State Politics
-
Iowa House lawmakers send bill increasing teacher pay to Senate
The Iowa House passed a measure increasing teacher and school staff pay Thursday as the fate of top education policies lawmakers are pursuing this session remain uncertain. House File 2611 passed 92-1 Thursday, with only Rep. Mark Cisneros, R-Muscatine, voting against the measure. The bill would raise teachers’ starting salary to $47,500 in year one…
-
When getting a raise means losing health care: Disabled Iowans fighting back
By all rights, Sioux City resident Erica Carter should be a success story. Despite a spinal cord injury 13 years ago—which left her unable to get out of bed without help—Carter was able to complete both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in accounting. Today, she is the finance manager at a public school and is…
-
Iowa AG pressures YouTube to use anti-abortion talking points
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird is mad at YouTube for its practice of adding context to videos about topics that are prone to misinformation. In a letter she sent out Monday, which has been joined by 15 other state AGs, Bird pushes lies about the safety of abortion medication and claims YouTube is targeting anti-abortion…
-
Iowa high school senior says bill to arm teachers makes him feel ‘unsafe’
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 students and, frankly I find that profoundly nonsensical.…
-
An Iowa basic income pilot program seems to be working, but Republicans want to kill 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 kind in Iowa if Republican lawmakers have…
-
How Iowa’s ‘religious freedom’ law could be used to discriminate
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 Jewish legislators, said this legislation would be a “blank check for discrimination.” She is…
-
‘Fighting every day’: Planned Parenthood hosts rally at Iowa Capitol
Danika Jacobsen, a senior at Valley High School in West Des Moines, has not learned much about reproductive health or anatomy in school science classes. Instead, Jacobsen said, she’s mostly taught herself. “Apparently, anything other than ‘vagina’ is taboo,’” she said Thursday at an Iowa Capitol rally hosted by Planned Parenthood. “Society has fabricated these…
-
House GOP pushes through bill aimed at undermining AEA services
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 bill, Isenhart laid out exactly how he thinks Republicans will use this bill to…
-
A handful of Iowa House Republicans trying to tie birth control to abortion
Some Iowa House Republicans are attempting to bog down a bipartisan bill to legalize over-the-counter birth control by adding amendments that compare birth control to abortion, limiting how long a person can receive birth control under the bill, and adding penalties for pimps. All the House Members who introduced the various amendments are on record…
-
‘I’m not going to teach in Iowa’: UNI students explain why they’re not sticking around
She grew up in Ames and went to the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) in Cedar Falls to become a teacher. But Lydia plans to leave Iowa as soon as she graduates. “Here at UNI, there’s so much emphasis in our classes on social-emotional learning and inclusion and talking about issues of diversity,” she said.…
