice President and Provost Kevin […]
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‘We can do so much better’: Clint Twedt-Ball, co-founder of Matthew 25, launches a run to defeat Rep. Hinson in IA-02
Clint Twedt-Ball, co-founder of the Cedar Rapids nonprofit Matthew 25, entered the race for Congress in Iowa’s 2nd District this week. Twedt-Ball, a first-time candidate, joins Kathy Dotler, another first-time candidate and the former dean of nursing at Kirkwood Community College, in seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge three-term incumbent Republican Ashley Hinson in next […]
