Photos

	On April 15, Governor Chet Culver signed Iowa's Smoke-free Air Act into law. This statewide ban on smoking will apply to most workplaces, public places and certain outdoor areas. On hand for the bill-signing ceremony was former state Senator Jim Wells, the first Iowa legislator to propose a statewide smoking ban 33 years ago.
	On April 1, Gov. Chet Culver signed Senate File 2347 into law, providing $4.6 million to create a statewide system of optical scan voting machines before the November elections. This new law will give Iowans a verified paper record of the ballot they cast and will guarantee that voters with disabilities have the same opportunity to use a protected voting system.
	Senator Tom Hancock, Senator Mike Connolly and his clerk, Martha Connolly, welcome David Roberts' political science class at Divine Word College in Epworth to the Senate Chamber on March 3.
	Senator Mike Connolly and other legislators watch debate on the Senate floor Feb. 27 when a statewide ban on smoking in public places passed on a bipartisan 29-21 vote.
State Senator Mike Connolly of Dubuque met Oct. 29 with Robert Shireman, a national expert on college student debt. Shireman was at the Iowa Statehouse to speak with the Legislative Oversight Committee about high debt among Iowa college students. Shireman, president of the Institute for College Access and Success in California, told Connolly, a member of the Oversight Committee, that high student debt in Iowa is primarily caused by insufficient grants for low income students at Iowa’s public universities and high tuition at community colleges. Shireman said high levels of student debt discourage students from making their home in Iowa and from entering teaching, law enforcement and other occupations. Shireman discusses his findings in a three-minute video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoB7FjNtE9g. A transcript of Shireman’s testimony before the Government Oversight Committee is available at www.legis.state.ia.us/lsadocs/SC_MaterialsDist/2008/SDMAT011.PDF. Further information for students and their parents can be found at www.projectonstudentdebt.org.