The state’s Revenue Estimating Conference during its regular meeting Friday at the Iowa Capitol projected continued growth of 1.5 percent for each of the next two fiscal years, growing a state budget that would surpass the $9 billion mark in the fiscal year that starts in June of 2023.
As Iowans clamor for more specialty meats, the state next week will start accepting applications for grants up to $50,000 for Iowa meat lockers to expand or improve their operations.
The governor earlier this week threw the issue of banning workplace COVID-19 vaccine mandates into the special-session mix. But top GOP legislators said Thursday it probably would be considered only “if the right solution is ready” when they return to the Capitol later this month.
“Stay tuned,” the Republican governor told a WHO-AM talk radio host in discussing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision to issue an executive order earlier this week prohibiting any entity, including businesses, from imposing COVID-19 vaccination requirements on employees or customers.
Of the six state-run care facilities, the two with the highest vaccine-refusal rates among their staffs have consistently been the Glenwood Resource Center for the profoundly disabled and the Boys State Training School in Eldora.
$400,000 from state will be used to pave approximately 3 miles of the trail east of Highway 13 from Waldo’s Rock Park to Oxley Road. The trail was constructed a few years ago with a limestone surface in anticipation of hard surfacing it when funding was secured.
Panel looks to help communities find and develop the diversity and equity resources needed to greet refugees and immigrants, and create welcoming and inclusive environments for new populations.
Homes for Iowa, started in 2019, aims to satisfy two of Iowa’s biggest needs — training workers for in-demand jobs and building affordable housing for Iowa communities. The program at the Newton Correctional Facility supports several apprenticeship programs for offenders.
Closures of wood and metal shops have dramatically reduced the opportunities for Anamosa offenders to participate in apprenticeships, shown to reduce recidivism and improve an ex-offender’s likelihood of getting a job on the outside.
Mitchell Stites got 2,200 hours of hair cutting experience as a barber in the Iowa Department of Corrections, using clippers -- no scissors or straight-edges allowed -- to do bald fades and trims to make the men incarcerated with him at Fort Dodge look and feel good.
Last year, the Iowa Department of Corrections and NewBoCo, in Cedar Rapids, started a coding program for women at the prison, funded by a $175,000 grant from the Google Impact Challenge. The pilot project is modeled after NewBoCo’s Delta V program, a 20-week boot camp where individuals with no technical background become Full Stack JavaScript developers.
Jack Whitver: ‘Wealthy Iowans work, too’
On Iowa Politics is a weekly news and analysis podcast that aims to re-create the kinds of conversations that happen when you get political reporters from across Iowa together after the day's deadlines have been met.
Iowa Senate Republicans all voted to reject the first set of proposed maps that would redraw statehouse and Congressional boundaries for the next 10 years. All Senate Democrats voted to approve the maps.
© 2025 The Gazette | All Rights Reserved.
Daily Newsletters