Gov. Kim Reynolds has appointed a new Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) director after Senate Democrats blocked the confirmation of former Director Larry Johnson.

Reynolds has accepted Johnson’s resignation, who had the job since October. He needed a two-thirds vote in the Senate to keep his job, but Democrats voted against him. They said they saw diminished transparency and services under Johnson’s leadership. Reynolds said Democrats rejected Johnson for political reasons.

Now, Reynolds has appointed Department of Management Director Kraig Paulsen to also lead HHS. Paulsen has made Johnson the principal deputy director of HHS and will delegate many duties to him.

“Iowa HHS requires strong and experienced leadership at every level to ensure continuity of critical services such as Medicaid, SNAP and child protection, and Larry Johnson is exactly that leader,” Paulsen said in a statement.

Senate Democrats said Reynolds is circumventing the Senate’s role by reestablishing Johnson as the de facto head of HHS.

Natalie Krebs

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Iowa Public Radio

It’s been two weeks since the lawn watering ban went into effect for roughly 600,000 people in the Des Moines area, and Central Iowa Water Works (CIWW) reported that customer use has gone down.

CIWW initiated the lawn watering ban on June 9, saying its treatment plants were “struggling to keep up” with a spike in consumer demand and high nitrate concentrations in the Raccoon and Des Moines rivers. Executive Director Tami Madsen said customers have reduced their water usage, but the ban is still needed to preserve the drinking water supply.

“We are pleased with the response to the lawn watering ban,” Madsen said. “Members of the public have heard our request and have reduced their water usage.”

The regional water authority said the fastest way to reduce pressure on the system is through a ban on lawn watering, which typically consumes 40% of drinking water in the summer.

The Fleur Drive plant’s nitrate removal facility has been running for more than 160 days this year. The current record was set in 2015 with 177 days.

Madeleine Charis King

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Iowa Public Radio

Iowa State University will begin selling alcohol at Jack Trice Stadium and Hilton Coliseum this fall.

Athletics Director Jamie Pollard said the department worked with university leadership on other measures to raise revenue and contain costs.

“We are living in one of the most transformational periods in the history of college athletics,” Pollard wrote in a letter released Monday. “University athletic departments across the country are facing uncertainty and significant financial pressures from increasing costs.”

With alcohol sales, there will be some new rules for those attending games at Jack Trice Stadium. No one will be allowed to leave and re-enter. There will also be designated stop times for alcohol sales. Sales will be limited to two beverages per person, per sale, and alcohol will only be sold in certain areas of the stadium. 

Alcohol is already sold at the University of Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa stadiums and arenas.

A bill in the U.S. Senate that would allow year-round sales of E15 could cause soybean prices to fall. E15 is a biofuel made by blending gasoline with up to 15% corn-based ethanol.

Some experts say the legislation would motivate refineries to produce more ethanol over soybean-based biodiesel because of an exemption in the bill that allows small refineries to blend less biofuel overall. Ethanol is also cheaper to produce.

Gretchen Kuck, an economist for the National Corn Growers Association, said corn price gains would outweigh any soybean losses.

“Even if I look at the decrease compared to the baseline for soy, a farm growing an equal amount of corn and soybeans is still going to have a net gain of $5 an acre,” Kuck said.

However, a University of Missouri analysis found rising corn prices might not offset a drop in soybeans.

The bill is still making its way through the Senate.

Read more from Harvest Public Media.

Madeleine C King

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Iowa Public Radio

The Iowa Supreme Court has upheld a lower court opinion dismissing a human trafficking charge against a Polk County man.

Kevin Lind was charged with human trafficking after police said he negotiated with an undercover police officer to have sex with her and what he thought was her underage daughter. He was shown fake photos of the girl, as there was not an actual daughter. Lind faced a possible life sentence.

The district court dismissed the charge, saying there was no actual victim in the case. The Iowa Supreme Court upheld the ruling, saying the 2024 law did not allow the charge in this type of situation. The law was changed in 2025 to allow prosecution to specifically address this type of case.

Natalie Dunlap

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Iowa Public Radio.

Iowans will soon start seeing data from the University of Iowa’s new INSIGHT program that studies the effects of environmental exposure on human health. The Iowa Integrated Network for Science, Information, and Geospatial Health Tracking program, called INSIGHT, is a five-year, $10 million initiative that begins July 1.

David Cwiertny, one of directors at INSIGHT, said the launch data was selected partly because it’s a new fiscal year. While his team won’t be doing much monitoring over the winter, he said they already have plenty of data to analyze and present to the public.

“We've got existing projects we've been working on on arsenic in private wells that we want to share, PFAS in wells along the Mississippi River, things we've been doing on nitrate, things that we've been doing on pesticide drift,” Cwiertny said during a webinar with the Iowa Farmers Union. “You'll see little nuggets from us so that people understand this is the type of data we'll be collecting. This is where we're looking to find community partners and folks that want to work with us.”

INSIGHT is a collaboration between the UI’s Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination and IIHR—Hydroscience and Engineering. 

Iowa Realtors

Iowa Realtors Association data shows the number of Iowa home sales in May jumped 17.3% compared to April. The sharp rise indicates the start of a healthy summer market, according to Iowa Realtors President Erik Melloy.

“May's numbers reflect a market that is both active and balanced,” Melloy said. “Buyers are benefiting from more inventory than we've seen in recent years, while sellers continue to see strong demand and steady price growth. The combination of increased inventory, rising sales and strong pending activity points to a productive summer ahead for Iowa's housing market.”

Homes were on the market for about 10 days in May, compared to 12 days in April. The median sales price for a home in May was $260,000 — 5.1% higher than the previous month.

The number of pending home sales was up 4.1% in May compared to a year ago.

In addition to single-family home sales, the report also tracks the sale of Iowa condos and townhomes. In May, it shows both a reduction in the median time on the market and an increase in the number of closed sales of condos and townhomes.

Rachel Cramer

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Iowa Public Radio

Every week on trash day, truckloads of waste are hauled off to three dozen landfills across the state. But some facilities are nearing the end of their lifespans, prompting communities to look elsewhere for places to get rid of their trash.

The Iowa Society of Solid Waste Operations sent a survey about landfill capacity to all 37 active locations in Iowa last year. Nearly one-third of the respondents said their landfills had fewer than 30 years left under their current permits.

Some, like the Wayne-Ringgold-Decatur County Sanitary Landfill in southern Iowa, have large properties and plan to build more cells to hold future waste. But others, including the Boone County Landfill in central Iowa, are essentially landlocked and quickly filling in the space they have.

“We are running out of room, and it’s not just the Boone County Landfill,” said John Roosa, administrator of Boone County Landfill & Recycling. “It’s starting to become a problem throughout the state.”

ISOSWO President Garrett Prestegard said landfill expansion options depend on the site’s geology and hydrology, along with permits and clearances at the federal, state and local levels. And building a new landfill can be difficult, Prestegard said. The last one that opened in Iowa was 30 years ago near Davenport.

“As landfilling options continue to decrease over time, it's likely going to lead to waste in the state being funneled to either out-of-state landfills or larger landfills in Iowa that have room to expand their facilities in the future,” he said.

Prestegard hopes the landfill capacity survey will spark discussions around future regional agreements and policies to reduce waste. Over 70% of the material in Iowa landfills is divertible, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ Landfill Material Analysis.

Roosa sees this first-hand in Boone.

“It’s hard to teach people to care. But hopefully they do,” Roosa said. “We’ve got to do something different.”

Roosa said all landfills run out of space eventually, and that’s a problem for everyone.

Read the full story.

Iowa PBS

Gov. Kim Reynolds said the two companies she hired to manage state government computer networks will not have access to Iowans’ personal data. During a taping of Iowa Press on Iowa PBS Thursday, the governor assured Iowans that their sensitive data, like Social Security and driver’s license numbers, is protected.

“There’s all kinds of contracts and MOUs [memorandum of understanding] and things that you have to sign,” Reynolds said, “And even when it came to like the HIPAA [Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act] data, we’ve got a form that you have to sign that you can’t release any of the information. They have absolutely no access to any of that data, and so there wasn’t any need for them to sign it because they can’t even access the information that we have.”

On June 10, Reynolds announced Cognizant Government Solutions will provide technical assistance to state agencies and employees using computers and Amazon Web Services will move all state government computer networks to the internet.

“We had 5,500 servers, and on top of that, we have 137 servers that were in closets that we didn’t even know about,” Reynolds said. “With this transition, we’ll have just world-class cybersecurity, we’ll be in the cloud, we’ll have industry-leading data storage and management.”

Reynolds said she signed the contracts with the two companies because IT services are not a core government function.

“We’re not very good at it because we can’t keep up with this rapidly changing environment,” she said. “That’s something the private sector should be doing.”

The governor estimates that the state will save over $525 million over the next decade by having the two companies manage state government computer networks. The contracts call for the State of Iowa to pay Amazon and Cognizant nearly $420 million over the next 10 years.

The Council Bluffs City Council has rejected a year-long pause on approving data center projects within city limits.

Council Bluffs council member Doug Rew said it would have sent the wrong signal to developers.

“They see a red stop sign,” Rew said, “And I’m not sure that’s the message that we would want to send right now, that we’re not open for business. The message I want to send is we’re open for business for every business that wants to come in here and look.”

Council Bluffs Mayor Jill Shudak proposed the 12-month moratorium after meeting with city staff. She said the pause would have given city officials time to update city regulations for data centers and address issues, like the capacity of the Council Bluffs sewer system.

Council Bluffs Public Works Director Matt Cox said the city is an attractive spot for data center development because the Missouri River is the city’s water source.

“They’ve looked all over the country … and they said, ‘Oh, they have something that we can use, let’s go there,'” Cox said. “So when we get a request, it’s for 1 million gallons a day or 2 million gallons a day, and so it only takes one or two projects and we’re at capacity.”

Cox estimated that with that amount of water, a data center’s drain on the city’s sewer system could roughly equal the amount of wastewater of about 4,000 homes. He said it would be helpful to have uniform guidelines because Council Bluffs city staff face aggressive timelines when developers file for data center permits.

“When we negotiate every project independently, it’s a drain on resources,” Cox said. “I also think it’s an unpredictability for the group that’s developing because it’s based on the deal.”

Several council members said issues can be sorted out on a case-by-case basis during negotiations with developers and businesses.

Iowa Workforce Development Director Beth Townsend said the May unemployment rate dropped slightly to 3.2% from 3.3% in April.

“We gained 3,400 jobs between April and May, which was a good sign,” she said.

The latest report shows Iowa’s labor force participation rate at 67.4%. Townsend sees Iowa’s job growth slowly moving up.

“We saw durable goods manufacturing increase by 600 jobs, which is a nice increase,” she said. “Construction remains 1,700 jobs ahead of where it was the same time last year, so that’s also a good sign. We’re trending in the right direction, even though it’s slow growth.”

Townsend said the state has added 8,200 jobs since February and that the state currently has 57,000 job openings.

Scientists are working toward creating devices that would let farmers track nutrient levels in their fields remotely. They’re using sheets of incredibly thin carbon called graphene to make an ink that can be printed onto sensors to detect phosphate.

Suprem Das, an associate professor at Kansas State University’s College of Engineering, said the ultimate goal is an electronic device that lets farmers easily monitor their soil.

“Right now, this fundamental sensor is working,” Das said. “Then we have to integrate that to existing electronics and send the data to your server and cloud.”

This could help farmers know when to apply fertilizer, and it could prevent them from overapplying, which could save them money and reduce water pollution.

The scientists hope to help farmers track nitrate this way, too.

Sen. Joni Ernst said the Trump administration needs to explain to Congress the terms of an initial deal to end the war with Iran. 

President Donald Trump signed a framework agreement Wednesday that declares an end to conflict on all fronts, lifts the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports and proposes ending all sanctions on Iran on an unspecified timeline. 

The framework also creates a $300 billion fund for reconstruction in Iran, which Reuters reported will be from private-sector funds. 

Ernst, a military veteran, said she’s asked the Trump administration to explain the initial agreement to Congress. On a call with reporters Thursday, the senator said the deal needs to ensure Iran will never be able to develop a nuclear weapon.        
                   
“Any agreement of this magnitude deserves careful review,” she said. “The Senate must examine the details to ensure it protects our nation and our allies. Iran can not be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon.”

The initial deal stipulates that the U.S. and Iran will negotiate a final deal within 60 days, though the deadline could be extended. 

Ernst is not running for reelection this fall. 

Iowa’s 3rd District Rep. Zach Nunn said Iran is weaker than ever after nearly four months of war with the U.S. and Israel.  
 
The Associated Press reported the current framework to end the war that was signed by President Donald Trump opens the door to remove all sanctions from the U.S. against Iran, including through the United Nations. 
 
Last year, Nunn sponsored legislation to strengthen sanctions against Iran. While in Des Moines on Thursday, Nunn said the U.S. is in a strong position as negotiations go forward. 

“I believe that we are in a much safer spot than we were, even four months ago, but I want to make sure that we keep that safety as we head into the summer,” Nunn said.
 
Nunn said his top priorities in the final agreement are preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons and funding terrorism.  
 
Nunn, a Republican, is seeking a third term.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy made a stop in Des Moines Thursday to tout federal funding for the city’s airport. Duffy visited alongside 3rd District Rep. Zach Nunn, who’s running for reelection this November. 

Duffy and Nunn highlighted a $26 million investment from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that will go toward updating the Des Moines International Airport’s air traffic control systems. 

Duffy said the funding will help replace displays for controllers and radar systems, among other improvements. He said the updated infrastructure benefits more than just Des Moines. 

“This is an important part of the country, not just this airport, but if you look at the products that come in that actually leave Iowa and come through Iowa — the arteries of transportation. Really, it's a crossroads here in your state,” Duffy said.

The officials toured the airport’s new terminal. The new wing will open in January 2027 and will eventually have 23 gates. The old terminal will be demolished.

A new coalition of community leaders and healthcare professionals are collaborating on a cancer plan for Polk County.

The Polk County Health Department is in the early stages of its Polk County Cancer Coalition, which aims to reduce the effects of cancer in the county. In July, the coalition will break off into focus groups that will work on increasing access to prevention, early detection and after-cancer care.  

Juliann Van Liew, director of the Polk County Health Department, said the coalition will draw from Iowa’s state cancer plan. She said they’re looking at existing solutions, like radon testing in homes.
“The answers are there for a lot of these areas, it’s just figuring out, ‘What are we going to prioritize, and what are we going to rally around and try to give resources to as a focus for us in Polk County?’” she said.

Van Liew said the coalition hopes to have a finalized cancer plan in January that will help them improve access to resources in Polk County.

This week, Juneteenth celebrations are taking place across the state.

It’s been five years since the day became a federal holiday, but celebrations of “Freedom Day,” marking the end of slavery, date back to 1865.

The Black Hawk County NAACP has celebrated the day since the 1990s. President Latanya Graves said “unity” is organization’s theme for 2026.

“With everything that's going on in the world, we need unity, we need peace, we need love,” Graves said. “It should just be spread broadly, spread all over. Connect with people.”

Festivities in Waterloo include cookouts, speeches and sports games. There are dozens of celebrations across Iowa, including a festival at the African American Museum of Iowa in Cedar Rapids and a party in Des Moines’ Western Gateway Park.

Gavin McGough

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Iowa Public Radio

Democratic nominee for governor Rob Sand launched a town hall tour of Iowa in his hometown of Decorah Wednesday night.

Since running for state auditor in 2018, he’s held an annual town hall in every Iowa county seat. The event in Decorah marked the start of Sand’s final 100 Town Hall Tour before the general election.

At the event, which his campaign estimates drew 350 people, Sand brought criticisms of the political status quo.

“I think our democracy is run by two private clubs, and they're not very interested in solving our problems,” he said. “I think they're more focused on helping their teammates beat up the other team than they are in actually addressing the issues that face all of us.”

Sand said those issues are high cancer rates, affordability and corruption.

Sand faces Republican businessman Zach Lahn in November.

Read more.

A report by the State Auditor’s Office found the state spent $329.6 million on the first year of its education savings account (ESA) program. The program makes tax dollars available to pay for private school tuition.  

The report found nearly 42,000 Iowa students were enrolled in private schools this past school year, which is 8,800 more students than the Iowa Department of Education estimated would be enrolled before the program went into effect. 

State Auditor Rob Sand said the number of private schools in the state has also increased. 

“You would have expected we’d have had 174 private schools in Iowa this calendar year,” he said. “In reality, now there are 232 — 58 more — representing a 25% increase.”

Sand, who is also the Democratic candidate for governor, said the number of private schools that have closed has also increased, leading to concerns about disruptions in children’s education.

Edwards Ari Force Base

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The Pentagon has announced an Iowa native is among the eight people killed in Monday’s B-52 plane crash at an Air Force base in California.

U.S. Air Force Maj. Brad Hovey, 35, who was born in Algona, was a pilot with the 419th Flight Test Squadron at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert. Hovey graduated from Adel-DeSoto-Minburn High School in 2009, according to a Facebook post from the school’s alumni association. In 2014, he earned an aerospace engineering degree from Iowa State University.

A long list of Iowa officials has issued statements offering condolences to Hovey’s family, including Gov. Kim Reynolds.

“Along with every Iowan, Kevin and I mourn the loss of Maj. Brad Hovey and we offer our sincere condolences and prayers for his family,” Reynolds said. “Again, we are reminded of the incredible sacrifice demanded of every American who chooses to serve our country. As we honor Maj. Hovey’s life and service, let us never forget the cost of our freedom.”

Hovey was one of six Air Force officers on the plane, along with two contractors for Boeing, the company that manufactures the B-52. Military officials said it may take up to six months to determine why the plane crashed shortly after takeoff.

The Pentagon said a modernized radar system had been installed in the plane at a Boeing plant in Texas and was part of a testing program aimed at keeping the fleet of B-52s operating through 2050.

Crews are making progress on the portion of a water trail project that goes through downtown Des Moines.

The Iowa Confluence Water Trails, known as ICON, will be a network of access points across central Iowa for recreation. The project involves modifying the Scott Avenue dam in the Des Moines River. The low-head dam’s dangerous undercurrent has been fatal in the past. 

ICON Executive Director Stephanie Oppel said the dam has been modified to get rid of the undercurrent. She said this allows more than just paddlers to safely pass through.
“Having that opportunity to have a greater range just makes stronger, healthier, more abundant fish and mussels and other aquatic species,” Oppel said.

Crews will start working on riverbank elements next. The two access points in Des Moines are expected to be completed by the spring of 2027 and 2028.

Des Moines City Council members are looking at ways to scale back services as the city braces for the impact of the state’s new property tax law. The law caps city and county general revenue growth at 2%, with some exceptions. 

City staffers and department directors are proposing leaving vacant positions unfilled. They also suggested cutting back on library hours, reducing park maintenance and getting rid of police neighborhood services. 

City employees warned cuts would lead to more delays and slower response times for city services.

“The reality is, and we can't be shy about acknowledging this, the City of Des Moines can no longer afford the assets and the level of service that we've been providing in the past,” said City Manager Scott Sanders.

Des Moines is currently projected to face a $12 million shortfall in the budget year starting in July 2027. Council members will approve final cuts in September after a public input period. Beginning June 29, Des Moines residents will have a chance to take an online survey to “solve the budget.”

A panel of rural Iowans said Tuesday that a declining rural economy and high cost of healthcare are top concerns as the nation celebrates its 250th anniversary. 

The community leaders spoke as part of the Rural Listening Project-250, a multistate research project assessing what rural Americans care about and said strong community involvement will be the best way to influence change.

In a series of polls and listening sessions, researchers asked rural communities in Alaska, Iowa, Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Indiana and Montana questions about urgent challenges facing rural America, concerns of federal overreach, modern functioning of the U.S. Constitution and the state of politics. 

Overall, respondents expressed concerns of executive overreach, a desire for age and term limits in office, a feeling that corporate money in politics was a “major threat” to decision-making and distrust in both major political parties. 

The majority of Iowa panelists said that while they have been independents in the past, they have recently aligned themselves with one of the major parties. 

Read more from the Iowa Capital Dispatch.

Woodbury County is looking to impose a moratorium on data centers in unincorporated areas of the county until officials can draft regulations.

The issue emerged after the town of Salix voluntarily annexed 900 acres of farmland in April. MidAmerican Energy confirmed the farmland is being evaluated for a potential data center site at a city council meeting on June 10.

People who live near the project site told the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors during a meeting on Tuesday that they weren’t notified of the annexation. Janet Yanak urged the board to pass the moratorium, even though they don’t have jurisdiction over the potential project in Salix.

“To ensure that another project doesn't appear before the supervisors have enacted strong regulations to protect our county and our environment,” Yanak said. “No data center is worth the life and health of one person.”

Woodbury County supervisors plan to put the moratorium on next week’s agenda and ask the county attorney to look into whether Salix leaders correctly followed state law.

“The county was blindsided as well,” Supervisor Mark Nelson said. “So, we're trying to create a process where people can help us dictate what happens to the rest of the county going forward.”

Meanwhile, the City of Salix would still need to rezone the property for the project to move forward.

Read more.

Dubuque County Sheriff's Office

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The Dubuque County Sheriff’s Office is urging people to double-check their wallets after receiving multiple reports of fake cash in circulation. The $20 bills look like real money but are marked “For Motion Picture Purposes” across the top and “In Props We Trust” on the back.

Sheriff Joe Kennedy told KCRG-TV he went on social media to warn people after a woman tried to use the fake money at a baseball game, claiming she got the bill as payment for a Facebook Marketplace transaction.

“These interactions can be a little awkward, so you want to get them over and done with as quickly as possible,” Kennedy said. “But people really need to take the time to look at the money and make sure that what they’re getting is actual U.S. currency.”

Three recent cases of counterfeit bills have been reported in the county. Kennedy advised individuals to check their cash stash, as there’s no sense of how many fake bills are out there.

The sheriff’s office is asking people to report any fake bills they come across.

The latest decision in a years-long legal battle orders the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to investigate the water quality of a stream in the northeast part of the state.

The Iowa Court of Appeals sided with a group of citizens known as the Driftless Water Defenders. For years, the environmental group has watched nitrate levels rise in Bloody Run Creek. The creek was one of Iowa’s cleanest streams until the DNR approved a 11,600-head cattle operation near its headwaters in 2017. The water defenders have argued the water pollution comes from nutrients in manure spread on nearby farm fields that can run off into the creek or seep into the groundwater.

James Larew, the group’s lawyer, said the stream is a symbol of Iowa’s declining water quality, and they want a good faith investigation.

“We filed this complaint, said we want an investigation. What is causing this very unhealthy amount of nitrate into one of Iowa's most pristine water bodies?” Larew said. “The DNR did nothing. It didn't respond, made no indication that it was investigating — just did nothing.”

Now, the DNR must investigate or appeal the decision to the Iowa Supreme Court. The DNR did not respond to request for comments.

An eastern Iowa plant that has supplied plastic parts to Whirlpool’s facility in Amana will shut down later this summer. Plastic Products notified state officials that its facility in West Branch is closing, affecting 77 employees.

KCRG-TV obtained a letter to the plant’s employees saying the closure is mainly due to reduced production at Whirlpool’s Iowa facility.

Whirlpool has laid off hundreds of workers at its Amana plant over the past year. In early June, the company announced its second shift production would end, affecting 288 workers.

The Plastic Products plant in West Branch is scheduled to close on Aug. 14.

Students at Iowa’s public universities could soon earn a degree with fewer credit hours. The new Bachelor of Applied Professional Studies degree approved by the Iowa Board of Regents will take just three years and 90 credits to complete.

The state’s three universities currently offer accelerated tracks, allowing ambitious students to complete 120 credit hours in a three-year timeline. But the new program reduces the number of credits needed to graduate by 30.

The decision comes after a 2025 law ordered the universities to get graduates into the state’s workforce more quickly. The Board of Regents formalized the program at their meeting Tuesday. Academic departments at the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa will now have to implement the program.

Sen. Chuck Grassley is pushing to obtain a copy of the preliminary agreement to end the war with Iran. While he hasn’t been briefed on terms of the deal, Grassley is optimistic it means Iran will never have a nuclear weapon and the Strait of Hormuz will soon reopen to shipping traffic.

Congress will need to approve any deal before it’s final. Grassley said the nuclear agreement the Obama administration reached with Iran in 2015 was flawed, in part because it wasn’t approved by a two-thirds majority in the Senate and was therefore non-binding.

“I would suggest to Trump that it ought to be submitted to the Senate as a treaty so no future president can undo the good work he has accomplished,” Grassley told reporters Tuesday. “But at the very least, if it isn't submitted as a treaty, it's got to be submitted to us for our review, just like Obama did.”

Sen. Joni Ernst released a statement that echoes Grassley’s call to review the deal as soon as possible.

“While the full details of this agreement have yet to be released, a deal of this magnitude deserves thorough review,” Ernst said. “It is critical that the Senate has the opportunity to examine the details, ask tough questions and ensure America's interests and those of our allies are protected."

President Donald Trump revoked the previous deal with Iran during his first administration. Grassley said the preliminary agreement will be formally signed by U.S. and Iranian officials in Geneva this Friday.

The University of Northern Iowa is reorganizing its healthcare and education programs. A committee of the Board of Regents approved the changes Monday ahead of its June board meeting.

UNI will shutter its National Program for Playground Safety. The program has struggled to maintain funding due to declining federal contracts in recent years. In its place, the university will open “EdVantageUNI.” Provost José Herrera said the center will provide continuing education to Iowa teachers.

“Importantly, EdVantage is intentionally structured to generate sustainable revenue,” Herrera said. “This will create a reinvestment engine that supports innovation, strengthens educator pipelines and expands UNI’s statewide impact.”

The university is also consolidating several healthcare programs into a generalized degree. The move aims to offer flexibility in a rapidly changing healthcare and higher education marketplace.  

UNI launched its nursing program and opened its School of Health & Human Services in 2023. Since then, the university has seen increasing interest for healthcare majors. Officials anticipate the new degree will attract additional students.

Natalie Krebs

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Iowa Public Radio

A panel of state officials ruled that three Libertarian party candidates will not be on the ballot in November because they failed to meet Iowa election requirements.

The State Objection Panel convened Monday after members of the Republican Party filed challenges against four Libertarian candidates last week over name discrepancies and missing filings.

The panel determined Marco Battaglia, a 3rd U.S. Congressional District candidate, as well as Nicholas Gluba and Jules Cutler, who are running for governor and lieutenant governor, were ineligible after the panel agreed with objectors' challenges.

Keep reading.

The City of Cedar Falls is moving forward with plans to build a new gas power plant. The city council approved the $80 million project at its meeting Monday night.

Cedar Falls Utilities is the company behind the 37-megawatt Viking Energy Center project. General Manager Susan Abernathy said the U.S. is seeing a historic surge in demand for electricity, and the plant will provide energy independence as the country’s electrical grid becomes more strained, in part because of data center development.

“Which again is why it's so critically important that we move forward with the Viking Energy Center, because if push comes to shove with local generation, we can be islanded, we can take care of ourselves without having to worry about catastrophes on the larger grid,” Abernathy said.

City residents questioned the utility’s investment in fossil fuels, calling for battery power or renewables instead. But the utility said gas remains essential for reliability.

The project next goes before the Iowa Utilities Commission for approval.

Read more.

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This story was updated on June 18 at 9:35 a.m.

Lance Cheung

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The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship reported that a highly contagious pig virus has been contained and eradicated.

In late April, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed five boars shipped from Texas to a farm in central Iowa had pseudorabies, which can be fatal for swine. The infected herds were euthanized. The final round of tests for pseudorabies within a surveillance zone came back negative.

The U.S. eradicated the virus from commercial swine herds in 2004, but it’s still prevalent in feral hogs.

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig said responding to animal health threats requires coordination across his department, the USDA and producers.

“Without those three legs of the stool, you can't effectively respond,” Naig said. “So, we were able to [quickly] and collaboratively eliminate the threat, while also protecting Iowa's disease-free status and maintain confidence on our food supply and export markets.”

Naig spoke about pseudorabies during the World Pork Expo in early June.

Read more.

The outcome of an Iowa race could tip the balance of political power in the U.S. Senate.

Democrat Josh Turek said during his party’s state convention that Iowans are concerned about the farm economy, about rising food and gas prices and about rising cancer rates and hospital closures.

“This is not the Iowa that I grew up in. This is not the state that we all love. But I am also feeling hope here in Iowa for the first time in a very long time,” Turek said. “And it’s because of people like you.”

He defeated Zach Wahls in the June 2 primary with about 62% of the vote.

Republican Ashley Hinson told delegates at the GOP’s state convention that Turek is “masquerading as a moderate.”

Democrats “have nominated a far-left fraud to run against me.” Hinson said. “That’s what they do when they don’t have a message, when they don’t have a clear vision for the future of our country.”

Hinson, who won her primary against Jim Carlin with 75% of the vote, was endorsed by President Trump.

The General Election is on Nov. 3

The Iowa Medical Society in Des Moines launched the Iowa Healthcare Job Board to help attract healthcare workers to the state.

It’s part of a statewide initiative to address Iowa’s growing workforce shortage. A report from the American Association of Medical Colleges ranks Iowa 44^th in the nation for the number of physicians per capita.

Iowa Medical Society Board Chair Dr. Joel Ryon was a guest on IPR’s River to River. He said there isn’t a shortage of jobs in Iowa, they’re just hard to find.

“It’s a workforce problem. So not just a physician job board, but also for nurses, therapies, dieticians, those types of jobs that are needed within healthcare can be posted as well,” Ryon said.

He said employers can post and manage a variety of job openings, from primary care physicians to advanced providers or administrative roles.

Ryon said having a variety of job postings in one place will make it easier to recruit and retain healthcare workers.

The Iowa Environmental Council (IEC) said the proposal approved during the legislative session does not fund the University of Iowa’s realtime water monitoring system. It instead gives money to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for monthly testing.

IEC Senior Director of Policy and Programs Kerri Johannsen said the DNR does not provide clearly understandable data from its testing. She said this plan doesn’t get everyone involved.

“We’re deploying funding for conservation on a voluntary basis, not targeted on a specific as needed basis,” she said.

Johannsen said it’s important to understand where practices are going to have the most impact and deploy them there.

She said a lot of what’s included in the nutrient reduction strategy are edge of field practices, and that in-field practices have more benefit to the inputs going on the land and the money farmers have to spend on them.

Ames is gearing up for the city’s first curbside recycling program. While drop-off sites exist for cardboard, glass and plastic, the new service is designed to increase participation and conserve landfill space.

The city said the curbside recycling program will also reduce the number of trucks transporting garbage out of Ames.

Mark Peebler is superintendent of the Ames Resource Recovery Plant.

“We've done a lot of different studies and research of other communities to see how they are able to attain or achieve their goals for recycling, and curbside recycling has the highest percentage rates and diversion from the landfill,” Peebler said.

Peebler said the new service will help the city’s transition next year when it retires its waste-to-energy system, which burns trash to make electricity.

Bins were delivered earlier this month to single family homes and multi-family properties with up to four units.

Curbside recycling service in Ames starts the week of July 1.

Zach Lahn said at the Republican Party of Iowa state convention Saturday that his campaign is about solving the long-term systemic problems facing the state. He also said showing a better vision for the state will help Republicans win.

“We can beat them on every issue. That’s why they don’t want to talk about issues. That’s why they’re talking about me personally," Lahn said. "Rob Sand says he’s a unifier. He’s had 20 years as a career politician and he has no bipartisan support to show for it. He is not a unifier, he is a divider and a wolf in sheep’s clothing."

Democratic candidate Rob Sand has been state auditor since 2019 and worked as a state assistant attorney general before that. He said his campaign got more donations from registered Republicans than Lahn’s campaign did during the primary.

Farmer and state Rep. Derek Wulf was also officially nominated to be Lahn’s running mate by state convention delegates.

The Johnston-based LifeServe Blood Center is launching a program that rewards Iowa high school students who organize successful blood drives with scholarships and recognition while making a meaningful difference in their communities.

LifeServe spokesman Tim Paluch says the effort calls for those blood drives to be held this summer, anytime before Labor Day, and to be spearheaded by students.

“You’re not only setting up the blood drive, but you’re acting as what we call the chairperson for the drive,” Paluch says. “So you’re out recruiting, sharing information about why it’s important, which we will give you all that information so you can become an expert yourself. And then you’re actually registering people and making sure they come up and follow through with that donation.”

To be eligible for the scholarships, students must recruit donors, act as the chairperson for the blood drive, and register 25 donors to earn a $250 award, or 40 donors to earn a $500 scholarship.

The agency typically sees demand for blood products rise during the summer months. At the same time, there’s a significant drop in the number of donations and blood drives. Learn more and sign up for the program here.

National Weather Service officials said all the pieces fell together for a strong line of thunderstorms to produce damaging hail and destructive winds Thursday.

“As it moved into southwest Iowa, it just kind of became a straight-line wind machine,” said meteorologist Michaela Wood, who works in the NWS Office in suburban Omaha.

Wood said the National Weather Service has fielded reports of damage to trees, buildings and grain bins, plus heavy rainfall and flash flood warnings. There were tornado warnings, too, and at least two confirmed touchdowns in the early hours of the storm. Wood said NWS officials are investigating the damage and evaluating whether Thursday’s outbreak can be classified as a derecho.

“It has to be either continuous or intermittent for closer to 400 miles, so that’s something that’s really investigated after the fact and we’ll have to see if it meets that kind of length and time threshold,” Wood said, “But regardless if it hits that or not, the straight line wind damage was definitely impressive.”

Starting this weekend, the public will be able to see a restored Grant Wood mural at the Sioux City Art Center. The artist's work remains relevant more than 80 years after his death.

Though Wood is known for the iconic American Gothic, the lesser-known work is the Corn Room mural, first painted in 1926 at a hotel in Sioux City.

After years of neglect behind paint and wallpaper, it ended up at the Sioux City Art Center. Last year, all seven panels underwent conservation in Minneapolis to restore their vibrancy.

Curator Christopher Atkins put together an entire exhibit to honor Grant and other artists who focus on rural life.

“I think he's someone whose art, in spite of this being a 100-year celebration, continues to resonate today, not just in terms of how he painted but also what he painted,” Atkins said. “And if you just sort of think about Grant Wood as American Gothic, that's certainly an important thing, but there's a lot here that you're gonna learn about him that you weren't aware of.”

The exhibit Pasture to Present runs through Dec. 6, with the Corn Room Mural on permanent display.

Read more.

A change to the nation’s main food assistance program will require stores to carry twice as many staple foods and more perishable items beginning this fall.

The Trump administration said the change to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, will increase access to healthy foods. But the standards could be a challenge for convenience stores and dollar stores with limited cooler space.

Debbie Hart operates a gas station and convenience store in northern Wisconsin. With no grocery store in town, she tries to keep food stocked for her neighbors - including the many who receive help from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. But Hart said it's a challenge to get suppliers to come to her store. And there's often not enough demand for perishable items - like apples or celery.

"They'll just sit and we just watch them rot,” Hart said.

Chris Bernard from Hunger Free Oklahoma said small retailers are often the only options in rural communities.

"Having to carry those wide varieties is just essentially saying, 'You are going to lose money on this, this, and this product,’” Bernard said.

Bernard said rural stores are already feeling the impact of fewer sales after last year's changes to SNAP caused millions of people nationwide to lose benefits.

He worries adding more restrictions will force retailers out of the program or out of business altogether.

A new report has found two of Iowa’s 94 rural hospitals are at immediate risk of closing.

The quarterly report is by the policy group Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform. It also found eight hospitals are at risk of closing in general and 20 are operating at a loss on patient services.

Harold Miller, the president and CEO of the group, said rural hospitals aren’t getting reimbursed enough by Medicaid, Medicare and private insurance plans.

“The basic problem is payments, that the payments are too low, because the fundamental issue is that the hospitals are losing money on the services that they're delivering.”

He said there are higher fixed costs for essential services at rural hospitals.

Miller said the report isn’t meant to predict which hospitals will close, but to instead encourage conversation about how to better support rural healthcare.

The Republican candidate for governor has chosen an eastern Iowa farmer as his running mate.

Zach Lahn selected state Rep. Derek Wulf as his pick for lieutenant governor. Wulf raises livestock and row crops on a farm near Hudson.

He's been elected to two terms in the state Legislature and chairs the House Agriculture Committee. He was part of the leadership for the Iowa Farmers for Trump coalition leading up to the 2024 election.

Wulf will be formally nominated to run for lieutenant governor Saturday at the Republican Party's state convention.

Both major party nominees for governor have chosen farmers as running mates. Democrat Rob Sand picked western Iowa farmer Dan Muhlbauer, a Crawford County supervisor.

John Deere is hiring 50 employees back to work at plants in eastern Iowa. According to Thursday's announcement, the positions are split between the Dubuque and Davenport factories.

The company said it has restored or hired over 400 positions in Iowa and Illinois since the beginning of the year due to "improving market conditions.” The company laid off hundreds of Iowa employees in recent years as the global agriculture industry struggled.

Current growth is being driven by the company’s construction and logging operations. The latest hires will support those efforts.

Four Libertarian candidates are facing challenges from Iowa Republicans over whether they can stay on the ballot in November.

Challenges against 3rd District candidate Marco Battaglia include a claim his paperwork is inconsistent because it doesn’t use his legal name, Mark T. Andersen. The challenges were brought by a Republican strategist and a member of Rep. Zach Nunn’s staff.

Stephanie Berlin, the chair of the Libertarian Party of Iowa, said he has appeared on the ballot as Marco Battaglia in previous elections.

“I am appalled at the clear partisanship that is happening right now, and the bullying to remove a free and fair election for Iowans,” Berlin said.

The Libertarian candidates for governor are being challenged for slight discrepancies in paperwork and a missing document.

Iowa's 2nd Congressional District candidate Rick Stewart faces a challenge for stating his name is Rick on a form and Richard on others.

An objection panel will review the challenges on Monday.

Scholarships are now available for Iowans who complete the training for radon detection certification and agree to work in rural Iowa.

Radon is an odorless, colorless gas that’s the leading cause of lung cancer among Iowans who do not smoke. When radon test kits reveal a home or building has elevated levels of radon, certified radon mitigation and measurement specialists use equipment to get more precise readings and offer guidance about mitigation options.

Teri Bos is the director of Community Health Services at Community Health Partners Sioux County, one of the 67 agencies promoting the scholarship program.

“Anybody can apply,” Bos said. “It may be somebody from the construction field — HVAC, building design, environmental health, plumbing.”

There’s a $750 scholarship for a radon mitigation specialist and a $600 scholarship for a radon measurement specialist. The online form for a scholarship asks if the applicant will commit to serving rural Iowa communities for a minimum of five years as a condition of receiving the funds.

The Central Iowa Basic Income Pilot provided 110 people in Polk, Dallas and Warren counties with a monthly payment of $500 for two years starting in 2023.

The study compared people who received that money to a control group that did not. They looked at how basic income impacted finances, health and the mental wellbeing of participants.

Lead researcher Stacia West of the University of Pennsylvania said the small financial boost gave people the mindset to plan for their future.

“It caused improvements in savings, it caused reductions in stress, it bolstered agency, pathways, importance, awareness and reliance.”

West says they didn’t completely recover financially, but it gave participants the ability to pursue resources they couldn’t access before.

Researcher Amy Castro of the University of Pennsylvania said one thing they looked at was if participants felt like they mattered.

“I love this quote here from Ellie who said, ‘The $500 was so awesome because it’s like, I’m part of the middleman group where you get forgotten. And because I’m not struggling enough to actually get the help I need, but I’m not making enough money to survive.'’’

Castro said the extra money helped participants feel validated in their communities, which led them to feel more self-reliant about moving forward.

A 2024 state law prohibits local governments from participating in similar programs in the future.

Thousands of households lost power Thursday morning and at least one person died as strong thunderstorms crossed the state.

The storms triggered multiple tornado warnings. Winds of up to 80 miles per hour were recorded in parts of southern Iowa.

Des Moines Police say a 54-year-old man was killed after he was hit by part of a tree that broke apart. It happened in a homeless encampment in a forested area along the Des Moines River.

Mid-American and Alliant Energy each say more than 8,000 customers are without power.

Another round of severe storms is expected later Thursday that could bring more damaging winds.

Democrat Rob Sand hit the campaign trail with his choice for lieutenant governor in the race for governor. A crowd of about 200 people showed up to support Dave Muhlbauer in Manning. Muhlbauer farms nearby.

“I’m excited about it. To start this off in my hometown, in my community, it’s just phenomenal,” Muhlbauer said. “I’m just very proud of this community and what they have done.”

Muhlbauer is the only elected Democrat from Crawford County. He serves as a supervisor.

Sand said they both want to fix a broken political system.

“There’s all these people out that feel trapped into voting because there are only two options,” Sand said. “That’s why that system needs to end. That’s why we need to have ballot freedom, so people can have accountability over elected officials, so they don’t feel trapped in supporting somebody because of their party.”

The candidates also talked about the importance of clean water, accountability for education savings accounts and making sure communities aren’t taken advantage of by data centers.

Sand questioned Republican candidate Zach Lahn’s connection with Iowa, saying he only registered to vote in the state in 2024. Lahn grew up near Sioux City and has said he fully moved back to Iowa from Kansas in 2023.

Lahn has yet to name his running mate.

Read more.

State Auditor Rob Sand said he’s found evidence that pharmacy benefit managers (PBM) may have used drug pricing strategies prohibited by Iowa Medicaid.

Sand said his office found PBMs used by insurance companies that manage Iowa Medicaid used an “effective rate” pricing model.

"This is something that can lead directly to and is evidence of spread pricing, which is prohibited under Iowa Medicaid, because it can inflate costs for taxpayers, reduce the quality of care and create financial hardships for pharmacies,” Sand said.

Sand said over the course of the yearslong review, PBMs refused to provide enough information for his office to determine whether that prohibited practice was being used.

He hired an outside company with expertise in pharmacy claims to analyze PBM data spanning from 2019 to 2021. A spokesperson for the governor’s office said the report is irrelevant and outdated and recommends changes that were already implemented more than three years ago.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird announced a $4.87 million, multi-state settlement Wednesday with a company that allegedly overcharged for COVID testing.

Iowa and 17 other states alleged that GS Labs overcharged patients, unlawfully charged administrative fees and failed to deliver timely COVID-19 test results from 2020 to 2022.

The settlement includes around $430,000 in administrative fees for Iowans, $59,000 to individuals who paid cash and were overcharged for tests, and around $1,700 for individuals who did not receive test results within three days.

You can determine your eligibility for reimbursement by completing a verification process on GS Labs’ website.

A Sioux City school administrator who filled in for a superintendent on leave is receiving a $325,000 settlement.

In the settlement, Angela Bemus agreed to resign and not pursue legal action. Bemus had filed a complaint with the Iowa Office of Civil Rights, saying she faced discrimination and harassment.

Bemus worked for the district for 20 years and has been on medical leave since early February. She led the Sioux City Community School District when former Superintendent Juan Cordova was placed on administrative leave in November. Cordova resigned at the end of March.

Jim Vanderloo was appointed acting superintendent and then interim superintendent for the next school year.

Bemus will start a new job as a principal at the nearby Sergeant Bluff-Luton School District on July 1.

The Clinton City Council has voted down a temporary moratorium on data centers. The decision came Tuesday night after hours of public comment from residents calling for a ban.

Concerns from community members arose after QTS Data Centers, a Virginia-based company, announced it was considering a hyperscale project on over 1,000 acres of farmland in the city’s southwest.

Residents pushed for a moratorium — an increasingly common tool to delay such projects both in Iowa and across the country — but council member Cody Seeley said it’s the wrong move for Clinton.

“A moratorium says we’re closed for business, and I think we should be in a fact-finding stage, where we are open for business and we are willing to work with people and learn about what they can bring to our community,” Seeley said.

Dubuque, Johnson and Madison counties all have data center moratoriums in place. Clinton resident Carol McGuire said opponents of the project are part of a national movement.

“Check out folks in Texas, Lake Tahoe, Nevada, Missouri,” McGuire said. “They’re dealing with these centers.”

QTS discussed developing a 5 million square foot campus in Clinton, with a $10 billion price tag, which would make it one of Iowa’s largest. The company is currently building a data center in Cedar Rapids and operates dozens across the U.S. and Europe.

A new state law will be transformative for the University of Iowa’s Center for Intellectual Freedom.

The center’s advisory council met Monday to discuss the law, which passed during the 2026 legislative session. The law requires students in the state university system to take two civics classes to graduate. It puts the center in charge of administering those courses at UI.

Advisory Council Chair Christine Hensley said the center will have to rapidly expand to comply with the new law.

“We are looking at potentially 6,000 students,” she said. “That’s going to require a significant amount of faculty to be hired, and they need to be hired before the courses start in the fall of 2028.”

The Center for Intellectual Freedom offered its first classes during the 2026 spring semester, with just 19 students.

The center was created in 2025 to balance out what Republican lawmakers called a liberal bias in higher education.

Sheila Brummer

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Iowa Public Radio

A Libertarian candidate has joined Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District race.

Marco Battaglia is from Des Moines and currently works as a correctional officer. This is Battaglia’s second time competing in the 3rd District race. The Libertarian has previously run for lieutenant governor, attorney general and Des Moines City Council. 

He said Congress needs to cut back on military spending and funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to bring down cost-of-living expenses. His priorities include removing tariffs and ending aggressive military action abroad. Battaglia is also in favor of abolishing ICE and working to streamline immigration processing.  

“I don't think you should have different rights if you're not a citizen,” he said. “All your rights need to be respected. Due process needs to be respected. You shouldn't have your process derailed for smoking some weed or having a gun to defend yourself or whatever.” 

Incumbent Republican Rep. Zach Nunn and Democratic state Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott are also running in the 3rd District.

Read more.

Scientists who study climate change say the number of humid, hot days is rising in the South and Midwest.

Researchers at the advocacy group Climate Central say many cities are seeing more days with heat index values above 90 degrees. High heat, combined with moist air, poses health risks, particularly for farm laborers and other outside workers.

United Farm Workers Vice President Elizabeth Strater said workers are usually paid by how much they harvest — not by the hour — which can lead to dangerous decisions.

“They have an incentive to push, a financial incentive to push their bodies beyond what really it's able to endure,” Strater said.

Humans sweat to cool down, and sweat can’t evaporate as much in muggy weather. If a person can’t sweat to stay cool, their body temperature rises, which can cause issues with the kidneys, liver and other organs. Strater also pointed out that heat illness can dull cognition, which puts workers at risk for accidents.

Read more from Harvest Public Media.

Des Moines Public Schools leaders broke ground Tuesday morning on a new career exploration space at Goodrell Middle School. The career and technical education maker spaces at Goodrell and two other Des Moines middle schools will connect students to career-based learning programs. The facilities are part of the district’s Reimagining Education initiative.

Goodrell Principal Tori Rabe said the new space will encourage students to prepare for their future.

“It will give our students opportunities to design, build, create, problem solve and explore future careers in ways that bring learning to life,” she said.

The maker spaces are funded with a portion of the $265 million bond referendum that voters approved last November. The Goodrell Middle School maker space is expected to be completed in time for the 2027-28 school year.

The Sioux City City Council officially approved expanding the city’s use of automated license plate readers (ALPR). The city currently has a dozen Flock Safety cameras, also known as ALPRs, which can track a car’s make, model and color, in addition to picking up its license plate.

The city council approved the Sioux City Police Department’s request to apply for an ALPR grant in February. At its meeting on Monday, council members approved the use of the grant for an additional 21 cameras.

Sioux City resident Brett Matchorn said the cameras are a gross invasion of privacy during the city council meeting.

“It's just pushing us closer to the 1984-style surveillance state,” he said. “But some people want that, and some people would prefer to remain free anyway.”

Sioux City Mayor Bob Scott was the only one who voted against approving a grant of more than $77,000 from the state Office of Drug Control Policy to pay for the extra cameras.

Earlier this year, the Coralville City Council decided to eliminate Flock cameras after opposition from community members. The cameras use artificial intelligence to provide law enforcement with information about vehicles without a warrant.

Gov. Kim Reynolds is outsourcing state agency IT services. Reynolds said executive branch data will be moved from physical servers and data centers to a cloud environment with Amazon Web Services. Cognizant Government Solutions will manage day-to-day IT operations.

About 200 IT workers will lose their jobs with the state. Reynolds said Cognizant Government Solutions will offer them new jobs. 

She said all the changes are estimated to save the state more than $525 million over 10 years. Reynolds called it an investment in “security, agility and long-term value for Iowans.”

Senate Democratic Leader Janice Weiner said there’s no guarantee privatizing IT services will save money, adding that it disrupts the lives of hundreds of public employees and cuts their ties to Iowa’s pension system. 

State Sen. Julian Garrett died Monday at the age of 85. In March, Garrett announced he was going through treatment for prostate cancer and wouldn’t be seeking reelection this year.

The Republican from Indianola was first elected to the Iowa Legislature in 2010. He was also a lawyer, a farmer and a volunteer Little League and soccer coach, according to his obituary.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Klimesh, R-Spillville, said Garrett was a pillar of the Senate Republicans who was committed to conservative policies and serving his community. He said Garrett will be “severely missed” as the Senate faces another loss. Garrett is the third state senator to die in the past year.

The U.S. Senate might strip language from the Farm Bill that would nullify a California animal welfare law. The "Save Our Bacon” provision was included in the Farm Bill passed by the U.S. House in April. But members of the Senate Agriculture Committee said it faces opposition in that chamber.

California’s law, known as Proposition 12, has been challenged by ag groups, including the Iowa Pork Producers Association. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Proposition 12 on two separate occasions, and several other states have similar animal welfare laws.

Sen. Chuck Grassley said Congress should enforce its power to regulate interstate commerce, and he said the Supreme Court agrees.

“When there was a Supreme Court decision that didn't say that the California Proposition 12 was unconstitutional, the Supreme Court said it's the power of Congress. Let Congress act,” Grassley said.

The Save Our Bacon Act was introduced by Iowa’s 2nd District Rep. Ashley Hinson.

The Senate is expected to release its version of the Farm Bill at the end of the month.

Dozens of Des Moines-area small businesses are trying to pick up the pieces after the company they were renting storefronts from abruptly closed in April.

One of the affected business owners organized a pop-up event on Saturday to help the local entrepreneurs reconnect and sell overstock. Around 40 businesses participated in the New Roots pop-up at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines, which donated space for the event.

The businesses were previously housed at Painted Tree Boutiques in Clive before it declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy and unexpectedly closed its doors. The company was part of a national chain that provided affordable storefronts to local businesses.

Many of the vendors at Painted Tree Boutiques hadn’t had a place to set up shop since April. That’s why Karley Davis, who was one of about 300 business owners affected by the closure, organized the pop-up event.

“A lot of us lost income, so this event was created in support of trying to help people have a barrier-free opportunity to gain back some of their income,” she said.

Davis said she still hasn’t received her April sales from Painted Tree Boutiques, and most of the businesses weren’t warned about the closure.

Sheila Brummer

/

Iowa Public Radio

About 100 people gathered in front of City Hall in Sioux City on Monday to show support for the community’s homeless shelter. They’re concerned about comments from Sioux City Council Member Rick Bertrand, who called the Warming Shelter a “public nuisance.”

Shayla Moore, executive director of the Warming Shelter, said the facility, which is in downtown Sioux City, is an asset.

“Your presence here speaks today louder than any criticism ever could,” Moore told community members at the rally. “It says that we believe in caring for one another. It says that we believe that every person has value. It says that we will stand together for what is right, even when it is hard.”

After the rally, many people then attended the city council meeting to express their concern for the shelter. Another council member said she thinks the shelter has outgrown its downtown location.

The Warming Shelter helps, on average, up to 130 people per day.

Rachel Cramer

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Iowa Public Radio

Central Iowa Water Works (CIWW) issued a Stage III Water Warning on Monday. Lawn watering in the Des Moines area is now prohibited except for newly installed sod or seed placed during the current growing season.

CIWW, the regional water authority that serves one in five Iowans, said the ban is necessary to preserve the region’s drinking water supply as nitrate levels in its source waters remain high.

CIWW Executive Director Tami Madsen said lawn watering consumes around 40% of the system’s drinking water supply during the summer.

“It’s a very large portion, which is why asking for a reduction in lawn watering is the biggest single use that we can ask for a reduction of that can make the biggest impact the most quickly to make sure that we can continue to produce safe drinking water for our communities,” Madsen said.

She said CIWW drinking water continues to meet all state and federal standards.

Amy Kahler, CEO of Des Moines Water Works, the largest contract operator for CIWW, said customer demand on Saturday hit 91% of the capacity of the treatment plants.

“As water utilities, we can’t control the nitrate levels in our sources,” Kahler said. “The nitrate levels are even higher upstream. But again, the one thing we can manage right now, in the moment is demand.”

Kahler said Des Moines’ Fleur Drive nitrate removal facility has run for nearly 150 days this year. The record is 177 days in 2015.

Read more.

Much of western and central Iowa will be under a blanket of hot, humid air Tuesday.

Alexis Jimenez, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said a heat advisory goes into effect at 1 p.m. and continues until 9 p.m.

“And the heat advisory is for central and western Iowa, and that's for most of Tuesday afternoon where we could start seeing heat indexes – so what it'll feel like out there – it's up to 105 degrees, so warm and muggy conditions are expected for Tuesday,” she said.

Jimenez said Iowans could also see some showers and thunderstorms developing late Tuesday afternoon into the evening, with the highest chance of severe weather in northwest Iowa.

Natalie Krebs

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Iowa Public Radio

UnityPoint nurses marched across downtown Des Moines Monday to call attention to the months-long delay in getting the results on their vote to unionize.

Nurses voted back in December, but they’re waiting on the National Labor Relations Board to review 251 ballots that were challenged by union representatives.

In the meantime, nurses say UnityPoint has filed baseless objections to delay the process.

“It's my understanding they're spending thousands and thousands of dollars to pay lawyers to continue to delay the certification that we voted for,” said Yvette Vangen, a nurse at UnityPoint’s Methodist Hospital. “So, it's just extremely frustrating.”

In a statement, a UnityPoint spokesperson said it filed objections over concerns about serious irregularities in which the election was conducted.

Temporary tax discounts for new developments in Des Moines could soon be restricted.

Staffers said the city’s budget would be harmed by continuing the tax abatement program under the new property tax law. The law caps local general revenue growth at 2%, but makes exceptions for new construction. But new developments in Des Moines wouldn’t fall under that exception once their abatements end.

Cody Christensen, director of development services for the city of Des Moines, said ending the program is the only fiscally responsible option.

“The longer that we continue to offer this program, the more of a cut it will demand from our general fund revenues every year, because without new growth pushing us above that 2% cap, all the new growth that we have – it's negative mathematics,” Christensen said.

Staff and council members also proposed adding a cutoff deadline for the program or narrowing the types of properties the discounts would apply to.

Pleasant Hill is in the eastern part of the Des Moines metro and is planning to halt new applications for their tax exemption program as soon as this Friday.

The City of Palo, near Cedar Rapids, is delaying the next step for proposed data center rules.

Google has said it would like the city to annex land where the company is planning a large data center project.

The Palo City Council approved the first of three required readings for a proposed ordinance last week. Many community members criticized the plan for leaving out stronger reporting requirements for water use.

The city says in a Facebook post that council members want more time to consider the proposal before moving forward.

A University of Iowa law professor and corporate law expert plans to use a popular and immersive fantasy trading card game to train future lawyers on how to read documents carefully.

Professor Mihailis Diamantis said reading text very closely is a critical skill all lawyers need to have, and they can learn it by playing Magic: The Gathering. Diamantis is developing a one credit hour course for the UI, in which he’ll teach essential and often-underdeveloped legal skills like interpreting complex text and working in legal gray areas.

Diamantis said he realized the game could become an important teaching tool after watching his teenage son scrutinize one of the cards.

“You have to be able to look at every single word and punctuation mark and interpret it in context,” Diamantis said, “And in an adversarial setting, like every lawyer is going to confront, there are going to be differing interpretations of the exact same language on the page. And that’s exactly what you encounter in Magic: The Gathering.”

In the course, students will learn to use the game’s complex rulebook and the wide universe of tens of thousands of cards to resolve ambiguities, cite precedent and build arguments like a practicing attorney. The course will culminate in a competition judged by a Seattle lawyer and expert-level Magic player, who will evaluate students’ written and oral arguments.

The Democrat who won the 2020 Iowa Caucuses is returning to the state to headline the Iowa Democratic Party’s biggest fundraiser of the year.

Pete Buttigieg will be the keynote speaker at the party’s Liberty and Justice Celebration July 12 in Altoona. It’s an annual event and has featured Democrats pondering a run for the White House and, for decades, it was a showcase for the party’s presidential field in the run-up to the Iowa Caucuses.

Buttigieg, who served as U.S. transportation secretary during the Biden administration, spoke at a VoteVets forum in Cedar Rapids last year. He’s not the only potential 2028 candidate who’s making appearances in the state. Iowa Democrats are asking national party leaders to put their caucuses back in the lead-off position in the 2028 presidential campaign. National party leaders moved Iowa out of that slot in 2024.

Iowa Republicans held their first-in-the-nation caucuses in 2024 and are poised to do so again in 2028.

Gov. Kim Reynolds signed an executive order Monday creating the Iowa Office of Outdoor Recreation. It’s an extension of the Iowa Economic Development Authority’s tourism office, and it doesn’t have dedicated funding.

Reynolds said outdoor recreation has added nearly $6 billion to Iowa’s GDP each year and that the Iowa Office of Outdoor Recreation will help coordinate and strengthen efforts to grow Iowa’s outdoor economy.

“Most importantly, this office reflects a simple belief: Iowa should be a destination, not only for business and opportunity, but also for adventure, exploration and recreation,” Reynolds said. “And as we continue building a stronger Iowa, we’ll invest in the things that make our state special.”

Debi Durham, director of the Economic Development Authority, said outdoor recreation enhances quality of life and supports businesses, and it’s increasingly part of what makes a community competitive.

Durham said the new office will help grow and sustain outdoor recreation resources and collect more information about their impact.

“This office doesn’t start the conversation that’s already happening all across our state,” Durham said. “What it does is bring those efforts together, build momentum and help more communities realize what’s possible.”

According to the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable, Iowa is the 25th state to establish an outdoor recreation office.

The University of Iowa asked the Board of Regents Monday for approval to move forward with plans to construct a new field hockey operations building, and to proceed with planning renovations to Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

If approved, construction on the $8.65 million building adjacent to Grant Field should begin this summer, with completion targeted for summer 2027. It would be funded through donor support.

Overall renovations to Carver-Hawkeye will cost between $50 and 70 million, would be completed in phases and will be financed through private gifts.

The annual Kids Count report has ranked Iowa 10th in the nation. The state fell one place from last year's report.

The report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation looks at 16 indicators of child well-being that include economic, education, health and community factors.

Anne Discher, executive director of Common Good Iowa, said while Iowa still ranks high overall in the nation, she’s concerned that some categories are trending downwards overall, such as education, where Iowa ranked below the national average.

“On preschool participation, Iowa ranks 26th. On fourth grade reading, Iowa ranks 32nd. On eighth grade math, we rank 24th,” Discher said. “In a high school graduation, where we used to be top in the nation, we ranked 26th.”

However, the report found Iowa continues to have some of the highest ranks in the nation when it comes to economic well-being indicators like children who live at the poverty level.

Rob Sand held his first campaign rally Sunday night as the official Democratic nominee for Iowa governor.

Sand said the two-party political system isn’t working for the state, and Iowans are ready for change after 10 years of single-party rule by Republicans.

He said his opponent, Republican businessman Zach Lahn, would continue one-party control of state government. Sand also said Lahn lives in Kansas. Lahn has a home in Kansas and said he often flies his own plane there to spend time with children he and his wife have from previous marriages.

“What he is saying when he says that he will change his living situation is that he does not presently live in Iowa enough to do the job of governor, in which case I would like to quote to him one of his own ads: ‘Iowa jobs are for Iowans.’ And that includes governor,” Sand said.

Sand said knows he can win the race because he’s ahead in the polls and in fundraising, and because he’s building a cross-party coalition.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear attended the rally and said as a Democrat who leads a red state, he’s living proof that Democrats can win anywhere, including Iowa. He said Democrats are good at talking about policy, but they need to talk more about their “why.” He says his “why” is his family and his faith.

“When we explain our why, we create the grace and the space to show people that this is a big enough party to disagree on this or that, as long as we are all committed to bettering our American families, that we can work together, that this country doesn’t have to be divided,” Beshear said.

He said it’s important to elect someone who can unite Iowa. And Beshear said as chair of the Democratic Governors Association, he’s all in for getting Sand elected.

A spokesperson for the Iowa GOP says Sand campaigning with a prominent Democrat shows his independent image is just an act.

Democrat Rob Sand has chosen Dave Muhlbauer as his running mate in the race for governor.

Muhlbauer is a farmer and raises cattle near the town of Manilla. He’s also a two-term supervisor in Crawford County. His father and grandfather both served as county supervisors and in the state Legislature.

Muhlbauer said in a statement the campaign with Sand will be about “public service, not politics.”

Sand and Muhlbauer are running against Republican nominee Zach Lahn, who is expected to announce his own running mate soon.

The Iowa Supreme Court is rejecting a proposal from the University of Iowa to change a scholarship directed towards Black students, but said changes to the award are necessary.

The scholarship was created by a now deceased Black chemistry professor named Ezra Totton, who wanted to support Black students studying the physical sciences. The university wanted to switch the scholarship to first generation students to comply with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on race in higher education.

The Iowa court said that change goes against the donor’s intent, but the justices also recognized the race-based restriction could lead to legal challenges.

“Without question, repurposing Dr. Totten's gift to students who were the first person in their family to attend college would have actually had the effect of diluting its potential benefit to Black students,” said Mark Stringer, executive director of the ACLU of Iowa.

The case will go back to a lower court to decide how the funds should be dealt with. The justices recommended the lower court could release the restriction or send the money to another institution without the restriction.