DES MOINES, Iowa (Gray Media Iowa State Capitol Bureau/KCRG) — Iowa will not be among the states holding an early Democratic presidential contest in 2028. The Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee selected six states eligible to hold primaries or caucuses beginning in February: South Carolina, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, Virginia, and New Mexico. South Carolina will go first. Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart said national Democrats still don’t understand the importance of Iowa voters. This marks the second consecutive presidential cycle that Iowa has lost its place at the front of the Democratic nominating calendar. Iowa lost its first-in-the-nation status after technology problems delayed the results of the 2020 caucuses. The Iowa Republican Party continues to hold the first caucus in the nation for the GOP. Republican Party Chair Jeff Kauffman said Iowa Democrats should have fought harder to keep the state’s spot. The state party could still hold an early caucus without the DNC’s approval, but it would face significant penalties, including the loss of all national delegates and a $270,000 fine. Hart said she is already hearing calls from within the party to defy the calendar, but any decision on that will come after the midterms. New Hampshire defied the national party in 2024 and still held an early primary. The full national committee must still approve the calendar in August.
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa (KCRG) – A fire broke out Saturday morning at the Cedar Falls Utilities Power Plant, briefly knocking out power to customers across the city before crews brought the blaze under control. Black Hawk County Dispatch received a 911 call at 8:34 a.m. reporting a fire at the plant at 2 Utility Parkway. Firefighters and public safety officers arrived to find flames coming from a third-floor window. The electrical fire started in a substation switch gear inside the building. Crews kept it from spreading beyond that area, and no other parts of the plant were damaged. The fire caused power outages across Cedar Falls. Cedar Falls Utilities said service has since been restored to all affected customers. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
MUSCATINE COUNTY, Iowa (KCRG) – Southern corn rust has been confirmed in six eastern Iowa counties, but crop scouts and agronomists say drier conditions this summer are keeping the fungal disease in check compared to last year. The disease spread to more than 70 Iowa counties in 2025, fueled by record rainfall that created near-perfect conditions for the fungus to advance. This year, a hotter and drier July has slowed its progress. Crop scout Trey Forbes, of Forbes Ag Service, said he is finding the disease later in the season and at lower levels than in 2025. Forbes scouts cornfields across eastern Iowa, monitoring for rust. He said the disease becomes a greater concern once it reaches the ear leaf, because infected leaves reduce photosynthesis making it harder for corn to develop. Iowa State University Extension agronomist Virgil Schmitt said southern rust appears in Iowa nearly every year. Without warm and wet conditions, he said farmers do not need to rush to apply fungicide. Forbes said the next two weeks of weather will determine whether southern rust remains a minor concern or spreads further.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – Cedar Rapids Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell says she wants to address misconceptions about the city’s billion-dollar data center projects on the southwest side of the city, including how the deals were structured and what residents gain financially. O’Donnell acknowledged the city offered the data center companies tax credits as part of negotiations to bring them to Cedar Rapids. The companies pay less than a third of commercial property taxes for the first 20 years — a savings in the millions of dollars. The mayor pointed to state-level property tax reform in 2023 and again in the most recent legislative session as context for why the city pursued the deals. The reforms cap how much a city can grow its budget through property taxes. Cedar Rapids’ budget shows an estimated loss of more than $1 million in property taxes over the last two fiscal years. O’Donnell said the data center projects are a way to offset those losses. Even with the tax incentives in place, the city’s revenue still comes out ahead, according to O’Donnell. “The city of Cedar Rapids will bring in 25 million dollars a year in property taxes from these projects that we didn’t previously have,” she said.