State Government News

Gov. Kim Reynolds is calling on Congress to provide more financial relief for families and businesses impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, but she is not asking state lawmakers to use Iowa’s budget surplus and emergency funds to provide assistance.

The coronavirus is tearing through Iowa's prisons, infecting more than 3,000 people and upending regular operations. So far, nine deaths have been linked to the outbreaks, which are spreading rapidly as the state's overall case numbers grow exponentially.

Democrats in the Iowa Senate have elected Sen. Zach Wahls, D-Coralville, to serve as the new Senate Minority Leader. Sen. Janet Petersen stepped down from the position last week.

Republicans in the Iowa Senate voted Friday to select Sen. Jake Chapman, R-Adel, as the new Senate president and to keep Sen. Jack Whitver, R-Ankeny, as the Senate majority leader.

Iowa’s top election official says he is confident the state’s voting system is prepared to stand up to any potential cyberattacks aimed at disrupting the election.

With less than a week left to vote in the 2020 general election, some Black elected officials and activists are holding events around the state to help inform Iowans with past felony convictions that their voting rights have been restored.

Survivors of sexual assault in Iowa can now track where an evidence kit is being held and whether it has been analyzed by the state criminal lab.

State Auditor Rob Sand has notified Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds that her use of $21 million of federal pandemic relief funding for a new state software system that was approved before the pandemic started is not allowed under the CARES Act.

Iowa’s revenue forecasters are predicting the state will bring in just a little less money in the current fiscal year than in the previous fiscal year that ended June 30. But the three-member panel acknowledged that there is still a lot of uncertainty.

Gov. Kim Reynolds has permitted bars to reopen in four of the six counties where they were shut down three weeks amid growing COVID-19 cases. She says social distancing requirements will be more strictly enforced.