by Shauneen Miranda, Iowa Capital Dispatch July 11, 2025 WASHINGTON — A national private school voucher program is now law, though the school choice initiative comes with a huge caveat. States also choose — whether or not to participate. It’s a setback for advocates who hoped to see the program — baked into the mega […]
by Ariana Figueroa, Iowa Capital Dispatch July 10, 2025 WASHINGTON — A federal judge in New Hampshire Thursday issued a preliminary injunction against President Donald Trump’s executive order that would rewrite the constitutional right to birthright citizenship, and granted a class certification to infants who would be affected by the order. The ruling from U.S. District […]
by Brooklyn Draisey, Iowa Capital Dispatch June 23, 2025 When University of Iowa researcher and assistant professor Boeun Kim worked as a nurse, some of the older adults she treated would have problems that no health care professional can solve — low income, a small or nonexistent support network and less access to healthy food. […]
Did Oskaloosa, Iowa, Elect The First Woman To Political Office? OSKALOOSA, Iowa — In one of the most unusual and little-known moments in local political history, a woman named Nancy Smith was elected mayor of Oskaloosa during a municipal election in 1862—but declined to serve. The event, while initially treated as a joke, remains one […]
by Cami Koons, Iowa Capital Dispatch June 7, 2025 ANKENY — Iowa Farmers Union members met Saturday with U.S. Federal Trade Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya and explained how consolidation in the agriculture industry has crippled their farming operations and rural communities. Bedoya, who visited with Iowa farmers three years prior, said it was important to come […]
Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA-01) is leading a formal letter to Speaker Mike Johnson requesting an invitation for Pope Leo XIV to address a Joint Session of Congress. The letter comes just days after Congresswoman Miller-Meeks joined a historic congressional delegation to the Vatican for the (inaugural) Mass of Pope Leo XIV—the first […]
by Jane Norman, Iowa Capital Dispatch May 18, 2025 WASHINGTON — Former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with “a more aggressive form” of prostate cancer, according to a statement from his office on Sunday. The statement said Biden, 82, last week was seen for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing […]
by Ashley Murray, Iowa Capital Dispatch May 6, 2025 WASHINGTON — Veterans and Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill Tuesday protested the Trump administration’s planned cuts for the Department of Veterans Affairs that include slashing some 80,000 jobs, which many worry will affect the massive agency’s delivery of medical care and benefits. The group rallied outside […]
by Clark Kauffman, Iowa Capital Dispatch April 29, 2025 A lawsuit over a Des Moines Register poll that showed Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump in Iowa during the final days of the 2024 campaign has been moved to federal court. The lawsuit, one of two related to the poll, is a potential class-action case filed […]
by Cami Koons, Iowa Capital Dispatch April 29, 2025 WARREN COUNTY — Tom Vilsack, former Iowa governor and the U.S. secretary of agriculture during the Obama and Biden administrations, spoke Tuesday with farmers and rural Iowans about his ideas to grow rural communities. In the pine-paneled Middleswart Lodge, looking out over Lake Ahquabi State Park, […]
