Gazette Daily News Briefing, May 1

This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, May 1st.

According to the National Weather Service, it will be mostly cloudy, with a high near 55 in the Cedar Rapids area today. Windy, with a northwest wind 20 to 30 mph, with gusts as high as 40 mph. Then tonight, mostly cloudy, gradually becoming mostly clear, with a low around 38. Still breezy.

A Polk County judge has reversed the decision of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to permit an 11,600-head cattle feedlot in northeast Iowa. Friday’s ruling in the lawsuit by the Sierra Club of Iowa and Trout Unlimited against the DNR and Supreme Beef says the state agency used “illogical interpretations and applications” to approve a nutrient management plan for Supreme Beef. The ruling sends the case back to the DNR for reconsideration. Supreme Beef, near Monona, is in the watershed of Bloody Run, one of Iowa’s most prized trout streams, and sits atop porous bedrock where a manure spill could easily contaminate groundwater.

With the assessed value of homes skyrocketing — up a statewide average of 22 percent this year — Iowa lawmakers from both political parties say they want to keep that rise from triggering big increases in the local property tax bills that homeowners have to pay. But the clock is ticking, as legislators’ work for the 2023 calendar year is drawing to a close. Soon, they will adjourn for the year and not be back at the Iowa Capitol until January 2024. Lawmakers are focused on two proposals — one bill each in the Iowa House and Iowa Senate, both written by majority-party Republicans — that have similar overall goals, but are operationally different. The question on many taxpayers’ minds is whether the two chambers can agree on just one bill still this year. For additional information on each of the plans, read more at thegazette.com.

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🎹 Podcast music: “Journey” by Emily McGlothlen