(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Workforce Development executive director Beth Townsend says they are continuing to meet with workers at the Tyson plant in Perry as the June closing date approaches. “We have been working with the local economic developers with the mayor, with the community with Tyson, with D-Mack, with other nonprofit entities. We’ve had our mobile unit on site twice, ” she says.

She says they have now also opened a transitional office. “So that people can come in between, before, or after shifts,” Townsend says. “We will be there…two or three days a week from now until you know there’s no longer in need to help people.” Tyson says it has offered workers a chance to take jobs at other facilities. Townsend says the may or may not be an option for employees. “It always comes down to individual factors, right. And so our focus is going to be on helping the everyone who wants to stay in Perry find jobs in the local area. And we’re lucky because you know, they’re very close to Polk in Dallas County,” Townsend says.

She says there are many job openings in those areas. “That’s where we’re going to be spending a lot of our focuses on helping individuals find jobs that would not require them to move around the state,” she says.

There are approximately 13-hundred Tyson workers that will be impacted when the plant closes at the end of June. There are other ancillary businesses that are also expected to layoff workers in connection with the closing.

(Harlan, Iowa) – The City Council in Harlan City plans to fill a Council vacancy by appointment. Harlan Ward 3 Councilperson Jeanna Rudolph has announced her resignation effective May 8, 2024.

Residents of the City of Harlan have the right to file a petition that the vacancy be filled by special election. The petition must be filed within 14-days after the publication of the notice or within 14 days after the appointment is made by the City Council, whichever is later.

Any eligible Harlan resident that resides in Ward 3 of Harlan City limits and is interested in filling this vacancy can complete a form for consideration which will be available on the City website or at City Hall. Forms should be returned to City Hall by May 2 at 4:30 p.m.

DES MOINES, IOWA [WHO-TV] — This fall you can return to the ‘heart’ of the cassette-era at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines when Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Heart bring their “Royal Flush Tour” to town. Heart will play the downtown arena on November 19th. Tickets go on sale through HyVeeTix.com today (Friday, April 5th).

Heart has had dozens of songs reach the charts in their nearly 50 year career, including classics like “Magic Man”, “Crazy on You”, “Barracuda”, “Heartless”, “These Dreams” and “All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You”. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013.

Heart will be joined in Des Moines by Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening. Jason is the son of founding Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham whose death in 1980 led to the end of the band. Jason has since joined the surviving members of Led Zeppelin for live performances. Bonham will play a catalog of his father’s hits.

(Radio Iowa) – A fourth-year dental student at the University of Iowa has carefully crafted a work of mosaic art immortalizing Hawkeye basketball star Caitlin Clark — out of more than 700 Rubik’s Cubes. Like millions of other fans, Sioux City native Brian Dang closely follows the Iowa women’s basketball team. He wanted a new project to sink his teeth into while also spotlighting the accomplished Clark, and anyone who’s seen his finished work agrees, it’s a three-point swoosh.

“I used to be an engineer, so I like all these different kinds of 3-D puzzles and I like to suffer a little bit,” Dang says, laughing. “I like to figure out the hard, difficult things, so I got into Rubik’s Cubes because I was pretty bored at home, my parents don’t have internet or anything, and then I decided I just wanted more of a challenge, like trying to make art out of it.” Dang found a bulk supplier who sold him the necessary 720 “mini” Rubik’s Cubes for around 300-dollars. He’s made a few other smaller pieces of art using the plastic cubes as his medium, but none of them were this big. Dang says the portrait took a lot of planning.

“You want to have nice contrasts and stuff because you only have so many colors you can use with a Rubik’s Cube,” Dang says. “I plan it out on a spreadsheet. It’s takes a bit. And then I kind of pixelate the picture a little bit, because all pictures are just pixels. And then once I have that all planned out, it takes maybe three days, and then I go about solving my Rubik’s Cubes to those different colors.” The work features Clark in a white Iowa jersey, with her right hand to her ear, and it’s remarkably realistic. While the Iowa City campus isn’t gigantic, the 25-year-old Dang says he’s never met Clark, nor has he bumped into her between classes, but he hopes their paths will someday cross.

Brian Dang (UI photo)

“Yeah, no, that’d be awesome. If I could get a picture with her with it, and have her autograph it, that’d be amazing,” Dang says. “But both of us probably have busy times because I’m in the clinic a lot here at the school, and then she’s busy playing in all these games, so it’s really hard to get in contact with each other, or even running into each other.” For now, the piece is on display at the U-I dental building. Dang says if the Hawks win the national championship on Sunday, he may be inspired to create another “cubist” Clark that’s even bigger and better.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Red Oak Police, Thursday afternoon, arrested 26-year-old Devon Lee Smith, of Red Oak. Authorities charged Smith with Assault, with the Intent to Commit Sexual Abuse (an Aggravated Misdemeanor). He was taken into custody at around 4:30-p.m. and transported to the Montgomery County Jail, where Smith’s bond was set at $2,000.

DES MOINES, Iowa [via Iowa Capital Dispatch] — The Iowa Senate Appropriations Committee advanced a bill that would add an exemption to the time limit on filing child sexual abuse lawsuits, allowing former Boy Scouts in the state to be a part of the national settlement against the organization. Senate File 2431, approved unanimously by the committee Thursday, would extend the statute of limitations on civil actions involving child sexual abuse — specifically for “claims against the bankruptcy state of a congressionally chartered organization.”

The exception references the 2020 Boy Scouts of America bankruptcy settlement, allowed by the U.S. Supreme Court to move forward in February, that involves more than 82,000 men who said they were sexually abused by Boy Scouts troop leaders while in the organization as children.

Survivors involved in the 2020 settlement agreement have the ability to recover funds through the Scouting Settlement Trust of $2.46 billion. But Iowans involved may not be able to receive as much compensation as victims in other states. Settlement payouts are determined using multiple factors, including both the details and length of abuse suffered by victims, as well as the state’s statute of limitations on child sexual abuse claims.

Current Iowa law requires that child sexual victims file suit by age 19, or within four years of having knowledge that the abuse resulted in injuries and suffering. Lawyers involved in the settlement said these limitations mean that Iowa has until April 19 to change the law on the statute of limitations, or Iowa victims will receive less compensation from the Boy Scouts settlement than others across the country.

Answering questions from reporters Wednesday, Reynolds said she would be “open” to consideration of the bill if it is passed by the Legislature.

(Radio Iowa) – A senator has a plan that would give the governor authority to appoint the majority of members on commissions that nominate Iowans to be district court judges. Republican Senator Julian Garrett would have the governor appoint six of the 11 members on each of the district court nominating panels. “The process is already politicized from my perspective,” Garrett says. “We’re trying to improve it and fix it.”

A budget bill that’s cleared initial review in the Iowa Senate includes Garrett’s proposed change for district court judicial nominating commissions. Iowa governors appoint judges from lists of nominees submitted by these commissions and Peter Hird of the Iowa A-F-L C-I-O says the change would give the governor more influence over the judicial branch. “Giving the governor the power to appoint the majority of people who are going to nominate judges definitely to me and to our organization gives us a lot of concern.”

Garrett’s proposal also removes the judges from each of the district court nominating commissions. Doug Struyk, of the Iowa State Bar Association, says the perspective of a local district judge provides valuable insight about the lawyers who’re applying to become a judge. “The judge would have interacted with these applicants, seen their temperament, seen their timeliness of filings,” Struyk says, “and I believe that, from someone who’s been in the shoes of a judge, would be particularly good information for the other members of the commission to have when they were reviewing applicants.”

In 2019, Governor Reynolds signed a law that removed the longest serving Iowa Supreme Court justice from the commission that nominates people to serve on the Iowa Court of Appeals AND the Iowa Supreme Court. For the past five years Reynolds has also had the authority to appoint a majority of the members of that STATE judicial nominating commission.

(Radio Iowa) – The legislature has approved new rules for how Iowa landlords handle requests from renters who ask to have an emotional support animal or a service animal in their unit. Senator Scott Webster of Bettendorf says it aligns Iowa law more closely with federal regulations.

“A good majority of our veterans have emotional support animals…We don’t want other people damaging the system of people who need these particular items — dogs, cats,” Webster says. “…We want to make sure those that are abusing it don’t have quite the right to abuse it that they do now.” Representative Jacob Bossman of Sioux City says the bill provides common sense guidelines for what kind of documents landlords can request from tenants who ask to have a service or support animal in their rental. The bill also outlines when landlords may reject requests due to safety or financial concerns.

“Pets are wonderful companions and as anyone who’s ever had a pet knows, they can also be very healing as well, “Bossman said. “That’s why support animals are so vital, but to maintain the stability of the system, there must be guardrails.”

Representative Josh Turek, of Council Bluffs, says there’s a need for more regulation on emotional support animals, because service animals are a lifeline for many individuals with a disability.  “A service animal requires the individual to have a physical disability. It also is limited exclusively to a dog and, in incredibly rare cases, to a small horse,” Turek said. “This animal also has to be trained and, probably most important and significantly, it is required to perform a task that the individual with a disability, the disability prevents them from doing.”

The bill would let landlords ask for documentation from a health care provider if a tenant’s need for an assistance animal is not readily apparent. The bill won unanimous approval in the House and Senate and it’s now headed to the governor for review.

April 4, 2024 (DES MOINES) – At today’s meeting, the Enhance Iowa Board awarded $3,025,047 in Community Attraction and Tourism (CAT) grants to projects in 10 communities and a $350,000 Sports Tourism Grant to Newton Community Events, Inc, to promote the NASCAR race weekend at the Iowa Speedway in Newton.

Details for the projects receiving CAT grants follow:

The City of Fort Dodge and Webster County Conservation Board were awarded $400,000 toward the construction of $4,497,465 in park improvements including construction of a multi-purpose pavilion with seating for 200 people, a skate park, a shelter, green space, restrooms, swings, trails and native planting.

The City of Atlantic was awarded $102,047 toward the construction of an approximately 4,500 square foot water-based aquatic venue with a variety of features including fountains, spray pad, dump buckets and water cannons. Total project cost is $690,000.

The City of Clear Lake and North Iowa Cultural Center and Museum were awarded $400,000 toward the construction of the Surf District Music Enrichment and Immersive Center with a lobby, ticket office, gift shop, rooftop observation deck/performance space and 1,800 square feet dedicated to showcasing Clear Lake’s place in music history.

The Midwest Old Settlers and Threshers Association in Mt. Pleasant was awarded $210,000 toward the development of 100 additional camping sites, restoration of an existing heritage electric railway passenger car and purchase of an additional heritage electric railway passenger car. Total project cost is $1,420,111.

The Des Moines Community Playhouse in Des Moines was awarded $400,000 toward modernizing and expanding the Kate Goldman Children’s Theatre including a building expansion, storage and workshop space, meeting room, new costume shop and a configurable seating system to replace the existing fixed theatre seating. Total project cost is $2,736,481.

The City of Kalona was awarded $400,000 toward the $2,570,864 construction of a splashpad, natural playscape, large and small dog parks, parking and restroom facilities with an attached dog wash station.

Clayton County Conservation was awarded $220,000 toward the construction of a mile of paved trail to create the first segment of a two-mile looped trail connection between the existing termini of the Pony Hollow Trail. The trail extension will separate users from vehicle traffic on Highway 13. Total project cost is $1,098,140.

The City of Carroll was awarded $203,000 toward $1,019,000 in renovations to Merchants Park including press box improvements and expansion, bleacher improvements with ADA access and seating, baseline and backstop protective netting, dugout expansion, field lighting and fencing.

The City of Rock Valley was awarded $350,000 toward park improvements including accessible playground equipment with new fall-safe surfacing, interior trails and perimeter sidewalks to increase walkability, a new community event stage, open-air park shelters, a four-season shelter house and security lighting. Total project cost is $2,160,142.

The City of Mt. Ayr was awarded $340,000 toward the $3,243,700 replacement of the existing pool with a 4,000-square-foot outdoor pool with lap lanes, two diving boards, current pool, spray features, a family slide, a traditional slide, zero depth entry, sunshades and lighting.

Details for the project receiving a Sports Tourism grant follows:

Newton Community Events, Inc. was awarded $350,000 toward marketing the NASCAR Xfinity Series and ARCA Menards Series races on June 14-16. The funds will go toward a multi-media campaign in Iowa and Omaha, a street team, promotional events and small business activations.

The Enhance Iowa Program provides financial incentives to communities for the construction of recreational, cultural, educational or entertainment facilities that enhance the quality of life in Iowa. To date, 149 CAT grants have been awarded by the board, totaling $50,230,070.