As 2024 reaches its halfway mark, we asked our reporters to share one or more of the notable stories from their beats from the first six months of the year. Here’s what they shared:

Sarah Diehn, digital news editor and staff writer

Beats: innovation and entrepreneurship, manufacturing, insurance, energy

May 16: Midwest VC firm raises new $31.5M fund: A new funding opportunity for Iowa startups opened up when Wisconsin-based Idea Fund of La Crosse announced a $31.5 million fund with a focus on startups in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. “In a tough market, the new funding allows us to lean in, scaling our offerings and helping our portfolio companies move even faster and farther,” Idea Fund General Partner Jonathon Horne said in a prepared statement. “Challenging times can create great companies. With venture markets contracting, supporting our region’s most promising entrepreneurs is now more important than ever.” The fund will make initial investments of about $500,000 to $1 million in about 20 startups.

Nicole Grundmeier, staff writer and copy editor

Beats: women’s and gender issues, arts and culture

May 6: Art Center can’t remove ‘Double Site’ – but city potentially could, judge says: A judge ruled that he will continue to block the Des Moines Art Center from removing a 28-year-old art installation in the city of Des Moines’ Greenwood Park but acknowledged that his order will satisfy neither party. “Greenwood Pond: Double Site” and its future have been in limbo since late 2023, when the art center decided that the work, which includes paths and structures in and around a pond, had deteriorated to the point that it was a public safety risk and that repairs would cost too much. The artist, Mary Miss of New York, sued after the art center rejected her plea to save “Double Site.”

June 28: How the Iowa Supreme Court’s recent ruling on abortion law could affect the workforce: Most abortions will soon be illegal in Iowa. The Iowa Supreme Court ruled on June 28 that the Iowa Constitution does not provide special protection for abortion rights and that the government has a rational basis for requiring most pregnancies to continue after about six weeks following a person’s last menstrual period. A law that makes abortion illegal once fetal cardiac activity is detected, passed in 2023, means Iowa will join 16 other states with the nation’s most restrictive abortion laws. An economist interviewed by the Business Record explains what this will mean for Iowa’s workforce, particularly low-income women.

Emily Wood, special projects editor

Beats: nonprofits and philanthropy, HR and leadership, and diversity, equity and inclusion

March 22: Meet the 2024 Forty Under 40 class: The Business Record proudly recognized the 2024 Forty Under 40 honorees. These 40 local leaders, who were chosen by past award winners, are under the age of 40 and have demonstrated impressive career achievements and unparalleled community involvement. This year’s class is the 25th to receive the award. Together, they join 960 past Business Record Forty Under 40 honorees to bring the total number of honorees to 1,000 since the Business Record began the awards in 2000.

June 28: Business Record Photo Issue: For several years, we’ve published a Photo Issue in the summer that highlights the interesting pastimes of leaders. This year the leaders and the hobbies included were as unique as ever: a nonprofit leader who plays Ultimate Frisbee internationally, a technology executive who bikes all over the world, a nonprofit leader who fishes commercially in Alaska, a CEO who loves woodworking and a business consultant who practices karate. We asked each of them to tell us a little about their hobby and also how the lessons they learn from it apply to their professional roles.

Mike Mendenhall, associate editor

Beats: economic development, government policy and law

March 1: Closing $1 billion deals – The MEGA tax incentives program is moving at the state Capitol. Can it bring new industry to Iowa?: The Iowa Economic Development Authority and business groups in the state worked for years to get a new incentives program through the state legislature to Gov. Kim Reynold’s desk that would specifically target $1 billion private development projects on IEDA-certified, shovel-ready sites across Iowa. In May, the governor signed Senate File 574 creating the Major Economic Growth Attraction (MEGA) program. MEGA requires companies to propose a project that utilizes 250-acres minimum. It uses a suite of tax refunds and credits to lure companies to Iowa or incent companies with operations in Iowa to make their expansion plans here. Data centers, retail businesses and businesses that require a cover charge or membership for customers don’t qualify for incentives under the MEGA program which means manufacturing, research and development and burgeoning industries will benefit. The law only gives IEDA authorization to negotiate two deals under the program which has a two-year sunset. IEDA and Iowa business officials who say the program is necessary to recruit new industries, bolster job creation in rural Iowa and compete with other states trying to draw investment from large companies, already want to see it extended.

June 7: A Closer Look: Roscoe Jones Jr., Dean designate, Drake Law School: Roscoe Jones Jr. joined a historically significant group of recently appointed law school leaders around the U.S. on July 1 when he officially became Drake Law School’s 22nd dean. The 46-year-old public policy attorney, originally from Meridian, Miss., is the first Black dean of the Drake Law School, founded in 1865, and Drake University’s first Black dean of any college or school. Jones points to the University of Southern California in March naming Franita Tolson dean and Carl Mason Franklin Chair in Law of the USC Gould School of Law, and Loyola University Chicago School of Law appointing Michèle Alexandre in 2022 as examples of how leadership in legal education is beginning to experience some change. “I think this sends a message about the trajectory that the doors are opening,” Jones told the Business Record. “And the most important thing is once you open that door, make sure others can follow.”

Michael Crumb, senior staff writer

Beats: commercial real estate and development, transportation

Jan. 31: Southeast Connector project to spur industrial growth in Des Moines, Pleasant Hill: The extension of Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway from 30th Street in Des Moines to Pleasant Hill will open the area to further industrial development and placemaking opportunities, while creating a more direct pathway from Des Moines to U.S. Highway 65 and interstate highways 80 and 35, city leaders said. What is commonly called the Southeast Connector project will improve safety and the reliability of the movement of freight and people across the area, making the surrounding area an attractive site for companies looking to expand or relocate, officials said.

March 5: Bondurant’s Grain District Downtown Redevelopment Plan: A closer look: Bondurant’s Grain District Downtown Redevelopment Plan will embrace the community’s agricultural heritage while building on the growth the community has experienced in recent years, City Administrator Marketa Oliver said. The redevelopment of the 24-acre site would also be among the few similar developments across the country, and around the world, according to Scott Turczynski, managing partner of The 101 LLC, which is partnering with the city on the project.

Kyle Heim, staff writer and copy editor

Beats: health care, Iowa Stops Hunger

May 31: Workforce a top priority as Iowa aims to improve mental health services: A new report released earlier this year by the Treatment Advocacy Center showed that Iowa ranks last in the United States for the number of state psychiatric beds per 100,000 residents. But Ryan Crane, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Iowa, said that even though Iowa had only 64 state-managed in-patient beds to treat adults in 2023, equating to two beds per 100,000 residents, there often isn’t enough staff available to cover the number of beds in the state. In 2012, 236 licensed psychiatrists were practicing in Iowa. By 2021, that number dipped 10.17% to 212, despite 1 in 5 adults in Iowa, or about 600,000, living with some form of mental illness, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) North Iowa. Meanwhile, 73 of Iowa’s 99 counties do not have a psychiatrist. “While our world was really opened up through the virtual spaces that we now are able to occupy, and that has been a really remarkable change, it’s also made hiring more challenging because your opportunities can be pretty endless,” said Kelly Garcia, director of the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services. “You can live in a lot of different spaces and work remotely. That’s been a really interesting shift, but it’s been one where I think a number of sectors were caught a little bit flat-footed.”

Kathy Bolten, senior staff writer

Beats: workforce development, education, banking and finance, housing, real estate and development

May 24: Middlebrook Agrihood will use geothermal to heat, cool homes: Middlebrook Agrihood, an 800-acre-plus residential and commercial project underway in Cumming, is using geothermal energy technology to cool and warm structures in the next phases of development. The agrihood will be the largest fully geothermal community in Iowa, Steve Bruere, a partner in Diligent Development, Middlebrook Agrihood’s developer. Using geothermal technology to heat and cool buildings fits the character and values of Middlebrook Agrihood, Bruere said. “Our whole ethos supports having a renewable type of energy. That’s why geothermal really has made sense to us.”