Iowa bill prohibiting diversity, equity and inclusion advanced by Senate Republican majority
The bill says that a county, or any county board or office is prohibited from having a DEI office, hiring an employee to perform duties of the DEI office, compel any person to provide a DEI statement or give preferential consideration to any person based off of the DEI statement.
Iowan sues makers of Jeep Wrangler 4xe due to risk of battery fire or explosion
The policy advanced in a vote along party lines, 34 to 15. Senate Republicans argued that DEI policies show preferential treatment to every race besides one; Senate Democrats urged the body that the actual discrimination will come when DEI initiatives are removed from local government control.
'We need to recognize that these are not just buzzwords, they are the foundation of fairness, progress and opportunities in our communities and unfortunately, Republicans are once again taking local control away from our communities in the name of a culture war,' said State Senator Liz Bennett (D), District 39 from Cedar Rapids.
'The DEI movement is not about a sincere desire to make local government more diverse, more fair, more inclusive. Equal rights based on merits, talents and skills is what we should have in our local government,' said State Senator Cherielynn Westrich (R), District 13 from Ottumwa.
Senator Westrich was asked to name an example of discrimination through the use of DEI policy in the state, but did not name an example.
The bill heads over to the Iowa House where a similar debate on a much larger DEI bill occurred just last week.
Iowa News:
Work requirements for Medicaid, public assistance programs passes through Iowa Senate
Webster City lineman injured by live wire during blizzard recovery; fundraisers created
Iowa bill prohibiting diversity, equity and inclusion advanced by Senate Republican majority
Iowa law banning school library books that depict sex acts on hold again after a new federal ruling
Iowa cosmetologists divided over bill aimed at easing licensing for industry
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
34 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
More Americans support path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants with no criminal background, UMass poll finds
But a strong majority, 69 percent, support deporting undocumented immigrants who have criminal records, according to the release. This is down from an Advertisement 'These results suggest that the Trump administration, if it desires to be in step with the public that they represent, should emphasize the detention and removal of undocumented immigrants with criminal records,' Tatishe Nteta, provost professor of political science at UMASS and the poll's director, said in the release. The Trump Administration has vowed to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants, and has authorized aggressive enforcement tactics, such as raiding schools, churches and other venues that have long been safe havens for immigrants. The poll also found that only 30 percent supported deporting undocumented immigrants who work full time and pay taxes. Around 37 percent of poll respondents supported deporting undocumented immigrants who had no criminal record outside of their immigration status and 33 percent of respondents supported deporting those whose children were born in the U.S. Advertisement The poll found that Americans support protections for legal immigrants as well. A majority of respondents said that immigrants on valid visas should be entitled to constitutional rights that citizens enjoy like freedom of speech. A minority of respondents thought legal immigrants, like international students involved in protests, should be deported for expressing opposition to American foreign policy. The poll also found bipartisan opposition to reducing federal spending on scientific research at universities and requiring colleges to consider ideological diversity in hiring and admissions, according to the release. The poll of 1000 national respondents was conducted by the website YouGov between July 25 and July 30 and the margin of error for the poll was 3.5 percent. A little over 50 percent of respondents oppose immigration enforcement in churches, schools and hospitals but public opinion is split when it comes to enforcement elsewhere. For example, around 43 percent of respondents supported immigration enforcement at home and 40 percent at workplaces, according to the results. There was a big partisan gap on the question of where immigration enforcement was acceptable with 65 percent of Republicans supporting immigration enforcement at churches and hospitals while support for enforcement at these venues among Democrats was in the single digits. Around 70 percent of poll respondents said that immigrants in the country on valid visas should be entitled to the constitutional rights that citizens have such as freedom of speech, the right to an attorney when accused of a crime and the right to a hearing before a judge before deportation, among others. Advertisement Around 22 percent of respondents opposed deporting legal immigrants on the basis of their opposition to American foreign policy, an objective the Trump administration has been pursuing when it comes to international students like Tufts University PhD candidate, Rümeysa Öztürk who expressed opposition to the war in Gaza. Support for these deportations was higher among Republicans, conservatives and Trump voters, but did not exceed 50 percent in those groups. Angela Mathew can be reached at
San Francisco Chronicle
34 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Man charged with killing a top Minnesota House Democrat is expected to plead not guilty
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The man charged with killing the top Democrat in the Minnesota House and her husband, and wounding a state senator and his wife, is expected to plead not guilty when he's arraigned in federal court on Thursday, his attorney said. Vance Boelter, 58, of Green Isle, Minnesota, was indicted July 15 on six counts of murder, stalking and firearms violations. The murder charges could carry the federal death penalty, though prosecutors say that decision is several months away. As they announced the indictment, prosecutors released a rambling handwritten letter they say Boelter wrote to FBI Director Kash Patel in which he confessed to the June 14 shootings of Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark. However, the letter doesn't make clear why he targeted the Hortmans or Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, who survived. Boelter's federal defender, Manny Atwal, said at the time that the weighty charges did not come as a surprise, but she has not commented on the substance of the allegations or any defense strategies. The hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Dulce Foster will also serve as a case management conference. She plans to issue a revised schedule with deadlines afterward, potentially including a trial date. Prosecutors have moved to designate the proceedings as a 'complex case' so that standard speedy trial requirements won't apply, saying both sides will need plenty of time to review the voluminous evidence. 'The investigation of this case arose out of the largest manhunt in Minnesota's history," they wrote. "Accordingly, the discovery to be produced by the government will include a substantial amount of investigative material and reports from more than a dozen different law enforcement agencies at the federal, state, and local levels.' They said the evidence will include potentially thousands of hours of video footage, tens of thousands of pages of responses to dozens of grand jury subpoenas, and data from numerous electronic devices seized during the investigation. Boelter's motivations remain murky. Friends have described him as an evangelical Christian with politically conservative views who had been struggling to find work. Authorities said Boelter made long lists of politicians in Minnesota and other states — all or mostly Democrats. In a series of cryptic notes to The New York Times through his jail's electronic messaging service, Boelter suggested his actions were partly rooted in the Christian commandment to love one's neighbor. 'Because I love my neighbors prior to June 14th I conducted a 2 year long undercover investigation,' he wrote. In messages published earlier by the New York Post, Boelter insisted the shootings had nothing to do with his opposition to abortion or his support for President Donald Trump, but he declined to elaborate. 'There is little evidence showing why he turned to political violence and extremism,' the acting U.S. attorney for Minnesota, Joe Thompson, told reporters last month. He also reiterated that prosecutors consider Hortman's killing a 'political assassination.' Prosecutors say Boelter was disguised as a police officer and driving a fake squad car early June 14 when he went to the Hoffmans' home in the Minneapolis suburb of Champlin. He shot the senator nine times, and his wife eight times, officials said. Boelter later went to the Hortmans' home in nearby Brooklyn Park and killed both of them, authorities said. Their dog was so gravely injured that he had to be euthanized. Boelter surrendered the next night.
San Francisco Chronicle
34 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Texas Democrats plea for donations to extend their walkout and block Trump's redistricting plan
After leaving Texas for Illinois to prevent a legislative vote on a Republican redistricting plan, state House Democratic leader Gene Wu needed a means to project his voice — and viewpoints — to a national audience. So he tapped his campaign account to buy a microphone for news conferences. When it came to covering the hefty hotel bill for Wu and his roughly 50 colleagues, the lawmaker said he relied on money from his chamber's Democratic Caucus. Now Texas Democrats are pleading for donations to help finance what could be a walkout of weeks — if not months — in a high-stakes attempt to prevent the Republican majority from passing a plan sought by President Donald Trump. The president is urging Texas and other GOP-controlled states to redraw their congressional districts to help Republicans maintain control of the U.S. House in next year's midterm elections. 'We're getting a lot of small-dollar donations,' Wu told The Associated Press, "and that's going to be used to help keep this thing going.' A political group led by Beto O'Rourke, a former Texas congressman who ran unsuccessfully for governor and Senate, gave money to the Texas House Democratic Caucus to help cover the up-front costs, according to a spokesperson for the group, Powered by People. O'Rourke this week has been holding events in red states to fire up Democrats and encourage donations. Powered by People has not disclosed how much it contributed. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, said Wednesday he's launching an investigation into whether O'Rourke's group has committed bribery by a 'financial influence scheme' benefiting Democrats who left Texas. In response, O'Rourke said he would be undeterred by the threat of an investigation and used it as a fundraising opportunity. Lawmakers face travel costs and potentially huge fines By departing the state, Democratic lawmakers have prevented Republicans from obtaining the quorum needed to conduct business. Democrats hope to run out the clock on a special legislative session that ends Aug. 19. But Republican Gov. Greg Abbott could immediately call another session, raising the prospect of a prolonged and an expensive holdout. Not only could Texas Democrats face thousands of dollars in out-of-state lodging and dining costs, they also could eventually face fines of $500 for each day they are absent, which under House rules cannot be paid from their office budgets or political contributions. Texas has a part-time Legislature where lawmakers receive $600 a month, plus an additional $221 for expenses each day they are in session. On Wednesday, state Sen. Jose Menendez joined Democrats from other states at a rally in Boston, where he noted that the potential daily fine for quorum-breaking lawmakers is nearly as large as their entire monthly legislative salary. 'They need your prayers, they need your thoughts and they need you to get behind them,' he said. Some Democrats in the Texas Senate have traveled out of state this week to support their House colleagues, but lawmakers in that chamber are not leaving the state to hold up legislative business. 'This fight is for the people' Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat and billionaire, has welcomed the Texas lawmakers to his state but said he has not financially supported them. Texas state Rep. James Talarico, who has built a national following in recent weeks, said the lawmakers told Pritzker they didn't want him to fund their trip. 'We've already been inundated with donations from across the state of Texas, from across the country, just regular people donating $5, $10, $15,' Talarico said this week. 'And that's appropriate, because this fight is for the people and it should be funded by the people. We don't have billionaires who are funding this operation.' The House Democratic Caucus has set up a website seeking donations of between $25 and $2,500 — with a default amount of $250. Earlier this week, Abbott asked the state's highest court to remove Wu from office and ordered the Texas Rangers to investigate possible bribery charges related to how Democrats are paying for the walkout, alleging anyone who financially helped them could be culpable. Wu, a former prosecutor from Houston, said the bribery suggestion is 'monstrously stupid.' 'No member is leaving because they might get a campaign contribution that might restore some of the money that they're spending,' he said. How left-leaning groups are helping Before Democrats decided to leave Texas, Wu said he called potential allies for assurance 'that there would be resources that would come to our assistance.' But he said that's no different from an aspiring candidate asking others for support before officially launching a campaign. Wu, who is chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, said he has participated in online sessions with representatives of dozens of Democratic, progressive and redistricting-oriented groups. Not all are financial supporters. Some are providing help in other ways, such as by coordinating publicity. The Democratic National Committee has helped with communications and organizing, as well as providing help from a data analytics team, Chair Ken Martin said. Texas Democrats aren't worried that they'll be forced to return home in the near future because of a lack of money, said Luke Warford, founder of Agave Democratic Infrastructure Fund, a Texas fundraising and organizing group. He said longtime Democratic funders understand the high cost of competing in tougher U.S. House races if Republicans succeed in redrawing the map. "Of course having most of the delegation out of the state is going to rack up a bill,' Warford said. But "when you think about it in the context of what Donald Trump has to gain and what Democrats might lose in the short term, it's just not even close to the cost of trying to win back either these races or a bunch of other races in the country.' The Democratic lawmakers have been holed up at a hotel and conference center outside Chicago that was evacuated Wednesday after an unfounded bomb threat. Many lawmakers have been dining and meeting together, and are prepared to keep doing so. Democratic state Rep. John Bucy III, speaking by phone from the hotel, said he isn't concerned about how the costs ultimately get covered. 'There's too much at stake here to be worried about those things,' Bucy said. "Our hotel bills seem so minor compared to what we're trying to do — to protect democracy.'
