(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird is proposing a constitutional amendment to give judges authority to allow children to provide closed circuit testimony against an alleged abuser. It’s a response to a recent Iowa Supreme Court ruling that said defendants have the right to confront their accusers in the courtroom.

“When a child is testifying in court, they’re between six and 10 feet away from their abuser. Imagine testifying in that scenario. It’s scary even for an adult. How much more for a child who’s been hurt?” Bird said. “…Unless something changes, we will see fewer prosecutions of crimes against children, particularly those that are brutal. Kids will be too scared to testify and those cases will get dropped. Criminals will walk free.”

Deputy Attorney General Susan Krisko prosecuted the case that was overturned by the court’s ruling. A therapist told the judge the 10 year old siblings of a toddler who was severely beaten could not testify against their father in the courtroom. “Without that accommodation, those two little boys would not have been able to come in and we would have had to let that man walk and not prosecute the case. That two-year-old little boy would not have gotten justice,” Krisko says.

Sheriffs and prosecutors joined a statehouse news conference to express support for the constitutional amendment that would allow children to testify via closed circuit in certain cases. Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks recently prosecuted a case involving a 13-year-old girl he calls “A” who’d been molested by her dad for years. “Although we respect the decision of the Iowa Supreme Court and their authority to interpret the Iowa Constitution, we also have a choice,” he said, “and that choice is to enact a constitutional amendment to protect victims like A.”

Iowa Attorney General Brenna bird speaks at a statehouse news conference on Dec. 12, 2024. (RI photo)

Dallas County Attorney Matt Schultz says the court’s ruling creates a real problem for prosecutors pursuing child abuse cases and the constitutional amendment would let voters fix it. “I can’t tell you how disappointed I am in the outcome of the court decision from this summer. These are real crimes,” Schultz said. “…If the institutions of our government won’t protect those who are most vulnerable — our children, then it’s up to us as a people.”

Wayne County Sheriff Keith Davis — president of the Iowa State Sheriffs and Deputies Association — says it’s important to protect children, who are the most vulnerable in these situations. “It’s hard enough to get people to come forward, especially a five year old or a 10 year old when they’ve been a victim of violence, sex abuse,” Davis says. “Even in our small county we see plenty of that.”

The process of amending Iowa’s constitution takes a few years, so this fix would not be immediate. Legislators have to approve the language of an amendment twice and 2028 is the earliest it could be presented to voters in a General Election. Legislators COULD schedule a statewide special election on a constitutional amendment sometime in 2027, but the last time that happened was in June of 1999 — and both proposed amendments on that special election ballot failed.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa reports a man from Adair was sentenced today (Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024)  to 24 months in federal prison for possession of a firearm not registered in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Act.

According to public court documents and evidence presented at sentencing, in December 2022, 43-year-old Randy Scott Shuey was found in possession of a silencer attached to a rifle, which also had a high-capacity magazine. In January 2023, law enforcement located a second silencer at Shuey’s residence. Shuey did not register the silencers with the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record as required by federal law.

After completing his term of imprisonment, Shuey will be required to serve a three-year term of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system.

The case was investigated by the Adair Police Department, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

The case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results. For more information about Project Safe Neighborhoods, please visit Justice.gov/PSN.

(Radio Iowa) – The governor’s top budget advisor and two other officials agree state tax collections during the NEXT state budgeting year will drop 67 million dollars more than they predicted two months ago. Iowa Department of Management director Kraig Paulsen is also chairman of the state Revenue Estimating Conference.

“Tax cuts are clearly what are driving the reductions in state revenue,” Paulsen says, “so, to be clear, but for the tax cuts, the state would be seeing revenue growth.” Governor Reynolds has signed a series of tax reductions since she became governor in mid-2017 and the state income tax will shrink to a single rate of three-point-85 percent in January. Paulsen says with over six-point-six BILLION dollars of unspent tax money held in a cash reserve and the Taxpayer Relief Fund, there’s room for more cuts.

“We’ll have to wait and see what the full impact is of things at the federal level…so that may limit some options,” Paulsen says, “but we’re in a strong position to leave more money in Iowans’ pockets.” And Paulsen says there are positive signals in the national economy, indicating taxes paid to the State of Iowa won’t fall precipitously.  “Moody’s state level data is projecting wage and salary growth of 4.11% in FY26 and the National Retail Federation is also projecting sales to be above the 2023 levels with total sales up 2.15% year over year and projected sales growth of up to 3.5% for December.”

Democrats in the Iowa House say every week Iowans are experiencing more layoffs, while Republican lawmakers are planing for more tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy. A top Democrat in the Iowa Senate says while state tax revenue is declining, Governor Reynolds is sending hundreds of millions of dollars to private schools and Iowans need more information about how the state money in Education Savings Accounts to cover students’ private school expenses is being spent.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate is recommending changes in state law that he says will help identify non-citizens who attempt to register to vote. Pate proposes that his office get authority to ask other government agencies or pay private contractors to review voter registration records. “We want to deal with the qualifications or eligibility of voters when they register rather than waiting until Election Day,” Pate said during a Radio Iowa interview. “Basically we’re talking citizenship here.” Pate said the proposal is related to the situation before November’s election, when his office tried to get access to a federal database. He wanted to check whether hundreds of people who got an Iowa driver’s license when they were legal residents had become citizens at some point in the past 20 years.

“We’re still going to be pursuing our lawsuit with them to get the lists that they should already be giving us,” Pate said, “and we’ll be working with the Trump Administration to inspire these departments to do what they are already supposed to be doing.” Pate is asking the legislature to pass a law to make the process of recounting ballots uniform in every county. Pate offered similar recommendations after the recount in a congressional race in 2020, but he said major issues like tax cuts took center stage in the legislature. “To be very candid, we had some distractions,” Pate says. “The governor had her whole plan for reorganizing plan for state government, which kind of sucked the air out of the room a little bit. For some, they didn’t want to do it just before an election cycle, so I’m hoping the timing is right.”

Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate (RI file photo)

Pate wants to allow more populous counties to have more people on recount boards. Under current law, each county’s recount board has three members — no matter how many ballots have to be counted. Pate also wants to require county auditors to start counting absentee ballots by 9 a.m. on Election Day. “Seems like we’ve been seeing this every cycle where they’ve waited ’til later and then when they ran into a problem — it was a problem because now the clock was ticking against them and after hours trying to get, maybe, someone in to service what their equipment needs may have been or whatever the thing might have been that happened to them and when they easily could have done it at 9 a.m. and had it wrapped up before noon,” Pate says. “…Basically it’s just legislating some common sense.”

Pate also wants wording in state law that makes it clear county auditors are legally required to notify his election office of any cybersecurity threats.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Atlantic Police Chief Devin Hogue, today (Thursday), said the police department has completed its 12th annual canned food drive to support the Atlantic Food Pantry. Hogue says they teamed-up this year with students from the Atlantic Early Learning Center, Washington Elementary, and Schuler Elementary to collect items donated to the food pantry. “All together this year,” Hogue said, “3,249 items were collected. Our 12 year total is now at 48,477 items.”

Chief Hogue said also, they turned the food drive into a grade level competition to see who can collect the most items. The winning classes will be treated to a pizza party sponsored by the Atlantic Police Community Charitable Organization. Those winning classes are:

• Pre-school: Mrs. Schwarte’s class: 235 Items
• Kindergarten: Mrs. Rasmussen’s class: 193 items
• 1st grade: Mrs. Hogue’s class: 309 items
• 2nd grade: Mrs. Johnson’s class: 197 items
• 3rd grade: Mrs. Van Ert’s class: 168 items
• 4th grade: Mrs. Johnson’s class: 193 items
• 5th grade: Mrs. Harris’ class: 131 items

Mrs. Schwarte’s class

Mrs. Rasmussen’s class

Mrs. Hogue’s class

Mrs. Johnson’s class

Mrs. Van Ert’s class

Mrs. Johnson’s class

Mrs. Harris’ class

Students from the Atlantic Achievement center who came to the schools to help collect and deliver the donated items to the food pantry.

Chief Hogue says “We would also like to thank the students from the Atlantic Achievement center who came to the schools to help us collect and deliver the donated items to the food pantry. We would like to thank the students, teachers, parents, grandparents, and everyone who has supported and made this ongoing event such a success and a great boost the our food pantry around the holidays!”