Good morning from Iowa Capital Dispatch.
“Even as Iowans experience a worsening water pollution crisis, with agricultural nitrate contamination at its center, Iowa legislators and regulators are failing to adopt even the simplest of regulatory frameworks to rein in this industry’s pollution.” — Tarah Heinzen, legal director for Food & Water Watch, calling for more regulation of livestock confinement operations to address water pollution.
U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson was joined by U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz July 25, 2026 in Ankeny at a campaign event for her 2026 Senate run where the Republicans spoke with Iowans for a roundtable focused on children’s online safety. (Photo by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz said Saturday Congress needs to find a balance between regulating artificial intelligence chatbots and incentivizing the growth of the country’s AI industry as he joined U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson at a roundtable in Ankeny.
Hinson, a Republican, is running for U.S. Senate in 2026. At Faith Baptist Bible College Saturday, she and the Cruz spoke with Iowa parents about what lawmakers in Washington D.C. can do to help better protect children in online spaces.
Nearly 100 Iowa Farmers Union members from across the state attended the annual barn party on July 25, 2026 at the Big Oak Barn in Elkhart, Iowa. (Photo by Joanna Schroeder for Iowa Capital Dispatch)
Nearly 100 Iowa Farmers Union members from across the state came out Saturday to learn how several Iowa Democratic candidates plan on leading change — especially for the ag industry and the struggling farm economy.
U.S. Senate candidate Josh Turek was among candidates speaking at the event, as well as Third Congressional District candidate Sarah Trone Garriott, secretary of agriculture candidate Chris Jones, and lieutenant governor candidate Dave Muhlbauer.
Iowa’s official database of animal feeding operations, which serves as the state’s primary regulatory inventory of livestock facilities, does not include thousands of facilities that researchers say contribute to the state’s growing manure burden and potential water pollution, Investigate Midwest reports.
Iowa’s Annual Sales Tax Holiday will take place Aug. 7-8, exempting clothing and footwear purchases under $100 from the state’s 6% sales tax and 1% local option sales taxes.
President Donald Trump reignited his tariff agenda Friday by imposing new import taxes on products from dozens of top U.S. trading partners, immediately replacing temporary global tariffs he levied after the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a major blow to his sweeping “Liberation Day” duties.
A federal judge in Virginia ruled that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration did not sufficiently justify its 2023 restrictions on the abortion drug mifepristone, Stateline reports.
A coalition of Democratic state attorneys general has joined a lawsuit seeking to end the Trump administration’s halt of onshore wind projects in the United States, Stateline reports.
A group of current and former U.S. Department of Agriculture employees are calling on the Trump administration to halt the mandated relocation of more than 2,500 employees from its Washington, D.C., headquarters to five regional offices across the country.
The nation’s death rate may have fallen to a historic low last year as many of the killers of young people such as drug overdoses, gun homicides and traffic accidents continued receding in 2025, according to new federal statistics. Iowa’s rate rose, however.
The number of cases of cyclosporiasis — a parasitic infection linked to contaminated water or food that causes severe intestinal issues — has more than doubled to over 4,173 cases across 41 states over the past week, Stateline reports.
Three people who observed federal immigration enforcement during the Trump administration’s sometimes-violent surge said in a federal lawsuit filed Friday the Department of Homeland Security illegally recorded them and revoked their status in the department’s trusted traveler programs.
COMMENTARY
On the podcast this week: A state-commissioned study on “education deserts,” more courtroom action on Libertarian ballot access and an unscripted debate on legalizing marijuana.
“As the number of Americans living with Alzheimer’s continues to grow, we can no longer afford to treat this as tomorrow’s problem,” guest columnist Jim Culbert writes.
“Today, Americans must recognize that our political differences are not inevitably divisive, because our futures are fundamentally connected,” guest columnists Tim Storey and Sue Urahn write.
“As we continue celebrating 250 years of our nation, we should keep in mind a defining force in our country’s history and growth: immigration,” guest columnist Michael Tupper writes.
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