Two Job Corps training centers in Iowa, including one in Denison, will close as the U.S. Department of Labor suspends the program’s operations nationwide.
Job Corps is a free career training program open to low-income students from 16 to 24 years old. Many participants join after dropping out of high school.
The Labor Department says work at all Job Corps locations will pause by the end of next month including at the training centers in Ottumwa and Denison, which has had a facility for decades that trained young people from all around Siouxland.
The agency says it is pausing operations in part because the program is running a budget deficit and has a low graduation rate.
Current students will be referred to other job training programs.
*Additionally, governors will be elected in November 2026 in all three Siouxland states, and the field of candidates is growing.
Republican Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen announced Friday that he will seek another term.
In a video announcement, Pillen said he first ran on “one clear mission: make our great state even greater” and argued the legislation passed during his first term supported that goal. He pointed to lowering property taxes and decreasing income taxes for some of Nebraska’s highest earners and corporations.
In South Dakota, Republican Governor Larry Rhoden has not decided if he will run again after rising into the position after former Governor Kristi Noem moved into a cabinet position with the Trump administration. One Republican has now become a candidate, with businessman Toby Doeden, of Aberdeen.
Doeden self-funded the political action committee Dakota First Action with a $100,000 contribution. That committee helped finance a wave of Republican candidates who shifted the majority coalition in the state legislature.
There is one other Republican governor candidate in South Dakota, with state Speaker of the House Jon Hansen. Rhoden, Congressman Dusty Johnson and Attorney General Marty Jackley are all rumored to be exploring a bid for the office.
*Iowa Democrats are raising concerns about proposed federal Medicaid cuts they say could decimate rural health care.
A bill passed by the U.S. House and now pending in the Senate would cut more than $700 billion from Medicaid. That’s the government-funded health care program for low-income Americans and people with disabilities.
Democrat Dave Muhlbauer is a Crawford County Supervisor and serves on the board of his local hospital. He says rural hospitals already face challenges with Medicaid denials and reimbursement rates, and he says spending cuts could put them in a dire financial situation.
“We could be looking at cutting services. We could be looking at a lot of different things to stay afloat, but that just really pushes people to have to travel farther,” Muhlbauer said.
Iowa’s four members of the U.S. House—all Republicans—voted for the bill that includes Medicaid funding cuts, which are largely related to work requirements. The four have said the bill will help cut waste and fraud, and preserve Medicaid for those who truly need it.
*There is a measles outbreak in the U.S., and some health officials in South Dakota are concerned that 12 counties have vaccination rates below vaccine standards.
Within the last seven days, the first measles cases in each of Iowa and Nebraska have been reported. There have been no cases in South Dakota, but a new state Department of Health report is highlighting concern over the spread of highly-infectious diseases.
Amid an increase in skepticism over vaccines by people in recent years, 12 South Dakota counties are reporting less than 80 percent inoculation rates. Those include just 56 percent in Faulk County and 60 percent in Jones.
For context, the center of the Texas outbreak, Gaines County, has a vaccination rate of 80 percent.
There is no known treatment for measles beyond vaccination.
*As lawmakers in the Nebraska Legislature aim to reach a conclusion of the session by June 9, some education bills are still being considered.
Last week, the state senators discussed education bills. After striping out six amendments, only the underlying bill, LB306, remained.
The section of the bill from state Senator Loren Lippincott, which would excuse students from public schools to attend religion classes, was among the most controversial of those amendments that were removed. It would require school districts to adopt policies allowing students to miss up to one class period per week for an off-site course in religious instruction.
Parents would have had to provide written consent for their children to participate, and the religious instruction class would be required to take attendance.
