One of the significant bills passed in the last few days of the session was the update to the Iowa Code on Youth Employment, Senate File 542. SF 542 aims to update Iowa’s youth labor laws and expand opportunities for teenagers to work in Iowa. This section of code has not been updated in ...
Dean, Times sure do change. I recall vividly as a teenager, on a small dairy farm in Bremer County, IA, having to use a pitch fork to remove cow dung matted with dried cow dung from pens and gutters. I had to use a silage fork to break loose frozen silage from the silo after climbing up ...
The House took last week, Week 16, off as the Senate caught up with their work, then we came back this week and began passing budget bills in preparation for the end of session. Property taxes have been one of the hottest issues we’ve heard about from our constituents this session as ...
Week 15 of the session was a short week. We debated bills on Wednesday and Thursday in the House. Many of the bills we debated were bills that were amended in the Senate earlier in the week and sent back to the House for consideration. House File 317, a bill that I filed known as the ...
After completing the second “funnel” where Senate bills have to be passed through a House committee to remain active, we are now entering a phase of the session where budget work is more intense in the Appropriations and Ways and Means Committees, and floor action is more sporadic. This ...
If you ate today, filled up your gas tank, or got dressed – you have a farmer to thank. Last week we celebrated National Agriculture Week, and the whole country rightly spotlighted the farmers and ranchers who feed and fuel the world. But saying thank you is far from enough – the best ...
The legislature continues to bring bills to the floor and pass House bills to the Senate and Senate bills to the Governor’s desk. Two significant bills signed into law this week by the governor were the “Bathroom Bill” that prohibits persons from using the facilities that don’t ...
The last two years have been full of changes for me - both huge and incremental. Many of my readers have accompanied me on my journey, and for that I’m forever grateful. It’s been fraught with grief, and sadness and even, at times, despair. And then again, hope and growth. But ...
Have you ever lost something and cannot find it? Most assuredly, as soon as I buy a new pair of socks, one of the pairs comes up missing in the wash. I rummage through all the clothes thinking it was hung up in the armpit of a hoodie or static clinging to the back of a dress shirt, but ...
My husband and I raised our kids in the land of hockey. This column is not about hockey. I realize hockey isn’t a thing or perhaps not as popular in some (warmer) climates, but for many years, for us, hockey was a large part of life. If nothing else, it got us through the cold ...