051019 432
Gov. Kim Reynolds has named a corporate attorney who has contributed money to her campaign to a state commission that nominates candidates for positions on the Iowa Supreme Court and the Iowa Court of Appeals.
Reynolds on Friday named Dan Huitink (HOY-tink) to the state judicial nominating commission.
Huitink is a lawyer for Vermeer Corp. in Pella and is a former assistant U.S. attorney.
Democrats have criticized the change, saying Republicans want to stack the courts in their favor after losing recent cases on abortion and same-sex marriage.
The U.S. House passed a bill today that would provide billions of dollars for rebuilding and recovery for Americans impacted by natural disasters. Iowa Congresswoman, Cindy Axne, a Democrat from West Des Moines, spoke on the House floor during the debate. She says Iowans are doing what they can to recover.
Iowa has reopened a flooded stretch of the Iowa Highway 2 approach to a Missouri River bridge that links southwest Iowa to southeast Nebraska.
The Iowa Transportation Department says concrete barriers have been placed along the edges and permeable aggregate has been atop the roadway, followed by a fabric barrier and then covered with road rock. The department's Scott Suhr says the idea is that water will percolate through the aggregate and allow traffic to pass over.
