Lee Enterprises, Inc. – owner of the QC Times, the Dispatch-Argus and some 70 other newspapers and online new sites nationally – lost $37.5 million during its 2025 fiscal year ended Sept. 29.

For the fourth quarter, the media company headquartered in Davenport lost $6.4 million.

Despite the underwater earnings, Lee President and CEO Kevin Mowbray pronounced in the earnings news release Nov. 26 that the company "was pleased with our fourth quarter results as we continue to outperform the industry.

"Digital subscription revenue increased 16 percent on a same-store basis, marking five consecutive years of industry-leading performance," Mowbray stated. "This consistent strength reflects the effectiveness of our Three Pillar Digital Growth Strategy and the exceptional execution of our team."

by Cami Koons, Iowa Capital Dispatch
November 28, 2025

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is seeking feedback on its 25-year wildlife action plan, which must be reviewed every 10 years per federal law. 

The action plan, according to DNR, is a strategy for how the department will conserve wildlife in the state. It was last updated and reviewed in 2015, but was initially approved in 2006. 

A draft version of the 2025 update to the plan is available for review on the DNR’s website and public comments will be accepted on the plan through Dec. 5. 

The Region 7 administrator for the EPA sent out a news release recently (11/18) patting the back of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) and "local businesses" for reducing SO2 (sulfur dioxide) pollution, enabling Muscatine to achieve compliance with national air quality standards.

Truth is, legal action by the Iowa Attorney General's office (under Democrat Tom Miller) and a civil lawsuit by local residents led to the significant improvement in local air quality and forced the primary polluter – Grain Processing Corporation (owned by Kent Feeds) – to install millions of dollars in new plant equipment to curb SO2 emissions.

by Cami Koons, Iowa Capital Dispatch
November 17, 2025

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed Monday new rules to define the waters of the United States, or WOTUS, protected under the Clean Water Act. 

The move was celebrated by farm groups that oppose a broad interpretation of the law, while environmental groups said the rule change would end protections for millions of acres of wetlands and small streams. 

Waters of the United States defines the scope of the Clean Water Act and which waters can be regulated with federal water quality standards. The WOTUS definition, which is not laid out in the Clean Water Act, has been the source of several U.S. Supreme Court cases in recent decades, most recently in Sackett v. EPA. 

by Art Cullen, Iowa Capital Dispatch
November 7, 2025

First impression of Keokuk: beautiful and blighted, drained away with the currents of time at the confluence of the Mississippi and Des Moines rivers on Iowa’s southeastern tip.

You could forsake it were it not for the stubborn and resilient people who have laid claim to the place since 1837.

It was a major-league city with major-league ambitions. It was the Gate City to the river trade. It was a milling and foundry town. In 1875, the Keokuk Westerns played in the National League, compiling a 1-12 record and hanging up their cleats by June, never to play the Chicago White Stockings again.

The town boasted industrialists like J.C. Hubinger, a miller who had a huge mansion and amusement park overlooking the river and died poor in a boarding house. Now you could buy a manse along the river for $300,000. Forty percent of the historic brick buildings downtown are vacant.

The political action committee lobbying for approval of the $27-million Bettendorf police station referendum has run afoul of Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure rules.

The group – Yes for Public Safety – paid a $160 civil penalty for failing to file eight, one-time contribution forms within the required 10 days of receiving the contributions of $1,000 or more from "permanent organizations," such as a business or association.

Bettplex sports complex developers Doug Kratz and Kevin Koellner are among a dozen individuals and companies funding the political action committee pushing for voter approval of the $27-million referendum for a new police station.

The political action committee – Yes for Public Safety – has raised just over $52,000 to date while spending more than $48,000 on postcard mailings and signs.

In addition, the city has spent more than $30,000 on an "informational newsletter" and postcards mailings to residents.

The Nov. 4 referendum to finance a new $27-million police station will give Bettendorf residents a rare opportunity to weigh in on the city's decades-long spending spree that has led to a $152-million municipal debt, among the highest in the state.

The need for the new police station may end up being a secondary consideration to residents' concerns over the long-term indebtedness of the city.

Moreover, the referendum needs a 60 percent majority vote at a time when state and local property taxes are under greater scrutiny and amid criticism of local tax spending by state politicians.

by Cami Koons, Iowa Capital Dispatch
October 14, 2025

Environmental groups penned a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency urging the federal agency to maintain its previously rescinded ruling that seven segments of Iowa rivers were impaired due to nitrate concentrations. 

The environmental groups said EPA’s decision to delist these segments was “inconsistent” with the law, failed to hold polluters accountable and would lead to increased regulatory costs for water treatment in Iowa. 

The decision from EPA followed a summer with near-record high nitrate levels in the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers near Des Moines and the first-ever lawn watering ban from Central Iowa Water Works on account of the high nitrate concentrations, coupled with summer water demand. 

Dani Replogle, staff attorney for the environmental group Food & Water Watch, called the EPA decision “baseless” and said it “does not inspire confidence in the federal agency meant to safeguard clean water and protect our health.”