Good morning from Iowa Capital Dispatch.
“What we hear from people is that they’ll take somebody to the hospital in the midst of a psychiatric crisis, but hospitals are turning them away because they don’t agree that the person is a danger to themself or others. The other thing we hear is that somebody is ‘too suicidal,’ and they’re saying they don’t have enough staff to provide the right level of supervision.” — Leslie Carpenter, Iowa Mental Health Advocacy co-founder, on workforce shortages and inconsistent access to mental health care in Iowa.
Residents of Mason City march to celebrate the opening of a new residential care facility in Mason City for people with severe mental illnesses, Mason City, Iowa, Oct. 24, 2025. (Photo by 43 North Iowa)
One of the most prominent issues in Iowa mental health care is the lack of available psychiatrists and behavioral health providers, especially in rural communities.
Rather than waiting for statewide solutions, some Iowa communities have experimented with localized mental health models aiming to fill gaps in behavioral health treatment.
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn and Greater Des Moines Habitat for Humanity CEO Lance Henning, from left, tour a Habitat for Humanity home on May 29, 2026. (Photo by Brooklyn Draisey/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
Federal officials joined Iowa housing experts at an affordable housing development to tout the removal of regulations and other actions designed to make home construction and ownership more attainable.
U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner joined Habitat for Humanity Iowa CEO Lance Henning Friday morning for a tour of Waukee Habitat for Humanity homes-in-progress. They also held a roundtable about affordable housing with others involved in housing and economic development programs.
The Iowa Supreme Court has suspended the license of a Des Moines attorney accused of incompetence and “fleecing” her clients.
An Iowa nurse accused of identity theft and job abandonment has had her license placed on probation.
The U.S. Postal Service on Friday took its first major step to carry out President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting voting by mail, proposing a rule that would require states to submit lists of voters before mailing ballots.
Hearing backlash from residents, cities and counties across the country in recent weeks have blocked planned data centers amid concerns over rising electricity prices and environmental harms, Stateline reports.
Former Attorney General Pam Bondi was on Capitol Hill Friday for a closed door interview with lawmakers about her role in the release of the federal investigation files of Jeffrey Epstein — the now deceased wealthy sex offender who surrounded himself with influential entrepreneurs, academics and celebrities, including President Donald Trump.
A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from moving forward with a fund that opponents fear will be used to pay off the president’s political allies.
The Trump administration’s nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund has attracted scrutiny for its corruption potential, even splitting congressional Republicans who rarely confront President Donald Trump’s decisions and policies.
President Donald Trump’s extraordinary $1.776 billion fund to pay off allies and others who say they have been wronged by past administrations harkens back to an earlier era of American cronyism, experts say, while expanding the frontiers of political favoritism, academics say.
In its latest effort to narrow pathways to immigration to the United States, the Trump administration says it will crack down on attorneys who file fraudulent asylum claims for their clients, Stateline reports.
COMMENTARY
Host Dave Price, Laura Belin and Kathie Obradovich discuss a late-breaking poll in the Republican gubernatorial primary and outside spending in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary.
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