A federal appeals court ruled Friday that Iowa’s law banning books with sexual content from school libraries can take effect.
The law also prohibits instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity before seventh grade. Those provisions were challenged in two lawsuits and were blocked by a court from late December until now.
A three-judge panel from the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the temporary injunction and said the lawsuits can continue in U.S. district court. The appeals court unanimously ruled a district judge had blocked the law's implementation "based on a flawed analysis of the law."
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird called the ruling a victory. In a release, Bird said, quote, “parents will no longer have to fear what their kids have access to in schools when they are not around.”
The president of the Iowa State Education Association, which was one of the groups challenging the law, says he’s disappointed in the decision. Joshua Brown says banning books is a burden for educators and students, who, quote, “are deprived of reading from great authors with valuable stories.”
*In other news, a railway bridge damaged in Sioux City river flooding will finally be removed via controlled explosions later this month.
Officials of Burlington Northern Santa Fe have announced the controlled blasts of the bridge over the Big Sioux River will take place on August 19 and September 6. The first one will be on the South Dakota side of the bridge, with the other to follow two weeks later on the Iowa side.
BNSF officials have received all the permits needed, and they consulted with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on how best to removed the bridge that collapsed. Part of it lies below the river waterline.
The bridge collapsed after heavy rains in late June began impacting Siouxland with river flooding. The expanse feel into the river as the Big Sioux River crested at a new record level of 46 feet in Sioux City on June 24, considerably above the prior record of 37.7 feet.
*Additionally, a piece of the uniform of a Sioux City Explorers professional baseball player is headed to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
An unlikely return of a Sioux City native to pitch for the team has resulted in a career Renaissance for J.D. Scholten, who among other things is currently an Iowa House Democratic representative.
Scholten pitched for Morningside College and the University of Nebraska, before pitching for the Explorers two years in the mid-2000’s.
He also pitched elsewhere around the world, then competed in a Minnesota semi-pro league a few years ago. When the Explorers starting rotation was gassed from many games in a short period, the coaching staff took a flyer on Scholten to pitch on July 6. That was a day when a lot of Siouxlanders had their attention elsewhere, with the annual big outdoor Saturday in the Park music festival.
The team won and Scholten only allowed two runs. He has continued to pitch, and now has a 4-1 record.
The American Association league posted that the baseball hall in Cooperstown, NewYork, wanted to get Scholten’s hat. In an odd twist that Scholten posted about earlier this week, the hat had been left in a ditch along Interstate 80 near Des Moines after a bus fire.
Scholten said he is “super excited” about the honor, and glad an Explorers team official went back to the ditch and eventually found the cap.
“Cooperstown bound!!!” Scholten wrote.
