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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
In the LegislatureThis week was our first funnel week and it is one of the busiest weeks we have in the legislature. The first funnel week is when bills need to be through the committees of the originating chamber in order to be considered for the rest of this legislative session. If they do ...
Vouchers up nextAccording to the special interests running the show for Republicans at the State Capitol these days, the next priority of the Iowa Legislature will be vouchers that siphon funding from public schools and give it to home schools and private schools.They convinced a Republican ...
Newsletter for Thursday, March 2, 2017This week is funnel week, when all individually filed bills need to be through the committee process to be eligible for floor action. This week is always a flurry of activity with many subcommittee meetings and long committee meetings considering bills.On ...