Good morning from Iowa Capital Dispatch.
“They killed him for believing him to be an inferior being without rights, and as a person, he had all the rights conferred on a human being simply for being born, and he was a citizen with rights in the US.” — Colombian President Gustavo Petro, in a social media post after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shot and killed Columbian immigrant Johan Sebastián, leading to a one-day pause on ICE traffic stops that President Donald Trump called to reverse.
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, center, led Iowa’s first Medicaid Fraud Elimination Task Force meeting July 15, 2026. (Photo by Cami Koons/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
Members of Iowa’s newly created Medicaid Fraud Elimination Task Force met Wednesday for their inaugural meeting to begin crafting recommendations to stop incidents of fraud in the taxpayer supported healthcare program.
The 11-person task force, led by Attorney General Brenna Bird, established five working groups that Bird said will be the “engine” that drives the research, analyses and problem-solving recommendations the task force will include in a final report due to the governor by Oct. 29.
An analysis from Environmental Working Group mapped animal feeding operations in the state of Iowa. (Photo by Lance Cheung/USDA)
An analysis from Environmental Working Group mapped 15,309 animal feeding operations in Iowa, which is several thousand more than what is tracked and monitored by the state.
The group utilized satellite and aerial imagery to map animal feeding operations across Iowa and estimate the amount of manure they produce. The report also notes a nearly 13% increase, from 2019 to 2025, in the number of animal feeding operations that have 1,000 or more animal units.
A judge has ordered the federal government to provide a bond hearing for another individual detained in Iowa jails by immigration authorities.
A research and development project led by Iowa State University and joined by other Iowa and Nebraska institutions of higher education has received a multimillion-dollar grant from the National Science Foundation to explore innovations in biomanufacturing.
The Iowa Board of Nursing sanctioned several nurses recently over allegations of being drunk at work, dealing methamphetamine and putting patients at risk.
A dentist who has practiced in Iowa for less than two years has been cited for unsanitary conditions in his practice.
President Donald Trump directed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to resume traffic stops Wednesday, reversing a one-day pause on the policy after officers killed two immigrants who were in their vehicles in Texas and Maine.
U.S. House Republicans released their latest budget resolution Wednesday, the first step in a long and complicated process that could allow Congress to approve a third party-line bill.
The U.S. House voted Tuesday to make daylight saving time permanent nationwide in a bipartisan move that pushes the country one step closer to ending the long-contested ritual of semiannual clock changes.
President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention didn’t appear to secure the support needed to take over the public health agency during a lengthy and often tense confirmation hearing Wednesday.
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