Newsletter for Thursday, March 16, 2017On Wednesday, March 15th, we honored "Canada Day" in the House. Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall and two other officials from Canada gave remarks to the members of the House on the relationship between Iowa and Canada. House Resolution 10 was read and ...
Parents often ask me where the "hot jobs" are going to be by the time their kids finish college. The projections have stayed fairly consistent for several years.According to the Iowa College Aid Commission's most recent report (2016) on the condition of higher education in Iowa, nearly 70 ...
In the LegislatureOn Wednesday, March 15, Iowans recognized Canada Day at the Capitol. Andrew Leslie, Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs for the Canadian Parliament visited the Iowa House and Senate, along with Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall. Mr. Leslie spoke about the importance of ...
What we know for sure is the Toledo City Council voted 4-1 last week to relocate the City Clerk's Office from the Toledo Community Building to the Reinig-Toledo Civic Center.We know the council met in a closed session with one Toledo resident also present to discuss the sale of the Community ...
This was the ninth week of the legislative session. Last week was our first funnel week, meaning this week was full of debate on the Senate floor as we come up on more deadlines for bills.On Monday, we passed SF 258, SF 260, SF 296, SF 357, and SF 385 out of the Senate. All of these bills had ...
Newsletter for Thursday, March 9, 2017We have now moved to a period in the session where we spend considerable time in debate on bills that have passed committee. Most of the bills we pass are what we call "non con", meaning non-controversial. They normally pass unanimously, or very close to ...
Iowans will see a lot of discussion in the news media and among First Amendment advocates during this week- March 13-19 Sunshine Week - about the vital importance of open government in a free and democratic society.Sunshine Week is, in fact, an opportunity for everyone to be reminded about why ...
Democracies die behind closed doors.Those were the words of federal judge Damon Keith about secret deportation hearings after the 9/11 attacks. Judge's Keith's eloquent phrase could also be applied to thousands of back room government meetings in town halls, courthouses and statehouses across ...
Untreated hearing loss is a major health problem in the United States, particularly for older Americans. Approximately 48 million Americans, including half of those in their 70s, have hearing loss in at least 1 ear. The risk of hearing loss in older adults is about 10 to 20 times higher than ...
Following the December meeting of Iowa's Revenue Estimating Conference (REC), news outlets began to report that the Fiscal Year 2017 (FY17) state budget - which runs from July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017 - would have to be cut. In a story in The Des Moines Register, David Roederer, Director of ...