The Iowa Senate passed a bill allowing landlords to discriminate against anyone receiving federal housing assistance on Wednesday. The Senate had previously passed the bill on a party-line vote, but Republicans in the Iowa House amended SF 252 (formerly SSB 1079) when it passed the bill on Monday, so the Senate had to approve the […]
Gov. Kim Reynolds
Posted inCommunity/News
All Iowans will become eligible for COVID-19 vaccination on April 5, Reynolds says
All adults in Iowa will be eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccination starting on Monday, April 5, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced at her news conference on Wednesday. The new eligibility expansion will be contingent on the vaccine supply increasing. According to Reynolds, Biden administration officials assure the nation’s governors vaccine supplies will soon begin to […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa Department of Public Health signed a $1.58 million deal with GOP-connected contact tracing company
With no public announcement, the Iowa Department of Public Health approved in January a contract extension for a company with ties to the Iowa Republican Party that the department hired in November to provide COVID-19 contact tracing assistance, Ryan Foley of the Associated Press reported on Friday. The three-month extension will pay MCI $1.58 million. […]
Posted inCommunity/News
One day after Gov. Reynolds signs new voting restrictions into law, a lawsuit is filed to overturn them
On Monday, Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law a bill that restricts early voting, voting by mail and voting on Election Day, and makes it easier to remove people from voting rolls and harder for third-party candidates to get on the ballot for statewide and federal races. The bill criminalizes possible errors made by local […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Elizabeth Moen drops single ‘Red State Handshake’ to raise funds for abortion access groups
Red State Handshake by Elizabeth Moen Elizabeth Moen shared her first “blatantly political” song in a video posted to Facebook in the weeks following the Aug. 10, 2020 derecho. More than six months later, that demo has evolved into a fully realized single, incorporating the talents of two other Iowa artists. Little Village caught back […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Gov. Reynolds assesses her pandemic performance ahead of Iowa’s COVID anniversary
Gov. Kim Reynolds began her news conference on Wednesday by noting that “almost 23 percent of eligible Iowans age 18 and up, and almost 70 percent — 69.5 — of older Iowans, age 65 and above, have received at least their first dose” of COVID-19 vaccine. The governor said she expects the rate of vaccination […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa launches website to help people find COVID vaccine providers, with senior call center promised soon
The Iowa Department of Public Health launched a new site on Friday that is intended to make finding a COVID-19 vaccine provider for Iowans currently eligible to be vaccinated easier. “Vaccinate.iowa.gov will provide information about eligibility resources available to assist Iowans, and answers to frequently asked questions,” Gov. Kim Reynolds said, announcing the site at […]
Posted inCommunity/News
State Republicans pass bill to restrict early voting, voting by mail and voting on Election Day in Iowa
Just eight days after it was introduced in the Iowa Legislature, a bill that would make it harder to vote but easier to remove people from voting rolls, and creates new criminal liability for local election officials, received its final approval. On Wednesday night, the Republican-controlled Iowa House of Representatives sent the bill to Gov. […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Republican lawmakers advance bill that cuts off state funding to any city that reduces its police budget
A bill that would halt state funding to any city or county that reduces the budget of its local law enforcement agency is making its way through the Iowa Senate and House of Representatives. SSB 1203, known in the House as HSB 230, was introduced last Thursday and approved by subcommittees in the both the […]
Posted inCommunity/News
‘It’s voter suppression’: Iowa Republicans target voting access, citing Trumpian election conspiracy theories
At least 33 state legislatures around the country, most of them controlled by Republicans, are working on bills that restrict voting. Iowa is one of them. “These bills are an unmistakable response to the unfounded and dangerous lies about fraud that followed the 2020 election,“ the Brennan Center for Justice said in a report on […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Gov. Reynolds cancels plans for a ‘one-stop shop’ website for COVID-19 vaccination scheduling
Two weeks after announcing the state was going to launch a website that would be “a centralized registration and referral system” for people trying to schedule a COVID-19 vaccination, Gov. Kim Reynolds said no such site will be created. The governor described the planned website as “a one-stop shop where Iowans could provide their information […]
Posted inCommunity/News
State Sen. Jim Carlin, a hardcore Trump supporter, becomes the first declared candidate in the 2022 U.S. Senate race
The 2022 U.S. Senate election in Iowa now has its first official candidate. On Monday, Republican state Sen. Jim Carlin announced he is running for the seat that Chuck Grassley has held since 1981. Carlin has served in the Iowa State Senate, representing part of Woodbury County, since winning a special election in 2017. He […]
