Rob Sand wrapped up his 100 Town Hall Tour in Decorah, capping a months-long journey through all 99 counties with calls for bipartisan reform, stronger oversight of public funds, and practical action on education and water quality. “Iowans are fed up,” he said.
From a study of public employee salaries and benefits, to teacher bonuses for student achievement and incentives for shared government services, the Iowa DOGE Task Force report includes a number of recommendations for making Iowa government more efficient.
State Rep. Aime Wichtendahl, Iowa’s first openly transgender legislator, is running for re-election in 2026 to a second term. The Hiawatha Democrat cited work on firefighter cancer coverage and pledged to recruit more allies to “solve real problems,” not “culture wars” in the Iowa Legislature.
The 12 committee members leading Iowa State University’s search for its next president began interviewing semi-finalists Monday morning on the Ames campus — with eight candidates invited to participate in the virtual closed-session discussions over the next two days.
Also in Notebook: Eight more land reclamation projects near former coal mines in southeast Iowa are underway.
Nonpartisan panel revises its estimate from March, but chairman maintains state is ‘in a good spot’
Iowa Rep. Carter Nordman, new chairman of House committee on tax policy, joined Gov. Kim Reynolds and local government leaders for a roundtable discussion about residential property taxes Thursday.
Iowa’s largest health insurer says the Insurance Division’s order to implement Senate File 383 would unfairly raise drug costs and contradict a federal court ruling blocking key provisions of the law.
None of the nine campuses the Trump administration has asked to sign a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” have done so, but two conservative lawmakers in Iowa are urging the Board of Regents to be the first.
After the arrest of former Des Moines schools superintendent Ian Roberts over questions about his immigration and work authorization status, Gov. Kim Reynolds ordered all state agencies to use federal verification systems to confirm employment and licensing eligibility. The move has reignited debate over whether Iowa should mandate E-Verify statewide — and how reliable the system really is.
Gov. Kim Reynolds on Thursday set a special election date for Tuesday, Dec. 30, to fill the Iowa Senate seat vacated with former Sen. Claire Celsi’s death.
Iowa Senate Republicans called for an audit of Des Moines Public Schools after the arrest of former superintendent Ian Roberts — prompting pushback from State Auditor Rob Sand. Also in this week’s Capitol Notebook: Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird joins a multistate coalition backing Trump’s National Guard deployments.
A year after the University of Northern Iowa established its new Center for Civic Education in response to directives from the Board of Regents and lawmakers, the center this week landed a $1.22 million American History and Civics Education-Seminars grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
Gov. Kim Reynolds on Wednesday ordered all state agencies to use E-Verify and SAVE to confirm employment and immigration eligibility for new hires and professional licenses. The move follows the arrest of former Des Moines schools superintendent Ian Roberts, which exposed verification gaps and reignited debate over whether Iowa should mandate E-Verify statewide.
Democratic Iowa state Sen. Claire Celsi, of West Des Moines, died Monday, after spending weeks in hospice care, her daughter confirmed in a social media post.
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