Today’s show features discussion on flooding, post-session spin and the continuing shake-ups in the political landscape. Featuring  The Gazette political reporter James Lynch, Quad City Times political reporter Ed Tibbetts, Lee Enterprises Iowa Bureau Chief Mike Wiser and Waterloo-Cedar Falls political reporter Jon Ericson. The show was produced by Max Freund and music heard in [...]

DES MOINES – Iowa Democrats kept their promise to help middle-class Iowans during the just-completed 2013 session, party leaders said Wednesday. “Democrats delivered,” said Rep. Tyler Olson, a Cedar Rapids Democrat who also serves as chairman of the state Democratic Party. That was especially true on issues related to health care, education and tax policy,’ [...]

Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz has become the latest high profile Republican to decline the chance to run for the U.S. Senate next year. Schultz, in a tweet this morning, said that he’ll run for re-election in 2014 instead. “I am humbled by all of the encouragement to run for Senate, but I love [...]

Iowa voters will want to brace themselves for a barrage of advertising as a field of largely unknown candidates seeks their support for what pollsters find to be a wide-open U.S. Senate race in 2014. The race, according to a Quinnipiac University Poll released Friday morning, “at this point features a bunch of candidates who [...]

UPDATE: After fighting over abortion, budgets, education, taxes and a host of other issues for the better part of 130 days, the Iowa Legislature ended its overtime session on bipartisan high notes late Thursday morning. The Senate adjourned shortly before midnight Wednesday. However, an ideological train wreck in the House Republican caucus over abortion policy [...]

Gov. Terry Branstad today is hailing the members of split-control Legislature for their landmark session achievements. The five-term GOP governor says lawmakers succeeded in approving significant property tax relief, transformational education reform, and meaningful health modernization that focuses on quality outcomes for low-income patients while modernizing of the Medicaid system. The governor noted that the [...]

DES MOINES – Iowa lawmakers approved a sweeping reform package Wednesday which changes the way thousands of teachers across the state will be paid, promoted and evaluated. The bill – approved unanimously in the House and 40-10 in the Senate – now goes to the governor for his signature. It also marks the end of [...]

DES MOINES – Progress toward adjournment of the 2013 Iowa legislative session ground to a halt this evening when differences over Medicaid funding of abortion prevented House majority Republicans from putting together the votes needed to pass a $1.7 billion health and human services budget. Although the bill’s floor manager had indicated the 53-member GOP [...]

DES MOINES – State lawmakers will be back this morning to continue their attempt to finalize bipartisan agreements on tax relief, school reform, more health-care coverage for needy Iowans, and an increased state budget plan Wednesday before adjourning what some regarded as a landmark session. Shortly before midnight, the Iowa Senate passed a final adjournment [...]

The leader of the Iowa Senate’s Republican caucus today refuted claims by a former employee of a hostile work environment where she and other female staff members were sexually harassed. “I’ve never tolerated in the past nor will I tolerate in the future harassment of any kind, including sexual harassment,” said Senate GOP Leader Bill [...]