Retired Adm. Mike Franken easily defeated Abby Finkenauer to win the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in what was the highest profile contested race in the nation on Tuesday. Franken won 55.2 percent of the vote and carried 76 of Iowa’s 99 counties, including Johnson and Linn, according to the unofficial totals published by the […]
Gov. Kim Reynolds
Posted inEastern Iowa
As leaders debate action, gun reform advocates will don orange and demonstrate in Iowa City and Cedar Rapids Saturday
Iowa City and Cedar Rapids will both have Wear Orange events on Saturday to mark National Gun Violence Awareness Day. The Iowa City event in Wetherby Park (2400 Taylor Dr) begins at 2 p.m., and will include “speakers, kids’ activities, and a peace walk affirming commitment to a future free from gun violence,” according to […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Speaker Grassley says the governor’s school voucher program won’t pass this year
Gov. Kim Reynolds’ attempt to pressure the Iowa Legislature into passing a bill that diverted public schools funds to private schools has failed. The governor made the creation of a school voucher program using education savings accounts one of her top legislative priorities this year, but on Monday morning Speaker of the Iowa House Pat […]
Posted inCommunity/News
AG Miller has to return a $50,000 campaign donation; Gov. Reynolds’ reelection fund surpasses $6 million
Attorney General Tom Miller violated one of Iowa’s few laws regarding campaign contributions when he accepted $50,000 from the the Democratic Attorneys General Association, a national political action committee. It’s not the size of the contribution (Iowa doesn’t set a limit on political contributions) that was a problem, or that it came from an out-of-state […]
Posted inEastern Iowa
Gov. Reynolds fails to get Open Records Act lawsuit dismissed; complains about State Auditor doing audits
Gov. Kim Reynolds’ attempt to get a lawsuit over her administration’s failure to comply with Iowa’s Open Records Act dismissed failed on Friday. Polk County District Court Judge Joseph Seidlin rejected the argument by the governor’s attorney that the case is now moot because the state had finally turned over all the records covered by […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Report: Ernst to push for nationwide abortion restrictions as Supreme Court prepares to overturn Roe v. Wade
Hours before Politico published an apparent leaked draft of a U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade and declaring there is no constitutionally protected right to choose an abortion in the United States, the Washington Post reported a group of Republican senators plan to introduce a nationwide restriction on abortions after the Supreme Court […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Claiming Biden’s border policies are ‘destroying our country,’ Gov. Reynolds joins a new ‘strike force’
Gov. Kim Reynolds has joined 25 other Republican governors in the newly created American Governors Border Strike Force that was announced on Wednesday. Despite the dramatic-sounding name and some overheated rhetoric from Reynolds in a written statement about it on Thursday (“President Biden’s disastrous border policies and lack of leadership are destroying our country.”) the […]
Posted inCommunity/News
‘A middle finger to hardworking Iowans’: Iowa House and Senate approve bill to cut unemployment benefits
On Wednesday, the Iowa House and the Iowa Senate both passed versions of a bill that will cut unemployment benefits and is designed to force unemployed Iowans to take jobs that pay less than their former jobs more quickly than current law does. The bills passed both chambers with only Republicans voting for them. Cutting […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Deidre DeJear, the sole Democrat running for governor, discusses how to win in Iowa City
Speaking to a roomful of Democrats at The James Theater in Iowa City on Saturday night, Deidre DeJear said she knows every election year people say, “this is the most important election of our lives.” But she said this year, it’s true. “We’re in a position right now, where we have a governor who is […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Gov. Reynolds’ bill to divert public school funds to private schools advances in the Iowa House
It was expected that Gov. Kim Reynolds’ bill to divert public school funds to private schools would pass the subcommittee level in the Iowa House on a party-line vote, with both Republicans endorsing it and the one Democrat opposing it. But what wasn’t expected was the first speaker in support of HSB 672 during Tuesday’s […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Auditor concludes Gov. Reynolds has failed to justify almost $450,000 in pandemic relief spent on staff pay
Just hours before Gov. Kim Reynolds boasted about her handling of the pandemic (“we honored your freedoms”) in the Republican response to the State of the Union address on Tuesday, Iowa Auditor Rob Sand published a report that reiterated his finding from last October that the governor had misappropriated almost $450,000 in federal pandemic relief […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Surrounded by children, Gov. Reynolds signs bill banning transgender girls from playing girls sports in all Iowa schools
“Our state has an impressive legacy of advancing women’s equality,” Gov. Kim Reynolds said on Thursday, just before she signed into law a bill banning transgender girls and women from girls’ and women’s sports in Iowa schools, colleges and universities. HF 2416 restricts participation on all school or college girls sports teams and in all […]
