Democrat Staci Appel — a candidate in Iowa’s third congressional district — says it’s time to raise the nation’s minimum wage.  “I think working families have gone without an increase in the minimum wage since 2009,” Appel says. “And, you know, 71 percent of Americans favor increasing the minimum wage.”

The national minimum wage is currently $7.25 an hour. Iowa Democrat Tom Harkin is pushing his fellow senators to vote to raise the minimum wage to 10-dollars-and-10 cents. Appel says Congressman Tom Latham — the Republican Appel hopes to face next November — should join Harkin’s effort. “I think that he should join me in supporting it for the American people and the people of Iowa,” Appel says.

Appel served one term in the state senate and in 2007 she voted to raise the state’s minimum wage to $7.25 an hour, which at the time was higher than the national minimum wage. “My record of supporting raising the minimum wage is extremely important and I believe it was a clear choice of what to do at that time,” Appel says, “and I wish that we had been forward and raised it even further.”

Appel supports the concept of tying the minimum wage to a yearly inflation factor, like the annual “cost of living” adjustment for Social Security payments. A spokesman for Latham’s congressional campaign was not available for comment this morning (Wednesday).

In 2007 Latham voted to raise the federal minimum wage to its current level, $7.25 an hour. Critics say raising the minimum wage harms entry level and part-time workers, especially teenagers, as businesses will cut back hours or lay off workers. President Obama has called for raising the national minimum wage to nine dollars an hour. Earlier this summer, workers at fast food restaurants in a few U.S. cities staged protests, calling for a minimum wage of 15 dollars an hour. Twenty-one states — where about half the U.S. population lives — have passed laws raising state minimum wage rates above the nation’s. Appel faces Gabriel De La Cerda in next June’s Democratic Primary in the fourth congressional district.

(Radio Iowa)

The Mills County Sheriff’s office reports a Shenandoah man was arrested this past weekend for operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. 44-year old Matthew Dean Hughes was taken into custody for OWI/3rd offense at around 6:50-p.m. Saturday, following a traffic stop on Highway 34. Hughes was brought to the Mills County Jail and held on $6,000 bond.

TABOR, Iowa (AP) – A businessman who laced lectures to an employee with biblical references has been ordered to pay her unemployment benefits.  The Des Moines Register says a state judge has ruled against Tyler Stille, owner of Tabor Market & Deli in southwest Iowa.

Sherri Chafin says she quit in January 2012 after he preached to her about the wisdom of King Solomon and questioned her lifestyle. She filed for unemployment pay.  Stille says his employees all knew before they were hired that faith is an integral part of his business.

Administrative Law Judge Julie Elder sided with Chafin, finding that Stille’s conduct was, at best, “inappropriate, unacceptable and unprofessional” and had created an intolerable work environment.

One of the region’s largest food banks is bracing for higher demand after federal benefits were cut earlier this month to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Susan Ogborn, president of the Food Bank for the Heartland, says some 420-thousand Iowans receive SNAP benefits which have been trimmed back to 2009 levels.  “When people can’t stretch their food stamps and their personal budgets out across the entire month, they use pantries as support,” Ogborn says.

SNAP benefits were increased by 13-percent about four years ago due to the recession. That extension was only temporary and now SNAP cash cards are being cut by about 11-dollars a month, per person.  “What we believe is, they will use pantries more quickly and more often now as they notice the changes in their food stamp benefits.”

Statewide, the federal government is now sending about 43-million fewer dollars to Iowa for food assistance. Ogborn expects a serious strain on food banks. “That will be on top of the fact that October was our largest distribution month ever,” Ogborn says. “We are starting from a very high level of need and unfortunately, it looks as though it will be going higher.”

The Omaha-based Food Bank for the Heartland helps stock the shelves at 285 pantries, shelters and soup kitchens in Nebraska and western Iowa. In Iowa, about 13-percent of the population receives SNAP benefits.

(Radio Iowa)