Stories

When federal officials announced the establishment of “State Legislators for Health Reform” Wednesday and provided names of the initial 22 members, it wasn’t necessarily a surprise to find the names of two of Iowa’s state senators on the list.

State Sen. Jack Hatch (D-Des Moines) is hosting a statewide conference call and live online chat today at 3 p.m. to answer Iowans’ questions about health care reform. A member of U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley’s staff will be on the call along with Dr. Bery Engebretsen, founder of the Community Health Centers of Iowa. It [...]

On a 91-3 vote, the Iowa House passed a a stripped-down version of a health-reform bill passed by the Senate last month.

State Sen. Jack Hatch, D-Des Moines, formally apologized to his fellow lawmakers for using a racial slur during a conversation with an African American legislator last week.

Health care coverage would be extended to 30,000 currently uninsured Iowa children under a bill passed by the state Senate Human Services Committee Wednesday.

The Des Moines Register reports that several state legislators, including Sen. Jack Hatch and Rep. Janet Petersen, have decided to make payday loan reform a high priority in the coming legislative session.
Back in August, intern (and now Truman and Mitchell scholar) Alec Schierenbeck examined all sides of the payday lending industry in Iowa, painting perhaps [...]

Iowa has spent nearly all of the money it gained from suing tobacco companies in the 1990s, according to a report by Radio Iowa.