Tuesday Morning Read: Affordable housing, bargaining lawsuit, hospital opens soon

Modest living - In Johnson County, where the median monthly rent plus utilities is $173 more than the state average, officials from the two most populous municipalities — Iowa City and Coralville — are throwing local dollars behind a program designed to make housing more affordable for working individuals and families. 'What we were finding as companies were growing and adding jobs ... there was a lack of housing in that mid range,' Hoffman said. 'This really was meant to ... focus on the need that communities were saying they had.' Learn more about the workforce housing program here.

Collective bargaining in court - Earlier Monday, the union and four members of the AFSCME bargaining team filed a lawsuit in Polk County District Court challenging the constitutionality of House File 291, approved by lawmakers Thursday and signed into law by Gov. Terry Branstad Friday. The suit claims the law, through it's arbitrary definition of public safety employees and the arbitrary classification of bargaining units into those whose members are at least 30 percent public safety employees and those whose members are not, deprives the plaintiffs of the 'constitutional guaranty of equality of all before the law' as set forth in the Iowa Constitution. Learn more about the lawsuit here.

Partially open for business - After months of delay and staff reports of a spring opening, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics administrators Monday night announced plans to move into the new UI Stead Family Children's Hospital on Saturday. In the Monday night message, administrators said, 'Clearly, the planning, design, construction, and preparation for moving into the new children's hospital has been a historic undertaking.' Read about which sections will be open this weekend here.

Still perfect - No. 1 Iowa City Regina is headed to the girls' basketball state tournament for the fourth time in five years. Currently with a record of 25 - 0, top-ranked Regina is well past just being happy to get there. 'We've had one goal the entire time,' first-year Regina Coach Jeff Wallace said. 'We want to be the best team in the state.' Read more about Regina's journey and their next steps at the state tournament here.

Quotable - 'You've not only derailed bipartisanship, you seem to have driven it off the cliff in some Thelma and Louise fashion,' Rep. Bruce Hunter, D-Des Moines, referring to majority Republicans' passage of HF 291, which significantly altered public employee collective bargaining rights. Read the full story here.