Beginning in January, Iowa and 11 other states will be able to exclude certain junk foods from purchases using the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, so grocers will have to accommodate the new rules.

The approved changes will remove candy and soda from eligible SNAP purchases, but there are some differences in each state’s definition.

Some grocers will have to update their point of sales systems. Jeff Klaus, general manager at Retail Data Systems, the largest independent point of sale dealer in North America, says currently it’s unclear who will be vetting the products.

“We can give recommendations, but let's just go out on a limb here and say, I accidentally forgot to fix Snickers bars. And now somebody buys Snickers bars with SNAP. Whose fault is that? Is it mine? Is it the retailer?”

His company is waiting for state guidance, but Klaus expects the changes will take a long time to sort out.

Ansley Fellers, the executive director of the Nebraska Industry Association, says the rules will be a problem for retailers bordering states without exclusions on certain junk foods.

“Nebraska's retailers are at a huge disadvantage in that case because even if you are getting a SNAP card in Nebraska and you can go buy whatever you want in South Dakota and you're only a few miles from the border, why wouldn't you?”

There are some restrictions already on medicines, tobacco and alcohol in the program, but Fellers says the new state-by-state rules will be more complicated to implement.

The city of Dubuque is rolling out a new pump system that was tested by researchers at the University of Iowa. The university’s IIHR—Hydroscience and Engineering program was hired to evaluate the pump system and make sure it meets national standards. It's expected to help mitigate future flooding.

The new system will include four pumps. Each of them will be capable of removing 100,000 gallons of water a minute – nearly doubling the city’s current capacity for pumping water out of flooded areas.

Jim Bousley, a project manager for the City of Dubuque, says making sure there are sufficient backup pumps in case one fails is a key reason for the project.

“So as that detention basin goes up during a storm event, to have the ability to make sure that that goes down quickly and can be pumped quickly without any issues is a huge thing, because if you don’t, there are other parts of Dubuque that could be affected by that, by flooding, possibly, if those pumps fail.”

The $26 million pump system is expected to be operational by August 2027. Flooding in Dubuque has damaged more than 1,300 homes and businesses in recent decades.

Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson says the “America First movement is no longer a rallying cry, it’s a governing agenda,” and the GOP needs to win the majority in Congress next year to implement more of it.

She made her comments at her 5th annual BBQ Bash fundraiser this weekend in Cedar Rapids.

Hinson was reelected to a third term in the U.S. House last November and has indicated she’ll seek reelection in 2026.

“We have not come this far to only go this far and I think we have a lot of work left to do, so we need to make sure that the president is able to complete the full four years of wins. We need to make sure that we have a Republican Congress in order to do that.”

Hinson told the crowd she’ll fight “alongside Trump to secure the border and deport illegal aliens” and she favors ending birthright citizenship for children of parents who are in the country illegally. Hinson is co-sponsoring a bill that would double prison sentences for anyone convicted of attacking Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Hinson represents the 2nd Congressional District, which includes Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Dubuque and Mason City. Four Democrats say they’ll compete for their party’s nomination in the 2nd District. They are State Rep. Lindsay James of Dubuque; pastor Clint Twedt-Ball of Cedar Rapids; Kathy Dolter of Dubuque, the former dean of nursing at Kirkwood Community College; and former Pine Lake State Park manager Don Primus.

Officials with Des Moines Water Works say they received notice this month the utility will get almost $10 million from chemical companies for PFAS contamination in drinking water.

It was part of a class action lawsuit that included several other Iowa cities.

Christina Murphy is with West Des Moines Water Works, which will receive more than $3 million from 3M, DuPont and other companies.

“The frustrating thing is that it hasn't been ruled out at the federal level, so people can still use those compounds in manufacturing. A lot of industries have taken steps to not use them anymore, but there's no federal rule preventing them from doing so.”

Dubuque will get more than $3 million and Sioux City more than $500,000. More are still waiting.

Corey McCoid with the Iowa DNR says they started statewide sampling for PFAS in 2020. About a dozen locations currently have levels above federal guidelines. PFAS from firefighter foam is one of the sources.

“What we've seen a lot so far across the state is people taking wells offline and then utilizing other wells or putting new wells in to replace those wells.”

McCoid says smaller communities might not have the resources to participate in the class action lawsuit.

Exposure to PFAS comes with several health risks, including thyroid problems, immune system changes and a higher risk of certain cancers.

A soybean disease called sudden death syndrome – or SDS – is showing up in more fields this year due to a wet growing season.

Daren Mueller, a plant pathologist with Iowa State University Extension, says a soil fungus causes SDS, largely by producing a toxin that’s absorbed into the soybean’s leaves, which turn yellow and die.

“The more rain we get, the more toxin that’s going to be there and sort of hastens the death of the plant. But it is a patchy disease and sometimes the fields are not 100% infected. So, it’s still good to have a few rains to finish out the crop that isn’t infected.”

Mueller says treatment is not an option once SDS is detected, but farmers can consider different soybean varieties and seed treatments next year.

“As farmers are planting earlier and earlier, that actually increases the risk of SDS, so maybe identify the fields that are worst, and try to put those toward the end of your list that you’re going to plant.”

He says planting later in affected acres can also decrease risks of the disease.

Mueller made his comments on IPR's River to River talk show Friday.

About 30 to 40 cars drove through downtown Ottumwa Saturday, promoting what supporters call “traditional marriage.”

The parade was part of a city proclamation passed last week celebrating the marriage between a man and woman. Local Baptist pastor Travis Decker had been pushing the city council to pass the proclamation after one was passed for Pride month in June.

The traditional marriage proclamation was revised to acknowledge all legal forms of marriage in Iowa. However, the cars in the parade only promoted heterosexual marriage. They were decorated with crosses, bible scriptures and signs reading “one man one woman equals marriage” and “purity, commitment and love.”

Less than a dozen people watched the cars drive by, with mostly empty sidewalks. A few people counterprotested, holding Pride flags and a sign saying, “I respect your right to marry.”

Olivia Palen grew up in Ottumwa.

"It's disappointing to see something as exclusive as this take place in my hometown, where I have found so much love."

Pastor Decker says he would like to see the parade each year.

An Iowa nonprofit says it has permanently lost federal funding for a Biden-era EPA program now ended by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

The EPA was supposed to award nearly $2 million over the next three years for local programs in areas hardest hit by pollution. A chunk of the money was to help residents carry out plans for fixing pollution in their towns. Another was for outreach about climate change and health hazards.

Cody Smith, the director of climate initiatives at The Iowa Environmental Council, says now that those projects are stopped, the state doesn’t have programs to fill the gap.

“This cut and the cuts to the future of the program have ensured that more Iowans will continue to have their health harmed from environmental contamination by not knowing what the sources are in their community and what they can do to protect their own health.”

Smith says the nonprofit’s grants were cancelled in the spring but the Big Beautiful Bill ended grant funding for the whole program.

Lucia Cheng

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Iowa Public Radio

Fifty people from around the world became citizens Friday at the World Food & Music Festival’s Naturalization Ceremony in Des Moines.

They waved U.S. flags and posed for photos with the judge conducting the ceremony.

Twenty-two-year-old Ericlyn Bowa is originally from Côte d'Ivoire.

“It means everything, especially in this new, like era of time. It's really important for me to have my citizenship. It just makes me feel secure. I feel like I can do anything, go anywhere, and just have that freedom.”

Immigration Attorney Anne Johnson says it takes a long time for citizenship applications to be processed.

She says people wait at least a year to get their green cards, and another five years to begin the application for citizenship. Some refugees may spend 17 years in a foreign refugee camp before they can even come to the U.S.

“I can't even fathom what they go through, and I think that our country is blessed with their values and their work ethic.”

Johnson says watching the ceremony makes her heart spill over and makes her proud to be an American.

Soybean producers are calling on the Trump administration to reach a trade deal with China.

Because of the tariff dispute, China has turned to countries like Brazil and Argentina, which are reporting record soybean harvests.

Brent Swart, a soybean producer from Spencer and Director of the Iowa Soybean Association, has been attending an export conference in Washington, D.C. this week, where a USDA official reassured them the administration is working on a better deal for farmers.

“We need to get it done sooner than later. And the reason is we've got a large crop coming on in the United States and in Iowa, and, and we currently have zero bushels sold to our biggest customer in the form of China.”

Though farmers planted fewer acres of soybeans this year compared to 2024, the USDA is projecting record yields. At current prices, Swart confirms farmers are below the break-even point.

With the agriculture economy showing signs of stress, he says it’s a bad time for farmers to be caught in the middle of a trade dispute.

“A lot of the trade ramifications are affecting farmers on both sides of the balance sheet, not only from the income side with what we get paid for our commodities, but also the input side, and what we're paying for our fertilizer and herbicides and, and those sorts of things.”

The American Soybean Association sent a letter to the Trump administration this week, urging them to make soybeans a top priority in U.S.-China trade talks.

State officials announced Iowa’s first case of West Nile Virus last week. Health officials are urging Iowans to be cautious during peak mosquito season.

Robert Kruse, the state medical director, says just about one in five people will experience symptoms, but older people and those with immunocompromised systems are more likely to have complications.

He says people should look out for severe symptoms and seek immediate medical attention.

“Stiff neck or weakness, beyond kind of what they may typically experience. Confusion, any sort of severe headache or high fevers or any kind of new neurological symptoms.”

He says Iowans should use mosquito repellent with DEET and avoid standing water.

Kruse made his comments on IPR’s River to River.

A candlelight vigil is planned for Friday night in Denison for a Cuban immigrant killed by police a week ago.

The Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation is reviewing the death of 36-year-old Feglys Antonio Campos Arriba.

Community members plan to gather at 8 p.m. at Washington Park, where Campos was shot after authorities say he seriously injured an officer during an altercation.

An advocate with the League of United Latin American Citizens says Campos was homeless after losing his job at a local packing plant. He also suffered from mental health issues.

Iowa has become an unexpected hub for river surfing. Hannah Ray J, who grew up on a farm near Manchester, discovered the sport after seeing someone on a stand-up paddleboard in Cedar Falls.

Today, she prefers rivers to oceans or lakes, where she can ride a single wave for up to 10 minutes instead of just a few seconds.

“The best way that I can describe it is [it’s] the closest thing to flying without leaving the ground.”

The state’s river surfing scene has taken off in the past 15 years thanks to the development of whitewater parks. Charles City opened Iowa’s first in 2011, after river specialist Ty Graham lobbied communities to replace old dams with recreation-friendly designs.

Since then, similar parks have opened in Manchester, Elkader and Cedar Falls, with Waterloo now considering one of the largest whitewater parks in the country. These projects not only draw surfers but also kayakers and paddlers.

Tourism has followed. Charles City’s park alone has an estimated $746,000 annual economic impact, and studies show whitewater parks can attract nearly 15,000 visitors a year.

Read the full story from Harvest Public Media. 

The Ottumwa City Council has passed a proclamation celebrating what supporters call “traditional marriage,” defined as a union of a man and a woman. A parade is set for Saturday to celebrate those marriages alongside values like purity, fidelity and commitment.

The effort was led by local Baptist Pastor Travis Decker, who said he and others wanted the proclamation after seeing the city council pass one for Pride month. D

Decker says it celebrates one good thing, and he won’t allow hateful messages in the parade.
 
“It's not an attack on anybody. It is the promotion of something that we hold near and dear to our heart, and many people in the community do, and we just wanted to go out and have a fun time with it.”

Kristen Payne, who leads Ottumwa Pride, says the proclamation sends a negative message of privilege to LGBTQ residents because heterosexual marriages have never been under threat.

“You've literally never had this taken away from you. You've never been in danger. You've never had your life, I mean, just for being who you are, put at risk.”

Ottumwa Pride will host a brunch on Saturday at a downtown restaurant during the parade.

Ottumwa Mayor Richard Johnson said in a statement that the proclamation was revised to be more inclusive and acknowledge all legal forms of marriage in Iowa.

Lucia Cheng

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Iowa Public Radio

Iowa’s largest school district is partnering with Iowa’s largest library to help more students access literacy resources.

Grade 7-12 students in Des Moines Public Schools can use their school ID as a library card starting in September. The partnership is intended to eliminate barriers for about 12,000 students across the city.

Superintendent Ian Roberts says the new partnership will open more doors for students to learn.

“We want to make sure that we are taking advantage of every single opportunity. Literacy and improving reading outcomes for students is incredibly important to us and will remain a priority.”

Students will have access to the library’s full catalogue, including e-books and research databases.

The Iowa Democratic Party is asking voters for their opinions about how it should approach the 2028 presidential nominating process. The IDP put out a survey on Thursday to try to figure out next steps.

When Rita Hart was reelected chair of the Iowa Democrats this year, she promised “family conversations” about what the state’s role should be in the presidential nominating process. The Democratic National Committee stripped Iowa of its first-in-the-nation status for the 2024 election.

“I’ve always said, first and foremost, that we have got to have all Democrats that we have to have a consensus of Democrats as we move forward on this. So that’s what this survey is doing.”

Some Democrats want to fight to regain their first-in-the-nation caucuses, while others think it drains resources that could go toward winning elections.

Hart says she’s heard that Democrats want to do what’s good for Iowa, and aren’t necessarily interested in following the DNC’s rules. But she says she’s focused on 2026 because Iowa Democrats need to win elections to have a chance at becoming an early state in 2028.

Following Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen’s announcement to turn a minimum security work camp into a regional detention facility for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Gov. Kim Reynolds has indicated that, at this time, she’s not planning to open an immigration detention facility in Iowa.

“It really, I don’t think, would make sense for both of us to do it when you look at the size of both of our states.”

The director of Nebraska’s prison system has called the site, which is near the Kansas border, “the Cornhusker Clink.” Pillen is deploying 20 Nebraska National Guard soldiers to provide administrative assistance to Nebraska-based immigration agents.

Earlier this month, Reynolds announced 20 Iowa National Guard soldiers would be deployed to work with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, starting Sept. 8.

Reynolds said there are “not that many” ICE agents assigned to Iowa to enforce federal immigration laws. In March, the Iowa Department of Public Safety signed an agreement with ICE that has deputized a three-person task force of state agents to help with some federal actions to enforce immigration laws.

Michael Fiddelke, who grew up on a farm near Manchester, is being named as the next head of one of America’s largest retail chains.

Fiddelke will take over as CEO of Target in February. He currently serves as Target’s chief operating officer.

Fiddelke graduated from the University of Iowa in 1999 with an industrial engineering degree. He started at Target 22 years ago when he was a grad student at Northwestern and was hired as a full-time financial analyst for Target in 2004.

Target sales have been relatively flat for four years. Fiddelke addressed the company’s financial position in a video message posted on Target’s website.

“I’m confident we have the foundation to build new momentum, and that starts with my confidence in this team. I know you’re not satisfied with where Target is today, and neither am I. Getting us back to growth is my number one priority, and I’m eager to get to work.”

Target has nearly 2,000 stores nationwide, including 21 in Iowa.

The Iowa State Fair, the state’s largest tourism event, attracted nearly 1.2 million people this year despite periods of rain and extreme heat — just about 22,000 or so short of the attendance record set last year.

State Fair CEO Jeremy Parsons says the fair’s Blue Ribbon Foundation has raised the money to install ways to mitigate the weather’s impact on attendance, like air-conditioned spaces and sidewalks to avoid mud.

“We have way more air-conditioned buildings than we did 30 years ago.”

State Fair Grandstand ticket sales set a record over the fair’s 11-day run. Nearly 132,000 people attended the nightly concerts. Parsons credits a diverse line-up for appealing to a wide variety of people.

While fair-goers were allowed to bring in non-alcoholic drinks and food in soft-sided coolers this year, Parsons said it didn’t impact sales by licensed vendors on the fairgrounds.

Preparations for the 2026 State Fair are well underway. Renovations are starting on the inside of the historic horse barn, and on Monday, the Iowa State Fair Board approved spending $1.8 million for repairs on the swine and cattle barns. Fundraising is underway for a $15 million Ag Education Center on the fairgrounds, and Parsons said they hope to have a groundbreaking for the project during next year’s State Fair.

Iowa has one of the lowest rates of OB/GYNs in the country.

How to increase this has been a hot topic for state lawmakers. During the last legislative session, the Iowa Legislature passed a bill that increased Medicaid provider reimbursement rates for maternity care. It also directed millions in federal funding to create new residency slots for medical students.

Karla Solheim, an OB/GYN in Waterloo who chairs the Iowa section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, says that helps address some issues, but the state’s abortion restrictions are also giving some OB/GYNs pause when considering practicing in Iowa.

“They understandably do not want to put their licenses and their livelihood at risk when it comes to taking care of patients.”

Solheim says she recently performed an abortion on someone who had life-threatening complications. It spurred many questions from hospital administrators.

It's still unclear whether abortion bans are driving doctors out of state. A recent study found Idaho lost 35% of its OB/GYNs practicing obstetrics two years after enacting its highly restrictive abortion law, yet another study analyzed federal data and didn’t find evidence that OB/GYNs are leaving states with abortion bans two years after the Dobbs decision.

Data suggests abortion laws like Iowa’s are influencing where medical students attend residency programs. An analysis of data from the Association of American Medical Colleges found fewer students are applying to OB/GYN residency programs in states that restrict or ban abortion.

Read the full story from IPR’s Natalie Krebs.

The Des Moines City Council is increasing the franchise fees residents pay on utility bills from 5% to 7.5% in order to fund public transportation. The vote moved forward over the objections of one council member.

The increase in fees residents pay on their electric and gas bills would bring in an additional $6 million to fund public transit. The council voted to go ahead with the increase at a time when the Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority (DART) is remodeling its network and funding formulas.

City council member Chris Coleman says key information is still missing about how DART will use the money from franchise fees. He’s also concerned the city might not be following legal guidelines.

“Seventy-five percent of this is going to tax cuts in various communities to accommodate a funding formula that's flawed, that the council never took up.”

For every $100 spent on utility bills, the fees will add another $2.50 a month.

Council members voted 4-2 for the franchise fee increase.

Images of a mountain lion with a neck collar have been circulating on social media in northwest Iowa over the past few days.

Iowa Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Researcher Vince Evelsizer says the mountain lion came from a neighboring state.

“This particular cat was caught and collared about a year ago in northcentral Nebraska, and it dispersed or traveled a long distance eastward into Iowa. At this time, it’s in northwest Iowa.”

The male lion is estimated to be less than 2 years old and was collared as part of an ongoing research project by Nebraska Game and Parks to better understand its movements and behavior.

Evelsizer says he was contacted about the cat a few weeks ago when it entered the state, and that it has not caused any problems. He says mountain lions are not protected in Iowa, but he encourages people not to shoot the animal unless there is a direct safety threat. He says the animal wants to avoid human contact, and trail cameras are likely the only way it will be spotted.

Any sightings can be reported to local DNR officers to help track the mountain lion’s movement.

Iowa will soon have 10 charter schools open in the state, including a new high school in Des Moines’ East Village.

Charter schools receive public money. They can be tied to a school district, but after a law change in 2021, most are independently run.

Des Moines Prep is operated by Opportunity Education, a nonprofit founded by billionaire businessman Joe Ricketts. This year, Des Moines Prep will offer eighth and ninth grade, with plans to add higher grades in the coming years.

Matt Lakis, the school’s founding principal, says it’s open to students across the state, regardless of learning needs.

“We don't tell families you have to be at the top of your class, you don't have to have a certain skill set or even know what you want to do. That's our job, to help them unlock that within themselves. All that we ask is that kids are just willing to work and be challenged, and that's the sort of student that we're looking for.”

Lakis says the school is focused on college preparation and fostering connections with the business community in Des Moines. The nonprofit is also opening a school in Cedar Rapids and is slated to open one in Davenport next year.

The majority of union workers at the Kemps dairy plant in Le Mars voted to authorize a strike if contract negotiations falter.

Adrian Macias, secretary for Teamsters Local 554, says union representatives have been negotiating with the company since March.

“We want to make sure these workers at Kemps get a very good deal. They’re really behind on wages, on certain safety issues, health benefits.”

Employees at the Le Mars Kemps plant voted to join the Teamsters in December. Macias says the company’s most recent contract offer for its 200 employees at the plant is “disrespectful.” The union is expecting a proposal back from Kemps by Wednesday, in hopes of having a “good faith” negotiation Friday.

Kemps took over the milk plant in Le Mars nearly five years ago, after Dean Foods declared bankruptcy. Kemps is a subsidiary of the Dairy Farmers of America.

Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, who met with union stewards in Omaha earlier this month, called Dairy Farmers of America a “conglomerate” that controls nearly one third of milk production in the U.S.

The Kemps dairy plant in Le Mars produces milk, cottage cheese, cream and sour cream, as well as dips and ice cream mix. The two other dairy plants in Le Mars that make ice cream were sold to Italy-based Ferrero in 2022.

Water quality advocates are challenging the terms of a settlement involving a meat processing plant that violated the federal Clean Water Act.

Agri Star Meat and Poultry in Postville was fined for releasing contaminants, such as ammonia, nitrogen and copper, into the Yellow River in northeast Iowa for several years.

Under the current settlement with the Iowa Attorney General’s Office, Agri Star must pay $50,000 and comply with discharge limitations within 16 months. The Driftless Water Defenders say the plant could have been fined up to nearly $70,000 a day for violations over a four-year period.

The nonprofit was already suing Agri Star in federal court over its discharge of waste. An attorney for the nonprofit says they were “blindsided” by the state settlement and “had no opportunity to be heard.”

The Driftless Water Defenders are now going to an Allamakee County judge to try to force a stiffer punishment. They also want the plant to lower their pollution levels as soon as possible to stop harming the river.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed by Congress and signed into law in July gave wind and solar energy developers a year to complete projects before federal tax credits are phased out.

After the bill passed, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the U.S. Department of the Treasury to eliminate the credits sooner. In response, a group of U.S. senators, including Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, put a hold on Trump's nominees for Treasury.

Last week, the two sides announced a compromise that keeps the credits for another year, with certain conditions. Grassley says the deal with the administration won’t make either side happy, but it’s better than taking the matter to court.

“I think [Treasury] Secretary Bessent saw the benefit of not undercutting us, particularly with the holds we had on, but more importantly, just because we were right and the law was pretty clear.”

Grassley says he will wait until the Senate reconvenes after Labor Day to talk with other senators, at which point they will decide whether to lift their holds on Trump’s Treasury Department nominees.

Sheila Brummer

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Iowa Public Radio

A special election in northwest Iowa could potentially undo the GOP supermajority in the state Senate. Voters in Senate District 1 will cast their ballots Tuesday for either Democrat Catelin Drey or Republican Christopher Prosch.

The district includes Sioux City and a portion of Woodbury County. It was represented by the late Republican state Sen. Rocky De Witt before he died of pancreatic cancer in June.

Prosch says his priorities include eliminating the state income tax, creating jobs and protecting the rights of property owners against eminent domain.

Drey works for an advertising company in Sioux City and is the founder of the advocacy group Moms for Iowa.

“The main thing that I'm hearing from voters right now is that we have an affordability crisis in Iowa, and that is in our child care, in our health care and in our housing. And now with the federal policies that have come down, it's also at the grocery store. So I'm focused on how can we make life better and more affordable for those folks in Senate District 1.”

If Drey wins Tuesday, Democrats will break a supermajority held by Republicans in the Iowa Senate.

Read the full story.

Iowa City council members passed a resolution upholding equal protections for LGBTQ residents Tuesday. Iowa City is the first city in the state to do so after the Iowa Legislature removed gender identity as a protected class under the Iowa Civil Rights Act earlier this year.

City Council Member Oliver Weilein voted in favor of the resolution.

“You need to be willing to fight for the people that live in your community, whether that be legal battles, whether that be passing resolutions that you know might get challenged, you need to get in the fight and not just stay away from it, because there’s always a chance you can win.”

Council members voted unanimously in favor of the resolution.

Under the Iowa Civil Rights Act, local governments can still add protections to the state’s nondiscrimination standards. A handful of school districts have passed their own resolutions protecting against gender identity-based discrimination, including Johnston, Linn-Mar and Ankeny.

Robin Opsahl

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Iowa Capital Dispatch

Adam Steen, former director of the Iowa Department of Administrative Services, is running for governor in 2026.

He’s the fifth Republican to get in the race for the open seat. Gov. Kim Reynolds announced in the spring that she’s not running for reelection.

Reynolds appointed Steen to lead DAS in 2021, and he stepped down Tuesday to run for governor. He was previously an investment banker and professional baseball player.

Steen says he’s entering the governor’s race “to work with President Trump to carry forward an America-first, people-first and common-sense agenda.” He also says he wants to honor Reynolds’ legacy.

State Rep. Eddie Andrews and former Rep. Brad Sherman are the other Republicans officially running for governor. Iowa’s 4^th Congressional District Rep. Randy Feenstra and state Sen. Mike Bousselot launched exploratory campaigns.

State Auditor Rob Sand and Julie Stauch are running on the Democratic side.

Read more about Steens’s campaign kickoff.

Lucia Cheng

/

Iowa Public Radio

The State Historical Society of Iowa is downsizing following budget cuts. Administrators say they made the decision to close Iowa City’s research facility to make up for the loss of $800,000 in funding cuts from multiple sources.

State Archivist Anthony Jahn says moving the collections from the Centennial Building in Iowa City to Des Moines and other museums will help staff members digitize the catalogue.

“Let's provide as much public access as we can to the materials, but then also preserve those materials in a single location, so the public can come in and they can have a one-stop-shop where they can find everything that they need.”

The Des Moines facility can only absorb 40% of Iowa City’s collection. Several Iowa historians are concerned that archival materials will not be preserved properly. They are planning to protest the closure Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Iowa City Public Library.

Jahn made his comments on Tuesday on Talk of Iowa.

A man is being held in the Johnson County Jail for allegedly driving his vehicle into an encampment near a homeless shelter in Iowa City. Roman Aguilar Ventura, 29, is being charged with 14 offenses, including operating while intoxicated, willful injury and assault.

A statement from Shelter House says the five victims were in their tents when the attack occurred. Four of them were taken to the hospital, but none had critical injuries.

Iowa City City Council Member Oliver Weilein called the act “cruel,” saying it targeted the most vulnerable people in the city.

Aguilar Ventura will be detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement when he is released.

Democratic State Rep. Lindsay James is running for Congress in Iowa’s 2nd District.

James lives in Dubuque and has served in the Iowa Legislature since 2019. She’s now running to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson.

James says she’s running for Congress because “too many hardworking Iowans are being forced to make impossible choices.”

“Choices like, 'Do I pay child care costs or save for a house? Do I pay my utility bill or buy my child a new winter coat?' Washington, D.C., works for billionaires and lobbyists. They are not working for everyday Iowa families, and they need to hear the truth from us here in Iowa.”

James says if elected, she would focus on addressing the cost of health care and housing, the state’s high cancer rate and economic issues. She’s also a Presbyterian chaplain and says her policy decisions are based on her faith, not on a political party.

Two other Democrats — Clint Twedt-Ball and Kathryn Dolter — are running to represent northeast Iowa in Congress.

Read more.

Rich Egger

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Tri States Pubic Radio

The southeast Iowa city of Keokuk has a grand celebration planned this weekend to mark the centennial of its Grand Theatre.

Dianne Stanley, the theater’s manager, says it was built to replace the Keokuk Opera House, which dated back to 1880.

“In 1923, on Dec. 7, it burnt to the ground right after a production, and the businessmen in this town decided that we had to have a big, live theater in Keokuk. So, by January of 1925, it was built.”

Stanley says there have been a few times through the past decades when people talked about tearing down the Grand Theatre, but city leaders and others always raised the money to keep it open.

“A lot of people have dedicated large portions of their lives and pocketbooks in order to keep it as beautiful as it is.”

The Art Deco-style theater seats 753 people and has a double balcony, massive chandeliers and a total of 10 dressing rooms. In addition to hosting live theater, it served as a movie theater for many years and has also been used for weddings and even hearings before the Iowa Supreme Court.

When it opened, the Grand Theatre had the largest stage in the U.S. west of the Mississippi River.

The celebration kicks off with a ribbon cutting Friday at 6 p.m. and is followed by performances of a show, called 100 Years of Love, through Sunday afternoon. The show will feature music and dance numbers highlighting each decade in the life of the 100-year-old Grand Theatre — all done with local talent.

Read more from Tri States Public Radio.

Photo courtesy of Rick Krueger

The Denison Police Department identified the man killed in a police shooting late last week. The man who died was 36-year-old Feglys Antonio Campos Arriba.

A news release says the shooting happened after police responded to a call at Washington Park late on Friday night. They say Campos was uncooperative, and during an altercation, the officer was seriously injured before firing his weapon. The officer was taken to the hospital, treated and then released. Campos died at the scene.

The Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation is reviewing the incident.

On Sunday, around 50 community members marched from the park to the police station to protest the shooting. One advocate with the League of United Latin American Citizens says Campos, who was from Cuba, was homeless and suffered from mental health issues. He worked at Smithfield Foods until the end of July.

Building a new jail in Johnson County could cost $106 million, according to a new feasibility study.

The jail would be a joint facility for the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office and the Iowa City Police Department. Both agencies are working out of older buildings that struggle to support their current operations. Sheriff Brad Kunkel says the current jail is overcrowded.

“Both entities, the county and the city, need new buildings for public safety. And the concept of joining under the same roof has been around for a long time. This really presents the opportunity where we either need to rule it in or out.”

The new jail would have 140 beds, while the current jail has 92 beds. The study shows that building a joint facility would cost nearly $10 million less than building separate facilities for each agency.

According to a survey conducted by the University of Iowa, the new jail has broad support. Between 75-80% of the community supports building a new facility.

Cedar Rapids high schools are seeing a nearly 50% drop in students charged with crimes as a result of an effort by schools, city law enforcement and a local nonprofit to prevent group violence.

The number of higher schoolers in Cedar Rapids charged with crimes dropped from 69% in the last academic year to just 35% this year — that’s almost a 50% decrease.

Janessa Carr, the safe and secure learning environment administrator for the school district, says she’s been working with local police and the human services nonprofit, Foundation 2, to address conflicts that flare up between groups of students.

“When we know what's happening outside of school, we’re able to better assist inside of school, to help with some of students who are struggling. We’re able to intervene before something goes to a charge. We’re able to make a referral to an agency.”

Carr says the efforts have resulted in a 65% drop in charges against Black students, who were previously charged at a rate six times that of white students.

Iowa State University

The Iowa Economic Development Board approved a $10 million grant for a partnership between Iowa State University’s Research Park and an institute called BioMADE.

Kevin Moore, chief technology officer with Biobased Products, says the institute will build a fermentation facility.

“There are many products today made by fermentation, things like amino acids that go into feed rations, food ingredients, like specialty sweeteners and vitamins, like vitamin C.”

Moore says bioplastics used in packaging are also made through fermentation. He says the ISU partnership will be one of eight public-private entities mainly supported by the U.S. Department of Defense that cover different ranges of technologies.

According to Moore, it will help early-stage companies by providing engineering data and customer samples to help secure larger investments.

“Quite literally hundreds of them that have developed fermentation technologies that are looking to scale up and de-risk and prove to investors that it’s worthwhile to build a full-scale facility.”

BioMADE is contributing $20 million to the project and ISU will add another $10 million of in-kind support. The facility will be built at ISU’s BioCentury Research Farm in Boone, with operations starting in 2028.

By one measure, summers in the middle of the country have actually gotten cooler.

The Midwest and Great Plains are in what some scientists call a “warming hole” — summertime high temperatures have gotten measurably cooler in recent decades.

Zack Leasor, Missouri’s state climatologist, says the trends differ slightly from what scientists are seeing around the world.

“Our climate is changing, but just a little bit differently than the general trend that we talk about nationally or globally. We're still seeing these warming temperatures, but it looks different than other locations.”

From eastern Texas and Louisiana up through the Dakotas and Minnesota, the average high daily temperatures have been cooler in recent decades than they were in the middle of the 1900s.

But these same areas have still seen an average warming trend, mainly driven by hotter overnight temperatures and winters. Local climate scientists say this is an example of the Midwest’s unique flavor of climate change.

Read more from Harvest Public Media’s Katie Grumke.

Democratic state Rep. J.D. Scholten ended his U.S. Senate campaign and is now backing a candidate who entered the race last week.

Scholten, who’s from Sioux City, is in the middle of his second term in the Iowa House and has endorsed fellow Iowa House Rep. Josh Turek of Council Bluffs.

In a written statement, Scholten said since the beginning of his campaign, he thought “a prairie populist athlete from western Iowa would be the best candidate to win in the general election.”

Scholten, who played professional baseball in seven countries, came out of retirement and has been pitching for the Sioux City Explorers since last summer. Turek was a member of Team USA’s wheelchair basketball team at four Paralympic Games and played wheelchair basketball in Europe.

Scholten said there’s “no better Democrat” than Turek to talk about health care issues in the 2026 race for Iowa’s U.S. Senate seat, currently held by Republican Sen. Joni Ernst.

Three other Democrats are campaigning for the seat in 2026: Nathan Sage, executive director of the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce, state Sen. Zach Wahls from Coralville and Des Moines School Board Chair Jackie Norris.

Last week at a conservative club meeting, Ernst said “bring it on” when discussing the field of Democrats lining up in hopes of running against her in the midterms.

As Iowa kids prepare to go back to school, health experts are urging parents to make sure their children are up to date on their measles vaccination.

State officials have confirmed eight cases of measles in Iowa since May.

According to state data, 84% of Iowa children received two doses of the MMR vaccine last year. This is below the 90% threshold experts consider herd immunity.

Karen Brust, a hospital epidemiologist at University of Iowa Health Care, says since the MMR vaccine is 97% effective against the virus, it’s the best way to get protected.

“The MMR vaccine still is the number one way to prevent getting sick, and most importantly, to prevent severe illness, especially in that highly vulnerable population of very young, very old or immunocompromised.”

If someone suspects they are experiencing symptoms of measles, Brust says they should call ahead to alert their health care provider before going in for medical attention.

Petitioners in Cedar Rapids gathered enough signatures to put the school district’s $117 million bond referendum on the ballot this November.

Supporters needed to collect at least 5,357 signatures. Over the weekend, they surpassed that number.

If voters approve the referendum in the fall, it will support renovations and upgrades to at least three middle schools and one high school.

It’s expected to raise property taxes in the area by an average of $7.47 per month. An earlier proposal would have cost homeowners nearly twice as much before administrators revised it.

Photo Courtesy of League of United Latin American Citizens in Denison.

The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) is reviewing the police shooting of a man in Denison on Friday night. More than 50 people gathered Sunday for a peaceful protest in response to the shooting in the northwest Iowa town.

Patty Ritchie, an activist with the League of United Latin American Citizens in Denison, attended the protest. She says the man who died was Cuban, homeless and battled mental health issues. So far, authorities haven’t released his identity.

“It is a horrific event for everybody. The police department is hurting. The Latino community and the community as a whole is hurting. This is not something that we wanted to happen or expected to happen.”

The protesters marched from the park, where the man was shot and killed, to the police station, where they met with the police chief.

Ritchie says there are still many questions that hopefully will be answered after DCI concludes its investigation. She says there aren’t enough local services to help people who are experiencing homeless or mental health crises.

Story County is appealing a case involving carbon dioxide pipelines to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Summit Carbon Solutions sued Story and Shelby counties in 2022 for ordinances that could affect where CO2 pipelines are built and add extra required steps for pipeline companies. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Summit last year, saying setback and emergency response plans are preempted by federal and state law.

One of the 8th Circuit Court judges disagreed with the court’s interpretation of federal law taking precedence over county-level setbacks for pipelines.

Sheila Brummer

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Iowa Public Radio

Iowa’s 4^th District Rep. Randy Feenstra says he will decide in the next three weeks if he’s running for governor. The three-term incumbent Republican from Hull has run television ads and formed an exploratory committee. However, he hasn’t officially announced his intentions for Iowa’s highest office.

“We wanted to wait till summer is over with. Everybody's on vacation, going to the fair. No one cares about politics at this point. But when kids go back to school, then everybody's refocused. That's when we're gonna make a decision.”

During the past few weeks, he has visited communities outside the 4^th District, including Davenport and Muscatine. Feenstra made his comments Friday at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.

So far, the Republicans officially in the race for governor are state Rep. Eddie Andrews and former state Rep. Brad Sherman. Democrats who have thrown their hats in the ring include Iowa State Auditor Rob Sand and Julie Stauch of West Des Moines.

A Muscatine man has been detained as a witness in a carjacking case in part because he’s in the U.S. without legal status. His lawyer is asking for his release and for a certificate preventing his deportation.

Jesus Hernandez was shot when two people allegedly tried to steal his car. After recovering in the hospital, he went to pick up his car from law enforcement. That’s when immigration enforcement officials detained him.

His attorney, Emily Rebelsky, says Hernandez was detained because Muscatine County Attorney Jim Barry thought Hernandez wouldn’t be able to accept a subpoena to testify due to his lack of legal status.

“On June 25, Jesus went to get his car back from the Muscatine impound and was ICE detained at the Muscatine County Jail. People should not be afraid to go to law enforcement when they need help. What is unsafe for my immigrant neighbor is unsafe for the entire community.”

Rebelsky is also asking the county attorney to sign a U visa, which would protect Hernandez from deportation so he can testify.

Iowa’s 3^rd District Rep. Zach Nunn introduced a bill aimed at expanding affordable housing in rural areas. The bill includes changes to U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Housing Service, a loan and grant program that supports housing and community facilities in rural areas.

The bill would make it easier for housing nonprofits, like Habitat for Humanity, to acquire affordable housing when their affordability restrictions are about to expire. It specifically targets properties subsidized through USDA loans, which could normally convert to market-rate housing after the loans end.

It would also allow loan guarantees for homes with in-home daycares and would make changes to a home repair loan and grant program to make it less burdensome to get smaller loans.

Nunn says the bill also includes money for IT upgrades.

“It modernizes the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s technology and staffing to help speed up those applications so that a homeowner is not spending months, sometimes years, waiting for the opportunity of home ownership,”

Nunn, a Republican, introduced the bill with Missouri Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver. Nunn says the bill is moving through committee in both the U.S. House and Senate.

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley says he’s prepared to support federal control over the Washington, D.C., police force beyond 30 days if President Donald Trump asks for it.

Grassley says he supports the Home Rule Act that gave the district control over its own government. But he also supports the president’s stated goal to reduce crime in the nation’s capital.

“When you’ve got to protect life and property, and things of that nature, and the local community in in Washington, D.C., is not doing it, then I think it's important.”

The U.S. Justice Department reported violent crime reached a 30-year low across Washington last year.

Trump has also said he may not consult with Congress to extend the federal takeover if it’s what he calls a national emergency. Grassley says that would raise more questions about how Trump would authorize that decision.

Americans are losing their starry views to light pollution. But some communities are making lighting decisions to help preserve night skies, while also benefiting wildlife and human health.

The night sky as seen with human eyes is getting about 10% brighter per year in North America, according to a study in the journal Science. Artificial light emanating upward into the night sky creates skyglow, and that glow is increasingly erasing stars from human view.

Most states and communities in the Midwest have no local rules or policies in place to curb that trend. But in northern Missouri, state park staff, college students and faculty are taking action that reflects a fledgling movement in the Midwest to hold onto the night.

At Thousand Hills State Park, the staff has spent three years planning, taking inventory, getting community support and fixing problematic outdoor lighting on the 3,000-acre property.

Workers have been installing fully shielded fixtures to point light downward, preventing glare and reducing skyglow, and they’ve been putting amber-colored bulbs inside those fixtures. These serve the human eye better at night than bright white bulbs, and they disrupt wildlife less.

Campers and stargazers will be able to see and move around safely while better enjoying nighttime at the park.

Read more from Harvest Public Media.

Leaders of Des Moines Water Works say the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was wrong to take parts of the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers off of the agency’s impaired waters list.

In July, the EPA reversed a decision made under the Biden administration to target sections of the rivers for cleanup based on high nitrate levels.

The Des Moines Water Works Board of Trustees said in a statement it’s becoming harder to manage nitrates in the rivers to keep drinking water within legal limits. Lawn watering in the metro area was banned for the first time this summer to help nitrate removal systems keep up with demand.

Des Moines Water Works CEO Amy Kahler says removing the rivers from the impaired list does not match the realities utilities face.

The EPA said in a statement that it’s sharing data on spring and summer nitrate levels with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and is working with the state to ensure water quality standards are met.

Madeleine Charis King

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Iowa Public Radio

The U.S. Department of Energy proposed cutting hundreds of millions of dollars in its budget for renewable energy programs. Secretary Chris Wright discussed the agency’s approach during a tour of the Ames National Laboratory at Iowa State University.

Wright says he supports technologies that contribute to U.S. energy.

“But wind, solar and batteries provide 3% of the United States energy, yet the majority of the budget at the Department of Energy. That's just nonsensical.”

Ember, a global energy think tank, reports wind and solar last year provided a combined 17% of U.S. energy, surpassing coal for the first time.

Wright says priorities for the agency include nuclear and next-generation geothermal.

“We have to stabilize our electricity grid. We need to get away from the nonsense that somehow we're not going to use fossil fuels in the near future.”

The U.S. Department of Energy removed the National Climate Assessment from its website earlier this year. Wright says climate change is a “true physical phenomenon” but not the “world’s greatest problem.”

Read the full story.

A Davenport man has been charged in the murder of Trudy Appleby, an 11-year-old girl who disappeared from Moline, Illinois, in 1996.

After nearly three decades searching for answers, police arrested Jamison Fisher. A grand jury in Henry County, Illinois, indicted Fisher Wednesday. He was already being held at the Scott County Jail in Davenport on what police say are unrelated charges.

Fisher is believed to have been a family friend of a different suspect who died in 2014. Police say they have not yet recovered Appleby’s remains, and the investigation is ongoing.

Dozens of Iowa school districts will be starting classes soon without a full roster of full-time teachers and staff.

As of Thursday morning, the state’s Teach Iowa website shows public and private K-12 schools have nearly 3,800 openings for all sorts of positions, from coaches to cooks to teachers.

Professor Mark McDermott, associate dean of the University of Iowa’s College of Education, says it’s difficult to generalize and say the state is experiencing a “significant” teacher shortage.

“Anytime that there’s a school district that is in need of hiring a particular teacher and hasn’t been able to fill a particular position, for that school and that school district, that is a teacher shortage.”

Iowa has more than half a million students enrolled in nearly 330 public districts and over 180 private schools. State education officials say there are more educators in Iowa classrooms today than ever before, with a 10% increase in the total number of teachers in the past 12 years.

Republican Rep. Zach Nunn says he doesn’t want to place more federal regulations on communities to solve Iowa’s water quality issues.

The Des Moines Register reports that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency took parts of the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers off a list of waters targeted for cleanup. The change happened in July while the metro area was under a lawn watering ban because of high nitrates.

Nunn represents Iowa’s 3rd District, which includes the Des Moines metro. When asked whether he agrees with the EPA’s decision, Nunn deferred to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin.

“I want to take an Iowa solution back to Washington, D.C., not have D.C. put more regulations on communities across the country in a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. We know that doesn't work.”

The EPA said in a statement that it’s working with the state to ensure water quality standards are upheld. Des Moines Water Works issued a statement Thursday saying the EPA’s decision does not fit the reality utilities face in managing high nitrate levels.

State officials have confirmed the first case of West Nile virus in Iowa this year. The affected individual is between the ages of 41 and 60 and is from northern Iowa.

West Nile virus is transmitted through infected mosquitoes. Many people experience no symptoms or minor ones from the virus, but some can develop serious symptoms, like high fever, headaches, disorientation and muscle weakness. People with severe symptoms should seek medical attention.

Last year, 21 Iowans were diagnosed with the virus, and one person died as a result.

Officials say Iowans should take caution when outside, wear long sleeves and bug spray and avoid standing pools of water where mosquitoes reproduce.

Read more about how to protect yourself from mosquito bites.

Iowa Workforce Development Director Beth Townsend says the state’s unemployment rates held steady in July.

“Unemployment remained at 3.7% and our labor force participation also remained the same in July, at 67.4%.”

Townsend says the data does show some positive signs, including that July was the first month in a several months that unemployment did not increase, something she says is a “good sign.”

“We added 1,800 Iowans to the workforce, another good sign. Not enough to move the needle in terms of the labor force participation rate, but it’s still a good sign to be adding more workers.”

She says there were 11,000 more people working this July compared to one year ago.

“We’ve had some layoffs in the last 12 months, and so the fact that we still have 11,000 more Iowans with jobs is a good indication that we’re able to absorb and recover from those layoffs.”

Unemployment had gone up one-tenth of a percent in March, April, May and June. The national unemployment rate increased to 2.4% in July.

Head Start preschool programs for low-income families will now require proof of legal status for kids to enroll. Program directors in Des Moines are waiting for more federal guidance on how to move forward after the U.S. Department of Education revised its eligibility policies in July.

Lisa Proctor, the Head Start director at Drake University, says she’s not sure how verification will affect the community. The program has never had to verify citizenship in its 60-year history.

“Thinking through what it might mean and additional information they may have to produce to even be able to access our services could impact beyond just those that they think this new policy might target.”

She’s worried both citizens and noncitizens would stop enrolling because of the extra paperwork.

Drake University’s Head Start program serves around 1,000 children in six counties.

An Iowa Supreme Court justice has recused himself from a case surrounding the deadly collapse of a Davenport apartment building in 2023. The accident killed three people, and one woman had her leg amputated onsite.

A statement from the Iowa Judicial Branch says Justice Thomas Waterman decided to step away from the case because his former law firm is involved. The firm represents the city of Davenport and two city officials who are named in the lawsuit.

Judges must recuse themselves if they think their impartiality might be questioned.

The Iowa Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments in early October.

John Pemble

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Iowa Public Radio

Gov. Kim Reynolds says she has not encouraged the Iowa DOGE Task Force she appointed this spring to make certain recommendations.

“This is an independent group. I’m not sitting in on the meetings. I haven’t been talking to them and I want them, honestly, independently looking.”

The governor’s comments come after a member of the DOGE task force said last week that changing the pension system for public sector employees is an idea worth considering to trim government spending. It would mean flipping to a 401(k)-like system, where retirement income comes from investments.

House Speaker Pat Grassley and Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver say Republicans in the Legislature have no interest in making those changes. Reynolds says that when she appointed members to the task force, she made it clear nothing was off limits and that changing the Iowa Public Employees Retirement System (IPERS) has been discussed before.

“Not to touch anybody that’s in it, but to take a look at new people coming in [to IPERS] … This is a very complex issue. It’s a very sensitive issue. I’m counting on it. My daughter, who is a teacher, is counting on it.”

State Auditor Rob Sand, who’s running for governor as a Democrat, says changing IPERS would break a deal made with public employees of the past and the future. He says they work for less than what they’d earn in the private sector, with the promise of a steady pension when they retire.

The DOGE task force Reynolds assembled plans to vote on recommendations in the coming weeks and present a final report at the end of September.

A Brazilian company that’s the world’s largest meat processor is buying a Hy-Vee food preparation facility in central Iowa that closed this spring.

Hy-Vee used the facility in Ankeny to make sandwiches, salads, bakery items and take-and-bake pizzas. JBS will retool the plant and make fully cooked, ready-to-eat bacon and sausage. JBS is hoping to hire some of the Hy-Vee employees who were laid off when production starts next year.

JBS operates plants in Council Bluffs, Marshalltown and Ottumwa and is building a plant in Perry to produce fresh sausage.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is estimating a record corn crop this year.

The projected harvest of 16.7 billion bushels would surpass the previous record by more than a billion bushels. Nationally, the average yield per acre is expected to be over 188 bushels, which is also a record. In Iowa, that number is even higher, at 222 bushels.

“Here in August is when USDA does its first farmer survey where they ask farmers, 'What do you think you're gonna receive as a harvest this fall?' And that's telling you that farmers told USDA that this is an amazing crop as they look out there right now,” says Chad Hart, Iowa State University ag economist.

Hart says the numbers could change before the final figures come out in January. Corn futures fell in response to the news of a record crop, and Hart says prices are currently below the cost of production.

He says it remains to be seen if increased exports and ethanol production will keep corn prices from dropping much further.

Lucia Cheng

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Iowa Public Radio

Donations to one refugee resettlement agency in Iowa helped them weather the loss of federal funding.

The nonprofit Lutheran Services in Iowa (LSI) lost all its federal funding for its refugee resettlement program when the Trump administration ordered them to stop work.

Without the funding, around 200 refugees would’ve lost access to critical support, like housing, employment and health care. But Nick Wuertz, director of immigrant and refugee community services, told supporters at an event in Des Moines that the community’s response was immediate and generous. Donations ranged from $10 to $200,000.

“This impacted organizations all across the country, and some people were put in a position where they had to make staff layoffs immediately, and within the next couple of weeks, they were laying staff off, they were closing services. But we didn't have to do that because of you.”

Wuertz says all of the refugee families LSI served are now self-sufficient and employed thanks to the nearly 600 people who donated to help fill the gap.

A large section of the Heart of Iowa Nature Trail in central Iowa is now paved. The bicycle trail stretches 32 miles through Story and Marshall counties.

It was mostly made up of crushed limestone. But now a 21-mile section in Story County, from Slater to Collins, has been replaced with concrete. Luke Hoffman, executive director of the Iowa Bicycle Coalition, says paving the trail makes it accessible to more cyclists.

“So, it really puts Iowa and all the really small towns, like Slater and Collins and Maxwell, on the map nationally. And it makes them part of something that's bigger than, not only themselves as towns, but part of the trail network, and also part of the Great American Rail-Trail.”

The Great American Rail-Trail is a project to connect Washington, D.C., to Washington state with a multi-use trail through 12 states. Currently, it’s a little over halfway done.

Story County Conservation started the pavement project in 2019 with a price tag of about $7.5 million. Most of the funding came from federal and state grants, while 10% was funded through private donations.

New policy revisions approved by the Iowa Board of Regents Tuesday say teachers should instruct in a way that avoids “indoctrination of one perspective.” The board also says faculty may teach controversial topics if they are relevant to the course content. The changes do not include guidelines for what could be considered indoctrination or a controversial topic.

Regent Nancy Dunkel voted against the revisions, saying they do not clarify existing policy. Rather, they impose restrictions on academic freedom.

“If a professor has to present both sides to an issue, does that mean a marketing professor must also include anti-capitalist arguments to students? Do anti-evolution arguments have to be presented in biology classes? How do you present both sides to the Holocaust?”

Other regents say the revisions encourage balanced instruction and that students should have an understanding of both sides of controversial topics.

The board approved the policy revisions 7-1, which go into effect immediately.

Read more.

Madeleine Charis King

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Iowa Public Radio

U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst highlighted her accomplishments and her relationship with the Trump administration Wednesday morning at a conservative club in the Des Moines suburbs.

Ernst says she has a good relationship with President Donald Trump, which has helped her get things done for Iowans.

She says she got the Trump administration to extradite a man from Honduras, who police said caused the car crash that killed Council Bluffs resident Sarah Root in 2016. Ernst also says she convinced Trump to increase the safety net for commodity farmers in the “Big Beautiful Bill.”

Ernst hasn’t announced that she’s running for reelection, but she says 2026 will be a big year — and she says Democrats don’t stand a chance.

“I love it. Every day we get a new Democratic member of the House or Senate that decides to run for this Senate seat. Bring it on. Bring it on, folks. Because I tell you, at the end of the day, Iowa is going to be red.”

So far, five Democrats have announced they’re running to unseat Ernst in 2026.

Read more.

Madeleine Charis King

The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declined to comment Tuesday on the decision to remove five Iowa rivers — including the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers — from the impaired waters list.

The Des Moines Register reports the EPA told state officials in July that it reversed the Biden-era decision to target those rivers for pollution control. The decision was made at the same time Central Iowa Water Works was struggling to keep drinking water below the federal limit for nitrates and banned lawn watering.

While EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin was in Iowa Tuesday with U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, he was asked why the EPA took the rivers off the impaired waters list.

“I’ve heard a lot of excitement today as I’ve gone through my travels, as far as being able to comment further on any announcement. That’s something that I had not announced yet and will be happy to do in the coming days.”

A Food and Water Watch official says Trump’s EPA is callously turning its back while Iowa faces a crisis of nitrate contamination in major urban drinking water supplies.

A group called the Nishnabotna Water Defenders is looking for volunteers to monitor water quality in the river’s watershed in southwest Iowa.

In March 2024, a fertilizer leak from NEW Cooperative in Red Oak into the East Nishnabotna River caused Iowa’s largest fish kill in a decade. In late July, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird announced a settlement with NEW Cooperative. 

Terry Langan, an organizer of the group, said as far as he knows, Bird’s office didn’t talk with landowners affected by the spill before announcing the settlement.

“We can't find one person anywhere that was contacted by the Attorney General's Office, as far as to see if they were hurt by this, if their quality of life has been affected since this spill. Nothing. There's no public comment period anywhere that we're aware of, and we've been talking to a lot of people for a year and a half, all up and down the river.”

Langan says it’s up to local residents along the Nishnabotna River and its tributaries to monitor water quality as the state scales back. He says the Nishnabotna Water Defenders is offering free nitrate test kits.

State Rep. Josh Turek of Council Bluffs is the latest Democrat to announce a campaign for Republican U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst’s seat.

Turek says he knows what it takes to win after narrowly winning his Statehouse seat in the 2022 election in an area of the state that usually elects Republicans.

“I hear a lot of buyers’ remorse, particularly about Joni Ernst. ‘I voted for Ernst, but she’s gone DC.’ I think with this most recent Big Beautiful Bill, where she is voting to gut health care to poor children and to disabled, and to cut SNAP benefits — food assistance — merely to make tax cuts for large corporations and billionaires, is just frankly immoral.”

Turek, 46, has spina bifida and won gold medals as a Paralympian. He plans to focus on health care, family farmers, clean air and water and reducing Iowa’s growing cancer rates.

“Iowans deserve to have a senator that is going to work for them, that is going to work for the middle class, for working families, and is going to be a genuine populist, going to go out there, work hard to solve the problems of Iowans, not play political games and not just look out for billionaires and corporate interests.”

Ernst has not announced plans for reelection, but recently said she would make the announcement soon.

Turek is the fifth Democrat to launch a bid to unseat Ernst. Other Democrats in the race include state Sen. Zach Wahls of Coralville, state Rep. J.D. Scholten of Sioux City, former Knoxville Chamber of Commerce Director Nathan Sage and Des Moines School Board Chair Jackie Norris.

Republicans already in the race are former state Sen. Jim Carlin of Sioux City and Joshua Smith, a veteran from Indianola.

Read more.

Sen. Joni Ernst is proposing a bill to end the U.S. Postal Service’s plan to buy electric vehicles for its fleet of delivery vehicles. A bill signed by President Joe Biden in 2022 provided $1.2 billion to the Postal Service to buy electric vehicles, something Ernst says was “not a smart move.”

Thousands of trucks have been ordered, but Ernst says the Wisconsin contractor making some of those EVs had only delivered 100 vehicles as of this spring.

“They are so far behind schedule, they will never be able to fulfill that contract … We know that electric vehicles don’t perform as well in the northern climates, so it didn’t make sense for the Postal Service to invest so heavily in an all-electric force.”

The Republican from Red Oak calls her bill the “Return to Sender Act.” She says whatever hasn’t been spent buying EVs to deliver the mail should be returned to the government.

Officials say the Postal Service would face substantial costs if its contract with Wisconsin-based Oshkosh Defense is canceled. The Postal Service is also buying over 9,000 E-Transit electric vans from Ford.

USPS currently has about 7,200 electric vehicles.

The University of Iowa is ending two long-running writing programs at the end of the year.

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences oversees both the Iowa Summer Writing Festival and the Iowa Youth Writing Project. The college said in a statement that the programs have faced ongoing funding and resource challenges.

The Iowa Summer Writing Festival has brought adult writers to Iowa City each summer since 1987 for in-person workshops. The Iowa Youth Writing Project has provided free creative writing workshops to young people across the state since 2010.

The programs will officially end Dec. 31.

Gov. Kim Reynolds directed the Iowa National Guard to help with federal immigration enforcement efforts. The governor’s announcement follows similar deployments in other Republican-led states, including Idaho, Nevada and Virginia.

In the announcement, Reynolds says 20 Iowa National Guard members will help Iowa-based immigration enforcement officers with administrative and logistical support. Reynolds has said U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem approached governors directly, asking for their help in carrying out the president’s mass deportation agenda.

The agreement was finalized by the U.S. Department of Defense and will go into effect Sept. 8 to Nov. 15.

The immigrants’ rights group, Escucha Mi Voz, condemned the deployment before the announcement, saying it represents an unprecedented escalation in anti-immigrant policy.

Reynolds previously authorized the Iowa National Guard to help with border security in 2023 and 2024.

Another video appearing to show a state university employee talking about skirting diversity, equity and inclusion laws has surfaced. It shows an Iowa State University staff member saying employees are “finding loopholes” in laws restricting DEI programs and offices.

The conservative website Accuracy In Media published the video Sunday. It’s edited and doesn’t have a time stamp.

In a statement, the university says it appears the video was filmed around a year ago, which would have been before the Board of Regents' deadline for compliance.

In the video, Co-Curricular Student Development Director Susan Harper says employees are looking for ways to stay in compliance and "still do the work that needs to be done.”

Two University of Iowa employees are now on leave after similar undercover videos surfaced in the past two weeks.

Chris Barragy

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KLKK photo

The Immersive Music Experience will open next month in the new Music Enrichment Center beside the Surf Ballroom & Museum in Clear Lake. The center promises to be a permanent, first-of-its-kind experience honoring the legacies of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson.

Surf CEO Brian Luallen says cutting-edge technology will tell the story of the ballroom’s history.

“When I say immersive, what I’m talking about is the fact that you are surrounded by incredible original art, archival videos, special effects on all surfaces. It really responds to the fact that younger kids just consume information in a different way, and we need to make sure we’re preserving the Surf’s story and legacy for future generations.”

Holly, Valens and Richardson were killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake in 1959 following a show called the Winter Dance Party at the ballroom. Luallen says the new center will allow an array of artifacts from that era to go on display.

“We’ve also had the original microphone from the very last performance at the Winter Dance Party that Buddy sang into return to the fold, and that’s going to be on display with a brand-new jacket that Buddy Holly left after his last performance in San Antonio. These are really powerful items. It also gives us a chance to take several things that have been in our collection that are intimately associated with those three stars, and many other musicians, and put them on prominent display.”

Opening festivities start Sept. 4 with a book signing and a special preview, leading up to the full exhibit debut and ribbon-cutting Sept. 7, what would have been Holly’s 89th birthday.

The so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” signed into law last month significantly shortened the timeline for wind and solar energy tax credits, and the U.S. Treasury may issue a new rule this month that could make it harder to qualify for the credits even before they expire.

Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley recently announced he will delay three presidential nominees to the Treasury unless the agency follows what he says is the intent of Congress.

“We made very clear in the legislation that the practice of the last 10 years, both from the standpoint of the regulation, as well as the guidelines, was what should be followed as a result of the compromise that we made in the United States Senate.”

The U.S. Departments of the Interior and Transportation have also released new policies for wind and solar projects and have indicated more are coming.

Renewable energy developers, technicians and advocates recently gathered at the Iowa State Fair for a Power Up Iowa exhibit.

Jason Grumet, the CEO for the American Clean Power Association, says Iowa is a success story for renewable energy, especially wind.

“We have been on just a strong path for the last 20 years, but unfortunately, there's so much kind of uncertainty in politics in Washington right now, it's not clear whether the Iowa success story is going to be allowed to continue.”

Around 60% of Iowa’s net generation of electricity comes from wind energy – the highest share of any state.

Several federal agencies have issued new regulations for wind and solar projects and signaled more are coming.

Read more.

A committee representing the former owners of a hospital in Iowa City has filed a complaint against Des Moines-based MercyOne. They claim MercyOne mismanaged the hospital before it went bankrupt.

Mercy Iowa City says that, as part of a 2017 agreement, MercyOne said it would fix Mercy Iowa City's faltering Electronic Health Records system. But that didn't happen until almost two and a half years past the agreed-upon deadline, eventually resulting in over $37 million in losses. In 2023, the hospital filed for bankruptcy.

Mercy Iowa City is also saying that a CEO that MercyOne provided was regularly absent and refused to wear a mask during the COVID-19 pandemic, putting workers at risk.

In total, it’s now asking for $55 million in relief.

The hospital is currently owned and operated by University of Iowa Health Care.

A new book from a retired University of Northern Iowa professor is dedicated to preserving more than two dozen remarkable tidbits from Iowa history, oddities and encounters most people have forgotten.

Author Roy Behrens‘ seventh book is called, “Dreams of Fields: Memory Traces of Iowa’s Past.” It’s a collection of essays that he says zeroes in on the accomplished and interesting people who aren’t John Wayne, Glenn Miller or Ashton Kutcher.

The book contains an account of a long-ago visit to Iowa by famed poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, who walked across the winter ice on the Mississippi River to speak in Iowa towns. There’s also the story of renowned surrealist painter Salvador Dali, who once made the journey to Iowa from Spain.

“He actually visited Cedar Falls. He spoke on campus in 1952 and surprisingly few people know about that because it was widely publicized at the time. He was very controversial, and of course, he was considered to be terribly eccentric.”

The 79-year-old Behrens, who lives near the northeast Iowa town of Dysart, retired in 2018 after more than 45 years of teaching graphic design, illustration and design history.

His book is now available for pre-order through the North Liberty-based Ice Cube Press, while Behrens will be formally launching the book Aug. 17 in an event at the Hearst Center for the Arts in Cedar Falls.

The Iowa Attorney General's Office has cleared officers who shot and killed a man during a July traffic stop in Dubuque County.

Officers from the Dubuque Drug Task Force and other area agencies stopped a truck driven by James Young Sherrill as part of an investigation. Officers say Sherrill initially shut the truck off, but started it again and struggled with Dubuque County Sheriff's Sgt. Adam Williams as Williams tried to get him out of the truck.

According to state officials, Williams used a stun gun on Sherrill, who then continued to resist officers and raised a handgun. Williams and Dubuque Police Officer Chad Leitzen shot at Sherrill. Officials say Sherrill resisted further, and Leitzen, Williams and Monticello Police Officer Cole Millard fired at Sherrill. He died on the way to a hospital.

A search of Sherrill’s truck revealed more than 5 pounds of methamphetamine and substances that appeared to be heroin, cocaine and marijuana.

The Board of Regents will consider a policy on Tuesday that would encourage free and open discussion among faculty and students over relevant controversial topics. It also says teachers should instruct in a way that avoids indoctrination of one perspective.

Michael Olsen is a professor of mechanical engineering at Iowa State University and the Faculty Senate president-elect. He says the policy mostly clarifies what are already considered to be best practices for teachers, but he has some questions about specific terms.

“You know, I agree. We should not be indoctrinating our students. We should not have our personal views, you know, dictate or affect the education that our students are having. But, you know, where is the line drawn between personal views and scholarly truth? Where is indoctrination, I don’t know, and I can’t read that from this policy.”

The policy originally limited instruction related to diversity, equity and inclusion — but the board revised it after receiving significant pushback.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has hinted that Iowa could become a destination for USDA jobs being moved out of Washington, DC.

She recently announced plans to move more than 2,000 jobs to North Carolina, Colorado, Utah, Missouri and Indiana.

Asked at the state fair why Iowa wasn’t picked, Rollins said “there are more announcements coming.”

“The bottom line is moving the power out of Washington, returning the government to the people, and having people that are better able to serve our constituents who are closer to them.”

Rollins says the USDA is giving $152 million to 19 rural development projects in Iowa. She also announced President Donald Trump has nominated Glen Smith of Atlantic to serve as Under Secretary of Rural Development at USDA.

U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst says she joins President Donald Trump in calling on Russia’s president to stop “the bloodbath” in Ukraine.

“I don’t want to see Ukraine lose land. That may happen, but the war needs to end. We’ve lost hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. Think about the children. It just needs to end, but it needs to end favorably for Ukraine and they need to know that Russia is not going to keep invading them.”

As a college student, Ernst went on an agricultural exchange to Ukraine in 1989. Ernst met and has kept in touch with a woman in Ukraine she calls her “little sister.”

“She is OK. Life is very, very hard in Ukraine.”

Ernst was at the Iowa State Fair this weekend and briefly spoke with reporters — about 24 hours after U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins hinted some USDA jobs in Washington, D.C., could be moved to Iowa.

Rollins has already said 2,600 USDA positions currently based in Washington are shifting to “hubs” in five other states. Ernst said having one hub nearby in Kansas City is “great,” but she said Iowa needs to be one of the USDA hubs.

“I would love to see some of those offices here in Iowa because literally Iowa feeds and fuels the world and I think we should have that representation here.”

During Trump’s first term, Ernst proposed moving 30% of USDA positions based in Washington to other locations. The current USDA reorganization calls for moving over half of D.C.-based USDA jobs to either Indianapolis, North Carolina, Kansas City, Colorado or Utah.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources estimates nearly 13% of the tree cover in the state’s urban areas was destroyed or damaged in the 2020 derecho. A new map from the department shows the impacts and recovery efforts since then.

Those trees helped save almost $7 million in estimated energy-related costs due to their cooling and windbreaking effects. They also stored more than a billion pounds of carbon.

The DNR estimates the toll of the loss of those trees comes out to more than $20 million per year. That's the value of the avoided emissions, sequestered carbon, absorbed air pollution and saved energy costs the trees provided. The downed trees also stored more than an estimated $90 million worth of carbon.

Ellie Jones, a community disaster recovery coordinator for the DNR, says the map provides more context on the damage the average person might not be aware of.

“I feel like a big reason why we wanted to make this in the first place is to kind of remind people that we haven't fully recovered, and that there was still a ton of stuff that we lost that we just don't necessarily think of every day.”

Overall, she says the state lost over 7 million trees. She says the loss of the trees has ripple effects for people in the communities.

“Quality of life is lowered because we have less things sequestered in our atmosphere and our air pollution is going to be higher as a result.”

Jones says some of the hardest-hit areas were places that didn’t have much urban canopy to begin with. Money from the state has helped plant around 9,000 trees. The funding wasn’t renewed this year.

The DNR says even though the program has been discontinued, the need for recovery has not.