(Radio Iowa) – Republican Governor Kim Reynolds will be expanding her school choice plan for parents who want to send their children to a private K-through-12 school. “The right to place your child in an environment where they can thrive should not just be for families that have the financial resources,” Reynolds said. “It should be for every single parent and this is the year that we are going to get that done.”

Reynolds asked the 2022 legislature to provide 55 million dollars worth of state scholarships, to cover private school costs for 10-thousand students from low to middle income households — but the plan did not have enough Republican votes to pass in the Iowa House. During a speech to the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, Reynolds made it clear that if she’s reelected, she’ll present the 2023 legislature with a new plan. “I think it’s beyond time to give parents the choice in their child’s education,” Reynolds said, to applause.

Reynolds mentioned the topic briefly during her speech, but did not unveil her new proposal. Arizona’s Republican governor signed a law this summer that lets Arizona parents take the state money set aside to educate their child in a PUBLIC school and use it to cover PRIVATE school costs or homeschooling expenses. Deidre DeJear, the Democratic candidate for governor, says the priority should be to fully fund public schools with public dollars. “We believe in a strong public education system in this state,” DeJear says.

DeJear made her comments during a speech this weekend at the Polk County Democrats Steak Fry.

(Radio Iowa) – A northwest Iowa town has established a sister-city relationship with a city that’s more than 52-hundred miles away. Junik is in western Kosovo. Joe Nelson, the superintendent of the Clarion-Goldfield-Dows School District, was part of the delegation that visited Kosovo to sign the agreement. “I can’t even tell you how well they treated us for the nine days we were there,” Nelson says. “They really, authentically want to see the partnership grow.”

Nelson says the exchanges will benefit schools, businesses, hospitals and all kinds of commerce in both cities. “I think the thing that the Kosovars want the most is they want to send their high school students here as foreign exchange students,” Nelson says. “They realize there are great opportunities in Clarion so I think that’s one of our next steps is, how can we get their kids over here in our high school?”

The flag of Kosovo.

Nelson is hesitant to send Clarion students to Kosovo at this time. “We’ve had a couple of kids that expressed interest and they want to go over there but as the geopolitical climate heats up in that part of the world, with Serbia just on the border, right now, we just haven’t felt like that’s a great time to be sending our kids over there,” he says, “but that time will come and we’re excited about it.”

Clarion has about 2700 residents, while Junik, Kosovo has a population of about 6000. Iowa and Kosovo have had a sister-state relationship since 2013.

(Radio Iowa) – A former campaign aide to U.S. Senate candidate Mike Franken asked Des Moines Police to investigate after she says Franken kissed her without her consent. Franken says it never happened.

Kimberley Strope-Boggus was political director, then the manager of Franken’s campaign two years ago. She was working as an aide on his current campaign before being fired in late February. Strope-Boggus told police she and Franken met for a drink at a Des Moines bar in mid-March and, according to Strope-Boggus, Franken offered her a new campaign job. Strope-Boggus told police that as the two walked to their cars, Franken kissed her on the mouth.

Strope-Boggus filed the police report a month after the alleged incident and told the female officer that Franken “had an old-fashioned view about how to interact with women.” The police officer’s report said Strobe-Boggus “did not describe any sexual intent nor any intent to harm.”

Mike Franken at Democrat fundraiser this weekend. (RI photo)

Des Moines Police and an assistant Polk County Attorney determined the allegation of an assault was unfounded. The Gazette reports that during a campaign event in Cedar Rapids, Franken said the incident Boggus described to police “never happened.”

Strope-Boggus’ allegations were first reported by the conservative Iowa Field Report website. Radio Iowa has been unable to speak with Strope-Boggus, whose name was misspelled in the police report.

A news release the Franken campaign issued this weekend indicated Democratic congressional candidates Liz Mathis of Hiawatha and Christina Bohannan of Iowa City would be joining Franken today at the event in Cedar Rapids, but neither was present.

A spokesperson for Mathis told Radio Iowa details from the Franken campaign were not made available in time and Mathis attended a previously scheduled event. Mathis also has released a written statement, saying although investigators found that no criminal act occurred and the case was closed, “it is an important reminder that workplaces and law enforcement should encourage women to feel comfortable coming forward with any allegations of inappropriate conduct.” Mathis added that she has a “victim-focused and zero-tolerance stance against all forms of sexual harassment.”

(Glenwood, Iowa) – The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports two, non-injury accidents occurred over the weekend. Saturday afternoon, a 1997 Dodge driven by 55-year-old Todd Lasswell, of Red Oak, was traveling north/northeast on W. Railroad Street, approaching the intersection with 287th Street, when the vehicle went out of control and drove through the driveway of the Silver City Historical Society. The vehicle continued onto the grass and struck a utility pole, before crashing into an embankment on 287th Street, and coming to rest.

Lasswell told authorities that as he was coming down the gravel road (W. Railroad Street), he saw another (Non-contact) vehicle headed southbound on 287th. When he tried to slow down, his vehicle, which he claimed has had “Bad ball joints,” began to slide when he hit the brakes, causing the vehicle to impact the pole and embankment.

And, at around 7:50-p.m. Sunday, 65-year-old Theresa Olsen, of Omaha, was driving a 2017 BMW northbound in the left lane of I-29 in Mills County, when the car struck a square bale of hay in her lane. The bale was from an unknown source.