Iowa’s 4^th District Rep. Randy Feenstra said his first priority if elected governor would be to do something about the economy.

He spoke to a group of business leaders Friday at the West Des Moines Chamber of Commerce. One of the attendees asked Feenstra what his first bill would be if elected governor.  

“Well, number one, it’s going to be with the economy and what we can do,” Feenstra said. “Whether that be property taxes, whether that be reducing regulation on businesses, these are, to me, the key components to making us the most business- and ag-friendly state in the country.”  

He said his other priorities are making sure Iowa is delivering a “world-class education” and affordable, accessible health care. Feenstra also wants to help small businesses by lowering input costs for things like health care premiums and utilities.   

Madeleine Charis King

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Iowa Public Radio

This month marks the start of open enrollment for the nearly 137,000 Iowans who purchase their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act Marketplace. But this year, many Iowans will see significant jumps in the cost of their premiums as enhanced tax subsidies for ACA plans — which have been in effect since 2021 — are set to expire at the end of this year.

The end of the tax credits will have an impact on most enrollees. Around 92% of Americans enrolled in ACA plans use them, according to Katherine Hempstead, a senior policy officer with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

“For some people, they'll go away completely,” she said. “People with a little bit higher incomes are going to get a big increase in what they're asked to pay, and a lot of people are predicted to drop coverage.”

It’s estimated that people on ACA plans will see their premiums increase on average 75% with the end of the enhanced tax credits. Hempstead said that means some people will go into debt or avoid getting care.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated 4.2 million Americans will become uninsured due to the end of these tax credits. The issue has been at the forefront of federal politics as the government enters the second month of its shutdown.

Read more about how rising premium costs could impact Iowans.

Madeleine C King

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Iowa Public Radio

The Iowa Supreme Court is allowing a lawsuit to go forward claiming Davenport city officials were negligent in the 2023 collapse of a downtown apartment building.

In a ruling issued Friday, the court denied an appeal for qualified immunity for the city of Davenport and two employees. The city was appealing a lower court ruling that had also denied qualified immunity for a city building inspector and a supervisor. 

Three residents died when their apartment building partially collapsed two years ago. Dozens of survivors are part of the class action lawsuit against the building’s former owner, the city of Davenport and others.

A new report from the American Lung Association found that much more needs to be done to end the devastating burden of lung cancer on Iowa families.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in Iowa, while the report ranked Iowa 39th in the nation for its rate of new lung cancer cases.

American Lung Association Director of Advocacy Kristina Hamilton said the State of Lung Cancer report looked at 10 primary categories. She said Iowa is below average in several of those categories, including smoking rates.

The report found more than 16% of Iowa high schoolers use tobacco or e-cigarettes.

“We’re particularly concerned about the smoking rate, given cigarette smoking has declined over the past several decades,” Hamilton said. “But unfortunately, Iowa is still higher than the national average, and it is the leading cause of lung cancer and preventable deaths.”

Hamilton said initiatives will be pushed in the 2026 state legislative session to help discourage smoking in Iowa, including increasing the tax on cigarettes. She said e-cigarettes are the only tobacco product sold in Iowa that are not subject to a tax.

A bright spot in the report

While the report gives Iowa a thumbs-down grade on five of the 10 key categories, Hamilton said the state is doing at least one thing that’s worthy of praise.

“The Legislature and the governor now require insurance plans to cover comprehensive biomarker testing,” she said. “And that is a very significant advancement for lung cancer treatment and treatment of other chronic conditions.”

Biomarker testing looks for changes in a tumor’s DNA. The results of the test can show biomarkers that help determine what treatment options would be best for an individual patient.

Insurance coverage of biomarker testing is important for removing a cost barrier to people with lung cancer, but coverage for biomarker testing is only required in some states. The report found that Iowa does require insurance coverage of comprehensive biomarker testing.

A state senator sent a letter to three members of the Cedar Rapids school board asking them to resign. It came after the district’s $117 million bond fell just short of the 60% approval it needed to pass during Tuesday’s election.

State Sen. Molly Donahue, D-Cedar Rapids, said the board lost the public’s trust under their leadership by not being transparent enough. She called on Cindy Garlock, David Tominsky and Jennifer Neumann to step down.

Now that the bond has failed, she said students face years of delay on critical improvements to their schools. Donahue said the board needs new leadership to restore trust and move the district forward. 

Courtesy of Iowa State University

Iowa State University is down to two finalists to replace university President Wendy Wintersteen, who is retiring in January. 

Benjamin Houlton is the dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University in New York.

At a public forum this week, Houlton said he wants ISU to lead in AI research. He said the university should take what he called a “deeply people-centered approach” to AI. Houlton also sees ISU working closer with the U.S. Department of Defense, including by helping the U.S. develop a critical minerals industry. 

The other finalist is Dave Cook, the president of North Dakota State University. Cook is from Ames and holds degrees in political science and organizational communication.

He said one of his priorities would be building strong relationships with the Board of Regents, as well as state legislators. He would also focus on identifying other forms of funding in the private sector as federal research money disappears.

The Board of Regents will name its pick for president on Nov. 11.

A federal judge dismissed one of the lawsuits filed against the Des Moines Register and former political pollster J. Ann Selzer, but not the one brought by President Donald Trump. 

Selzer and the Register were sued by Trump over a poll released before the 2024 election that showed Democrat Kamala Harris had an advantage with Iowa voters. 

A separate lawsuit was backed by the conservative Center for American Rights. It claimed in part that the poll was fraudulent because it was so different from Trump’s margin of victory. The judge in the case dismissed the group’s claims, saying they were based more on speculation than evidence.  

Trump’s lawsuit over the Selzer poll is still working through the courts. 

The head of the Des Moines International Airport warned that travelers could start seeing major flight delays and cancellations by the middle of the weekend.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced a 10% cut to air traffic at the nation’s 40 busiest airports that will take effect on Friday. Duffy said the cuts are meant to “alleviate the pressure” on air traffic controllers, who have been working without pay since the government shutdown began.

Brian Mulcahy, CEO of the Des Moines Airport Authority, said he’s heard the emphasis will be on maintaining flights between major hub airports.

“So, that would leave more [of] the multiple frequency trips that I think are the high-risk trips. So, maybe if we have three flights to Dallas every day or four flights to Chicago, they might try to take a frequency away there,” he said. 

Mulcahy said anyone flying through Des Moines this weekend should closely monitor any messages they receive from their airlines.

The Polk County Board of Supervisors is giving food banks $1 million to fill the gap left by suspended federal food assistance.

Because of the government shutdown, funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is being withheld from about 42 million Americans, including around 270,000 Iowans.

Polk County Supervisor Matt McCoy said local families — including approximately 25,000 in Polk County — are caught in the middle, and the county can’t afford to pick up the slack.

“At the local level … those 25,000 households represent $9 million per month, and local government has no ability to fill that whole gap,” he said.

McCoy said the county will try to find more money if the shutdown continues. On Thursday, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to fully fund SNAP by Friday. 

Lahn for Governor Facebook page

A fifth Republican has entered the Iowa governor’s race. Zach Lahn launched his campaign Thursday. In a Facebook post, he said he’s a businessman and a farmer, and that he’s his “own biggest donor” who “cannot be bought.”

Lahn’s campaign website states that he wants to break up agriculture monopolies, defend independent farms and ensure teachers aren’t pushing political views. He has worked for the Libertarian conservative political advocacy group Americans for Prosperity.

Lahn and his wife, Annie, have seven kids and live on a farm near Belle Plaine.

Four other Republicans are campaigning for their party’s nomination for governor: state Rep. Eddie Andrews, U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, former state Rep. Brad Sherman and Adam Steen. Two Democrats — State Auditor Rob Sand and Julie Stauch are running for governor.

Read more.

A former Johnson County official is suing the county for wrongful termination.

Former executive director for the Board of Supervisors Guillermo Morales said he faced racial discrimination when he was terminated in September 2024 and that he wasn’t given proper notice of his standing ahead of his firing.

County Supervisor Rod Sullivan said at the time that Morales had acted in a self-serving and adversarial manner with other county officials. Morales' lawsuit alleges his relationship with some county officials changed after he publicly supported censuring the county attorney and supported the campaign of a now-current supervisor.  

Rachel Cramer

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Iowa Public Radio

The City of Perry officially opened its new wastewater treatment plant. The $30 million facility is designed to cut nutrient levels from treated water before it’s discharged into the North Raccoon River. It can also handle more wastewater as the city grows.

“This new plant uses state-of-the-art biological treatments to meet all the current Clean Water Act requirements,” said Kayla Lyon, director of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. “It also goes beyond the basics of removing both nitrogen and phosphorus, consistent with the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy.”

The state’s strategy requires large municipal and industrial wastewater treatment facilities to reduce their nutrient discharge as part of renewing their permits.

The latest data shows just over 40% of the wastewater plants in Iowa have met their nitrogen targets. Nearly a quarter have met their goals for phosphorus.  

Read more.

The Johnson County Board of Supervisors approved a year-long moratorium on data center construction in unincorporated parts of the county. The moratorium prevents any building permits or rezoning applications related to data centers from being approved.

The resolution states that data centers have the potential to create an excessive burden on an area’s water and energy resources. The supervisors also said data centers can impact the character of the surrounding area.

The county can end the moratorium at any time before it expires on Nov. 8, 2026. 

Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Wednesday that the state submitted an application to receive federal funding for an initiative to improve rural health.

The state is asking for $1 billion over a five-year grant period from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Rural Health Transformation program to fund what it’s calling the “Healthy Hometowns” project.

The project aims to address rural health issues by expanding telehealth care, recruiting more health care providers and increasing cancer care through a hub-and-spoke model.

State officials said they expect to hear if the proposal will be funded by the end of the year.

Rachel Cramer

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Iowa Public Radio

After a fertilizer spill killed hundreds of thousands of fish in southwest Iowa last year, some locals started testing streams and rivers. Now, they’re trying to build a network of citizen scientists and advocates for clean water.

In March 2024, a valve left open at the NEW Cooperative facility in Red Oak released 1,500 tons of liquid nitrogen fertilizer into the East Nishnabotna River. Wildlife officials in Iowa and Missouri estimated 800,000 fish died from the 60-mile spill, which reached the Missouri River near Peru, Neb.

Over a year later, the Iowa Attorney General’s Office announced a settlement. NEW Cooperative would pay a $50,000 fine, along with $50,000 to the Montgomery County Conservation Board.

Courtesy of the Iowa DNR

Many locals were frustrated by the lack of communication from NEW Cooperative and the state in the lead-up to the settlement. They wanted to do something in response to the fish kill and other water quality challenges in the region.

In March 2025, they formed the Nishnabotna Water Defenders. The group aims to improve water quality in a watershed that spans a dozen counties in southwest Iowa.

Shortly after forming, the Nishnabotna Water Defenders encouraged locals to give public comments about DNR treatment plans for lakes with high phosphorus levels, which contribute to harmful algal blooms. They also organized a creek clean-up in Red Oak with high school students.

The water defenders also partnered with the Izaak Walton League to connect people to the Nitrate Watch program, which offers test strips to measure nitrate levels in surface water, private wells and tap water and a national dashboard to share results.

Read more about the group’s hands-on approach to building awareness around water quality issues in the region.

The state of Iowa agreed to pay $600,000 to settle a wrongful termination lawsuit from a former public health spokesperson.

Polly Carver-Kimm was the communications director at the Iowa Department of Public Health from 2007 to 2020. She claimed she was forced to resign for attempting to comply with Iowa’s open records law.

State officials aren’t admitting wrongdoing by entering the settlement agreement. The three-member State Appeal Board approved the settlement with a 2-1 vote.

Carver-Kimm said state public health officials removed and restricted her job duties as she fulfilled records requests from news outlets during the COVID-19 pandemic. She said she was told in July 2020 that she could resign or be fired due to “restructuring.” Carver-Kimm has said the department had no legitimate reason to fire her.

Read more.

Farm equipment manufacturer Case New Holland confirmed plans to close its plant in Burlington. The company has been facing declining demand. 

Case New Holland provided more details in a statement about its plan to stop production at its Burlington plant by mid-2026. The company said it has seen a nearly 50% drop in demand for its loader backhoe, a key product produced at the plant. It also said Burlington was the lowest-utilized and highest-costing plant to maintain. 

The company said 200 employees will be let go, and that it’s working out separation packages that will include severance, continued health insurance and replacement assistance. 

The company said it will keep engineering teams and a testing ground for equipment in Burlington. It also said the decision comes after the end of a bargaining process with United Auto Workers. The union is hosting a rally at the end of the week to protest the company’s decision. 

Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley said it will take time for the U.S. Department of Agriculture to work out how it will distribute partial Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for November.

President Donald Trump threatened to withhold money to fund partial SNAP benefits Tuesday, but the White House later said the administration would comply with a judge's order and release $4.5 billion from a contingency fund.

Grassley said he’s been hearing from Iowans on the food assistance program who are suffering.

“Yesterday [Monday], I had the report of one mother in Marion bursting into tears at the very cash register when she realized she wouldn't be able to afford groceries for her family because she presented her food stamp card to the cash register person, and there just wasn't any money on that card,” Grassley said.
 
Grassley said his office has been in contact with Iowa food banks, who reported that demand has roughly doubled.

International student enrollment at the state’s three public universities dropped by just  44 students this year. The slightly lower numbers are driven by a long-term drop in students from China, according to a report from the Iowa Board of Regents. 

In total, there are nearly 4,500 international students enrolled at regents universities this year. 

Iowa State University currently has the most international students out of all three schools, however, both ISU and the University of Iowa saw slight decreases this year. Meanwhile, the University of Northern Iowa’s number of international students went up by nearly 30% to a total of 259.

Linn County is donating $80,000 to the Hawkeye Area Community Action Program, the area’s regional food bank.

County supervisors unanimously agreed to give the entire annual amount it can provide through the Witwer Trust Grant Program. It comes after Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program benefits were paused at the start of the month due to the government shutdown. The state has pledged to provide up to $1 million in matching funds to food banks. 

County Supervisor Brandy Meisheid said she’s grateful to Gov. Kim Reynolds for matching the funds. 

“I think the best thing we can do is take advantage of that match program by allocating the full $80,000,” Meisheid said. “We have an opportunity to make an impact here locally, and with that match, we can make a bigger impact.”  

On Thursday, the Polk County Board of Supervisors will discuss giving $1 million to the Food Bank of Iowa, the Des Moines Area Religious Council and other food access programs in the area. 

This post was updated at 9:15 a.m. on Nov. 6.

Iowa health officials are working to calculate partial Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for this month, but it’s not yet clear when Iowans will receive money for food.

The federal government froze funding for SNAP benefits on Nov. 1, citing the government shutdown. Courts have directed the Trump administration to use contingency funds to pay for food assistance, which is enough to pay for about half of the typical amount people receive through SNAP.

Alex Murphy, a spokesperson for the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), said the state received guidance from the federal government Tuesday on issuing partial benefits.

Murphy said each household’s benefit must be manually recalculated before funds can be loaded onto Iowans’ EBT cards. He said Iowa HHS is still working on a timeline for when benefits will be loaded onto cards.

The current president of North Dakota State University is being named as the only other finalist in the search for the next president of Iowa State University.

David Cook has been president of NDSU since 2022, and while he got his master’s and doctorate degrees at the University of Kansas, Cook earned his B.A. at ISU in 1992. Much of his previous work experience was at the University of Kansas, most recently as vice chancellor.

Cook will visit the Ames campus Thursday to meet with faculty, staff, students and community members, as well as to take part in a public forum.

The other finalist is Benjamin Houlton, dean of the College of Agriculture at Cornell University.

The Iowa Board of Regents will meet in closed session Nov. 11 to hear from the search committee co-chairs, interview the finalists and pick a new president to replace Wendy Wintersteen, who’s retiring.

Voters in five cities in Johnson County — Iowa City, North Liberty, Coralville, Oxford and Shueyville — approved adding a Local Option Sales Tax of 1% to most goods and services. It will exclude essentials like groceries, gas and utilities.

The money will be pooled at the county level and redistributed according to a state-set formula that accounts for population and property tax levies. Estimates calculate that the tax will generate roughly $22 million each year.

By law, cities must use 50% of funds generated by LOST for property tax relief. They get to decide how the other half is used.

Read more.

Lucia Cheng

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Iowa Public Radio

Des Moines voters passed a $265 million bond measure to help renovate school buildings and redesign education programs.

Residents in Des Moines agreed to pay more in property taxes over the next 20 years to provide funds the district can use to modernize classrooms.

The threshold to pass the bond was 60%, and voters approved it with 74% of the vote.

Des Moines Public Schools Interim Superintendent Matt Smith said the win shows just how much people believe in changing education.
“That’s not just a victory, that is a decisive victory,” he said. “That is a decisive vote that folks want to invest in the education of 30,000 kids and the 30,000 kids of tomorrow.”

Voters broadly supported the bond measure just off the heels of former Superintendent Ian Roberts’ arrest by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

Smith said the bond proposal was built around the community and the results reflect that.

Read more.

Four schools in the Cedar Rapids school district will not receive large-scale renovations after a defeat at the ballot box Tuesday. Voters in the district narrowly rejected a $117 million bond that would have financed remodels to make the schools safer and more accessible.

School officials said the district is working to tighten its belt, and the bond would have helped finance its reorganizing efforts.

The measure received support from around 59% of voters, according to unofficial results. That falls just under the 60% threshold it needed to pass.

“The majority of people were in favor, we just didn’t quite hit that 60% mark yet,” said Cedar Rapids Superintendent Tawana Grover. “So that means that people do care about our schools, and we have to figure out how to get this done for our students.”

Officials with the district said they’re waiting for official results before requesting a recount.

Voters rejected a similar bond in 2023 that was almost twice as expensive.

Read more.

A Des Moines School Board member who was part of former Superintendent Ian Roberts’ hiring board has won reelection for an at-large seat.
 
Maria Alonzo was the only Des Moines School Board candidate on the ballot this year who was in office when Roberts joined the district. Roberts was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in September. He is facing federal charges for claiming citizenship when he was hired. 

Voters reelected Alonzo to one of two at-large seats on the Des Moines School Board. The other at-large seat went to Sara Hopkins. 

In other results, Cedar Rapids Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell won reelection after taking more than 70% of the vote over challenger Myra Bradwell. 

In Des Moines, Mike Simonson won reelection to an at-large seat on the city council. Rob Barron won a seat on the council representing Ward 1 in northwest Des Moines. The Des Moines Register reported that Barron is the first Latino elected to the city council. 

The dean of the College of Agriculture at Cornell University is one of the two finalists to replace Iowa State University President Wendy Wintersteen, who is retiring.

Benjamin Houlton is a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, as well as global development, at Cornell in Ithaca, N.Y. Houlton co-founded a company that works with landowners to remove carbon dioxide from the soil, and he directs a 100-acre project on carbon sequestration.

“For the past 15 years, I have built a program focused on global environmental sustainability and most recently been thinking about how we can deploy carbon capture in working lands — that is farmlands and ranching land — to catalyze negative emissions and help produce food in a way that is more resistant to climate change, as well as more nutritious,” he said in a video for Cornell’s College of Agriculture.

Houlton was born and raised in Wisconsin. He earned a degree in water chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, a master’s degree in environmental engineering science from Syracuse University and a doctorate from Princeton University in ecology and evolutionary biology.

He previously served on the faculty at the University of California, Davis before his appointment at Cornell in 2020. ISU, Cornell, UC-Davis and UW-Stevens Point are all land-grant universities.

Houlton will visit the ISU campus Wednesday and participate in a public forum in the late afternoon. The hour-long forum will be livestreamed on the Board of Regents’ website.

The name of the other finalist for ISU’s presidency will be released Wednesday morning. That person is scheduled to be on the Ames campus Thursday.

October ended up being much warmer and drier than usual, according to state climatologist Justin Glisan.

“Overall, the temperature was about 57 degrees, and that’s about six degrees above average,” he said. “So, around the 13th warmest on record with 153 years of records.”

As for precipitation, Glisan said rain showers were few and far between last month.

“About 6/10 of an inch below the average,” Glisan said. “There was a swath from southwest through central to north-central Iowa in which we saw above-normal rainfall, and a lot of that rain fell in the last week of October.”

As for the month ahead, he said there are strong signals in the forecast through the first half of November indicating warmer-than-normal temperatures and near-normal precipitation.

Natalie Krebs

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Iowa Public Radio

President Donald Trump endorsed Iowa’s 1st District Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks in her race for a fourth term in the U.S. House.

This is the first time since 2020 that Trump has endorsed Miller-Meeks. In a post on social media, Trump called Miller-Meeks “a distinguished medical doctor and Army veteran” who backs his America First policies.

Miller-Meeks said it’s “an incredible honor” to have Trump’s backing, and she’ll keep working with him “to make sure America’s best days are ahead.”

Miller-Meeks faces a rematch next year with GOP primary opponent David Pautsch, who finished 12 points behind her in 2022. She’s likely to face-off in the general election against Christina Bohannan, a Democrat she has faced twice before. A recount of their 2022 race saw Miller-Meeks win by about 800 votes. Bohannan, a University of Iowa law professor, faces two Democrats in the 2026 primary.

Some Midwest soybeans are headed to China. But farmers still need other buyers

China has reversed course and committed to buy 12 million tons of U.S. soybeans this year — that’s about half of what the country typically imports. Some farmers are sending their soybeans to be processed domestically. But it’s not enough to fill the gap.

In recent years, American companies have built up what are known as crushing facilities to turn beans into oil and meal. There are nearly 70 processors in the U.S. and that number is growing, including in Iowa.

Still, domestic soybean crushing can’t make up for what China isn’t buying this year, according to Tanner Ehmke, an economist with the ag lender CoBank.

“China buys, traditionally, about half the soybeans we export, and we can't replace that amount with domestic usage. It's impossible,” he said. “Even if we did, we would have a tremendous amount of soybean meal that we need to find a home for.”

Ehmke said farmers in the upper Midwest will be hit hardest by the trade war, and many will opt to store their soybeans until the markets improve.

Read more from Harvest Public Media’s Will Bauer.

James Kelley

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Iowa Public Radio

Across the country, low-income households that rely on federal assistance to help pay for food are now turning to food pantries. Money for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) was paused because of the government shutdown, and the federal government stopped providing benefits on Nov. 1. 

Ryan Bobst, executive director of the North Liberty Community Food Pantry, said he expects more people in the community will turn to food banks to feed their families this month.

“I think there's a lot more neighbors that are seeking assistance now, in anticipation of the SNAP cuts going into effect because of the government shutdown,” he said. “So, now that they are experiencing that, we will see what this week brings, but we’re anticipating a surge in demand.” 

Over 270,000 Iowans receive SNAP benefits each year. The Trump administration has agreed to use emergency funds to support roughly half of the usual amount for SNAP benefits in November. 

Read more.

The City of Des Moines had to close its wait list for Section 8 housing vouchers after receiving thousands more applications than expected. It’s the first time the city has had to close the wait list in two decades.

Chris Johansen, director of Neighborhood Services for Des Moines, said the city received about 7,500 applications for its Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program this year. That set a new record and is roughly 3,000 more than last year.

Johansen said the high need for housing might be caused by COVID-19 aftereffects. Since the pandemic, he said there has been a large increase in the cost of rent.
“We've seen, over the last two years, our average housing assistance payment has increased by about $150,” he said. “That’s a straight correlation with the rise in rental rates.”

Johansen said the city is already having trouble meeting the need, and federal funding isn’t covering as many families as it used to.

Des Moines Area Community College is working with Iowa’s congressional delegation to try to revive an online course that had nationwide reach after the Trump administration paused it earlier this year.

Since 2011, DMACC has contracted with the federal government to provide a Homeland Security certification program to the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) screeners at the Des Moines International Airport. The program proved to be very successful over the years and expanded, eventually offering the training online.

“In 2017, the head of TSA flies in from D.C., summons us to the airport, tells us they’ve got 80 colleges and universities doing this training around the country for their particular airports, but they were so happy with DMACC’s program that they terminated 78 of the contracts and gave DMACC 36 states, 220 airports and 24,000 agents to train,” said DMACC President Rob Denson.

In 2019, the federal government gave DMACC the contract for training in all 50 states. Denson said it made 44,000 TSA agents at 440 U.S. airports eligible for the training.

“TSA [paid] their way through the certificate,” Denson said. “If they don’t have a two-year degree, TSA has been paying their way through DMACC online. We have about 500 TSA employees a term working in our online program.”

Students who voluntarily enrolled in the certification course reviewed national security issues, safety concerns and how TSA interacts with other federal agencies, like the U.S. Border Patrol.

Earlier this year, federal officials notified DMACC it was temporarily pausing its support of the program.

“We had six faculty that we had to reassign, but we just don’t have any money, and Sens. Ernst and Grassley and Rep. Nunn are all trying to help us get over this hump because this was a great program,” Denson said. “Clearly good for us, but good for these screeners because we should want them to have Homeland Security expertise as they’re working with the individuals that pass through the airports.”

Madeleine King

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Iowa Public Radio

A new statewide initiative is launching that will help support community gardens that donate fresh produce. The Iowa Donation Garden Network is designed to reach and connect garden organizers through expert-led education, shared resources and collaborative programming.

Alicia Herzog, the Iowa Master Gardener program manager with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, explained how it will work.

“The overarching goal of this network is to empower and connect community donation gardens across Iowa,” Herzog said. “It can feel like you’re an island sometimes, trying to do this work of raising fresh produce to be donated to food pantries in the area and battling food insecurity in the local community.”

There are dozens — perhaps hundreds — of community gardens across Iowa that are helping to feed people in their immediate areas. Through this new network, Herzog said they hope to get a handle on roughly how many gardens are doing this good work across Iowa and how much produce they’re donating.

“We’ll be asking the member gardens to provide us some basic annual reporting metrics that then we can help create a statewide map,” Herzog said. “And we can show all of the communities, all of the counties, that are impacted by these different gardens.”

She said the exact locations won’t be published, as they don’t want gardens to be overrun.

Funding will end this year for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education, referred to as SNAP-Ed, so Herzog said the new network fills a critical gap in statewide support for donation gardens.

“I’m sure that we won’t catch every donation garden that exists in Iowa, but we’re really trying to cast that net wide and far and let any donation garden that exists know that we want you to be a part of this story,” Herzog said. “We want to help tell your story about the good work that you may already be doing in your community and how that fits into the puzzle.”

Informational Zoom sessions to introduce the Iowa Donation Garden Network will be held Tuesday at 9 a.m., noon and 6 p.m.

As the government shutdown continues, the status of a heating assistance program for low-income residents in Iowa is up in the air. Local groups that administer the federal program still don’t know how much money they’ll receive this year.

During past shutdowns, continuing resolutions have helped keep money flowing to fund the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). The program helps qualifying households pay their heating bills. 

Danna Buls, executive director of Matura Action Corporation, a group that serves low-income residents of southwest Iowa, said the continuing resolutions helped groups like hers know how much money they could expect.

Now, things are unclear. But Buls said even if funds come later, people who receive LIHEAP will still be safe from having their heat shut off. 

“Even though money might not come to the utility vendor, they know that these people are approved,” she said.

In April, President Donald Trump fired the federal staff that runs LIHEAP, which could lead to more delays in funds going out. 

Many corn and soybean farmers apply fertilizer to their fields in November after the harvest. Agronomists say that timing is key to prevent nutrients from flushing into streams and rivers.

Roughly 25% to 50% of the total anhydrous ammonia fertilizer applied to fields across Iowa occurs in the fall, often to save time around the spring planting.

“Our goal, when we apply nitrogen in the fall, is to do it when the soil temperatures are below 50 degrees and on a downward trend. The reason why we do that is because when you get below 50 degrees, microbial activity in the soil really drops off,” said Richard Roth, a nutrient management specialist with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach.

When the soil is warm and moist, microbes convert ammonium into nitrate. And without living roots to absorb nitrate, it can easily move with water and accumulate downstream.

Agronomists say cover crops planted after harvest can significantly reduce nutrient runoff.

Read more.

The Iowa Board of Regents announced that one of the three scheduled finalists for the Iowa State University presidential search has withdrawn from the process.

Two finalists are scheduled for on-campus visits to ISU next week. They will meet with faculty, staff, students and other stakeholders, then hold a public forum.

The forums are Nov. 5 and Nov. 6 from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. each day. A livestream will be available on the Iowa Board of Regents’ website. 

Each finalist’s name and curriculum vitae will be released 24 hours prior to their day on ISU’s campus. The Board of Regents will meet in closed session on Nov. 11 at ISU to select a new president, who will be introduced to the public that evening at 6 p.m.

Current ISU President Wendy Wintersteen will step down in January.

Food access leaders in Johnson County said there will be wide-reaching impacts of the federal government pausing its food assistance payments for low-income families. 

Federal funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is set to run out because of the government shutdown. The federal government provides around $45 million in SNAP benefits to Iowans each month, including roughly 10,000 Johnson County residents. 

Members of the Johnson County Food Access Network are urging Congress to reopen the government. 

“I think the long-term challenge is that we cannot raise $1.7 million every month to replace SNAP,” said Ryan Bobst, executive director of the North Liberty Food Pantry. “The long-term solution is SNAP benefits and our neighbors having access to the best possible food access possible.” 

Gov. Kim Reynolds pledged $1 million in matching funds from the state for food banks, but some county leaders said it's far from enough.

“Requiring a financial match to secure those funds adds an unnecessary hurdle that will only delay urgent support,” said John Boller, director of the Coralville Community Food Pantry. “This $1 million equates to roughly 2% of funds statewide. This miniscule allocation wouldn’t even cover the monthly cost of SNAP in Johnson County alone.” 

Read more about SNAP funds expiring and state support.

Madeleine Charis King

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Iowa Public Radio

Gov. Kim Reynolds is calling on Iowans to help the state fill the gap from a pause in federal funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The state will match cash donations to Iowa’s six regional food banks up to $1 million starting Saturday.

Reynolds said Iowa’s Medicaid-managed organizations have already committed to giving $300,000. The donations will be counted once made after Nov. 1.

Reynolds also said the government has an important role to play, but she said people should chip in too. 

“We shouldn't rely on government alone to do a job that we're all called to do,” she said. “We each have a personal responsibility to the people in our communities, especially those in need.”

The governor said people with leftover balances on their SNAP cards can still use those funds. If the government reopens sometime in November, she said people will then receive their full benefits for the month. 

On Friday morning, a federal judge sided with dozens of states arguing the Trump administration must use emergency funds to support SNAP. Iowa Democratic leaders said Iowa should be part of the lawsuit, but Reynolds called it “a waste of time.”
“I think it's ridiculous. I think it's ridiculous and a waste of time. I’m going to say it again, pretty darn simple – five United States senator Democrats need to vote with 53 Republicans and open the government. That’s what they need to do.”

Read more.

Bats often get a bad rap, especially around Halloween. But they eat untold amounts of pests every night, which helps to keep crops healthy and saves farmers money. On some farms, bats might be able to play an even bigger role.

At Swift River Pecans farm in central Texas, small brown bats called evening bats fill the sky each night, collectively eating tons of insects. Troy Swift, owner of the pecan orchard, said bats are essential for his farm.

“Really, what we’re trying to do is figure out what agricultural pests they’re eating,” Swift said. “And we have found they eat a lot of them.”

Researchers have been working on Swift’s orchard to prove that bats are eating pests that destroy his pecans, like the pecan nut casebearer moth. A team of researchers collects samples of bat guano and sends it off to a lab for DNA analysis.

Embracing bats for pest control is part of a broader effort by Swift to produce better pecans by improving the health of his trees and soil. And he’s hoping other farmers follow his example.

“Our job is to work with Mother Nature instead of against her to make the best pecans money can buy. That’s the way we see it,” Swift said.

Swift didn’t always take this more organic approach. When he first bought his orchard in 1998, he protected his trees the way many farmers do: with plenty of chemicals.

Read more about his switch to a natural pest control method from Harvest Public Media’s Michael Marks.

Ailes Detasseling

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Provided

The summer job of seed corn detasseling has become a political issue in Nebraska. Contractors who hire local teenagers claim that seed companies, like Monsanto, prefer migrant workers with H-2A visas over local workers.

The H-2A visa program was introduced in 1986 in response to farm labor shortages, mostly in fruit and vegetable harvesting, that require large amounts of manual labor for extended periods. It allows agricultural employers to bring in foreign workers on temporary visas if they can prove that domestic labor isn’t available.

But current and former contractors said detasseling isn’t like other farm jobs in the country. There are only a few weeks in the summer when the tassels of seed corn plants can be manually removed to ensure proper pollination, and local teenagers on break from school have traditionally done that work.

A 2019 meeting with Nebraska’s then-Gov. Pete Ricketts, Monsanto representatives and contractors marked the beginning of a political effort to keep detasseling in the hands of teenagers and the sourcing of that labor under the control of local business owners.

To address the accusations that seed companies violate H-2A rules by hiring contractors that use H-2A crews instead of available local labor, the Nebraska Legislature passed a law in 2024 with the goal of increasing transparency in detasseling labor practices.

One year after its passage, it’s not clear that the law is working as intended.

Read more about detasseling and how the rules differ in Iowa.

The Iowa and Wisconsin departments of transportation announced a free car ferry service will start Nov. 3 across the Mississippi River between Lansing and Crawford County, Wis.

The 94-year-old Black Hawk Bridge closed to traffic earlier this month as construction on a new bridge continues. The opening is scheduled for fall 2027.

The 12-vehicle ferry will operate seven days a week, with revised schedules on holidays.  It will be open to cars, motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians. Two-axle trucks under 10 tons can also use the ferry.

Crews are dismantling the Black Hawk Bridge and plan to bring down some of the spans with explosives in December. 

For those who don’t want to take the ferry, there are marked detours in both states. The nearest highway bridge is 30 miles south of Lansing.

The Iowa Court of Appeals upheld a $1.8 million penalty against a Texas-based pipeline company that transports products like propane and natural gas.

In 2023, state regulators said Enterprise Products had operated roughly 750 miles of pipeline and underground storage facilities without permits for two decades.

Enterprise claimed the state regulators were wrong about the number of permits it needed, treated Enterprise differently than other pipeline companies and did not have the authority to impose a penalty of more than $200,000.

The Polk County District Court dismissed these claims.

Food banks across the country are trying to stock more food. They’re expecting increased demand because the federal government shutdown has interrupted benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Last year, SNAP enrollment averaged around 260,000 people in Iowa. In November, people enrolled in the program will not receive their monthly stipend to help buy food.

Celia Cole, who leads the statewide food bank group Feeding Texas, said she’s treating it “like any major disaster.”

“We are just doing what we can to bring in the most resources to our network, and like I said, hoping the shutdown will be resolved,” she said.

Cole said food banks are especially looking for canned foods, like vegetables, tuna and chicken, as well as peanut butter, rice and beans.

A group of governors and attorneys general from 25 states recently sued to force the Trump administration to use federal reserve dollars to fund SNAP for November.

Read more from Harvest Public Media’s Michael Marks.

Madeleine Charis King

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Iowa Public Radio

Open enrollment begins Saturday for Iowans who purchase health insurance through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace.

The cost of premiums is set to more than double because federal subsidies for ACA plans expire at the end of this year if Congress doesn’t approve a plan to extend them.
 
On top of that, the Iowa Insurance Commission said insurance carriers are reporting overall premium rate increases going up to more than 25%.

Katherine Hempstead, with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said many people are expected to become uninsured due to a sharp increase in their coverage. 

“At the same time that the tax credits are going away, the insurers are reacting by increasing their premiums because they're expecting that the market is going to get selected against a little bit because healthier people will drop out first,” she said.

Nearly 137,000 Iowans purchase health insurance through the ACA Marketplace.

Open enrollment goes through Jan.15. Here’s what to know before you enroll.

Johnson County is considering possible locations for a proposed jail and law enforcement facility. County supervisors agreed to move forward with plans for a 120-bed jail that could expand by another 20 beds in the future. The facility would also house the sheriff’s office.

Johnson County Board of Supervisors Chair Jon Green said he hopes the county can find a location as soon as possible. 

“We need to identify the location. We need to begin negotiations with whoever owns these sites to come to a purchase agreement,” Green said. “I'm hopeful that whatever location we settle on, we can acquire that property pronto.” 

Green said the money used to purchase the property would be separate from the proposed $99 million bond that the county would put toward building the new facility.

County officials hope to put the bond referendum on next year’s ballot. An estimated $83 million would be used on the facility, and the rest would go toward affordable housing solutions. 

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said China agreed to buy 12 million tons of U.S. soybeans this season and at least 25 million tons per year for the next three years.

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig called the agreement “great news.” In a statement, Naig said the purchase will make a meaningful impact at a tough time for the farm economy.

Iowa is the second-largest producer of soybeans, a crop that relies heavily on export markets. But U.S. soybean shipments last week were roughly half of typical seasonal volumes, according to the University of Missouri Extension.

China is typically the top purchaser, but stopped shipments of U.S. soybeans earlier this year in response to escalating tariffs between the two countries.

Trump told reporters after a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping that he would lower tariffs on Chinese products by 10%.

Iowa Soybean Association President Tom Adam said the announcement “addresses many concerns” farmers had around access to China’s markets after months of uncertainty.

“This is great news for American agriculture and for soybean farmers, who have been eager to reestablish a stable and long-term relationship that positions us for success moving forward,” said Adam, who is also a soybean farmer from Harper. “We are very grateful to President Trump for making soybeans a priority in negotiations with China.”

The Iowa Soybean Association said China purchased 22.9 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans during the 2024-2025 marketing year. Over the last decade, exports to China ranged from 28 to 36 million metric tons.

This story was updated to show the state moved up the date it will begin matching cash donations to Iowa food banks to Saturday, Nov. 1 instead of Monday, Nov. 3.

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Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds said the state will match cash donations to Iowa food banks up to $1 million starting Nov. 1. She’s also directing state agencies to recruit and deploy volunteers to help at food pantries and food banks, and she has ordered the Iowa National Guard to prepare for state active duty to conduct food distribution missions statewide.

The federal government is withholding funding for November food assistance for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) because of the government shutdown, which affects about 270,000 low-income Iowans. Food banks and pantries have warned that it will cause an unprecedented spike in need during what is typically their busiest month of the year.

Reynolds blamed Democrats in Washington, D.C., for the shutdown because they are withholding support for a Republican funding bill to push for an extension for health care tax credits. 

“It's ridiculous that they're putting Americans and Iowans' lives at risk,” Reynolds said. “It's ridiculous that we've got millions of people that are going to be impacted nationwide.” 

Reynolds said Iowa can’t fund the $45 million a month needed to provide SNAP benefits to Iowans.

The Iowa Department of Education is recognizing four schools for high achievement and for making large improvements in test scores. The Iowa Blue Ribbon Schools awards were given to schools in Albia, Dubuque, Little Rock and Cedar Rapids. 

This is the first year that Iowa is running the initiative. The Blue Ribbon awards were a national program under the U.S. Department of Education, but the department ended it in August as part of a plan to return education to the states.

Jay Pennington, with the Iowa Department of Education, said the agency looks at criteria like test scores, graduation rates and chronic absenteeism to determine the top contenders.

“My team at the Department of Education has had the privilege to nominate schools for the Blue Ribbon Schools award each year,” Pennington said. “We're really excited to take the reins this year, now that the Blue Ribbon Schools as a state-run initiative.”

Chalkbeat reported that the federal government has tried to shut down the program before. Nearly 30 years ago, Congress defunded it, but ultimately brought it back after an outpouring of calls and letters. 

Hundreds of Iowa families won’t have access to their usual child care providers next week because of the government shutdown.

Grants for two Head Start programs in Iowa are expiring this month, and federal workers at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services can’t sign off on a renewal during the shutdown.

Lori Ferris, executive director of Iowa Head Start Association, said these programs are important, especially for Iowans living in child care deserts.

“The goal is to break the cycle of poverty, and it really is a multi-generational program,” Ferris said. “So not only do we support the children, but we also empower the parents to better themselves.”

Families enrolled in Head Start programs in eastern and south-central Iowa will need to find other options if school partnerships can’t step in.

Iowa’s birth rate has been falling, along with the national average, since the 1950s, when it peaked. Iowa currently has a rate of 1.7 births per woman. Experts say a rate of 2.1 is needed to sustain the state's population over time.

At the same time, more young people are leaving the state. In recent years, immigration has played a big part in sustaining the state’s population, particularly in its rural communities.

The long-term drop in the birth rate is due to increased opportunities for women and more people focusing on careers, according to David Peters, a sociologist at Iowa State University. But the sharp drop in the last decade has been mostly due to economic strain.

“High housing costs, high mortgage interest rates, all mean that young ... couples looking to start a family, the cost of housing is prohibitive,” he said. “Child care has also gotten very expensive.”

Because of this, immigration has been key to sustaining the state’s population.

Read more.

Twenty-five states and the District of Columbia are suing the U.S. Department of Agriculture for withholding contingency funds for federal food assistance. Federal funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for low-income families runs out Nov. 1.

Iowa’s 1st District Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks called the lawsuit “political theater.”

She said the best way to fund SNAP is for Democrats to vote for a Republican-led continuing resolution that would reopen the government. Miller-Meeks said the next best way is for them to pass a bill she introduced Friday that would fund SNAP during the shutdown.  

Sen. Chuck Grassley said a third term for President Donald Trump would require a change to the Constitution that could not happen in time for 2028.

While taking questions from reporters on a trade mission to Asia this week, Trump said he loves the idea of serving a third term and added he hadn’t thought about it. In fact, he has floated the idea before, and former top advisor Steve Bannon told a journalist last week that there’s a “plan” to keep Trump in office.

Speaking to reporters, Grassley said Congress would have to amend the Constitution to allow a third term.

“If we would pass something right now, which would take a two-thirds vote in the United States Senate, and you know you would not get a two-thirds vote in the United States Senate ... But let's just say we did, it takes about three and a half years for the whole process on an average to get a constitutional amendment through the three-quarters of the state Legislatures,” Grassley said.
 
The 22nd Amendment, ratified in 1951, limits the number of terms a president can serve to no more than two. Grassley characterized the idea of Trump serving a third term “all talk and not serious."

Madeleine Charis King

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Iowa Public Radio

A long-running Halloween tradition in central Iowa is coming to an end this year. Beggars’ Night, where kids in the Des Moines metro trick-or-treat on Oct. 30, will officially move to Halloween night.

Bad weather last year pushed trick-or-treating to Oct. 31 for the first time since 1938. Clive Mayor John Edwards said many residents decided they liked it better that way.

“There had been concerns over time about Beggars’ Night and the timing of it,” Edwards said. “And with what happened last year, with the weather and it was moved to Halloween, that seemed to be a success for many of the communities.”
A metro-wide survey found Halloween drew nearly twice as many votes as holding trick-or-treating on Beggars’ Night.

Read more about the origin of Beggars’ Night.

A federal judge ruled in favor of a man in the U.S. without legal status who was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs in northwest Iowa.

Armando Garcia Picazo sued the Woodbury County sheriff and federal officials after he was denied release on bond. He has been held in a jail in Sioux City since early August.

Garcia Picazo’s attorney, Guy Weinstein, said his client doesn’t have a criminal record and has a strong case to stay in the country legally.

“What this administration is doing is making it really, really challenging for anyone who's caught up in immigration detention to be released,” Weinstein said.

Judge Leonard Strand ruled that Garcia Picazo should be out on bond while he awaits a hearing before an immigration judge.

Weinstein said his client came to the U.S. from Mexico nine years ago and that he has worked in the Sioux City metro as a mechanic.

Second District Rep. Ashley Hinson said President Donald Trump’s trip to Asia this week to hold trade talks with the president of China shows his commitment to American farmers.

China has stopped buying American soybeans because of trade disputes between the two countries. But officials from the U.S. and China said they’ve made progress toward a deal.

Hinson, who is running for U.S. Senate in 2026, said Trump has been working nonstop to put America first on the world stage.

“It’s great to see things moving in the right direction for our soybean farmers — promising news when China’s potentially agreeing to buy substantial amounts of our soybeans,” she said. “And as we wait for more details on that deal, I will continue working with the administration to expand market access for our Iowa farmers and secure new trade deals.”

Democratic Senate candidate Josh Turek said Trump’s tariffs are chaotic and are causing a “farmageddon” in Iowa. He said farmers need markets to sell their products, not government handouts to make up for lost profits.

“Our farmers are the very best in the world here in Iowa. We’ve got a long history of feeding the world and doing it better than anyone else. And it is due to these chaotic tariffs that we’re seeing our farmers have an inability to make a living for themselves,” Turek said.

Sen. Chuck Grassley said prices for supplies are squeezing farmers at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday. The Republican questioned representatives of the seed and fertilizer industries about consolidation and competition.

Grassley said he often hears farmers say they don’t have real choices when it comes to seeds and fertilizers.

“We want better yields, healthier soils, quality products, and we’ve been vastly improving in that area for the last 40 years,” he said. “But we also want competition that’s fair, transparent and local competition that a farmer can expect when he or she sits down to make a purchase.”

Three companies dominate fertilizer production in North America, according to Farm Action.

The Fertilizer Institute’s President and CEO Corey Rosenbusch said higher prices in recent years are due to sanctions, tariffs and higher demand from U.S. corn growers.

Grassley is cosponsoring the Fertilizer Research Act, which would require the U.S. Department of Agriculture to conduct a study on competition in the fertilizer market and its impact on price.

Iowa State University

The Iowa Board of Regents announced the dates of the public forums where finalists to be the next president of Iowa State University will address the public.

The ISU Presidential Search Committee conducted interviews with eight semifinalists last week and recommended four finalists for campus visits. Three candidates accepted and will appear at forums at ISU’s Memorial Union Nov. 4 - 6 from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Each candidate’s name will be announced publicly 24 hours prior to their day on ISU’s campus.  At that time, the candidate’s curriculum vitae will be made available on both the Board of Regent’s website and the ISU presidential search website.

ISU’s Office of the President will provide a live stream of each public forum next week.

NextEra Energy signed an agreement to supply Google with nuclear power generated at the Duane Arnold Energy Center in eastern Iowa. The deal comes as Google is growing its cloud and AI infrastructure in the state. 

In a joint statement, NextEra Energy and Google said the 25 year agreement will help meet growing energy demand for artificial intelligence. It's estimated to create 400 full-time jobs and generate over $9 billion in economic benefits for Iowa. 

Under the agreement, Google will purchase power from the 615 megawatt Duane Arnold facility, which produces nuclear energy. The plant was decommissioned after the 2020 derecho, but NextEra hopes to have it open again by 2029 and is awaiting federal regulatory approval. 

Earlier this year, Google announced a $7 billion investment in Iowa. The company is in the process of building a data center in southwest Cedar Rapids. Linn County supervisors said Google has approached them about building another data center near the energy facility as well. 

The first forum featuring all five Republican candidates running in Iowa’s 4^th Congressional District took place Monday night. The event was held by Iowa’s Faith and Freedom Coalition in Treynor. It started with a prayer, followed by a discussion of issues important to Christian conservatives.

The five candidates gave answers on topics like the growing national debt, abortion and property rights.

The field of five includes four who have never served in office before: Chris McGowan of Sioux City, Ryan Rhodes of Ames, Christian Schlaefer of Lakota and Douglas Jensen of Silver City.

Former Iowa House Majority Leader Matt Windschitl of Missouri Valley focused on his political experience.

“For all the successes we've had in Iowa, we can do the same thing in Washington, D.C.,” Windschitl said. “But we need somebody that knows how to get the job done on day one and can figure out how to build those consensuses. I've been doing it.”

The candidates appeared to support each other as they each stressed why Republican voters should pick them to win the June primary.

The Democrats looking to move on to the general election are former state lawmaker and prosecutor Dave Dawson of Lawton, stay-at-home mom Ashley WolfTornabane of Storm Lake and Stephanie Steiner of rural Sutherland.

Lucia Cheng

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Iowa Public Radio

Iowa’s 4th District U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra officially launched his campaign for governor.

The Republican from Hull was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2020, and he previously served in the Iowa Legislature.

In a statement Tuesday, Feenstra said as governor he would have a “workhorse mentality.” He said he will work with President Donald Trump to advance his “America First agenda in Iowa” and to defend conservative values.

There are three other Republicans running for the GOP nomination for governor, and a fourth is still exploring a potential campaign. The winner of the Republican primary is expected to face Democratic State Auditor Rob Sand in 2026.

Read more.

While the number of grain elevators nationwide has dropped by more than 2,000 in the past 25 years, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture grain stocks reports, Ely's grain elevator in Nebraska has stood since 1896. It’s helped sustain the local farming community for generations and grown its operation, even as its town of Guide Rock has lost residents and businesses.

Now, in a year of market uncertainty and grain surplus, the elevator is growing again.

This year’s supply is predicted to surpass traditional upright grain storage capacity in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, according to a CoBank analysis of U.S. Department of Agriculture data. Ely’s, along with other elevators in the region, is setting up temporary storage to make up for the shortage. And, low crop prices are expected to delay sales, prolonging storage needs.

The USDA is projecting a record-breaking corn harvest and a higher-than-expected soybean yield per acre. John Ely, the elevator’s fourth-generation owner, said favorable weather conditions in the Midwest and increased corn acres have pushed production even higher.

Read more.

Since Congress has not agreed on a spending bill, federal funding for SNAP will run out soon. Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, who represents Iowa’s 1st Congressional District, introduced a bill that would fund the program until Congress reopens the government. She says it would cost roughly $9 billion a month.

“As the shutdown persisted, we wanted to allow Americans and children to receive SNAP benefits and to provide access to emergency funds, and also, importantly, to give the Secretary of Agriculture authority to restore missed benefits,” Miller-Meeks said.

Miller-Meeks said Democrats are holding the government hostage by demanding an extension of enhanced premium tax credits for people who buy health coverage through an Affordable Care Act marketplace. Those tax credits are set to expire at the end of the year.

Aaron Brecht, with the Hawkeye Area Community Action Program, said demand at the Cedar Rapids food bank has increased since it became clear SNAP benefits would run out in November.

“People are going to need food and we’re trying to address that as much as we can. So one of the ways is to purchase more inventory,” Brecht said. “All of us are tipping over every can to see where there might be more food donations.”

Brecht said one of the food bank’s partner agencies saw around 20 walk-in customers in the last week, up from around six in a normal week.

It is peak pumpkin season. From pumpkin spice lattes to pumpkin pies, our love affair with this orange gourd is bigger than ever. But few people devote more time and attention to them than the thriving community of Midwestern growers raising giant pumpkins.

These often-amateur horticulturists work in their patches for hours a day to grow the heaviest pumpkins possible. They do it for the love of growing, for the smile pumpkins put on people’s faces, and – for the elite – even a bit of money.

Joe Adkins has won the Illinois Giant Pumpkin Growers Association's annual weigh-off – along with the $1,000 cash prize – multiple years in a row. Last year, he also cracked a personal milestone: his first 2,000 pound pumpkin.

During the summer growing season when pumpkins can pack on more than 50 pounds in a single day, caring for these behemoths is basically a full-time job.

“It's literally like four or five hours a day,” Adkins said. “I've got a schedule on Sundays and Tuesdays, I do about eight hours, and all the rest of the days, I have to do a minimum of two to four hours.”

Growers like Adkins hone their craft for years, hoping to someday hit the perfect combination of the best seed in the best soil in the best weather and land the white whale: a world record-setting pumpkin.

Read more.

A soybean disease with no cure yet has reached Minnesota for the first time.

Red Crown Rot broke into the Midwest in Illinois in 2018. It has since been detected in Missouri, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin.

It’s a fungus that rots soybeans' roots, creating a toxin that destroys the bean's leaves. So far, scientists haven't found a way to stop it.

Dean Malvick, a University of Minnesota Extension specialist, said his team doesn't yet know how the disease spreads or where it could be next.

“That's one of the challenges. If we knew exactly how it's spreading, we could focus our efforts more in that way, but we don't know yet,” he said.

Malvick said because Red Crown Rot was detected in Minnesota in the fall, it gives his team time to study it and prepare for the spring planting season.

Alex Watters, a northwest Iowa city council member and disability advocate, said he isn’t running for reelection, in part because of the current political climate.

He said things have changed since he was first appointed to the Sioux City City Council in 2017.

“You're seeing inflamed dialogue and people, you know, making claims that they can't back up or coming to city council meetings and being unruly and unreasonable,” Watters said. “The disrespect that we are really experiencing in, not only political discourse, but just conversations today, is very different than when I started eight years ago.”

Two other council members, Dan Moore and Matthew O’Kane, will not be on the ballot next Tuesday. This means a majority of the Sioux City Council will be new.

A spinal cord injury left Watters a quadriplegic in his first year of college. He said he plans to continue advocating for people with disabilities.

A district court judge issued an injunction Friday preventing the removal of materials from the State Historical Society’s research library in Iowa City. The decision is the result of a lawsuit filed by 17 historians and donors of historical artifacts.

Judge Kevin McKeever also denied a request from the Department of Administrative Services and the State Historical Society to dismiss the case.

The Department of Administrative Services is seeking to close the Iowa City facility because of an $800,000 budget shortfall. But, historians and former employees say Historical Society buildings in Des Moines lack the space to house all the artifacts, and they worry parts of the collection could be privatized or destroyed.

Earlier this month, Iowa Prison Industries workers were seen loading boxes from the Iowa City building onto a truck.

Iowa’s state climatologist is helping cover some of the gaps left by the government shutdown. Justin Glisan said the National Weather Service continues to prioritize protecting life and property despite the shutdown and recent budget cuts that also include the USDA.

“Morale is low and you put on top of this the government shutdown, these are professionals and they do their job whether they get paid or not,” Glisan said.

He said some National Weather Service employees have been furloughed, and he has been helping fill media requests and provide data for the weekly crop report. Fortunately, Glisan said, the weather has been calm this fall.

Glisan made his comments during IPR’s River to River.

Multiple bomb threats caused some school districts in Iowa to dismiss school early Friday morning.

The Linn County Sheriff’s Office received a computer-generated voicemail saying bombs were placed within schools. Schools in Alburnett and Algona also received emails with threats.

Major Chad Colston with the Linn County Sheriff’s Office said the threats are most likely a hoax and that the schools may have been randomly selected from a list.
“We probably have something that's dialing up just through the phonebook and are trying to create panic and fear,” Colston said.

The sheriff’s office is cooperating with the State Fire Marshal Division and FBI to investigate the threats.

School activities are expected to continue Friday evening and over the weekend.

Iowa’s state climatologist predicted the state will see more snowfall this winter.

Justin Glisan said that a weak La Niña system is bringing colder surface temperatures to the Pacific, which means warmer weather in the fall. But when looking at data from the past decades, this usually means more snowfall in the winter.

Iowa saw the 25th warmest and driest September on record, so Glisan said precipitation would be welcome.

“That's why a snowpack is important. Last winter, we were in a strong El Niño, so the reverse of where we are now,” he explained on IPR’s River to River.

Glisan said he would also like to see a wet November to give the soil some moisture before a hard freeze. The statewide average for snowfall for December through February is 22 inches.

Glisan said Iowa could also see more cold-air outbreaks in late January and into February, paired with higher-intensity snowfall systems. 

Saturday is National Take Back Day, where individuals can safely drop off unused prescription drugs.

Gina Roberts, a crime prevention officer with the Sioux City Police Department, said it will have two drop-off locations on Saturday. She said all drop-offs are anonymous and no records are kept of who drops off what medications.

During the last National Take Back Day, Roberts said the police department took in more than 100 pounds of prescription drugs.

“We’re collecting tablets, capsules, patches and other solid forms of prescription drugs,” she said.

The department also accepts vaping devices if the batteries have been removed. It will not accept liquids, syringes or sharp objects.

The Sioux City drop-off event runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Find a take back location in your area at the Drug Enforcement Administration’s website.

Engineers at Iowa State University are developing a computer game to help Polk County emergency responders practice thinking on their feet in crisis situations. 

In the game, players are assigned to different roles, like firefighters, paramedics or county emergency managers. In the version ISU is developing, a derecho rolls through an urban setting. Players then have to make decisions about how to respond and effectively allocate resources. 

Cameron MacKenzie, an ISU engineering professor leading the project, said the game gives county departments an immersive, yet flexible training option. 

“That’s more or less the overall goal of what Polk County wants to achieve with it, is creating a different type of training tool that’s engaging, that’s perhaps easier to conduct, logistically, than some of these large-scale exercises.”

MacKenzie said people running the game can make it more challenging by adjusting different variables, like the number of ambulances available.

The National Science Foundation is supporting the project through a $700,000 grant.

Voters in Black Hawk, Johnson and Story counties are suing the state of Iowa over a new law that requires them to elect their county supervisors by district. A state law passed earlier this year requires counties with a public university to elect their supervisors by district instead of at-large.

Now, a group of 14 residents in each of the three counties are saying the law is unconstitutional since it targets the rights of voters in specific counties. They claim the new law delegitimizes student voices and people who live in counties with public universities based solely on where they live.

Proponents say it gives a voice to rural Iowans who live in counties with large student populations.

Across the three counties, there is only one Republican supervisor. 

The lawsuit also names Gov. Kim Reynolds, Secretary of State Paul Pate and each of the county’s boards of supervisors as defendants. The group is asking the court to declare the law unconstitutional and prevent it from being enforced. 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture released a plan Wednesday aimed at increasing cattle herd sizes by expanding grazing on government lands and reducing red tape. But it was overshadowed by the Trump administration’s plan to quadruple Argentine beef imports, a move that is strongly opposed by rural lawmakers and farm groups.

Justin Tupper, director of the National Cattlemen’s Association and a cattle rancher in South Dakota, said domestic producers won’t see the upside of the administration’s plan.

“The only people that are going to benefit is the ‘Big Four’ packers, who are the importers — two of them foreign-owned. They’re going to buy it in a very depressed market. Brazil and Argentine beef is way cheaper right now than our domestic is now,” he said.

Tupper said the packers will buy foreign beef at lower prices from South America before selling it in the U.S., where beef prices are at an all-time high. The prices in the U.S. have been pushed up due to drought and the smallest cattle herd size in 75 years.

Read more from Harvest Public Media’s Molly Ashford.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained an 18-year-old Des Moines high school student last month when he attended a routine immigration check-in. The student was then deported to Central America two weeks later, according to Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice.

Some members of the nonprofit, which provides advocacy and legal services to immigrants, went with the student to his appointment on Sept. 30 to protect him. When they realized ICE had detained him, spokesperson Elena Casillas-Hoffman said the community reacted with anger.

“This was so unjust. They did not expect for this high school student to be ripped from them, to be deported in the manner that it was, and in the quick manner that it was,” she said.

Casillas-Hoffman said the student helped care for his guardian’s children, and because of his deportation, his guardian is struggling to provide for her family. According to his guardian, the student was abandoned by his parents when he was little and came to Iowa seeking safety and a chance to reunite with his family.

A suspected serial killer who was considered a person of interest in the Jodi Huisentruit case from 30 years ago is now linked to the murders of two other women in neighboring states.

Authorities in Wood County, Wisconsin said DNA has positively linked the suspect, Christopher Revak, to the slaying of 21-year-old Deidre Harm after a night out at a Wisconsin Rapids bar in 2006.

DNA also links Revak to the murder of 36-year-old Rene Williams of Ava, Mo., in 2007.

Revak, who was originally from the Wisconsin Rapids area, was arrested for the Williams murder and killed himself in a Missouri jail cell while awaiting trial. He was considered a possible suspect in several other unsolved cases, including the 1995 disappearance of Mason City TV anchor Jodi Huisentruit.

The Wisconsin sheriff said the new DNA findings won’t bring back the victims, but it may bring some closure to the families.

Food pantries are bracing for a major spike in need as 130,000 Iowa households may not receive their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits next month.

The federal government has told states to not distribute food assistance in November because of the shutdown. Food pantry leaders said this has never happened before, and it could lead to unprecedented use of food pantries during what’s typically their busiest time of year.

“All of us are doing everything we can to meet the need, but … the charitable food system cannot fill this gap. For every meal the charitable food system provides, SNAP provides nine,” said Annette Hacker, chief communications and strategy officer for the Food Bank of Iowa.

Gov. Kim Reynolds said she’s reviewing the state’s food insecurity response plan and has directed the state health department to convene regular calls with food banks.

Read more.

Demolition work is underway to tear down the entire East Wing of the White House to clear the way for a new 90,000 square foot ballroom President Donald Trump wants to build.

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said Trump isn’t doing anything that hasn’t been done by previous residents of the executive mansion.

“Past presidents have decided to change things at the White House,” Grassley said. “I don’t recall any objections through history of the times where it’s been changed from time to time.”

Trump estimated the new ballroom will cost $300 million — up from an estimate of $200 million just days ago. But the president insists it’s all from private donations, not taxpayer dollars.

Reports state that several corporations have contributed to the project, including Apple, Amazon, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Google, Comcast and Meta.

As for the ballooning nine-figure price tag, Grassley said “hardly anything” gets done at the original estimated cost.

Earlier this week, President Donald Trump indicated that he will increase beef imports from Argentina to lower prices for consumers, despite pushback from cattle producers and GOP lawmakers.

Tensions flared again Wednesday when Trump posted on Truth Social that cattle producers would be doing “terrible” if it weren’t for tariffs he rolled out earlier this year.

The Iowa Cattlemen's Association said in a statement that Trump’s plan and comments were “disconcerting” and “the administration needs to know and recognize that words matter.”

Economists said beef prices have increased as the national supply of cattle has shrunk in recent years, largely due to higher costs for raising cattle and drought in the Great Plains.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture released a plan Wednesday that aims to increase the national herd while decreasing prices for consumers. The plan includes increasing grazing access on federal land, cutting inspection costs for small processors and “encouraging protein as the foundation for every meal.”

Fur Commission USA said someone illegally entered a mink farm in southwest Iowa near Woodbine Monday night and released some of the animals.

According to Challis Hobbs, the trade group’s spokesperson, a farmer who raises more than 1,000 mink found damage to his property and perimeter fence. Hobbs said the nesting boxes were destroyed and some of the pens had been left open. About half of the mink stayed on the farm, and the farmer is working to find the others, according to Hobbs.

“What we see time and time again is, like, within 24 to 48 hours, if the farmer can’t recover them, the majority of them die,” he said.

The mink might survive for awhile by eating birds or chickens they can find, according to Hobbs, but released minks often die or are hit on a roadway and killed.

Hobbs said there have been recent incidents on fur farms in Ohio and Pennsylvania. 

Federal law prohibits damaging or interfering with the operations of an animal enterprise. Local law enforcement and the FBI are investigating the Woodbine case

“The government does see this as domestic terrorism because they’re intentionally going on these farms and trying to basically shut them down and put these put these farming families out of business,” Hobbs said.

Two people caught in the Pennsylvania case face multiple charges. Hobbs said the animals’ pelts cost around $45 each, but it can cost the farmer much more in losing animals for breeding.

The Waterloo Police Department is investigating a flyer targeting immigrants.

KWWL in Waterloo reported the flyer was seemingly posted by the Aryan Freedom Network. The words “stop illegal immigration” are printed at the top. It’s similar to flyers posted in Independence in February.

Last year, the Aryan Freedom Network posted recruiting materials across Waterloo, asking recipients to join the group. Mayor Quentin Hart said at the time that there is no place for hate groups in Waterloo. 

Local leaders are urging people in the Cedar Rapids Community School District to vote for a $117 million bond issue that would fund improvements to four schools.

The bond would fund what officials say are long overdue renovations at three middle schools and one high school. The district is paring down as it faces declining enrollment and mounting maintenance costs.  

At a public forum Wednesday hosted by The Gazette, Ron Corbett with the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance said the bond would benefit all the district’s buildings. 

“When you make the investment into the buildings, that frees up the maintenance money that you were using that to be spread around the other facilities,” Corbett said. 

Some members of the audience said they wish the district could provide more information about the specific improvements it would be making to the schools. Operations Director Chad Schumacher tried to address some of their concerns at the public forum. 

“We wouldn’t want to put the cart before the horse. Before we hire an architect and invest money in that, we definitely want to make sure we have the go-ahead to do that,” Schumacher said. “We have a conceptual idea that there are big boxes we know we’re going to have to address.” 

The bond needs 60% of the vote to pass this election.

Read more.

Katarina Sostaric

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Iowa Public Radio

Republican Senate candidate Jim Carlin said “big government and big business” are driving the high cost of health care, housing and higher education.

At a gathering of conservatives in the Des Moines metro, Carlin said less government regulation and more free market policies would help fix the high cost of living.

“I believe in free market capitalism, fundamentally,” he said. “And when the government facilitates monopoly control of markets, the people lose. They lose their voice. They lose their choice.”

He also said campaign finance reform is needed to ensure elections are truly in the hands of the voters. Carlin wants to ban Super PACs, which can keep donors secret and spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections.

Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson is also running for Senate in 2026 now that U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst announced she’s not running for reelection. Five Democrats are running for Senate.

Read more.

Voters in three eastern Iowa cities will be asked to approve a Local Options Sales Tax on the November ballot. It would add 1% to sales of many goods and services in Iowa City, Coralville and North Liberty. It would not include things like groceries, rent or prescription drugs. 

In North Liberty, half of the revenue will go toward capital improvement projects, such as building a new fire station.

“We would like more bedrooms so that people could be here and be on the trucks and out of the door faster,” said Tina Humston, captain of the North Liberty Fire Department. “Also, currently, the station does not have any sort of an alarm system or sprinkler system. The building was not built to be a fire station.” 

The other half of the revenue generated by the tax would go toward property tax relief, which is required under state law. 

Celebrations are planned in both Iowa and Nebraska for what would have been Johnny Carson’s 100th birthday Thursday. The late-night host of NBC's The Tonight Show died in 2005.

Carson was born in Corning before moving to Norfolk, Neb., at age 8. Tours of his home will be free to visitors Thursday.

Roger Sorensen, president of the Johnny Carson Birthplace Society, remembered Carson as having a “warm” personality with a “Midwestern type of humor.”

“His parents were just ordinary people, and [he was] born in the least populated county in Iowa in the middle of our country,” Sorensen said. “And then his rise to stardom — it is truly the American dream.”

Events are also being held at the Elkhorn Valley Museum in Norfolk. Sorensen made his comments on IPR’s Talk of Iowa.

State Sen. Tony Bisignano, D-Des Moines, has formally requested an audit of the Iowa Department of Education’s licensing and background check procedures.

In a letter to State Auditor Rob Sand, Bisignano said revelations following the arrest of former Superintendent Ian Roberts by ICE agents last month raise serious concerns about the integrity and effectiveness of the board’s licensing processes. Roberts faces federal charges that he lied about his immigration status on employment forms.

“This incident represents a glaring oversight and suggests a potential failure in either the background check protocol itself or in the implementation and review process,” Bisignano said in the letter.

Sand has already agreed to a separate audit of Des Moines Public Schools following the resignation of Roberts. Sand’s office sent out an email Wednesday saying he has also agreed to Bisignano's request.

Rachel Cramer

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Iowa Public Radio

This year, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources issued 156 “swimming not recommended” advisories for state beaches. All but five of the advisories were related to high E. coli levels.

E. coli is a large family of bacteria. Most strains are harmless and live in the intestines of warm-blooded animals, including humans. But some cause stomach cramps, diarrhea and vomiting if people swallow them.

For decades, high concentrations of E. coli in fresh water have been used as an indicator of possible fecal contamination and pathogens, which include disease-causing bacteria, viruses and protozoans.

“As the numbers go up, the risk of getting a gastrointestinal-type illness at the beach goes up. So, it's all about risk,” said Dan Kendall, an environmental specialist with the DNR.

Part of Kendall’s work is managing the state’s beach monitoring program, which began in 2000. He said 2025 marks the highest “straight count” for state beach advisories due to E. coli, but emphasized the number of beaches sampled has fluctuated over time.

Read more about the DNR’s research to pinpoint potential E. coli sources, better understand the health risks for beachgoers and find solutions.

A monthly survey of bank CEOs in rural areas of Iowa and other Midwest states indicates the region’s economy has dipped to its lowest level since May 2020.

Creighton University Economist Ernie Goss conducts the survey and releases the Mid-America Mainstreet Index each month.
“It was not good news for the month of October,” Goss said. “And certainly, looking ahead, the outlook is also negative for these bank CEOs in looking at the farm economy.”

Goss said that a majority of the bankers indicated that President Donald Trump’s approach to trade with China is “about right.” But nearly 85% of the bankers surveyed support emergency federal payments to farmers due to the financial hit of trade losses.

According to Goss, there may be one bright spot in the survey about farm loans.

“Delinquency rates are very low right now, especially given the weakness in farm income. In other words, the farmers have been judicious about borrowing and the lenders have been judicious about lending,” Goss said. “On the flip side of that, farm equipment sales have really been suffering in the region.”

The Mid-America Mainstreet Index shows farm equipment sales have dropped for 26 straight months. That’s a hit to Iowa, where John Deere has been laying off workers and scaling back production.

Goss said the value of farmland is holding up much better than farm income. The rural bankers surveyed expect farmland prices to decline by 3-4% in the next 12 months.

With Halloween right around the corner, Iowans of all ages are preparing their costumes for trick-or-treating.

Juanita Cameron, with the Theatrical Shop in West Des Moines, said this year’s hot items come from a Netflix movie that was released this past summer.

“The number one thing that the kids are looking for is KPop Demon Hunters,” Cameron said with a laugh. “I didn’t know what a K-pop was until Halloween, but they’re looking for the costumes, they’re looking for the wigs and they’re looking for all the makeup that goes with it.”

As for adults, Cameron said the shop is selling fewer full costumes and more accessories so people can create a unique character or costume for Halloween.

“I don’t know what it is, but they’re doing a lot of DIYs,” Cameron said. “Some are making up their own scary or fun looks. We have a lot of wigs, a lot of mustaches, a lot of makeup that we’re selling.”

Cameron said she has also chatted with some customers who are buying costumes for Halloween-themed weddings that are being planned for the weekend of Oct. 31.

A tiny village project for people experiencing chronic homelessness in Des Moines is moving forward after more than a decade of planning.

The homelessness prevention nonprofit Joppa has had a lot of trouble finding a good piece of land to build on. Now, it has finalized a lease-to-buy agreement with the Des Moines City Council to secure public property for its tiny village on the city’s East side.

Joppa CEO Joe Stevens said that means the nonprofit can start designing what the village will look like.
“Well, after 12 years of working on this project and going through hundreds of properties, you can imagine we're very excited and very grateful to be able to move forward and help 50 chronically homeless people find permanent housing in a supportive environment,” Stevens said.

Joppa plans to start moving people into the village as soon as 2027.

The Polk County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to invest $200,000 to help maintain a network of water quality sensors in rivers and streams across Iowa. The sensors are part of the Iowa Water Quality Information System and collect real-time data on things like nitrates, flow and temperature. 

Polk County Conservation Director Rich Leopold said long periods of data are key for tracking trends and knowing whether certain water quality practices, like adding wetlands, are effective.

“We’re investing time, energy and money into all these practices,” Leopold said. “And if we want to make sure that we’re doing something to make things improve, [we check] ‘Are things improving?’”

The Iowa Legislature diverted funding for the University of Iowa program in 2023. As a result, the Walton Family Foundation helped fill in the gap through June of next year.

Polk County Supervisor Matt McCoy said he’s hopeful that Linn and Johnson counties will also provide funding to maintain the water sensor network across Iowa.

A U.S. district court judge heard arguments Tuesday in a federal case involving a man who was detained by immigration officials in Iowa City in September. The judge said he would issue a ruling soon on whether Jorge Gonzalez-Ochoa will remain in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service. 

Gonzalez was arrested by federal immigration officers at Bread Garden Market in Iowa City. Videos of his arrest were circulated widely on social media, where the officers could be seen tackling Gonzalez and threatening to shock him with an electric Taser. 

He was held in the Linn County Jail until he was detained by federal officials with the U.S. Marshals Service on charges of providing a forged Green Card and a false Social Security number when he applied for work. Gonzalez was moved to the Muscatine County Jail. 

Gonzalez, who was seeking asylum at the time of his arrest, arrived in the U.S. in November 2024 after immigrating from Colombia. 

Health experts said they have seen an increase in hand, foot and mouth disease cases in Iowa this year. The disease is a highly contagious viral infection that’s very common in kids under the age of five. 

Christine Davis, a family medicine doctor at UnityPoint Health, said she has seen higher than average rates of cases with the warmer temperatures this summer and fall. Davis said the infection can be treated at home with over-the-counter medications like ibuprofen and Tylenol. But parents should make sure kids don’t get dehydrated. 

“A lot of times, because they do have these sores in the back of their throats, they're not wanting to eat or drink very well,” Davis said. “And so signs of dehydration, especially in really young kiddos, would be less frequent wet diapers and just refusal to take any oral intake in.”  

Davis said symptoms that parents can look out for include a low-grade fever, low energy and rashes that commonly start on the buttock.

Katarina Sostaric

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Iowa Public Radio

Gov. Kim Reynolds released recommendations made by her Iowa DOGE Task Force on Tuesday.

After a member of the task force previously floated the idea of providing a 401(k)-style retirement plan for new public employees instead of the current pension plan known as IPERS, Reynolds made it clear that pensions aren’t going anywhere.

“You can rest assured that IPERS will be there for your retirement, just as you’ve planned and we’ve promised,” she said.

Reynolds said there has been public speculation and misinformation about changes to retirement benefits for teachers and law enforcement officers. The Iowa DOGE Task Force is recommending a study of public employee compensation that may explore offering workers a choice between a 401(k) and a pension. 

Reynolds said the state already has a longstanding legislative committee that’s supposed to be reviewing public retirement systems. 

The governor said she will spend the next few months reviewing the 45 recommendations made by the task force for possible implementation.

Read more.

Republican U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra said finding new markets for U.S. soybeans amid China’s boycott of American beans should be the priority, and federal trade disruption payments should be a last resort.

“I think most farmers, we don’t want to take subsidy checks, but if that’s the last resort, we’ll go down that path,” Feenstra said. “But for me, it’s all about, ‘How do we create more export markets?’”

President Donald Trump said in September that he planned to use tariff revenue to pay farmers who have taken a financial hit due to the trade war with China. Feenstra pointed to another September announcement, when Japan — the sixth largest foreign buyer of U.S. soybean products — promised to buy $8 billion in U.S. ag commodities.

“We’ve had a lot of successes with Japan … Taiwan, Vietnam, UK, but we’ve got to try to get that market open in India and China,” Feenstra said. “I know China has been our adversary, and they’ve, over the last three decades, treated us really bad when it comes to trade, but I think there’s opportunity there.”

Feenstra also said farmers will benefit from some subsidy-related changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill signed by Trump in July.

“This is the big thing for all of the farmers right now, we increased the reference prices for corn,” he said. “Corn was at $3.70. Now that reference price is at $4.10. And beans went from $8.40 to $10.”

Under the USDA’s Price Loss Coverage program, payments to farmers are triggered when the national average price for corn and soybeans falls below those “reference prices.”

The Des Moines City Council voted to tighten the rules of its camping ban ordinance. Previously, a person couldn’t be charged with a misdemeanor if they couldn’t find space in a shelter or if they couldn’t afford the $15 fine. Now, those exceptions are gone.

During public comment Monday night, Nina Rickman, who volunteers with the Urban Bicycle Food Ministry, told the story of someone she met who’s experiencing homelessness. Rickman said the person, named Maria, can’t stay in a shelter because of her severe mental illness.
“When you talk with her, what you hear is a quiet desperation,” Rickman said. “Because Maria doesn't want to be homeless, but she's out of options and she's really scared.”

Other commentors shouted “Shame on you!” towards council members who voted for the change. The rule change passed 5-2.

A federal court is blocking the Creston Community School District from firing a high school teacher for a comment she posted after Charlie Kirk’s death. The district was supposed to hold a hearing Tuesday to consider firing her.

English teacher Melisa Crook was placed on administrative leave in September after she wrote that conservative activist Kirk was a “terrible human being.” In her comment, she also wrote “I do not wish death on anyone, but him not being here is a blessing.”

The next morning, Crook issued an apology. A few weeks later, she filed a lawsuit against the district and the school board alleging her First Amendment rights were violated. 

The court issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting the district from having the scheduled hearing and from taking "any other adverse employment actions" against her relating to the post. The federal court also denied Crook’s request to be taken off administrative leave at this time. A hearing for Crook's request for a preliminary injunction was deferred until Oct. 31.

—

This was updated Oct. 22 at 6:34 p.m.

Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst said the layoffs President Donald Trump has ordered during the federal government shutdown are long overdue.

Ernst suggested that the president’s Reduction in Force (RIF) program should target Internal Revenue Service employees who owe back taxes. During a speech on the Senate floor, she said it’s time to get “rid of the riffraff with a RIF.”

And there are far more who should be fired, according to Ernst.

“Eliminate the positions of government employees and contractors who weren’t working before the government shutdown,” Ernst said. “There are dozens of National Laboratory employees with nothing to do.”

The U.S. Department of Energy operates 17 national laboratories. Ernst cited a 2023 report in The Nation magazine in which employees at a nuclear weapons complex in New Mexico admitted they had napped and played games during the workday.

“To pass time, one of them started journaling,” Ernst said. “One of his entries reads: ‘Did nothing all day today. Over 10 hours in here.’ The following day, he wrote: ‘I do hope to play another good game of chess.'”

That came from an electrician assigned to work in a restricted area of the facility where the first atomic bomb was created. Department of Energy officials told the magazine they did not find evidence a manager was falsifying time sheets for electricians who are part of a massive workforce upgrading the country’s nuclear stockpile.

On Oct. 1, Ernst released a Congressional Budget Office analysis that estimated 750,000 government employees have been furloughed during the shutdown. Ernst said the shutdown exposes how some of those employees are “nonessential” and “should be put on the chopping block.”

Dallas Tuttle

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Iowa Public Radio

Domestic violence homicide has gone up in Iowa, according to the latest crime data analyzed by the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence.⁠
⁠
The group's study gathered data from all homicides that were a result of domestic violence, which is defined as violence in personal relationships, including romantic and family relationships. It used Uniform Crime Reporting data from October 2021 through September 2024.⁠
⁠
In this timeframe, the coalition found there were at least 88 deaths because of domestic violence. Women and children made up a majority of victims. The most common type of person committing domestic violence homicide was a current or former partner or spouse.⁠

Read more.

Midwestern farmers are taking a hit in the ongoing government shutdown. Many were already losing money because corn, wheat and soybeans are selling for less than it costs farmers to grow them.

Normally, the U.S. Department of Agriculture would help in a situation like this, offering short-term loans to help farmers make ends meet. It would also be publishing comprehensive reports detailing the size of the harvest — and its value — to help farmers market their crops profitably.

President Donald Trump has promised a bailout to compensate farmers for their trade war losses, but University of Missouri Economist Pat Westhoff said even that can’t happen now.

“Things aren't going to go forward until the government’s open again,” Westhoff said. “[That] continues the uncertainty that's been around for some time, obviously.”

Westhoff said getting bailout money to struggling farmers won’t happen until weeks after the shutdown ends.
Read more from Harvest Public Media’s Frank Morris.

The Iowa State Patrol released the name of an eastern Iowa woman who died after her vehicle was rear-ended by a school bus.

The patrol’s accident report indicates at about 1:45 p.m. Friday, 37-year-old Crystal Offerman of Vinton was stopped on Highway 218. Offerman was waiting to turn when her Jeep was rear-ended by a Vinton-Shellsburg school bus. The collision forced Offerman’s Jeep into oncoming traffic, where it crashed head-on with an SUV.

The six students on the bus, the bus driver and the driver of the third vehicle involved in the accident were not injured.

The fatal accident occurred just days before National School Bus Safety Week, which is held during the third week of October every year.

James Kelley

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Iowa Public Radio

Rallies protesting President Donald Trump’s agenda took place over the weekend, even in rural parts of the state that Trump won by a wide margin.

A “No Kings” rally in eastern Iowa’s Clinton County drew hundreds of protesters. Some said they felt that the president was dividing Americans and making it impossible to talk about politics with their friends and neighbors. 

Kerry Notz, who lives in the area, used to teach English as a Second Language courses at the community college. She said the current state of the country is causing her to second-guess some of the lessons she once imparted on students.

“I've told my students, ‘You can stand on the street corner and say the president is an idiot and should go away.’ And I said, ‘You’re fine, nothing will happen to you. Nothing will happen to your family,’” Notz said. “And I’m not completely sure of that right now and that hurts my heart.” 

Dozens gathered at another protest in Maquoketa in Jackson County, an area that voted for Trump by 32 percentage points. Other protests happened across the state, including in Des Moines, Iowa City and Davenport. Organizers for the nationwide day of protests told NPR about 2,600 events were planned for Saturday.

Read more.