(Iowa News Service) — The Trump administration has approved a new regulation allowing states to include drug testing as a condition for anyone receiving unemployment benefits. Generally, workers can collect unemployment if they’ve lost their jobs by no fault of their own and meet other eligibility criteria. Michele Evermore with the National Employment Law Project points out that the low unemployment rate means businesses already are paying less in unemployment benefits. She calls the regulation “an expensive solution in search of a problem.”

“I think at the end of the day what this rule is about is just making it harder to get benefits, and it’s a not-so-subtle attack on the character of unemployed workers – who, by definition, are involuntarily unemployed.”

Evermore adds if the economy cools down in states that implement drug testing, local business could suffer, because every dollar spent during the height of a recession generates one-dollar-and-60 cents in economic activity. Iowa is one of eight states that doesn’t require a waiting period for unemployed workers to qualify for benefits, although legislation was introduced last session to try to overturn that.

With more states decriminalizing marijuana, opponents of the new regulation fear fewer workers may apply for jobs that require drug screening. Evermore says states that adopt the drug-testing requirement could create unnecessary hurdles for people who’ve lost their jobs. “I don’t really get the sense that people are that overly concerned that somebody might have some marijuana and then get an unemployment check. I honestly don’t think that that’s a public-interest concern that very many people share.”

Iowa’s attempt to make workers wait to collect unemployment was one of nearly 170 laws introduced in multiple states this year to alter unemployment benefits. The new regulation comes at a time when more Iowans than ever are working: the state’s unemployment rate of two-point-five percent is among the lowest in the nation. Mississippi, Texas and Wisconsin had enacted drug-testing laws that were put on hold while the regulation was pending.

(Radio Iowa) — A new analysis shows Iowa and the Midwest have some of the widest disparities in racial equality in the country. A researcher at the Iowa Policy Project found patterns of segregation and discrimination are pervasive in employment, home ownership, infant mortality and prison sentences as well as test scores and suspensions in schools. State Representative Ras Smith is one of five African Americans in the Iowa House. Smith says he’s very aware of these disparities, but he feels many white Iowans are not.

“Honestly I think sometimes in our Midwest mindset of being very neighborly people, it really sometimes serves to kind of cloud our…perspective or our view to see things as really what they are,” Smith says. Smith is from Waterloo. Last November, a financial website owned by Huffington Post called Waterloo-Cedar Falls the worst metro area in the country for blacks.

“For me I don’t know what it’s like to operate from a privileged position. I’ve just never had that benefit,” Smith says. “In the same that way it’s going to be hard for my white counterparts to really understand what it’s like to live with disparities all of the time.” The Iowa Policy Project report found black residents are less likely than whites to get a college degree and black students in elementary and high school are five times more likely to be suspended than are white students.

The latest information from the State Data Center show the poverty rate among black Iowans is about three times greater than for the general population. The unemployment rate for black Iowans is significantly higher, too.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Police say a shooting on Des Moines’ north side has left a man dead. Officers were called to the area around 1:30 p.m. Thursday for reports of gunshots and found a 23-year-old man with a gunshot wound to his torso. The man _ whose name has not yet been released _ was taken to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead. No arrests have been reported.

DENVER (AP) — A pair of Republican senators facing tough reelection campaigns won’t say if the president can ask another country to investigate a political foe. Sens. Joni Ernst of Iowa and Cory Gardner of Colorado wouldn’t answer that question Thursday in light of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. Trump last week insisted he had the right to ask Ukraine and China to investigate his possible Democratic opponent next year, former Vice President Joe Biden.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Supreme Court has issued orders to change the way the state court system conducts security assessments after two cybersecurity workers hired by state court administrators were arrested for breaking into the Dallas County Courthouse last month. Chief Justice Mark Cady signed an order on Thursday that prohibits physical break-ins of courthouses and entry outside of regular business hours as part of cybersecurity testing. Court administrators also must confer with local officials.

CORALVILLE, Iowa (AP) — Gov. Kim Reynolds is backing the new leader of Iowa’s human resources agency, saying he made an honest error when he misstated what his department does on his résumé. Reynolds told reporters that “people make mistakes,” and that Department of Administrative Services Director Jim Kurtenbach was human. Reynolds appointed Kurtenbach in June to lead the department that manages human resources, buildings and other functions for the executive branch.

(Radio Iowa) — A state representative from central Iowa has been charged with drunk driving after a weekend arrest in northwest Iowa. Sixty-year-old Scott Ourth is a Democrat from Ackworth who represents part of Warren County in the Iowa House. A report from Cherokee Police indicates an officer saw a pick-up driving without its headlights on at about about 9:30 Saturday night.

Ourth smelled of alcohol, according to the police report, and tests found his blood alcohol level was above the legal limit. In a statement, Ourth said he made a “terrible mistake,” accepts full responsibility and plans to seek professional counseling.

Ourth was charged with a first offense of operating while intoxicated. He faces a minimum of 48 consecutive hours in jail, but that could be waived under certain circumstances — for instance if Ourth’s blood alcohol level was below point-one-five (.15).

(Radio Iowa) — The Iowa D-N-R says two conservation officers who broke up a fight in downtown Des Moines in September did nothing wrong. Information from the D-N-R says an internal investigation found officers Travis Graves and Derrick Slutts did not violate any current department policies after seeing two women fighting on Court Avenue in Des Moines and stopping to break it up.

The two officers were on the way to training when they came upon the fight. Both of the women involved were arrested and charged. The D-N-R says the concerns raised about the action have caused the department to do a review of its policies and ensure they fully reflect the expectations of conservation officers. Conservation officers are sworn peace officers just like officers in police and sheriff’s departments.