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Iowa was one of eight states setting records during the country’s ‘warmest winter on record’

The seasons don’t officially change until next week when the spring equinox occurs at 10:06 p.m. (central time) on Tuesday, but meteorological winter is already over and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has now confirmed what seemed obvious on many days these past few months. “Meteorological winter was the warmest winter on record for […]

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Biden wins Iowa; only 2.6% of registered Democrats voted in new mail-in caucus

President Joe Biden scored an overwhelming victory in the Iowa Democratic Party’s first vote-by-mail presidential caucus on Tuesday night. Biden received 90.9 percent of the votes cast. The two other candidates on the mail-in presidential preference card, as the IDP calls its ballots, were Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips, who won 3 percent of the vote, […]

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House Republicans vote to immediately ban guaranteed income programs in Iowa, before results from the first study are known

Less than a year after a program to study the impact of a guaranteed income in Iowa was launched in the Des Moines area, Iowa House Republicans approved a bill to prevent city or county governments from starting or supporting any basic income program in the future. 

HF 2319 passed the House on Monday on a vote of 55-43. Seven Republicans joined all the chamber’s Democrats in opposing it.

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‘Suspicious fire’ damages Iowa’s largest sycamore; Gov. Reynolds’ opposition to CAFO rules threatens waterways

Iowa’s largest sycamore tree, which is located in a state park near Burlington, was severely damaged by a “suspicious fire,” the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) said in a news release on Thursday. It’s not known if the tree, estimated to be about 350 years old, will survive.  According to the DNR, a visitor […]

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More than 17,500 mail-in ballots have been requested for the yet-to-be-held Iowa Democratic Caucus

It may feel like Iowa’s presidential caucus season is long over. The national reporters are gone, along with their clichés about and misunderstandings of the state. It may feel like ages since Donald Trump won the least surprising victory since the Harlem Globetrotters’ last game against the Washington Generals. But the state’s Democratic presidential caucus […]

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One day after bill undermining transgender rights is defeated, Gov. Reynolds introduces new bill targeting IDs for trans and nonbinary Iowans

One day after a bill that would have stripped legal protections for transgender people out of the Iowa Civil Rights Act was rejected in the Iowa House, Gov. Kim Reynolds introduced a new bill targeting transgender Iowans. Reynolds’ submitted HSB 649 to lawmakers a few hours after Iowa Capitol Dispatch reported on the existence of […]

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Iowa House Republicans advance a bill to cut qualifications for running a program giving anti-abortion centers millions in funds

In 2022, Republicans in the Iowa Legislature pushed through a bill creating the More Options for Maternal Support (MOMS) program, which would use tax dollars to fund privately run anti-abortion centers — which call themselves “pregnancy resource centers” — across the state. Gov. Kim Reynolds touted the program as an important part of her anti-abortion […]

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Along with banning books and targeting LGBTQ students, SF 496 also cut requirement for schools to provide information on HIV/AIDS and HPV

It’s World AIDS Day. Since 1988, the first day of December has been recognized as a day on which to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and remember those who died because of the disease. Around the same time World AIDS Day was first commemorated, Iowa began requiring public schools to provide age-appropriate information about HIV/AIDS to […]

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