A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development likely violated the Constitution and blocked billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from further cuts to the agency.
Immigration was the biggest factor in population growth for many booming Sun Belt counties as well as for the agricultural Midwest including counties in Iowa, according to a Stateline analysis of new U.S. Census Bureau county estimates.
“They were ready to serve the agenda of the next president of the United States and the party in charge. They didn’t have that opportunity because that administration, the Republicans, took a chain saw to them. And that, to me, is unbelievably shocking.”
The Trump administration on Friday moved to dismiss lawsuits against Iowa and Oklahoma brought by the Biden administration’s Department of Justice, which challenged the states' immigration laws making it a crime for someone to be in the state if they are in the U.S. illegally.
The judge’s order tells the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, the Interior and the Treasury to immediately offer job reinstatement to employees terminated on or about Feb. 13 and 14.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds declared Tuesday Lutheran Services in Iowa Day as layoffs and the federal government's refusal to pay more than $1.5 million in outstanding reimbursements are imperiling the religious organization.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday that it will narrow the definition of U.S. waterways — including wetlands, rivers and streams — that receive federal protections under the Clean Water Act.
A new congressional bill aims to improve fisheries and environmental quality in the Mississippi River basin with a federally funded commission.
The unions estimate about 7,000 federal employees live in Miller-Meeks' Southeastern Iowa congressional district, and about 20,000 live throughout the state.
The mass firing of federal employees since Trump took office in January is pushing out veterans who make up 30% of the nation's federal workforce.
An Iowa City building that houses a veterans affairs clinic, a military recruitment office, and a water science center for the U.S. Geological Survey could be sold by the federal government after the U.S. General Services Administration announced Tuesday it is determining the efficiency of the space.
Matt Whitaker, who was introduced for his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as Trump’s NATO ambassador by U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, spoke more positively of NATO than have Trump and ally Elon Musk — who have questioned the value of the alliance to the United States.
President Donald Trump was poised to impose 25% taxes on imports from Canada and Mexico Tuesday and to double to 20% his levies on Chinese products. All three countries — America's top trading partners — are threatening retaliation.
More than a dozen recently fired USDA employees told Investigate Midwest the terminations have stalled irrigation projects, rural housing aid and efforts to combat invasive crop diseases. Remaining staff are overwhelmed, and farmers may not receive needed and timely help.
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