Kate Payne

Some Linn County voters are still confused about the sample ballots they received. More than 300 voters have mailed them back with their candidates marked off.

An Iowa non-profit organization is permanently setting aside 63 acres in Johnson County for sustainable farming. Due to the work of the Sustainable Iowa Land Trust, or SILT, the farmland 10 miles north of Iowa City will never be developed or used for row cropping. The group hopes the land will make getting into the business of growing food affordable for young farmers.

The city of Cedar Rapids has spent more than a half a million dollars on emergency flood protection during the month of September. There was virtually no damage from the recent flood scares, but there’s a still a cost.

Public health researchers believe illegal needle exchanges are reducing transmission of hepatitis c in Iowa. Advocates hope the data will help build support for legalizing the practice in the state. 

Some public health advocates say Iowa’s Medicaid program is illegally denying treatment for certain hepatitis c patients. With drugs that can cure 98 percent of patients, care for the potentially deadly disease is incredibly effective, but also incredibly expensive.

A political advocacy group is banking on a digital ad campaign to get young Iowans to the polls. 

Linn County officials and non-profit organizations want to help former inmates re-enter society. An upcoming expungement clinic is aimed at helping Iowans work past their criminal records.

Congress is allocating billions of dollars to expand the work of the Army Corps of Engineers, as past of a larger funding package that includes the Departments of Defense, Labor, and Health and Human Services. But adequate funding to replace the aging locks and dams on the Mississippi River is not part of the deal. 

Federal agencies and local leaders are committing to work together to expand water quality monitoring on the Mississippi River. Representatives from the U.S. Geological Survey, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of Transportation signed the agreement Wednesday with a coalition of mayors from up and down the Mississippi.

The chair of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee says he’ll hold a full and fair hearing on allegations of sexual assault by a nominee to the Supreme Court, scheduled for this coming Monday. The committee's past handling of similiar reports had sweeping political consequences. 

State investigators say heavy rains were in a factor in a manure spill at a dairy farm in eastern Iowa. Some researchers say a changing climate could increase the risk for similar incidents. 

The University of Iowa is settling a lawsuit alleging it violated open meetings laws during a 2015 search for its current president. 

Iowa’s governor is defending budget cuts to the state’s university system as some schools lose ground in national rankings. 

Cedar Rapids officials have adopted a plan to fund permanent flood protection in the city. Ten years after historic floods battered the city, its leaders want taxpayers to help protect it from the next disaster. 

Students and staff at an eastern Iowa school are still recovering after an attempted shooting last month. While North Scott Community School District officials are rethinking campus safety plans following the incident, a lack of funding may limit potential changes. 

Conservationists say they’ve made progress in the 10 years since historic floods hit eastern Iowa. Now they're calling for even more investment in flood protection. 

The flooding Wapsipinicon River rose to 16.86 feet in Independence on Wednesday. Floodwater streamed into some businesses and parking lots and marrooned some cars in the northeast Iowa City.

The city of Cedar Rapids is preparing for another flood. The Cedar River is forecast to crest at 16.5 feet this week, after days of rainfall saturated eastern Iowa.

Residents across eastern Iowa are cleaning up, after severe weather pelted the area Tuesday night. The storm brought hail, flooding rains, and winds upwards of 80 miles per hour, knocking out power to thousands, downing trees and flattening some crops.

An eastern Iowa school district has adopted stricter volunteer policies and more frequent background checks, after the superintendent allowed a convicted sex offender to volunteer in the district.

Early results from a survey of the Iowa River show mussel populations are lower than researchers hoped. Scientists are monitoring the animals to better understand water quality in the river. 

More than a thousand mourners crowded the BGM High School gymnasium in Brooklyn, Iowa Sunday to honor the life of Mollie Tibbetts. The 20-year-old University of Iowa student is being remembered as joyful, energetic and full of life. At an emotional funeral mass, family and friends urged mourners to live more energetically and passionately in her honor.

The priest at a church once attended by a murdered Iowa woman is calling on his congregation to forgive her killer. Community members have called Mollie Tibbetts' death "gut-wrenching" and like "a hole in everybody's heart".

People in Mollie Tibbetts’ hometown said Wednesday they’re heartbroken by the news of her death.

Early Tuesday, investigators found what they believe to be the remains of the 20-year-college student in a field southeast of Brooklyn, in Poweshiek County.

Twenty-four-year-old Cristhian Rivera has been charged with her murder. Investigators say he is an undocumented immigrant, but his attorney filed papers in court Wednesday disputing that.

Rusty Clayton is a life-long Brooklyn resident and owns a hardware store.

Iowa law enforcement officers have charged an undocumented immigrant with first degree murder in the case of Mollie Tibbetts, who had been missing for more than a month. On Tuesday morning, 24-year-old Cristhian Bahena Rivera of rural Poweshiek County led investigators to a body covered in corn stalks in a cornfield southeast of Brooklyn, Iowa. The city of 1,400 is Tibbetts’ hometown and the last place where she was seen while jogging on the evening of July 18th. Investigators have not yet confirmed the identity of the remains, but they believe them to be that of Mollie Tibbetts.

Some experts say Iowa farmers are largely exempt from a re-instated federal rule on water pollution. But the rule is still facing resistance from some ag groups.

A girls empowerment organization in Eastern Iowa is offering sports hijabs to help Muslim girls stay active.