State Politics
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Evangelical leaders predict huge caucus turnout, downplay endorsements
Iowa caucus candidates have racked up big-name endorsements—including a notable last-minute flip flop—but one evangelical leader said none of that will matter come Monday. “We think endorsements are overrated generally, but they’re particularly overrated in Iowa,” said Ralph Reed, the founder and chairman of the national Faith & Freedom Coalition and a senior advisor on…
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Iowa Senate Dems leader concerned about further privatization of public education
Iowa Senate Minority Leader Pam Jochum (D-Dubuque) fears Iowa Republicans are ramping up efforts to privatize education in a state that was once said to have the best public schools in the country. “I honestly hope I’m wrong, but this is how I see this playing out,” she said. The 2024 legislative session began Monday…
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Kim Reynolds wants to bump teacher pay, but is there a catch?
Gov. Kim Reynolds formally announced her intention to increase teacher pay in Iowa during her 2024 Condition of the State address on Tuesday, which Democrats and education officials lauded but said was long overdue. “We want younger Iowans to see the teaching profession as something to aspire to,” Reynolds said. “It’s one of the highest…
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Students rally at Iowa Capitol to demand change on guns
Monday marked the start of the 2024 Iowa Legislative session and Iowans kicked it off by demanding lawmakers listen to what they want and put the people of Iowa first this year. Two events ran together, one hosted by the Iowa chapter of March For Our Lives (MFOL) and the other hosted by multiple Iowa…
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Trump tells Iowa crowd US Civil War could have been negotiated
Donald Trump told a jam-packed crowd he thinks the US Civil War could have been solved through negotiation and that without it we wouldn’t know who Abraham Lincoln was. Trump made the remarks Saturday—on the third anniversary of the attack on the US Capitol by his supporters—during a rally at the DMAAC Newton Campus about…
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Insulin prices plunge for Iowans due to Biden’s American Rescue Plan
Eli Lilly, Sanofi, and Novo Nordisk’s price cuts are expected to benefit many Iowans who need insulin to survive. The companies first announced the moves last year, as a response to an American Rescue Plan provision that threatened to penalize them if they kept prices high.
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Judge blocks most of Iowa law banning some books in schools
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked key parts of an Iowa law that bans some books from school libraries and forbids teachers from raising LGBTQ+ issues. Judge Stephen Locher’s preliminary injunction halts enforcement of the law, which was set to take effect Jan. 1 but already had resulted in the…
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Reynolds blames childhood obesity on decision not to feed poor kids
Iowa won’t participate in a federal program to feed underprivileged kids next summer, and Gov. Kim Reynolds cited “childhood obesity” as one of the reasons why. The state had until Jan. 1 to apply to the US Department of Agriculture’s Summer EBT program that would have provided Iowa with about $29 million in federal funding…
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Lawyers argue Iowa’s book ban law too ‘vague, harmful’ in court
SF 496, Iowa’s new education law, is too vague, too broad, and too restrictive of speech and individual rights. That’s according to lawyers arguing, in separate cases, for the US District Court Southern District of Iowa to place a preliminary injunction on the law. One suit was brought led by the American Civil Liberties Union…
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What to expect from Iowa House Dems in 2024 legislative session
House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst (D-Windsor Heights) and her Democratic colleagues know Iowans are exhausted and disappointed by the Iowa Legislature. “We hear from people all the time: ‘This is not the state I grew up in,’ and they’re concerned and they’re depressed and they’re upset about it,” she said. This year, the Iowa Legislature…
