Jason Hancock

Big increase in number of Iowa ESL students

The number of Iowa students for whom English is a second language has more than doubled in the last decade, according to a new report by the Iowa Department of Education.
The report, titled “The Annual Condition of Education Report for 2008,” shows that in the 2007-2008 school year there were more than 20,000 students for [...]

Obama campaign a ‘labor of love,’ Jackie Norris says

In a phone interview with the Iowa Independent conducted before the announcement of her new job, Jackie Norris talked about what it was like to be a part of the historic campaign that elected America’s first black president, what lessons can be learned from the organization and what the future may hold for the political couple who got engaged at the 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles.

Lt. Gov. Judge as IDP chair?

Civic Skinny, the political gossip column published every week in Des Moines’ alternative newsweekly (Cityview), says sources inside the Iowa Democratic Party expect Lt. Gov. Patty Judge to become the party’s next chair.
The idea, Skinny says, is that the move would bolster Gov. Chet Culver’s standing leading up to his re-election bid in 2010.

Inauguration tix still available

If you want to go to the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama and you live in Iowa’s Fourth or Fifth Congressional District, you may be in luck.
Republican Congressmen Tom Latham and Steve King are asking constituents who are interested in attending to contact their office by Nov. 28. Each has only a limited number of [...]

Huckabee mania runs wild in Sam’s Club

The former Arkansas governor who shocked the nation and shook up the race for president when he won January’s Iowa Caucuses was back in Iowa Thursday promoting his newest book.

Register catches Iowa’s First Lady violating smoking ban

After being caught by a reporter from The Des Moines Register smoking in in a state-owned vehicle, a violation of the state’s smoking ban, Iowa First Lady Mari Culver apologized and promised it would never happen again.
Culver was spotted by the Register smoking in a Chevrolet Tahoe that the state provides to the [...]

Culver asks state departments to cut budgets

Gov. Chet Culver is asking state departments to come up with ways Iowa can trim $30 to $40 million from its budget, The Des Moines Register reported today.
The state was expecting to finish its budget year in June with $85 million in the general fund, but projections now show that number to be around $15 [...]

Gross: Social conservatives ‘a minority group within a minority party’

A veteran Iowa Republican says the party’s infrastructure has been taken over by social conservatives, which will make it difficult for it to win elections in the future.

Register’s Yepsen may leave Iowa

Des Moines Register political columnist David Yepsen is one of three finalists to run the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at the University of Southern Illinois at Carbondale, Ill., Des Moines CBS affiliate KCCI reports.
Yepsen started writing for the Register and Tribune in 1974. In 1977 Yepsen became a statehouse reporter for the Register, and [...]

Harkin joins Kennedy health care task force

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass, has tapped Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin to be a part of a task force to develop a Senate Democratic proposal to expand health insurance coverage, according to the Los Angeles Times.