Top Republicans in the Iowa House and Senate plan to address concerns about the potential use of eminent domain for a carbon capture pipeline during the upcoming legislative session.

Last session, 12 Senate Republicans refused to vote on the state budget until they got to vote on a House bill limiting the use of eminent domain for carbon pipelines. After it passed, Gov. Kim Reynolds vetoed the bill.

House Speaker Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford, said he expects House Republicans to work on legislation that’s more narrowly tailored to addressing eminent domain.

“We’re hopeful we can find a level of resolution, but at the same time, know that that eminent domain piece of the conversation is extremely important,” he said.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Klimesh of Spillville said he’s working on a bill to give pipeline companies more flexibility to go around landowners who don’t want a pipeline on their land. He said that kind of legislation could remove the need for eminent domain in Iowa.

Courtesy of Joe Heintz

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Strautman Tree Farm

Many Christmas tree farms in Iowa have had fewer sales this year, largely due to snowstorms and cold temperatures.

The season typically lasts for two to three weeks in late November and early December, with most of the sales happening during the weekend after Thanksgiving.

“It's almost sad because you do all this work for a whole year, and it’s almost all done in less than two weeks,” said Brian Moulds, manager of Wapsie Pines Christmas Tree Farm in Bremer County.

Moulds said sales were higher than normal on Black Friday, but have mostly been below average since then. He estimates the farm’s gross sales are roughly 10% lower this year compared to last year.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. He said lower sales this year will allow more trees to grow, which could boost sales in the next few years. Christmas tree farmers often plan six to seven years out, not just season to season.

Read more.

Iowa Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst are among a bipartisan group of U.S. senators who signed on to a letter last week, urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture to move forward with a plan to combat bird flu.

In February, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced a $1 billion plan to address ongoing outbreaks of the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 virus. The plan included $500 million for enhanced biosecurity and $100 million to put toward developing of a poultry vaccine.

The USDA said recently that a draft proposal for a bird flu strategy is under internal review. But while speaking to reporters Tuesday, Grassley said egg and poultry producers need to know about a vaccine sooner.

“Through the letter, we want to raise our concerns to the secretary of agriculture,” he said. “Take action, one way or the other. If it isn't feasible, tell us. If it is feasible, do it.”

Grassley said producers are also worried about other countries rejecting meat and eggs that would come from vaccinated birds.

Iowa Realtors reported that homes are staying on the market longer and sales prices remain ahead of last year.

Iowa Realtors President Travis Bushaw said data from November showed the median sales price of Iowa homes “seems to have slowed down a bit,” and Iowa has a “strong inventory” of homes on the market.

Homes that were sold in November were on the market for an average of 26 days, which is more than 18% longer than in October.

The median sales price for an Iowa home was nearly $245,000 in November — slightly less than October, but nearly 7% above what Iowa homes were selling for in November of last year.

Just over 2,500 Iowa homes were sold last month.

The Iowa Realtor’s report shows a surge of new listings in November compared to October. However, in the year-to-year comparison, there were 57 more Iowa homes on the market in November this year than there were a year ago.

Republicans in the U.S. House unveiled their plan Monday for lowering health care costs, as enhanced premium tax credits under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are set to expire at the end of the year.

Iowa’s 1st District Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks introduced the bill with House Republican leadership. It does not include an extension of the ACA enhanced premium subsidies, which Democrats are fighting to renew. Miller-Meeks said the subsidies would not address the root causes of rising health care. 

“We want to lower health care costs for everyone, not just a select few, and not to have money continue to go to insurance companies who have no incentive to lower premiums because they’re getting a direct subsidy from the federal government," she said.  

The bill would expand access to Association Health Plans, which allow certain employers to purchase health care coverage together. It also includes provisions for cost-sharing reduction payments and requirements for pharmacy benefit managers to provide detailed information about prescription drug costs. 

Nearly 118,000 Iowans receive enhanced premium tax credits for their health insurance.

The Duane Arnold Energy Center in eastern Iowa is one step closer to reopening in 2029.

The Linn County Planning and Zoning Commission voted unanimously to send NextEra Energy’s rezoning application to the Board of Supervisors. If the application is approved, it would rezone nearly 400 acres of land from agricultural to experimental use to support the nuclear power facility’s reopening.

The Board of Supervisors will review NextEra’s rezoning application as early as Jan. 5. NextEra is also expected to have a Host Community Agreement drafted with local stakeholders by that time. 

Sheila Brummer

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Iowa Public Radio

It’s no secret that people are moving away from rural areas of Iowa.

The exodus toward bigger cities has been growing for decades. Fewer than a quarter of Iowans live in the country. In 1960, it was around 50%. This year, one Iowan took an unusual route to reverse that trend.

Tim Youngquist, along with his wife Mandy and their three children, decided to move back to the area where Tim grew up. At first, the couple struggled to find a decent home. But as luck would have it, they found a beautiful old house with a nearly forgotten family history.

Just before placing a bid on a house up for auction, they discovered that it was built by Tim’s great-great-grandfather more than 100 years ago.

“Either, [it's] some kind of divine intervention or certainly good luck,” Tim said

But there was one problem. The Youngquists wanted to live on the family farm more than 4 miles away. To have the house and the farm, they had to find a way to move the 2,000 square foot home out to the country.

Read more about the historic move and the legacy they hope to preserve.

Bitter cold and a third straight Saturday of heavy snow snarled traffic and fouled many Iowans’ weekend plans.

Due to multiple crashes on Interstate 80 on Saturday, the Iowa Department of Transportation closed roughly 44 miles of the highway in eastern Iowa so the injured could be rescued and debris could be cleared.

More than 40 people were hurt and as many as 25 were taken to hospitals.

A 73-year-old man from Vail was separately reportedly killed in a head-on crash in Crawford County. Reduced visibility due to blowing snow was said to be a key factor.

The Des Moines Police Department reported 33 crashes in just four hours.

While winter doesn’t officially arrive until Dec. 21, Des Moines has already seen 18 inches of snow in the past month. Last season, the area received just over 14 inches all winter.

Fort Dodge leads the state in snowfall with 33 inches so far.

Both the length and intensity of drought can work together to have cumulative, negative effects on grasslands, according to a new global study published in Science.

An international group of scientists ran the same drought study across six continents, including sites in Kansas, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Texas. They imposed extreme drought conditions for four years in a row to find out what these conditions do to a diverse array of grasslands and shrublands.

“With changing climate, particularly atmospheric warming, we're expecting to see more extreme events such as droughts, but those events are likely to be longer in duration,” said Colorado State University Professor Melinda Smith, who co-led the study and worked on multiple sites, including one near Manhattan, Kan.

Smith and her team brought together a network of scientists from around the world to study drought, using a research coordination grant from the National Science Foundation. The International Drought Experiment, as it’s known, was born from that work and involved sites around the world.

Read more from Harvest Public Media’s Kate Grumke.

Courtesy of Tyler for Congress

Tyler Hegewald, a 27-year-old from Amana, is running as a Republican in the 1^st Congressional District. Hegewald, formerly a Democrat, said he’s focused on small government reforms and working-class Iowans.

Hegewald was born and raised in Amana, located just west of Iowa City. He’s currently a server at a local restaurant, but used to run the Prairie Soup Company in Cedar Rapids before it went out of business. 

He said his working-class background gives him a better understanding of how to serve the needs of Iowans. 

“Every single day, I have customers come in, and I ask them about policies and stuff,” he said. “And I listen to the customers and their concerns about how the government is being ran. And you know, that’s something that current politicians don’t do."  

Hegewald said he doesn't consider himself a “MAGA” Republican. His platform promotes fewer government regulations, along with issues that are typically supported by Democrats, such as greater access to reproductive care and legalizing marijuana.

He’s the second Republican, after David Pautsch, to launch a primary challenge to incumbent Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks.  

Read more.

Iowa National Guard

The Iowa National Guard released the names of the two soldiers who were killed in Syria on Saturday.

Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, and Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Grimes, were killed by a lone gunman believed to be associated with ISIS, according to officials.

A U.S. civilian interpreter was also killed in the attack that wounded three other Iowa Guard members. The troops were deployed to the Middle East as part of a counterterrorism mission called Operation Inherent Resolve.

Gov. Kim Reynolds ordered flags to be flown at half-staff in honor of Howard and Torres-Tovar.

Read more.

Courtesy of Jensen for Congress

Douglas Jensen, a Republican from western Iowa, ended his campaign for the U.S. House.

The veteran from Silver City joined the 4^th District primary race in October, saying he wanted to be a problem solver in Congress.

Jensen said his decision to withdraw from the race “comes down to family.” His wife, who is active in the military, will be sent overseas, so he wants to focus on caring for their two children instead of managing a campaign.

Four other Republicans are still running for the House seat that’s currently held by Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra, who’s running for governor.

Iowa homelessness programs that rely heavily on federal grants are once again unsure what funding will look like next year.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released new funding requirements in November that would largely cap grants for permanent housing programs.
A coalition of Democratic-led states challenged the criteria in a federal court. However, right before the hearing was set to take place last week, HUD pulled the guidelines, and the court rescheduled the hearing for Dec. 19.

Courtney Guntly is the executive director of the Iowa Balance of State Continuum of Care, an organization that oversees the distribution of the housing funds in Iowa. She said the push and pull has created uncertainty for some homelessness programs in the state.

“We did pause our local application process … because we don't know when the new Notice of Funding would come out,” she said. “We don't know what potential changes would be in that.”

Guntly said there is concern about a gap in services for programs that will run out of funding before the summer. She said most of last year’s funding will last through December 2026.

Madeleine C King

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Iowa Public Radio

Two Iowa Army National Guard soldiers and a U.S. civilian interpreter were killed in Syria on Saturday in an attack that also injured three other Guard soldiers. 

Maj. Gen. Stephen Osborn, adjutant general of the Iowa National Guard, said the attacker was believed to be “a lone ISIS gunman.”  The soldiers were “conducting a key leader engagement” as part of their counterterrorism mission.

Meskwaki Nation Police Chief Jeffrey Bunn wrote in a social media post that his son, Nate Howard, was one of the soldiers killed in the attack. The National Guard has yet to release the names of the soldiers who were killed, pending approval by the U.S. Army.

Adjutant General Osborn said “the entire Iowa National Guard grieves for this terrible loss,” and their priority is supporting the families of the fallen and wounded soldiers. Osborn said the last time an Iowa National Guard soldier was killed in action was in 2011 in Afghanistan.

Read more.

U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks has changed her voting address back to a property in Ottumwa – which is not in her district. She made the adjustment in July. Federal law does not require members of Congress to live in the district they represent. Her Ottumwa address was incorporated into the 3rd Congressional District when Iowa’s Congressional maps were redrawn after the 2020 census. In a statement, a spokesperson for Miller-Meeks said she changed her address to “be by her husband’s side,” and noted she remains committed to serving Iowa’s 1st Congressional District.

New documents show the Des Moines Police Department uses more automated license plate reader cameras than any other city in Iowa.

The city purchased 130 cameras as part of a five-year contract with Motorola Solutions worth just over $1.5 million.

The city with the next highest number of cameras is Cedar Rapids, with 76.

The cameras operate continuously, capturing a vehicle’s license plate, model and color, and can share that data with other law enforcement agencies. The ACLU of Iowa released a report Thursday showing just how widely the cameras are used in Iowa.

In the southern Great Plains, the Lesser Prairie Chicken was once a common sight, but about 90% of their habitat has been lost. Today there are only around 30,000 Lesser Prairie Chickens found in five states – Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, New Mexico and Colorado.

Kurt Kuklinski with the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation said the bird has been on and off the threatened species list for years, most recently off. He said landowners generally want to help the birds, but the changing rules have made it harder.

“That adds greater confusion and uncertainty to landowners," he said. "And it creates an atmosphere of maybe distrust is the best word.”

In the meantime, wildlife departments in Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas are updating a multi-state plan to conserve the species. Kuklinski says those conservation efforts will largely depend on landowners.

Getting more landowners on board will take education and mentorship, according to Trey Lam, the executive director of the Oklahoma Conservation Commission.

“It's a change in culture. It's a change in how you manage your property,” Lam said. “You do it differently than your father and grandfather did. Maybe you do it a little more like your great-grandfather did. You just don't realize it.”

Lam said voluntary conservation helped other wildlife populations like bald eagles. Now it’s about getting the public behind protecting Lesser Prairie Chickens.

Nitrate levels are still elevated in many Iowa waterways according to Larry Weber, director of the IIHR-Hydroscience and Engineering at the University of Iowa. He runs a system of monitoring stations in watersheds around the state.

While his team has pulled sensors as waterways ice up, many of those still active are showing nitrate levels above the EPA’s limit for drinking water. Weber said there's been a lot of precipitation lately, meaning the water table is up and tile lines are draining into waterways.

While many water utilities have nitrate removal systems, Weber said controlling the problem will be a challenge as conditions become less predictable due to climate change.

“The other piece of this is to try to manage it at the source,” Weber said. “And if we keep putting everything at the plant, then all we are doing is continuing to try to find technology solutions to cure an endemic problem that's spread throughout the watershed.”

Central Iowa Water Works, which serves around 600,000 customers in the Des Moines metro area, switched supply sources last weekend due to elevated nitrate loads in the Raccoon River, but did not activate its nitrate removal system. CIWW imposed a watering ban for eight weeks this past summer because of high nitrate levels in the Raccoon and Des Moines Rivers.

A much smaller settlement has been reached surrounding past violations at the Sioux City Wastewater Treatment Plant.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) sued in 2022, alleging environmental violations going back a decade. Initially, the city faced penalties of more than $6 million. But the new agreement with the Iowa Attorney General’s Office and DNR lowered the amount to $300,000.

Officials said many of the violations happened when two former supervisors manipulated chlorine levels to make it appear the city was meeting federal E. coli standards. The employees later pleaded guilty to criminal charges, and the plant superintendent served three months in prison.

The Sioux City City Council is expected to approve the settlement during a meeting on Dec. 15. The agreement also outlines a schedule for major improvement for Sioux City’s wastewater treatment facility.

Farmers have until Dec. 19 to apply for part of the $12 billion Farmer Bridge Assistance Program announced by the Trump administration earlier this week.

The agriculture industry has been hit by tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump, and retaliatory tariffs from other countries. Gbenga Ajilore, chief economist at the nonprofit Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said the way Trump applied tariffs injected too much uncertainty into the ag sector.

“We can't forecast what's going to happen next year, and we can't even forecast what's going to happen next week,” Ajilore said. “It had pulled tariffs on fertilizer, coffee and beef. But then he threatened a 5% tariff on Mexico. It's just so hard to plan that we don't have assurances that things are going to be better for farmers next year.”

Ajilore called the farmer bailout a “drop in the bucket” compared to what tariffs have cost the agricultural economy, which some economists estimated is around $55 billion.

Madeleine Charis King

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Iowa Public Radio

Former Gov. Terry Branstad received Iowa's highest honor for citizens for his years of public service.
 
Branstad is the longest serving governor in U.S. history, having spent a total of 22 years in office. During his time as governor of Iowa, he led a reorganization of state government and pushed a pro-business agenda.
Later, he served as U.S. ambassador to China and as president of Des Moines University and the World Food Prize.  
At the award ceremony at the State Capitol on Thursday, Branstad thanked his parents, teachers and former constituents. 

“I want to thank you, the people of Iowa,” he said. “You are a wonderful, caring, thoughtful, friendly group of people, and it's an honor to serve.” 

Gov. Kim Reynolds, who served as Branstad’s lieutenant governor from 2010-2017, presented him with the award.

The Iowa Award was established nearly 80 years ago to recognize outstanding service of Iowans in fields like science, government and education. Previous recipients include Norman Borlaug, George Washington Carver and former Gov. Robert Ray.  

State leaders are going into the budgeting process for the next legislative session with about $900 million less coming into the state than they’re spending this year.

Iowa’s revenue forecasting panel estimated that state revenue will increase by 4% next fiscal year. But after major revenue declines due to state and federal tax cuts, that will still leave Iowa in the position of using reserves to cover a likely budget gap.

Kraig Paulsen, director of the Iowa Department of Management and chair of the Revenue Estimating Conference, said the state has saved nearly $6 billion to cover budget gaps. He said the governor and lawmakers should maintain spending discipline.

“That’s what’s got us in this position, this incredibly strong financial position, and just need to maintain that behavior to make sure we can meet the needs of Iowans for the long term.”

Democratic lawmakers criticized Republicans for creating a budget deficit, saying the majority party should focus on responsible budgeting and helping working families.

Iowa’s revenue forecasters said they’re seeing a lot of economic uncertainty, but recent agriculture policy changes could help the state’s economy.

Jennifer Acton, director of the Legislative Services Agency’s fiscal services division, is one of three members in the state’s Revenue Estimating Conference.

“While Iowa continues to face unique challenges in its agriculture and manufacturing sectors, there has been some good news recently,” she said. “China has begun purchasing American soybeans again after a pause, although exports are still not at the level of prior years.”

Acton said soybean and corn prices have also increased since mid-October, and the $12 billion farm aid package announced by the Trump administration could help Iowa’s economy.

She said there are also mixed signals when it comes to consumer spending. Tariffs and inflation are raising costs, and consumer confidence has dipped. But Acton thinks the U.S. could still see record holiday season spending, and sales tax revenue coming into the state has been higher than expected.

A project to replace the Sioux City runway that’s being used by the Iowa Air National Guard’s 185th Refueling Wing is part of the defense spending bill that was approved by the U.S. House on Wednesday.

Iowa’s 4^th District Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra said it will protect over 1,000 jobs at the Sioux Gateway Airport. He called the project one of his top priorities over the past several years.

The runway was built for lightweight F-16 fighter jets. Twenty years ago, the 185th became a Refueling Wing and now flies massive KC-135 Stratotankers that weigh 41.5 tons when fully loaded.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has said it will soon be unsafe for those planes to use that runway. Having experienced first-hand what it was like to land on the runway, Feenstra agrees.

“I was in one of the KC-135s. They took me up in the air, and when you come down, it’s sort of like a sponge,” Feenstra said, “So we knew we had to get it done and the time was running out.”

The FAA set aside $20 million for the project, but that funding would be lost if the Pentagon doesn’t start the project by mid-2027. The estimated cost of replacing the runway — along with other improvements, like adding an aircraft parking apron and holding pads — is nearly $150 million.

The language authorizing the project’s start is included in the $900 billion National Defense Authorization Act. The U.S. Senate is expected to approve the bill soon and send it to the president for his signature.

Iowa’s 2nd District Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson said the money promised by the federal government in tariff repayments to farmers is one piece in a larger package of solutions to help American producers.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced this week that it will distribute $12 billion to farmers impacted by what it called “temporary trade market disruptions.” Hinson said the payments are a good first step. 

“I think it shows that the president, the administration, USDA, is listening to our Iowa farmers,” she said. “And so, again, this is part of a bigger picture. This provides immediate relief and certainty. But we need to lower input costs."  

Many farmers say they have faced high input costs and lost markets overseas because of President Donald Trump’s tariffs. The Supreme Court could issue a ruling as early as this week on the legality of the president’s tariffs. 

Iowa’s largest teachers’ union announced what it calls an Educator Bill of Rights. The group describes it as a list of requirements for upholding the dignity of people working in public education.

It includes the right to bargain for fair compensation and the right to a secure retirement through the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System, known as IPERS. It also includes the right to a safe work environment and access to curriculum that is credible and research based.  

Iowa State Education Association President Joshua Brown said the document outlines the ideas the teachers’ union wants to organize around at the local and state levels.  

“It is about saving public education in Iowa,” he said. “It is about demanding the foundation that needs to stop the exodus and deliver the quality education our heartland values deserve.” 

Brown added that years of underfunding and teacher shortages have left Iowa schools in crisis. According to the state’s website for education jobs, there are more than 600 classroom teacher positions that are currently vacant.  

Madeleine Charis King

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Iowa Public Radio

The results of a vote by UnityPoint Health nurses in Des Moines on whether to form a union are still unclear. 

Over the past three days, 871 UnityPoint nurses voted for the union, while 666 voted against it.

However, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which is leading the unionization effort, is challenging the validity of another 251 ballots that were not included in the final vote count. This means the results of the election will be undetermined until the National Labor Relations Board can review the challenged ballots to see if they should be counted. 

The nurses need a simple majority to form a union. How the National Labor Relations Board rules on the challenged ballots will determine the outcome of the election.

Carly Olney, a critical care nurse in Des Moines, said a lot of nurses are feeling disheartened right now. 

“We can't take the best care of our patients if we are overworked,” she said. “We haven't even eaten lunch all day, and we're working 12, 13 hours a day. We're taking care of way too many patients — far more than what we are able to do.”

A spokesperson for UnityPoint said it doesn’t believe there is any merit to the Teamster’s ballot challenges. 

When bird flu spilled over into dairy cattle last year, researchers discovered high concentrations of the H5N1 virus in the raw milk and udders of infected cows. A new study shows the mammary glands of other livestock — and humans — could be suitable hosts for the virus. 

The authors said their findings show “a potential health risk for farm workers” and consumers of raw milk and cheese from goats and sheep. 

Todd Bell, professor of veterinary pathology at Iowa State University, contributed to the study.  

“Those particular milk products could end up on the shelves of your local grocery store, so we wanted to try to get ahead of it,” he explained.

Bell said more research and widespread testing are needed to understand how the virus spreads across species and through the environment, which could help prevent bird flu from evolving into something more dangerous for people. 

Read more.

Flock Safety

Automated license plate readers (ALPR) have become widespread across the state, according to a report released Wednesday by the ACLU of Iowa. The readers collect a car’s license plate number, make, model and color, and often feed that data into a network of shared databases along with the time and location it was collected.

Researchers at the University of Iowa filed open records requests with 48 law enforcement agencies to learn more about their use of ALPR cameras. Only four granted the researchers access to audit logs of their system.

Pete McRoberts, policy director for the ACLU of Iowa, said the widely varied responses and documents they received from agencies is a telling sign that there is a patchwork of regulations overseeing the technology.

“This issue of the varied responses, even to as something as established as an open records request, is a good example that cities who have engaged in these contracts are either not equipped to deal with the consequences of them or to protect the privacy of their residents, or they’re unwilling to."  

Out of the 48 agencies, 10 said audits of their ALPR systems were confidential, and 23 said they had no audit records. None of the local policies that the researchers reviewed required a warrant to access the data. 

Tuesday’s high wind warning has expired, but strong gusts continue blasting across Iowa.

National Weather Service Meteorologist Brooke Hagenhoff said some winds early Wednesday morning approached 70 mph in central Iowa.

“Des Moines has gusted to 66, and parts of western Iowa, towards Nebraska and South Dakota, have gusted towards 69 miles per hour,” she said.

No serious injuries are reported after multiple semis blew over onto their sides on interstates 35 and 80. Tree limbs falling on power lines caused scattered outages, while many Iowa school districts had two-hour delays.

Hagenhoff said the winds are starting to lessen, but Wednesday’s forecast calls for a wintery mix.

“Parts of northeast Iowa could see a few inches of snow. As we get towards central Iowa, maybe a little bit of a rain/snow mix, perhaps some light ice accumulations with that are possible,” Hagenhoff said. “Anything that does accumulate will be very light.”

Looking ahead to the weekend, Hagenhoff said more snow is possible for wide areas of the state.

“The third consecutive week, we’re forecasting snow on a Saturday for Iowa,” she said. “Thankfully, this round looks fairly light, maybe an inch or two. But very cold, highs in the single digits to teens on Saturday and Sunday.”

The Thanksgiving weekend storm dropped more than 16 inches of snow on some parts of the state.

Four international students at the University of Iowa settled a lawsuit with the Trump administration over a dispute with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The agency terminated their student statuses earlier this year. But now their statuses in the database used to track international students have been reset to “active.” They have also been restored back to the date they were terminated, so there is no gap in the students’ records.

In the settlement, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it will not re-terminate their records based on national crime hotlist data, which DHS said was the initial reason.

Court records state that each of the students will pay their own fees and costs, although it’s not clear how much they will have to pay.  

Republican Wendy Larson will become the newest member of the Iowa House of Representatives after winning a special election in District 7 on Tuesday.

Larson easily beat Democrat Rachel Burns with 70% of the vote. House District 7 includes Calhoun, Pocahontas and Sac counties, as well as part of Webster County.

Larson will fill the seat left empty by former state Rep. Mike Sexton, R-Rockwell City, who was appointed to lead the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development Iowa office.

Larson said she plans to stick up for property owners to stop the use of eminent domain for private gain.

“I love rural Iowa,” Larson said. “I'm so grateful to have this chance to represent them and serve them and make a big difference.”

Unofficial results show more than 4,000 people — 42% of registered voters — cast their ballots in the race.

The West Des Moines Community School District is facing pushback over a proposal to close a building where it offers alternative education services for high schoolers. If it’s approved, the district will relocate services from the Walnut Creek Campus to its existing schools. 

The district said chronic absenteeism worsens when students transfer to Walnut Creek and grades don’t improve, according to a district-wide audit.

Samantha Reid, a parent of three Walnut Creek graduates, said the separate campus provided a safe space for students. 

“Occasionally, they need to issue a shelter in place while the student gets the help they need,” she said. “There is no judgment at Creek. Everyone there understands hard days. What would that look like at Valley? How would that further perpetuate the negative stigma surrounding Creek students?” 

District personnel said moving the services will give kids in alternative education access to more activities and resources.  

The school board will decide whether to close Walnut Creek on Jan. 12. The school serves 191 students and employs 28 staff members.

Republican leaders of Iowa’s public pension review committee said they don’t expect to make big changes to the state’s public pension systems, including the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System (IPERS), anytime soon.

Gov. Kim Reynolds’ Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) committee recommended a study to examine offering public employees the choice between a pension and a defined contribution plan in October. That led to a lot of pushback from public workers and their unions. 

State Sen. Tim Kraayenbrink, R-Fort Dodge, who co-chairs the pension review committee, said the state should study all options, but that doesn’t mean lawmakers will make big changes.

“People are — they kind of have a lot of anxiousness going on for no reason,” he said. “I think everyone here said that, and the governor also said that, really there’s no appetite to make any major changes to IPERS.”

IPERS officials said the system is 92% funded, putting it in the top 10 state-run systems across the country.

An annual survey by Iowa State University shows farmland values are stable, despite concerns about the agricultural economy.

ISU reported that land values are up 0.7% from a year ago, with a statewide average of $11,549 per acre. When accounting for inflation, the value is down about 2%.

Economist Rabail Chandio oversaw the survey, which included input from more than 300 agricultural professionals.

“That is the story for this year,” she said. “There is growth, but there is a lot of disparity in where that's coming from. There's a lot of different things going on within the state.”

Chandio said the middle third of the state saw a decrease in land value because of falling crop prices. Areas of the state that raise more livestock — in the east and west — saw higher values.

O’Brien County in northwest Iowa was the top county, with a value of $16,269 per acre. Coming in at the bottom was Appanoose County at $6,679 per acre.

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on whether President Donald Trump has the authority to levy tariffs under the International Economic Emergency Powers Act. If the justices rule Trump doesn’t have such authority, they could force the U.S. to return billions of dollars in tariff revenue that was already collected.

Sen. Chuck Grassley was asked about such a scenario during a call with reporters Tuesday.

“We've collected these tariffs. Businesses paid for them. Businesses have probably passed them on to the consumer,” Grassley said. “And if you're going to bring justice in the case of a president doing something that the Supreme Court might say he didn't have the authority to do, then how are you going to get that money back to the people that have already been hurt as a result of it?”
 
If the Supreme Court rules against Trump, Grassley said it will most likely offer “prospective relief,” meaning a court order that directs future conduct rather than compensating for past harm.

Applications are still open for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).

Jean Logan, executive director of the Community Action Agency of Siouxland, said the state is working on getting out the new funds for this year after the government shutdown delayed distribution.

“We expected there would be delays in making payments to the vendors, that’s the case,” Logan said. “We should have money out by the end of December, everything takes time.”

Individuals enrolled in the program are covered by the shut off moratorium, so utility companies can’t turn off their heat due to unpaid bills during the winter. However, Logan said the program will not pay the individual’s entire heating bill. 

“LIHEAP, or energy assistance, is really intended to pay partially what you would need for your utility payments over the winter months,” she said. “And while it’s nice to have the moratorium, we do encourage people to go ahead and make regular payments.”

Assistance is based on income, household size and other factors. Iowans can sign up for LIHEAP through their local community action agency. Logan advised Iowans to check if online signup options are available, as that often takes less time.

A former psychology instructor is suing Western Iowa Tech Community College for alleged discrimination in its handling of her complaint that she was being stalked by a student.

Mariana Pacheco, who describes herself in court papers as a young, Hispanic academic from Costa Rica, is suing WITCC in Woodbury County District Court.

The lawsuit alleges that in 2022, when Pacheco was teaching a beginning-level course in psychology at the Sioux City college, a student, identified in court filings by the initials M.U., exhibited “odd behavior” toward her, would wait for her after class, and would block her from leaving the classroom.

Throughout the fall 2022 semester, Pacheco alleges, she noticed M.U. following her around campus. She then notified her direct supervisor and the school’s dean of opportunity of engagement, but no action was taken, according to the lawsuit.

Pacheco describes other concerning behavior from M.U. from the spring semester of 2023 through the spring 2024 in the lawsuit. Pacheco reported her concerns to WITCC officials, who dismissed her concerns, the lawsuit claims.

Her lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for negligence; third-party sexual harassment; discrimination based on race, skin color or national origin; retaliatory discharge, and violations of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

WITCC has yet to file a response to the lawsuit. A spokesperson for the school indicated it does not comment on pending litigation.

Trump administration will send $12 billion in bailout money to farmers hurt by trade war

The Trump administration is planning to send bailout checks to farmers, which could help offset losses from the ongoing trade war and low crop prices.

President Donald Trump announced the $12 billion bailout package alongside Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday. The money will come from a U.S. Department of Agriculture fund, according to reporting by Politico.

Richard Oswald, who grows corn and soybeans in northwest Missouri, said the bailout will help cover bills and loan payments, but won’t make up for this year’s losses.
“They're attempting to replace profit with bailout money,” he said. “It’s not the same as having a good market and making a profit.”

Up to $11 billion is slated for farmers who grow row crops, such as corn, soybeans, sorghum and cotton. Rollins said eligible farmers will know how much money they will receive by the end of the month, and the dollars will move by the end of February 2026.

The other $1 billion will be reserved for farmers who grow specialty crops like fruits and vegetables, she said.

Read more from Harvest Public Media.

President Donald Trump has announced a $12 billion bailout for farmers hurt by tariffs, low prices and high input costs.

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said most of it – $11 billion – will go to the USDA’s new Farm Bridge Assistance Program for crop farmers.

Rollins said eligible farmers will know by the end of the month how much they can expect to receive to plan for next year.

“So just in the next couple of weeks, every farmer that is able to apply for it will know exactly what that number looks like, so as you are going to your lender, as you are working to ensure in understanding what you can plant next year, you will have that number in hand,” she said.

Rollins said the one-time payments will move by the end of February.

An additional $1 billion is being held back until the USDA decides how to allocate the funds for specialty farmers.

The farmer aid program draws from the USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation fund, which Congress replenished with nearly $14 billion through the continuing resolution passed in November.

An advocate for immigrants in northwest Iowa says the president’s comments about Somali people have gone too far.

Last week, President Donald Trump called Somali people “garbage” and sent immigration enforcement agents to Minnesota, which is home to the nation’s largest Somali population.

“Everybody should do their research before they judge people,” said Abdikadir Moalim, with the Siouxland Global Community Center in South Sioux City, Neb. “I would advise the president to do the same, you know, because I am sure he doesn't understand anything about immigrants and refugees. I mean, if he did, then I think his perspective would change.”

Maolim is Somali and a native of Kenya. He came to the U.S. three years ago and is a permanent resident.

Maolim estimates up to 3,000 Somalis live in the Sioux City area. He said even immigrants with legal status are fearful of being targeted by ICE agents.

“Right now, the lights are on the Somali community, but he targets every refugee or immigrant, and his administration has been doing this for a very long time, and right now it's just getting out of hand,” he said. “I mean, they're also targeting citizens.”

He said despite the president’s comments, he finds people in the tri-state area of Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota to be kind.

The Iowa Air National Guard officially activated their newest squadron over the weekend. The 133rd Combat Training Squadron will train service members around the world to operate in what they call a digital battlespace.

Lt. Col. Kevin Taylor, the unit commander, started work to establish the 133rd in 2018, with no funding the first few years. Taylor said the squadron is a new type of “cyber unit” that will train servicemembers in virtual environments. He said the officers and airmen of the 133rd are cyber operators, communications specialists and military intelligence analysts.

“This is, essentially, an environment that mimics a real world sort of network, that folks can go in and utilize for training, practicing different tactics, techniques or testing different capabilities outside of a real world network.”

The 133rd will be capable of creating and operating training environments, similar to flight simulators, from Des Moines for units around the world.

U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson was among the officials attending the 133rd’s activation ceremony Saturday at the Des Moines air wing.

The Iowa Democratic Party has released the results of its survey asking voters how it should approach the 2028 presidential nominating process.

The IDP says about 750 people participated. Of the respondents, 65% want Iowa Democrats to hold their caucuses first or early. But respondents are split on whether the state should “go rogue” if the Democratic National Committee doesn’t give Iowa an early spot.

IDP Chair Rita Hart said in a recorded statement that the results aren’t surprising.

“The bottom line is that Iowans must have an early role in the 2028 presidential nominating process,” Hart said. “And our party-run process needs to be more accessible and inclusive.”

The party intends to seek a place in the early nominating window by applying to the DNC by Jan. 16.

Read more.

The man who’s led Iowa State’s football team for the past decade is leaving and ISU has already hired his replacement. Matt Campbell met with players and coaches Friday to tell them he’s leaving to become Penn State’s head coach.

Iowa State’s new coach is 38-year-old Jimmy Rogers. Rogers led South Dakota State to the FCS national championship in 2023 and had a 27-3 record in two seasons as the Jackrabbits’ head coach. He’s been head coach at Washington State this season.

In a news release, ISU Athletics Director Jamie Pollard said Rogers is “a rising star” and “proven winner” in college athletics and has been on Pollard’s “short-list” ever since he met him. Pollard said during that first visit, Rogers said he wanted to be the next head coach at Iowa State. Rogers has signed a six-year contract with Iowa State.

Rogers said Iowa State has had one of the nation’s top football programs for the last decade and he looks forward “to building upon its upward trajectory.” Rogers played linebacker for South Dakota State from 2006 through 2008 and joined the team’s coaching staff a couple of years later.

Rogers is the second coach to leave Washington State for the Iowa State job. Jim Walden left Washington State in 1986 and coached the Cyclones for eight seasons.

Small Iowa businesses struggling to compete with giants like Amazon might consider what’s called crowdshipping, where customers — who are not store employees — would be asked to deliver merchandise ordered online in exchange for a reward.

University of Iowa business analytics professor Jeff Ohlmann is studying the crowdshipping concept and said it seems unconventional to ask a customer to make a delivery, but it could work in some circumstances.

“People are always looking for side hustles, and if you can make a little extra money doing very minimal effort, that’s kind of what this is targeted at, it’s that type of individual,” Ohlmann said. “Of course, there’s other individuals who might have a carload of kids and they’re like, ‘No way. In fact, I need a crowdshipper for myself.'”

Customers who make the delivery might be compensated with a gift card or some other incentive, but Ohlmann said they’d first need to be registered and screened.

“The crowdshipping program would have to be done something like somebody who would enroll and be vetted, much like a customer loyalty program, where that store in some sense knows that person and has vetted them,” Ohlmann said. “It’s not just any random shopper who walks into the store and says, ‘Hey, I’ll deliver a package.'”

A recent UI study looked at how much crowdshipping would be needed to cut delivery costs enough to make it worthwhile. He said it could lower costs and cut delivery times if even 5% of in store shoppers agreed to make deliveries that extend their trip home by up to 30 minutes.

Tens of millions of Christmas trees will be sold across the U.S. this year. Some tree sellers say a growing number of those evergreens will be planted back in the ground after the holidays.

Potted Christmas trees, or what are often called "living" Christmas trees, have been around for at least two decades. But in recent years, the niche product has been catching on with consumers who want to help the environment or downsize their holiday display.

Dave Tubbin started selling living Christmas trees by accident at his plant nursery in southwestern Wisconsin. He had a dozen leftover spruce from the landscaping season. And he was surprised when customers tried to buy the five-foot potted trees instead of the cut ones he had available.

"As the demand continued to grow for it, we just kept bringing them in,” Tubbin said. “And this year we have probably the most live trees that we've ever had."

Bill Lindberg, a Christmas tree educator for Michigan State University Extension, said buyers in states with cold weather should plan to store their living tree in a garage or similar space after Christmas.

"That will help it kind of survive the winter or reacclimate to the cold temperatures before you go plant it out in the ground the next spring,” he said.

For many consumers, buying a living tree may be a one-time experience. But Lindberg said he's heard of some families planting a whole row of holiday memories on their property.

Read more from Harvest Public Media.

The University of Iowa held an inaugural summit over the weekend for the new Center for Intellectual Freedom.

The event was held over two days and attracted guests from across Iowa and the country to talk about their visions for the new center. It included panel discussions called, “What is wrong with universities?” and “How did we end up here?” It featured prominent conservative voices like political commentator Chris Rufo, who delivered the event’s keynote speech.

“Universities historically, in the United States, have been incredible institutions,” Rufo said. “But it requires good leadership, it requires thoughtful scholars and it requires a system of values that can actually be built upon, and that’s not how I would describe particularly many humanities and social science programs today."

Former Regent David Barker, who now serves in the U.S. Department of Education, said universities have created a monoculture of ideas, and there should be more intellectual diversity on college campuses.

“It is a subset of our universities that has gone off the rails, although that subset is making inroads in the rest of the university,” Barker said. “Reform of that subset won’t be easy, but it can be done, particularly in states like Iowa where the state government actually cares about making higher education great again."

The event was attended by people from the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation, current and former members of the Trump administration, and Gov. Kim Reynolds. UI President Barbara Wilson was not at the event.

Read more.

Immigration advocates said an Afghan man in Des Moines was detained, questioned and released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement earlier this week.

Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice (MMJ), a group that provides legal services to immigrants, said the man was apprehended by ICE on his way to work on Tuesday.

The group also said the individual is in the country legally and has maintained legal status since arriving in the U.S. in 2021.

“Our client also does not know why he was detained. That is something that he's made clear to his attorney. He does not have a criminal record,” said Elena Casillas-Hoffman, a communications specialist with Iowa MMJ. ”Again, he's an individual that has been in status, and he asserts that he's done nothing wrong.”

Last week, the Trump administration announced it would stop issuing visas to Afghan nationals and freeze the visa program for Afghans who helped U.S. forces during the war.

Iowa museums and libraries have regained access to federal funding after the Institute of Museum and Library Services reinstated grants terminated under a federal order earlier this year.

The Trump administration’s attempt to dismantle the IMLS was permanently blocked by a district judge last month.

Some institutions, like the Science Center of Iowa, feared they would never see reimbursements for the programs they had planned using the grants they’d been previously awarded. Others, like the Dubuque Museum of Art, were able to get their grants reinstated before the reversal decision.

Library leaders are calling the reinstatement a major win, but warn that future funding isn’t guaranteed.

A western Iowa county supervisor has been removed from public office after a hearing this week. A judge in Council Bluffs has ruled that Scott Belt was drunk while on official business last month.

Videos showed Belt drinking at a bar before the event and acting erratically at a town hall in Carson. The judge says there wasn’t enough evidence to prove Belt was intoxicated during four other incidents where witnesses claimed he was drinking.

Belt was first elected to the Pottawattamie County Board of Supervisors in 2008, after serving on the Council Bluffs City Council for many years.

A committee now has 40 days to fill the empty supervisor seat.

The Iowa Supreme Court has ruled in a dispute between two state elected officials over the release of records from the city of Davenport.

State Auditor Rob Sand’s office sought records for an audit after more than $3 million in payouts were made to Davenport city employees following harassment claims. The city resisted the effort to turn over the records.

Attorney General Brenna Bird’s office first agreed the State Auditor’s Office had the power to subpoena the records, then changed course and said her office should be the one taking action.

The Iowa Supreme Court said the attorney general does not want to argue for the state auditor’s legal authority, in part because of legitimate concerns about the impact such a decision would have on other state officers. The court says that it is a conflict of interest, and the state auditor can use its own attorney to argue for the release of the records.

“The Iowa Supreme Court’s decision affirms what the State Auditor’s Office has emphasized all along — that taxpayers in Davenport, and across the state, deserve transparency and accountability,” Sand said in a statement. “It also reinforces that the Iowa Attorney General cannot unilaterally silence other constitutional officers or deny them access to the courts.”

Workers at some Starbucks locations in Iowa continued their strike against what they say are unfair labor practices. Baristas in Iowa City and Des Moines are demanding better wages and working conditions.

Starbucks Workers United, the union representing Starbucks employees, kicked off an open-ended strike last month after the company failed to finalize what workers call a fair union contract.

Employees at a Starbucks in downtown Iowa City took to the picket line Thursday, carrying signs that read “No Contract, No Coffee!” 

“I'd like to see Starbucks take us seriously and listen to us, as workers,” said barista Abigail Scheppmann, who participated in the strike. “We’re asking for better wages. We’re asking for guaranteed staffing, guaranteed hours and better health care access, especially.” 
The Iowa City employees went on strike again Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

The Iowa Utilities Commission approved a major project that would provide power to new data centers being built in Cedar Rapids. Officials said it will also help support greater energy loads that are expected in the future.

Utility company ITC Midwest received approval to begin upgrading and building new transmission lines to connect a substation in Marshall County to one in Linn County. The project was introduced before Google and QTS announced their plans for data centers in Cedar Rapids. But Rod Pritchard, a spokesperson with ITC Midwest, said consumers will still benefit from more robust transmission infrastructure and reduced congestion.

“With the additional load growth forecast over the next few years in the greater Cedar Rapids area, we are confident that energy consumers will still realize the benefits of the project as envisioned by MISO,” Pritchard said, referring to the Midcontinent Independent System Operator.

The project fits into MISO’s plans to improve transmission infrastructure across the Midwest. It’s also part of a broader effort known as the Long-Range Transmission Plan, which is designed to increase transmission infrastructure in the region.

The lines are expected to be in service by 2027.

Courtesy of the candidates

During a special election on Tuesday, voters will decide who will replace former state Rep. Mike Sexton in the Iowa Legislature. Sexton, R-Rockwell City, resigned from his position when the Trump administration appointed him to lead the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development Iowa office

Iowa House District 7 includes Calhoun, Pocahontas and Sac counties, as well as part of Webster County. The two candidates running in Tuesday’s election are from Odebolt in northwest Iowa.

Democrat Rachel Burns is a speech-language pathologist and volunteer firefighter and EMT.  She wants to improve health care and education. She said some Iowans struggle with day-to-day survival.

“GOP control of Iowa over the past several years — things are not going well,” Burns said. “Things are not getting better for rural Iowans. And so, when I'm knocking doors, I've really been able to connect with people.”

The Republican challenger, Wendy Larson, is a stay-at-home mom with a background in corporate sales. She wants to preserve personal liberties, protect property rights and improve mental health care in rural Iowa.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has come under the microscope in recent days as Congress debates whether the U.S. striking boats in the Caribbean is legal.

The Trump administration is defending a second strike on a boat in international waters that allegedly carried drugs. Two people who survived the first strike were killed. 

Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle called the second strike a potentially illegal act. But 2nd District Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson said she’s “happy” to see the Trump administration on the offense. 

“Rather than sit idly by and maintain the status quo, I think that what we’re seeing here is that the Trump administration is really going on the offense here to meaningfully counter narcoterrorism and save lives,” she said. “So, I’m happy to see that happening.” 

Hinson did not say whether she thinks Hegseth should be investigated or whether she agrees with the decision to strike again. 

Rachel Cramer

/

Iowa Public Radio

Wendy Wintersteen is winding down her time as president of Iowa State University after a nearly five-decade career there.

Wintersteen pointed to high student retention and graduation rates, along with global rankings in innovation, when reflecting on accomplishments during her time as president.

Her tenure also included some challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to rapidly shifting classes online in the spring of 2020, and a state law passed last year restricting diversity, equity and inclusion programs at Iowa’s public universities. 

Wintersteen said her focus as president has always been to serve students and help them succeed. 

“No matter where I go, our alums come up to me, and they tell me their stories,” she said. “And for me, as president, that has been an extraordinary experience. I will miss that.” 

Wintersteen said she plans to travel with her husband after retiring on Jan. 2 and will continue to live in Iowa.  

The Board of Regents selected David Cook last month to be ISU’s next president.  

Read more.

A bipartisan U.S. House bill that would extend enhanced premium tax credits under the Affordable Care Act has garnered support from Iowa’s 3rd District Rep. Zach Nunn. But 2nd District Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson has other ideas. 

Hinson did not directly say in her weekly press call whether she would support a bill called the Fix It Act that would extend the tax credits for two years. She is most concerned with ending fraud and abuse within the Affordable Care Act, and she wants to empower patients with programs like Health Savings Accounts. 

“That’s why I like more of an HSA model, where we put those dollars in my constituent’s hands, as opposed to a big insurance company,” she said. “So those kinds of proposals, in my mind, are the way we should be going here, because they send the subsidies directly to the consumer."  

Four Democrats and five Republicans support the bill so far. Nunn sponsored the bill last week. 

Iowa State University received approval from the Board of Regents on Wednesday to move ahead with leases in the new commercial development known as CyTown north of Jack Trice Stadium.

Aimee Claeys, an attorney for the Board of Regents, said the plans include leases for six components. 

“This includes the food and beverage anchor, two office and retail buildings, two side CyTown suite buildings, the amphitheater and the common amenity area,” Claeys said. “The hotel is still undergoing the design phase and will be brought to the board at a future meeting.”

Claeys said each of the buildings are funded with a combination of university land, financial contributions and debt financing secured by the developer, Goldenrod Companies.

“The CyTown development is projected to generate $184 million in net revenue to the university over the next 30 years,” she said.

Board of Regents President Robert Cramer is on the committee that reviewed the proposals.

“We’re pleased with the results of what they’re projecting,” he said. “And again, the projections, we feel that they’re conservative projections. We feel good about it.”

Cramer said Goldenrod Companies has a lot of the risk, as it is going to go out and find tenants to fill the spaces.

A new data center complex in southwest Cedar Rapids is growing, and so are the expected costs associated with tax incentives for the project.

QTS and the city first pegged the initial investment at $750 million. Now, they’re saying it will reach over $1.75 billion and will be completed in seven phases, with a 300,000 square foot data center built during each phase. 

Scott Mather, project coordinator with the city, said Cedar Rapids capped the amount it would give QTS in property tax rebates in an amended agreement that was approved by the city council Tuesday. 

“We have increased the projected estimate of $2 billion in total property taxes over the applicable rebate periods with a maximum of $1 billion rebated back to the company,” Mather said. “This really has to do with just knowing more information about the size of these buildings and the number of buildings.” 

The project is partially supported through tax increment financing, where the city returns a percentage of the additional property tax revenue generated by the new data centers back to the company each year. 

Grant Gerlock

/

Iowa Public Radio

Republican lawmakers are planning to work on lowering property taxes during the legislative session that starts next month. Last session, lawmakers proposed several versions of a bill that would’ve made major changes to the state’s property tax system, but they failed to pass any property tax relief.

Rep. Gary Mohr, R-Bettendorf, hopes the Legislature gets a bill over the finish line in the coming session. 

“What we learned last year is it’s a whack-a-mole game — which we didn’t all know — meaning, if you do this with property taxes, it has an effect over here that we didn’t think about,” he said. “So that was the benefit last year of having this discussion.”

House Minority Leader Brian Meyer of Des Moines said Democrats are working on their own property tax plan. To make it work, he said the state would have to pull back on spending that he considers unnecessary, like tax incentives for a soccer stadium in Des Moines.

“We’re going to look at some of these budget items that they’ve been doing, and we’re going to say we don’t need that, and we need to focus on property tax relief and backfill at the state level and not harm the local governments,” he said. 

But Meyer also said the state is in a “fiscal death spiral” because of a budget deficit caused by tax cuts.

It’s not clear how much the state could afford to spend on property tax relief. Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds has said property tax changes shouldn’t depend on state funding.

The City of Davenport introduced four electric buses to its fleet. The new zero-emission buses replaced diesel buses that the city has used for 20 years.

Davenport received $4.8 million in total grant funding from the federal government, MidAmerican Energy and the Regional Development Authority to make the purchase.

In a statement, the city said it’s trying to improve its air quality and reduce operational costs for public transit.

Iowa City also has electric buses in its fleet, but The Gazette reported that they have been out of commission since the manufacturer went bankrupt.

Voters in Waterloo elected a new mayor in a runoff election Tuesday. Mayor-elect Dave Boesen defeated longtime Mayor Quentin Hart with 54.5% of the vote.

Hart has served as mayor since 2016 and is the first African American to be elected to the position.

Boesen is currently serving his second term on the Waterloo City Council. His campaign focused on promoting budget reform and what he calls “fiscal common sense,” along with supporting law enforcement and holding city staff accountable. 

More than 100,000 hunters are expected to turn out for Iowa’s most popular deer hunting seasons, which run Dec. 6 - 10 and Dec. 13 - 21. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) said it’s an important time to collect tissue samples to monitor a fatal deer disease in the state.
 
The DNR first detected chronic wasting disease in Allamakee County in 2013. Since then, it’s been found in over 30 counties in Iowa.
 
Chronic wasting disease is caused by infectious, misfolded proteins called prions, which concentrate in the brain, spinal cord and lymph nodes of deer and other cervids. Infected deer can spread prions through saliva, feces and urine to other animals or the environment, where prions can persist for years.
 
The DNR sets quotas for samples collected in surveillance areas based on the presence of confirmed chronic wasting disease cases and encourages hunters to help the state hit its targets.
 
Local wildlife staff can assist hunters in removing the lymph nodes of harvested deer for testing at Iowa State University’s Veterinary Diagnostic Lab. A video and other resources are available for those who want to do this on their own.
 
While there have been no reported infections in people, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention strongly recommend testing deer meat before eating it if it came from areas with positive cases of chronic wasting disease.

The board that oversees Iowa’s public universities elected Robert Cramer as its new president. Cramer’s election to lead the Iowa Board of Regents came after President Sherry Bates announced her resignation earlier this week. Bates served as president for nearly two years and was on the board for almost 11 years.  

Cramer, who is a Republican, said he has three goals for the state’s universities: to provide an affordable education, to have strong academics and to be “fair and balanced” places of “vigorous” debate.  

“I think if we can do those three things, we’ll see our enrollments continue to grow — even though others are declining — we’ll see that impact on Iowa’s economy grow and we’ll go out and see these graduates change the world,” he said.
Cramer’s term begins Thursday and goes through April 2026.  

Regent Kurt Tjaden was elected as president pro tem of the board in place of Regent Greta Rouse, who stepped down from the position. The president pro tem fills in for the board president when the role is vacant.  

Sen. Chuck Grassley applauded the Trump administration for pausing asylum applications from Afghan refugees following the shootings of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C. One of the guard members died from her injuries after the Nov. 26 ambush-style attack.

The suspect in the shooting, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, worked for a CIA-backed unit in Afghanistan and entered the U.S. in 2021. Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Grassley pointed out that another Afghan national was arrested in Texas last week for social media posts that threatened a suicide attack. Grassley faulted the Biden administration.

“Over the last four years, I've sounded the alarm about previous administration failures to properly vet Afghan evacuees,” Grassley said. “My oversight found that thousands of Afghan evacuees flagged as potential national security threats, these were all allowed to enter the United States.”

Critics pointed out that the suspect in the Washington shooting applied for asylum in December 2024, and his application was approved under the current administration. 

Iowa immigration advocates said many Afghan immigrants in the state are feeling afraid and frustrated following President Donald Trump’s recent crackdown on visas for Afghans. 

Last week, the Trump administration paused all asylum applications and put a pause on issuing visas to Afghan nationals. This includes a special visa program for those who helped U.S. forces during the war in Afghanistan.  

The move came after an Afghan national was accused of shooting two national guard members in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 26.

Elena Casillas-Hoffman, who works for Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice, an organization that provides immigrants with legal support, said many Afghan clients have been navigating the complicated immigration system for years.  

“We have individuals who have had green card statuses after, again, trying to follow these pathways that were presented to them, [they] are now really facing this fear of ‘What does it mean if all of that work that I did was still not enough?’” she said.

The Trump administration also announced last week that it will review cases for people who were approved for asylum under the Biden administration. 

State and federal officials confirmed bird flu in a commercial turkey flock in Hamilton County. A spokesperson said approximately 18,000 turkeys were at the location.

This marks Iowa’s ninth detection of the H5N1 virus in domestic birds this year. The last confirmed case was in October in Calhoun County.

The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship encouraged poultry producers and backyard flock owners to boost their biosecurity practices and contact their veterinarian immediately if they suspect signs of infection.

Bird flu is highly fatal to chickens and turkeys. Flocks are culled to prevent the spread of the disease.

Madeleine Charis King

/

Iowa Public Radio

UnityPoint Health nurses gathered in Des Moines on Tuesday to call on their employer to stop what they believe are efforts to undermine their attempt to unionize.  The nurses said that the West Des Moines-based health care corporation has spent millions trying to dissuade them from voting to form a union. 

Whitney Armstrong, a critical care nurse at Iowa Methodist, said UnityPoint could have put that money towards addressing some of the nurses’ concerns. 

“If the patients matter so much, why is UnityPoint spending almost $6 million to fight the nurses that provide the care for their patients?” Armstrong said.

UnityPoint said in a statement that it hired labor experts to make sure nurses were fully informed about an unfamiliar process and that it believes union representation is unnecessary. 

The nurses will vote on unionizing next week. Their initial vote in October was delayed by the federal government shutdown.

Sen. Chuck Grassley said Congress has a lot of work to finish before the end of the year.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Grassley said he hopes to vote on several important bills over the next few weeks, including an extension of Affordable Care Act tax credits, a measure to reduce drug costs by regulating pharmacy benefit managers and a new five-year Farm Bill.

Beyond that, Grassley said there’s the issue of keeping the government open.

“I'm very interested in, ‘Can we have a vote today to move the five appropriation bills through that we hope to get done between now and Jan. 30 so we don't have another government shutdown,’” he said.

Grassley added that nothing was gained by the 43-day government shutdown that ended in mid-November. He said the five appropriations bills, plus the three President Donald Trump already signed, account for just under 90% of the money needed to fund the government through Sep. 30, 2026.

Hundreds of people gathered again Tuesday outside the federal immigration office in Cedar Rapids to accompany immigrants to their check-in appointments.

Even with the temperature in the mid-teens, a large crowd showed up to the rally organized by the immigrants’ rights group Escucha Mi Voz. Many held signs criticizing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detentions while people with scheduled appointments formed a long line out the door of the immigration office. 

Alejandra Escobar, a lead organizer with Escucha Mi Voz, translated for Edward Ruiz, who had just come out of his wife’s appointment with her. 

“My name is Edward. My wife is Yamile. She had an appointment today. She’ll be back in a year,” Ruiz said. “We came from Colombia. We are looking for a better life."  

Organizers said none of the 56 people who had appointments Tuesday were detained. 

A hearing scheduled for Wednesday morning will determine whether a county supervisor in western Iowa can remain in office.

Longtime Pottawattamie County Supervisor Scott Belt faces accusations of being drunk while on official business at least seven times in just over a year.

The Republican resigned as chairman after erratic behavior at a town hall meeting in November. He claimed his actions were caused by medication.

A judge suspended Belt until the hearing to determine if he will be removed from office.

An official statement released by the county said that Belt “deserves his day in court” and that the county will not fill his position unless legal proceedings go beyond Dec. 24. State law requires vacancies to be filled within 40 days.

The Pottawattamie County attorney filed the original petition to remove Belt from office. The hearing is expected to last up to two days.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird announced Monday that Iowa reached a settlement agreement allowing state officials to access a federal immigration database to verify the citizenship status of voters.

Bird, as well as Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate, were plaintiffs in the case alongside officials from Florida, Ohio and Indiana. The lawsuit challenged the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which contains the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, for allegedly withholding information unlawfully about people registered to vote in states, including Iowa, who were flagged by state officials for potentially not having U.S. citizenship.

With the DHS settlement, reached with the department and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem under the Trump administration, Iowa and other states will retain access to the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database for 20 years through a binding agreement.

The AG’s office wrote: “Iowa will have free access to the cutting-edge technology necessary to prevent noncitizens from voting in Iowa elections” under the agreement.

The settlement includes an agreement by the states to provide state driver’s license data to the federal government. Read more.

Farmers around the Midwest are rounding out a very tough year. Many have been growing corn, wheat and soybeans at a loss, and the Trump administration has mostly made matters worse.

A lot of farmers were in a tough spot going into this year, then President Donald Trump dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development, known as USAID, which bought heavily from grain farmers. The administration also cut U.S. Department of Agriculture funding and started a global trade war, further cutting into commodity markets.

On top of that, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. came out against seed oil, another Midwestern product, and a popular farm herbicide. Immigration raids also made it hard to find workers in the ag industry.

University of Michigan Political Scientist Mike Shephard said farmers expect more support from Republican administrations.
“There does seem to be a real disjoint between the Republican Party and the needs and wants of food producers that we haven't really seen before,” he said.

That said, Shephard said most farmers are sticking with Trump because they think Democrats would be worse.

Almost a year and a half after devastating flooding hit northwest Iowa, some communities continue to wait for buyouts from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Rock Valley City Administrator Tom Van Maanen asked FEMA about a year ago to buy out 145 homes that were destroyed by the flood in June 2024.

“For the homeowners, this has been a very long and painful process because they're paying mortgages on homes that they don't live in,” he said.

Even though Van Maanen said the process has been overwhelming at times, he’s optimistic that the $40 million in funding will come sometime soon.

“We're really looking forward to being able to contact the homeowners and say, ‘Hey, our project has been approved, we're going to move forward.’ And we'll be working on a timeline that's up to us, so we can help them,” Van Maanen said.

Seven communities in the area submitted applications for FEMA approval, including Sioux County and the cities of Rock Valley, Sioux Rapids, Hawarden, Rock Rapids, Correctionville and Spencer. Estherville and Cherokee have until the end of the year to finalize their applications.

Iowa Board of Regents President Sherry Bates announced she’s resigning from her position this week. Bates served on the board for nearly 11 years. 

In a statement, she said that it’s time for her to step back, spend time with family and let new leadership continue the board’s work. She also thanked former Gov. Terry Branstad and Gov. Kim Reynolds for giving her the opportunity to serve on board.

Regent Greta Rouse announced she’s also stepping down from her position as president pro tem, the role that would have filled in for Bates. Rouse will continue to serve on the board as a regent.  

State Rep. Taylor Collins, R-Mediapolis, who chairs the Iowa House Higher Education Committee, called the leadership reshuffling an “opportunity to chart a new path for the Board of Regents.” Collins and other Republican lawmakers have pushed to eliminate classes and programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion at Iowa’s public universities.

The board will hold a special meeting on Wednesday to choose a new president and president pro tem.  

Des Moines residents could see more support for urban agriculture after the city council recently revived a food sustainability committee.

The group will look at how the city can make growing, selling and accessing local food easier for residents through policy changes, partnerships with urban ag groups or by finding better ways to use land for urban agriculture.

The committee will also help the city stay on track with its climate plan, which includes goals to increase community gardens, fridges and markets.  

Nick Tarpey, an economic development project manager with the City of Des Moines, said the group will help support food entrepreneurship in the area.

“There’s a demand for local food businesses in our local economy,” he said. “So how can this group help brainstorm policies or marketing ideas or strategies to help those local food businesses grow?”

Tarpey said he hopes the committee will work on more projects with the community, like the public orchard at Drake Park planted in October.

Now is the time of year that Iowa farmers begin talking with lenders about borrowing money to finance operations or buy land and equipment. The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City reported that loan demand among farmers in the region trended up in the last quarter, while loan repayment rates went down as the ag economy slowed.

Ty Kreitman, an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank, said the situation is bleakest in the crop sector, where farmers have been at or below the break-even mark for the past couple of harvests.

He said crop farmers had strong years in 2021 and 2022, when most operations grew their operating capital. Kreitman said land prices are near historic highs, meaning many operations have strong equity.

Kreitman said younger farmers and those who rent most of their land have been the hardest hit by the downturn in the ag economy because they haven’t built equity like more established operations.

There have been 18 farm bankruptcy filings in Iowa so far this year. That’s the largest number since 2020.

Sheila Brummer

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Iowa Public Radio

Classes were canceled Monday at Iowa State University, the University of Northern Iowa and several other Iowa schools to give students who travelled for Thanksgiving more time to return after a massive storm dumped over a foot of snow in some areas of the state.

The Iowa State Patrol responded to 210 accidents on Iowa highways from Friday through midday Sunday. The patrol said there were no fatalities, but 20 people were injured. State troopers were called to help well over 600 motorists during the storm.

The National Weather Service reported that by Sunday morning, 16.5 inches of snow fell in Fort Dodge. The Des Moines Airport was shut down for about 12 hours after a plane slid off the runway Saturday night.

Funding for food assistance returned with the end of the federal shutdown. But food banks and pantries across the central U.S. are expecting continued demand throughout the holiday season.

Beth Corbett, with the Central Texas Food Bank, said a lot more people turned to food resources in November.
“We're seeing, at minimum, really in these last couple of weeks, a 50% increase in folks accessing our distributions. Some sites, we've seen up to a 300% increase,” she said.

Corbett said people took on additional debt or tapped into their savings during the shutdown.

November and December are always times of increased need, and she expects this year will be even higher.

Read more from Harvest Public Media’s Anna Pope.

Johnson County launched a pilot program to put Narcan, the opioid overdose medication, into more people's hands. The medication can be picked up at the Ambulance Services Building or the GuideLink Center. It’s available for free, and requests are completely anonymous.

Dre Wilz, a paramedic operations supervisor, said the pilot program received grant funding through a partnership with the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services.

“Narcan kits, before circa 2023, 2024, with the opioid settlement dollars and such, were pretty expensive,” Wilz said. “So, to be able to get them from the grant funding through different resources is really helpful for anybody in the public, and there’s no reason anyone should be paying for Narcan.”

Wilz said the end goal of the program is for paramedics to be able to distribute Narcan kits to people when they respond to calls that aren’t for overdoses as a preventative measure.

Experts are encouraging more Iowans to go get a flu shot before the holiday season begins.

Iowa currently has few reported flu cases, but experts expect them to pick up over the holiday season. One person has died from the flu this year.

Melanie Wellington, an infectious disease specialist at University of Iowa Health Care, said it’s important that Iowans get vaccinated, not only to protect themselves, but to protect those around them.

“Flu vaccine doesn't just work on an individual level. It's very important that it works on a population level,” she said. “So the more people that get immunized, the better it works for each individual person.”

Wellington said there are concerns this could be a more severe flu season, but early data from the U.K. also indicates the flu shot is good at combatting the dominant flu strains circulating around this year.

According to state data, about 20% of Iowans have received a flu shot so far this season.