Governors have always made political hay out of slashing waste or taming bureaucracy, but DOGE has, in some ways, raised the stakes for them to show that they are zealously committed to cutting costs. Many drive home the point that they have always been focused on cutting government, even if they're not conducting mass layoffs.
The 2026 elections were top of mind during the annual Family Leadership Summit Friday as speakers and conservative lawmakers stressed the importance of electing pro-life candidates to office and commending President Donald Trump for his actions during the first few months of his second term.
Asked about protesters who attended a Thursday groundbreaking in Des Moines, demanding action on agricultural pollution and linking it to high cancer rates in the state, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds told reporters that “regulation is hardly ever the answer” and “is a killer in most instances — it takes out innovation.”
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has announced proposed rules that remove the category of “special concern” species from its rule on threatened and endangered species. The move is part of the DNR’s adherence to the governor’s executive order to simplify administrative rules across agencies.
From separate events Thursday, Gov. Kim Reynolds, Congresswoman Ashley Hinson, and Tom Vilsack — the former Iowa governor and USDA secretary — all discussed how to manage farm labor amid the hard-line deportation policy of the Trump administration.
Gov. Kim Reynolds said Tuesday that Iowa officials have contacted the White House to be involved in discussions on how to keep immigrant agricultural workers in the country.
Despite Gov. Kim Reynolds’ veto of $1.5 million lawmakers appropriated toward a University of Northern Iowa effort to charge in-state tuition to undergrads from border states, UNI has found a way to offer the good-neighbor discount anyway.
Metro High School science teacher Chuck Tonelli took on a challenge 20 years ago, and as the Southeast Iowa Region STEM Teacher of the Year, he is thankful he did.
President Donald Trump in Iowa on Thursday promised to keep the state a central part of the nation’s 250th birthday celebration, celebrated Congressional approval of his sweeping tax and spending legislation, and snuck in a few of his greatest campaign-style rally hits.
The task force would make recommendations about adding nuclear energy to Iowa’s energy portfolio.
Iowa’s economy had a rough first three months of the year, according to federal data. While Gov. Kim Reynolds blamed a sluggish farm economy and former President Joe Biden, state experts say Iowa’s economy has been struggling for much longer.
Iowa Republican Attorney General Brenna Bird will not run for governor in 2026. Bird said on social meida she plans to run a "fierce re-election campaign" for attorney general and still has “more work to do.”
State and local leaders gathered Tuesday to celebrate the grand reopening of a wind turbine factory in West Branch, just hours after U.S. Senate Republicans passed Trump’s “one big beautiful bill” that would roll back federal green energy tax credits that spurred the company to restart production that had been idled since 2013.
While a new Iowa law that strips gender identity protections from the Iowa Civil Rights Act went into effect Tuesday, the ACLU of Iowa is reminding Iowans a number of other civil right protections remain for trans people.
Also in The Gazette’s Capitol Notebook, Canadian National Railway announces $38 million investment in Iowa
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