Maya Marchel Hoff, Gazette-Lee Des Moines Bureau

Iowa is the first state in the country to receive the green light for a federal waiver approval that will allow it to circumvent some reporting and compliance requirements and have more discretion over the spending of federal education funds.

It’s among the proposals from the Iowa Attorney General’s Office ahead of the Iowa legislative session that starts later this month.

Ahead of the 2026 legislative session, Iowa House Democrats rolled out a property tax relief plan Monday that includes a 4 percent property tax cap, rebates for homeowners and renters, and a property tax freeze for seniors.

This year, Iowa lawmakers will return to the drawing board on providing property tax relief to Iowans, which is expected to be a main focal point of the 2026 legislative session after last year’s efforts to address the issue failed to take off.

Iowa announced on Monday that it will return to a federal summer food assistance program. The announcement came on the same day a report made available to The Gazette showed Iowa’s program in 2025 fell well short of reaching the number of children that the federal program would have.

Immigration helped stabilize Ottumwa’s population while other similarly sized towns across Iowa have face rapid population declines, some note.

Iowa will need slightly less money from state coffers to cover a budget gap after revenue estimates saw a small uptick since October, primarily driven by higher collections from consumer spending.

But legislators are ruling out any immediate changes to IPERS.

Iowa Democrats are divided on whether the party should split from national party leadership on how to hold the 2028 Democratic caucuses in the state, while most agree that Iowa should play an influential role in the presidential selection process.

Four Iowans were recognized by Gov. Kim Reynolds on Wednesday for their heroic efforts to save others’ lives, including saving one’s lifelong friend from freezing water and an elderly couple from a burning house.

With the start of the 2026 Iowa legislative session only about a month away, state lawmakers are gearing up to return to a debate on property tax relief, an issue they touched on but failed to advance a proposal for last year in the Republican-controlled Legislature.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said the state is in a “good place” to receive nearly $157 million in federal education funding by block grant rather than through the U.S. Department of Education, arguing that it will help eliminate “bureaucracy.”

State officials have denied a request by the Satanic Temple of Iowa to hold a holiday event in the state capitol rotunda after rejecting a similar request last year.

The 2026 Iowa midterm elections are less than a year out, and policy issues that campaigns and voters are talking about include health care costs and affordability. But one issue both parties have used to energize voters in the past has yet to gain prominence: abortion.

The $50 billion initiative is aimed at helping states offset the impact of the cuts rural hospitals will face from the spending package’s billions in reductions to Medicaid and other federal health programs.