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The Senate confirmed four of President Obama’s executive and judicial nominees Thursday. Theodore Chuang and George Hazel will serve as U.S. district judges for Maryland. The Senate voted 53-42 on Chuang’s nomination and 95-0 on Hazel’s. Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said he couldn’t support Chuang’s nomination because he helped the Obama administration “stonewall” Congress on the investigation of the death of four Americans at the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya. “I can’t support his nomination because of the central role Mr. Chuang played in the administration’s efforts to stonewall an investigation into the situation in Benghazi,”...

Iowa City police seized $48,000 in cash from a Minnesota couple during a traffic stop in March. They want it back – but that’s been proving difficult, the Iowa City Press-Citizen reports. The publication says Kearnice C. Overton, of St. Paul, was pulled over March 16 for speeding. Overton’s kids were in the car at the time. Police say a K-9 signal gave them the authority to search the car, the Press-Citizen reports. So they did, found the $48,000 in cash, and seized it. Overton says he got the money from his wife, Tiffani D.S. Barber, to buy some property...

Joni Ernst – wife, mother, soldier and politician – is perfect for Iowa, right for Washington. Iowa has an opportunity to matter this time. Iowa Republicans supported the likes of Huckabee, Paul and Bachmann, who were all good conservatives, but not presidential. After Iowa played a part in putting the worst president in U.S. history in the White House, a new, qualified, and exciting Republican candidate has emerged in Red Oak, Iowa. Her campaign advertisement is sheer genius, touted as the best in the history of American politics. She has been endorsed by Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney, as well...

Link only: http://www.dailyiowan.com/2014/04/28/Metro/37707.html

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) is firing back at Mark Zuckerberg and his pro-immigration reform group, calling the Facebook CEO a "liberal billionaire" who should "go back to San Francisco." Earlier this month the Zuckerberg-backed super PAC FWD.us released ads in Iowa and online attacking King for his controversial remarks on immigration, such as when the congressman compared granting veterans citizenship to handing out "M&M's or Tootsie Rolls" at a parade.

[...snip...] "I think that anybody who breaks a law in America as their first action putting their first foot on our homeland illegally, it may be an act of love from the heart, but it's illegal," Palin told NBC News after attending a rally for Iowa Senate candidate Joni Ernst. They are "called illegal immigrants for a reason," she added. [...snip...]

At the National Rifle Association's annual meeting on Saturday night, Sarah Palin told the crowd that she approves of torturing prisoners — and maybe converting them? "If I were in charge, they would know that waterboarding is how we baptize terrorists," she said, to raucous applause. Problem is, Palin's not in charge anymore. Though the NRA devotees appreciated her sentiment, Palin just doesn't command crowds the way she used to, The Washington Post's Robert Costa reports on Monday. "These days many followers ... have moved on," and she's a "diminished figure in the Republican Party," Costa writes. "Even as she...

Mike Huckabee, Paul Ryan and Jeb Bush are in a dead heat to win the 2016 Iowa Republican caucuses, according to a new poll sponsored by The Daily Caller and Vox Populi Polling. Of the Republicans polled from April 22-24, Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, took in 20 percent; Ryan, the Wisconsin congressman and 2012 vice presidential nominee, won 19 percent; and Bush, the former governor of Florida and brother of former President George W. Bush, garnered 18 percent. Other possible Republicans are in single digits in the poll: Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (9 percent); Florida Sen. Marco Rubio...

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says U.S. Senate hopeful Joni Ernst would bring Iowa's values to Washington, D.C., and is unlike any lawmaker the city has seen. Palin was one of many women in politics to attend the "Heels On, Gloves Off!" rally Sunday to support Ernst, a Republican state senator. Others who attended the rally included Nebraska U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, former Nebraska Gov. Kay Orr and Iowa Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds. The event was put on by ShePAC...

The Senate Conservatives Fund is wading into Iowa’s contested Republican Senate primary, endorsing state senator Joni Ernst in the race to fill the seat of retiring senator Tom Harkin. “There are other good candidates in this race, but Joni Ernst stands above the rest,” SCF executive director Matt Hoskins said in a statement. “She’s a principled conservative, she has strong grassroots support in the state, and she can win this race if she gets her message out. If elected, Joni Ernst will fight to cut wasteful spending, repeal Obamacare, and balance the budget.” Ernst is currently locked in a four-way...

SIOUX CITY, Iowa — People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has asked Iowa transportation officials for permission to build a temporary memorial tombstone that they say will honor hundreds of turkeys killed in a recent truck crash. Ankeny resident and PETA member Alex Moore says in a letter dated Tuesday that he wants to erect the 10-foot structure in remembrance of more than 500 turkeys killed in a crash April 12 in Sioux City. The truck transporting the animals overturned.

Rep. Steve King is criticizing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for praising an undocumented teen that questioned her at an event, saying Clinton should have told the young woman to follow the law. “#Hillary calls immigration law breaker ‘incredibly brave.’ Should have said, ‘Get right with the law.’ … Then come back,” King tweeted early Friday morning.

Republican Iowa Congressman Steve King responded after an organization backed by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg launched an advertising blitz against him Friday. King issued a statement saying the commercials, which were paid for by Zuckerberg's pro-immigration reform group FWD.us, show the Facebook chairman and CEO wants to "reward people for breaking our laws" in order to bring in talent for his company. "I am under attack by billionaire Mark Zuckerberg because I am one of the few who will stand up and tell the truth about amnesty," King said in his statement.

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz has more than doubled his fundraising efforts in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period in 2013, according to the Houston Chronicle. Cruz, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, raised $887,344 in the year's first three months while he only took in $363,760 during the same period in 2013 when he first arrived in the U.S. Senate as a tea party favorite set on changing the ways established GOP members work in Washington. The senator, who is in the midst of paying visits to the early presidential caucus and primary states of...

Sarah Palin already announced her support for US Senate candidate Joni Ernst. Now Palin is joining her on the campaign trail. The former vice presidential candidate will stump for Ernst at a rally in West Des Moines as part of a ShePAC event that aims to support, honor and elect conservative women. The “Heels On, Gloves Off” event is set for April 27th. Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds, Senator Deb Fischer of Nebraska and former Nebraska Governor Kay Orr will also attend the event.

A new Suffolk University poll of the Iowa GOP Senate primary shows state senator Joni Ernst narrowly leading wealthy business executive Mark Jacobs: In the smaller subset of June Republican Primary voters, State Sen. Joni Ernst, who has been tagged the “castration candidate” due to her TV ad that includes a matter-of-fact reference to growing up on an Iowa hog farm, is leading businessman Mark Jacobs 25 percent to 23 percent.

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Iraq War veteran Joni Ernst emerged as the Republican frontrunner this week in the race to replace retiring Sen. Tom Harkin (D., Iowa). Ernst, who served as a company commander in Iraq from 2003 to 2004 and is a mother of three, gained a slight advantage over the other four candidates for the GOP Senate nomination in a Suffolk University poll. Ernst has 25 percent support among likely primary goers, followed closely by wealthy businessman Mark Jacobs with 23 percent. The other three candidates received less than 10 percent, while 40 percent are still undecided for the June 3 primary....

A long-shot candidate for the Iowa senate has released a commercial in which he promotes term limits for senators and also threatens to shoot the balls off a "sexual predator" who killed his sister. Bob Quast, unsurprisingly, is a supporter of gun rights. "If you are the sexual predator and sociopath who murdered my sister Lynette and you come to my front door to do harm to my girls, I'm going to use my Glock - to blow your balls off," he says, smiling. Quast's sister, Lynnette Craft, was killed in June 1999, by her husband, the ABC affiliate reported....

Joni Ernst has captured the momentum in Iowa’s Republican U.S. Senate primary, according to a Suffolk University poll released Wednesday. The poll shows Ernst edging Mark Jacobs 25-23 among primary voters. This is the first poll Suffolk University has conducted on the race so it is difficult to determine if their survey is an outlier or an actual sign of movement in the crowded GOP field. Either way, the Ernst campaign was quick to trumpet the good news, as did Sarah Palin. The former Alaska governor endorsed Ernst two weeks ago. “A new poll out today shows momentum for my...