State and Regional News

The U.S. Senate parliamentarian has turned down a plan to include a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented people in the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package, a blow for Democrats and immigration advocacy groups when the decision was disclosed late Sunday...

Three weeks after the last U.S. troops withdrew from Afghanistan, over two-thirds of Iowans said they disapproved of the way President Joe Biden handled the situation, according to a new Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll. Iowa’s lawmakers in D.C., many of whom have been critical of Biden’s approach from the onset, are turning their attention toward creating memorials for veterans of the Global War on Terrorism...

Iowa’s COVID-19 cases continued to rise Monday, with daily average cases surpassing the most recent peak in January 2021, before vaccines were widely available. Iowa’s daily average of COVID-19 cases was 1,867 on Sunday, according to New York Times data. That number represents the average number of new cases every day over the last week...

Enrollment fell at Iowa’s three public colleges this fall, continuing a years-long decline complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern all reported smaller 2021 enrollment as classes began last month. ...

The 2020 redistricting process has been abnormal from the start, and we’re just getting to the good stuff. This week, the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency will propose a new set of state legislative and congressional maps, setting off Iowa’s redistricting process months after it would usually happen...

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) today announced that Harrison Swift, a veteran of the United States Marine Corps and resident of Ankeny, will work as the new veterans fellow based in his Des Moines office. Dave Allen, who has worked as Grassley’s veterans fellow since 2015, is retiring...

Mutton Bustin’ is a popular part of the rodeo during Fonda’s Labor Day celebration - with an especially enthusiastic turnout this year for the town’s Sesquicentennial party. This youngster hangs on for dear life.

A national environmental group has developed a clickable map that describes some of Iowa’s most pressing pollution problems in fine detail. The Environmental Working Group’s “water atlas” shows what Iowans have long known in a broad sense — the state is awash in manure and commercial fertilizers...

The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee was scheduled Thursday to hold a markup on the $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill. Iowa 4th District Rep. Randy Feenstra called the legislation “a Socialist Spending Spree” that he suggests will worsen inflation and add trillions more to our national debt...

The last privately owned stretch of undeveloped land along East Okoboji Lake will become a wildlife sanctuary and low-impact public park after a $8.2 million fundraising effort wrapped up with a day to spare. The nonprofit Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation will retain ownership of the 50 acres just north of Elinor Bedell State Park, and will work to connect the two areas with trails. The property, sold by businessman Tom Bedell, has just over 2,000 feet of shoreline...

Meatpacking workers and farm workers who were severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic will be eligible to get grants of up to $600 per person as part of a new $700 million aid program the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Tuesday. Officials said the grants are meant to defray some of the costs workers bore as many of them bought their own protective equipment or took unpaid leave as the virus tore through their industries even as they were required to keep showing up for work...

On the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the State Historical Society of Iowa will honor the attacks’ first responders and commemorate its victims with a bell-ringing ceremony outside the State Capitol in Des Moines. The program will begin at 8:45 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 11, at the Liberty Bell east of the statehouse...

Iowa City’s Tyler Sullivan was last in Clay County a little more than two years ago in August 2019, making a quick tour of some of the rural communities. He plans on sharing the experience in an upcoming book. Sullivan, now 33, has been running since he was a teen...

Fairgoers to the 2021 Clay County Fair will have 31 new foods to enjoy during their visit Sept. 11-19, including five that have been named as finalists for the fifth edition of the “The World’s Greatest County Fair Food” Contest. “In our visitor surveys, fairgoers tell us one of the top reasons they attend the Fair is for the food,” fair manager Jeremy Parsons said. “This list of unique new foods will only add to our reputation as a nine-day foodie festival.”...

A Supreme Court decision allowing Texas to enact new restrictions that effectively ban abortion after six weeks of pregnancy has ignited fresh debate on the issue around the country. Will Iowa lawmakers follow in Texas’ controversial footsteps? State legislator Gary Worthan predicts that the governor and Republicans in the state House and Senate will be watching the court decision play out carefully...

Federal education officials have launched civil rights investigations in Iowa and four other Republican-led states that have prohibited school districts from mandating mask-wearing, saying those policies could amount to illegal discrimination against students with disabilities...

Several Iowa monitoring sites recorded exceedances of the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for fine particulate matter last month, including two measurements that were more than twice the national standard. Smoke from wildfires in the western U.S. and Canada were evident across much of Iowa towards the end of July. While many news outlets reported on smoke, official data from regulatory monitors is only available after laboratory analysis...

Gov. Kim Reynolds this week issued disaster proclamations for 13 counties in response to recent severe weather. Two area conties. Palo Alto and Pocahontas, are included. The governor’s proclamation allows state resources to be utilized to respond to, and recover from, the effects of recent severe weather and activates the Iowa Individual Assistance Grant Program for qualifying residents, along with the Disaster Case Management Program.  ...

Spencer Hospital is implementing a COVID-19 vaccination policy requiring hospital employees to be fully vaccinated by Dec. 1. The policy has been put in place to protect hospital’s patients, visitors and health care team, and will be effective beginning Sept. 1...

Will Horsley, director of the Clay County Conservation Board, Bri Blom, conservation naturalist, and Lee Schoenewe, board president, recently joined the Clay County Board of Supervisors for a virtual presentation designating Clay as one of the state’s first seven counties to be awarded the Bird Friendly Iowa designation...

As Iowa schools prepare for a third school year disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, distance learning options are multiplying and receiving strong support. Steven Hoff, the head of the Iowa Virtual Academy, said the pandemic has created an influx of registrations to his school, alongside more online options popping up across the country and state...

Signs that the delta variant of COVID-19 will disrupt classes and events in coming months continued to mount this week. The Western Iowa Labor Federation canceled all of its Labor Day picnics in Council Bluffs, Fort Dodge and Sioux City due to the rising number of cases in the state...

During a recent Clay County Board of Supervisors meeting, Veronica McFadden, Andrea Easter and Rob Hach — representing Trusted Energy — proposed the idea of solar-powered energy resources for the supervisors consideration. “Our purpose is just to let you know what solar can do to leverage tax payer dollars,” McFadden said. “The benefit of solar energy is, once installed, it will produce energy for 35 years. It used to be 20 years.”...

The cement had barely cured on the new Storm Lake Police Department Operation Hoop Dreams basketball court when it was being pressed into service last week. The SLPD raised funds for the project in Seneca Park, after learning that youth in the area had no court to play on. The department also hopes that having the court next to the police station will create opportunities for officers and local young people to interact...

Just days before Iowa students return to the classrooms, Gov. Kim Reynolds stood firm against school mask mandates. Reynolds told reporters Thursday that parents have approached her at the Iowa State Fair, “tears in their eyes,” and thanked her for bringing kids back to school without masks. School districts were allowed to require masks until May, when Reynolds enacted a law that prohibits them from requiring face coverings outside of a statewide mandate...

Screams from the towering metal Slingshot and Skyscraper rides echoed over the Hy-Vee vaccination booth at the Iowa State Fair as a handful of fairgoers got COVID-19 shots. Over the course of two-and-a-half hours on Tuesday afternoon, seven people received a COVID vaccination. Of those, five got their first dose of a vaccine. Two received booster shots, a newly approved option for immunocompromised people...

The first U.S. stop for the nearly 2,000 Afghan interpreters and other refugees evacuated so far amid the collapse of the Afghan government has been central Virginia’s Fort Lee military base. Tapped for its East Coast location and its ability to quickly ramp up to serve as a temporary host installation, the Army base just south of Richmond has been receiving Afghans eligible for Special Immigrant Visas since late last month...

Two environmental groups have petitioned a state panel to protect waterways from threats such as a cattle operation in a geologically sensitive area near a trout stream in northeast Iowa. The Iowa Environmental Council and Environmental Law & Policy Center have filed a petition for rulemaking with Iowa’s Environmental Protection Commission. They asked the governor-appointed commission to protect drinking water, groundwater, and karst terrain from pollution...

A dozen days before the school year begins, hundreds of parents, educators, and doctors called on Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds to rescind the ban on mask mandates. Iowans for Universal Masks gathered Wednesday on the West Capitol Terrace with signs and banners, pleading with Reynolds to take executive action and allow localities to mandate masks. One of the speakers at the event, Dr. Glenn Hurst, said the decision to only allow the state to enforce a mask mandate was a failure in leadership...

The League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa (LULAC) is asking the Secretary of State to allow voting materials to be published and completed in languages other than English. “Our democracy works best when every Iowa voter can participate in the process,” LULAC Iowa State Director Nick Salazar said in a news release. “Forcing Spanish-speaking voters to vote in a language they do not understand denies their right to vote and weakens the integrity of our elections.”...

The Iowa Lottery released its annual results on Wednesday, with its sales, proceeds to state causes, prizes to players, and commissions paid to Iowa businesses all setting records in fiscal year 2021. “The Iowa Lottery delivered on its promise of responsibly generating revenue for important Iowa causes, even amidst an enormously challenging period,” said Iowa Lottery CEO Matt Strawn. ...

With coronavirus cases rising throughout Iowa and around the nation, health experts are becoming increasingly worried about next month’s Iowa State Fair, which will bring more than 1 million people to Des Moines from around the state, including many from counties with low vaccination rates and increasing prevalence of the disease...

Parent-taught driver’s education applications are skyrocketing in Iowa after a bill that expanded the option was enacted earlier this month. The Iowa Department of Transportation has seen an exponential increase in inquiries about parent-taught options and applications to begin driver’s education from home, said Driver Education Program Coordinator Steve Stonehocker...

Gov. Kim Reynolds told reporters this week that immigration at the southern border is “part of the problem” as COVID-19 cases rise again through the U.S. and Iowa. In response to a question about the state’s COVID-19 data reporting, Reynolds said she received daily updates on the pandemic and would “adjust as necessary” to the delta variant. ...

Parents should decide whether their children wear masks to school even if new federal guidelines recommend them for all students, U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said Tuesday. CNN reported shortly before Ernst’s phone call with Iowa reporters that the U.S. ...

Secretary of State Paul Pate announces more than 500,000 Iowans have registered to vote since he took office on January 1, 2015. Most of those voters, 321,535 out of 504,113, registered by using the state’s online voter registration system that launched in January 2016 through a partnership between Secretary Pate and the Iowa Department of Transportation...

Nebraska and Iowa have seen a rise in hate crimes in recent years, most of which have been committed on the basis of race and ethnicity, according to the FBI. The FBI region that includes Nebraska and Iowa has seen a 21% increase in the reporting of hate crimes in recent years, Eugene Kowel, special agent in charge at the FBI’s Omaha field office, said Thursday in a news conference...