DUBUQUE, Iowa (KCRG) — The Julien Dubuque Bridge is closed for the next month for repairs.

More than 18,000 drivers used the U.S. Highway 20 bridge daily, according to Iowa DOT traffic data. The closure forces drivers looking to cross the Mississippi River between Iowa and Illinois to use the Dubuque-Wisconsin Bridge.

Mollie Smith, a Dubuque resident, said she used the bridge several times a week to travel to East Dubuque and Galena to shop, spend time at her family’s lake house and visit with friends.

Smith said she has no plans to visit Illinois in July.

“I’m trying to avoid it at all costs,” she said.

The highway detour is rerouting traffic to the Locust Street Connector, leading to rush hour backups extending to Highway 20.

Smith said the closure is also changing how she drives within Dubuque.

“Just to come here to the river walk, I ended up taking Asbury [Road] and kind of went that route through town rather than taking the highway. I just won’t do it,” Smith said.

While the full closure is expected to end in August, eastbound traffic from Dubuque to Illinois will not reopen until the project is finished in September. Depending on the project’s progress, Iowa DOT may enforce additional closures.

Smith said the wait will be worth it.

“We don’t need it collapsing,” she said.

Iowa DOT is offering a free shuttle between Dubuque and East Dubuque during the closure by reservation.

Pickup and drop-off locations are the Dubuque Intermodal Transportation Center and the East Dubuque Public Library. Reservations can be made by calling 563-589-4196.

DES MOINES, Iowa (Iowa Capital Dispatch) – The Iowa Democratic and Republican parties both gained voters over the past month, while the number of voters with no party affiliation dropped significantly.

According to data from the Iowa Secretary of State’s office, the Democratic Party gained more than 27,000 registered voters from June to July, bringing the total number of active Democratic voters in Iowa to 527,675. Despite Democratic gains, Republicans still hold a strong statewide advantage in voter registration with 711,587 active voters, gaining more than 17,000 registered voters over the past month.

The largest change in voter registration occurred among voters affiliated with no party, as the number of registered independent voters decreased by more than 32,000. As of July 1, there are 555,309 active independent voters in Iowa.

“I think part of what’s going on is that people changed their registration to reflect a party preference so they could vote in the party primary,” Karen Kedrowski, an Iowa State University political science professor and Carrie Chapman Catt Center director, said. “These are not really new voters. They’re probably independents who lean Democratic or Republican and changed their party registration to be able to vote in the primary.” 

Kedrowski said that in recent years, the number of registered Republican voters have remained constant, the number of independent voters has gone up and the number of registered Democrats has gone down.

Kedrowski said the increase in Democratic registrations appears consistent with national trends, which she said reflect heightened motivation among Democratic and left-leaning voters opposed to President Donald Trump’s policies.

“There’s just a lot more excitement about participating in the election on the part of Democratic voters,” Kedrowski said. “They’re highly mobilized because they’re largely unhappy with what’s happening with the administration.”  

Kedrowski said that it is extremely difficult to predict election results based on monthly data trends, but the excitement among Democrats could lead to the party making gains in Iowa, with the state returning to its “purple” roots, meaning a state that votes for both Republicans and Democrats closely.

“It’s definitely worrisome for Republicans because it shows there’s going to be momentum for the Democrats,” Kedrowski said. “Instead of seeing this as the Democrats becoming ascendant in Iowa, it might be more Iowa returning to being a swing state.” 

Kedrowski cautioned that monthly voter registration alone does not predict election outcomes.

The voter registration figures reflect only “active” voters. According to Iowa Code 48a, voters who do not participate in one or two consecutive general elections will be labeled as “inactive,” but can still participate. If a voter misses three general elections, their voting status will be “canceled,” and the person would have to reregister.

• Iowa’s Attorney General is suing online retailer Temu for alleged violations of the state’s Consumer Fraud Act.
• The lawsuit accuses Temu of deceptive marketing, selling counterfeit goods, including fake Iowa-branded merchandise, and fabricating sales.
• Temu is also accused of using its mobile app to secretly collect user data without consent.

Online retailer Temu has sold cheap and counterfeit goods, used underhanded marketing tactics and lied about when and how it takes customers’ data, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird says.

Bird is suing the China-based retail giant, accusing it of numerous violations of the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act. Temu, which has aggressively been promoted in the United States under its “Shop like a Billionaire” tagline, competes with Amazon and other online retailers and operates online marketplaces for third-party sellers.

The lawsuit, filed July 1, cites years of complaints to the Attorney General’s Office, Better Business Bureau and other watchdog groups about the quality and reliability of Temu shopping, with reports often citing purchased merchandise that bear little resemblance to the photos of items offered for sale.

Those complaints are just the tip of the iceberg, Bird alleges. Her suit accuses Temu of dishonest pricing practices, such as labeling items for sale despite listing them at their normal price. Temu also allegedly uses “gamification” tricks to encourage users to make purchases, sign up their friends on Temu, and other actions, but often fails to deliver on the promised benefits, it says.

In some cases, the company is accused of simply fabricating sales. “Numerous” Iowans have reported receiving and being charged for Temu packages they never ordered and were unable to return, the complaint alleges.

The company also has lied about its business practices in other ways, including covering up its use of forced labor to manufacture many of the items it sells, Bird claims.

App allegedly violates data privacy laws

Temu isn’t just angling to make a sale, Bird claims. She also accuses the company of vacuuming up customers’ private data, even hiding code in the company’s mobile apps to bypass users’ cell phone security and collect private data without their consent.

The complaint states that forensic experts retained by Iowa found the app collects data far beyond what might be necessary to complete transactions, conceals its exfiltration of sensitive data and “reconfigures itself even after having been downloaded to a user’s phone” without consent.

Much of this echoes code previously found in Pinduoduo, another e-commerce app owned by the same Chinese conglomerate, which was banned from the Google Play store in 2023 due to malware concerns. Many of those programmers, and much of the banned code, has been transferred to the Temu app, Bird claims.

Iowa Wave among fake merch sold on Temu

Temu often has been accused of violating intellectual property laws, and those practices have directly affected Iowa, Bird claims. The complaint includes examples of unauthorized University of Iowa, Iowa Wave and Dowling Catholic clothing.

Bird notes in her complaint that a portion of sales of authentic Iowa Wave merchandise goes to benefit pediatric cancer patients and others at the Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital.

Iowa businesses and sellers on other marketplaces also have reported Temu stealing their branding and in some cases simply copying their product photos and descriptions to market unauthorized products.

Iowa joins several states, including Oklahoma, Texas and Nebraska, that have filed consumer protection lawsuits against Temu in recent months. Temu did not respond to a message seeking comment.

William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com or 715-573-8166.