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The Iowa Supreme Court says immigrants living in Iowa without legal permission and who use a stolen identity to get a job cannot be prosecuted by the state for identity theft or forgery. The court, in ruling Friday on the case of 31-year-old Martha Martinez, says such immigration-related prosecutions are up to federal authorities not county prosecutors. Martinez, who lives in Muscatine, was charged after she obtained a driver's license and Social Security number under the Obama administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals

DUBUQUE, Iowa (KCRG TV-9) -- Parents in Iowa can sue for wrongful birth. That first of its kind ruling from the Iowa Supreme Court is stirring up emotions in the abortion debate. Parents in Lee County filed a lawsuit against a Fort Madison hospital and with a gynecologist clinic. They say doctors failed to warn them about abnormalities on their child's ultrasound. Those abnormalities that might have prompted the parents to get an abortion. The case centers on a now 6 year old boy who was born with cerebral palsy and other disabilities that make it unlikely he'll ever walk...

The hog roast was popular once again, but the previous administration’s health care reform also was on the menu after being roasted by the new vice president. Vice President Mike Pence, speaking Saturday at U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst’s annual GOP fundraiser, said Congress must make it a priority to get to President Donald Trump’s desk a bill that would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, known better to the folks at Saturday’s event as Obamacare. The U.S. House has passed a bill that would undo much of the health care reform implemented under former President Barack Obama. The U.S....

Due to an unforeseen change in President Trump's schedule, we will need to unfortunately postpone the previously scheduled rally in Cedar Rapids on June 1st. Stay tuned for information on a rescheduled date early next week. Our sincere apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused. President Trump will see you in Iowa very soon.

Iowa Public TV will provide coverage of Gov. Terry E. Branstad's resignation and swearing-in as Ambassador to China on Wednesday, May 24, taking place in the Governor's formal office at the Iowa State Capitol. IPTV will then broadcast the first address of Iowa's new Governor, Kim Reynolds, LIVE from the rotunda of the Statehouse. The broadcast will also include an extended, one-on-one interview with Governor Reynolds by David Yepsen, host of IPTV’s Iowa Press. Iowa’s Transfer of Power is scheduled to take place Wednesday, May 24 at 10 a.m. and will be broadcast live on IPTV WORLD (.3). The ceremony...

DES MOINES, Iowa (WHO-TV) - President Donald Trump has booked a return flight to Iowa. The Trump-Pence Campaign committee announced on Thursday that President Trump will hold a rally in Cedar Rapids on Thursday, June 1st. It’s Trump’s second trip to Iowa since winning the White House. He held a victory rally in Des Moines in December, one month after the election. The June 1st rally will be held at the Cedar Rapids Convention Complex at 7:00pm. Tickets for the event are available online.

A broad majority of senators voted Monday to install President Trump's choice to be the U.S. ambassador to China in his first term. Gov. Terry Branstad, R-Iowa, was supported by several Democrats in the final vote, but that didn't spare him completely from the partisan gamesmanship that has dominated Trump's nominees' path through the Senate. Republicans faulted Democrats for slow-walking his nomination, despite their approval of the pick. "It's been disappointing to see so much pointless obstruction by our friends across the aisle," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said on the Senate floor. "And they've done so not to...

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) - Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton declared Americans "ready for that new beginning" in Iowa Friday, walking a delicate path by raising his national political profile at a time of turmoil for Donald Trump's White House. The 40-year-old freshman Republican senator sounded national themes as the guest at the Pottawattamie County Republican Party's annual fundraiser in Council Bluffs in conservative western Iowa. It was a role thick with presidential implications despite Trump's solid standing among Iowa Republicans less than four months into his term.

This time next week, Gov. Terry Branstad is likely to be the United States ambassador to China, Sen. Chuck Grassley predicted Thursday. The Iowa Republican expects a vote on Branstad’s appointment as early as Tuesday, despite Democratic senators forcing a cloture vote on President Donald Trump’s nomination. “Realize he got out of committee on unanimous consent,” Grassley said. After a hearing last week, the Foreign Relations Committee recommended Branstad’s conformation unanimously on a voice vote. “Now we want to get him through the United States Senate and we have to file a cloture motion on it.” The objections may not...

Finding the University of Iowa discriminated against a former athletics administrator based on her gender and sexual orientation, a Polk County jury Thursday awarded Jane Meyer $1.43 million, according to her legal team. Meyer, 57, a former UI associate athletics director who worked for the department from 2001 to 2014, sued the UI, the Iowa Board of Regents and the state for discrimination. She also alleged the UI retaliated against her when she complained about the Aug. 4, 2014, firing of her longtime partner, Tracey Griesbaum, as the UI’s head field hockey coach. “This is much bigger than me,” Meyer...

Iowa Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds will succeed Gov. Terry Branstad when he leaves office, but she won't have the power to appoint her own replacement, Attorney General Tom Miller said Monday. The attorney general's 23-page opinion drew immediate criticism from Republicans, as Branstad prepares to leave office and become the ambassador to China. Reynolds has been preparing to take Branstad's place for months, and a simmering question has been whether she would become the governor or simply assume the powers of the office. In addition, questions were raised what powers she would have. State Sen. David Johnson, an independent from...

A Pottawattamie County sheriff's deputy was fatally injured Monday when he was shot at the jail by an escaping inmate. At a somber 4:30 p.m. press conference, Pottawattamie County Sheriff Jeff Danker identified the deputy as Mark Burbridge, 43, a 12-year veteran. Danker said the loss of Burbridge was something that law enforcement officers hope they never have to experience. "We lost one officer today," Danker said. "Two of our excellent officers were shot." Another deputy, Pat Morgan, 59, a 10-year department veteran, also was injured in the shooting, which occurred about 10:55 a.m. Morgan was shot in the lower...

DES MOINES — The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee has scheduled a hearing for Tuesday on Gov. Terry Branstad’s nomination to be ambassador to China. The 21-member committee will question Branstad about a range of issues, including his views on U.S.-Chinese relations based on him leading trade missions to China and his personal relationship with President Xi Jinping. Branstad already has submitted extensive background material documenting his education and work experience to the committee, as well as to the Department of State and the FBI. If a majority of the committee, which is chaired by Tennessee Republican Sen. Bob Corker...

Iowa Governor Terry Branstad signed a comprehensive bill, HF 517, to modernize Iowa's gun laws on Thursday, 14 April, 2017.The reforms had been bottled up for years by a few legislators, mostly Democrats, that were voted out of office last year. An archaic provision prevented children form receiving safety training for handguns.From wcfcourier.com: One of the provisions of the bill that took effect immediately allows children below the age of 14 to handle pistols or revolvers under the supervision of an adult parent, guardian or instructor — which directly affected the Gibson sisters ages 13 and 11.“I think the...

California's secretary of state is backing a push from state lawmakers to make its presidential nominating contest the third in the nation. Legislation offered by Democratic state lawmakers seeks to move California's from June to shortly after Iowa and New Hampshire's presidential primaries. "A state as populous and diverse as California should not be an afterthought. Moving up the California primary in 2020 makes sense and will give California voters a more significant role.

The Iowa Omnibus gun law reform bill is close to passing the legislature, and is likely to be signed by Governor Branstad.From the desmoinesregister.com:House File 517, which has already passed the Iowa House, was approved on a 33-17 vote. Because the bill was amended, it must return to the House. But House Republican leaders are expected to accept the changes, which means it will likely be headed soon to Gov. Terry Branstad, who is expected to sign it.House File 517 is a weapons law reform bill. The authors of the bill appear to have searched through various weapons laws...

--SNIP-- The 5-year-old plant in deep-red Idaho sparked a firestorm, particularly from the far-right media. Breitbart News claimed that the plant brought refugees, crime and tuberculosis to the town. Ulukaya said he and the Twin Falls mayor received death threats. “It was an emotional time. People ... hate you for doing something right,” Ulukaya said. “There’s not much you can do.”

Health insurer Aetna Inc said on Thursday it will exit Iowa's Obamacare-compliant individual insurance market in 2018, citing financial risk and the uncertain outlook. Aetna said it is still evaluating its other remaining individual insurance markets, which include Delaware, Nebraska and Virginia. The company exited most markets this year but in January said it had more than 240,000 people in individual plans and expected to post losses on them this year. Insurers have said uncertainty over which rules will be in place in 2018 and the billions of dollars in government subsidies that make the plans more affordable to millions...

In a March 28 letter, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, told FBI Director James Comey he wants a detailed description on the involvement of Deputy Director McCabe in the investigation of Russian ties to Trump associates. Grassley also wants to know whether McCabe’s involvement in the probe “raises the appearance a conflict of interest in light of his wife’s ties with Clinton’s associates” and whether it would merit McCabe recusing himself from the investigation. Grassley was referring to McCabe’s wife having accepted $700,000 in political contributions facilitated by Hillary Clinton ally Terry McAuliffe, the Virginia governor, for her state Senate run....

Before the week’s headline Supreme Court debate, senators are poised to get the Delta Queen back cruising America’s waterways. The legendary riverboat has been barred from carrying overnight passengers since an exemption to the 1966 Safety of Life at Sea Act for the largely wooden vessel lapsed back in 2008. Lawmakers from Cincinnati to St. Louis have pushed for the Delta Queen to get a new lease on life since then, and the Senate has scheduled a Monday evening vote on passage of a bipartisan bill that would do just that... Sen. Rob Portman, who hails from Cincinnati, remembers the...