More than 250 Iowa City area residents and members from Escucha Mi Voz and the Catholic Worker House marched through downtown Iowa City Wednesday evening to protest a new Iowa law that permits state and local police to enforce immigration laws.  The protest was one of four similar marches across the state including one in Des Moines. Organizers estimate a total of 2,000 Iowans participated in the four marches on Wednesday evening.  The crowd marched through the streets shouting “Somos familia, no somos criminales” which translates to “we are family, we are not criminals” and holding ..read more

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill to speed up income tax cuts into law on Wednesday afternoon. The law, Senate File 2442, will cut the state’s income tax to 3.8 percent for the 2025 tax year. The state’s tax rate is already set to decrease to 3.9 percent by 2026 due to a 2022 Iowa law Reynolds signed, but after better-than-expected revenues in fiscal 2023, lawmakers and Reynolds moved forward with expedited cuts this year. Tax cuts have been a priority for Reynolds since she stepped into her role in 2018, and Reynolds made them a priority for this session during her Condition of the State A ..read more

Despite a desire to run for office and clear qualifications, Megan Alter questioned her place in the process when she ran for Iowa City City Council in 2019. Now a city councilor, Alter began her political career on the Iowa City Housing and Community Development Commission and credits the panel as a pipeline to a higher office. Alter decided to run for city council because of her time serving on the commission and the skills she gained overseeing policies related to the city’s provision of housing, jobs, and services for low and moderate-income residents. However, Alter said she still needed ..read more

More than 200 pro-Palestine protesters lined the bridge outside the Courtyard by Marriott hotel in University Heights outside of U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks’, R-Iowa, campaign reception with U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday afternoon.  Waving Palestinian flags, protesters chanted “Mike Johnson, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide,” and called for a permanent ceasefire, the end of sending aid to Israel, and U.S. divestment from Israeli companies.  Mimi Daoud, an organizer of the protest and member of Iowans for Palestine, led chants for nearly three hours and s ..read more

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson’s visit at Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ campaign reception Sunday comes as she faces a difficult reelection campaign.  Miller-Meeks said the election ahead is “tough” in Iowa’s 1st Congressional District against Iowa City Democrat Christina Bohannan, a University of Iowa law professor who ran against Miller-Meeks and lost in the 2022 midterms.  “It is never easy sailing in this district,” Miller-Meeks said. “This is going to be a tough election, make no mistake about it.”  The district has been marked as “in play” by U.S. Ho ..read more

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., will visit Iowa City on Sunday evening alongside U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, for a campaign fundraiser at the Courtyard by Marriott.  Johnson’s visit comes as he faces a possible ousting by hard-right members of the House Republican Conference. Led by U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., a member of the House Freedom Caucus, the speaker faces a motion to vacate that has intensified division among House Republicans.  During interviews with The Daily Iowan in Washington, D.C., this month, Miller-Meeks and U.S. Rep. Ashley Hins ..read more

President Joe Biden signed a $95 billion foreign aid package into law on Wednesday, including almost $60 billion in aid to Ukraine that was previously stalled by hard-right Republicans who oppose the aid. The bill also included provisions that would require parent company ByteDance to divest from TikTok or the app would be banned from the U.S. All four Iowa members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Iowa’s two senators voted for the measure. Iowa Republicans supported foreign aid The $95 billion bill included $60 billion in aid to Ukraine, $26 billion in aid to Israel — $9 billion of whi ..read more

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds declared Monday “Iowa Hawkeyes Women’s Basketball Appreciation Day” to celebrate the team’s historic season.  Reynolds released a video message on Monday morning to congratulate the team on their second consecutive run to the NCAA title game, their third consecutive Big Ten championship, and breaking viewership and attendance records along the way.  .@IowaWBB inspired young girls and boys to dream big, work hard, and believe they can do anything. Today, I declare April 22nd Iowa Hawkeyes Women’s Basketball Appreciation Day! pic.twitter.com/DTgP3cFuCo — Kim Rey ..read more

With Iowa lawmakers gaveling out the legislative session into the early hours of Saturday, Iowa’s legislative leaders reflected on this tumultuous session.  Lawmakers started the session with a bold directive from Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, lawmakers accomplished the majority of the policy proposals laid out in her Condition of the State Address earlier this year.  Legislative leaders set their priorities for the session on day one: Republicans outlined tax cuts and a flat tax rate as their main goal, while Democrats vowed to protect abortion rights.  Republicans set out a bold age ..read more

Iowa lawmakers wrapped up the legislative session early Saturday morning, and among the biggest negotiations was the state’s $8.9 billion budget for fiscal 2025. With the budget taking the majority of lawmakers’ time at the end of the session, it includes a host of funding priorities and policy delineations that lawmakers add in as final negotiations wrap up.  Education budget sees 2.5 percent increase in regent funds Iowa lawmakers approved a nearly $1 billion budget for the Iowa Department of Education, the Iowa Board of Regents, and other education-related departments.  The budget ..read more