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Free at home COVID tests are back!

Published by editor on Sun, 12/18/2022 - 1:39pm

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is once again offering Americans the opportunity to order free at-home COVID-19 rapid tests from the federal government, a program that it had shuttered amid an ongoing stalemate with Congress over additional funding to address the virus.

The program will allow each household to order four free COVID-19 tests as part of the White House’s plans to try to tamp down the number of diagnoses this winter amid an increase in coronavirus, flu and RSV.

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Attorneys tussle over land survey provisions for pipelines

Published by editor on Sun, 12/18/2022 - 12:17pm

A company that wants to build a sprawling carbon dioxide pipeline in northwest Iowa should have obtained a court order before attempting to survey private land from which it had been previously barred, a Dickinson County prosecutor argued Thursday.

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Miles of a northwest Iowa river have been pumped dry

Published by editor on Sun, 12/18/2022 - 12:00pm

A significant stretch of a northwest Iowa river has run dry several times in the past seven years as a rural water utility has pumped more water from the ground — at least a quarter of which is sold out-of-state — with the approval of state regulators.

A two-mile segment of the Ocheyedan River dried up this year in September amid drought conditions and increased pumping by Osceola County and the Osceola County Rural Water System, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

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Late Season Goose Hunting

Published by editor on Thu, 12/15/2022 - 11:37am

Let it Snow – Let it Snow – Let it Snow

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Miles of a northwest Iowa river have been pumped dry

Published by editor on Thu, 12/15/2022 - 11:19am

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Preparing Your Christmas Goose

Published by editor on Thu, 12/15/2022 - 10:51am

Few flavors can compare to that of a properly prepared, corn-fed Canada goose

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The Alternative: Extreme Weather Conditions

Published by editor on Wed, 12/14/2022 - 10:09am

I sit here crippled and having Dawn put bales out for cows. Snow is blowing by the windows on this first anniversary of that day last year when we saw 63 tornadoes in Iowa; December 15th. I don't usually ring the bell on a Wednesday but it was 70 degrees and a fine day for digging out change for the Salvation Army. All the talk was about when “it” was going to get here, meaning the nasty cold front. Eyes were on the sky and the radar on our phones.

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IA House Republicans form new ‘education reform’ committee

Published by editor on Sun, 11/20/2022 - 8:47pm

The Iowa House of Representatives will have a new committee for the upcoming session to take up bills on major changes to the state education system.

House Speaker Pat Grassley speaks to press Feb. 16, 2022 following the passage of the 2022 House tax proposal. (Photo by Katie Akin/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

House Speaker Pat Grassley will chair the new Education Reform Committee for the 2023 session, according to a news release. Rep. Skyler Wheeler, R-Hull, will head the existing Education Committee.

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Two communities find a cure for medical debt: pandemic stimulus funds

Published by editor on Sun, 11/20/2022 - 8:32pm

Local governments in Ohio and Illinois are using American Rescue Plan Act money to relieve residents struggling with medical debt by partnering with an organization that buys debt and wipes the slate clean for debtors.

It’s a strategy advocates say could be duplicated across the country to help erase a multibillion-dollar problem.

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Migrant women endured medical mistreatment at Georgia ICE facility, U.S. Senate report finds

Published by editor on Sun, 11/20/2022 - 8:21pm

WASHINGTON — Members of the U.S. Senate on an investigation panel on Tuesday grilled federal immigration officials about a bipartisan report that detailed how migrant women at an immigration detention center in Georgia underwent questionable gynecological procedures.