A total of 18,893 applications for Gov. Reynolds’ new school-voucher-style education savings account (ESA) program were approved this year, the Iowa Department of Education disclosed on Thursday. That’s far more than the enrollment estimate provided to lawmakers by the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency (LSA) when the bill creating the program to divert public school funds […]
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Posted inCommunity/News
Shelter House seeks assistance helping people affected by fire in Iowa City
A fire on Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 4, destroyed much of an encampment near the Iowa River as it approaches the 1400 block of Gilbert Street in Iowa City. The individuals living there lost much of their possessions, and Shelter House is working to replace what was lost in the fire. “These people need new tents, […]
Posted inStatewide
Report: Black Iowans are incarcerated at nine times the rate of white residents
Iowa has one of the country’s worst rates of racial disparities in prison and jail populations, according to a new study from a think tank focused on criminal justice issues. The analysis by the Prison Policy Initiative (PPI), a nonpartisan Massachusetts-based nonprofit, found Iowa in a four-way tie as one of the states with the […]
Posted inCommunity/News
State officials weigh an exception to the Iowa Open Records Act that lets them ignore ‘vexatious requesters’
At its meeting on Thursday, the Iowa Public Information Board (IPIB) voted to defer a decision on a proposal to ask the legislature to create a new exception to Iowa’s Open Records Act that would allow government agencies to disregard records requests from a “vexatious requester.” Instead, the board will create a committee to gather […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Reynolds jabs Trump (indirectly) in tweet defending her six-week abortion ban bills
It’s a testament to the faith that national political reporters still have in the importance of Iowa in the race for the Republican presidential nomination that a short, passive-aggressive tweet from Gov. Kim Reynolds can generate stories in outlets like the New York Times. “It’s never a ‘terrible thing’ to protect innocent life,” Reynolds tweeted […]
Posted inStatewide
The ‘door of impeachable whatever’ is creaking open in the U.S. House, and Iowa’s Republican representatives are ready
On Tuesday, the first working day for the U.S. House of Representatives after its most recent vacation, Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced he had ordered House committees to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden’s actions. Exactly what actions prompted the inquiry were left unsaid, as nine months of investigations by multiple House committees […]
Posted inStatewide
Iowa AG Brenna Bird keeps threatening out-of-state companies
Since becoming attorney general in January, Brenna Bird has been joining other Republican state attorneys general in attempting to intimidate companies into enacting policies conservative activists like. At the beginning of February, Bird was one of the Republican attorneys general to sign a letter to Walgreens and CVS that threatened the pharmacy chains with unspecified […]
Posted inCommunity/News
‘Student loan socialism scheme’: Iowa’s senators decry SAVE plan as millions enroll
In the two weeks since the launch of the online application portal for the Biden administration’s latest initiative to provide student loan debt relief, almost 40,000 Iowans have been enrolled. According to the U.S. Department of Education, those Iowans are among 4,609,800 Americans who are now covered by the Saving on A Valuable Education (SAVE) […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Indira Sheumaker steps down from Des Moines City Council with more than two years left on term
Indira Sheumaker has resigned from the Des Moines City Council. According to a statement from Mayor Frank Cownie, Sheumaker’s father Randy hand delivered a resignation letter from the councilmember on Monday. The handwritten letter, dated Aug. 31 and signed by Sheumaker, was one sentence in length. “I resign from my position as councilperson Ward 1 […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa mayor bans Pride group from local parade in apparent violation of the First Amendment
The small southwest Iowa town of Essex banned an LGBTQ group from marching in its Labor Day parade Monday. The Page County town of about 700 boasted that its parade welcomes participants from all around southwest Iowa, but that welcome was withdrawn by Essex’s mayor for Shenandoah Pride, a group of LGBTQ residents from across […]
Posted inCentral Iowa
With no word from Indira Sheumaker, Des Moines City Council is officially without a Ward 1 representative
In an Aug. 21 letter to Des Moines City Councilmember Indira Sheumaker, Mayor Frank Cownie asked Sheumaker to explain her “intentions regarding [her] office and the duties of the office at the earliest practicable moment, but in any event, no later than August 28, 2023.” Sheumaker, who represents Ward 1, has not attended any council […]
Posted inCommunity/News
More Iowans identify as ‘MAGA Republicans’ than Trump supporters, Iowa Poll shows
Almost half of all Iowa Republicans who plan to vote in next year’s presidential caucus consider themselves “MAGA Republicans,” according to a new Iowa Poll published by the Des Moines Register. Forty-six percent of the self-identified likely Republican caucusgoers surveyed by Selzer & Co. said the term accurately describes them and their beliefs. Given that […]
