Lead Story
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Iowa Senate passes bill to arm school staff, give legal immunity in shootings
Sen. Molly Donahue, a teacher, has more than a few ideas on how to make schools safer without arming teachers or other school staff. She shared them during Wednesday’s Iowa Senate debate on a bill to bring more guns into schools. “We could be investing far more funding in mental health resources to enhance access…
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Kim Reynolds finally decides to help feed some kids, but there’s a big catch
Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Wednesday that Iowa will start a competitive $900,000 grant program to feed Iowa children over the summer—this comes months after she declined $29 million in federal funds to feed kids via a different summer program. The new Summer Meal Program Expansion Grant will be launched through two existing federal programs and…
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Happy National Beer Day! Here are Starting Line’s favorite Iowa breweries
For those unaware, April 6 is New Beer’s Eve, because it leads up to National Beer Day on April 7. Why April 7? On that day in 1933, the Cullen-Harrison Act went into effect, making it legal for some low-alcohol beer and wine to be sold in the United States. The law was the first…
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Bills to support anti-abortion centers, expand postpartum Medicaid set to be law
Two bills affecting Iowans’ reproductive health passed out of the Iowa House Wednesday afternoon and could soon become law. Postpartum Medicaid SF 2251 passed the House 70-25, and it would restrict the number of people who qualify for postpartum Medicaid coverage in order to expand coverage to a full year. A fiscal note attached to…
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Former Trump staffer officially in charge of Iowa’s public schools
A former Trump administration official and advocate for using public funds for private school scholarships officially has Iowa’s top education job. The Iowa Senate confirmed McKenzie Snow’s appointment as director of the Iowa Department of Education in a 34-15 vote on Tuesday. Critics have questioned Snow’s credentials as she has never taught in an American…
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Sioux City Republican activist gets light prison sentence for 52 acts of voter fraud
A Sioux City Republican activist who was convicted of illegally filling in ballots escaped a far harsher punishment on Monday for her 52 acts of voter fraud, which could have carried a five-year prison sentence for each. Instead, Federal Judge Leonard Strand sentenced Kim Phoung Taylor to serve four months in federal prison as part…
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How Iowa Republicans used the AEA bill to play politics
Iowa Republicans are going to say Iowa Democrats don’t support teacher pay, but they won’t mention that it was part of the unpopular AEA bill.
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Birth control is the key to women’s freedom. Here’s why
Birth control of some kind has existed for all of recorded human history, and the ability to change when and how one becomes pregnant has been a cornerstone of women’s rights. “What [birth control] has really done is allowed women to control their destinies, and that their destiny can include being a mother and a…
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As some Iowa lawmakers vilify birth control, here’s what it actually does
When Dr. Emily Boevers, an OB-GYN in Waverly, first sits down with patients for birth control consultations, she asks them a series of questions about why they want to use it, and for how long. “The thing that I think is really important to keep in mind about birth control is that these are hormonal…
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Why it’s nearly impossible to find an Iowa dentist who takes Medicaid
Laura Sauls of Dumont has two kids, and their pediatric dentist is only a 15-minute drive away. That was, until that dentist called last fall with bad news: The office would no longer accept Medicaid, which meant they would no longer treat Sauls’ children unless she paid cash. With the closest dentist accepting Medicaid over…
