Stories

Tuesday’s election results should be greeted with happiness for Republicans but they should not be seen as a public repudiation of President Obama, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said Wednesday morning.
“I don’t think it’s a referendum on Obama,” the Republican lawmaker said in a conference call with reporters. “I think it’s a — it’s a referendum [...]

In a pair of votes that hit close to home for Iowa, voters in Maine repealed the state’s law allowing same-sex couples to get married while also voting to expand the state’s medical marijuana law.
Both issues are big topics in the Hawkeye State. The Iowa Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in April, and since that [...]

Incumbents were sharply rebuked Tuesday night in elections all over Iowa, matching a national trend that’s giving Republicans a glimmer of hope going into 2010. Iowa’s municipal elections are non-partisan, so it will be hard for either party to claim victory. But after years of Democratic dominance of election night, an evening where most high-profile races saw incumbents roundly rebuked is being celebrated in Republican circles.

Gov. Chet Culver’s re-election campaign announced Tuesday it was launching its second television advertisement.
The ad will air in the Des Moines and Cedar Rapids markets as well as some cable around the state. It is titled “Stronger Than Ever” and focuses on the governor’s response to last year’s flooding and to the state’s economic downturn.

lthough former Gov. Terry Branstad thought meeting with leaders of Iowa’s social conservative movement could help his campaign by alleviating their concerns with his candidacy, the aftermath has not gone according to plan.
And for a candidate whose last political campaign took place long before the Internet age and the prevalence of the blogosphere, the reaction [...]

With former Gov. Terry Branstad’s recent return to politics after a decade out of office, Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson decided to take a trip down memory lane. The veteran reporter went into her archives and found the audio from Branstad’s last campaign kickoff event back in 1994.
In a speech delivered on the farm where [...]

A version of health care reform legislation currently in the Senate makes nearly 1,000 references to the Health and Human Services secretary, a clear indicator that the bill is actually a government takeover of health care, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said Monday.
The Republican lawmaker is pointing to an 839-page health care bill drafted by the [...]

A group of filmmakers has sued the Iowa Department of Economic Development alleging the state breached its contract regarding issuing tax credits to finance their work.
The suit, filed Oct. 28 and scheduled to go before Polk County District Court Monday, was filed by a group of filmmaking companies that had received initial approval from the [...]

Anti-abortion activists from around the country are attempting to raise money for the defense of a man accused of killing Kansas doctor George Tiller in May, and Des Moines resident Dave Leach is organizing the effort.

While alcohol is still Iowa’s No. 1 intoxicant, the two most abused illicit drugs in the Hawkeye State are marijuana and methamphetamine, according to a report released Monday by the Iowa Office of Drug Control Policy.
“Based on primary substance abuse treatment admission data from the Iowa Department of Public Health, alcohol accounts for about 61 [...]