Here First

Weeks of public hearings are underway to decide the future of a proposed carbon capture pipeline in Iowa. More than 160 reimbursement requests for rape victims’ emergency contraception are pending with the Iowa attorney general’s office. And the heat and humidity will make the first days of school short ones in some Iowa districts.

Gov. Kim Reynolds is in Texas where she sent 109 Iowa National Guard troops this month she says to prevent the illegal trafficking of fentanyl by cartels. As a new school year begins for students across Iowa, a message sent out by the Sioux City Community School District is causing concern with a local LGBTQ organization. Plus, the final public hearing for the Summit Carbon Solutions’ carbon capture pipeline begins.

As this week starts, temperatures are predicted to be near or above 100 degrees over the next few days. A new Des Moines Register Iowa poll shows Donald Trump holds a commanding lead over the rest of the 2024 Republican presidential field in Iowa. Plus, researchers in Missouri are looking to curb contamination in chicken products with new technology to test for bacteria like salmonella.

COVID-19 levels are trending upwards across the country. IPR’s Natalie Krebs reports that’s due to a new more contagious subvariant. UPS workers have until August 22 to vote on a contract the Teamsters negotiated last month. Plus, a look into why peaches are hard to find and expensive this year.

The final days of the Iowa State Fair promise to be sweltering. Iowa officials say they’re reopening the search for an administrator to oversee a state program supporting crisis pregnancy centers that support childbirth over abortion. Plus, some state Democrats representing land targeted by a carbon capture pipeline project say the Iowa Utilities Board needs to slow down.

More than a half-dozen Iowans are now on the wildfire-ravaged Hawaiian island of Maui. Iowa City Democrat Christina Bohannan is taking another shot at Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ seat in Congress. Plus, an administrative law judge has decided that Summit Carbon Solutions should give certain documents to groups that seek them as evidence for the company’s upcoming pipeline permit hearing.

The Navy decommissioned the USS Sioux City during a ceremony at a naval base in Florida. A new charter school in Des Moines will welcome around 100 students when classes start on Thursday. Plus, the University of Iowa women’s basketball team has sold out its upcoming 2023-24 season tickets for the first time in program history.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s trip to the Iowa State Fair on Saturday was overshadowed by former President Donald Trump’s trip on the same day. The Democratic Party is not planning any presidential candidate debates ahead of the 2024 primary season, but two candidates were at the State Fair Saturday looking for voters’ support. Plus, researchers are starting to consider how the Mississippi River system itself contributes to climate change.

A jury has acquitted a Swisher man of charges related to his driving through a line of protesters crossing the street last year in Cedar Rapids. Republican presidential candidates are arriving at the Iowa State Fair to ask voters for support in January’s Iowa Caucuses. Plus, a conversation with Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds about her role in the run-up to the Iowa caucuses.

Governor Kim Reynolds is reacting to the latest indictment of Donald Trump. Iowa’s State Treasurer says his office has returned thousands of shares of stock in the McDonald’s corporation to their rightful owner. Plus, a report from Harvest Public Media on the lack of tree diversity and what some communities are doing about it.