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Sen. Pam Jochum replaces Sen. Zach Wahls as Iowa Senate minority leader

Iowa Senate Democrats voted Wednesday evening to elect Sen. Pam Jochum, D-Dubuque, to replace Sen. Zach Wahls, D-Coralville, as Senate minority leader. Iowa Democrats left the meeting at the Iowa State Capitol at 9 p.m., referring questions to Jochum’s office. […]

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Iowa Senate Republicans maintain status quo spending on state parks, water quality improvements

This story originally appeared in LV Daily, Little Village’s Monday-Friday email newsletter. Sign up to have it delivered for free to your inbox. No state has less public land, such as parks or nature preserves, than Iowa, and state Senate […]

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‘A middle finger to hardworking Iowans’: Iowa House and Senate approve bill to cut unemployment benefits

On Wednesday, the Iowa House and the Iowa Senate both passed versions of a bill that will cut unemployment benefits and is designed to force unemployed Iowans to take jobs that pay less than their former jobs more quickly than […]

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State senator calls COVID-19 vaccines ineffective before committee approves bill to ban vaccine requirements in schools and daycares

A Republican state senator falsely claimed COVID-19 vaccines are ineffective and called the idea of requiring them the “political belief of authoritarians who want to force their belief in… the hive-mindset,” just before the Iowa Senate Judiciary Committee approved a […]

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Surrounded by children, Gov. Reynolds signs bill banning transgender girls from playing girls sports in all Iowa schools

“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. […]

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As COVID surges on, Iowa Republicans advance bills to make it easier to use ivermectin and harder to vaccinate kids

The number of new cases of COVID-19 reported by the Iowa Department of Public Health declined from the record-setting 38,574 new cases in last week’s IDPH weekly update, but was still the second-highest weekly total IDPH has reported during the […]

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A ‘sinister agenda’ and tax cuts: Iowa Republican leaders announce their legislative priorities

It’s standard practice for the presiding official in each chamber of the Iowa Legislature to use their first speeches on the opening day of the new session to lay out the majority party’s agenda, but Iowa Senate President Jake Chapman’s […]

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Secretary of Iowa Senate denies making threat over report on inadequate COVID measures at State Capitol Building

Charlie Smithson, the secretary of the Iowa Senate, complained to the administrator in charge of the Iowa Occupational Safety and Health Agency (IOSHA) about a “hazard alert letter” by agency inspectors criticizing how the Republican leaders who appointed Smithson failed […]

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Ban on local governments, schools and businesses asking for proof of COVID vaccination advances in the Iowa Legislature

The Iowa House Judiciary Committee voted in favor of a bill intended to prohibit so-called “vaccine passports” on Monday. The bill was introduced on Friday, two weeks after Gov. Kim Reynolds called for such legislation. “I strongly oppose vaccine passports […]

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Iowa Senate Republicans pass an anti-abortion amendment to the Iowa Constitution

Republicans in the Iowa Senate approved an amendment to the Iowa Constitution that would undermine a woman’s right to an abortion on Tuesday. Senate Joint Resolution 2 passed on a party-line vote, with all Senate Republicans voting in favor and […]

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Iowa Senate Republicans push through bills eliminating gun permits and giving gunmakers new legal protections

The Iowa Senate passed two bills concerning gun sales on Monday. The first removes the requirement for a person to be licensed to buy or carry a gun, and the second provides broad immunity against lawsuits to gun manufacturers and […]

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