News 304 051921
A MidAmerican Energy power outage is impacting sections of Sioux City today. MidAmerican spokeswoman Tina Hoffman said the outage began sometime around 10:53 a.m.. According to a MidAmerican outage map, some 1,477 customers are impacted. Some smaller, apparently unrelated outages in the metro area bring the total without power to 1,488 as of noon. Customers should have power restored by 2 p.m. Hoffman said.
Among the biggest customers impacted by the outage is UnityPoint Health-St. Luke's. In a Facebook post, the hospital reported that their backup generators are running "and patient care continues," though ambulances are being diverted. Some stoplights in the downtown were down this morning due to the outage.
Flanked by students, Gov. Kim Reynolds signed an expansion of the state's charter school program into law Wednesday. The law creates a new method of forming charter schools in Iowa, allowing groups to apply directly to the state Department of Education to form a charter, rather than going through a local school board for approval. Groups will still have the option of applying to form a charter through their school board if they choose. Reynolds has argued this year for giving parents a greater say over where their children go to school and how they are educated, and the charter school law is part of that school choice agenda.
Republicans in the Iowa House and Senate have taken the first major step toward amending the Iowa Constitution to say it doesn’t protect abortion rights. The Senate approved language for the amendment today and the House approved it last night.
