Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said Tuesday she plans to continue work this year on cutting taxes and consolidating and reorganizing Iowa’s state government systems with a focus on special education, boards and commissions and mental health care providers. The governor gave her Condition of the State address in the Iowa House Tuesday evening as winter […]
Gov. Kim Reynolds
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Along with banning books and targeting LGBTQ students, SF 496 also cut requirement for schools to provide information on HIV/AIDS and HPV
It’s World AIDS Day. Since 1988, the first day of December has been recognized as a day on which to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and remember those who died because of the disease. Around the same time World AIDS Day was first commemorated, Iowa began requiring public schools to provide age-appropriate information about HIV/AIDS to […]
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‘I am not shameful’: Iowa Safe Schools, seven students sue the state over anti-LGBTQ law SF 496
On Tuesday, the ACLU of Iowa and Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, a nationwide civil rights organization dedicated to defending and advocating for LGBTQ people, filed a lawsuit in federal court in Des Moines challenging SF 496, the education bill signed into law by Gov. Kim Reynolds in May. “This is a federal civil […]
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Marginalization and book bans protect abusers, warns Iowa writer Lyz Lenz: ‘Silence always benefits power’
Growing up in a conservative evangelical family, Lyz Lenz internalized Old Testament proverbs, like, “It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife.” She was conditioned to believe that anger was a bad emotion, especially if you were a girl or a woman. As […]
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Iowa Board of Medicine will consider rules for six-week abortion ban, even as injunction remains in effect
Last week, Attorney General Brenna Bird finally filed the Reynolds administration’s appeal to the Iowa Supreme Court, seeking to have the temporary injunction stopping enforcement of a new law banning almost all abortion after six weeks lifted. The Nov. 8 court filing comes four months after Gov. Kim Reynolds issued a statement saying she would […]
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Trump still has overwhelming lead among Republican caucusgoers, even though they feel he isn’t anti-abortion enough
Donald Trump has an overwhelming lead over every other GOP candidate for president in the latest Iowa Poll, just as he has in every other poll conducted this year. According to the new poll results, which the Des Moines Register published over the course of this week, Iowa Republicans aren’t concerned that the 91 felony […]
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‘More than 1,000 books’ removed from Iowa schools, as districts work to comply with new state book ban; Scholastic apologizes for book fair ‘bigot button’
The impact of the book banning provisions in SF 496, which Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law in May, is becoming clearer as the Des Moines Register continues to update its database of books pulled from classrooms and school libraries. “More than 1,000 books have already been removed from 39 public school districts,” the Register […]
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Iowa City Community School District releases list of 68 books it’s removed (so far) to comply with the new state law
On Monday, the Iowa City Community School District released the “current list” of books it has removed from schools in its “ongoing efforts to ensure compliance with Iowa law Senate File 496.” Gov. Kim Reynolds signed SF 496 into law in May, after it was pushed through the Iowa Legislature with only Republican votes. Among […]
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Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird endorses Donald Trump for president
On the same day a judge in one of Donald Trump’s ongoing federal criminal trials imposed a limited gag order to stop the former president from making further statements attacking prosecutors and court personnel, or attempting to intimidate witnesses, Iowa’s top law enforcement officer endorsed Trump for president. “I am proud to announce my endorsement […]
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Iowa Dept. of Education doesn’t know how much the new school choice program will cost this year, but it’ll exceed estimates by millions
A total of 18,893 applications for Gov. Reynolds’ new school-voucher-style education savings account (ESA) program were approved this year, the Iowa Department of Education disclosed on Thursday. That’s far more than the enrollment estimate provided to lawmakers by the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency (LSA) when the bill creating the program to divert public school funds […]
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Regents walk out as UI grad student workers protest for ‘a real raise’; Reynolds announces $1.8 billion state budget surplus
The Iowa Board of Regents meeting at the University of Iowa’s Levitt Center on Wednesday came to an early and abrupt end as members of UI’s graduate student union staged a protest to demand a living wage. A leader of the Campaign to Organize Graduate Students (COGS) called out, “What do we want?” as union […]
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Reynolds jabs Trump (indirectly) in tweet defending her six-week abortion ban bills
It’s a testament to the faith that national political reporters still have in the importance of Iowa in the race for the Republican presidential nomination that a short, passive-aggressive tweet from Gov. Kim Reynolds can generate stories in outlets like the New York Times. “It’s never a ‘terrible thing’ to protect innocent life,” Reynolds tweeted […]
