(Radio Iowa) – Republican lawmakers say they’re waiting for an Iowa Supreme Court ruling before proposing any new abortion restrictions. House Speaker Pat Grassley says it would be unwise to consider legislation before the court acts.  “I want the courts to give us the guidelines that we need to move forward because I think we’re going to get one chance to do this and do it the right way once we have that,” Grassley says. “I don’t plan on speculating on this one until we have some more concrete answers from the court.”

Governor Kim Reynolds has asked the court reverse a previous decision and allow a six-week abortion ban she approved in 2018 take effect. After this summer’s U-S Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v Wade, 13 states now have laws that nearly or totally bans abortion, but Iowa Senate Republican Leader Jack Whitver says Iowa is in a unique position. “Really there is no standard in state law from our supreme court on what would be allowed or not allowed,” Whitver says. “…Until we get some guidance from the (Iowa) Supreme Court, it’s hard for us to take another step.” Both Whitver and Grassley voted for the bill that banned abortions in Iowa after the sixth week of a pregnancy.

“We passed the heartbeat bill that had exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother back in 2018,” Whitever says. “We’ve continued to build our majority since that point. I think that’s something Iowans support and I think that’s a good policy for the state of Iowa.” House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst (KON-frist) says Democrats will oppose any new abortion restrictions. “The governor and Republicans will stop at nothing to take away reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy from Iowans, so I can’t imagine a world in which abortion doesn’t come up this legislative session,” Konfrst says. House Democratic Leader Zach Wahls expects Republican legislators to propose a more restrictive law than the six-week abortion ban.

“The Republican agenda is to ban abortion,” Wahls says. “Obviously, they’ve been working aggressively to stack the courts with judges and justices that agree with them on that question.” Governor Kim Reynolds has appointed five of the seven members of the Iowa Supreme Court. Attorneys working on her behalf are arguing the legal landscape has changed after Roe v Wade was overturned and the Iowa Supreme Court should use a new, stricter standard to evaluate challenges to abortion restrictions.

(Radio Iowa) – State liquor sales revenues were up by nearly four percent in the fiscal year that ended in July, in what was the lowest increase in five years. Sales last year were up 13%, and Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division Chief Financial Officer, Leisa Bertram, says things appear to be leveling off following a pandemic sales surge. “Every year we kind of budget between three and five percent would be a normal increase. So yeah, the last couple of years having a large increases are definitely an outlier. This is where I would say yeah, 3.75% is more of a normal increase,” Bertram says.

The gallons of liquor sold dropped by 70,000. “One of the main reasons is our top seller this year was Tito’s (vodka). Historically, it’s been black velvet for about the last 10 years. So Tito’s is a little higher price product. So selling, you know higher price items, and then also selling more full cases,” Bertram says. Liquor sales brought in $431 million, and a record of just more than $150 million from liquor sales was turned over to the state along with another $19 million in licensing and taxes.

Another factor in the liquor sales was a continued increase in the number of convenience and smaller stores that obtained licenses. Bertram says those stores usually have a smaller inventory. “But they do make up a good amount of our of our licensees. And so yeah, the distribution of those, you can get liquor at more places,”” Bertram says.”But again, the variety might not be as big at some of those smaller stores. But we are seeing a trend towards smaller footprint stores. We have some major retailers that are opening smaller footprint stores as well.” Bertram says the supply chain issues did create some issues for specific products. “So we did see more out of stocks this year, you know, based on those supply chain constraints. What we didn’t see, though, is when we were out of stock on an item, our customers would kind of pivot to another item,” she says. “So we weren’t necessarily losing sales — but we were losing sales on those specific brands.”

She says people were able to kind of pivot and find a replacement their favorite drink — and that included instate native distillery items that are available.”So if people couldn’t get what they really needed, or what they got into in the past, we were able to kind of step in line with other brands,” Bertram says. December is one of the top months for alcohol sales, and the sales this December will be part of the new fiscal year numbers. Bertram says early indications are the recent sales trend is continuing. “We’re just about the same increase as we were at the end of this fiscal year report. So year to date, we’re at about four percent increase over last year,” she says. So, I’d say our revenues are still strong, we’re still pulling in good revenue. But we’re not seeing those huge increases, you’re seeing a small increase. And it’s, again, more indicative of what we’ve seen in the past. ”

Bertram says the cost of some products has gone up, while the cost of others have gone down, so overall costs haven’t gone up that much for liquor despite inflation.

(Glenwood, Iowa) – Police in Glenwood, today (Friday), arrested a woman for Possession of a Controlled Substance. Authorities say 19-year-old Seven Barrett, of Glenwood, was being held in the Mills County Jail on a $1,000 cash or surety bond.

(Ft. Dodge, Iowa) – Police in Fort Dodge report an arrest was made recently in connection with a “shots fired” incident. There were no injuries reported. Authorities say as a result of this investigation thus far, 29‐year‐old Collin W. Towlerton, of Fort Dodge, was taken into custody for:

* Possession of a Firearm by a Felon (D Felony)

* Reckless Use of Firearm (Aggravated Misdemeanor)

* O.W.I. 2nd Offense (Aggravated Misdemeanor)

Towlerton was booked into the Webster County Jail. His arrest followed a call at around 11:44-p.m. Wednesday to the the Webster County Telecommunications Center. The caller reported hearing shots fired in the area of the 1500 Blk 17th St S.W. The caller also gave a description of a vehicle that was seen leaving the area.

Officers responded and located the vehicle described by the caller. A felony stop was performed on the vehicle and 2 subjects were detained. Upon further investigation by officers on scene, it was discovered that the garage belonging to 1524 17th St. S.W. had multiple bullet holes in it. Officers spoke to multiple witnesses and the scene was processed for evidence.

The Fort Dodge Police Department is continuing to investigate the incident and encourage anyone who may have information to contact law enforcement. Information may also be submitted anonymously via Crime Stoppers.

The Fort Dodge Police Department has been assisted in the investigation by the Webster County Sheriff’s Office, and the Webster County Attorney’s Office.

(Van Meter, Iowa) – A single-vehicle accident involving an SUV left three teens from Norwalk injured, in Dallas County. The Iowa State Patrol reports a 2019 Chevy Equinox driven by 16-year-old John Henry Clark, was traveling north on East Street in Van Meter, when Clark failed to negotiate the turn at Elm Street. The SUV struck an embankment, causing Clark, and his passengers: 16-year-old Reagan Groskreutz and 17-year-old Lily Hughes, to be injured.  Groskreutz was transported by Mercy One Helicopter to Mercy Hospital, in Des Moines. Hughes was transported to Blank Children’s Hospital by Waukee EMS.

The accident happened at around 9:47-p.m., Thursday. It remains under investigation.

(Rural Atlantic, Iowa) – Atlantic Rescue and Cass EMS were dispatched at around 7:30-a.m. today (Friday), to the scene of a rollover accident near 620th and the Turkey Creek Bridge (an area between Memphis and Lansing Road, south of Atlantic, in Cass County. (Update 7:43-a.m.): There were no injuries reported. The vehicle was said to be upright, in a ditch.

(Radio Iowa) – There’s still some questions about who will pay damages and for the clean-up after the fire earlier this month at Marengo’s C6-Zero facility. Marengo Police Chief Ben Gray says the company’s insurance policy for the facility wouldn’t be sufficient to take care of a moderate clean up-let alone a large cleanup of this type. “And I will say I was kind of surprised you know for instance that the total amount of money available from the insurance company for the emergency response only $50,000. This is a million-dollar building plus that only has $50,000 worth of emergency response money — that seems under the value that it should be,” Gray says.

Emergency responders alone estimate they have $60,000 in damaged equipment. Friday is the deadline for C6-Zero to submit a plan for the cleanup of the site and runoff to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

Iowa County Emergency Management coordinator Josh Humphrey says normally the company or building owner’s insurance would be on the hook for costs related to an industrial fire. He’s working to make fire departments to try and help them replace equipment. “Everybody is operational. I shouldn’t say they aren’t operational right now, but their abilities are less than they were a month ago. Nobody comes to a fire and expects to have damaged equipment and then nobody take care of it,” Humphrey says. “Somehow it has to be replaced. This type of an event where you have tons of equipment damaged, it’s not a good situation.”

Humphrey says fire departments are reporting damaged firefighter suits, firehoses, tanks and boots. Because it was a large scale industrial fire, he says more than two-thousand gallons of flame suppressing foam was used valued at $70 per gallon.

(reporting by Zachary Oren Smith, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – State Auditor Rob Sand has two main policy recommendations for the 2023 legislature. Sand is again asking lawmakers to raise the penalty for those convicted of significant crimes involving tax dollars. “Making large scale theft of public funds a mandatory prison sentence,” Sand says. Sand is also asking the legislature to change some wording in Iowa law that distinguishes between state agencies that get and spend federal money and those that don’t. “This one’s complicated, but the bottom line is the way the Iowa Code is written right now costs us federal dollars every year,” Sand says.

Under current state law, Sand says the state is paying what amounts to a federal government fine for audits of how federal tax dollars are spent by state government. “We’re talking about over $100,000 every year that we’re basically lighting on fire because the law hasn’t been amended,” Sand says.

Between July 1st of 2019 and June 30th of 2020, the State of Iowa spent or distributed more than $12 billion in federal funds. Staff is in the state auditor’s office always reviews how state agencies spend or distribute that money, along with the audits of how state tax dollars, fees and fines are spent.

(Radio Iowa) – It’s one of Iowa’s worst flu seasons in a decade, and a University of Iowa researcher whose two-year-old son died from influenza in early 2020 has helped develop an online game to teach children about about the flu and the importance of vaccines. UI biology professor Maurine Neiman is co-creator of the game, “Flu’s Clues,” where players try to determine which countries around the world are seeing flu outbreaks. “You travel virtually to these different places with potential outbreaks,” Neiman says, “and you get to interview local scientists or doctors to find out what they’re observing, what they’re seeing, and figure out for yourself, based on information that you’ve learned in the game, is what you’re seeing consistent with influenza.”

Once outbreaks are identified, players return to their virtual lab to work on creating a serum for the vaccine. “The overall objective is to help teach really anyone but the overt focus of the game is on kids about what influenza is and what it isn’t, why it’s something to take seriously,” Neiman says, “and how to protect yourself and your family and your community from the flu and, in particular, by vaccinating.”

Prof. Maurine Neiman (UI photo)

Neiman and the Iowa City Science Boosters Club teamed up with the Virginia-based non-profit organization Families Fighting Flu to create the game. “This is really exciting for us because a virtual setting, while it has its constraints, it also has its opportunities,” Neiman says. “In particular, you can reach many more people potentially across the country and even around the world.”

The game also contains important lessons about viruses in general, such as how to identify symptoms, determine differences between the flu and other viruses, and learn how vaccines are made.