(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Senate Ag Committee has approved a bill that gives some liability protection to farm chemical companies, including Bayer, which makes the widely used weed killer Roundup. Senator Jeff Edler, a Republican from State Center, who’s a farmer, says in 2020 the E-P-A determined the main ingredient in Roundup is not a carcinogen.

“This isn’t about emotion. It’s not about who said what. This is about true science and either you believe the EPA does true science or not,” Edler said. “All this does it take away one little loophole in the way someone was able to construe whether they felt Roundup caused cancer.” Senator Dan Zumbach, a Republican from Ryan who’s a farmer, says companies like Bayer will stop developing and improving farm chemicals if their legal exposure grows.

“If we constantly put them in a position where the risk is so high that they say, ‘The heck with it. We’re not going to do it anymore,’ not just farmers but every person in this room will suffer,” Zumbach says. “There will be starving children for the lack of the availability of these products.” Democrats on the committee opposed the bill. Senator William Dotzler is a Democrat from Waterloo.

“What this thing does is it stops people who’ve been exposed to this and die and their farmer families to get compensation,” Dotzler said. Senator Nate Boulton, a Democrat from Des Moines, says he’s siding with farmers who contend they’ve contracted cancer from exposure to farm chemicals rather than a company concerned about profit margins. “When I look at the wealthiest corporations on the planet, I have a hard time feeling like there’s a tug at my heart strings to make sure they’re going to be ok,” Boulton says.

A similar bill was introduced in the Iowa House, but failed to pass a key committee by today’s (Friday’s) deadline.

The forecast calls for more snow tonight. National Weather Service Meteorologist, Kristy Carter, says it will spread across most of the state.

“It’ll be moving in tonight, for starters in northwest Iowa, but then it will move through the rest of central Iowa into most of Iowa even through the overnight hours, ending tomorrow night in southeast Iowa,” Cart says. She says there will be a band of heavier snow, and it will taper off from there. “Around the Highway 30 to Highway 20 corridors where two to four inches is probably going to be a little more common,” she says. “Elsewhere it’ll be one to two or less than that. If you are close to the band, maybe one to two for areas south and then to far north to northeast it’ll be less than one inch.”

Carter says we won’t have the blowing snow concern that we’ve had with other snowfall. She says the winds will pick up Friday night into Saturday, so they are not concerned about blowing snow. Things will cool off with the snow, but Carter says that won’t last long. She says there will be single digit wind chills Saturday, but the temperatures will move back into the 40s by Sunday. Carter says the snow will melt quickly as the temperatures increase.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Gaming Association CEO Wes Ehrecke says there was a record amount of money bet on the Super Bowl at state sports books this year.

A total of more than 2.47 billion dollars was wagered on sports in Iowa for the last fiscal year that ended in June. Three says this is the only sporting event where they keep an individual total on the betting.

Ehrecke says the betting on the big game probably drew a little more interest with Kansas City in the game along with former Cyclone quarterback Brock Purdy and former Hawkeye tight end George Kittle playing in the contest.

(Radio Iowa) – State Auditor Rob Sand says the Board of Parole reports it has resolved an issue raised by a whistleblower who contacted Sand’s office, accusing the board of failing to have the right officials sit on the state panels for parole hearings. However, Sand says the board is citing a new law and refusing to provide documents showing the policy’s been fixed.

“Government corruption and secrecy are growing in the state of Iowa,” Sand said this morning during a news conference in his State Capitol office.

That 2023 law set up an appeal process if a state agency refused to provide the state auditor’s office with documents, but Sand said it would be “pointless” to seek an appeal. “That panel would be one person from our office, one person from the Board of Parole which works at the pleasure of the governor and the third person appointed by the governor,” Sand said. “I like efficiency in state government. I’m not here to clown around and waste people’s time.”

The Board of Parole says the information was not provided because Sand refused to provide a letter outlining the rights and responsibilities of those involved in the audit. A spokesman for the governor says “engagement letters” are an industry standard “and it’s concerning he refuses to comply with it.”

State Auditor Rob Sand at a news conference on Feb. 15, 2024. (RI photo)

A spokesman for Sand says the auditor’s office has a signed engagement letter from the Departments of Management and Administrative Services that covers “all of state government” and “if the Board of Parole believes it’s not part of state government, that’s news to us.”

A bill introduced in the Iowa Senate this week would let state agencies hire private CPA firms to conduct audits and Sand said that would destroy anti-corruption checks and balances in state government. “So let me make it clear regarding today’s report on the Board of Parole where we can’t say whether the state of Iowa is even following its own laws,” Sand said. “With this bill, they want to find an auditor who won’t even dare ask the question in the first place.”

Sand told reporters private CPAs charge far more than the hourly rate for auditing done by his office and having private CPA firms audit state government agencies would cost taxpayers about $5 million more per year.

“It would replace the state auditor chosen by the people of the state of Iowa with one insiders will handpick, with no bidding requirement and now means of independent oversight of their audits,” Sand said. “These insiders want an auditor who is a lapdog, not a watchdog.”

The Republican senator who’s sponsoring the bill said Iowa cities, counties and school districts are allowed to use private CPAs for annual audits and the policy should be extended to state government agencies. Sand told reporters the bill prohibits his office from following up if any of those private CPAs find problems.

DES MOINES – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is investigating an oil spill at Keg Creek in Mills County.

At approximately 5:25 a.m on Feb. 15, the Iowa DNR received a call via the 24-hour spill line from Mills County. At 4:30 AM, a fire broke out at the Best Finish Auto Body facility located in the City of Glenwood. Local fire and law enforcement responded to the scene and reported that an unknown amount of oil had made its way into storm drains flowing into Keg Creek. Further investigation revealed a maximum of 240 gallons of oil, 120 gallons of used oil, 80 gallons of transmission fluid, and 80 gallons of antifreeze were in the facility at the time of the fire.

Local crews added sand berms near the storm drain to help mitigate the product and fire water mixture from entering the drains. DNR staff later observed an oily sheen in Keg Creek approximately three miles south of the incident. An environmental company is on-site and working with the DNR on cleanup efforts. Water samples have been collected. No dead fish have been observed.

The investigation is currently ongoing. Further enforcement action will be considered when appropriate.

(Guthrie Center, Iowa) – The Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office reports a 2009 Ford F-150 pickup sustained disabling damage (amounting to $16,000), during a collision with a deer Wednesday morning. The accident happened at around 7:20-a.m. on Indigo Avenue. The driver of the pickup, 18-year-old Brian J. Burris, of Scranton, was not injured in the accident.

(Guthrie Center, Iowa) –  A vehicle driven by a man from Cass County (IA) sustained $7,500 damage when it was struck by a deer, but no one was hurt. The Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office say a 2019 Ford Ecosport SUV driven by 36-year-old Casey Lynn Brown, of Atlantic, was traveling west on Highway 44 west of Panora, at around 7:25-p.m., Wednesday, when a deer collided with the left front side of the vehicle, causing the SUV to become disabled.

(Radio Iowa) – A Sioux Center dentist says the free dental clinic his practice offered to children in need Tuesday was a success. Several days of screenings were held at Sioux Center schools to determine the needs for the children who participated in the first “Give Kids a Smile” dental clinic operated by Doctor Trevor Kuiper and his staff. “We only did about 12 extractions which wasn’t too bad but we had close to 40 fillings, about the same number of sealants, and we did get 30 cleanings, X-rays and a couple other procedures as well,” Kuiper says. He says the total cost for all the services provided to the children was a little more then 23-thousand dollars.

Kuiper and his staff got help from several volunteers who came from Community Health Partners, Mid-Sioux, and Kinsey Elementary School. Kuiper says it was a good day of helping kids in need. “It’s always hard when you’re working on the kids because you know you’re doing things that don’t feel good. They’re not things that are always understood by the kids at the time,” Kuiper says. “But we’re really hopeful that as the days and weeks go on for these kids and everything heals up, that they’re going to be in a much better position. They’re going to be eat, they’re going to be able to sleep. They’re going to be able to go about doing normal kid things without having to worry about their mouth hurting.”

Kuiper says one thing he may consider doing differently for the next “Give Kids a Smile” clinic, is to schedule it later in the week. He says the difficult thing for him is most of the kids treated Tuesday need more dental care, and that there are many more children needing dental services that won’t get it because either their parents can’t get off work to take them to a dentist, or they have financial limitations.

(Radio Iowa) – Senate Republicans are proposing changes in Governor Kim Reynolds’ plan to overhaul Iowa’s nine Area Education Agencies. Reynolds wants to send all government funding for special education services to schools, so districts could continue using A-E-As for those services or choose another provider. A bill approved by the Senate Education Committee would still send 10 percent of that special education funding to A-E-As, but school districts would control the rest. A-E-As also would get 40 percent of the money they receive now for media services as well as other A-E-A services for teachers and all students. Republican Senator Lynn Evans, a retired superintendent from Aurelia, says their plan provides a safety net for the A-E-A system. “So everything being provided by the AEAs will continue to be provided by the AEAs,” Evans says, “and we have reestablished funding that the governor stripped out.”

House Republicans have proposed their own alternative that would guarantee A-E-As keep all government funding to provide special education services in Iowa schools. Governor Reynolds says she appreciates that the conversation about A-E-A changes is continuing. Evans says Senate Republicans will make more adjustments to their plan when the bill is debated in the full Senate. “This amendment is the result of listening to and working with AEAs and superintendents,” Evans said, “while understanding that this is not the final product.”

Democrats on the committee voted against the plan as it was presented last (Wednesday) night. Senator Claire Celsi, a Democrat from West Des Moines, says the A-E-A system is working and the proposed changes in distributing special education funding would make it difficult for A-E-As and schools to provide services to students with disabilities. “To come in here with a bulldozer like this — it’s not fair,” Celsi said. “It’s not necessary and the people in our state do not want this.” Senator Molly Donahue, a Democrat from Cedar Rapids, says if the goal is to improve test scores among students with disabilities, the Senate G-O-P plan won’t get there. “Our rural communities don’t have the same ability to provide these services that our urban do, which is why the AEAs were put in place in the first place,” Donahue says. Senate Republicans say some A-E-As provide more services than others and putting the Iowa Department of Education in charge will fix that.

The House Education Committee will consider A-E-A service changes late this (Thursday) afternoon.