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A total of 32 House and Senate Republicans helped push Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure package over the finish line, most of whom have been showered with campaign cash from the leading lobbying group behind the bill — the US Chamber of Commerce. Lawmakers run for office, grabbing donations from interest groups, then, after their election, voting for legislation supported by those special interest groups despite their constituents’ opposition. The Chamber had been lobbying for Biden’s infrastructure bill, since the start of the year. By July, Open Secrets reported the Chamber had spent more than $12 million lobbying for the bill...

Two Iowa teenagers have been charged with murdering a local Spanish teacher after police discovered incriminating social media posts. Nohema Graber, 66, was found dead in a park in the city of Fairfield, several hours after being reported missing, authorities said. Police say the suspects posted details of the killing, efforts to hide it and a possible motive to social media. The teenagers, both 16, will be tried as adults for the murder... ...Early investigations suggested she had suffered "trauma to the head", the documents show. Ms Graber's body was found hidden under a tarpaulin, wheelbarrow and railway sleepers. Authorities...

Police received a tip that one of the boys posted details about planning the killing of 66-year-old Nohema Graber and a possible motive on social media Two 16-year-old students were charged with homicide in the death of a high school teacher whose body was found concealed at a park in southeast Iowa, authorities said Thursday. Investigators said Nohema Graber, a 66-year-old Spanish teacher at Fairfield High School, was reported missing on Tuesday and her remains were found later that day at the Chautauqua Park in Fairfield, located about 95 miles southeast of Des Moines, The Ottumwa Courier reported. The city...

Parents unhappy with the woke takeover of their local education systems won big on Tuesday when they ousted progressive school board members and beat out pro-critical race theory candidates in multiple districts across the nation.In Southlake, Texas, Andrew Yeager, a father concerned with the top-achieving school district’s drastic “cultural competence action plan” — which aims to shame people, especially white people, based on their race — won the seventh spot on the Carroll Independent School District’s school board on Tuesday in a landslide victory against his opponent Stephanie Williams. Yeager’s win was quickly maligned by NBC News as the result...

Iowa is standing up for workers who have refused to take the coronavirus vaccine on principle and paid for it by losing their jobs. A new law signed by Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds carves out an exception to the rules for individuals who claim religious or medical exemptions from COVID-19 vaccination requirements. The bill passed the Iowa House and Senate on Thursday, according to KPIC-TV. “This is a major step forward in protecting Iowans’ freedoms and their abilities to make healthcare decisions based on what’s best for themselves and their families. This legislation also gives employees the assurance that they...

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Ten states filed a lawsuit Friday to stop President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors, arguing that the requirement violates federal law. Attorneys general from Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming signed on to the lawsuit, which was filed in a federal district court in Missouri. The states asked a federal judge to block Biden’s requirement that all employees of federal contractors be vaccinated against the coronavirus, arguing that the mandate violates federal procurement law and is an overreach of federal power. “If the federal government attempts...

Two top Republican senators are demanding answers from Attorney General Merrick Garland because the Justice Department has failed to release anything in the “binder” of Crossfire Hurricane documents that former President Donald Trump ordered declassified during his last day in office. The memo from Trump said he had “determined that the materials in that binder should be declassified to the maximum extent possible.” The FBI said in mid-January that the bureau had "identified the passages that it believed it was most crucial to keep from public disclosure.”... ...Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson said this week they are “seeking full...

Iowa State House District 29 CANDIDATE VOTES PERCENT Jon Dunwell GOP check_circle 2,820 59.87% Steve Mullan DEM 1,890 40.13% * = Incumbent 4,710 votes. 100% reporting DDHQ Updated 10/13/2021, 12:32:08 AM

DES MOINES, IOWA – Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley cut straight to the chase when asked if he’d gladly accept the support of former President Trump as the longtime lawmaker from Iowa runs next year for an eighth six-year term in the Senate. "Anybody who’s got the approval rating of 91% of the Republicans in Iowa, you surely wouldn’t be stupid enough to turn down that help," Grassley told Fox News on Saturday at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines, minutes before Trump’s first rally in the Hawkeye State since last November’s election got underway.

President Trump Save America Rally in Iowa Streaming Now

Saturday, October 9, 2021: Join the RSBN crew LIVE from Des Moines, IA for all day coverage of President Donald Trump's Save America Rally. coverage starts noon local time ( 1pm eastern)

Iowa is expecting approximately 700 refugees among the three resettlement agencies. Beth Gibbins with Catholic Charities said she believes the agencies are all preparing in similar ways.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is facing criticism after congratulating a Korean American judicial nominee on Wednesday, commenting on the “hard work ethic” of “you and your people.” “What you said about your Korean background reminds me a lot of what my daughter-in-law of 45 years has said: ‘If I learned anything from Korean people, it’s a hard work ethic. And how you can make a lot out of nothing,’ ” the 88-year-old told judicial nominee Lucy Koh on Wednesday. “So I congratulate you and your people,” he added. Koh thanked the senator following the comments. Grassley, who is running for...

Former President Donald Trump heads to Iowa this Saturday for the first time since the 2020 presidential election with an all-time high in favorability ratings in the first-in-the-nation caucus state as he openly flirts with a White House bid, according to the latest Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa poll.

The rejection by the Iowa State Senate of the first redistricting map submitted by the LSA means that there will be no need for a vote on the plan by the Iowa House of Representatives, where Speaker of the House Pat Grassley, grandson of Chuck Grassley, had come under criticism from Republicans for his unwillingness to publicly reject the first LSA map, as Breitbart News reported Saturday: Speaker of the Iowa House of Representatives Pat Grassley has not yet indicated whether he will support or oppose a redistricting plan submitted by the state’s Legislative Services Agency (LSA) that is favorable...

Former President Donald Trump heads to Iowa this Saturday for the first time since the 2020 presidential election with an all-time high in favorability ratings in the first-in-the-nation caucus state as he openly flirts with a White House bid, according to the latest Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa poll. The survey comes as President Joe Biden’s approval numbers continue to dip following a chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal critics call an embarrassing botch job, a dramatic surge in migrants crossing the nation's southern border, and another surge in COVID-19 infections. Fifty-three percent of Iowans have a favorable view of Trump, while 45 percent...

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley announced in the wee hours of Friday that he intends to seek an eighth term in 2022. The 88-year-old Iowa Republican, who has been in the Senate since 1981, posted his plans on Twitter shortly after 4 a.m. CT, along with a video of him going out for his daily jog. "It’s 4 a.m. in Iowa so I’m running," Grassley wrote. "I do that 6 days a week. Before I start the day I want you to know what Barbara and I have decided. "I’m running for re-election—a lot more to do, for Iowa. We ask...

We have been following a slew of defamation lawsuits by political figures over the last few years. (See, e.g., here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here). For torts scholars, it has been a bonanza of interesting issues touching on every element of defamation law. There is now an important ruling out of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit that could have enormous implications not just for the media but anyone who retweets stories or claims. The appellate panel ruled unanimously for Rep. Devin Nunes against journalist Ryan Lizza...

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) shows a massive lead in a hypothetical matchup against candidate and former Rep. Abby Finkenauer (D-IA) in Iowa’s U.S. Senate race, according to a poll. Grassley, the long-time incumbent, showed an 18-point lead over Finkenauer, among likely Iowa voters, 55 percent to 37 percent, in the latest Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll. Seven percent also said they were unsure and going head-to-head matchup between the long-time incumbent and Finkenauer; one percent said they would not vote.

The White House has so far dismissed a Senate inquiry into President Joe Biden’s use of private email while he was vice president. In July, Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin penned a letter to White House Counsel Dana Ann Remus, demanding information on what steps Biden and the administration took to ensure the then-vice president’s records satisfied archival requirements under federal law. According to the New York Post, Vice President Biden had been using private email addresses to correspond with his son Hunter, and on at least one occasion spoke of a meeting with...