USA Artistic Swimming intermediate teams practice drills at the Junior Olympics on July 2, 2021, at the Air Force Academy Cadet Natatorium in Colorado Springs.
Roger Hornback waits for a police officer he called to arrive to a Menards home improvement store after the center refused to accept bottles for beverage deposits. Hornback, a former maintenance and auto mechanic of 20 years, has trouble finding work after undergoing brain tumor surgery in 2000. Iowa Code 455C requires retailers to take back empty containers, though many impose lower returns or refuse cans. With only one redemption center in the city, Hornback said, "This is what I get by on other than food stamps."
Demonstrators lay for eight minutes and 46 seconds at the Des Moines City Hall while George Floyd's last words are recited during a protest on June 6, 2020 in Des Moines.
A man rides a bike across the frozen Songhua River in Harbin, China in January 2018. Harbin is known for hosting the largest ice and snow sculpture festival in the world, with average temperatures ranging between 1.8 and -31 degrees Fahrenheit.
Mirror, 5, covers herself in mud on June 29, 2021 in Denver during Clayton Early Learning’s first celebration of International Mud Day in almost five years.
Soldiers from the Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 734th Regional Support Group file into a socially-distanced deployment ceremony on Jan. 24, 2021 at Camp Dodge's Freedom Center in Johnston. The Group's 80 soldiers mobilized in Ft. Hood, Texas before deploying to the Middle East for one year.
Jenny Chen helps her 9-year-old daughter, Ida, remove a loose baby tooth in the kitchen of Panda Garden, the family's Chinese restaurant in Bettendorf, Ia. After immigrating from China to New York, the Chen family relocated to Iowa, opening the restaurant in 2009 — where aIl four family members help run the eatery.
Myra S. turns the head of Annetta Miller, diagnosed with ALS in 2010 and quadriplegic since 2016. Miller, former head of drug treatment at the U.S. Penitentiary of Marion, did not receive assistance under Medicaid nor Medicare in Iowa until her death in March 2020.
President Joe Biden uncaps a pen to edit his speech before a rally in January 2020 in Indianola, one month before the Iowa caucuses.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signs a bill into legislation banning statewide police chokeholds and addressing officer misconduct on June 12, 2020. The law, allowing the Attorney General to investigate officer-caused deaths, additionally requires yearly law enforcement training on de-escalation and implicit bias.
Ruth Carter sits in her home in April 2016. Carter was born and raised in rural Birmingham, Iowa — a town of 448 — where she farmed with her husband, Fred, until her death in November 2016 at age 88. Family-owned farms in Iowa have been rapidly diminishing in the 21st century due to increasing urbanization and technology.
Students exit Harbin No. 124 High School after finishing Gaokao exams in Harbin, China in June 2018. Known as the "most pressure-packed exam in the world", the 9-hour test directly determines which universities students can attend, along with career opportunities and earning potential. Gaokao is aimed to minimize the wealth gap between students, but frequently is surrounded by behaviors of intense cramming, academic cheating, and identity forgery.
“There wasn’t a plan in place to say, 'How are we going to recycle these?' 'How are we going to reduce the impact on landfills?," said Bill Rowland, president of the Iowa Society of Waste Operations. Iowa’s wind industry provides 34% of the state’s electricity. Turbine towers can be recycled, but their six-ton blades are such a large composite of metal, wood, and fiberglass that they aren’t commercially viable to recycle.
Heidi Pendleton in her home in Fort Dodge, Ia. Heidi's son, Joshua Pendleton, was charged with the murder of Rev. Al Henderson in Oct. 2019. Diagnosed with schizophrenia at a young age, Josh is described by his mother as having fallen "through the cracks" of the state's receding mental health system.
Ty Daye calculates a client's bill at her salon, TranZitions. Daye completed 2,100 hours of mandatory beauty training in 2005, and still has remaining debt. "There's not really much they can teach you," said Daye. "You're there just racking up a bill. You've learned all you're going to learn within 1,000 hours — 1,100 hours, max."
Young spectators prepare to watch bareback bull riding at the New Windsor Rodeo in Windsor, Ill.
Parkland shooting survivor Aalayah Eastmond becomes emotional after testifying at the House Judiciary Committee’s hearing on gun violence on Feb. 6, 2019 on Capitol Hill, the first hearing regarding gun violence in eight years. The shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School was one of the deadliest in U.S. history, killing and injuring 17.
Muslims gather for the celebration of Eid al-Fitr at Niujie Mosque, the largest mosque in Beijing. The mosque was first built in 996 during the Liao Dynasty, and spans 10,000 square meters.
Nicole Margheim writes chalk messages in solidarity with fellow Black Lives Matter protestors who are facing felony charges in July 2020 in Des Moines.