Tag: Iowa

House Committee Votes Against Rep. Miller-Meeks’ Motion to Dismiss Opponent’s Election Contest

A House of Representatives committee on Wednesday rejected for now a motion from Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) that asked for the dismissal of an election contest. Rita Hart, who battled with Miller-Meeks for the opportunity to represent Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, alleges she won the 2020 election even though Miller-Meeks has been certified the winner…


Des Moines Register Reporter Andrea Sahouri Acquitted of Charges Incurred While Covering a BLM Protest

A jury in Iowa has acquitted a reporter of all charges she incurred while covering a Black Lives Matter protest last year. The jury on Tuesday found Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri, 25, and her then-boyfriend Spenser Robnett, 24, not guilty of two misdemeanour charges—failure to disperse and interference with official acts. Robnett had…


Iowa’s Move Away from Foster Care Emblematic of National Trend

In the fall of 2019, Judge Williams Owens came to an important realization: In child welfare cases, he had focused too much on protecting children from physical harm at home, leading him to remove them from their families. He hadn’t thought enough about the emotional harm caused by family separation, about options to improve their…


Iowa Governor Signs Bill to Limit Absentee and Early Voting, Close Polls Earlier

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds on Monday signed a bill to limit absentee voting, shorten early voting, and close the polls earlier on Election Day. The Republican-backed law, SF 413, will shorten the state’s early voting period from 29 to 20 days. It also requires most mail ballots to be received by Election Day. Previously, they could…


Police: Live Pipe Bomb Found at Polling Place in Iowa

ANKENY, Iowa—The discovery of a live pipe bomb at a central Iowa polling place as voters were casting ballots in a special election forced an evacuation of the building, police said. Officers called to the Lakeside Center in Ankeny around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday found a device that looked like a pipe bomb in the grass…


House Democrats to Challenge Seating of Iowa Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks

Democrats on the House Administration Committee swept aside Republican objections to move forward a challenge to Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks election to represent Iowa’s second congressional district. Miller-Meeks defeated Democrat Rita Hart by six votes after an official recount of the nearly 400,000 cast. Following the recount, Miller-Meeks’ election was certified by Iowa election officials. Miller-Meeks…


House Democrats to Challenge Seating of Iowa GOP Rep. Miller-Meeks

Democrats on the House Administration Committee swept aside Republican objections to advance a challenge to Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks’s election to represent Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District. Miller-Meeks defeated Democrat Rita Hart by six votes after an official recount of the nearly 400,000 cast. Following the recount, Miller-Meeks’s election was certified by Iowa election officials. Miller-Meeks was…


Bill Limiting School Restroom Use to Biological Sex Advances in Iowa Legislature

A bill that would require all students in Iowa to use school bathrooms according to their biological sex cleared the state’s Senate Education Subcommittee on Wednesday. The proposed legislation “prohibits a person from entering a school single and multiple occupancy toilet facility that does not correspond with the person’s biological sex.” It also declares that such…


40 Vehicles Involved in Massive Pileup on Iowa Interstate

A lumbering winter storm has impacted people’s lives in multiple states across the nation throughout the week, with heavy snow in Iowa leading to dangerous travel conditions. Troopers in the state shut down a section of Interstate 80 west of Newton on Thursday shortly before noon after roughly 40 vehicles were involved in a massive pile-up….


Charges Dropped Against Activist Who Exposed Iowa Hog Deaths

IOWA CITY, Iowa—Prosecutors have dropped trespassing charges against an activist who helped secretly record Iowa’s largest pork producer using heat to kill thousands of hogs last year as the pandemic devastated the industry. Matt Johnson, an activist with the group Direct Action Everywhere, had been scheduled to stand trial in Grundy County, Iowa, on Monday…