Ty Rushing

An Iowa House committee advanced a law on Monday to give parents something they can already control: Oversight of their child’s social media accounts. But the bill might instead lead parents to give up more of their own personal information to large social media companies. “Utah just did a law very similar that allows parental…

Despite both of her parents being college graduates, Esther Hurston said her family struggled financially for most of her childhood and those scars stick with her. “As a little girl, I never knew if we were going to have a home to live in, if I was going to have food to eat,” she said.…

Iowa House Republicans have a big decision to make: Vote to limit the Iowa Auditor of State Office’s ability to adequately audit over $12.1 billion in state funds or vote to maintain long-held and electorally-decided checks and balances in state government. A fiscal note for SF 478 was released on Friday by the nonpartisan Iowa…

Like many Iowans with a transgender child, Matt McIver of Des Moines has paid close attention to this year’s Iowa Legislative session, in which more than 30 anti-LGBTQ bills were introduced including several that specifically targeted trans kids. Two of those bills—one makes it illegal to provide gender-affirming care to trans children and a school…

An amended version of Gov. Kim Reynolds’ education bill continues to work its way through the Iowa Legislature after it advanced out of an Iowa House subcommittee on Wednesday.  Rep. Skyler Wheeler (R-Hull), who chaired the subcommittee, said there will be more amendments to the bill but he did not want to discuss them publicly…

Rep. Joel Fry (R-Osceola) says it’s a “false narrative” that two bills that kick thousands of Iowans off SNAP and Medicaid are about taking food and health care away from those people. “This is not about taking Medicaid or food assistance away from anybody, so as the narrative continues out in the lobby, if that’s…

Iowa Sen. Brad Zaun (R-Urbandale) has introduced legislation to defend Jan. 6 insurrectionists, including a specific rioter named in the bill that beat police officers with a baseball bat. Zaun wants officials involved with detaining Jan. 6 Capitol rioters to be investigated and arrested by the federal government and for the Iowa Senate to formally…

Gov. Kim Reynolds on Wednesday signed bills restricting the rights and freedoms of transgender children, just one day after she told Iowa reporters that her “heart goes” out to the kids who will be negatively affected by the bills. One bill prevents trans students from using the school restrooms or locker rooms of the gender…

Iowa 8th District Court Judge Shawn Showers dismissed a lawsuit filed by Kimberly Reicks—a well-known Iowa right-wing activist that advised Gov. Kim Reynolds on school issues—who sought $87 million from the Ankeny School District over a drag show. “The Court has reviewed the filings in this matter. None of the Plaintiff’s filings remotely comply with…

Gov. Kim Reynolds’ “parental rights” education bill could cost Iowa public schools as much as $62.3 million over a five-day period, according to a fiscal note from the nonpartisan Iowa Legislative Services Agency (LSA). Among the measures included in Reynolds’ sweeping education bill are book censorship, prohibiting schools from calling certain students by their preferred…