(Radio Iowa) – Eleven organizations in central Iowa have put together a pilot project for what’s called a basic income plan. The Director of Principal Foundation, Jo Christine Miles, says they will provide 500 dollars each month to participants. “Folks who we know are tending to struggle to make ends meet. And let’s see how their health, their children’s educational outcomes, their work in housing choices are impacted by having this basic income to help them make those ends meet,” Mile says. She says the idea came from Doctor Nalo Johnson, who is the President & CEO of Mid-Iowa Health Foundation, after she saw results from other pilots across the country.

“One of the things that we look forward to establishing is the positive health outcomes that come from people believing that financial stress in being able to get better nutrition, etcetera,” Miles says. They will seek 110 low-income individuals living in Polk, Warren and Dallas Counties. She says they want to see what happens when you help people get caught up — so that they can move into higher income levels. “What changes do we see occur on the psychological mental behavioral level, on the day-to-day, you know pedestrian bits of life food choices, etc. That’s why we wanted to give the income what happens when we remove money as a barrier,? She says.

Miles says giving the participants money gives them more options compared to other supports like food assistance which has many restrictions on how it can be used. She says the data from the other pilots across the country has shown the money is well spent. “They tend to spend it on basic needs. They tend to spend it on medical care, they tend to spend it on reducing debt, that’s been a stressor for the household. And much of that debt is medical debt,” She says. They tend to spend it on food, they tend to spend it on clothes and shoes that they might not have otherwise been able to get for their families.”

Miles says the stories about people getting assistance and spending the money on things it wasn’t intended for tend to get more attention. She says that hasn’t proven to be true in these pilots. “What we’re seeing is families are taking care of necessities, they aren’t out there, you know, buying booze or drugs or anything like that. Now, out of the thousands of cases, could there be one? Possibly? I haven’t heard of one. It hasn’t been reported in the literature,” according to Miles. The other pilots across the country have been in places like Stockton, California, Baltimore, Maryland, Chicago, Atlanta, and Mexico. Miles says the Iowa project is unique.

“Most of the other ones are in an urban context. This one, since it’s in central Iowa, and covering Polk, Warren and Dallas counties, you’re gonna get urban participants, primarily from Des Moines, you’re gonna get that kind of suburban participant coming out of parts of Dallas and Warren counties,” she says. “And you’re gonna get a rural participant, primarily out of Warren and you know, the far reaches of Dallas County. No other project or pilot in the country has achieved that.”

Miles says the Iowa pilot should provide some really interesting data to add to the national conversation. Recruitment is expected to begin in late November 2022, with the first payments starting in February 2023. This project is supported in part by federal funds under the Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund awarded to Des Moines, Urbandale, and Polk County by the U-S Department of Treasury. Others involved are the Mid-Iowa Health Foundation, Principal Foundation, Wells Fargo Foundation, Windsor Heights, Bank of America, The Director’s Council, Telligen Community Initiative, and United Way of Central Iowa.

Police in Red Oak, Tuesday evening, arrested 53-year-old Fred Francis Welch, IV, of Red Oak. Welch was taken into custody on a valid Montgomery County warrant for Failure to Appear, on original charges of OWI/1st offense, and Possession of a Controlled Substance. He was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $5,000 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – A northwest Iowa man caught getting meth through the mail has been sentenced to nearly two decades in federal prison. According to the U-S Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa, 55-year-old Armando Silva Reyes of Spencer gave a quarter pound of meth to an informant on two occasions.

On February 3rd of last year Silva Reyes and others received three pounds of meth through the U-S Post Office in Spencer. Prosecutors say Silva Reyes was part of a network that distributed meth by the pound in northern Iowa.

Earlier this year, he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and two counts of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

Des Moines, Iowa – Governor Kim Reynolds today (Tuesday), announced her appointment of Jessica Noll as a district associate judge in Judicial Election District 3B. Noll, of Akron, Iowa, currently serves as a magistrate in Woodbury County and practices law with Deck Law, P.L.C. in Sioux City. Noll received her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of South Dakota.

District Associate Judge Jessica Noll

Noll fills a vacancy created by the addition of four new district associate judge positions authorized by the legislature in this year’s session. Judicial Election District 3B includes Crawford, Ida, Monona, Plymouth, Sioux, and Woodbury counties.

(Radio Iowa) – Members of the 185th Iowa National Guard in Sioux City have been in Woodbine, building a giant tension fabric structure (tfs) that is a precursor to an Innovative Readiness Training (IRT) mission soon to take place at the Woodbine High School. Woodbine Schools Superintendent Justin Wagner, is also a colonel with the 185th, and says the fabric structure will initially house teams of U-S. military members traveling to the area to help construct a new Ignite Pathways building already under construction in Woodbine.

“And they’ve done exactly what they’ve done overseas in Afghanistan and Iraq. They took something completely bare just like this field. And they’re building this and these folks have been up in the morning at 7. They’re working to 7 p-m,” he says. “I’m not sure I’ve seen a better example of the Iowa National Guard connecting with the community for a value added project.” Wagner requested the support of the Department of Defense I-R-T program to help construct the new ignite building as well as the accompanying structure.

“It’s called Ignite Pathways it’s a 45-thousand square foot facility completely focused on Career and Technical Education. And so it’s the skills kids learn by doing and so that process to get approved as a D-O-D I-R-T project is taking about 18 months,” Wagner says. This is the first ever I-R-T in Iowa. As part of their annual training, Iowa guard members from the 185th Air Wing set up the privately donated 30-thousand square foot structure in woodbine. Wagner says when construction on the adjacent Ignite building is complete, the school plans to use the tfs building as an indoor athletic facility.

“It combines two really important things, the governor’s push on current technical education and our future-ready Iowa initiative which is really on the school side what we’re really trying to push, and then that D-O-D I-R-T push being the first ever in the state of Iowa is pretty special to us,” he says. The Ignite building project is scheduled to be completed at the beginning of the 2023 school year. Colonel Wagner also serves as the vice wing commander with the 185th Air Refueling Wing in Sioux City as a traditional guard member.