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Vanessa Marcano-Kelly of Des Moines played a key role during the pandemic as one of the Spanish interpreters for Gov. Kim Reynolds’ daily news conferences, making sure Spanish-speaking Iowans stayed informed on the public health situation. Fluent in English, Spanish,...
Waterloo residents know who their mayor is, how to reach him, and what he looks like, which is exactly how Quentin Hart wants it to be. A stroll with Hart through the city’s redeveloping downtown includes dozens of encounters with residents happy to greet the mayor...
Across Iowa, schools are preparing to open their doors for students and faculty this fall. COVID cases are quickly rising again, and a state law was passed in May bans schools from requiring students and faculty to wear masks. While thousands of parents want the law...
Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines was at or near capacity most of July due to an increase of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and other illnesses. The medical facility announced Monday it would suspend elective surgeries because of a "high census" in the...
Gov. Kim Reynolds arrived in Sioux City on Tuesday morning to celebrate the opening of a $22 million multi-family housing development in the community. “What’s great is you can see this complex from the air and it makes a big statement when you’re flying in,” Reynolds...
In light of a potential housing crisis, the Centers for Disease Control announced a limited, extended moratorium on evictions nationwide. The new notice, released Tuesday, covers counties with "substantial" or "high" levels of COVID-19 spread, and it will last until...
Iowa taxpayers will foot the bill for a $300,000 14-day mission to the Southern US Border that included 28 Iowa State Patrol personnel. Gov. Kim Reynolds held a press conference Wednesday to give an update on the effort, which took place July 8-22. Public Safety...
Nicole Riggs, a mom of two in West Des Moines, really hoped her 8-year-old son’s school, Hillside Elementary, would offer virtual classes for this school year. They did last year and Riggs said it worked well. Her son wanted a virtual option too so he could protect...
Henny Ohr has dedicated her life to empowering communities and showing what determination and caring for others can accomplish. She is the director and co-founder of Ethnic Minorities of Burma Advocacy and Resource Center (EMBARC) in Des Moines. EMBARC is a nonprofit...
A bill that passed the US House of Representatives on Wednesday aims to track dangerous chemicals impacting water quality. The PFAS Action Act passed 241-183 and US Rep. Cindy Axne was the only Iowan to vote in favor. The Democrat, who represents Iowa's Third...
There were 4,058 abortions performed in Iowa in 2020, a trend that’s increased over the last three years. In 2018, there were 2,849 abortions, followed by 3,566 abortions in 2019, according to state data. The data came from the Iowa Department of Public Health and was...
Less than half of Iowa’s population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and health officials across the state are bracing for the consequences as the Delta variant gains steam. Two Iowa health officials said vaccination will be the key to curb the worst of those...
Officials hope electric vehicles can drive an economic and environmental spark in Iowa. State officials gathered Thursday to talk about the ways Iowa can change its infrastructure to combat climate change and its devastating consequences. Electric vehicles were the...
Thousands of miles of water run through Iowa, and every year an outpouring of hundreds of volunteers fan out to take care of them. One of those efforts is Iowa Project AWARE (A Watershed Awareness River Expedition), an annual volunteer effort to remove trash from a...
If you ask people in Sioux City, there is no such thing as too much hot fudge on a sundae. Sioux City area residents unified for a pretty sweet cause over the last week when they came to the defense of a Trinity Ackerly, a local Dairy Queen employee. An upset customer...
Though the money has been going out since May, Iowa has yet to request American Rescue Plan money for the state’s small towns. According to the Treasury Department, the total allocation would be $221,737,821, with the first half delivered this year. Only 11 other...
Iowa's U.S. Senate race may feature a match-up between Chuck Grassley and a Democrat less than half his age who wasn't alive when the senator was first elected to office. Kim Reynolds will likely face off with someone with a fraction of years experience in public...
With vaccination rates stalling and demand plummeting in Iowa, Gov. Kim Reynolds told reporters yesterday she doesn’t plan to offer incentives for getting vaccinated against COVID-19. That means no lottery, no giveaways, no cash payments. Reynolds said pop-up clinics...
Iowa Democrats are eager to set their sights on the future following yet another poor election showing in 2020, one that saw the party again fail to win the top statewide race on the ballot. To get that effort moving, they'll need candidates to take on Gov. Kim...
Josie Farley, a young mom who works as a para-educator at Sioux City Schools, likely wouldn't be able to work without child care. "The amount of daycare, how much it costs for daycare ... I would have no money to live after paying daycare [if I didn't work]," she...
The effort to help Americans (and Iowans) recover from the COVID-19 pandemic continues. In addition to an extended filing deadline for taxes and the waiving of unemployment taxes, Americans will also receive an increased tax credit for dependent children for 2021. The...
Videos have quickly circulated on Facebook in Iowa over the past day that show an incident from a Sioux City Perkins restaurant early Thursday morning where a police officer instructs a Black man to leave the premises, grabs ahold of his arm, pushes the man on a table...
With Iowa’s fully vaccinated population nearing around 37%, vaccine hesitancy is starting to sink in as counties decline full vaccination allocations and metro area appointments fill more slowly. Gov. Kim Reynolds during her weekly press conference on Wednesday said...
South Sioux City Community School District’s superintendent in a video last week condemned and threatened student demonstrators who recently protested wide-ranging mistreatment in their district. An April 9 protest of around 100 students outside the Nebraska high...
Nearly every day since late January, when Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law a bill that required Iowa School districts to offer 100% in-person learning options amid concerns of COVID-19, Cedar Rapids Sen. Rob Hogg has been updating his social media accounts with...
Monday marked the first day all Iowans aged 16 and older can receive a COVID-19 vaccine, joining its neighboring Midwestern states that have this week expanded pools of qualifiers. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden pushed forward the national deadline for all American...
Iowa’s COVID-19 cases have begun to creep back up, and spring break travel along with an increase in the virus’ variants may be the cause, said Iowa Department of Public Health interim Director Kelli Garcia on Wednesday. “We must still recognize that the virus is...
Iowa House Democrats put up a long but unsuccessful fight last week over Republican efforts to establish public funding for privately-run charter schools—a years-long attempt that Democrats have been working hard this session to stop. Democrats spent over five hours...
Some rural Iowa schools are eliminating mask requirements amid updated CDC guidance which loosens some social distancing requirements, though notably not their mask recommendations. North Butler in Greene County, BCLUW serving Grundy, Marshall, and Hardin Counties,...
The Biden Administration and the new Democratic Congress has begun the arduous task of dismantling numerous policies and executive orders that proved damaging to underrepresented communities in our nation. Iowa, on the other hand, controlled by Republicans, has...
