Week in Iowa, Sept. 22, 2024: Recap of news from across the state

Reynolds’ approval hits new low: Forty-five percent of Iowans — a new low — approve of the job Republican Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds is doing, according to the latest Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll.

The 45 percent job approval rating is Reynolds’ lowest in the Iowa Poll since she became governor in 2017. Her high-water mark was 59 percent in February 2019.

In the poll, 50 percent of Iowans disapprove of Reynolds’ job performance; that is the highest such mark in an Iowa Poll during her tenure.

The latest Iowa Poll, conducted by Selzer and Co., surveyed 811 Iowans between Sept. 8 and Sept. 11. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.

Ads target Miller-Meeks on abortion: A new campaign ad put out by national Democrats challenges Eastern Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks on abortion policy.

Iowa’s 1st District election between the incumbent Miller-Meeks and repeat challenger and Democrat Christina Bohannan is considered by national elections forecasters one of the more competitive in the country.

The new ad from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which began airing Tuesday in the Davenport, Cedar Rapids and Des Moines media markets, features Pauline Ethel, an Iowa nurse, talking about Republican policies that restrict access to abortions.

AG sues over wind turbine blades: Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird filed a lawsuit accusing a company based in Washington state and two of its top executives of failing to properly dispose of more than 1,000 decommissioned wind turbine blades.

According to the lawsuit, Global Fiberglass Solutions was contracted and paid millions by wind turbine companies General Electric and MidAmerican to cut up, transport and recycle wind turbine blades. Instead, the attorney general says the company illegally dumped about 1,300 wind turbine blades that sat in stockpiles for years at parking lots in Newton and in fields in Ellsworth and Atlantic.

They said ...

"The bills that we pass, the priorities that we have will be the priorities of Iowans. And that’s what’s driving our message here. That’s what’s driving our policy: Iowans are.” -- House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, D-Windsor Heights, unveiling Democrats’ priorities for the next legislative session

“In response to Iowa House Republicans’ record of improving educational opportunities, maintaining safe communities, and letting Iowans keep more of their hard-earned money, Iowans have only grown our majority.” -- Iowa House GOP spokesperson Melissa Saitz on Republicans' election successes.

Odds and ends

Flood-hit town officials investigated: The Iowa State Auditor’s Office published a 28-page report on a special investigation requested by two state agencies after whistle-blowers raised concerns that grant funds and a forgivable loan received by the city of Hamburg following a devastating flood in 2019 were being misused by local officials.

The complaints alleged that city officials, employees and their family members and friends were receiving direct benefit from the government relief funds that had been awarded to the city, according to the audit.

Mistakenly released: The federal Bureau of Prisons mistakenly released an Iowa man from custody before he finished serving his 30-month sentence for storming the Senate chamber during a mob’s attack on the U.S. Capitol, Justice Department prosecutors said in a court filing this past week.

Leo Christopher Kelly of Cedar Rapids was freed this month after an appeals court agreed to throw out one of his convictions stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, riot. But prosecutors believe Kelly’s release was a mistake because he served only 11 months of his 30-month sentence

Water cooler

Immigration law in court: A federal appeals court in St. Louis heard arguments Thursday over a halted Iowa law that would allow the arrest and forced removal of immigrants in Iowa if they had previously been denied entry into the country. The three-judge panel from the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals now has to rule on the appeal of a lower court’s injunction that stopped Senate File 2340 from going into effect.

Decline in rankings: Both of Iowa’s public research universities slipped in this year’s U.S. News Best Colleges national rankings, with the University of Iowa sliding five spots to No. 98 and Iowa State University dropping six to No. 121. The UI’s drop from No. 93 last year to No. 98 marks its second-straight year-over-year decline nationally and moves it into its lowest position in over a decade — 27 spots below its No. 71 ranking a decade ago.