Stories

“Our commissioners were following the story in the media about Congressman King’s comments regarding presidential candidate Senator Obama, and they were wondering what role the commission should have, if any, about that kind of speech,” said Ralph Rosenberg, the commission’s executive director.

Raising awareness in Iowa about immigration reform and discrimination and improving how the Iowa Civil Rights Commission investigates complaints dominated commissioners’ discussion during their first meeting of the year.

The state agency has a long list of issues it wants to tackle, but a limited budget could continue to hamper plans to work through a backlog [...]

The Iowa Civil Rights Commission lacks the power to subpoena people as it investigates discrimination complaints.

Officials from the commission hope to change that by informing Iowa legislators about the problem next year. Gaining the subpoena powers is just one of several legislative priorities commissioners will vote on next month.

Ralph Rosenberg, the commission’s executive director, said [...]

Hurry up and wait.

Iowans who file discrimination complaints with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission might want to get comfortable with that phrase. It takes four months for the commission to decide whether to investigate a complaint, and nearly 10 months to resolve it, according to state documents.

The commission has made some strides, but, everyone who [...]