State Government

Capitol Notebook: Rep. Cecil Dolecheck and Sen. Janet Petersen have received the 2022 Hoover Uncommon Public Service Award.

The state said it is shipping unused protective helmets and vests from state and local law enforcement agencies to Ukraine, where they will be donated with the hope of helping Ukrainian military forces and citizens.

Iowa Senate Republicans say their plan would breathe new life into the state recycling program, while Senate Democrats say the plan would strangle the program to death.

More than 100 people attended a Sierra Club sponsored public hearing Tuesday in the Capitol rotunda on the use of eminent domain for pipeline construction.

Alan Ostergren, a conservative lawyer who argued on behalf of many of the challenges, said some of the petitioners now may contest some of the panel’s rulings in court.

Higher than projected gambling revenue will make it possible for the Legislature to bump up the Rebuild Iowa Infrastructure Fund (RIIF) by $87 million in the coming year to nearly $290 million in fiscal 2023.

Concerned by what they see as a lack of action by lawmakers, landowners and others who oppose the use of eminent domain to construct pipelines across Iowa will have a public hearing at the Statehouse on Tuesday.

Iowa Department of Natural Resources Director Kayla Lyon said it was an honest mistake to let her fishing license expire before an excursion on the Mississippi River. She said she asked her department to cite her.

Jessica Wiskus, who has also been organizing against the Navigator CO2 Ventures carbon pipeline after learning her property was in the corridor, is running as a Democratic in Senate 42. The district covers rural Linn County, wrapping around the Cedar Rapids metro area, and eastern Benton County.

On this week’s edition of the On Iowa Politics Podcast: who’s running for public office this year, Chuck Grassley and another Supreme Court nomination, and the legislative session begins to wind down.

The proposed moratorium, which now goes to the state Senate, would not change the rules regarding the use of eminent domain or stop the construction of the three carbon pipelines proposed in Iowa. But it would provide 11 months of a level playing field for negotiations between landowners and companies hoping to construct pipelines, according to its sponsor.

Sen. Dan Dawson says a proposal to swap taxes in order to fund conservation and water quality could still pass the Iowa Legislature