Articles Tagged: Iowa Legislature

Johnson County’s Temporary Redistricting Committee is preparing to submit its precinct plan, the first step in the process of changing how county supervisors are elected after a new state law requiring the change was passed by Republicans earlier this year.

State Rep. Josh Turek, who announced his candidacy for U.S. Senate on Tuesday, said the best thing for Iowans is for lawmakers to “move away from this party over country mentality.”

Allowing some cities to become independent of counties, aligning public sector employee compensation and benefits with the private sector, and basing teacher compensation on student outcomes were some of the emerging recommendations discussed by the Iowa DOGE Task Force on Wednesday.

Bayer, the biotech company and manufacturer of Round Up, has substantially increased its spending on lobbying in Iowa since the introduction of a pesticide labeling bill in 2024.

Also, Reynolds announces grant funding to expand child care access

One year after an Iowa law banning most abortions in the state went into effect, Republicans are celebrating the legislation’s impact, while Democrats warn the restrictions will continue to limit reproductive health care across the state.

Iowa programs tend to focus on physical improvements, emotional support to help older adults.

With the governor’s signature now on a bill requiring the University of Iowa to create a new Center for Intellectual Freedom, the Board of Regents has proposed to serve as its interim executive director the conservative UI professor who advocated for the center’s creation during the Legislative session.

The judge’s order on Iowa’s new pharmacy benefit managers regulations, which partially halts its implementation, applies only to plaintiff businesses, their workers and health care agents.

Iowa law imposes stringent restrictions on the acceptance of gifts by public officials, employees and candidates. The goal is to protect the public trust and prevent conflicts of interest or the appearance of impropriety. But what does the law say? And how often is it broken?

A new Gallup poll out Wednesday circling back to the question of Americans’ confidence in higher education shows a measurable rebound over the last 12 months — with the percent who reported “quite a lot” or a “great deal” of confidence swelling to 42 percent from last year’s 36 percent, the lowest on Gallup record.

Iowa students will be more engaged in their learning and with their peers as they head back to school this fall under new policies restricting the use of cellphones and other personal electronic devices during the school day, educators say.

“While the encouragement and momentum have been phenomenal, the fundraising simply hasn’t reached the level necessary to run a competitive campaign at this time.”

Over the past 200 years, Iowa last lost 99 percent of its prairie land, 75 percent of its woodlands and forests and about 260 plant species are considered endangered and threatened. A new report says implementation of “connectivity corridors” would help protect Iowa wildlife from extinction.

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.