Police in Red Oak report a woman was arrested at around 4:15-p.m. Thursday, for Interference with Official Acts. 50-year-old Sally Mae Petersen was taken into custody at the intersection of Oak and Broadway Streets. She was transported to the Montgomery County Jail and held on a $300 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds is proposing a way to trigger CORPORATE income tax cuts. The governor did not mention cutting taxes for corporations during her Condition of the State address earlier this week, but her plan is included in a budget report submitted to lawmakers. If Iowa corporations pay more than 700 million dollars in state income taxes this year, Reynolds proposes lowering the top corporate income tax rate next year.

Democrats like House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst says it’s a break for only the most profitable corporations. “That would not help small businesses across the state,” Konfrst says, “but would, once again, be giving tax breaks to her biggest donors and big corporations in the state instead of focusing on middle income Iowans who need tax cuts the most.”

In December, a key Senate Republican working on tax policy said before lawmakers would lower the corporate income tax rate, corporations would have to sign off on reduced or eliminated tax CREDITS that — in some cases — erase a corporation’s entire state tax bill. And House Speaker Pat Grassley has said House Republicans are focused on personal income tax cuts this year.

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds says the Supreme Court’s ruling that blocks federal Covid vaccine requirements in large businesses is a major victory for Iowans and their personal freedoms. During an interview with Radio Iowa BEFORE the ruling was announced, Reynolds called the vaccine mandate arbitrary. “We’re going to continue to encourage people to get vaccinated. I’m not in favor of a mandate,” Reynolds says. “…It doesn’t stop people from getting it, especially the new variant or transmitting it. You know, that’s been demonstrated.”

Reynolds says it was ridiculous for the Biden Administration to try to make businesses be the enforcer to get workers vaccinated or tested once a week. President Biden says if you’re UN-vaccinated, you are 17 times more likely to get hospitalized if you get Covid — and it’s now up to individual employers to make their workplaces safe as possible during the pandemic. It’s unclear what’s next in the Iowa legislature where a group of House Republicans had been crafting a bill to ban vaccine mandates in Iowa businesses.

Reynolds says policymakers have to be really careful not to penalize businesses that are requiring all employees to be vaccinated. “It’s a balance,” Reynolds says. “These are individual, private companies and so we have to make sure that we’re not overstepping in the same manner that we’re criticizing, you know, the federal government for doing — for overstepping.” The Supreme Court has allowed a separate federal vaccination requirement for health care workers to remain in force. Reynolds calls that a disappointment.

The Iowa Hospital Association’s president and C-E-O says vaccines are an important tool to combat Covid-19, but the vaccine mandate has the potential to create additional staffing issues in health care settings.

(Menlo, Iowa) – A motorcycle accident late Thursday night in Adair County has claimed the life of a man from Fontanelle. The Iowa State Patrol reports 59-year-old Jay Zimmerline died in the crash that occurred at around 11:27-p.m. on I-80 westbound, near mile marker 87 (near Menlo).

The 2011 Harley Davidson motorcycle went out of control and entered the median before hitting the cable barrier. Jay Zimmerline was thrown from the machine and died from his injuries at the scene. His body was transported to the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Ankeny, for autopsy.

Adair County Sheriff’s Deputies and Menlo Fire/Rescue assisted at the scene.