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 […]
Community/News
Posted inArts & Entertainment
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 […]
Posted inCommunity/News
‘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 […]
Posted inCommunity/News
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 […]
Posted inCommunity/News
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 […]
Posted inCommunity/News
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 […]
Posted inCommunity/News
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 […]
Posted inCommunity/News
‘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 […]
Posted inCentral Iowa
Department of Homeland Security moves to deport Iowa couple that’s suing the agency
Federal officials are moving to deport a central Iowa couple who is suing the government over a five-year delay in processing their naturalization application. The stated rationale for the attempted removal of Justin and Victoria Kokeh from the United States is that the couple lied in 2013 when they claimed to have no children. According […]
Posted inCommunity/News
AG Bird drops her lawsuit against Winneshiek County over sheriff’s Facebook post
On Friday, Attorney General Brenna Bird dropped her lawsuit over a February Facebook post by Winneshiek County Sheriff Dan Marx. Bird had been seeking to strip Winneshiek County of all state funds, unless Marx publicly disowned his Facebook post and declared his support for ICE enforcement actions, using language provided by the AG’s office. Bird […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Sen. Joni Ernst speaks in support of cuts to USAID, public broadcasting
U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst praised the cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) included in the bill passed in the early hours of Thursday to cancel $9 billion in federal funding for foreign aid efforts and public broadcasting. Ernst spoke in support of the cuts made through the rescissions bill, requested by President […]
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Poll: Kim Reynolds remains America’s most unpopular governor
Gov. Kim Reynolds remains the most unpopular governor in America, according to the latest poll by Morning Consult. Reynolds is once again the only governor whose disapproval rating is higher than their approval rating in the opinion research firm’s quarterly survey of the approval ratings of governors. Reynolds has ranked the least popular governor in […]
