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 [...]

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 [...]

New, final figures from campaigns for and against casino gaming in Linn County show the sides did not raise and spend $2.25 million, but rather $3.43 million in the weeks leading up to the hotly contested March 5 referendum. The new dollar amounts are revealed in final campaign financial disclosure forms filed by Vote Yes [...]

DES MOINES – Gov. Terry Branstad signaled Tuesday that he believes the issue of expanding health care coverage for low-income Iowans is too complicated to fix now and he favors calling lawmakers back into special session later this year once a bipartisan accord can be forged in the split-control Legislature. “We have a lot of [...]

After deflecting questions about her plans for months, former state Sen. Swati Dandekar is taking the first steps toward running for an open U.S. House seat in northeast Iowa. The Marion Democrat confirmed today supporters are forming an exploratory committee and she will decide before fall whether she will run for the 1st District seat [...]

During 25 years in the Air Force, Ken Rizer was a jet fighter pilot and a base commander responsible for 60,000 people and a $250 million budget. Now the retired Air Force colonel wants to serve again – in the Iowa House. Rizer, a senior vice president for operations at Goodwill of the Heartland since [...]

CEDAR RAPIDS — Jeff Lamberti, chairman of the Iowa Racing & Gaming Commission, on Tuesday said the outcome of last night’s vote to allow casino gaming in Warren County just south of Des Moines had little bearing on the prospects for a Cedar Rapids casino to secure a state gaming license. Voters in Warren County [...]

  IOWA CITY – Three strikes and now the question is whether plans for a Johnson County justice center are out. Not enough voters in Tuesday’s special election supported a $43.5 million bond issue for a facility that would include a new 195-bed county jail and court space attached to the rear of the existing [...]

Those who want to see a casino built in Cedar Rapids will be watching Tuesday to see if voters in Warren County south of Des Moines approve gaming in their county, as voters in Linn County did March 5. It’s not clear if the Cedar Rapids request for a state gaming license would be helped [...]

Johnson County residents will head to the polls today to cast their vote on a $43.5 million bond issue to pay for a new justice center. Polls are open today from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Plans for the justice center include a new 195-bed jail and courtrooms. The facility would be located just behind [...]