Iowa City
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The fight against ‘clearly unconstitutional’ Iowa immigration law
Recent Iowa immigrants and allies are still fighting against an Iowa immigration law they say unfairly discriminates against and targets them. Lawyers with the US Department of Justice and the American Immigration Council argued in court Monday that a judge should stop SF 2340 from going into effect July 1. The law would allow state…
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Celebrate with these 14 free Juneteenth events in Iowa in 2024
Juneteenth is officially a Monday this year, but events have already started in some places, with many this weekend, and others throughout the month. Check out the list below to find an event near you:
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22 LGBTQ+ Pride events in Iowa (3 brand new!) in 2024
June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month. If you’re looking for Pride events in Iowa in 2024, here are 22 of them. The first Pride was in 1970, on the one-year commemoration of the Stonewall Uprising, which happened outside of the Stonewall Inn—a bar in New York City—on June 28, 1969. To be sure, LGBTQ+ activists had…
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Opinion: Johnson Co. supervisor: We’re still committed to affordable housing
This column, by Johnson County Supervisor Jon Green, is in response to a previous column by leaders from Escucha Mi Voz. On March 3, the Johnson County Board of Supervisors decided to shift funding in support of affordable housing from our American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) allocation to county general funds. We did so to…
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Opinion: Johnson County wrong to halt affordable housing project
The following is an open letter from Escucha Mi Voz leaders to the Johnson County Board of Supervisors. Read a Johnson County supervisor’s response here. Escucha Mi Voz Iowa members urge you to immediately restore and restart the $1.5 million ARPA-funded affordable housing project you halted on April 3 without public notice or input. You…
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Increasingly desperate Iowans stretching food banks to capacity
Leaders of a dozen food pantries across Iowa are sounding the alarm about a “soaring number” of Iowans seeking help at food banks, putting these already stretched organizations into a “crisis situation.” The leaders and other advocates recently issued a joint press release about “a rising number of Iowans experiencing food insecurity” in the past…
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Iowa City closing an elementary school, blames underfunding from state
Hills Elementary School will close next school year after nearly 60 years of educating students, and members of the Iowa City School Board cite inadequate state funding as one of the reasons why. “It is the result of chronic and persistent underfunding by the state that has been going on for the past decade,” school…
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7 Iowa events for Transgender Day of Visibility 2024
Transgender Iowans need joy these days. Eight separate bills have been considered in the latest session of the Iowa Legislature specifically targeting transgender youth, contributing to Iowa Republicans’ 40 anti-LGBTQ bills in total. Fearmongering legislation—like bills banning people from school bathrooms, or erasing LGBTQ history—has led to further stigmatization of the transgender community. That’s contributed…
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15 Martin Luther King Jr. Day events across Iowa in 2024
They say Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday held this year on Jan. 15, 2024, should be “a day on, not a day off.” So in that spirit, here are some events coming up honoring—and furthering the legacy of—one of this country’s greatest civil rights leaders. (For an even more comprehensive list of…
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Feeling charitable? Donate to an Iowa nonprofit that’s Iowan-approved.
It had to be the most popular question we’ve ever asked: Which charity helping Iowans should folks donate to this year? Hundreds of worthy causes across the state were mentioned.
