Republicans opened the 2026 Iowa legislative session with unusual urgency, pushing early on property taxes, carbon pipelines and higher education. But as lawmakers raced to show momentum, Week 1 also revealed internal GOP divisions — especially over how to deliver property tax relief.
Gov. Kim Reynolds on Tuesday unveiled a legislative agenda focused on overhauling Iowa’s property tax system, tightening immigration and election enforcement, expanding health care access and continuing education reforms.
Iowans are more likely to develop lung cancer than the average American. Demographics and even geology play a role, but beyond the numbers, there are steps many Iowans can take to avoid becoming among the state’s cancer statistics.
The American Cancer Society supported five bills aimed at cancer prevention and treatment in 2025, but only one passed. Lawmakers and advocates say they expect to see many of them resurface this year. But midterm politics and federal funding cuts could add to the challenges of getting them through the legislative process on time.
Cancer rates among young adults in the Corn Belt, a patchwork of golden fields and straight-line highways stretching across the heart of the Midwest, are rising more rapidly than in the country as a whole, a Washington Post data analysis reveals.
Featuring Eastern Iowa women who have experienced powerful paths of achievement for themselves, their families and their communities.
Splash of Color Breast Cancer Support Group, founded by a mother and her two daughters who are all breast cancer survivors, offers a “splash” of hope for women of color who are or have been afflicted with breast cancer.
Iowa Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Rob Sand blasted Gov. Kim Reynolds’ efficiency task force as partisan, vowed to veto changes to Iowa’s public pension system, and pushed for more oversight of private school vouchers at a Cedar Rapids town hall.
The Gazette explores which issues went unresolved by state lawmakers this year that they likely will face again next year.
With about 1,391 new cancers diagnosed each year, Linn County has the 38th highest rate of new cancers among Iowa’s 99 counties, and the eighth highest rate among the 21 metro counties in the state.
Although no cancer cluster was found in a 2023 probe, a second more targeted study was requested of a neighborhood.
The oft-cited Cancer in Iowa report that for several years has found the state to have the second-highest and fastest-growing rate of new cancers in the nation next year will start breaking out pediatric numbers.
The Gazette will host a series of free, virtual panel discussions this week aimed at exploring Iowa’s cancer rates, the research being done, and the threat posed to scientific research in the state by proposals to slash federal spending.
An initiative between the Iowa Environmental Council and the Harkin Institute will explore the relationship between environmental risk factors and cancer rates in Iowa. The initiative will combine both community outreach and a “rigorous” review of academic research.
Just like bars and restaurants in the state, smoking would be prohibited inside Iowa casinos under legislation that took a step forward Tuesday.
Daily Newsletters