(Radio Iowa)  – Smaller Iowa communities have the opportunity to host a traveling exhibition from the world-renowned Smithsonian Institution starting next year. Jeff Morgan, spokesman for the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, says the exhibit called “Spark! Places of Innovation” will inspire visitors to consider why the spirit of innovation flourishes in some rural places but not others. “It’s going to be a number of different things on display with this exhibit, including photographs,” Morgan says. “There’s going to be interactive opportunities for people to be involved with the exhibits and videos, and some augmented reality components that will explore the unique combinations of places, people and circumstances.”

The exhibition will deliver new opportunities to Iowans, he says, offering rural communities a chance to access a Smithsonian-quality experience that can connect people to history, humanities, culture, arts, science, and innovation. “Communities will be encouraged to develop cultural programming, different art spaces, social justice initiatives, for example, anything that can spark transformative conversations between people who would most likely not normally engage with each other,” Morgan says, “so it’s about bringing people together.”

Morgan says the exhibit aims to serve as a springboard for local programming in the humanities, sciences and arts that prompt people to learn how innovation has impacted their communities and how they can become innovators themselves. A total of six Iowa communities will be chosen to bring the exhibit to their town. “Iowa communities with populations of 20,000 people or fewer can apply to host the exhibit in 2024 and 2025,” Morgan says, “and they can find all of the information they need at history.iowa.gov.”

The deadline to apply is September 8th. The exhibit will be in Iowa through a partnership between the Smithsonian Museum on Main Street program, the State Historical Society of Iowa and the Iowa Humanities Council.

(Radio Iowa) – A special legislative session will get underway this (Tuesday) morning at the state Capitol and Republican lawmakers plan to pass a bill to ban abortions after fetal activity can be detected, usually around the sixth week of a pregnancy. The bill has exceptions for medical emergencies and fetal abnormalities as well as cases of rape or incest. Bob Vander Plaats is president and C-E-O of The Family Leader, a Christian conservative group that has registered in support of the so-called heartbeat law. He says the legislature will be sending a message to the Iowa Supreme Court, which recently deadlocked over the governor’s request to let the 2018 Fetal Heartbeat Act she signed go into effect.

“You have a Supreme Court…that didn’t uphold the law. They even said they thought the legislature was being ‘hypothetical’ when they passed the law,” Vander Plaats says. “…Make sure the Supreme Court understands this was not a hypothetical exercise, repass it and let it run through the system again.” Governor Reynolds said her faith leads her to protect life when she signed the signed the Fetal Heartbeat Act in 2018.

“I believe that all innocent life is precious and sacred and as governor I have pledged to do everything in my power to protect it,” Reynolds said on May 4, 2018. “…For me, it’s immoral to stop an innocent, beating heart.” The Interfaith Alliance of Iowa says the bill imposes the views of some Christians on others. The Right Reverend Betsey Monnet, Bishop of the Episocopal Diocese of Iowa, says her denomination has supported abortion rights since 1967. “Women in Iowa who become pregnant should be able to make their own health care decisions in consultant with their doctors and, if they choose, with their own faith leaders or clergy,” Monnett says.

Some Iowa doctors say the bill is a functional ban on abortion. Dr. Emily Boevers is an O-B-G-Y-N at the hospital in Waverly. “I’m very concerned about the dramatic responsibility that it’s going to place on health care providers to decide how urgently somebody might die from their pregnancy,” she says. Boevers says. Dr. Francesca Turner, an O-B G-Y-N in Des Moines, says the bill could delay care. “Putting the government in the middle of the physician-patient relationship is going to impact our care,” she says, “impact our ability to make medical decisions.”

A public hearing on the bill is scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m. and end at 11. Republican legislative leaders plan to set time limits on debate, so the bill is likely to pass before midnight.