IOWA LEGISLATURE

The Iowa Legislative Council unanimously approved an emergency directive to give Iowans living overseas the option of returning ballots electronically for July 7 special elections, but not without first returning to a partisan debate lawmakers had in the final hours of their June session. ...

Unanimously supported in the Iowa Legislature, a new statewide police reform law aims to weed out bad cops, increase diversity training and ban the use of chokeholds in most cases. ...

DES MOINES - Starting today, Iowans are free to carry guns in courthouses - but not courtrooms - and could face harsher punishments for animal cruelty. ...

IOWA CITY - Abortion rights advocates Monday asked a judge to temporarily block a law that, starting Wednesday, requires any Iowa woman seeking an abortion to wait 24 hours. ...

Opposition from lobbyists for the liquor and restaurant industries helped kill a price increase on alcohol products in Iowa that was intended to discourage unhealthy heavy drinking, emails released Friday show. ...

State revenues have fallen by more than a half-billion dollars over the past three months, but the full impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Iowa tax collections may be less than that, an analyst reported Thursday. ...

The focus was clear Thursday as Gov. Kim Reynolds held her first Economic Recovery Advisory Board meeting. ...

DES MOINES - Iowa Senate Democrats called Wednesday for Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds to quickly sign an executive order allowing felons to vote once they have completed their sentences, while voting right experts said the details of her directive are just as important as the timing of her ...

They won't top the record-setting numbers from a year ago, but Iowa Lottery Authority revenues will exceed projections for the fiscal year ending June 30 despite a coronavirus-related slowdown in sales. ...

IOWA CITY - Compounding the unprecedented financial woes Iowa's public universities are facing in the throes of the coronavirus pandemic, lawmakers adjourning their 2020 session over the weekend cut $8 million from the Board of Regents. ...

DES MOINES - As often is the case, the end of the Iowa legislative session again this year came down to a budget, taxes and abortion. ...

DES MOINES - Majority Republicans spent Friday ironing out differences on a nearly $7.8 billion spending plan for fiscal 2021 and finalizing a shrinking list of policy priorities in hopes of wrapping up the elongated session this weekend. ...

DES MOINES - Gov. Kim Reynolds said it will go down as one of the finest hours of the Iowa Legislature. ...

DES MOINES - Rep. Amy Nielsen, D-North Liberty, thought she would get some Republican support for her 'pink tax' amendment to create a sales tax exemption for feminine hygiene products. ...

DES MOINES - Iowa individuals and businesses would not owe state tax on federal stimulus checks or government aid resulting from the coronavirus under tax policy measures now being considered by state lawmakers. ...

DES MOINES - After 20 years as a member of the Iowa House, Rep. Vicki Lensing addressed her colleagues one last time. ...

DES MOINES - Racial justice protesters took their cause inside the Iowa State Capitol on Wednesday and spoke with state lawmakers and the governor's staff. ...

DES MOINES - Iowa's top elections official no longer would be permitted to mail absentee ballot request forms to voters unsolicited - a step taken this year ahead of the state's June 2 primary election, which broke turnout records amid the coronavirus pandemic - under legislation approved ...

DES MOINES - Pilot projects - for improving classroom environments and for providing legal representation for families involved with the Department of Human Services - were approved Wednesday by the Iowa House along with unanimous approval of one of Gov. Kim Reynolds's Future Ready priorit ...

DES MOINES - Legislative Democrats accused majority Republicans on Wednesday of shirking their constitutional responsibility by proposing a 16-page 'state quo' spending plan that surrenders up to $10 billion in budget-making and oversight authority to the governor and her administrators. ...

Rep. Louie Zumbach, R-Coggon, was taken from the Capitol to a Des Moines hospital Tuesday evening after requesting help because he was not feeling well. ...

DES MOINES - Republicans began work Tuesday on a $7.85 billion state budget proposal for next fiscal year that they called a 'status quo' spending plan for much of state government while providing more state money to K-12 school and Medicaid. ...

The coronavirus pandemic is providing Ed Cook some degree of certainty about what he'll be doing a year from now. ...

Gazette Des Moines Bureau ...

DES MOINES - After a heated and contentious debate that included commentary on legislative impacts on minorities and the recent protests over the death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody, Iowa lawmakers on Wednesday approved a modest expansion of the state's medical cannab ...

By James Q. Lynch, The Gazette ...

DES MOINES - State revenue estimators took a measured view Thursday of the economy - the turmoil caused by stock volatility, an oil price war and a global coronavirus pandemic - before setting cautious projections for slow, stable economic growth in Iowa, at least in the short-term. ...