State Government

Some statements in the 2022 Condition of the State address drew cheers, while others might have angered listeners. The Gazette Fact Checker checked 10 claims for accuracy.

Iowans placed more than $2 billion in wagers on sporting events in 2021, according to recently published state figures. That number envelopes the $575 million that was bet on sports in 2020.

Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Susan Christensen tells legislators “the court system is 100 percent fully operational, but we are continuing some practices adopted on an emergency basis” to keep proceedings moving “without jeopardizing health or conflicting with their work schedules.”

Watch live as Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Susan Christensen addresses Iowa lawmakers on the Condition of the Judiciary in the Capitol at 10 a.m. Wednesday.

A four-year transition to a flat state income tax rate of 4 percent, shorting the time Iowans could claim jobless benefits and a new plan for devoting public K-12 for private school tuition are among the proposals introduced Tuesday night by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds in her charge to state legislators.

The merged department should be able to help people seamlessly receive the maximum services in the most efficient way to give families the tools to be independent, she tells legislators.

Watch live as Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds delivers her fifth Condition of the State address to the Iowa Legislature at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

Cedar Rapids City Council member Ashley Vanorny was among speakers Monday at a “People’s Condition of the State” event hosted Progress Iowa and featuring representative from a number of Democratic-leaning organizations.

During a event conducted over Zoom, individuals shouted and drew a racial epithet and posted an image of a monkey on the shared screen for all participants to see.

Iowa’s public universities for years have requested legislative funding increases — promising to commit the extra tens of millions they sought to student aid, mental health, and more recently hybrid learning in an age of COVID-19 — but the asks have fallen flat.

Judging by the opening-day remarks delivered Monday by leaders in the Iowa Legislature, Republicans and Democrats have decidedly different views about how to attract more workers and people to Iowa, whose population has been stagnant for a decade.

Republican leaders in the Senate told journalists last week they will no longer be allowed to work on the chamber floor, a change that breaks with a more than 140-year tradition in the Iowa Capitol.