Gazette Daily News Briefing, January 29
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, Jan. 29.
Friday’s weather will be sort of a prelude of the snow that could come this weekend. According to the National Weather Service, it will be warmer, with a high near 30 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area with mostly cloudy skies. Then Friday night the wind will pick up from 5 to 15 mph, gusting as high as 20 mph. This will be a sign that, you guessed it, a new weather system is prepared to roll through.
Also rolling through this winter? Pretty much anything Iowa Republicans want. In addition to electing a U.S. senator and governor in November 2022, Iowa voters will be asked to amend the state constitution to give gun rights more protection from legal challenges.
The Iowa House and Iowa Senate approved Senate Joint Resolution 7, a proposal to add language to the Iowa Constitution to say: “The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. The sovereign state of Iowa affirms and recognizes this right to be a fundamental individual right. Any and all restrictions of this right shall be subject to strict scrutiny.”
Iowa Republicans argue that this language is necessary because Iowa is one of only 6 states in the nation that do not have the 2nd amendment codified in their constitution. The final portion about strict scrutiny is an important little nugget they have added in to make lawsuits against pro gun laws even more difficult to pass. Iowa Democrats offered amendment language that would codify the 2nd Amendment into the constitution without the strict scrutiny language, but Republicans offered the counter proposal of the bill they wanted being pushed through unchanged. The bill passed with clean Republican majorities.
Legislation requiring K-12 school districts to offer all students a 100 percent in-person learning option gained final approval Thursday from Republican majorities in the Iowa Capitol, sending the measure to Republican Governor Kim Reynolds, who said she was eager to sign it into law.
Republicans support the proposal, saying students and families should have the option of being in the classroom full-time during the COVID-19 pandemic, even in districts where local school and public health officials have not deemed that to be safe. Democrats opposed the measure, saying local leaders — not state lawmakers — know best how to operate their schools with education and safety of students and staff in mind.
The argument over who should be able to determine instruction and masking options in Iowa’s cities and schools has continued unabated since the beginning of the pandemic a year ago. On one side, the governor and other Republicans have argued for the state keeping as much of public life open as possible, fighting against cities instituting mask mandates and fighting for schools to offer in-person instruction. On the other side, Democrats have argued for the importance of local schools and municipalities making these decisions, as well as urging more safety measures in the state and capitol. These efforts, as with so many things attempted by Iowa Democrats in the last year, ended in defeat.
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