There are 36 million acres in Iowa, and 30 million are devoted to agriculture. Of those, 25 million are planted with corn and soybeans. “You have only two species of plants on 70 percent of our land,” Chris Jones told the packed meeting room at Iowa Lakes Community College in Emmetsburg on the evening of […]
Gov. Kim Reynolds
Posted inCommunity/News
Gov. Kim Reynolds signs law allowing $1.4 billion in tax incentives — roughly $777,000 per job — for steel mill project
Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law Friday a measure changing a state’s economic development program that could provide nearly $1.4 billion in tax incentives for a $15 billion steel mill project planned in southeast Iowa. “Today, we advance the most consequential economic development project ever to come to our state,” Reynolds said. The governor signed […]
Posted inCommunity/News
The Reynolds administration is appealing the ruling that saved the Centennial Building and archives
The Reynolds administration is appealing the district court ruling that it cannot eliminate the Iowa City research center and archives of the State Historical Society of Iowa (SHSI). Lawyers from the Attorney General’s Office filed notice on Friday that the administration is appealing Judge David Cox’s Sept. 17 decision to the Iowa Supreme Court. Cox […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Des Moines Public Library eliminates Sunday hours amid citywide budget cuts due to new state law
The Des Moines Public Library will eliminate Sunday service hours at two of its largest branches, Central and Franklin Avenue, after Oct. 25, the Board of Trustees decided Wednesday. The change is a direct response to a $750,000 budget cut — part of a broader effort by city officials to cut costs after a new […]
Posted inStatewide
RFK Jr. visits Dubuque community health clinic facing major Trump budget cuts, as Iowa experiences a measles outbreak
“I love to visit places like Crescent, ’cause they do everything right,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told reporters after touring Crescent Community Health Center in Dubuque on Wednesday. “From the very beginning, the focus was on removing barriers and ensuring access to care — regardless of income, insurance, or background,” […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Legal challenge to Iowa’s school book ban enters a new phase
Penguin Random House and eight co-plaintiffs have renewed their legal challenge to Iowa’s school book ban. The coalition of the country’s largest publishing houses, the Author’s Guild, two bestselling authors whose works have been pulled from school libraries because of the ban, and an Urbandale High School alum who was still a student when Gov. […]
Posted inCommunity/News
‘What did we do wrong now?’: Rural Iowa schools weigh costs of expanding ‘school choice’
As Iowa’s Education Savings Account program continues to expand to include all K-12 families, rural public school districts are still trying to determine how the scholarships will affect their classrooms, budgets and enrollment. Supporters argue ESAs give families more educational choices, while critics say the program diverts money away from public schools that remain the […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Federal judge strikes down Gov. Reynolds’ restrictions on SNAP benefits
On Monday, a federal judge struck down new restrictions on food that can be purchased with SNAP benefits in Iowa and four other states. In her 68-page ruling, Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia found that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which funds SNAP, lacked the […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Auditor: School choice cost Iowans $258 million, is ‘paying tuition for the wealthiest families’
Nearly 79 percent of students who used Iowa’s funding program for K-12 private schools were “already projected” to attend private schools, according to a report released Wednesday by Iowa Auditor Rob Sand. The Iowa Department of Education called the report a “policy advocacy brief” that critiqued statutory provisions of the Iowa Education Savings Account (ESA) […]
Posted inStatewide
Gov. Reynolds outsources IT services to New Jersey corporation, eliminating 200 state government jobs
Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Tuesday that she is outsourcing all of the state’s executive branch information technology (IT) work to an out-of-state corporation, eliminating the jobs of approximately 200 people who work for the Iowa Division of Information Technology. Cognizant Government Solutions, based in New Jersey, will provide the IT services, and the state’s data will […]
Posted inCentral Iowa
Lawn watering ban enacted in central Iowa due to high nitrate levels, affecting 20% of the state population
Central Iowa Water Works (CIWW) imposed a lawn-watering ban on Monday. This is the second year in a row the water utility has banned watering by its 600,000 customers in the greater Des Moines area and beyond. “The lawn watering ban is not due to a lack of water in our rivers or reservoirs,” according […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Rob Sand warns Iowa is facing ‘a fiscal time bomb,’ calls for four debates with Zach Lahn
Iowa’s state budget deficits are a “fiscal time bomb,” and addressing the problem “before the bomb explodes” will be the top priority if he’s elected governor, Rob Sand told the annual conference of the Iowa Association of Business and Industry (ABI) in Coralville on Thursday. ABI had scheduled a nonpartisan forum for gubernatorial candidates at […]
