Good morning from Iowa Capital Dispatch.
“It means that more of these hospitals, (and) a few nursing homes that are wrapped up in our academic medical centers, are going to start limiting the numbers of Medicaid patients that they see. It’s going to make it more difficult for people who are on Medicaid to get essential care.” — Debra Lipson, an independent health policy researcher who authored a report predicting doctors and hospitals in many states, including Iowa, are likely to face Medicaid payment cuts due to new federal rules.
Drake University had an economic impact totaling $424.1 million in 2025, according to a report released by the university. (Photo courtesy of Drake University)
Drake University has been named a partner in the artificial intelligence strategy of Panama, a move the university president says builds on the pair’s relationship and expands its mission of meeting learners where they are.
The Des Moines private university, through its establishment of the only data analytics program in the Central American country, was acknowledged by Republic of Panama President José Raúl Mulino as an essential partner in developing talent to help implement its national AI strategy and grow the country’s technology and artificial intelligence economy.
Minburn Iowa’s drinking water infrastructure is set to be upgraded with more than $2 million in funding from USDA. (Photo by Cami Koons/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
A small, Dallas County community is set to break ground on significant upgrades to its water infrastructure following a $2 million grant and $600,000 loan from U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development.
Joe Stuetelberg, the mayor of Minburn, said the city’s current pipes were installed in the 1950s, have “constant” water main-line breaks and pressure flows that are so “inadequate” that the volunteer fire department can hardly fight fires in the town and some residents can’t take showers in upstairs bathrooms.
A company established by Iowa State University researchers is facing a lawsuit from its former partners in the business and a group of companies who say they’ve been falsely accused of theft and unfair competition.
U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson highlighted her support for measures to detect cancer and increase clinical trials in the U.S. House while speaking with advocates Friday, saying she would continue this work if elected to the Senate in 2026.
New federal rules likely will force three dozen states, including Iowa, to reduce their annual Medicaid payments to doctors and hospitals by a total of more than $50 billion — potentially shrinking the number of providers willing to see Medicaid patients, according to a new analysis, Stateline reports.
Tens of thousands of Americans, including in Iowa, continue to lose access to food assistance each month, even as Congress debates slowing down major cuts to federal food stamps, Stateline reports.
CDC’s latest national report on teenage risk behavior, a full-color publication with photos, graphics and high school success stories, offers a markedly different portrait of adolescent health than the one it published two years ago, Stateline reports.
An appeals panel Friday seemed inclined to agree that more than 100 Venezuelan men the Trump administration sent to a brutal prison in El Salvador are entitled to due process hearings to challenge their removal, which was made under an archaic 18th-century wartime law.
COMMENTARY
Ed Failor, Jr., joins host Dave Price, Laura Belin and Kathie Obradovich this week. Topics include whether some GOP candidates are pivoting away from President Donald Trump, the dismissal of the Trump lawsuit over a Des Moines Register Iowa Poll, and a look ahead at candidate debates.
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