DES MOINES, Iowa (Gray Media Iowa State Capitol Bureau ) – Survivors of sexual assault could get additional resources under a bipartisan bill that Iowa senators and representatives approved today.

If the governor signs it, the bill would provide $1.5 million to cover costs for sexual assault forensic exam services.

The money would go to nonprofits that specifically perform forensic exams for evidence for survivors of sexual assault.

Republican Sen. Cherielynn Westrich thanked survivors who advocated for the bill.

“Connect them to the care and support that they need to heal,” Westrich said. “It also helps our system respond earlier and more effectively so fewer victims fall through the cracks. This is about protection and prevention and getting survivors and victims a real chance at safety and recovery.”

The state money would also fund a new sexual assault examination center in Des Moines.

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Isabella Warren covers state government and politics for Gray Media-owned stations in Iowa. Email her at isabella.warren@kcrg.com; and follow her on Facebook at Isabella Warren TV on X/Twitter@isabellaw_gray, and on Instagram@IsabellaWarrenTV.

Educators see the value in teaching interviewing, research, discernment, fact-checking, writing, photography, graphic arts, editing and story presentation skills.

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• Lyle Muller is a longtime Iowa journalist who, in retirement, continues to advise Grinnell Colleege’s Scarlet & Black student newspaper.

Lydia Gerety said something recently that makes the heart of a longtime journalist melt.

“I was planning my grad party, making like grad invites,” the Ankeny High School senior started, “and I was, like, ‘What do I even put on the back?’ And I put the biggest accomplishment was: being editor-in-chief of the paper.”

Gerety, 18, was referring to The Talon, her school’s award-winning student newspaper. “I had cared so much about it,” she said. “And this year, especially, I was able to have just so much pride in my staff because they were understanding the passion and everything I was working for. It’s, like, it’s fun.”

I write this as a longtime member of the Iowa High School Press Association (IHSPA) board of directors, so I have a bias about youth like Gerety because high school students like her are impressive. They help produce a newspaper, yearbook, website, social media, video and audio to reflect their school community while also engaging in extracurricular activities, achieving high academic standards and, hopefully, having some fun with a social life.

That is why the IHSPA created, for the first time this year, an All-State team for scholastic journalism. Members of this team exhibit the best qualities that a student can put into action as a journalist, putting their work out there for all to see, absorb and embrace, but also to criticize — because what would our world be without critics?

Joining Gerety — whose stories include a piece on concerns parents have about equal access to education in Iowa — on the team are Evelyn Kraber, 18, of Iowa City West High School; Lily Rantanen, 18, of Iowa City High School; and Brooklyn Berumez, 18, Jay McOmar Esmael, 17, and Alyssa Muheljic, 18, all of Waterloo West High School. Waterloo West did not even have a high school program until four years ago, yet Berumez became the third Wahawk in a row to be named the IHSPA’s Journalist of the Year.

“I think a big thing is, like, believing in yourself,” Muheljic said about getting into high school journalism. She is the design and social media editor for the Wahawk yearbook and feature and multimedia editor for the Insider. An energetic daughter of Bosnian immigrants whose first language was Bosnian before she learned English in school, she plans to attend Iowa State University this coming fall and study psychology.

The Iowa City West’s West Side Story and City High’s The Little Hawk have been winning national recognition for years. Kraber and Rantanen could step into legacy programs and build on the excellence for which their publications are known.

More: Iowa schools shouldn’t be allowed to punish teachers to get around students’ free-speech protections

But Ankeny’s program is in only its third year. That Ankeny and Waterloo West were willing to start journalism programs at a time when school districts in Iowa seek ways to cut spending brings hope that educators see the value in teaching interviewing, research, discernment, fact-checking, writing, photography, graphic arts, editing and story presentation skills.

They learn leadership skills, too. Ankeny’s Gerety is a prime example. She said she focused on her staff in her editor’s position. “I covered an ICE protest with one of our reporters, and there was, like, an anti-protest across the street,” she said. “And he just walked up to them and started talking to them. I asked him, ‘Hey, how’d you feel comfortable doing that?’ He’s, like, ‘Well, I just was curious what they had to say.’ I’m like, ‘That’s exactly why you’re part of this team.’”

And then there is Berumez, the Journalist of the Year heading to the University of Iowa and The Daily Iowan, where she will be Gerety’s colleague. She always has been shy, lacking confidence, she said.

Journalism not only brought her out of her cocoon, it saved her.

More: Des Moines Register built legacy of litigation to protect Iowans’ First Amendment rights

“From having experience and having stuck through it, and having been on both yearbook and news, it’s really taught me the lesson,” Berumez said, “that everybody has a story. Everybody deserves to have their story be told.”

Sometimes, they do not have the means to tell that story, Berumez said. She and all of her colleagues on this Hall of Fame team have shown they are willing to help give voice to those who otherwise would not have that opportunity.

We all should celebrate that.

Lyle Muller is a longtime Iowa journalist who, in retirement, continues to advise Grinnell Colleege’s Scarlet & Black student newspaper. You may read his Substack column, “Lyle Muller Doesn’t Have a Fancy Column Title,” at lylemuller.substack.com.

The five candidates vying for the Republican Party nomination for governor each went before conservative activists in the Des Moines area Friday night to ask for their support in the upcoming primary election.

The fundraiser for the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, an influential evangelical political group, was the first event of the campaign season where all five candidates were present in person.

More than 1,000 people attended the fundraiser at an event center in Clive where Gov. Kim Reynolds and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, also looked to unify support for Republicans in the upcoming midterms.

Feenstra and rivals appeal to conservative activists

The candidates took turns answering questions from Republican Party of Iowa Chair Jeff Kaufmann, who prompted them to share their views on key conservative issues: abortion, eminent domain, school choice and religious freedom.

All five candidates oppose abortion rights. Adam Steen, former director of the Iowa Department of Administrative Services, said as governor he would push for restrictions beyond the state’s current law — which bans most abortions at about six weeks of pregnancy.

“We have to be pro-life. We have to be life at conception. It’s fundamental,” Steen said. “And I’ll say this right now — with those abortion pills that are being sent into the state of Iowa right now, we have to stop those first and foremost. Get those out of there and ensure that life is protected at conception.”

The Iowa House passed a bill Friday that includes a measure requiring medial providers to only dispense abortion-inducing drugs directly to the patient in a health care setting. It is not clear whether the bill has enough support to pass in the state Senate.

Also on Friday, a panel of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling temporarily blocking the mailing of the abortion pill mifepristone, requiring that it be distributed only in person in medical settings. The ruling is expected to be appealed to the Supreme Court.

Lucius Pham/Iowa Public Radio

Businessman Zach Lahn of Belle Plaine said the conservative movement should look beyond abortion. For instance, Lahn said, conservatives should advocate to reverse declines in life expectancy.

“We have to make sure that we are fighting for healthy food, for less medication, for our children, for clean water, for cancer,” said Lahn, who was endorsed by MAHA Action, an advocacy group related to the Make America Healthy Again movement.

Reynolds vetoed a measure that would have put some limits on eminent domain, but the candidates all said they oppose the use of eminent domain for private-sector projects.

Fourth District Rep. Randy Feenstra said he would protect landowners’ property rights.

“The property belongs to the American farmer, the Iowa farmer, belongs to each of us and not anything else,” Feenstra said. “And if somebody wants to run a pipeline, or whatever it might be, then it’s negotiated between the private property owner and the business. And if the private property owner says, ‘no,’ that’s it.”

Former state Rep. Brad Sherman agreed.

“A private company who’s not a common carrier for a product that’s not a public utility should never, ever get to use eminent domain,” Sherman said. “It’s just that simple.”

The GOP candidates for governor are supporters of school choice measures passed in recent years. That includes Iowa’s education savings accounts (ESAs) program, which this year gave around $8,000 in public funding per student to help families pay for tuition at private schools.

Steen called the ESA law “one of the greatest pieces of legislation” passed under Republican control in the Legislature. Current state Rep. Eddie Andrews, R-Johnston, said he would like to see the state expand school choice.

“It didn’t just start with ESAs. I led the push for just regular district-to-district school choice. Then we added public charter school choice,” Andrews said. “I understood that parents need to be in charge of their kids’ education.”

If no candidate wins at least 35% of the primary vote on June 2, the nomination will be decided at a party convention.

Lucius Pham

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Reynolds says election will affect GOP achievements

Reynolds told activists at the fundraiser she plans to be on the campaign trail supporting the person chosen as the GOP nominee for governor. She said the results of the election in November will have implications for landmark conservative policies put in place under her leadership.

Reynolds listed what she considers some of Republicans’ greatest accomplishments in the Statehouse in her time as governor, including cuts to income tax rates, a broad state government reorganization and one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the United States.

“I would put our record up against anyone,” Reynolds said. “It’s what’s driven more Iowa voters to register as Republicans. In 2018, Republicans held just a 10,800 voter registration advantage. Today, we have an advantage of over 198,000.”

But Republicans should not take their advantage among active registered voters for granted, Reynolds said. Democrats, she said, are united, well-funded and motivated to win back the governor’s office.

“We have the record. We have the numbers,” Reynolds said. “So the only way that we see a Rob Sand win is if we don’t show up. If we show up, we win.”