The Iowa Supreme Court has declined to reinstate a six-week abortion ban, which means abortion remains legal in Iowa up to 20 weeks of pregnancy.
The 3-3 split decision leaves a district court ruling in place that rejected Republican Governor Kim Reynolds’ request to reinstate the, quote, “fetal heartbeat” law.
All seven Iowa Supreme Court justices were appointed by Republican governors, but one didn’t take part in the decision.
Reynolds signed the law in 2018 that bans abortions about six weeks after a person’s last period, with some exceptions. It was permanently blocked by a lower court in 2019 and never enforced, but last year, Reynolds asked the courts to reinstate it. Three of the justices said that would be unprecedented, but they’re open to considering future cases on abortion rights.
In a major victory for Native American rights, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday upheld key provisions of The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978
the Indian Child Welfare Act, a law enacted 45 years ago to remedy decades of past government abuse.
By a 7-2 vote, the court ruled that the law does not impermissibly impose a federal mandate on traditionally state-regulated areas of power.
Writing for the court majority, Justice Amy Coney Barrett pointed to two centuries of precedent that have established a broad congressional right to legislate on Indian affairs, including family law matters.
The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 known as ICWA, was enacted in 1978 after a congressional investigation found that in the 1950s, '60s and '70s over one-third of all Native children had been removed from their homes, some forcibly, and placed with non-Indian families and institutions with no ties to the tribes.
A just completed study at the University of Iowa’s Driving Safety Research Institute found there is more work to be done to create an automated vehicle that can safely navigate on Iowa’s rural roads.
Institute Deputy Director Omar Ahmad says the study is the first of its kind in rural areas.
One of the goals of the research was to see if automated vehicles can provide help to elderly residents with mobility, vision, or other challenges who can’t drive themselves. Ahmed says they created an automated shuttle bus designed to deal with the unique situations in rural driving, like navigating on gravel.
He says their automated vehicle had trouble discerning when to move to the middle of the gravel, especially in wet weather conditions.
The automated vehicle also had trouble sensing what was a hazard and what was not — sometimes slowing down for dust clouds created on gravel roads. Another issue came at intersections with low visibility, or where the rural road came to a highway. “
The University of South Dakota’s long-serving dean of students and vice president of student services, Kim Grieve, is leaving her post June 21.
Grieve, who has worked at the university since 2012, according to her LinkedIn page, told the Argus Leader that her position wasn’t renewed at USD for the next academic year and that she’s accepted a new position at South Dakota State University. She hasn’t said what that new position is, and her name isn’t yet listed on SDSU’s website.
As of last week, Grieve was no longer listed on the university’s website under USD President Sheila Gestring’s executive committee. Grieve leaves the university with her salary last set at $174,500, according to open.sd.gov.
