Five Linn County school superintendents sent a joint letter to Gov. Kim Reynolds on Monday asking for additional COVID-19 vaccine doses to be allocated to the state’s priority populations in light of the Feb. 15 deadline for school districts to provide all in-person instruction. The superintendents ask state officials to reallocate 64,000 doses of vaccine […]
Gov. Kim Reynolds
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ICCSD families will have to choose all in-person or all online instruction as new state law limits district’s options
Following Gov. Kim Reynolds’ signing of a new law requiring school districts to offer an all in-person class option, the Iowa City Community School District (ICCSD) announced it will discontinue the hybrid model of education it implemented when limited in-person instruction resumed last fall. “Effective February 15, 2021, the District will no longer offer the […]
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Gov. Reynolds signs bill requiring all schools to offer 100% in-person instruction regardless of COVID-19 conditions
Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill on Friday morning that will require all school districts to provide 100 percent in-person instruction to any student whose parents request it, regardless of its possible impact on the spread of COVID-19 in a school or a community. “It’s time to put local control into the hands of parents, […]
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Iowa House Republicans push through an amendment to add anti-abortion language to the Iowa Constitution
Shortly after 9 on Wednesday night, the Republican-controlled Iowa House of Representatives passed a constitutional amendment to eliminate the existing protection for abortion rights in Iowa. The vote was 55-44, with three Republicans — Jane Bloomingdale of Northwood, Lee Hein of Monticello and David Maxwell of Gibson — joining all the chamber’s Democrats in opposing […]
Posted inCOVID-19
COVID-19: Biden administration ups Iowa’s vaccine allotment by 16%; Reynolds defends state’s low testing rates
Gov. Kim Reynolds said on Wednesday the Biden administration will be increasing every state’s allotment of COVID-19 vaccine by 16 percent starting next week. “In Iowa, this should equate to an additional 6,300 doses,” the governor said during a news conference. “And they did say that that increased amount is guaranteed for the next three […]
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Iowa Senate Republicans advance bills to divert tax dollars from public to private schools, require 100% in-person instruction
Republicans in the Iowa Legislature are moving quickly to approve bills that would allow tax dollars that support public schools to be diverted to private schools, and further limit the control local school boards have over the schools in their districts. Gov. Kim Reynolds listed both actions as top priorities in her Condition of State […]
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Wear a mask, Iowa Public Health Association asks state lawmakers
The Iowa Public Health Association (IPHA) sent an open letter to the state legislature on Thursday, asking lawmakers to “accept your position of critical role models to the people of Iowa” and “lead by example and always wear a mask during your work at the Capitol and ask others to do the same.” As IPHA […]
Posted inCOVID-19
‘Our state has never been stronger’: Reynolds calls for accelerated tax cuts and full-time in-person school, despite pandemic
More than 4,200 Iowans have died from COVID-19, and food insecurity in the state has been pushed to it highest level in living memory by economic damage from the pandemic. Still, Gov. Kim Reynolds told the Iowa Legislature at the beginning of her Condition of the State speech on Tuesday night that “the condition of […]
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Iowa may soon start vaccinating all older adults; anti-vaxxers protest without masks at State Capitol
A total of 91,501 Iowans, including 9,411 residents of Johnson County and 6,797 residents of Linn County, had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of Monday, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health. The department has said it will now publish updates on the number of people vaccinated, at both […]
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COVID-19: ICCSD’s waiver request was denied as Reynolds plans elimination of hybrid learning; deaths surpass 4,000
Late on Thursday afternoon, the Iowa Department of Education (DOE) rejected the Iowa City Community School District’s request for a waiver to switch to all online classes for two weeks. The district applied for the waiver on Tuesday as Johnson County’s COVID-19 test positivity rate continued to increase over the last two weeks, with fears […]
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Reynolds administration decides it no longer needs the White House Coronavirus Task Force’s weekly reports
Gov. Kim Reynolds’ administration has decided Iowa no longer needs the weekly report on the state from the White House Coronavirus Task Force. “We are not requesting the report at this time,” Iowa Department of Public Health spokesperson Sarah Ekstrand told the Des Moines Register in an email on Monday afternoon. Ekstrand did not respond […]
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Gov. Reynolds relaxes COVID-19 restrictions while Trump administration cuts Iowa’s allotment of vaccine by 30 percent
At her news conference on Wednesday, Gov. Kim Reynolds highlighted how much virus activity in Iowa has declined since she imposed some new COVID-19 restrictions on Nov. 16, before announcing she was relaxing some of those restrictions. “Bars and restaurants can resume their normal hours of operation,” the governor said. In her Nov. 16 emergency […]
