Gazette Daily News Briefing, June 27
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, June 27.
According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area on Tuesday, with a high near 88 degrees. The Canadian fire haze will be back, especially in the morning and early afternoon. Tuesday night will be mostly cloudy, with a low of 65 degrees. There will be a chance for showers and thunderstorms late Tuesday into Wednesday.
Iowa is receiving $43.5 million in federal funding to buy zero- and low-emission buses, with over half of those dollars going to Iowa City to expand its electric bus fleet and build a new transit facility.
Iowa City will receive $23.2 million, which includes doubling the size of its electric bus fleet to eight. The project will improve transit system conditions, service reliability and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Federal Transit Administration, which awarded the funds.
Iowa City’s transportation director, Darian Nagle-Gamm, said the federal funds for additional electric buses and a new facility will be a “game changer” and a “necessary piece to the puzzle” of further improving the transit system for Iowa City residents.
Funding for the grants comes from the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed in 2021.
There was also news about broadband funding from that bill as well on Monday.
The White House announced Monday that Iowa will receive $415 million intended to build out broadband access in the most underserved areas of the state.
It is part of the national $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program.
The money will be rolled out through the Empower Rural Iowa Broadband Grant Program, said Gloria Van Rees, spokesperson for the Iowa Office of the Chief Information Officer. To date, that program has directed more than $350 million to broadband grants using state and federal dollars, so this new money will more than double their efforts.
The grants will go to projects targeting “unserved” and “underserved” locations and households. Unserved locations are defined as lacking access to at least 25 megabits download and 3 megabit upload speeds, while underserved locations lack at least 100 megabits download and 20 megabits upload speed.
Iowa U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Republican, was the only member of Iowa’s current congressional delegation to vote for the infrastructure bill. Rep. Cindy Axne, a Democrat who lost re-election in 2022, also voted for it.
The Polk County District Court approved a settlement agreement Monday in a lawsuit against Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ office filed by journalists and media organizations who sought to require her office to respond to public record requests.
Reynolds settled the lawsuit after the Iowa Supreme Court refused to dismiss the case.
Clark Kauffman and the Iowa Capital Dispatch, Randy Evans and the Iowa Freedom of Information Council and Laura Belin and Bleeding Heartland filed the lawsuit in 2021, asserting the governor had violated Iowa’s open records law by refusing for up to 18 months to provide numerous records the journalists requested.
Under the terms of the settlement, the governor’s office agreed to allow a state District Court to resolve any future open records disputes with three plaintiffs that may arise over the next year. The State Appeal Board last week approved $135,000 to cover legal fees for the organizations.
In a statement, the governor's office acknowledged the settlement but said problems stemmed from demands during the height of the pandemic.
