By JULIE PACE AP Washington Bureau Chief
WASHINGTON (AP) — Iowa Democrats were drawn to two faces of change. After a daylong delay, partial results from the state’s Democratic caucuses showed Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, with a narrow lead over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. By many measures, Buttigieg, 38, and Sanders, 78, are a study in contrast. They are the youngest and oldest candidates in the Democratic primary. Buttigieg has campaigned as a moderate, calling for more incremental improvements to the nation’s health care and higher education systems, while Sanders — a self-described democratic socialist — is urging sweeping overhauls of domestic policies.

Yet both are pitching themselves as an antidote to establishment forces in Washington that many voters, in both parties, feel have left them behind. And their early success in this primary season suggests Democrats are just as interested in a fresh approach as Republicans were four years ago when they stunned their party’s establishment by nominating Donald Trump, a novice politician and reality television star.  “There’s still a desire for change,” said Karen Finney, who advised Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. “And elections are always about the future.”
The Iowa Democratic Party released 71% of results on Tuesday after delays prompted by sweeping technical issues paralyzed the caucus system. The Associated Press has not yet declared a winner of the contest, which kicks off Democrats’ months-long process to pick a nominee to face off against Trump in November.

Both Buttigieg and Sanders have faced questions about their electability in the general election. Democratic rivals have knocked Buttigieg’s inexperience, given that his highest elected office has been as mayor of a city of 100,000. And party moderates fear that Sanders will turn off independents and centrist Republicans who may be seeking an alternative to Trump.
Yet the early results, as well as an AP survey of Iowa Democrats, offered a glimpse of how Sanders and Buttigieg gained ground on their rivals. They hold a sizable lead in particular over former Vice President Joe Biden, whose centrist campaign has focused in part on a call for a reset in Washington after the Trump the era.

Among Sanders’ supporters, 88% said it was more important to vote for a candidate who will fundamentally change the political system than a candidate who will restore the system to what it was before Trump was elected in 2016. Just over 70 percent of Buttigieg supporters felt the same, according to AP VoteCast.  “The fact that a young gay mayor from a small Midwestern town and a nearly 80-year-old self-proclaimed socialist appear to be leading the pack out of the first primary contest should make Democrats question their long held prognostications about what the party is looking for in a nominee,” said Jennifer Psaki, a former campaign and White House aide to President Barack Obama.

Buttigieg leaned into that call for change Tuesday in New Hampshire, the next state on the primary calendar. Democrats, he argued, win when they nominate presidential candidates who can “turn the page” on the past and usher in the voices of a new generation.  “In order to govern, in order to lead, in order to move this country forward, we need a president focused on the future and ready to leave the politics of the past in the past,” Buttigieg said during a high-energy event Tuesday night in Concord, New Hampshire. Buttigieg would be the youngest person ever elected president, and also the nation’s first openly gay commander in chief. Sanders would be the oldest person ever to serve as president.

Sanders has also spent three decades in Washington, first in the House and then in the Senate. But he’s largely served as an independent, floating on the fringes of the Democratic Party before breaking out in the 2016 presidential primary and emerging as a fierce challenger to establishment favorite Hillary Clinton.  During his own rally in New Hampshire on Tuesday, he urged his supporters to help him finish the job he started during that campaign.  “Let us create the political revolution this country needs,” he declared.

There are others in the Democratic field who have called for transformational change in Washington, namely Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who shares many of Sanders’ progressive views. Warren trails Sanders and Buttigieg in the partial Iowa results, but is expected to be competitive in the New Hampshire primary.  The Democratic field indeed remains crowded coming out of Iowa, and billionaire Michael Bloomberg is waiting for the candidates when the race shifts to the March Super Tuesday contests. But the early Iowa results offer a preview for what could become a head-to-head contest between the party’s moderate and liberal flanks.  Among Sanders supporters, 45% identified as “very liberal,” and another 26% said they were somewhat liberal, according to VoteCast. Nearly two-thirds of Buttigieg’s supporters were self-described moderates.

Buttigieg has staked out more moderate positions on some of the major issues that have roiled the Democratic primary, most notably health care. Unlike Sanders, who backs a government-run, Medicare for all system, Buttigieg has said he would offer public health care to those who want it, while allowing others to keep private insurance. But Buttigieg is also staking out forward-leaning positions on a range of other issues. He’s called for scrapping the Electoral College and adding more seats to the Supreme Court. As he addressed supporters before departing Iowa late Monday, Buttigieg echoed the speech Obama delivered in the state after his surprise 2008 caucus victory, declaring that Iowa had “shocked the nation.”

It was Iowa that helped Obama shake off questions about his own electability, catapulting him to the Democratic nomination and ultimately the White House. Both Buttigieg and Sanders now hope the state can do the same for them.

A joint meeting of the Griswold and Lenox School District Boards of Education will take place 6-p.m. today, in Lenox. The meeting will be held at the Lenox High School’s Collaboration Room (600 S. Locust St.). The purpose of the meeting is to complete the shared superintendent’s evaluation, consider extending the sharing agreement for the position of superintendent, and to consider the superintendent’s individual contract.

Following discussion and a public comment period on the sharing agreement and/or other matters, the combined Boards will consider entering into a closed session to evaluate “The professional competency of an individual whose appointment, hiring, performance or discharge is being considered when necessary to prevent needless and irreparable injury to that individual’s reputation and that individual requests a closed session.”

Afterward, the Boards will resume an open session and act on approval of the sharing agreement and Superintendent Contract.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) – A Cedar Rapids nurse accused of taking painkillers from hospital patients’ intravenous lines and injecting herself has pleaded guilty. The Gazette reports that 33-year-old Kelly Postel, of Monticello, entered her pleas Tuesday in Cedar Rapids. Her sentencing hearing has yet to be scheduled. Prosecutors say Postel obtained an excess amount of fentanyl and morphine from the hospital pharmacy and administered patients’ prescribed amounts and then injected herself while at work with the leftover drugs. Authorities also say Postel took fentanyl from a patient by using a syringe to withdraw it from an intravenous line and injected herself while still at work.

Here are the latest, unofficial returns from Iowa by county in the Democratic caucuses for President. (TP=Total # of precincts; PR=Precincts reporting) 1,250 of 1,765 precincts – 71%

More State and area news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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The Creston Police Department reports a woman being held in the Adams County Jail was served Tuesday with a Union County warrant for Theft in the 5th Degree. 39-year old Jennifer Beard, of Creston, continues to be held in the Adams County Jail, in association with her arrest that followed the execution of a search warrant last Friday. She was assessed a $300 cash bond, on top of her previous charges and bond.

And, 27-year old Garrett R. Woodhull, of Creston, was arrested Tuesday at the Union County Law Enforcement Center, on a Polk County warrant. Woodhull was released to Polk County authorities the warrant for Failure to Appear for a Probation Violation Hearing – related to an original, OWI/1st offense charge.

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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OGALLALA, Neb (AP) –  A Kansas man charged with the Nebraska collision deaths of four Iowa motorcyclists has taken a plea deal. Jeser Cisneros-Hernandez, of Liberal, Kansas, pleaded no contest Tuesday in Ogallala to reckless and willful vehicular homicide. Prosecutors dropped three more counts and two other charges in return for his pleas. His sentencing is scheduled for April 3. Prosecutors have said Cisneros-Hernandez’s vehicle hit two motorcycles carrying two people each on July 1, 2017, near Ogallala, Two of them were Sheila and James Matheny, from Bedford, Iowa. The other motorcyclists were Michal and Jerolyn Weese, who lived in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

President Dem – Caucus (To view the latest individual County results, go to: https://results.thecaucuses.org/)

1,250 of 1,765 precincts – 71 percent

Pete Buttigieg 419 – 27 percent

Bernie Sanders 394 – 25 percent

Elizabeth Warren 287 – 18 percent

Joe Biden 241 – 15 percent

Amy Klobuchar 197 – 13 percent

Andrew Yang 16 – 1 percent

Tom Steyer 5 – 0 percent

Uncommitted 3 – 0 percent

Michael Bloomberg 0 – 0 percent

Tulsi Gabbard 0 – 0 percent

Michael Bennet 0 – 0 percent

John Delaney 0 – 0 percent

Deval Patrick 0 – 0 percent

Other 0 – 0 percent

(Radio Iowa) — The Isle of Capri Casino in Bettendorf was fined 10-thousand dollars Tuesday by the Racing and Gaming Commission after a mother helped her underage son get onto the gambling floor in September. The administrator of the I-R-G-C says the mother then tried to extort money from the casino for allowing an underage player into the casino. Casino General Manager, Nancy Ballenger, says they did their best to stop the boy from getting in. “In this case, we turned the minor away twice. It was only when the mother distracted our staff that he was able to gain access to the floor,” Ballenger says.

Ballenger says the mother, Daniell Skrogstad, was charged and convicted for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. She says this type of violation is a rarity. “The last time I stood before you with this type of incident was almost nine years ago. So, we’re really proud of our program and training that we offer to prohibit minors and to make sure that only those who allowed on the gaming floor gain access,” according to Ballenger. “That is why we were very concerned about this particular situation.” I-R-G-C commissioner Jeff Lamberti says the state needs to look at tough penalties for adults who try to help minors get into casinos. The Lakeside Casino in Osceola was fined 20-thousand dollars for allowing an underage male onto the gaming floor in August. General Manager, Dave Monroe, spoke to the commission. “We take this responsibility to keep minors off our casino floor very, very seriously and we put in place some of the toughest controls you can imagine,” Monroe says.

He says the security measures failed because they weren’t carried out. “We card everybody under the age of 40. You have to have a valid I-D even if we know you are 21 — if your I-D is not valid — we do not let you in,” Monroe says. “We card you again and again, so if you come back in we card you ever single time. Unfortunately, we had a situation where the training and everything we put in place was not honored.”  Monroe says they addressed the problem with employees. “I feel confident we have the proper controls in place. We’ve retrained all of our employees. We constantly have all of these conversations at our pre-shift meetings, and I don’t anticipate any further breakdowns,” Monroe says.

The I-R-G-C took the action during their meeting in Altoona.