(Radio Iowa) – A new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll finds former President Donald Trump’s favorability rating in Iowa is higher now than it was while he was president. Trump is scheduled to hold a rally in Des Moines this Saturday, his first trip back to the state since leaving office in January. The Des Moines Register Iowa Poll found 53 percent of those surveyed have a very favorable or mostly favorable view of the former president.

Among Republicans, Trump’s favorability rating is 91 percent. That’s 10 points better than Senator Chuck Grassley’s favorability measurement among Republicans.

(Radio Iowa) – Third district Congresswoman Cindy Axne, a Democrat from West Des Moines, says there is less turmoil among Democrats working on an infrastructure package than is being portrayed in the media. “Progressives and the moderates are working together on a lot of issues…like ensuring that we can include dental and vision and hearing with Medicare,” Axne says. “We’re all pushing for that.” But Axne says she wishes Democrats had gone about this process differently.

“I’ve never seen a good organization, quite honestly, start with: ‘Here’s the dollar amount.’ You start out with what you need to get done,” Axne says. “…Then, if we have to meet a dollar amount, we start pulling back from that, but it’s based on the values that are most important for the people that we’re serving.” The Senate passed part of the package — the $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill that got bipartisan support and Axne says Senate Democrats then left it to Democrats in the House to draft the rest of the so-called “Build Back Better” plan.

Axne spoke to a handful of people at a park in Norwalk over the noon-hour. She emphasized the need for broadband expansion, federal aid for the biofuels industry and help for families struggling with child care expenses — elements of the infrastructure package Axne supports. “This is not an additional massive expense for this country. It’s an investment that we will see a return on and Iowa is poised to see one of the best returns in the country,” Axne said, “and that’s why this is so important and why I will fight tooth and nail to make sure both of these bills get passed into law.”

Axne suggested failure to pass the legis;ation will be an economic set back for the country. “If we don’t make a turn around for working families at this point in our country, which is what the president wants to do, we won’t see the success that we deserve,” Axne said.

Axne told reporters a vote on raising the federal government’s borrowing limit isn’t about future expenses, it’s about paying current bills that are due. Republicans say they will vote no on raising the debt limit because Democrats control the House, Senate and White House and it’s their responsibility to act.

(Radio Iowa) – The last of five statewide Traffic Fatality Reduction Task Force special non-holiday enforcement efforts wraps up in the state today (Monday). Iowa State Patrol spokesman, Sergeant Alex Dinkla, says they used a new technique this (Monday) morning in central Iowa. “We had a trooper who was in with a semi driver and we were driving up and down I-80/35 specifically looking for motorists who were using their cellphone or electronic communication device in an inappropriate manner that was unsafe driving up and down the roads,” Dinkla says.

Dinkla says they only used the Trooper and the truck for a few hours, but were busy. “We saw a lot of violations happening. The troopers who were working on that project stayed completely busy. And when you drove up and down the interstate all you saw were troopers pulling people over,”Dinkla says. “We wrote 21 citations in the two hours this morning — and ten of those alone were for texting and driving.” He says texting was one of the top violations, but there were other unsafe things going on as well.

A trooper rode in a semi to find drivers illegally using their cellphone in central Iowa. (ISP photo)

“We had a person who was watching a movie going down the road. People have to take responsibility for their own actions — and that’s supposed to be driving — not using a cellphone while driving down the road,” he says. Dinkla says the number of drivers seen using their phones shows there’s a lot of work left to do. “You know, we preach about it, other people preach about the dangers, you hear about the dangers, but the natural reality is that we still have people doing it all the time and the temptation is still there, Dinkla says. “Until people understand that temptation and can alleviate that temptation — we are going to continue seeing motorists use those cellphones every time they hear that chime for a text message, or they want to go and check their social media.”

The five special enforcement dates were set based on past history of traffic fatalities on the roadways outside of the holiday driving periods. Dinkla says the Fatality Reduction Task Force will be looking at their success.  He says they are going to reevaluate each of the projects and things they may change or add, with the ultimate goal to drive down the fatality rate. “But we cannot do that alone,” he says. One of the first goals is to have the yearly deaths on Iowa roadways drop below 300.

Driver pulled over during special operation. (ISP photo)

“We’re close and approaching that 300 fatalities for the year, but we still have two-and-a-half months left in the year. If we are going to achieve that first goal of 300 or under — we are going to need the public’s help, we need everybody’s help,” Dinkla says. State roadway deaths were at 256 as of today (Monday).

(Greenfield, Iowa) – Adair County Sheriff Jeff Vandewater, Monday, reported the arrest Saturday evening, of 39-year-old Michael Gail Steward, from Fontanelle. Steward was taken into custody at his rural residence after an altercation with his parents at the Avondale Church, and an alleged previous incident with his father at residence.

Deputies arrested Michael Steward on an Adair County warrant charging him with two counts of violating a No Contact/Protective Order, Assault, and Contempt of Court for Violation of a No Contact Order. His total cash-only bond was set at $6,000.

Steward was released from custody Monday morning.

(Atlantic, Iowa October 4, 2021) – After skipping a year due to pandemic restrictions, Southwest Iowa Planning Council (SWIPCO) held its annual meeting and awards luncheon covering both 2020 and 2021 on September 23rd at the Atlantic Golf and Country Club. A morning tour group visited the Atlas Atlantic Cinema as well as downtown façade rehab and other projects in Atlantic that had received assistance from SWIPCO over the past two years.

Following lunch the annual report was presented. Across the past two years Southwest Iowa Transit Agency (SWITA) provided 683,479 public transit rides and drove 3,421,392 miles. This is the equivalent of transporting the combined populations of Omaha and Des Moines to the moon and back 7 times. SWIPCO’s community development department likewise reported outstanding outcomes. The housing team rehabbed 128 housing units, demolished 11 dilapidated buildings, and assisted 50 homebuyers with down payment assistance. 576 rental and building inspections were also completed.

The planning team’s accomplishments included a huge variety of planning projects and grants, especially for flood and pandemic recovery, including the first ever levee project funded with Economic Development Administration funds to protect Hamburg, Iowa. In total the planning team secured 48 separate grants during the two-year period, totaling $53,346,182.68 in grant funds brought into the region.

Officials say partnerships were key to this success and several entities were recognized with partnership awards. These included:

City of Hamburg: (Left to Right) John Cox, Cox Contracting, Sheryl Owen, Hamburg City Clerk, Alexsis Fleener, SWIPCO, Cathy Crain, Hamburg Mayor, John McCurdy, SWIPCO

Fremont County: (Left to Right) Alexsis Fleener, SWIPCO, Chris Clark, Fremont County Supervisor, Terry Graham, former Fremont County Supervisor, John McCurdy, SWIPCO.

Mills County: (Left to Right) Alexsis Fleener, SWIPCO, Tim Jacobsen, ATC, Richard Crouch, Mills County Supervisor, John McCurdy, SWIPCO.

Fusselman Construction: (Left to Right) Matthew Lee, SWIPCO, Sandy Hansen, SWIPCO, Dustin Fusselman, Fusselman Construction, John McCurdy, SWIPCO.

Cass County Public Health: (Left to Right) Nancy Gibson, CCPH, Victoria Means, CCPH, Beth Olsen, CCPH, Linda Edelman, CCPH, John McCurdy, SWIPCO.

Iowa National Guard, Task Force Vigilant: (Left to Right) Mark Lander, SWITA, SSGT Grant Hurley, SGT Nick Padgett, MAJ Gabe Tramp, John McCurdy, SWIPCO

For flood recovery efforts:

• City of Hamburg
• Fremont County
• Mills County

For outstanding housing work

• Fusselman Construction, Atlantic

For Covid assistance

• Cass County Public Health
  Iowa National Guard, Joint Task Force Vigilant

Of the awards, SWIPCO executive director John McCurdy said, “During the past two years we’ve experienced a huge amount of activity related to both recovery from the Floods of 2019, fighting the pandemic and our normal high tempo of work. We were in no way alone in this fight. The City of Hamburg and Mills and Fremont Counties partnered incredibly closely with us on flood recovery, including the buyouts of dozens of flooded properties. Fusselman Construction of Atlantic has been an exemplary partner over the years without which our housing rehab program would not be what it is today.

“Cass County Public Health goes out of their way to help us navigate the difficult situations that Covid has brought up for our drivers and clients. They recognized early on the importance of our transportation service to the most vulnerable and did anything they could help keep our drivers and riders safe. The Iowa National Guard, Joint Task Force Vigilant utilized our Council Bluffs bus facility to safely conduct Test Iowa drive through Covid testing and in total their program administered over 40,000 tests. We are extremely grateful for these partnerships and the others too numerous to individually thank.”

SWIPCO is a council of governments formed in 1975 to serve the cities and counties in Harrison, Shelby, Pottawattamie, Cass, Mills, Montgomery, Fremont, and Page Counties. It includes Southwest Iowa Transit Agency and administers the Southwest Iowa Housing Trust Fund. Its headquarters is in Atlantic and has a satellite transit facility in Council Bluffs. It employs approximately 100 people including on average 70 transit drivers. (All photos courtesy Dee Holtz, Administrative Assistant, Southwest Iowa Planning Council)