(Radio Iowa) – The pace of the current G-O-P presidential campaign hasn’t reached the level of the last one eight years ago, but South Carolina Senator Tim Scott entered the race yesterday (Tuesday) and will be in Sioux City today (Wednesday), plus former Vice President Mike Pence is making stops in Des Moines and Ottumwa.

Gloria Mazza, chair of Polk County Republicans, says it’s sort of like watching the candidates and potential candidates play chess right now. “You know: When do they make this move or that move?” Mazza says. Pence has said he hasn’t decided yet whether he’ll run for president, but last night at a Polk County G-O-P fundraiser Pence urged the crowd to ask hard questions of the people who are official candidates. “Men and women of Iowa, do your part. Do freedom’s work. We’ll keep you posted on our plans, I promise,” Pence said.

Bud Hockenberg, a veteran of innumerable Iowa campaigns, isn’t giving odds on how well Pence might do in the Iowa Caucuses. “I can’t speak for other people,” he said. “It’s kind of an open process and it’s quite early.” Dylan Engelbrecht, president of Drake University Republicans, says it was good to hear from Pence — but he expects to hear many other candidates on Iowa college campuses in the coming months. “We’re just welcoming everyone, no matter who they are, just to hear their ideas,” Engelbrecht says, “and that’s what the Caucuses are ultimately about.”

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds says she hasn’t made a final decision on a bill to limit State Auditor Rob Sand’s access to some information, but Reynolds says Sand — the lone Democrat in statewide office — has gone too far in some of his investigations. “The constitution states that there shall be an Auditor of State and it’s the legislature’s responsibility to set what those duties are,” Reynolds says. “This doesn’t limit his access to information, but it does say that just information that he’s curious about, he doesn’t have access to that.”

The bill would prohibit the auditor from accessing things a person would expect to be kept private, like medical records or police reports. Sand says if the bill is signed into law, he’ll let the public know whenever state officials refuse to turn over records — and Sand says it will make Iowans wonder what they’re hiding. Reynolds says there’s an arbitration process in the bill that would let three people appointed by her, by Sand and by the agency involved decide if records should be turned over.

“The auditor’s office is part of the executive branch,” Reynolds says, “and I think Iowans expect the executive branch to be able to work things out.” The bill would also prevent the auditor’s office from seeking a court order to get access to documents from another statewide officeholder, like the governor, or a state agency. Sand says the bill’s arbitration process gives the governor’s office the final word on access to information because it prevents the courts from determining if any denials are justified. Reynolds says the private sector uses arbitration.

“I think it’s ridiculous, you know, if my agencies have some conflict we bring them in, we set them down and we ask them to work it out and for the first place to go or to go to the courts to have executive branch agencies competing against each other, the taxpayers have to pay for it twice,” Reynolds says, “and I just don’t think it’s unreasonable that we can’t come to some resolution through the arbitration process.”

Reynolds made her comments during a recent appearance on Iowa Press on Iowa P-B-S.

(Anita, Iowa) – Firefighters from Anita and Wiota were called to the scene of a house fire near 6th and Locust in Anita, Tuesday evening. Anita Fire Chief Eric Steffensen told KJAN News they were paged out at around 5-p.m.  When they arrived, there was heavy smoke coming from the attic.

Steffensen says the resident was able to get out of the structure with their pets. He said also, there ended-up being a lot of fire in the attic, so most of the damage came from water and smoke.

The cause of the fire remains undetermined at this time. Chief Steffensen said he wants to “Thank everyone who helped, including the Wiota Fire Department.”  Crews from Anita were on the scene until around 6:54-p.m. No injuries were reported.