Iowa

Michigan has become the latest state to retract its ban on driver's licenses for immigrants who receive deferred action , the state announced Feb. 1. Iowa made the change Jan. 23, after U.S....

Immigrants who receive deferred action are lawfully present in the United States, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services now says--a distinction that has led one state to retract its ban on driver's licenses for deferred action recipients. Iowa, which said in December it wouldn't give driver's licenses to immigrants granted deferred action, has now said it will.

Flooding risk along the Missouri River Basin can be reduced through repairs to damage caused by floods in 2011 but never can be entirely removed, says the Army Corps of Engineers in a report released this month. 2011 was an "unprecedented 500-year event"--and even were the flood control system to be completely repaired, it would still be vulnerable to flooding during extreme events, the report states.

The National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln  says  that as of July 17, 53.17 percent of the United States is in drought, with a heat wave pattern locked in until possibly September. Rain in Texas has alleviated conditions there, said Brian Fuchs, a center climatologist, but drought has expanded elsewhere in areas including eastern Iowa. A little more than a third--35.32 percent--of the country is in a severe or worse drought, the center says.