The Trump administration is ending a 45-year-old federal database that tracks the financial cost of climate disasters.

The inflation-adjusted data shows Great Plains states have seen three times as many billion-dollar weather events over the last five years compared to recent decades.

Geography professor Eric Nost, with the University of Guelph in Canada, says this database was a useful service.

“It compiled information from both public sources as well as from the private sector – insurance agencies and reinsurers. It brought together this information that really only the federal government could bring together.”

Nost is in a network of scientists working to keep federal data public.

Iowa and nearby states have seen billion-dollar damage from severe storms, droughts and other extreme weather.

Madeleine C King

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Iowa Public Radio

Some programs that help low-income Iowans access healthy foods are at risk after federal SNAP-Ed funding was eliminated in the so-called Big Beautiful Bill. The state is losing about $3 million.

SNAP-Ed paid for nutrition experts who worked to improve access to healthier foods at food pantries and taught low-income Iowans to prepare healthy meals. It also supported gardens that donate fresh produce to food pantries. The garden grants will no longer be available.

The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services and Iowa State University declined to say what will happen to other programs and staff. Kim Guardado, food reservoir director for Hawkeye Area Community Action Program, says ending SNAP-Ed is detrimental to the health of Iowans.

“To me, it fits with the work that the current administration is doing in ‘Make America Healthy Again,’ and that is having healthier choices available for people facing food insecurity.”

Guardado says food banks will do what they can to keep focusing on nutritious foods.

Julie Robeson manages the garden at Waypoint Resources in Waukee, that provides fresh produce to food pantry clients. She says SNAP-Ed has covered the majority of the garden’s budget, but that money will no longer be available. Robeson says the garden has helped pantry clients eat healthier.

“They experiment with new produce, you know, like Swiss chard. People will say, how do I use Swiss chard? And we’ll give them suggestions of how they can cook it. So we’re expanding what they’re exposed to nutritionally as well.”

Robeson says the garden will continue operating but will need to use other funding sources. A spokesperson for Sen. Joni Ernst, who voted for the bill, says SNAP-Ed “has struggled to show any long-term health benefits.”

Read more.

A race that could be a new staple for runners in eastern Iowa will debut in Cedar Rapids June 2026.

The event will be city-wide, and will have multiple races, including a full marathon and relay. The full marathon will be a Boston-qualifier, meaning runners who meet a certain time will qualify for entry into the Boston Marathon.

It’s the first time Cedar Rapids will host a marathon since the CRANDIC run between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City was shut down in 2022.

Laura Jass is with Endurance Sports Marketing, which will produce the weekend-long event.

“With CRANDIC not being here anymore, we feel like there’s a hole, and we know people in eastern Iowa are running, so we’re trying to produce that hole. Also, we produce the Iowa Trail Run Series — it's nine trails across the state. Our two largest are in the eastern Iowa corridor.”

She says the weekend will have events for runners of all types, including a team relay and a free kids run.

“Most of our runners are a mom who just wants an excuse to get out the door without the kids hanging onto them, somebody who maybe lost a lot of weight over the last year and this is a big goal. But in the running world, being a Boston qualifier, people are looking at that on the calendar of events to do.”

Graduate students at the University of Iowa say administrators capitulated to Gov. Kim Reynolds and the Trump administration by placing two staff members on administrative leave.

The employees were seen in videos shared on Fox News and the news site Townhall discussing ways they were circumventing the state’s new laws on diversity equity and inclusion.

The graduate student labor union COGS issued a statement saying UI President Barbara Wilson joined "right-wing efforts" to suppress academic freedom by putting the employees on leave and launching an investigation. Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird is also investigating.

Starting Thursday, local governments and school districts in the Des Moines area can resume lawn watering and irrigation.

Central Iowa Water Works has ended its stage three lawn watering ban and shifted to stage one, which still calls for a voluntary 25% reduction in outside watering.

The regional utility says nitrate concentrations in the Raccoon and Des Moines rivers continue to fluctuate, but it’s able to operate its nitrate removal facility at its minimum level.

The facility has been in operation for 111 days this year due to high nitrate levels in its source waters.

Iowa City City Council members have ordered a boycott on the city investing in any entities supporting the Israel-Hamas war.

The resolution was added to the council’s meeting packet this week after community members organized a sit-in protest during the meeting. It calls the ongoing war in Gaza a “genocide” and states that Iowa City’s finances should align with its values.

When asked about the resolution at an event in Cedar Rapids, Gov. Kim Reynolds affirmed her support for Israel, citing her decision to send Kevlar vests to Israel after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.

Gov. Kim Reynolds’ Iowa Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) task force is floating ideas that include paying teachers based on performance and reducing state employee benefits to align with the private sector.

Task force member Terry Lutz says Iowa pays teachers and administrators based on length of service, but their compensation should be tied to student outcomes.

“A quote from an old friend of mine, which I love, says, ‘If you keep the score and know the score, the score will improve.’ So, we need to get Iowa back on track with our education system, ranked back in the top 10 nationally, and reward those folks that help us get there.”

Lutz says some state jobs have health care and retirement benefits that far exceed the private sector, and the state should consider eliminating the pension plan for new hires.

The DOGE task force is also discussing incentivizing local governments to share services, improving government websites and consolidating workforce programs to better meet the needs of employers. Task Force Chair Emily Schmitt says the group will vote on its list of 45 draft recommendations before submitting them to the governor in September.

Read more.

Nicole Grundmeier/The Midwest Newsroom

Students must now verify their citizenship to enroll in some college programs after the U.S. Department of Education changed what kinds of public benefits individuals in the country without legal status can receive. The department says students can no longer participate in adult education programs or career and technical education programs.

Erica Spiller, vice president of student affairs at Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC), says the policy change means DMACC needs to add another step to its registration checklist.

“This would be a significant change that I don't know if it would require more staffing or if we'd have to offer fewer services to manage the volume.”

Spiller says the extra step would complicate registration for people with legal status as well. It’s another point where she says students might drop out of the registration process.

Madeleine Charis King

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Iowa Public Radio

Elevated nitrate levels in the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers this spring and summer pushed Central Iowa Water Works (CIWW), the regional drinking water utility, to issue its first lawn watering ban from June 12 to July 21.

The restriction dropped demand by more than 30%, allowing CIWW to pump water through extra treatment steps and stay under the federal safe drinking water limit for nitrates.

Nitrates in Iowa’s rivers are not a new challenge. But this year’s consistently high levels and water restrictions for around 600,000 people in Des Moines — nearly a fifth of the state’s population — have brought the issue to the forefront. Water quality experts hope this could be a watershed moment and a chance to rapidly scale up practices that have been proven to help.

Read more about Iowa’s unique challenges and solutions.

Natalie Krebs

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Iowa Public Radio

Gov. Kim Reynolds has offered to deploy the Iowa National Guard to help federal immigration enforcement efforts in Iowa.

Reynolds says she met with U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, who asked states to support the administration’s deportation agenda. An agreement is still being finalized, but Reynolds says logistics and processing are ways the state would likely help.

“We'll see what that looks like … We’ve got a large deployment going on right now, too. We’re trying to decide if it’s Title 10 or Title 32 or what that falls under. The federal government would cover the cost on that. So, there’s just a lot of things that have to be worked out before we have any specifics on start time and what that looks like moving forward.”

Title 10 and Title 32 are sections of the United States Code that govern different aspects of the Armed Forces and the National Guard operations. Reynolds says she is waiting to hear back from U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth before she provides information on how many troops could be deployed.

Read more.

After last year’s record tornado outbreak, Iowa is having a relatively mild severe weather season this year, according to State Climatologist Justin Glisan. He says now that it’s August, Iowa is out of what's considered the peak season for twisters.

Glisan says Iowa has only seen about 30 tornadoes, compared to 125 last year. During July alone, Iowa had more than 180 severe wind reports, but Glisan says overall, the late spring and summer have provided a reprieve from “widespread” severe weather.

A powerful storm that’s now classified as a derecho swept across northern and eastern Iowa last week, with winds peaking at 99 mph. Still, Glisan says severe weather has been much more active in the Southern U.S.

While the traditional peak severe weather season is now behind us, Glisan wants to remind Iowans that tornadoes can strike during any season and in any month. He cites December 2021 as a prime example, when Iowa was hit with a derecho and 63 tornadoes on a single day.

Many immigrants who have been allowed to work and live in the United States under what’s called the humanitarian parole program are now at risk of deportation, and it’s impacting workers at meat-processing plants across Iowa.

Hundreds of workers at a JBS plant in Ottumwa were given 90 days to find new work authorization after the Trump administration revoked their legal statuses — and it’s not an isolated case.

Elena Casillas-Hoffman, with the Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice, says workers at other plants across the state are facing the same pressures.

“With the limited options that they have, what you’re going to see is that many individuals are going to be pushed to an undocumented status, potentially. So, JBS in Ottumwa is one example of many, as more and more statuses are pulled and individuals are trying to find their next steps.’”

Casillas-Hoffman says her organization has also heard of status terminations impacting workers in Marshalltown, Storm Lake and Sioux City.

Woodbury County in northwest Iowa is changing its zoning rules to allow for the development of nuclear power. The board of supervisors approved the permitting process after a series of public meetings.

Opponents of the ordinance say they are worried about the risk of accidents. They say the board should support other renewable energy sources.

Woodbury County Supervisor Mark Nelson says wind and solar power can’t meet the area’s energy demand on their own. He says there are no specific proposals for nuclear projects, but the county should prepare for ways to replace coal-fired energy as it’s phased out by electric utilities.

Read more about the public hearings.

The state of Iowa will pay nearly $2 million in attorney fees as part of a settlement that aims to improve mental health care for children.

The three-member state appeal board approved payments Tuesday to Children’s Rights, the National Health Law Program, Disability Rights Iowa and the law firm Ropes & Gray.

The groups sued the state of Iowa in 2023 on behalf of kids with serious mental health conditions who are eligible for Medicaid coverage. They alleged the plaintiffs weren’t getting adequate mental health treatment as required by federal law.

A federal court approved a settlement in May that requires the state to develop new home- and community-based mental health services for children.

The groups getting the attorney fees initially asked for $2.7 million, but settled at $1.9 million. They also agreed to a cap of $160,000 per year for future attorney fees for monitoring the state’s compliance with the settlement.

Some transgender Iowans with low incomes are postponing or canceling gender-affirming surgeries since Medicaid no longer covers the procedures.

A provision in a state health budget, which went into effect July 1, bans Medicaid coverage of gender-affirming medical procedures, including hormone replacement therapy.

Max Mowitz, a board member of the Iowa Trans Mutual Aid Fund, says more people are requesting aid for less expensive ways to affirm their gender, like wigs or chest compression garments.

“If you can't pay for a $5,000 surgery, but you can pay for clothing that makes you feel more like yourself, that's harm reduction. So, I will say that there's been a shift to those kind of smaller asks, so that people can just kind of survive for the time being.”

Mowitz says about 90-120 people apply for assistance each month, but the number is growing. Numerous peer reviewed studies find gender-affirming care decreases depression and the risk of suicide in transgender people.

A subcontractor at the site of a new data center under construction in Cedar Rapids is facing a $20,000 penalty for digging wells without a permit.

The Minnesota-based company, Northern Dewatering, dug as many as 40 wells that were withdrawing roughly 1.7 million gallons of water a day. The company had plans for 75 wells in total.

The developer says the wells did not impact the city’s water supply and are standard for sewer installation.

Local officials became concerned about the impacts of the wells after a Linn County staff member discovered them while visiting the site in late June.

Madeleine Charis King

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Iowa Public Radio

Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley continues to resist calls to abandon a longstanding tradition used in the confirmation of federal officers.

The process allows both senators from a nominee's state have a “blue slip,” in which they can submit a favorable or unfavorable opinion of a nominee to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The senators may also choose not to return a blue slip.

President Donald Trump has complained that Democrats are using blue slips to block his nominees for federal judgeships and U.S. attorneys. Trump recently called out Grassley on social media, saying Democrats were laughing at him.

“For the president's condemnation of me, which was an insult, and which was very personal, I'm not going to change the blue slip policy, as chairman of the Judiciary Committee. And my Republicans and Democrats on the committee and off the committee support me on it.”

On a call with reporters Tuesday, Grassley said he used blue slips against nominees during the Biden administration, which allowed him to negotiate a compromise with the Democratic administration.

KSCJ

A group known as the Siouxland Miracle Riders took off from Sioux City Monday on a motorcycle benefit ride to Nova Scotia, Canada. The group will ride more than 5,200 miles over the course of two weeks.

Lead rider, Matt Thompson, says the kids they are riding for with the UnityPoint Health Children’s Miracle Network will tell them which route to take each day.

“We love it because it makes the kids that we’re riding for, we get to interact with them on the ride, it makes it an interactive experience for them, and they get to be a part of what we’re doing.”

The kids will also have input on other aspects of the trip, including a scavenger hunt.

“They’re gonna give us some challenges … like I want a photo with the moose or something like that. So, we’re gonna try to do as much of that as we can, and it’ll be interesting to see what the kids want to see.”

Thompson says this year’s goal is to raise money for pediatric cardiac and ventilation equipment for UnityPoint’s St. Luke’s ambulance. It’s the Miracle Riders’ 10^th annual benefit ride, and to mark the occasion, the group wanted to do something special.

“This year, we upped our goal 50%. So usually, we’re riding around that $50,000 [goal]. This year, we bumped it to $75,000.”

Over the past nine years, the riders have raised more than $400,000 for UnityPoint Health – St. Luke’s Children’s Miracle Network.

A proposed tiny home village in Des Moines that would provide housing for people experiencing homelessness could move forward with a new location.

The Des Moines City Council has agreed to negotiate a contract with the homelessness nonprofit Joppa to build the village on land in east Des Moines. Previous plans for land south of the Des Moines airport stalled because of zoning and transportation concerns.

An agreement with the city would come with conditions for Joppa. The city would support the project as long as the tiny village does not overburden public welfare systems and if Joppa’s finances are sound.

Scientists who worked on a two-year report about water quality in central Iowa shared their thoughts on next steps at a presentation Monday night in Des Moines. Over 600 people registered for the event at Drake University, which was sponsored by the Harkin Institute and Polk County.

The Central Iowa Source Water Research Assessment focuses on things like drinking water security, recreation and ecological health. It also provides recommendations at local, watershed and state levels.

Claire Hruby, an assistant professor of environmental science and sustainability at Drake University, said the state’s nutrient reduction goals are important, but she encouraged action close to home.

“I think it’s important to look a little more locally. If you’re in a watershed with a lake that has regular blue-green algae blooms, then perhaps there’s a limit to how much fertilizer can be applied, right? I mean, there has to be a limit there somewhere.”

The scientists said that in addition to the physical challenges to addressing water quality, political challenges are also a factor.

Read more.

Courtesy of Jackie Norris

Des Moines School Board Chair Jackie Norris is the latest Iowa Democrat to announce her bid for Republican U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst’s seat.

Norris has served on the state’s largest school district’s board since 2021. She is also the president and owner of the Horizon Group. She previously worked on the political campaigns of former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack and former President Barack Obama, and served as the chief of staff to former First Lady Michelle Obama.

Norris says her primary concern is addressing affordability issues for Iowa families.

“Whether it's child care affordability, whether it's looking at solutions around pre-K to make sure that's available and accessible to working parents, I think it is addressing mental health issues for young people.”

Norris joins Democratic state Sen. Zach Wahls, state Rep. J.D. Scholten and Knoxville Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Nathan Sage in their bids for Republican Sen. Joni Ernst’s seat.

Read more.

Governor's office photo

Gov. Kim Reynolds touted her efforts to make food assistance more nutritious at a news conference in Washington, D.C., Monday. The event promoted the Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) initiative.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins praised Reynolds for being the first governor to seek federal permission to block pop and candy purchases from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Those restrictions are set to take effect Jan. 1 in Iowa.

Reynolds also highlighted her Healthy Kids Iowa program that provides boxes of food for low-income kids over the summer instead of money for food. She says too many Iowans are “suffering from obesity.”

Reynolds thanked the Trump administration for enabling Iowa to help lead the nation in SNAP reform.

“I think these changes really empower families to take charge of their health and to achieve SNAP’s foundational goals of meeting their nutritional needs.”

Reynolds also told U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that she’s looking to adopt what she calls “MAHA policies” in the next legislative session.

Xavier Carrigan for Iowa

Democrat Xavier Carrigan of Waukee has joined the race for Iowa’s 3^rd Congressional District.

Carrigan is the third Democratic candidate to join the 2026 race. State Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott of West Des Moines and former House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst of Windsor Heights are also running for the chance to challenge Republican incumbent Rep. Zach Nunn.

Carrigan says his priorities are universal health care and combatting climate change. He also wants to make sure waterways inside and outside Iowa are clean.

“We have to find a solution that is going to work for everybody. But more importantly, no matter what, we clean up water so it's safe to drink and it is available to everyone at no cost.”

Carrigan says he won’t take money from corporations or political action committees. He wants his campaign to be grassroots funded and free from corporate influences.

Read more.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders is highlighting his objections to the deportation of a 20-year-old man from eastern Iowa. Sanders issued a statement on social media calling Pascual Pedro’s deportation “unacceptable.”

The Vermont Independent says the Trump administration should deport people who have been convicted of serious crimes, not people who have been living in the country peacefully. The statement was released alongside a video with testimony from Pedro’s family and a leader of the eastern Iowa nonprofit, Escucha Mi Voz.

Pedro was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Cedar Rapids in early July and swiftly deported to Guatemala after reporting to his annual check-in. He had been living in West Liberty with his grandparents for the past seven years and had no criminal background.

Lucius Pham

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Iowa Public Radio

This past week, over 12,000 older athletes from all 50 states have been competing in Des Moines for the National Senior Games. The competition happens every two years and features more than two-dozen sports and games for athletes who are 50 or older.

Attendance at the national games is growing as the country’s population is aging in general. This year marks the second highest number of athletes in the games’ nearly 40-year history, according to Sue Hlavacek, the organization’s CEO.

"Everybody thinks when you turn 50, you’re old and can't do anything. But it gives an outlet, an opportunity for our athletes, socially, mentally and physically to participate.”

Read more and see photos from the competition.

Isabella Luu

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Iowa Public Radio

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird says her reelection race in 2026 is pivotal and one her supporters can’t take for granted.

The first-term Republican does not currently have a primary challenger. But lawyer and former state Rep. Nate Willems, D-Mount Vernon, is running against her as a Democrat.

Bird says Democrats are “chomping at the bit” to regain the Attorney General’s Office.

“The woke left is already coming for us. We have a candidate, a liberal Democrat, that has been announced since May, out there campaigning, and we are taking this election very, very seriously.”

Bird was elected as attorney general in 2022 after defeating incumbent Democrat Tom Miller. She opted to campaign for reelection next year instead of running for governor.

Bird made her comments at a fundraising event for her reelection campaign Saturday.

State Climatologist Justin Glisan says July was the second-wettest on record, only behind 1993. The state averaged 9 inches of rainfall — nearly 5 inches above average.

Glisan says the early dry months of the year kept 2025 from being another flood year — like 1993 — as there was capacity in the soil and waterways to handle the water.

He says the heat dome that set up around the third week of July led to heat indexes in the triple digits, but overall, the month was about 2 degrees above average in temperature.

Katarina Sostaric

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IPR News

Iowa House Republicans have elected Rep. Bobby Kaufmann of Wilton as their new majority leader. He’s replacing Rep. Matt Windschitl, who resigned his leadership role to run for Congress.

Kaufmann says he’s honored to be the majority leader and he’s looking forward to addressing Iowa’s challenges and opportunities with “bold, practical solutions.”

Kaufmann was first elected to the Iowa House in 2012 and has chaired the House Ways and Means Committee, which handles tax policy. He’s the son of Republican Party of Iowa Chair Jeff Kaufmann.

Rep. Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford, will continue to serve as Speaker of the House — the top position in that chamber. He says Kaufmann’s “bold leadership style” has brought Republicans together to move the state forward.

Natalie Dunlap

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Iowa Public Radio

The nonprofit movie theater FilmScene partnered with a local investor to purchase the building that houses its original location on the Ped Mall in Iowa City.

FilmScene and Resilient Sustainable Future for Iowa City bought the building for $2.3 million last week. The building became available when its owner, Marc Moen, and his business associates defaulted on their loans for multiple downtown buildings in February.

FilmScene Executive Director Andrew Sherburne says the new investment is a step toward making Iowa City the greatest small city for the arts.

Read more.

More than 13,000 people used a new Iowa website to search for child care in its first nine months of operation.

Last summer, state leaders announced the launch of Iowa Child Care Connect, a website where Iowans can search for child care openings specific to their kid’s age. Policymakers can also use it to see which parts of the state have a higher need for more child care options.

Ryan Page, director of child care at the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, says she’s “thrilled” about the website’s success. She says other states have expressed interest in replicating it.

“There are a lot of states that have a search function — most do. However, they don’t have the near real-time availability … They also don’t have that supply and demand data in real time to help navigate policy decision making.”

The website was built with about $5 million from the American Rescue Plan Act.

The University of Iowa president says the college takes concerns about employees not following state diversity, equity and inclusion laws with what she calls the “utmost seriousness.”

UI President Barbara Wilson issued the response after a second “undercover” video surfaced on the conservative news outlet Townhall. The video shows an employee describing how the university is working around DEI restrictions by using words like “community” and “belonging.”

The employee doesn’t appear to be aware they are being filmed and the video was edited to remove parts of the conversation.

Fox News posted a similar video of another university employee earlier this week.

Wilson said in a campus-wide message that the university is coordinating with the Board of Regents and the Iowa Attorney General’s Office to follow state law.

Axiom video

Astronaut Peggy Whitson, an Iowa native, says her two main goals were met during the recent Axiom-4 mission to the International Space Station. Whitson says she wanted to create not only a high-performing crew, but also one with bonds that would last a lifetime.

During Friday’s Axiom Space news conference to debrief the mission, she touted how the four-member crew performed more than 60 experiments while aboard the orbiting research lab that represented the scientific interests of more than 30 nations.

“We studied how cells repair themselves, how crops might thrive in places where nothing should grow, how the human brain adapts when gravity is no longer a constant. We explored how to manage insulin-dependent diabetes in space, a step toward making space flight accessible for those with historically disqualifying conditions.”

Whitson commanded the mission that included first-time astronauts from India, Hungary and Poland — three nations that haven’t sent a person into low-Earth orbit in four decades. In addition, it marked the first time astronauts from those nations conducted a mission together on the ISS.

Whitson, who grew up on a farm in southern Iowa near Beaconsfield, says even though they all came from much different places and followed varied paths, “we go farther when we go together.”

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying Whitson and crew lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida June 25, and after 18 days docked at the space station, splashed down off the coast of southern California July 15.

It was Whitson’s fifth mission to the ISS and she’s now amassed 695 days in space — the most of any American. At 65, she’s considered the United States’ most experienced astronaut.

A long-time manufacturer of socks in northern Iowa will be closing later this year.

According to the Iowa Workforce Development’s Workforce Adjustment and Retraining Notification website, Fox River Mills is planning to close Oct. 10, impacting 105 workers.

Fox River Mills has been making socks since 1900, and at one point employed as many as 150 people at their Osage facility. In 2016, the company was sold to a private equity firm, a move that marked a significant shift in its business trajectory.

The company was known for its annual Fox River Sock Sale, which would bring thousands of customers to the Mitchell County Fairgrounds in Osage.

Researchers see a disconnect in the Midwest between how government officials and the public talk about drought.

Researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln studied how people talked about the 2022 droughts that affected most residents of Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri and Kansas.

Assistant professor Sharon Baldinelli teaches communications. She says officials tended to stick to the messages that fell within their jobs – such as reporting rainfall and temperatures. Yet the public was often interested in talking about broader effects.

“What the residents – the general population – needs to hear is, what are the ramifications from drought to their community?”

That could mean how it will affect the local food prices, for example.

Thousands of attendees at the Hinterland Music Festival in St. Charles will face unhealthy air and hazy skies from wildfire smoke from Canada. The three-day festival kicks off at 12 p.m. Friday.

Wildfire smoke moved into the region Thursday and is expected to linger into the weekend, impacting visibility and air quality.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has issued an air quality alert for the entire state through midnight Friday. However, Todd Russell with the DNR says that most healthy people should not be adversely affected by being outdoors as long as they avoid strenuous activity.

People considered more vulnerable to poor air conditions — including children, older adults and those with respiratory illnesses — are especially encouraged to stay indoors or take extra precautions.

As of Thursday afternoon, several Iowa cities, including Des Moines, Clinton, Iowa City and Davenport were reporting unhealthy air quality levels.

Similar alerts have been issued in other Midwestern states, including Illinois, where the Lollapalooza music festival kicked off Thursday under smoky skies and an official air quality warning in Chicago.

AccuWeather ranked Chicago’s air quality the worst in the world Thursday afternoon. City officials there urged festivalgoers to “take it easy” and avoid strenuous outdoor activity.

The city of Sioux City will be applying for grants to help finance the replacement of lead pipes in water lines. It has identified $7 million in grant money that’s available.

According to Brad Puetz, utilities director for Sioux City, the city must apply for the money by the end of the year.

“That project is really going to entail picking 100 homes to start, and that will really get us into the rhythm of how we want to pursue replacing those lines.”

Many Sioux City residents received a letter last November warning that their property could have a water service line or a galvanized service line affected by lead. Puetz says an Environmental Protection Agency mandate issued in October 2024 means those pipes must be replaced by 2037.

An initial estimate indicated there were 7,200 locations in Sioux City where lead lines need to be replaced. But Puetz says that list has been reduced by a few hundred after water utility records were reviewed and lines were found not to contain lead.

It’s the city’s responsibility to make sure the utility’s lead lines are replaced, but City Council Member Julie Schoenherr says the 100 property owners involved in the first wave of replacements will have to sign off on the lead pipe removal.

Homeowners will be approached three times about the replacement. Puetz says it’s not clear what happens if they refuse. Early last year, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird joined a 15-state coalition that sued the Biden administration over the EPA mandate, arguing it may force homeowners to pay to replace their own water lines if they contain lead and connect to a city-owned water utility line.

Angela Major

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Wisconsin Public Radio

As the use of artificial intelligence expands and debate over regulation grows, local officials in the Midwest are looking to manage the risks of the evolving technology.

In July 2022, a cluster of Microsoft data centers training AI consumed about 6% of the West Des Moines monthly water supply. In the absence of state or federal regulations, the local water company addressed the problem.

The amount of water the data centers needed to cool their systems was unsustainable for the utility, and it complicated long-term resource planning, according to Christina Murphy, general manager of West Des Moines Water Works.

“We felt like we needed to have something in place about what our abilities were as a water utility.”

Facing pressure from city officials and the utility, Microsoft committed to zero‑water cooling systems in all new data center facilities in 2024, including in West Des Moines. This cleared the way for the company to move forward with a sixth AI data center in the area.

Researchers and policy analysts say more local action could be coming as state legislation remains uneven and the Trump White House signals a mostly hands-off approach.

Read the full story from the Midwest Newsroom’s Naomi Delkamiller.

Stop at the produce section at your local grocery store and you’ll take a small trip around the world. Bananas from Ecuador and Costa Rica. Tomatoes, avocados and asparagus from Mexico. Bell peppers from Canada.

That wasn’t always the case.

Go back a century, and most of the food eaten in a household came from farms within a few hundred miles of the home. Once temperature-controlled transportation was introduced in the mid-1900s, perishable items were able to travel farther. Then, in recent decades, U.S. consumers expanded their palates as favorable trade agreements led to a spike in imported goods.

Now, even as interest and investment in local food systems grows, the U.S. is on track for the largest agricultural trade deficit in the country’s history.

Experts say that shift is due to a mix of advancements in transportation technology, crop specialization, increased international trade and — perhaps most importantly — consumer desires.

Explore why food in the U.S. travels so far to get here.

Lucia Cheng

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Iowa Public Radio

A Des Moines nonprofit is honoring its founder, who turned a high-crime street into a place for community services.

Former state Rep. Wayne Ford says he founded Urban Dreams on Des Moines’ northside 40 years ago to help people who were down on their luck. Now, the nonprofit is honoring his work with a plaque displayed in its community courtyard.

The organization’s current executive director, Izaah Knox, says it’s incredible to see what Urban Dreams has accomplished over four decades. He sees around 2,000 people come through the door of their food pantry each month.

“The amount of people that, over those many years — decades now — that I've been working [with] in this community, come up to me and say ‘Thank you for what you did for me 10 years ago.’”

To Knox, the 40th anniversary of Ford’s work is a sign of progress in the community. He says Urban Dreams will focus on housing development next.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture canceled a program that provides grants to small farms and food production businesses.

Heartland Regional Food and Business Center serves Nebraska, Iowa and several other Midwestern states. It will give out its first round of grants, but $8.3 million in funding for a second round has been pulled.

Alex McKiernan, a grant recipient in Nebraska, says less funding could stifle new businesses.

“There's a tremendous business opportunity for farms and ranches in this state to get food directly to consumers. And this grant was created to help people do that. So I think there's a missed opportunity to support farmers and ranchers, and also people who eat food.”

The USDA says the program was meant to be a short-term pandemic response with no plans for continued funding.

Read more from Macy Byars at Nebraska Public Media.

Student loan defaults are threatening federal funding for community colleges.

Traditionally, Pell grants and direct loans can be pulled from colleges if too many students fail to pay their loans in a year. But the loan payment pause during the pandemic changes the way this year’s default rate is calculated, and that’s causing a lot of uncertainty.

Community Colleges for Iowa Executive Director Emily Shields says two-year colleges are especially vulnerable to default rate policies.

“If I can’t get Pell by going to your institution, I’m not going to be able to go to your institution. So that’s dire.”

Community colleges typically have higher default rates than four-year institutions. Shields is expecting default rates to increase by 10-20%.

Read more from the Midwest Newsroom.

A fungal disease that can cut corn yields in half in severe cases has been detected in at least 40 counties in Iowa.

Courtesy of Landus

Southern rust creates reddish-orange patches on the tops of corn leaves. This blocks photosynthesis, which weakens the plant and can reduce yields.

Meaghan Anderson, a field agronomist at Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, says southern rust has shown up in Iowa before. But this year, it came much earlier and it’s much more widespread.

“We’ve had so many storm systems and so much wind this summer, that we've had more movement of those spores from the Southern United States up into Iowa. But then we've also had continued activity and hot and humid conditions that it likes that appear to have allowed it to spread further.”

Anderson says farmers should scout beyond the edges of their fields to understand how much southern rust may have spread.

Read the full story.

The leader of the University of Iowa’s new Center for Intellectual Freedom says it will be about academics, not ideology.

The Iowa Board of Regents confirmed economics professor Luciano de Castro as the center’s temporary director. De Castro advocated for the center when the Republican-led plan was moving through the Iowa Legislature. He says the center is necessary to counter other university courses he claims only show capitalism in a bad light.

"The only perspective that the university has on this economic pillar is negative. So, I think that something right there is missing in our offerings, and this center creates the opportunity to offer such kind of course."

Democratic lawmakers criticized the proposal for the school as redundant and ideologically motivated.

De Castro says developing an American history course is a priority, since its required by the new law. He says classes will most likely not be offered this year while faculty are being hired. But he still hopes to hold public events and lectures.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird’s office has reached a settlement in one of the largest fish kills in state history. The agreement calls back to a fertilizer release in western Iowa at a facility owned by NEW Co-op.

In March of last year, over 265,000 gallons of ammonia nitrogen poured from an unattended tank in Red Oak. Most of it reached the East Nishnabotna River, killing fish and other wildlife in a 50 mile stretch from Red Oak to where the Nishnabotna meets the Missouri River.

The Attorney General’s Office says under the settlement, NEW Co-op will pay a $50,000 penalty, plus another $50,000 toward an environmental project with the Montgomery County Conservation Board. The Co-op also agreed to a three year, statewide injunction prohibiting future violations of Iowa’s water quality laws.

A 20-year-old West Liberty man who was deported to Guatemala says immigration officers ignored his requests to fight for his case. His deportation came as a surprise to him and his community in eastern Iowa.

Pascual Pedro was deported in early July after reporting to a routine check-in at an immigration office in Cedar Rapids. There, officers detained him, then deported him the following weekend. Pedro says he didn't think he would be arrested, since he had never missed a check-in and hadn’t committed any crimes.

“I was trying to ask them if I was going to be able to fight for my case or see a judge, or something like that. But they just kept ignoring me and ignoring me and they just told me there’s nothing to do about it.”

Pedro says he was transported between detention centers in Iowa, Nebraska and Louisiana, before he was flown to Guatemala — where he’s now staying with his mother.

Read the full story.

New students from the six states bordering Iowa can pay in-state tuition at the University of Northern Iowa starting this coming school year. The decision was approved by the Iowa Board of Regents Wednesday.

The new rate is a little over $12,000 cheaper than normal out-of-state tuition costs. The discount will also apply to new transfer students from the nearby states — Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin — but not to returning students.

The university’s president estimates the first few years of the new rates will cost the college around $1.5 million per year. UNI will use money from its foundation to fill the gap, after the governor vetoed funding for it. In a letter, Gov. Kim Reynolds said she supported the program, but disagreed with how the funding would have been issued.

The university hopes to receive state money to offset the cost in future years.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird says she’s investigating the University of Iowa for possibly violating a state law restricting diversity, equity and inclusion offices and programs.

State law prohibits public universities from having DEI offices or staff. In a video posted by Fox News, a University of Iowa employee appears to describe how the university is allegedly finding ways around those restrictions.

“On behalf of my office, we’re still gonna talk about DEI, we’re still gonna do all the DEI things,” the university employee said.

Fox News describes the video as “undercover." In the video, the employee doesn’t appear to know that they’re being recorded. It’s not clear who shot the video, and it’s edited to remove parts of the conversation.

Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds filed a complaint with the attorney general based on that video. State law says the AG can ask a court to order the university to comply with DEI restrictions.

University of Iowa President Barbara Wilson says she has also launched an investigation. If it finds that laws were violated, she says the university will take corrective action.

Read the full story.

Hundreds of workers at a meatpacking plant in eastern Iowa are facing possible deportation and have a limited window to prove they’re eligible to keep working.

The immigrant workers — from Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela — work at the JBS pork processing plant in Ottumwa. The recently had their work visa revoked by the Trump administration.

Brian Ulin, a packing house director for the local chapter of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, says JBS is giving the workers 90 days to reinstate their work statuses. But the government could still deport them.

“These guys proudly and willingly went into those plants during COVID to make sure that the food supply was still intact and we can all have something to eat at the grocery stores. And now, all of a sudden, if that’s gone, then they’re not important and we got to kick them out? That’s not right.”

Ulin says JBS management told him the company is not offering employees money to self-deport, despite circulating rumors.

A spokesperson at JBS says the company is following federal guidelines and is only informing employees it is aware of their changes in status. If the employees cannot present evidence allowing them to continue working, the company will be forced to fire them.

Sheila Brummer

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Iowa Public Radio

A multimillion-dollar lawsuit has been filed by the company that built the Woodbury County Law Enforcement Center (LEC). The jail went over budget and faced several construction issues before it opened last October.

Hausmann Construction, based in Lincoln, Nebraska, is suing Woodbury County, the local board that oversees the project, along with the consultant group, the architecture firm and the engineering firm involved in the project.

Hausmann Construction claims that design issues and omissions delayed its work, and the company was unfairly blamed. In a federal lawsuit filed this week, the company says Woodbury County still owes it more than $5.7 million in unpaid work.

The board and county say they will vigorously defend against the lawsuit, but they want to resolve the issue without litigation.

This month, Woodbury County and the board sent a demand letter to the companies that helped build the LEC, including Hausmann. It claimed the companies cost the project an extra $7 million.

Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley says he’s closely following reports that as many as 220 workers at the JBS meatpacking plant in Ottumwa are being told to leave the country as their work visas are being revoked.

Grassley calls the actions “very significant” for the southeast Iowa city and knows it will create waves of uncertainty there and elsewhere.

“From reports, it sounds like these workers were staying in the United States through a program called Temporary Protective Status. It’s obvious by its name this program was meant to be temporary, and the Department of Homeland Security is responsible for designating and terminating Temporary Protective Status.”

Reports say the workers are from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. Grassley, a Republican, says he understands the impact this type of decision has on rural communities and on Iowa livestock producers.

“President Trump wants farmers to succeed, and Congress is working with the administration to provide farmers with as much certainty as possible. But obviously, you have less certainty when these deportations take place, as legal as it might be.”

Instead of pulling hundreds of workers from Iowa factories, Grassley says he’d rather see Immigration and Customs Enforcements focus the spotlight elsewhere.

“I hope that we’re giving primary consideration to the deportation of people that are on the terrorist watch list or people that are human traffickers or people that are criminals, and I doubt we’ve got them all rounded up yet at this point. So I would encourage emphasis upon that.”

Experts now say the powerful storm that rolled over Iowa Monday night and into Tuesday was a derecho. A derecho is an exceptionally long-lasting and damaging windstorm, which some call a land hurricane.

Winds in the storm topped off in northwest Iowa at 99 mph, causing damage that several communities estimate will take weeks to clean up.

National Weather Service Meteorologist Alexis Jimenez says derechos are always designated after the fact.

“The intensity of seeing 70-plus mile an hour winds for a very long span — at that point, it was hundreds of miles — plus seeing the significant damage that we saw, those all go into factoring if that was a derecho or not.”

Iowa was walloped with more powerful storms Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning, marking the third straight night of severe weather.

New data confirms Iowa has one of the highest rates of young and educated adults leaving the state after college. The report from the Common Sense Institute Iowa shows that Iowa has the fourth highest level of outmigration of all 50 states when adjusted for population.

Ben Murrey, director of policy and research at the Common Sense Institute and co-author of the report, says born-and-raised Iowans have some of the highest average incomes in the country, but often choose to work elsewhere.

“That has implications for Iowa’s economy, right? It means we’re investing in human capital — and what turns out to be very valuable human capital — but Iowa is not getting the return on that investment. Some other state is getting the return on that investment.”

State and local governments are estimated to lose nearly $400,000 in tax revenue for each person who leaves over the course of their working life.

The report also found the total cost to educate a single Iowan from 2006 to 2022 was over $250,000, with most of that spent during college.

Iowa will hit peak season for West Nile virus in a few weeks, and recent rainfall could mean a bumper crop of mosquitoes that carry it.

Ryan Smith, a professor of entomology at Iowa State University, says people heading outside should consider using mosquito repellant that contains DEET and getting rid of standing water on their property, where mosquito larvae might be growing.

Smith says unlike other states, Iowa does not have coordinated mosquito control districts. This spring, Des Moines suspended mosquito spraying, testing and monitoring because of budget constraints.

The annual Iowa sales tax holiday starts this Friday and goes through Saturday.

Iowa Department of Revenue spokesman John Fuller says the idea is to give Iowans a sales tax break for a couple days right before the start of the school year.

“There’s no sales tax on articles of clothing or footwear that are less than $100 … Watches and jewelry and umbrellas and rollerblades.”

To find out exactly what qualifies for the tax exemption, visit the Department of Revenue’s website.

Iowa’s sales tax holiday is always the first Friday and Saturday of August.

A federal program that investigates instances of abuse against patients with mental illness could cut states' funding by more than half. It’s part of a wave of potential funding cuts in Trump’s 2026 budget proposal.

The program is called the Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness (PAIMI). Trump’s budget proposals call for cutting its national budget from $40 million in 2024 to about $14 million next year.

PAIMI monitors public and private psychiatric institutions, as well as hospitals or nursing facilities, for abuse, punishment or seclusion.

Melissa Keyes, executive director of Indiana Disability Rights, the state’s designated PAIMI organization, says the funding reductions will make it harder to help vulnerable patients and investigate alleged instances of abuse at facilities in the state.

"We just won't — given all that we are tasked with doing — we would not be able to make the budget work for that program."

Trump’s budget proposals will ultimately require Congressional approval.

Read more from Side Effects Public Media.

Madeleine Charis King

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Iowa Public Radio

The Trump administration announced the U.S. will withdraw from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). But Iowa City will keep its designation as a UNESCO City of Literature.

In 2008, Iowa City was the first place in the U.S. designated as a City of Literature. Then in 2011, President Barack Obama cut funding for UNESCO. The U.S. left the organization in 2017, during President Donald Trump’s first term, and then President Joe Biden reversed that decision in 2023.

John Kenyon, executive director of a nonprofit that manages Iowa City's UNESCO designation, says through it all, Iowa City’s status as a City of Literature remained unchanged.

“Obviously, there were negative repercussions of our country not being a member of UNESCO. But in terms of the designation and our status, nothing changed there. My hope is that that's the same this time, and I have no reason to believe it won't be.”

The U.S. will remain a full UNESCO member until the end of 2026.

Read more.

Photo courtesy of the Storm Lake Police Department

Cleanup continues for parts of northwest Iowa after strong thunderstorms caused extensive damage to trees and power lines Monday night. Some of the hardest hit communities are in Sioux, O’Brien and Buena Vista counties.

The city administrator in Sioux Center says 99 mph winds caused widespread damage to trees and a few roofs. The city clerk in Alton, southeast of Sioux Center, says there are trees everywhere, and the local co-op lost a grain bin.

O’Brien County emergency management says trees are down throughout the county.

In Storm Lake crews will be hard at work for at least the rest of the week cleaning up damage from yet another storm. There was some roof damage reported at King’s Pointe Resort, located on the lakeshore.

MidAmerican Energy reports that more than 2,300 customers in Storm Lake are without power as of Tuesday morning. There was more than double that amount without power overnight.

Over 80 FedEx employees will be let go from facilities in eastern Iowa. The company says it's transforming how it delivers packages.

FedEx says employees at some of its facilities in Dubuque and Cedar Rapids will be impacted by the rollout of a new program designed to make deliveries more efficient. In Dubuque, 27 workers will be let go from a facility that will be shut down. One Cedar Rapids facility will be reorganized, with 57 people laid off.

FedEx is launching a new program that is expected to streamline pickups and deliveries by using just one van per neighborhood.

The company says employees at both locations were made aware of the layoffs several months ago, and many have been offered different roles. It's unclear when the layoffs will go into effect, although FedEx says it will issue an official layoff notice this week.

Officials at the Eastern Iowa Airport are concerned about a proposed gas-fired power plant that could be built nearby.

Alliant Energy approached airport officials in mid-June with plans for two turbines that run on natural gas — both of which could be up to 250 feet tall. Officials say they are concerned about the height of the turbines, as well as the plumes creating visibility and turbulence issues.

Airport Director Marty Lenss says the turbines would intrude on critical airspace for the airport that needs to be protected.

“Could the plumes interrupt an approach to runway such that a pilot could not see the runway, would not be able to land and would have to divert to an alternative airport? Yes, that’s a very real possibility, and it happens today because of plumes that impact the airport.”

In a statement, Alliant said it’s in the early stages of its site selection process. The company is continuing its work with officials from Fairfax and Cedar Rapids to determine if the facility would be compatible with airport operations.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act extends tax cuts and increases safety nets for farmers who grow commodities, like corn. But deep cuts to federal food assistance spending could hurt specialty growers who benefit from programs, like Double Up Food Bucks.

Double Up Food Bucks, which is in more than 25 states, provides a 1-to-1 match for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants to buy more fruits and vegetables at farmers’ markets or grocery stores. The new law slashes nearly $186 billion from SNAP and adds more work requirements for those participating.

Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Economist Chad Hart says that will impact farmers who sell produce locally.

“With food assistance basically under the chopping block here, that means less support for them in the long run.”

Hart says specialty farmers often rely more on government support for market access, whereas commodity farmers tend to rely more on direct payments when times get tough. 

Read the full story.

Legal protections for Haitian refugees in Iowa end in August, which is causing some to lose their jobs and possibly their homes.

Haitian refugees won’t have authorization to work in the U.S. when their protected status ends, meaning employers cannot legally hire people without work authorization.

Volunteers in Des Moines say some people could be homeless within weeks because without jobs, they won’t be able to afford rent.

Erin Bell, a volunteer and board member for the nonprofit Des Moines Refugee Support, says that refugees she helps messaged her weeks ago, begging for help finding employment.

“One, for example, worked at HyVee and was let go. They won't rehire him, and it has to do with the immigration status and paperwork.”

Immigration lawyer James Benzoni says the federal administration is making it harder for refugees to stay in the U.S., causing some to voluntarily leave.

Massive reductions in Medicaid spending under President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” has health care leaders worried that rural hospitals will cut vital services or close altogether.

The bill makes several changes to key programs hospitals use to close the gap between the cost of care and what Medicaid actually covers. Rich Rasmussen, CEO of the Oklahoma Hospital Association, says those changes could hit rural areas especially hard.

"That will dramatically change the financial stability in our state, and for that matter, every state, because you have to understand that Medicaid doesn’t cover costs. That’s the bottom line here.”

In the Midwest and Great Plains, Oklahoma and Kansas have the most rural hospitals at risk. And if access to health care continues to decrease, Rasmussen says he worries people will leave rural communities.

Read the full story from Harvest Public Media.

Graphic by Nicole Baxter

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Iowa Public Radio

This week marks one year since Iowa’s law banning abortion as early as six weeks of pregnancy went into effect. During that time, the law has had drastic effects on Iowa’s abortion numbers.

The law bans abortion when cardiac activity is detected, but has exceptions for rape, incest, life of the pregnant person and fetal abnormalities.

Planned Parenthood North Central States reports its abortions in Iowa fell 74% after the law went into effect, while Iowans who traveled to Minnesota and Nebraska clinics increased 182%.

“What we are continuing to see in this environment are just the number of people who are being forced to travel outside of the state in order to get access to care,” said Ruth Richardson, president of Planned Parenthood North Central States.

Abortion rights opponents are celebrating the drop in abortions and say more needs to be done to encourage Iowans not to seek out-of-state care.

Read the full story.

Plans are being unveiled that may mean faster delivery of packages for online shoppers in north-central Iowa.

Officials with Amazon announced last week that the online retail giant has purchased property in Fort Dodge, with plans to build a delivery station. There was no information as to when the delivery station will be built or how many people will be employed there.

The Amazon facility is to be built in Fort Dodge’s Decker Development Park, which is also home to MidAmerican Energy, FORCE America and Moeller Furnace and Air.

One of the Democrats running for the U.S. Senate says the Save Our Bacon Act being touted by Iowa’s governor and Iowa Republicans in Congress doesn’t address the real dilemma Iowa’s hog farmers face.

The bill seeks to nullify rules requiring that pork sold in California come from hogs raised in pens large enough to allow pigs to move around. Rep. J.D. Scholten, D-Sioux City, said lawmakers should really be addressing corporate consolidation in the livestock industry.

“You know, 67% of the hog industry is owned by just a handful of companies. Yet they want to blame a California bill for all their problems when the reality is these huge corporations have squeezed our farmers in the last few decades.”

Scholten said the Save Our Bacon Act is “window dressing,” and Republicans for years have done nothing to protect independent hog farmers who can’t compete in a monopolized marketplace. He said if Republicans really wanted to help farmers and consumers, they would do something about corporate meatpackers that are gouging consumers.

Scholten is campaigning for the Democratic Party’s 2026 nomination for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Republican Sen. Joni Ernst.

Scattered damage to trees and power lines was reported across northern and central Iowa after thunderstorms Sunday night and early Monday morning, some of which packed strong winds.

National Weather Service Meteorologist Brooke Hagenhoff says those winds are to blame. She says around midnight, gusts reached 60-70 mph.

MidAmerican Energy reports the power was out to some 30,000 homes statewide at the peak of the storm.

No injuries were reported.

Iowa is close to being drought free. The U.S. Drought Monitor map shows that only about 4% of the state remains under drought conditions.

Most of Wapello County still has moderate drought, with some areas across the county line into Monroe and Davis counties in south-central Iowa. There’s also some abnormally dry conditions in those counties.

A sliver of moderate drought is hanging on in southwest Iowa along the western edge of Mills County. There are some abnormally dry conditions in nearby Freemont and Page counties.

The year started with 94% of the state in some type of drought condition.

Iowa State University researcher Todd Kingston is using a special tool called the accelerating rate calorimeter (ARC) to test the limits of lithium-ion batteries.

The device is able to safely complete various types of electrochemical, thermal, mechanical and electrical abuse testing.

Kingston purchased the ARC with a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Office of Naval Research. He says it can be used to push the batteries beyond their charging limits or submit them to mechanical abuse.

Kingston wants to learn how to prevent issues with the batteries while improving safety and performance.

Waste haulers say lithium-ion batteries have increasingly caused problems with fires in garbage trucks and landfills, and are encouraging people to recycle them. Kingston says his research could also help in the recycling process.

He says a range of batteries used for various applications are being tested, including batteries in electric vehicles.

Hospital leaders across the Midwest say provisions in former President Donald Trump’s budget and tax law are putting rural health care on an unsustainable path.

Medicaid work requirements and changes to how states fund their Medicaid programs could lead to deep cuts, risking hospital closures and reduced services in underserved areas.

More than 700 rural hospitals nationwide — including over 200 in the Midwest — are at risk of closure, according to a recent report.

Leaders like David Dunkle, CEO of Johnson Memorial Health in Franklin, In., warn that fewer people on Medicaid means more unpaid care for hospitals already operating on thin margins.

Hospitals that rely heavily on Medicaid are especially vulnerable. At Good Samaritan Hospital in Vincennes, In., over half of all births are covered by Medicaid.

Without adequate reimbursement, services like maternity care may disappear entirely, forcing patients to travel hours for basic care.

Reductions in provider taxes — a system that currently allows states to draw more federal Medicaid funds — are also a major concern. Indiana hospitals say these changes will cost the state billions over the next decade.

Hospital leaders hope that as implementation approaches, lawmakers will reconsider.

Read more from Side Effects Public Media.

As climate change alters weather patterns, scientists are rethinking how to define drought.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is leading a study to develop a new framework for assessing drought in a changing climate, acknowledging that “normal” conditions are no longer static.

Experts like Missouri State Climatologist Zack Leasor and Joel Lisonbee, a senior scientist at the University of Colorado’s Cooperative Institute for Research in the Environmental Sciences, say what qualifies as “drought” depends on context. Droughts are often defined as conditions that are “drier than normal” — but the baseline for “normal” keeps shifting.

Drought designations have real financial consequences, especially for farmers. Federal drought relief programs, like the Livestock Forage Protection Program, tie payments directly to drought severity as determined by the U.S. Drought Monitor.

The National Academies’ study is still in its early stages, but its outcome could influence how climate experts, policymakers and local communities understand and respond to drought in the decades ahead.

Read the full story from Harvest Public Media.

The University of Iowa is creating a new Office of Writing and Communication designed to unify the university’s already robust writing programs, including the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the Magid Center for Writing.

Some of the office's goals are to provide more opportunities for student professional development and better messaging to prospective students.

The office will begin its coordinating efforts in the 2025-2026 school year. It will first focus on campus engagement and strategic planning.

The Le Mars Community School District will stop letting religious groups hold events on school grounds. The move was prompted by a letter from the Freedom from Religion Foundation, which promotes the separation of church and state, after the nonprofit learned about a National Day of Prayer event held outside the middle and high school.

The foundation’s attorney, Sammi Lawrence, says the event violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment.                      

“Public schools just aren’t supposed to favor religion and they’re not really supposed to encourage students one way or the other when it comes to things like prayer or what they believe.”

The district said it informed the ministry that held the event that it could no longer lead prayer activities with students on school property, as first reported by the Iowa Capital Dispatch. It also said they will make sure prayer events on school grounds are student-led.

Over 40 unpermitted wells pumping 1.7 million gallons of water a day have been discovered at the construction site of a new data center in Cedar Rapids.

State and county investigations revealed contractor Elder Corporation’s plans for 75 unper mitted wells at the site where Quality Technology Services is building a $750 million data center.

The water is being pumped temporarily to allow for the construction of a new data center at the site, but Elder Corporation had not registered that water use with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. The company says they do not connect to the aquifer used by the city.

Iowa DNR says it is still investigating, and staff are engaging with the contractor. A spokesperson from Linn County Public Health says the company will be issued a notice of violation with a possible monetary penalty.

Consumers might be feeling sticker shock when buying beef these days.

Nationally, the price of ground beef has surpassed $6 per pound, the highest it’s been since data collection began in the 1980s. The price of steak is up over 12% compared to the same time last year.

Iowa Cattlemen’s Association CEO Bryan Whaley says one reason beef prices are so high is the ban on cattle imports from Mexico, which was put in place to prevent the spread of the parasitic New World Screwworm.

“We don't have some feeder cattle coming across the Mexico border right now that sometimes are shipped up north and fed in the United States here, so that limits the supply of feeder cattle as well.”

He says consumers can expect beef prices to remain at or near record highs through 2026.

The USDA has begun a phased reopening of cattle imports from Mexico. The U.S. cattle herd is the smallest it’s been in decades, and Whaley says it will take at least a couple of years before we see numbers start to rebound.

The City of Ames is the first community in Iowa to gain the national “Charging Smart” designation for accelerating the use of electric vehicles.

It comes from the Energy Ready program, which is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Local governments that meet certain criteria to make their community EV-friendly can earn bronze, silver or gold designations.

Ames received silver. It’s installed 11 electric charging stations and plans to add more. The city is also shifting its municipal vehicles to electric and offers a rebate for installing charging stations at home.

A state program that allows libraries to borrow books from one another is on pause until August.

After the pause, the State Library of Iowa is scaling back deliveries and pickups of interlibrary loans from twice a week to once a week, citing rising costs.

Federal money for the program is currently in limbo. The state service for transporting materials to and from libraries is supported by a federal grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which President Donald Trump had proposed eliminating earlier this year. 

Shenandoah Public Library Director Carrie Falk says her library has received over 400 books and sent out more than 500.                              

“It's just going to slow some stuff down, and we're all going to have to learn to have a little bit more patience than we want to have, and it's going to take a little bit longer to get things, but I don't see that it would change a lot other than the time, the length of time it's going to take to get stuff in.”

After the pause, books will be delivered through a partnership with Iowa’s Area Education Agencies. AEAs will start fulfilling deliveries starting Aug. 4.

Ryan Rhodes, the founder of the Tea Party of Iowa, has announced his candidacy for the 4th Congressional District. He's running as a Republican.

 “We can be strong on protecting rural Iowa, strong on agriculture and also have the ability to still get out there and fight and lead on the cultural issues.”

Rhodes says he’s a strong MAGA supporter who wants to fix what he calls a “broken immigration system” and to fight liberals in Washington, D.C.

There are now four Republicans running for Iowa’s 4th Congressional District, which covers northwest Iowa and includes Council Bluffs, Sioux City and Ames. The other GOP contenders include Chris McGowan of the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce, Iowa House Majority Leader Matt Windschitl and farmer Kyle Larsen of Humboldt.

Rep. Randy Feenstra, who has been in office for three terms, is pursuing a run for Iowa governor next year.

A baby born at a University of Iowa Health Care hospital now holds the world record for the most premature baby, and is doing much better than expected.

Until Nash Keen, no baby had ever survived being born at just 21 weeks. It was so early that most hospitals couldn’t even deliver him.

But doctors at the University of Iowa were able to support him using advanced ultrasound technology to measure his blood supply in certain areas.

Nash’s mother, Mollie Keen, said his family held on to hope.

“That was kind of what we did for the first month until Nash started to show us that he was really fighting.”

Director of Neonatology Patrick McNamara says Keen’s survival opens a new frontier in his field.

“Nash is resilient. What we have learned, and not just necessarily with Nash, is that survival is possible at 21 weeks’ gestation, but not just survival — meaningful survival.”

Now 1 year old, Nash holds the title of Guinness World Record’s most premature baby. The previous record was 21 weeks and one day.

Read more.

Iowa State University’s long-running art rental program is coming to a close.

The annual program launched in the mid-1970s and has allowed hundreds of students, faculty, staff and even local residents to rent artwork from the university’s Memorial Union for a fraction of their original cost.

But Memorial Union Arts Coordinator Letitia Kenemer says demand for the program has fallen.

“It was no longer actually making any income, and the rentals had gone down, and so we tried some different things, but it just hasn't been as robust as it used to be.”

More than 200 framed prints and posters from the collection will be available for purchase at ISU Surplus during the first week of August, with prices starting at just $10.

Two satellites built by researchers at the University of Iowa were launched into orbit Wednesday.

The university partnered with NASA and SpaceX to help researchers answer questions about how solar wind impacts the Earth’s magnetic field. The university received $115 million from NASA for the TRACERS mission. The satellites were carried into low-Earth orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Over the next few weeks, UI researchers will slowly begin turning on the satellite's sensors and start collecting data.

A new $300 million facility in Eddyville has begun producing a corn-based chemical that will be used to make consumer goods.

The chemical, named QIRA, is an alternative to chemicals made from fossil fuels that are used to make spandex fibers as well as rigid and flexible plastics. It’s produced at Qore, a joint venture of Minnesota-based Cargill and a German chemical company called HELM AG projects.

The company projects that the chemical will be used in automotive, electronics, packaging and beauty industries, as well as in fashion.

QIRA is made from dent corn — a type of field corn that has a high soft starch content — and CEO Jon Veldhouse says the company is buying it from farmers within a 100-mile radius of the Eddyville facility.

“We hope this technology and technologies like this continues to drive demand for U.S. corn and create new markets.”

The company plans to export QIRA to other countries and compete against fossil fuels.

Production of QIRA began Tuesday. Consumer goods made from the chemical are expected to be made available in the spring of 2026.

About half a dozen citizens in northwest Iowa voiced their opposition to a proposal that could draw nuclear energy to the area. 

On Tuesday, the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors held its first of three public hearings about proposed zoning changes.

Victoria Kitcheyan, who chairs the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, says nuclear power is too risky.

“This is a huge public health concern, and I think that if the county board of supervisors passes these regulations, it's an invitation.”

Sioux City resident Rita Iversen said the area should look toward solar and wind energy instead.

“You have varieties of ways that you can generate electricity. This seems like going backwards instead of forwards.”

County officials say they don’t have a specific plan in the works, but they believe more power is needed to attract businesses. The chairman of the board of supervisors says a major company decided to pass on coming to the county because there wasn’t enough power.

The federal government would have to approve any nuclear project.

They also worry about MidAmerican Energy shutting down two area coal plants. A spokesperson says the company expects to retire its remaining coal-fired units by 2049.

Supervisors approved the first reading of the ordinance that includes some restrictions. Two more hearings will take place July 29. and Aug. 5.

State health officials have confirmed the eighth case of measles in the state.

The individual is a vaccinated adult in western Iowa who had no known link to any previous measles cases in the state and had not recently traveled outside Iowa.

The state confirmed its first case of measles since 2019 in May.

It comes as the country is experiencing an outbreak of the highly contagious virus. The Centers for Disease Control has confirmed more than 1,300 cases nationwide.

Health officials are urging Iowans to make sure they are up to date on their MMR vaccination, which is 97% effective against the virus.

Courtesy of Clint Twedt-Ball for Congress

Eastern Iowa pastor Clint Twedt-Bal has become one of two Democrats in the running for the seat currently held by Republican Ashley Hinson.

Twedt-Ball lives in Cedar Rapids, where he co-founded the housing and food service nonprofit Matthew 25 nearly two decades ago.

He says his experience leading the organization has given him both a firsthand understanding of the affordability issues that northeastern Iowans face and the tools to be able to solve them.

“I built housing, I understand housing and I know what it takes to make it more affordable. And then, I’ve also run a nonprofit grocery store, right? So I understand how grocery prices can get out of control.”

Twedt-Ball says he also hopes to revitalize Iowa’s small towns by supporting rural hospitals and to protect Medicare and Social Security for seniors.

Read the full story.

The Iowa Board of Regents is postponing consideration of a policy to stop requiring students to take courses related to diversity, equity, and inclusion or critical race theory.

The policy was set to come up at a meeting next week, but the board is tabling the discussion after hearing from a wide variety of constituents.

Students from Iowa's public universities protested the policy at the board’s meeting in June. Regents President Sherry Bates says the board heard their concerns and will continue to review the feedback before deciding on a future date to reconsider the policy.

Sen. Chuck Grassley says the FBI failed to fully investigate Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified information during her time as Secretary of State.

Clinton’s emails were the subject of a years-long FBI investigation. In 2018, the Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General released a report finding no evidence of political bias in the decision not to prosecute her.

Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, called on Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier this month to declassify documents related to the bureau’s investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server. He says investigating misuse of power will ensure transparency in the government.

“You could say after 10 years, what's the use? The use is to let people know what the government has done through political weaponization of various branches of government, in this case, DOJ and FBI, and make sure it doesn't happen again.”

On a call with reporters, Grassley was asked if he supports prosecuting Clinton or former FBI Director James Comey. Grassley says all he can do is make the committee’s report public, and “by inference,” expect AG Bondi or current FBI Director Kash Patel to “do something about it.”

Sheila Brummer

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Iowa Public Radio

A northwest Iowan is playing catch for 24 hours to help people with disabilities take part in sports and recreation.

Kevin Negaard is the founder of the Miracle League in Sioux City. The league includes a playground, splash pad and rubber-surfaced baseball field at Riverside Park.

He decided to throw and catch for one whole day to celebrate the 10^th anniversary of the organization and to raise money to resurface the all-inclusive play area. Negaard started his quest Monday afternoon at 2 p.m. and hopes to raise $50,000 to help refurbish the Miracle League sports complex.

A couple of years ago, Negaard also spent a year playing catch with 2,300 people in five different countries and raised more than $370,000 for the Miracle League.

Sheila Brummer

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Iowa Public Radio

Also joining Negaard is two-time World Series Champion Scott Spiezio, who was an infielder for the Anaheim Angels and St. Louis Cardinals. Negaard met Spiezio earlier this summer at a Miracle League game in Cooperstown, New York.

Negaard was featured in a recent IPR News story about three Tanzania students who now live and go to college in Sioux City. He was one of three Iowans credited with saving the students’ lives when their bus crashed in Tanzania. Negaard was on his way to a safari when his group came upon the accident scene.

Read more.

Forecasters say Iowa is in for a string of excessively hot, humid, muggy days.

National Weather Service meteorologist Alexis Jimenez says most of the state will be cooking Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday and likely daily into the weekend.

“We’ll see highs probably in the low 90s, but the bigger story will be how hot it will feel because of that humidity.”

The combined heat and humidity are expected to feel like it’s at least 105 degrees in many Iowa communities during the afternoons. In some places, it’ll feel even hotter.

“Portions of southeast Iowa especially will not only be hot during the day, but even overnight their lows probably won’t get much lower than 75 degrees.”

Tuesday’s leg of RAGBRAI is the longest on the route, at nearly 74 miles from Estherville to Forest City. State softball and baseball tournaments are also underway.

The Eastern Iowa Airport is launching an Aviation Workforce Development Campus, which is designed to help combat a growing shortage of pilots and airplane technicians.

The airport is partnering with Coe College and Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids to provide students with pilot and technician training.

Joe Greathouse, the dean of Industrial Technology at Kirkwood Community College, says the program will help build more robust relationships with area partners in the industry.

“What I would expect is the interest from the industry will continue to grow, and of course, that’s going to translate to additional opportunities for our students.”

The campus consists of two repurposed hangars, a classroom and a laboratory space.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics says demand for aviation technicians is increasing 5% annually, with more than 13,000 vacancies through 2031.

One of three public hearings will take place in Sioux City Tuesday afternoon to possibly change Woodbury County’s zoning code to permit nuclear power.

Woodbury County Supervisor Mark Nelson says a small water nuclear reactor would help provide enough energy for a major employer, including a data center.

“We want to grow, and if there's infrastructure, things that we need to do to entice people to come here, we want to do that.”

Nelson says there isn’t a specific project in the works, and if one were to happen, it would take a minimum of 10 years to complete.

MidAmerican Energy has not proposed plans for a nuclear generating facility in Woodbury County and released a statement saying it is "studying the best ways to serve growing energy demand."

MidAmerican Energy currently operates two coal plants in Woodbury County, which environmental groups say cause higher rates of asthma and other health issues. MidAmerican states that it currently anticipates retiring its remaining coal-fired units by 2049.

Lucius Pham

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Iowa Public Radio

Iowa GOP Chairman Jeff Kaufmann says Iowa Democrats should have “stood up” to the national party when they were stripped of their “first-in-the-nation” caucus status.

The Democratic National Committee revoked the Iowa party’s coveted position two years ago.

Last month, Iowa Democrats faced another setback after losing a seat on the committee overseeing the presidential nominating calendar.

Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart called the loss “disappointing."

During an interview with IPR on June 23, Kaufmann said Iowa parties stand to lose more than just credibility when they lose their early status.

“You also lose the ability to be the first, if you're Democrat, the first progressive voice in the ear of your potential Democratic nominee. It's just bad politics, bad policy and bad for our state that the Iowa Democrats have let it go.”

Kaufmann says the state’s voting record disproves that Iowa is too white to hold its “first-in-the-nation” status, pointing to Barack Obama’s election and the strong showing of Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio in 2016’s Republican caucus.

Hart says the state party is focused on improving how caucuses are done so they’re more accessible. The last democratic caucus was done through mail-in ballot.

"What we want to concentrate on — is it going to improve the process? Are more people going to be able to participate? Is it going to be an easier process? ”

Kaufmann and Hart made their comments on IPR’s River to River.