Midwest

In an internal meeting on Friday, the Iowa Department of Corrections told employees it is no longer pursuing privatization, saying now is not the right time. About 20% of the medical staff resigned over the past six months.

Seed corn companies are using more laborers with H-2A visas, according to data from Iowa Workforce Development and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Local contractors say they have teens, who rely on the summer jobs, waiting to do the work.

Contractors say they have enough local labor to detassel Nebraska’s seed corn but they’re losing work to migrant workers on H-2A visas. A 2024 law attempted to increase transparency in detasseling.

Staff cuts, the closure of regional printing presses and cuts to printed editions characterize Lee Enterprises as it tries to expand its digital subscriber base while keeping existing print customers and advertisers on board.

A law to protect students and school employees from the radioactive gas has an approaching deadline. The Midwest Newsroom has found that progress is uneven across Iowa's school districts. Private schools are exempt from the testing requirement.

After a large gathering outside of the Cedar Rapids ICE office last month, more federal and local law enforcement officers guarded the office during appointments in September.

With more school districts adopting a four-day school week, educators and parents are grappling with a question that isn’t easy to answer: What trade-offs come with a shortened school week, and are those trade-offs worth it? It depends who you ask.

Leaders of community colleges say many students are confused about the status of their loans and failing to repay them. If too many students default, community colleges can lose federal funding.

Local leaders are addressing AI’s impact on water, surveillance, transparency and more. A mostly hands-off approach at the federal level means regulating complex AI issues is–so far–evolving in a patchwork of laws.

As a new Postmaster General with ties to FedEx assumes control of the agency, postal workers and their customers are bracing for either scenario, especially as corporate America weighs in.