Eight child abuse call centers will be combined into a single office with one set of employees to handle complaints from around Iowa, and rejected complaints will be kept for three years instead of six months.
Watchdogs had called for both a centralized abuse reporting system and longer record keeping after [...]
Iowa foster parents will get about $35 less each month for expenses for the abused or neglected children they care for on behalf of the state.
That could hurt the foster care system, said several Iowans who oversee the Iowa Department of Human Services. The 10 percent across-the-board budget cut Gov. [...]
Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley said an agreement by Democrats to drop a government-run health insurance provision from a comprehensive reform bill would do little to change his opposition to the Senate bill.
Grassley said the agreement announced Tuesday to abandon the so-called public option would continue to overburden Medicare by expanding [...]
A forum about the 2010 session of the Iowa Legislature planned for today at the Iowa Capitol has been canceled, due to the blizzard, aides to Iowa Gov. Chet Culver said.
Culver had said he would try to attend the session, sponsored by the Associated Press, but decided this morning to [...]
State offices will be open today, but employees should use their best judgment before deciding to come to work, Iowa Gov. Chet Culver advises.
Culver said if workers believe it’s unsafe to come to work because of the “historic and dangerous storm,” they can choose to take the day off without [...]
Iowa schools are eligible for a share of $60 million in vouchers for computer technology money from the Microsoft class action lawsuit settlement, Des Moines lawyer Roxanne Conlin said today.
The money is part of the $180-million settlement of the 2007 case. Conlin, a Democrat running for U.S. Senate, has recently [...]
Gov. Chet Culver’s office does not intend to release reports expected this week on tax credit programs that affect thousands of Iowa workers and businesses before holding public hearings next week that will help decide the incentives’ fate.
Erin Seidler, the governor’s communications chief, said policy advisers in the governor’s office [...]
An analysis of Iowa Board of Parole decisions shows no indication of racial bias against black inmates seeking release from prison, state officials said Monday.
When examining parole decisions by race and type of offense, black inmates were slightly less likely than whites to be paroled. But when a statistical method [...]
Government spending to recover from the flooding and tornadoes that devastated many Iowa communities last year has exceeded $1 billion, state officials said Monday.
Still, the spending represents less than one-third of the $3.6 billion in state and federal money already promised to help the state, communities and individuals, according to [...]
Iowa’s largest state agency would compress eight regional offices into five, while trying to protect remaining frontline services to children and families under a reorganization plan announced Monday.
Department of Human Services chief Charles Krogmeier did not say which regional offices would be closed as part of the budget-cutting plan he [...]
The environmental advocacy group Plains Justice has called on the Iowa Environmental Protection Commission to take a stand favoring regulation of coal ash as hazardous waste.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency is drafting rules to address health risks associated with coal combustion waste. The rules are expected to be issued by [...]
Government spending on the recovery from last year’s flooding and tornadoes has topped $1 billion, the Rebuild Iowa Office reported today.
A total of $3.6 billion has been promised Iowa to help assist the state, communities and individuals, state officials said.
More than 39,800 Iowans have registered with federal emergency management officials [...]
The Iowa Board of Parole says an analysis of its decisions does not show evidence of racial bias against black prisoners.
When examining parole decisions by race and by type of offense, black inmates were a little less likely than whites to be freed from prison. But when a statistical method [...]
Iowa has seen the worst of the recession, but employment won’t begin to grow again until next summer, a team of economic advisors told Gov. Chet Culver today.
“If things go to history, and we have a lot of history, we should see better times starting pretty much right now,” said [...]
Sioux City, Ia. — It didn’t matter to Judy Wagoner that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was 90 minutes late for her appearance in Iowa today, or that most of the 16 hours she waited for her was spent outside in subfreezing air.
“Who cares,” Wagoner said. “I would have waited [...]
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was expected to be late to her noon appearance at a Sioux City bookstore today.
The 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee had been visiting injured veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., today before taking off for Iowa. The threat of snow in [...]
Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin today said he would propose taxing stock transactions as a way of generating revenue to offset the budget deficit.
Harkin, a Democrat, said he planned to introduce in the Senate a bill co-sponsored in the House by Iowa Rep. Bruce Braley, a measure that would impose a [...]
Former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, who is seeking the Republican nomination for the job again, has announced that 14 state lawmakers have endorsed him.
The legislators, all Republicans, are: state Sens. Randy Feenstra of Hull, David Johnson of Ocheyeden, Larry Noble of Ankeny and Pat Ward of West Des Moines; and [...]
Republican candidate for Congress Jim Gibbons chided the Democratic leadership in Congress, and Des Moines’ U.S. House member Leonard Boswell, in light of the newly published 2010 House calendar.
It shows only 17 days where votes are scheduled in the first two months of the year.
Gibbons, of Des Moines, sent [...]
Next year is perhaps the best opportunity for a Republican to unseat incumbent U.S. Congressman Leonard Boswell, said Brad Zaun, a state senator who announced today he will seek his party’s nomination to challenge the seven-term Democrat.
“If you’re an incumbent, you’re vulnerable,” Zaun said at a hardware store on Des Moines’ south side where [...]
If you’re thinking of heading to Sioux City to catch Sarah Palin’s book-signing, better gas up the night before and head out early.
The event, at Barnes & Noble in Southern Hills Mall, is expected to be crowded, although store officials are making accommodations — like allowing people to wait in [...]
The Onion, a farce news Web site, has reported that Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley has “perhaps irrevocably” damaged the ability of his Republican peers to pick up women at bars.
Grassley, this week, answered a question about his participation in federal farm subsidy programs on C-SPAN as [...]
State Democrats criticized Republican candidate for governor Christopher Rants by saying his ideas are outdated and unoriginal.
They seem to be trying to use Rants’ own argument against him. Rants has called for Iowans to look to the future, instead of re-electing Republican Terry Branstad, who was governor in the 1980s [...]
Michael Kiernan
Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Michael Kiernan has called for Senate Republican Leader Paul McKinley to apologize for his comments about children with special needs.
McKinley made the comments Tuesday in a meeting with The Des Moines Register.
Here’s the statement Kiernan just released:
State Sen. Paul McKinley [...]
A review of Iowa’s tax credits has been extended by a week to give departments more time to conduct a comprehensive analysis, Gov. Chet Culver announced today.
Culver, last month, ordered a review of 30 state tax credit incentives in the wake of a criminal probe into Iowa’s film program, a [...]
The departure of Gov. Chet Culver’s campaign manager is a minor blip, the governor told reporters today.
Culver, a Democrat preparing to seek re-election next year, said Andrew Roos’ announcement Tuesday that he was leaving the campaign after less than three months was normal.
“Look, it’s very common, whether public sector or [...]
By DONNELLE ELLER
deller@dmreg.com
All of Iowa’s 99 counties would be able to decide how they tax businesses and residents, under a proposal from group representing Iowa chambers.
The Iowa Chamber Alliance said today the Legislature should give local leaders and voters a chance to decide how they should be taxed.
“Iowa should explore [...]
State Rep. Phyllis Thede, a Democrat from Bettendorf, won a seat in the Iowa House last year.
Now her husband, Dave Thede, a Republican who recently became a Democrat, is now seeking a seat in the Iowa Senate.
Dave Thede, a 55-year-old teacher, is challenging [...]
Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley said did not agree with his Oklahoma colleague Tom Coburn’s comment Tuesday that Medicare cuts proposed in the Senate health care bill would lead to earlier death for seniors.
But Grassley stopped well short of criticizing his fellow Republican, attributing the comment to a debate environment
that [...]
On Tuesday, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, who wears his Iowa farmer status on his sleeve, let loose again with a barnyard reference similar to one he used in March.
As a guest on C-SPAN’s Morning Journal, the Republican was answering the question of a caller on the cable television public affairs [...]
Troy Price, a spokesman for Gov. Chet Culver, issued a statement today, saying Republicans failed to offer solutions during an online interview with The Des Moines Register.
Josie Albrecht, a spokeswoman for the Iowa House Republicans issued the following response:
“Republicans have laid out a detailed agenda for [...]
The Register listed the wrong time for when television coverage begins tonight for President Obama’s speech on Afghanistan. Coverage starts at 7 p.m.
[...]Troy Price, a spokesman for Gov. Chet Culver, issued the following statement about statements made today by House Republican Leader Kraig Paulsen and Senate Republican Leader Paul McKinley during an interview with The Des Moines Register.
See the video replay here. More news coverage of the meetings with both Democrats [...]
Gov. Chet Culver’s campaign manager said today he has resigned, citing personal reasons for leaving the Democrat’s re-election bid after only three months.
Andrew Roos, who was hired in September to manage Culver’s re-election campaign, said he had decided to step down before Thanksgiving and that Culver did not ask him [...]
The Sioux City Journal reports that State Rep. Wes Whitead, D-Sioux City, will not run for another term from House District 1 in 2010.
The Journal says that Rick Mullin of Sioux City has filed papers to run for the Democratic nomination and that Whitead says Mullin would [...]
Republican candidate for governor Christian Fong announced today he has suspended his campaign for governor.
The 32-year-old Cedar Rapids businessman said he will no longer campaign for the 2010 GOP nomination for governor, but plans to stay “involved in the process, even if it’s not as a formal candidate for governor.”
Fong [...]
In this Dec. 1996 file photo, Chelsea Clinton, right, sits with Marc Mezvinsky on the beach at Hilton Head Island, S.C. (AP [...]
Fitzerald in a 2006 photo showing an unclaimed pistol (dated 1847) owned by Darwin Van Scoyoc at one time that was in the state's possession.
Story County Treasurer David Jamison, a Republican, will officially announce tomorrow that he has assembled a campaign committee [...]
Jim Gibbons, a Des Moines Republican trying to land his party’s nomination to run against U.S. Rep. Leonard Boswell next year, has launched a new Web site.
Gibbons today also announced that Allison Kleis as his campaign treasurer. Kleis previously served as administrative assistant for Rep. Christopher Rants, a Republican from [...]
Iowa’s largest public employees’ union has voted in favor of making $26.4 million in concessions in return for a promise of no immediate layoffs for 479 state employees.
The vote by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees was 59 percent “Yes” and 41 percent “No,” according to information [...]
Iowa Lottery sales are running 4 percent ahead of a year ago, despite the national recession, although profits are down, according to Lottery Chief Executive Officer Terry Rich.
Since the new state budget year began July 1, state lottery sales totaled $80.9 million through the end of October. That resulted [...]
U.S. Senate candidate Bob Krause said today he wants President Barack Obama to “halt the rush for escalation” of American forces in Afghanistan.
He said he feared Obama’s plan could push India and Pakistan closer to war.
Krause, one of several Iowa Democrats seeking his party’s nomination to oppose incumbent Republican Sen. [...]
The head of Iowa’s largest public employees union will announce Monday morning whether rank-and-file members were willing to make $26.4 million in concessions in return for a promise of no immediate layoffs for 479 state employees.
Danny Homan, president of Council 61 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal [...]
Roxanne Conlin, a Democrat challenging Sen. Charles Grassley, and U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley will hold roundtable events in Davenport and Waterloo on Monday.
The events will focus upon health care and jobs.
The first event will begin at 10:30 a.m. at the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, local 431 board [...]
Here’s a schedule for a series of debates between Rep. Christopher Rants, a Republican from Sioux City and Jon Narcisse, a former Des Moines School Board member.
Rants is running for governor and Narcisse, a Democrat, has indicated interest in challenging Gov. Chet Culver.
The debates, each from 6 to 7:30 p.m,. [...]
Ottumwa doctor Mariannette Miller-Meeks on Monday will officially announce a second run against Dave Loebsack for Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District.
Miller-Meeks, 54, a Republican, will make a series of stops in the 15-county district located in eastern and southern Iowa. Barbara Grassley, Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley’s wife, [...]
Former Senate Majority Leader and Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Stewart Iverson is considering a run against Rep. McKinley Bailey, a conservative Democrat.
“I’m not going to make any decisions until probably sometime after the first of the year,” Iverson, 59, said today. “If I were to [...]
Former Des Moines School board member Jonathan Narcisse has distributed an e-mail he calls an “open letter to Mr. Bob Vander Plaats” in which he ends by declining a job offer.
But a spokesman for Vander Plaats said the offer was nothing more than an invitation to [...]
Iowa next year will face the largest budget gap in its history: more than $1 billion, a new budget review projects.
The review, released Wednesday by the state’s Legislative Services Agency, shows Iowa lawmakers will face a projected shortfall between revenue and expenses of $1.07 billion in the fiscal year [...]
The hottest ticket in Washington this month was definitely last night’s state dinner at the White House for the prime minister of India.
State Rep. Swati Dandekar and Arvind Dandekar were two of the lucky ones, getting the chance to hobnob with cabinet members and a slew of celebrities.
Here’s the [...]
State Sen. Brad Zaun, an Urbandale Republican, filed paperwork today with the Federal Elections Commission to seek the U.S. House Seat in Iowa’s 3rd District.
Zaun is the third Republican to take steps toward mounting a potential challenge to Leonard Boswell, a seven-term Des Moines Democrat.
Zaun is a former Urbandale mayor [...]
A police union today approved furloughs for its state employees but warned Iowa officials that they will not consider future cutbacks if the state fails to make adequate budget adjustments.
The move means that 20 state troopers, 20 gaming enforcement officers, one fire inspector and two special agents in the Division [...]
Iowa will receive $1.16 million from federal stimulus money for the state to launch an electronic health records system, Gov. Chet Culver announced this afternoon.
The grant is part of a 90-percent federal match that will help the state’s human services and public health departments begin an incentive program for medical [...]
Paul Begala, a political analyst and commentator on CNN, and Tucker Carlson, a contributor to Fox News, will be the featured speakers at the Greater Des Moines Partnership’s annual dinner Jan. 21, providing “A View from the Left and Right,” the group said Tuesday.
The business group says Begala, a Democratic [...]
Former Des Moines School Board member Jonathan Narcisse declined to say today if he will run for governor, clearly leaving the door open for a run.
Narcisse, a Democrat, was asked the question in regard to a new series of public debates he has scheduled with Christopher [...]
Republican candidate for governor Bob Vander Plaats said today former Gov. Terry Branstad’s support of a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate helped pave the way for health care legislation that advanced in Congress Saturday.
Vander Plaats faulted Branstad, a Republican also running for governor, for endorsing and helping raise money for [...]
Rep. Christopher Rants (far left) and Jonathan Narcisse have agreed to join for a series of public debates.
The debates will be set up more as a forum for public discussion on key issues, said Rants, a Republican from Sioux City and candidate for governor.
The [...]
© 2009, Des Moines Register and Tribune Company
Sarah Palin could expect a lot of support in Iowa’s Republican caucuses if she launched a campaign for the 2012 presidential nomination, according to The Des Moines Register’s Iowa Poll.
But the rising national figure, who is scheduled to stop in Iowa next month [...]
Vice President Joe Biden assured Iowans Saturday the nation’s battered economy was slowly turning the corner, and urged Democrats to keep faith amid declining approval in the state for President Barack Obama.
“He has the mind of a president who will take this country to the next level, and he has [...]
Vice President Joe Biden took the offensive in defending the administration’s record, at a time when the Iowa Poll and other polls around the country show President Barack Obama’s job approval slipping.
He listed a number of accomplishments that appeal to various Democratic constituences, such as passage of a bill intended [...]
Vice President Joe Biden reminded an audience of Iowa Democrats tonight that change is not easy.
He said that President Barack Obama and he took office at a time when hundreds of thousands of Americans were losing their jobs and record numbers of homes were in foreclosure. Retirement savings were vanishing.
Beyond [...]
Vice President Joe Biden greeted Iowans at 8:21 p.m. with his familiar “folks” and thanked the crowd for pushing Barack Obama and Biden to the White House.
Of course, Iowans pushed Obama a bit harder than they pushed Biden, he acknowledged. Obama won the caucuses, but Biden came in fifth and [...]
The U.S. Senate tonight confirmed the nominations of Iowa’s two U.S. attorney nominees, Stephanie Rose for Iowa’s northern district in Cedar Rapids, and Nick Klinefeldt for Iowa’s southern district in Des Moines.
Below is the statement of Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, who recommended their nominations.
HARKIN CONGRATULATES IOWA’S NEWLY CONFIRMED U.S. ATTORNEYS [...]
U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin addressed the Hy-Vee Hall crowd via video, saying he expected Gov. Chet Culver to win re-election and praising congressional Democrats’ work on health-care reform.
He remained in Washington for a key procedural vote to move a health-care reform bill forward in the Senate. After he spoke, Iowa [...]
Democratic leaders in the Iowa Legislature, before competing in a pass-the-hat fundraiser at the Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner in Des Moines, jokingly lobbed insults at each other.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy to Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal: “What’s the difference between God and a state senator?” the Des Moines lawmaker [...]
Gov. Chet Culver spent the first part of his speech on thank yous and federal-level issues, noting that Congress nears passage of historic health-care reform.
But he soon turned to a list of accomplishments in Iowa: Expanding health care for children, lifting a ban on stem-cell research and helping veterans go [...]
Iowa Gov. Chet Culver took the stage at HyVee Hall to the Rolling Stones’ classic “Start Me Up.”
Here’s the list of tunes played for some of the other speakers as they approached the podium at the state Democratic Party’s Jefferson Jackson Day dinner in Des Moines.
Iowa Democratic Party Chairman, Michael [...]
Lt. Gov. Patty Judge repeatedly poked fun at former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who is touring in support of her new book, “Going Rogue.”
Tongue in cheek, Judge said she plans to write a book, too, titled,”Going to Des Moines,” full of good stories that are actually true, she [...]
Democrats laughed nervously at the Iowa Democratic Party’s Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner in Des Moines tonight as periodic crashes of dishes hitting the cement floor interrupted the program.
At one point, a tray of dishes — packed with grilled pork, chicken, vegetables and potatoes — hit the floor, prompting Iowa Democratic Party [...]
U.S. Rep. Leonard Boswell recalled a meeting in February with President Barack Obama in which he said he would no longer kick problems down the road.
So the president and Congress will not kick issues like health-care reform and energy policy down the road any longer, Boswell said.
The decorated Vietnam veteran [...]
Rep. Bruce Braley told the crowd it’s not the time for Iowa Democrats to be walking around and looking glum.
He recalled that when he first ran for office, in 2006, Democrats trailed Republicans in voter registrations. Now, Democrats far outnumber Republicans in registrations.
He also made mention of a favorite theme [...]
Michael Kiernan, chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party, just introduced the Democrats who lead the Iowa House and Senate, statewide elected officials such as Attorney General Tom Miller, U.S. House members and Gov. Chet Culver.
Most, including Culver, are running for election in 2010. When the introductions culminated with Culver’s welcome [...]
The first in a long line of speakers at the Iowa Democratic Party’s 2009 Jefferson-Jackson Dinner will soon take the stage at Hy-Vee Hall in Des Moines.
At this point, attendees are still milling about, and organizers are urging those in attendance to take their seats. Speakers include U.S. Reps. Bruce [...]
Des Moines trial lawyer Roxanne Conlin portrayed Republican Sen. Charles Grassley this evening as beholden to special interests and appealed to a crowd of about 200 party activists to lend their time and dollars to her campaign to oust him.
She noted that Grassley, a five-term senator, has served in public [...]
Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley opposed the procedural measure in the Senate to allow a health care proposal to advance, although the position mattered little in light of majority Democrats’ unified stance.
Grassley, a senior Republican and ranking member of the finance committee, said he opposed the Senate bill that combines his [...]
Congressman Steve King Friday said terrorists would get a foothold in the U.S. if Sept. 11 suspects or suspected terrorists being held at Guantanamo Bay Cuba were tried in the United States, as Attorney General Eric Holder has signaled.
Here is the key passage from the Iowa Republican’s comments during a [...]
ABC’s “This Week” — Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Ben Nelson, D-Neb.; Reps. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla.
CBS’ “Face the Nation” — Sens. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
NBC’s “Meet the Press” — Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and Joe [...]
Instead of just telling Iowans not to shake a baby in frustration over the infant’s crying, child abuse experts are now stressing that crying is normal.
When babies are born in the metro area, parents will soon get an instruction booklet and a video that explains that healthy babies can cry [...]
Gov. Chet Culver ordered a review Thursday of the state’s tax credits in the wake of Iowa’s film fiasco, a dire budget forecast and an explosion in the cost of tax breaks.
The credits are projected this fiscal year to cost the state $489 million in refunds or uncollected taxes, which [...]
Gov. Chet Culver said today that Iowa will go after up to $175 million in federal money for schools, but there are strings attached: Schools in Iowa must change.
“One thing is for certain: Iowa’s school system will not look the same a year from now as it does today,” Culver [...]
Former Gov. Terry Branstad said Iowa voters’ early preference of him over Gov. Chet Culver is helping his fundraising as the longtime Republican governor begins cranking up his campaign operation.
“It doesn’t hurt,” Branstad said today in his first Des Moines Register interview since forming a campaign organization to seek the [...]
Iowa’s low-income families pay a higher percent of their incomes in taxes than the state’s rich residents, a report released today shows.
“No one would ever design an income tax with lower tax rates for the best-off taxpayers,” said Matthew Gardner, the lead author of the report and the executive director [...]
Veteran Democratic operative Mark Daley will manage Roxanne Conlin’s U.S. Senate campaign, Daley told The Des Moines Register today.
Daley, an Urbandale political consultant since 2004, had been helping Conlin, a Des Moines lawyer and former nominee for governor, get her bid for the Senate underway.
Daley, 32, is a former congressional [...]
Former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad is firing up the campaign car and heading out to meet with Republican and civic groups in the coming weeks.
The onetime four-term governor now exploring a 2010 bid has announced a string of public appearances, as he begins to meet with Iowans around the state.
Branstad [...]
Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley said today Iowans would be afraid to have terrorism suspects housed in a federal prison in Illinois across the Mississippie River from Clinton, Iowa.
“I oppose them even coming to the United States,” the Iowa Republican said during a conference call with Iowa reporters.
Grassley opposes closing the [...]
Dozens of state troopers or gaming enforcement offices would be kept on the state’s payrolls, according to a tentative agreement with Gov. Chet Culver.
In exchange, about 640 members of the State Police Officers Council would be required to take five unpaid days for the remaining seven months of the fiscal [...]
Pictures of the triathlon that Gov. Chet Culver participated in last weekend have been posted online.
While the pictures do not include detailed descriptions, it appears that Culver wore a yellow cap while swimming. In another picture, he’s standing shirtless before the bike portion.
Culver completed the Boy Ranch Triathlon in Florida [...]
Forget furloughs and pay cuts. The best way to save taxpayer money at the three state-run universities is to merge them, according to Ed Failor Jr., president of Iowans for Tax Relief.
Failor suggests one public university system, like Wisconsin has. Fewer presidents, fewer vice presidents and a “simpler less complicated [...]
Former U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt is coming back to Iowa Friday to make a policy announcement about medical research, event planners said.
Gephardt plans to hold an 11:30 a.m. press conference at the Pappajohn Higher Education Center in Des Moines, as part of the longtime former Missouri congressman’s role with the [...]
Staff in the state auditor’s office must each take six furlough days to meet a 10 percent across-the-board cut ordered by Iowa Gov. Chet Culver.
Auditor David Vaudt told staff that starting in January, each employee will be required to take one day of furlough per month for the remainder of [...]
The results are in on Iowa Gov. Chet Culver’s first triathlon: 3:03:27 for an “intermediate distance” triathlon. According to a Des Moines Register analysis, his swim time was very good, his bike time wasn’t bad, and his run time was, frankly, somewhat turtle-like.
But he had a great [...]
About 55 state employees who are members of the Iowa United Professionals will be laid off because leaders of the labor union chose not to accept cuts in pay or benefits.
“We are disappointed that the union chose not to work with us and help save these jobs,” Erin Seidler, a [...]
Four of Iowa’s top political leaders will battle to win a “supermarket sweep” contest Wednesday.
Teams will be asked to fill their cars with food from Walmart in five minutes. All the food in the cars will be donated to the Food Bank of Iowa Teams will also receive a donation [...]
The Democratic National Committee announced today it will begin airing radio advertisements criticizing 32 Republicans in the U.S. House for voting against health care legislation this month, and Iowa’s Tom Latham is on the list.
Latham, an eight-term member from Ames, voted against the bill on Nov. 7 because, he said, [...]
Democrat Ed O’Neill of Clinton, an economic development leader and community volunteer, intends to run for the Iowa Senate.
O’Neill hopes to replace Sen. Roger Stewart, D-Preston, who decided last week not to pursue re-election in District 13 in November 2010.
The district covers all of' [...]
Iowa utility companies should install more solar electric generating systems and create new jobs here, a state senator says.
Sen. Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, set a goal: install at least 7,000 kilowatts of solar electric generating systems over the next five years.
The Prairiewoods Franciscan Spirituality Center in Hiawatha is getting 17 [...]
Former Gov. Terry Branstad named former state Rep. Carmine Boal state chairwoman today, the Republican exploring a 2010 campaign announced.
Boal, an Ankeny Republican, served in the Iowa House from 1999 to 2007, and was ranking member of the state government committee.
Her role with Branstad will be to organize the state’s [...]
Guest lineup for the Sunday TV news shows:
ABC’s “This Week” — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
CBS’ “Face the Nation” — Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich.; Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
NBC’s “Meet the Press” — Clinton; Education Secretary Arne Duncan; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.; [...]
Bruce Braley has had his congressional seat rated “likely Democratic,” down from “solid Democratic,” by the Cook Political Report. That doesn’t mean Cook views Braley as in trouble. The rating means: “These seats are not considered competitive at this point but have the potential to become engaged.”
Curious [...]
U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley urged President Obama to act soon to grant Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s request for roughly 40,000 additional troops to the war in Afghanistan.
The Iowa Republican also noted that U.S. troops were dying as Obama deliberated and met with military advisers before making a decision.
“Based on the president’s [...]
Tom Beaumont, Jared Strong, Jennifer Jacobs, Jason Clayworth, Jeffrey Bruner, Carol Hunter, Des Moines Register, Staci Hupp, William Petroski, Lee Rood
