Bettendorf.com

The newly hired Bettendorf superintendent continues to operate his side consulting business, while the district refuses to say if school board president Paul Castro has authorized the activity. John Elkin was hired as interim superintendent by the Bettendorf school board last month at a salary of more than $218,000, after the board paid the outgoing superintendent $720,000 to resign.

In recent weeks, people from Cherokee, Des Moines and Ottumwa have contacted the Iowa Freedom of Information Council with concerns about the refusal of local officials to share documents distributed to city council and school board members before they meet. Typically, Iowa government boards and councils send their members document packets before each meeting so they have important background facts to help them make informed decisions.

by Jacob Orledge and Jeff Beach, Iowa Capital Dispatch August 31, 2026 Summit Carbon Solutions is abandoning two-thirds of its planned project to store carbon dioxide underground in North Dakota. The company, which had been granted permits to store CO2 in three designated areas in central North Dakota, has requested permits for two of the areas to be canceled.

by Tim Carpenter, Iowa Capital Dispatch August 25, 2026 Iowa gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn eagerly champions the unconventional, hands-on private school he helped launch in Kansas as the best model for reinventing schools. But Lahn’s campaign narrative about delivering cutting-edge academic leadership at the school called Wonder doesn’t mention its precarious finances. Public records tell a broader story. The Kansas school’s expenses exceeded revenue in five of six years.

Lee Enterprises, Inc. Thursday (8/6) reported net income of $5.2 million for the third quarter ended June 28, but overall revenues at the Davenport-based media company continue to fall, off 11 percent compared to the same period a year ago. The company's print advertising and subscription... more

by Brooklyn Draisey, Iowa Capital Dispatch August 22, 2026 The Democratic candidate for Iowa secretary of agriculture told Iowa State Fair attendees Saturday that “the outrage has finally arrived” for the state of Iowa’s water, and said systemic change rather than incremental fixes is the way to clear up waterways and improve other areas of Iowans’ lives.

Iowa Capital Dispatch August 19, 2026 A judge has ordered the federal government to immediately release an immigrant held in an Iowa jail, saying it’s “hard to take seriously” the U.S. Department of Justice’s arguments in the case. It’s one of an increasing number of cases in which federal judges have expressed skepticism or outright disbelief in some of the claims made by U.S. Department of Justice lawyers, particularly in immigration cases.

Lee Enterprises, Inc. Thursday (8/6) reported net income of $5.2 million for the third quarter ended June 28, but overall revenues at the Davenport-based media company continue to fall, off 11 percent compared to the same period a year ago.

Long-time Lee Enterprises, Inc. board member and former chairman Mary Junck, whose tenure was defined by taking on enormous corporate debt to buy the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 2005, has retired. Lee – the Davenport-based company that owns the QC Times, Daily Dispatch/Argus and some 70 other news outlets – did not issue a news release about her retirement. The change to the board membership, effective July 31, was contained in a required filing July 10 with the Security and Exchange Commission.

The Iowa Supreme Court typically opens its rulings on the state’s public-records and open-meetings laws by reciting that the cases start with a “presumption of openness.” But a new study of the court’s open-government decisions finds the presumption now wins only about half the time. That is a marked change from a decade ago, when the court’s decisions leaned decidedly toward public access and disclosure.