Good morning from Iowa Capital Dispatch.
“In the days after 9/11, we all realized that what the government did in the next few days to respond could have lasting implications for the civil liberties of Americans.” — Gregory Nojeim, director of the security and surveillance project at the Center for Democracy & Technology, on the growth of government surveillance after the 9/11 terrorist attacks 25 years ago.
A clean energy group is calling for greater scrutiny of a utility company's plans surrounding data centers. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
A clean energy group is calling on the Iowa Utilities Commission and policymakers to ensure utility companies don’t use data center energy demands to build new facilities and pass the costs on to ratepayers.
Iowa Business for Clean Energy, in a news release Thursday, said Alliant Energy Corporation is using “loopholes” and “secret” rate agreements with data centers to build natural gas “peaker” plants without proving they are in the best interest of ratepayers.
Iowa's public universities reported their fall enrollment numbers Thursday, showing fluctuations in undergraduate and graduate enrollment. (Photo by Brooklyn Draisey/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
Iowa’s public universities have welcomed thousands of students back to campus this fall, with each institution touting either increased interest, enrollment or retention.
Of Iowa’s three public universities, only the University of Northern Iowa welcomed a larger first-year and total student body than in 2025, with both the University of Iowa and Iowa State University seeing smaller incoming cohorts and total university enrollment.
9/11 anniversary
People look out at Manhattan and beyond at One World Observatory at One World Trade Center in New York City. Twenty-five years after 9/11, the surveillance systems built in its aftermath continue to shape how Americans are watched and policed. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Twenty-five years after 9/11, the surveillance infrastructure built and expanded in its aftermath has become part of a far larger digital ecosystem — producing tools that can collect and analyze information on a scale unimaginable in 2001, Stateline reports.
States Newsroom’s Pennsylvania Capital-Star Editor-in-Chief Tim Lambert recently revisited the national memorial to United Airlines Flight 93, which was hijacked and crashed on 9/11 on a Pennsylvania field where his family owned land, Stateline reports.
Iowa’s Republican caucuses will again kick off the national presidential nominating calendar in 2028, the Republican National Committee decided Thursday during its midterm convention in Dallas.
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ashley Hinson said Thursday she wants to look at all proposals aimed at improving affordability for working families, including recent comments from President Donald Trump to pay out $5,000 to U.S. adults.
Coe College is cutting the cost of its tuition by nearly half with the goal of showing prospective students a more clear picture of what they’ll be paying and reducing uncertainty of the cost of a college education.
President Donald Trump and Republicans wrapped up their two-day midterm convention in Dallas, Texas, on Thursday night, urging voters to ensure the party has another two years with unified control of government.
Vice President JD Vance took to the GOP convention stage in Dallas on Thursday in what served as a re-introduction ahead of a widely anticipated run for the party’s presidential nomination in 2028.
A proposal by President Donald Trump to give $5,000 to each American adult if Republicans retain control of the U.S. House and Senate in November would “explode” the national deficit and worsen inflation, according to an analysis issued Thursday by the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
Latino advocacy groups and voting rights organizations Thursday filed a suit in federal court challenging the Trump administration’s policy of allowing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to enter polling locations in certain circumstances to conduct immigration enforcement during the 2026 midterm elections.
A coalition of state attorneys general filed a pair of lawsuits Wednesday challenging the Trump administration’s rollbacks of protections for endangered species, Stateline reports.
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