“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 […]
Gov. Kim Reynolds
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As national GOP leaders praise Gov. Reynolds’ handling of the pandemic, Iowa COVID deaths surpass 9,000
One day after national Republican leaders praised Gov. Kim Reynolds as “a national leader in effectively balancing lives and livelihoods” during the pandemic, the Iowa Department of Public Health disclosed that more than 9,000 Iowans have died from COVID-19. In its update on Wednesday, IDPH reported another 137 deaths from the virus, bringing the state’s […]
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Iowa House Republicans approve ban on transgender girls in girls’ sports, extending the ban to colleges and universities
The Iowa House approved a bill to ban transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports at schools on Monday night, after amending it to extend the ban to community colleges and public and private universities. HF 2416 only received support from Republicans when it was passed by a subcommittee and the House Education Committee, but […]
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Gov. Reynolds will deliver the Republican response to President Biden’s State of the Union address
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced on Tuesday that Gov. Kim Reynolds will deliver the Republican response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech next week. In a written statement, McConnell praised Reynolds’ “brave, bold, and successful leadership” as an example of the work Republican governors are doing. “While Democrats in Washington have […]
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Iowa discovers thousands of previously unreported COVID cases, as Republicans push through bill to nix vaccination incentives
The state changed how it provides information about COVID-19 cases and deaths to the public this week, as the Reynolds administration officially stopped treating the pandemic as a public health emergency at the stroke of midnight on Wednesday. Instead of the weekly COVID-19 update the Iowa Department of Public Health used to post to coronavirus.iowa.gov […]
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Republican majority on House Education Committee unanimously approves ban on transgender girls in girls’ sports
A bill banning transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports at school passed the Iowa House Education Committee on a party-line vote Monday, with all the committee’s Republicans voting in favor of it and all of its Democrats opposed. HF 2309 would restrict participation on all girls’ sports teams and in all athletic events for […]
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‘State-sanctioned bullying’: Iowa House Republicans advance bill to ban transgender students from playing girls sports
It was a forgone conclusion that a bill seeking to ban transgender girls from participating in girls sports at all Iowa schools would be approved by a subcommittee of the Iowa House Education Committee on Thursday, because the two Republicans on the three-person subcommittee are the bill’s co-sponsors. Rep. Skyler Wheeler and Rep. Henry Stone […]
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COVID-19: Gov. Reynolds says ‘We need to move on,’ IDPH reports another 172 deaths
“It’s time to end it and move on,” Gov. Kim Reynolds told reporters at the Iowa State Capitol on Wednesday when asked about her decision to stop classifying COVID-19 as a public health emergency next week. “And we need to treat it [COVID-19] like we do other viruses. So, the Department of Public Health will […]
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Gov. Reynolds: COVID-19 is now ‘part of our everyday lives,’ no longer ‘a public health emergency’
Gov. Kim Reynolds announced on Thursday her administration will officially stop taking any action that treats “COVID-19 as a public health emergency” at 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 15. That is when the extension of the state’s Public Health Disaster Emergency Proclamation the governor signed before her announcement expires. The proclamation was first issued on […]
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Appeals court limits scope of preliminary injunction against Iowa’s school mask ban
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday that a preliminary injunction stopping the Reynolds administration from enforcing a ban on face masks in Iowa schools is too broad, and should only apply to the 10 school districts named in the lawsuit. The Iowa Department of Education (IDOE) will now be able to enforce […]
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Record number of Iowans test positive for COVID; Gov. Reynolds says cases are undercounted, but doesn’t think state needs to reopen test sites
In its weekly COVID-19 update on Wednesday, the Iowa Department of Public Health reported the highest number of new cases of the virus during a seven-day period since the first cases were discovered in the state in March 2020. According to IDPH, another 38,574 Iowans tested positive from Jan. 12-18. But in an interview with […]
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Condition of the State: COVID cases and hospitalizations near record levels; Gov. Reynolds avoids mentioning pandemic in speech to legislature
The surge in COVID-19 continues in Iowa, with the Iowa Department of Public Health reporting weekly totals for new cases and hospitalization not seen since the worst of the pandemic in late 2020. IDPH reported 31,748 new cases in its weekly update on Wednesday, a 58 percent increase from the 20,075 new cases in its […]
