Iowa

New Title IX rules on hold in Iowa as federal lawsuit continues

Published

6 months ago

July 26, 2024

New Title IX rules on hold in Iowa as federal lawsuit continues

DES MOINES, Iowa — A federal judge has temporarily blocked part of the Biden Administration’s new Title IX rules from going into effect here in Iowa.

For now, Iowa schools and universities who receive federal funding won’t have to comply with the new Title IX rules.

The Biden Administration’s Title IX rules were set to take effect August 1 and would have expanded protections against sex discrimination and sexual harassment.

Dozens of Republican-led states criticized the new rules for including protections when it comes to gender identity and sexual orientation discrimination.

“The pushback on it was that this would allow biological males to identify as female into women’s spaces,” Tim Hagle a political professor at UI said. “Locker rooms, restrooms, things of that nature.”

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird joined five other states in suing the Biden Administration back in May. They cited concerns that a few of Iowa’s laws could be at risk. Specifically, one that requires students use the bathroom according to their sex assigned at birth and another that prohibits transgender girls from playing girls sports.

“Today’s victory delivers a major blow to the Biden-Harris Administration’s war on women and protects young women all across the country,” Bird said. “Biden and Harris’s woke gender ideology mandate seeks to abolish more than 50 years of landmark protections that women spent centuries fighting for. No schoolgirl should be robbed of the opportunity to compete and succeed in the sports they love or be forced to share restrooms and shower spaces with boys. I will continue fighting protect opportunity and privacy for young women across the country and to make this win permanent.”

Iowa Sen. Zach Wahls (D-Coralville) already opposed both of the those GOP backed law, said the lawsuit is unnecessary.

“I’m very troubled by the decision that this is what Republican politicians are focused on and I think it’s a misrepresentation of the priorities Iowans say they care about,” Sen. Wahls said.

A spokesperson from the U.S. Department of Education said they’re reviewing the recent ruling, but the department is standing by the final regulations and will continue to fight for every student.

“Obviously we’re going through a process now as a country,” Sen. Wahls said. “Trying to figure out how do we support protect kids who are a little different from their classmates and their peers and I think that we should be erring on the side of protecting those kids who, again, are already facing a lot of hardship in life.”

Gov. Kim Reynolds also applauded the federal judges decision in a statement on Thursday.

“Another federal judge has blocked the Biden-Harris administration’s attempt to apply Title IX protections intended for girls to biological boys who identify as girls.,” Gov. Reynolds said. “The definitions of “sex” and “gender identity” are different, just as biological males and females are different. I’m proud that Iowa is part of this lawsuit and I’ll never stop defending the rights of women of all ages.”

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Iowa

Iowa women fall to Oregon 49-50

Published

5 hours ago

January 20, 2025

Press Room

EUGENE, Oregon (KCRG) – It came down to the wire, but the Iowa women fell just short against the Oregon Ducks in Matthew Knight Arena.

Iowa led most of the game, going into the final 10 minutes with a 41-35 advantage, but a late surge put Oregon ahead of the Hawkeyes. The Ducks were able to hold on and edge past the Hawkeyes 49-50.

Sydney Affolter earned a double-double, scoring 10 points and getting a career-high 15 rebounds. Addi O’Grady had 10 points and 2 rebounds.

Up next, the Hawkeyes travel to Alaska Airlines Arena to play the Washington Huskies on Wednesday, January 22

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Iowa

Top 15 Iowa high school boys basketball power rankings

Published

13 hours ago

January 19, 2025

Press Room

Here is a look at this week’s High School on SI Top 15 Iowa high school boys basketball power rankings for the week of Jan. 20. To be eligible, you must be ranked in the Top 5 of the class rankings:

1. West Des Moines Valley (10-2)

Previous rank: 5

Next game: Jan. 21 at Ankeny Centennial

2. Cedar Rapids Kennedy (9-2)

Previous rank: 4

Next game: Jan. 21 at Dubuque Hempstead

3. Clear Lake (10-0)

Previous rank: 3

Next game: Jan. 20 at Algona

4. Grand View Christian (13-0)

Previous rank: 6

Next game: Jan. 21 at West Marshall

5. Linn-Mar (9-2)

Previous rank: Not ranked

Next game: Jan. 21 at Iowa City High

6. Cedar Falls (11-1)

Previous rank: 1

Next game: Jan. 21 vs. Iowa City Liberty

7. MOC-Floyd Valley (10-2)

Previous rank: 7

Next game: Jan. 21 vs. West Lyon

8. West Lyon (11-1)

Previous rank: 8

Next game: Jan. 21 at MOC-Floyd Valley

9. Madrid (13-0)

Previous rank: 9

Next game: Jan. 21 vs. Woodward-Granger

10. Bellevue Marquette (13-0)

Previous rank: 10

Next game: Jan. 21 at Prince of Peace

11. Ballard (10-0)

Previous rank: 12

Next game: Jan. 21 at Boone

12. Grundy Center (12-0)

Previous rank: 13

Next game: Jan. 21 vs. South Hardin

13. Council Bluffs Lincoln (10-0)

Previous rank: Not ranked

Next game: Jan. 20 vs. Gretna

14. Western Christian (11-2)

Previous rank: Not ranked

Next game: Jan. 20 vs. Remsen St. Mary’s

15. Storm Lake (9-1)

Previous rank: Not ranked

Next game: Jan. 21 vs. Spirit Lake

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Iowa

Kim Reynolds offers remedies, but her diagnosis of Iowa has holes | Opinion

Published

20 hours ago

January 19, 2025

Press Room

Kim Reynolds offers remedies, but her diagnosis of Iowa has holes | Opinion

But so long as state government denies forms of health care and casts suspicions on members of certain demographics, efforts to sell Iowa will have a ceiling.

The Register’s editorial
| Des Moines Register

Iowa doesn’t have enough people. Job openings are too hard to fill, particularly ones for medical professionals. Child care options are scarce enough that some people who would like to work or work more choose not to.

Gov. Kim Reynolds and her Republican colleagues in the Legislature note those problems accurately. On Tuesday, the governor proposed a few innovative investments and policies to attack them. But the state’s GOP leaders aren’t articulating the entire picture of why there’s a shortage of people who want to live and work here. Specifically, they aren’t looking in the mirror.

It was no surprise that the governor’s sales pitch for the state focused on tax reductions and national rankings while omitting mention of laws that make people feel unwelcome or even endangered in Iowa — people who fear whether they can find adequate care during pregnancy in light of a strict ban on abortions. People who could face scrutiny based on their appearance under harsh immigration laws. People who see the state formally labeling information about their or their family members’ sexual orientations and gender identities inappropriate for schoolchildren.

It is indisputable that the state’s aggressive income tax reductions make living here more attractive. Pumping money into rural recruitment problems and chipping away at preschool and child care burdens would make a positive difference, too.

But so long as state government denies forms of health care, casts suspicions on members of certain demographics, and refuses to take meaningful action to protect the state’s soil and water, those efforts to sell Iowa will have a ceiling.

Policy ideas range from terrible to adequate

Many of Reynolds’ policy proposals during her annual address to lawmakers were less sweeping than the “flat tax” or “school choice” unveilings of previous years, but their potential impact on the state is still great. A few highlights, and lowlights, deserve notice:

MEDICAID WORK REQUIREMENTS: Reynolds insists that now is the time to try again on a bad and tired idea: requiring some prospective Medicaid recipients to work in order to receive health care coverage. Or, to put it another way, putting obstacles between health insurance and a small, small slice of low-income Medicaid recipients (those who are not children or retired or disabled or already working). Or, to put it another way, creating a costly new apparatus of bureaucratic red tape using money that could instead pay for needed care for Iowans. This popular Republican idea has progressed furthest in Arkansas and Georgia, and neither state’s experience is in the least encouraging. Georgia’s rules have not led to increased employment, which is, you know, the point.
NUCLEAR ENERGY: Reynolds said she’d set up a task force to explore bringing nuclear power generation back to Iowa. A robust debate on this topic over a decade ago ended with MidAmerican Energy declining to pursue the idea beyond a study. Reynolds is correct that the massive electrical demands of data centers, especially for artificial intelligence, counsels an open-minded look at the state’s energy mix.
CANCER RESEARCH: Iowa’s cancer statistics are among the nation’s worst, and Reynolds says she wants to spend $1 million to launch a new research team to better understand what’s happening. That’s a start, to be sure. Almost no investment would be too much, and the task force should have freedom to investigate and deliver, if necessary, unpleasant answers or hypotheses about what contributes to cancer in Iowa.
GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY: Nobody is against government efficiency. Reynolds’ remarks about copying the Trump administration’s new Department of Government Efficiency weren’t particularly amusing to people like Democratic state Sen. Zach Wahls, who sarcastically and correctly wrote on X about Reynolds “inventing” … the office of state auditor, the real-life version of which the Legislature keeps kneecapping.
ATTRACTING MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS, IMPROVING CHILD CARE: Reynolds’ overall state budget proposal would increase spending 5.4% over the current year, with tax revenue continuing to fall. Large chunks of new money will go to educating savings accounts for private school students and to cover a projected $174 Medicaid shortfall. Reynolds also says Iowa should put millions of dollars into projects to bring more physicians and nurses to rural Iowa and to fill gaps parents face in managing preschool and child care. Those are solid proposals, though a bigger and better swing would be expanding state-paid universal preschool to full days for 4-year-olds and at least some subsidy for 3-year-olds.

Iowa has reasons to be proud and to stay, and reasons to run away

Reynolds opened her address by taking a deserved victory lap for state and local government success in 2024: responding meaningfully to natural disasters and providing for recovery and implementing her far-reaching state government reorganization. Iowa does have plenty to be proud of, plenty of reasons to stay, plenty of reasons to come. The governor and the Legislature need to realize that they have also given people reasons to flee. Until that changes, they aren’t doing all they can to solve Iowa’s worker shortages.

Lucas Grundmeier, on behalf of the Register’s editorial board

This editorial is the opinion of the Des Moines Register’s editorial board: Lucas Grundmeier, opinion editor; and Richard Doak and Rox Laird, editorial board members.

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