Lead Story
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Iowa school cancels African American Read-In, 1619 Freedom School steps in
Waterloo Schools pulled out of an event focused on promoting Black literacy over fears of losing federal funding under Trump’s new anti-DEI directives. In response, the 1619 Freedom School is stepping in to host its own event this Saturday. In a move that has drawn statewide attention, the Waterloo Community School District recently withdrew from…
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Iowa Republicans’ bill to criminalize vaccine providers advances amid funnel week chaos
MRNA vaccines were key to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Iowa Senate Republicans cooked up a bill to criminalize the providers of numerous widely-used immunizations. But at the last minute, the bill’s sponsor said the language may be scrapped for something new entirely. Iowa Republicans are barreling through funnel week. If a bill hasn’t passed committee…
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Iowa Republicans advance bill to strip trans civil rights
Iowa House Republicans advanced a bill to remove gender identity from the list of protected classes under the Iowa Civil Rights Act. This has wide-ranging impacts on protections from discrimination in housing, education and more. The bill became the subject of the largest Iowa Capitol protest all session. Since passing in 2007, transgender Iowans have…
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Iowa House Republicans renew effort to strip transgender protections from Iowa civil rights law
House Republicans want to remove Iowa’s discrimination protections for transgender Iowans. The bill is a long list touching on bathrooms, birth certificates and introduces a new phrase “gender theory” into Iowa law. Just like all other Iowans, transgender residents of the state are protected under the Iowa Civil Rights Act, meaning they cannot be discriminated…
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VA shifts explanation as agency dismisses over 1,000 employees; Iowa cuts unclear
The US Department of Veterans Affairs has dismissed more than 1,000 probationary employees just weeks after assuring stakeholders that a federal hiring freeze would not impact operations, raising questions about consistency in the agency’s messaging. Iowa has two major VA health systems in Des Moines and Iowa City. The Veterans Affairs department claimed in January…
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Iowa senators advance crypto ATM fraud prevention bill
Iowans are losing their life’s savings to scammers using crypto ATMs to separate people from their money. A bill aims to regulate these kiosks in hopes of preventing future losses. A story keeps repeating. Iowans—particularly the elderly—get a call. The person on the phone says it’s their grandson. They’ve just been arrested and need someone…
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Iowa Republicans advance public school Bible study bill
Iowa Republicans want public schools to offer elective coursework teaching the Christian Bible. Supporters say teaching the Bible as literature is essential to an education. Schools can already offer these classes, but Republicans say that’s not enough. In the beginning, Democratic State Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott of West Des Moines asked a question: does Iowa…
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Iowa bill pressures private colleges to ban diversity offices
A bill in the Iowa Legislature would force private colleges to choose between their work to diversify their staff and students and maintain eligibility for state tuition grants. Iowa Republicans want to get rid of offices that support diversity across the state. After forcing the public universities to comply with their anti-DEI witch hunt, private…
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House Republican proposal would increase public education funding above Reynolds’ proposal
The governor only wants a 2% increase to public school funding. Iowa Democrats have called for a 5% increase. House Republicans have released a school funding increase that would fall somewhere in the middle. Iowa House Republicans have agreed to a school funding proposal that is higher than the 2% increase agreed to by Gov.…
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Reynolds admits to gutting Sand’s auditing ability at DC oversight hearing
In a hearing about government oversight, Gov. Kim Reynolds admits to restricting the Iowa auditor’s oversight of state government. Gov. Kim Reynolds was in Washington D.C. today, appearing before a US House committee meeting on government oversight to brag about her work in Iowa and further praise Donald Trump’s presidency. But while she may have…
