Tag Archives: Iowa

The Hill reports: Democratic contender Nathan Sage, who’s the executive director of the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce, is launching a Senate bid to take on Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) next year in Iowa. Sage made that announcement official on Wednesday; in his campaign launch and an interview with The Hill ahead of his announcement, Sage emphasized fighting for the working …

NBC News reports: Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Friday she would not seek re-election, a decision that means the Republican’s time as governor will come to an end just shy of the 10-year mark after the 2026 election. “Serving as your governor has been the greatest honor of my life, an opportunity that not so long ago, I never could …

The Ames Tribune reports: A coalition of Iowa State University students and Ames community members held a makeshift funeral Wednesday for Iowa State’s LGBTQIA+ center. About 50 people gathered in front of Parks Library around a makeshift coffin painted with the LGBTQIA+ flag. Many were wearing black, sporting pride pins or holding pride flags. Iowa State’s Center for LGBTQIA+ Student …

Courthouse News reports: A federal judge on Tuesday blocked enforcement of Iowa’s state law that removes books that have LGBTQ themes with references to sexual acts from school libraries. U.S. District Judge Stephen Locher, a Joe Biden appointee, took back the case after an Eighth Circuit panel reversed a preliminary injunction he issued in December 2023. The earlier injunction blocked …

The Des Moines Register reports: Transgender and nonbinary Iowans will no longer be shielded by state law from discrimination in housing, employment, education and more after Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a law Friday removing gender identity as a protected class in the Iowa Civil Rights Act. The signing makes Iowa the first state in the country to take away civil …

The Des Moines Register reports: Over the protests of hundreds of Iowans chanting “no hate in our state,” Iowa’s Republican-dominated Legislature voted Thursday to pass a bill removing gender identity as a protected class in the state’s civil rights act. Democrats warned history wouldn’t look kindly upon lawmakers for inviting oppression of transgender Iowans. The bill, which Gov. Kim Reynolds was …

The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports: A bill to outlaw minors from being present at drag shows could have wider implications for access to art and transgender rights, opponents of the legislation said Tuesday. The legislation, House Study Bill 158, moved out of an Iowa House subcommittee, where lawmakers said they expect changes to the bill. Under the current proposal, any …

Iowa Public Radio reports: LGBTQ topics would be banned from middle school and high school curriculum under a bill advancing in the Iowa House that seeks to expand a law that currently applies to Kindergarten through sixth grade. Republican legislators passed a law in 2023 that bans instruction about gender identity and sexual orientation before seventh grade. That law is …

The Des Moines Register reports: Exposing minors to an “obscene performance” would be a crime under a bill winding through the Iowa Senate that critics fear could discourage drag shows and spur lawsuits against venues offering LGBTQ pride programming. The legislation, Senate File 116, would make knowingly exposing anyone younger than 18 to such a performance an aggravated misdemeanor, as …

Cedar Rapids’ ABC affiliate reports: Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds announced a disaster proclamation in Sioux and Palo Alto Counties. This come comes as the USDA has confirmed positive cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in both of these counties. This marks the fifth detection of H5N1 HPAI in poultry within the state of Iowa in 2024. The Iowa Department …

Des Moines’ CBS affiliate reports: A local chaplain is helping dozens of same-sex couples across the state tie the knot before President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House in January due to concerns about marriage equality protections under the new administration. Des Moines area chaplain Anitta Milloro said they’re working with more than 40 couples who want to get …

The Des Moines Register reports: Kamala Harris now leads Donald Trump in Iowa — a startling reversal for Democrats and Republicans who have all but written off the state’s presidential contest as a certain Trump victory. A new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll shows Vice President Harris leading former President Trump 47% to 44% among likely voters just days before …

“Iowa law guarantees that every eligible voter can vote and every legal vote will count. But now, with only a few days until the election, and many Iowans already voting, LULAC is trying to derail our election integrity systems to let noncitizens illegally vote. Every noncitizen who illegally votes cancels out an Iowan’s valid vote. We won’t let that happen. …

The Des Moines Register reports: Kamala Harris has significantly narrowed the presidential race in Iowa, cutting Donald Trump’s lead to 4 percentage points in a dramatic turnaround from Joe Biden’s double-digit deficit. A new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll shows that Trump leads Vice President Harris 47% to 43% among likely Iowa voters — a far slimmer margin than the …

Via press release from GOP Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds: Gov. Kim Reynolds today announced that Lt. Governor Adam Gregg is stepping down from his position to pursue a career opportunity that allows him to focus more on his family. “It has been a great honor to serve alongside Governor Reynolds for seven years. I have enormous respect for her and …

Courthouse News reports: An Iowa man fired for posting a comment on his employer’s intranet site condemning the rainbow pride flag as an “abomination to God” was not illegally fired based on his religion, a federal appeals court said in a ruling Wednesday. Daniel Snyder was fired from Arconic Corp., an aluminum company with tens of thousands of employees worldwide, …

ABC News reports: Iowa can enforce a book ban this school year following a Friday ruling by a federal appeals court. The U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a district judge’s earlier decision that temporarily halted key parts of the law. The law, which the Republican-led Legislature and GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds approved in 2023, also forbids teachers from …

The Hill reports: Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) declared a disaster in Sioux County after the area was slammed with record-breaking flooding. “I have issued a Disaster Proclamation for Sioux County and directed all available state resources to assist Rock Valley and other communities in northwest Iowa in response to catastrophic flooding,” she wrote on social media platform X. She …

The Des Moines Register reports: A new Iowa law imposing state criminal penalties on undocumented immigrants is unconstitutional and cannot be enforced, a federal judge ruled Monday. The “illegal reentry” law, signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds in April, made it a state offenses for people to enter Iowa after being previously deported from or denied entry to the U.S., or …

ABC News reports: The Department of Justice and civil rights groups filed two separate lawsuits on Thursday aiming to block a controversial immigration law — known as SF 2340 — from going into effect in Iowa. SF 2340 authorizes local law enforcement officials to arrest migrants who have previously been deported or removed from the country, or who have been …