The Iowa Utilities Board gave its approval Tuesday June 25, 2024 for the controversial Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline and for the company to use eminent domain to acquire landowners’ property.

The company hopes to begin construction next year with the goal of making the pipeline operational in 2026. The pipeline, which would be the largest of its kind anywhere in the world, would carry liquified carbon dioxide from ethanol plants in Iowa and surrounding states to a site in North Dakota, where the company hopes for reconsideration and approval of a previously denied permit.

Two cases are before the Iowa Supreme Court this week – one involving killing babies and the other killing germs.

As you’ve probably heard by now, Illinois Republican Party Chair Don Tracy announced his resignation last week, apparently effective the day after the Republican National Convention concludes on July 18.

A state law essentially designed to prevent Republicans from appointing legislative candidates to the ballot after the March primary was ruled unconstitutional by a Sangamon County judge last week, but her ruling only applied to the fourteen Republican plaintiffs in the case who are running for the Illinois House and Senate.