The ACLU of Iowa filed a lawsuit in state court on Wednesday seeking to overturn sections of the Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS) budget bill that were designed to prevent Planned Parenthood from receiving government grants to provide sex education programs. […]
A dark money group spent $1.25 million on TV ads in just six weeks to support bills in the Iowa legislature that would let utility companies impose new fees on homeowners and businesses that install solar panels. That group, the REAL Coalition of Iowa, was incorporated on Jan. 23, apparently to support the bills. […]
The Republican-led Iowa Senate passed a bill imposing work requirements on Medicaid recipients on a party line vote on Tuesday. SF538 would require Iowans determined to be “able-bodied” to work at least 20 hours a week at a job or as a community volunteer, or to attend school for that amount of time, in order […]
A dark money group has increased its efforts to support a bill (SF583) that would let utility companies impose new fees on homeowners and businesses that install solar panels. The REAL Coalition of Iowa was incorporated as a nonprofit on Jan. 23, apparently to support the House and Senate versions of the bill. A dark money group is a nonprofit that engages in political activity but does not disclose its funders. […]
Two months after a federal judge struck down Iowa’s “ag gag” law as unconstitutional, the Iowa legislature passed a new, similar law on Tuesday. The Agricultural Facility Trespass Act makes it a crime for a person to use “deception” to gain access to an agriculture production facility, or apply for a job at one, “with […]
Iowans are evenly split on legalizing recreational marijuana, according to a new poll published by the Des Moines Register. The Iowa Poll found 48 percent of respondents favored legalization, 48 percent opposed it and 4 percent were unsure. This is a significant change from the results of the last Iowa Poll on the topic. In […]
An indignant Rep. Gary Worthan took the floor of the Iowa House of Representatives on Thursday night to deny Republicans are cutting the attorney general’s budget for partisan reasons, just before explaining that Republicans are cutting the attorney general’s budget for partisan reasons. But the Storm Lake Republican who chairs the Justice Systems Appropriate Subcommittee, […]
A final attempt to expand Iowa’s medical marijuana program appears to be dead in the Iowa legislature, after Speaker of the House Linda Upmeyer said she and the rest of the Republican caucus that controls the House are opposed to changing the current law. The Senate Ways and Means Committee passed a bill on Monday […]
An Iowa Senate aide was fired last week for sexual harassment. Jake Dagel, a legislative clerk for Republican Senator Waylon Brown of St. Ansgar, recently completed the new, mandatory course on sexual harassment. […]
A bill that would strip so-called “sanctuary cities” of state funds was approved the Iowa House of Representatives on Tuesday, even though several Democrats speaking in opposition to the bill pointed out that no city in Iowa meets the U.S. Justice Department’s definition of a sanctuary city. […]
The Iowa House Republicans official online weekly news update addressed violence in schools in a strange and tasteless way last week, concluding “Clearly there is no so-called ‘silver bullet’ for the school bullying and violence situations.” […]
On Wednesday, a committee in the Iowa House of Representatives killed a proposal to make first-time possession of small amounts of marijuana a simple misdemeanor. […]
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