Erin Jordan

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has a new banner on her home page to say whether flags should be at half or full staff -- a helpful hint to people trying to track frequent orders.

Jacob Onken, 32, a Republican who works as an attorney for Collins Aerospace in Cedar Rapids, is running against Elinor Levin, a 35-year-old private writing tutor, for Iowa House District 89, which includes part of Iowa City and University Heights.

Kinney, 59, of Oxford, is running against Sen. Dawn Driscoll, a 43-year-old Republican from Williamsburg, to represent Senate District 46. Hot topics include abortion, education funding and tax law changes.

A company seeking to build a carbon dioxide pipeline through five Iowa counties, including Linn, says it will hold a second round of public meetings after confirming some landowners did not get proper notice of August meetings.

Two decades of bacteria and algae have plagued Iowa beaches, leading to constant warnings. The Gazette and Investigate Midwest analyzed 20 years of beach monitoring data from the Iowa DNR. The results show that although individual locations show some progress, Iowa’s beaches overall show little to no improvement.

A secretive group of large energy users -- which could include social media data centers, food processors, manufacturing plants and cryptocurrency mining sites -- said they should be able to buy electricity on the open market rather than from Iowa utilities

St. Andrew Lutheran Church has harvested more than 5,000 pounds of tomatoes for those in need.

The Wever fertilizer plant will donate $250,000 to the Lee County Career Advantage Center, a workforce training space in Montrose. The donation comes as parent company, OCI NV, reports 80 percent boost in revenue amid reduced fertilizer imports.

Just like Americans once rushed out to buy toilet paper because of feared price hikes, farmers stocked up on fertilizer last fall, according to Chad Hart, an Iowa State University economics professor and crop market specialist.

Parents in three Corridor school districts have filed book challenges in the last year with complaints about a movie, books in verse and graphic novels, including a Caldecott Medal-winning book a Clear Creek Amana parent called "complete and utter garbage."

Iowa Workforce Development recently announced plans to buy a 32-foot-long, custom-built bus to deliver workforce assistance to all corners of the state.

The fertilizer industry creates more than 32,000 jobs in Iowa and pays workers more than $3 billion a year. But as the companies’ profits skyrocket, farmers contemplate skimping on fertilizer because of high costs.

“It could have easily been turned into another housing development off of Sugar Bottom Road,“ Brad Freidhof, county conservation program manager, said in an email. ”There is so much growth occurring, it is important to save this type of habitat and the cultural history associated with it.“

The fertilizer industry creates more than 32,000 jobs in Iowa and pays workers more than $3 billion a year. But as the companies’ profits skyrocket, farmers contemplate skimping on fertilizer because of high costs.

Iowa State University recently got a three-year, $727,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture to study mung bean varieties to see which ones are most resistant to drought, disease and pests while packing a protein punch sought for growing interest in vegetarian diets.