Good morning from Iowa Capital Dispatch.
“In a time when too many are saddled with high debt and degrees with limited return, students and workers are seeking faster, more flexible ways of gaining the skills employers need. Pathways that honor talent, reward effort, and open opportunity without years of schooling and financial strain, and when programs like these are creating powerful pipelines into essential careers, the Trump administration stands ready to ensure every door is open for students to enter.” - U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, announcing Iowa Central Community College’s EMT program would be the first in the nation to earn federal approval for the Workforce Pell Grant program.
Oaklea Simpson Security, a Maryland company, is suing several former employees of its Iowa office in Mills County, alleging a “brazen and coordinated scheme” to take over highly classified work for the federal government by poaching employees and stealing trade secrets. (Photo by David Talukdar/Getty Images)
A group of western Iowa businessmen are being sued over an alleged “brazen and coordinated scheme” to take over highly classified work for the federal government by poaching employees and stealing trade secrets from their employer.
Oaklea Simpson Security, a Westminster, Maryland, company, is alleging that several employees in its Mills County, Iowa, office systematically misappropriated “vast amounts” of Oaklea’s confidential information and trade secrets while orchestrating a mass resignation of 24 Oaklea employees and diverting to their own business a multimillion-dollar government contract once held by Oaklea.
Transmission lines in farmland along U.S. 30. (Photo by Cami Koons/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
Newly adopted rules from the Iowa Utilities Commission aim to “mitigate potential impacts” of proposed large-scale transmission projects.
IUC asked the grid operators for the region to consider the rules, which it said address safety and technical issues, when evaluating transmission projects. Under the new rules, transmission structures cannot be constructed on pasture and cropland with guy wires – wires that come off of the structure and into the ground to help stabilize – unless the landowner specifically allows these types of structures.
An Iowa community college has become the first in the nation to earn federal approval for the Workforce Pell Grant program, allowing students in its emergency medical technician program to receive federal dollars for their education.
Acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling said Tuesday that U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn played a key role in passing the “One, Big Beautiful Bill” Act — a law that he said has helped support and expand Iowa manufacturing sector.
A state board has sanctioned an Iowa nursing home administrator for widespread quality-of-care issues in one of the facilities she managed.
The Libertarian Party of Iowa will hold a convention Sunday to nominate a new 3rd District candidate to appear on the November ballot after Libertarian Marco Battaglia ended his campaign.
Iowa regulators have issued an emergency order suspending the license of a physician associate who was accused of having sex with a prison-inmate patient while working for the Iowa Department of Corrections.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is investigating a wastewater discharge from the City of Keokuk into the Mississippi River.
U.S. acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was one step closer to permanently leading the Justice Department Tuesday, after two skeptical Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans voted to advance his nomination given Blanche’s signed promise that President Donald Trump’s nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund is dead.
Today’s children could be the first generation since the 1970s to do better than their parents as young workers become more sought after and well paid. They may even see a surplus of housing to make their lives even easier after recent shortages.
The U.S. House Ethics Committee announced Tuesday that it will review allegations that Republican Rep. Max Miller of Ohio may have “engaged in domestic violence and abuse or illegal drug use.”
U.S. Senate Democrats on Tuesday rebuked the Department of Education’s efforts to transfer its special education programs and civil rights enforcement to other agencies.
The stopgap spending bill supported by an overwhelming majority of U.S. senators does not address tens of billions in expiring transportation funding, leaving states facing a massive effective budget cut starting Oct. 1.
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