An Iowa school student questioned state senators about a Republican proposal to arm Iowa teachers and staff in an attempt to deter school shooters. “This bill, for me, makes me feel unsafe, it means that this bill is going to put more guns into the hands of...
Rep. Mike Sexton (R-Rockwell City) would ban all plant-based meat products—such as Beyond Beef or the Impossible Burger—from Iowa if he could. “If it was up to me, I believe I would outlaw fake meat in the state of Iowa, and I would make it illegal to transport it...
How much better would your life be with an extra $500 a month—especially $500 a month with no strings attached? That’s what people behind the UpLift - The Central Iowa Basic Income program are trying to determine, but the study might be the first and last of its...
Legalized discrimination on religious grounds could be a major consequence of Iowa’s new “religious freedom” bill when Gov. Kim Reynolds signs it into law. During the Iowa Senate debate on this legislation, Sen. Janice Weiner (D-Iowa City), one of Iowa’s three...
Rep. Chuck Isenhart (D-Dubuque) can already see the writing on the wall for Iowa’s Area Education Agencies (AEAs), after Thursday’s Iowa House vote to move forward in implementing large-scale changes to the agencies. During the House debate on its amended AEA...
Rep. Molly Buck (D-Ankeny), who is also a teacher, summed up her thoughts on Iowa House Republicans' bill to arm school staff as a way to deter school shootings. “When I think about how my classroom is arranged, if I am carrying a gun and there’s a threat at the...
Sara McFarland wants to make sure her husband’s on-the-job death—during the inmate escape attempt at Anamosa State Penitentiary in 2021— wasn’t in vain. Her husband, Robert McFarland, was a correctional officer at Anamosa. He and nurse Lorena Schulte were murdered...
Stacey Warren was one of the first people on the scene of the Perry High School shooting on Jan. 4, but she’s not a first responder: She’s a social worker for the Heartland Iowa Area Education Association (AEA). “I went to Perry and we were there before 10 a.m. and...
Jesse Case, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 238, said everything—including strikes—are on the table if that’s what it takes to stop a union-busting bill that has worked its way through the Iowa Senate. For about an hour on Wednesday, Teamsters members and...
Sen. Liz Bennett (D-Cedar Rapids)—Iowa’s only out LGBTQ senator—is fed up with seeing queer Iowans continue to be attacked by her Republican colleagues. “I am sick and tired of my community being the target of mean-spirited discriminatory bills written by...
