(Radio Iowa) – An eastern Iowa man was sentenced Monday to five years in prison for bringing a handgun to his child’s school. Prosecutors say 32-year-old Brandon Jones of Iowa City walked into Grant Wood Elementary last November and demanded to speak with the principal, saying his child was wrongfully sent home. As he walked into the school, Jones unholstered a nine-millimeter handgun and handed it to someone, saying: “Hold my gun so I don’t do something stupid.” Rachel Zimmermann Smith is the Johnson County Attorney.

“The thing that has probably not gotten enough attention is just the focus on the staff and the kids that were at Grant Wood that day,” she says, “and how it affected them, and what that staff did to protect the kids and each other in what was a really scary situation.”

A judge sentenced Jones to five years for one count of carrying weapons on school grounds and two counts of harassment in the first degree. Initially, Prairielands Freedom Fund posted bail for Jones. The bail fund said in a statement the firearm was legal and when Jones realized he’d brought it into the school, he immediately asked his partner to remove it from the premises.

(Radio Iowa) – Keep Iowa Beautiful is looking for more volunteers to join the state’s effort in the national Great American Cleanup. Executive director, Andy Frantz says the idea is to clean up public spaces. “Whether it’s church groups, sports clubs, just volunteers or whatever to make a concerted effort to clean up parks, rivers, riverbeds, roadsides, all of those sorts of things. S every year there’s a big push,” he says. You can go to KeepIowaBeautiful.org to sign up. “The first 35 of those communities this year that sign up will be eligible for a 50-dollar reimbursement to any expenses, it’s pretty loose, any expenses that are related to the pickup efforts,” Frantz says. “It can be anything from bags to pickers to gloves.”

He asks that you sign up so they know how many groups are taking part. “They can do it between now and the end of July, we’d like to hope that they’ll be able to pull it together by then. So it’s really an open window that sits available to any of the communities and whatever works for them, you know weather permitting all of those sorts of things to have their local event,” he says. Frantz says the effort makes a difference. “There have been about 50 events in the last couple of years. Seven-thousand volunteer hours and over three-thousand trash bags of litter and debris have been picked up,” Frantz says. He says there are a lot more clean up efforts that happen each year outside this program.

Frantz says applications are due April 30th for those who want to be considered for the reimbursement money. Awarded communities will receive notification on May 6th.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak, Monday night, arrested a man on a warrant for Probation Violation. Authorities say 24-year-old Brandon Lane Good, of Red Oak, was arrested a little after 9-p.m. on the Mills County warrant. Good was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $5,000 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – U-S Senator Joni Ernst says time is running out for the U-S Department of Education to fix the application college students and their parents fill out to find out how much federal aid they may qualify for. “All of the money that was supposed to go to updating and simplifying the form — instead they redirected that to student debt bailout,” Ernst says. “It’s just been really, really confusing time, a very frustrating time.”

On Friday, the agency announced another error on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or FAFSA will delay decisions for up to 200-thousand students. A federal law passed in late 2020 called for simplifying the FAFSA form.  “What we have now is a very, very confusing form,” Ernst says. “It’s worse than it was before and the rollout of the FAFSA has been completely botched.”

Ernst, a Republican from Red Oak, cites bipartisan calls to address a new calculation of the finances of farm families and small business owners. Ernst says it doesn’t take into account those who are property rich, but don’t have the cash flow to pay for a child’s college education. “The provision would reduce aid eligibility by thousands of dollars for our farm families and our small business families,” Ernst says.

Ernst was in Lamoni yesterday (Monday) to meet with students and administrators from Graceland University as well as the three state universities and Des Moines Area Community College about that issue as well as the delays in federal aid as well as scholarship decisions due to the FAFSA form delays.

(Radio Iowa) – A bill headed to the governor would only let local governments have topsoil and storm water regulations that are tougher than state rules if the city covers the extra costs. Senator Mike Webster, a Republican from Bettendorf who works in the construction industry, says building regulations should be based on life, health and safety issues.

“I don’t build retention ponds. I build houses,” Webster says. “Some of the regulations that come from cities currently…put 24 inches of topsoil on ground that didn’t even have that. (It’s) thousands and thousands of dollars in added expense for somebody just trying to build a house.” Critics say the bill would prevent local officials from responding to flooding issues. Senator Janice Weiner, a Democrat from Iowa City, says the state legislature should stay out of it and let county and city officials make these decisions.

“I’m not worried about parking lots. In the end, I care about people’s homes and town homes. I care about the ability of people, of fellow Iowans to have dry basements.” The bill won Senate passage a year ago. Earlier this month the bill failed in the House, but four days later wound up passing 53 to 46. On Monday, Senate Republicans accepted an adjustment the House made in the bill and gave it final legislative approval.

Voters in the Adair-Casey Community School District have an opportunity to attend a Public Hearing this Wednesday evening, with regard to the Proposed 2024-2025 Property Tax Rate.  The hearing takes place beginning at 7-p.m., at the AC/GC Junior High Media Center.

Hearing Agenda:

I. Call to Order/Roll Call

II. Open Public Hearing

III. Receive Written and/or Oral Comments

IV. Close Public Hearing

The Adair-Casey CSD Board will hold a Work Session immediately following the Public Hearing. During their session, the Board will discuss Open Enrollment.

Agenda:

I. Call to Order/Roll Call (Immediately Following the Public Hearing)

II. Approve Meeting Agenda

III. Discussion Item
A. Open Enrollment

IV. Adjourn Meeting

Patrons of the Guthrie Center part of the AC/GC District will be able to attend a hearing on the proposed property tax rate, April 3rd at 7 p.m.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Cass County (IA) voters interested in voting absentee for the June 4 Primary Election may file requests for absentee ballots with the Cass County Auditor’s Office starting March 26. Due to recent legislation, the time period to request absentee ballots has been reduced from 120 days to 70 days. The new legislation also has shortened the number of days that the Auditor’s Office may have ballots available for absentee voting. Voters now have 20 days to vote absentee
either by mail or in-person rather than 29 days.

Voters wishing to receive a ballot by mail for the Primary Election will need to complete an absentee ballot request form and return it to the Cass County Auditor’s Office, 5 W 7th St., Atlantic, IA, before 5 p.m. May 20. Voters are reminded that due to recent legislation the ballot must be returned to the County Auditor’s Office before polls close at 8 p.m. on June 4 to be
counted.

In-person early voting in the Auditor’s Office and mailing of ballots will begin May 15. Absentee ballot request forms can be found on the Cass County Elections website at https://www.casscountyia.gov/county-departments/auditors-office/ . Any voter may also request a form by calling the Cass County Auditor’s Office at 712-243-4570.

Absentee voters are reminded that since this is a Primary Election the voter must choose which party’s ballot they would like to vote. The Primary Election in Iowa is a nominating process for the Libertarian, Democratic and Republican parties to determine who will appear on the General Election ballot in November.

For more information about the 2024 Primary Election contact the Cass County Auditor’s office at 712-243-4570 or visit the website at www.casscountyia.gov/county-departments/auditors-office.

(Radio Iowa) – A state panel will meet tomorrow (Tuesday) to review challenges to the nominating documents submitted by two candidates running in the same northwest Iowa House district. The Republican from Onawa who’s currently serving in Iowa House District 13 is not seeking reelection at the end of his first term. Two Republicans announced they’re running in the district.

Noah Wieseler of Sioux City works in construction and property management. Travis Sitzmann of Le Mars is a risk control consultant for Travelers Insurance. Both are first time candidates. The Secretary of State’s office has announced there are challenges to the nominating petitions the two men submitted, but included no other details. Would-be candidates for governor were disqualified from primaries in 2014 and 2014 for failing to meet petition guidelines.

Candidates for Iowa House seat must submit petitions with the signatures of at least 50 eligible voters in the district. Recently, the three-member State Objection Panel has reviewed challenges related to the names and addresses of people who’ve signed petitions as well as whether a potential candidate’s name and the office they were seeking was listed on each page of petition signatures.

Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate, Attorney General Brenna Bird — both Republicans — and Democrat Rob Sand, the state auditor, are the three members of the State Objection Panel. They’re scheduled to meet tomorrow at 10 a.m. to review the challenges to G-O-P candidates in House District 13. No Democrat filed to run in district.

(Radio Iowa) – As University of Iowa basketball star Caitlin Clark preps for her final home game tonight (Monday), the economic and sociological impact of her career on and off the court is still being assessed — into tens of millions of dollars. U-I Business Analytics Professor Jeff Ohlmann (OLE-mun) says his research into the so-called Caitlin Clark Effect doesn’t attempt to put a dollar figure on her impact on the university, the state, or the sport, but instead zeroes in on things that -can- be measured.

Plus, there’s all of the merchandising, including sales of black-and-gold t-shirts and jerseys emblazoned with the number 22. Even country music superstar Tim McGraw wore a Caitlin Clark jersey on-stage during his concert in Des Moines last week.

Caitlin Clark (photo by Tim Schoon, University of Iowa)

Ohlmann compares the “economic fervor” surrounding Clark’s rise to fame alongside other female celebrities like Beyonce or Taylor Swift, noting, it’s not been a male-dominated economy for some time.

A report released by Common Sense Institute Iowa, what’s billed as a “non-partisan research organization dedicated to the protection and promotion of Iowa’s economy,” says “Clarkonomics” has generated more than 82-million dollars in increased community and state consumer spending. Again, Ohlmann doesn’t try to attach a figure to Clark’s appeal, and he doubts her meteoric rise in popularity will fizzle once the N-C-double-A tournament ends — along with her college career — as she joins the W-N-B-A. The question remains, will Hawkeye women’s basketball games sell out -next- season and will interest in the sport thrive -after- Clark leaves Iowa City?

He calls Clark a “generational talent” but remains confident a strong following has been cemented in Iowa women’s basketball, and that the dedication to Hawkeye hoops will continue long after she’s headed to the pros.