(Red Oak, Iowa) – Montgomery County Auditor Jill Ozuna conducted a successful post-election audit of the February 06, 2024, Special Election to fill vacancies on the City of Coburg City Council. Ozuna says ballots in Precinct 6 were hand- counted by election officials to ensure they matched the totals reported by the ballot tabulator. The precinct was randomly selected by the Secretary of State following Election Day. The Special Election City of Coburg City Council TFV Race was audited. The results matched 100%.  Ozuna says “The hand count audit shows that our machines tabulate accurately and further restores integrity of our election process.”

Every ballot tabulator in Iowa undergoes a public pre-election test to ensure it will count votes accurately on Election Day. Post-election audits are mandatory in all 99 counties following each election. For more information about election security in Iowa, visit the Secretary of State’s website at sos.iowa.gov. Information about the voting process is available at VoterReady.Iowa.gov.

Questions about the post-election audit and other election matters may be directed to the Montgomery County Auditor’s office at 712-623-5127.

Montgomery County Auditor Jill Ozuna

As previously reported, the Board of Supervisors, on Tues., Feb. 13, 2024, canvassed the election results. Those elected, each of whom received nine votes (33.33% each), are Annajenifer Beaman, Alexandria Schooling and Anthony Schooling. There were 19 registered voters for the election and nine ballots cast, for a voter turnout of 49.95-percent.

(Anita, Iowa) – The CAM School District’s Board of Education met Monday evening at the High School in Anita. During their regular, monthly session, the Board acted on approving a resignation and two contracts. Shared CAM/Nodaway Valley Superintendent Paul Croghan…

The Board also approved a Budget Guarantee for FY 2024/2025.

And, they held discussion with regard to the FY24/25 Budget…

Superintendent Croghan said the continued with discussion on the District’s Facilities Project.

Croghan said spoke also about a group juniors and seniors who are taking a trip out east next month.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – As part of his annual visits to each of Iowa’s 99 counties, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig will be in Southwest Iowa on Friday for four different stops.

In Shelby County, Secretary Naig will tour a brand new, Farm Service Cooperative Warehouse. He was unable to attend their open house last summer and so he will tour the warehouse and meet with employees and leadership to hear about current issues and how preparations for the spring planting season are going.

In Harrison County, Secretary Naig will tour and learn about the IGNITE Pathways Land and Cattle Program, in Woodbine. IGNITE was founded by a group of enterprising students in 2022. The program aims to provide practical learning opportunities in agriculture by renting a farm and raising chickens, goats, sheep, and cattle. The students have demonstrated their commitment to the welfare of the animals by taking on the responsibility of sourcing resources, building and maintaining farm infrastructure, and installing fences. Under the guidance of Justin Mills, Agriculture Instructor at IGNITE Pathways, the program has grown in scale and scope. The students gain invaluable hands-on experience in various aspects of agriculture, including caring for animals, crop cultivation, and farm management.

And, the Secretary will speak at a regional Iowa Corn Growers meeting in Missouri Valley, about current topics in agriculture, provide an update on some of his priorities and initiatives, and take questions from the audience.

In Pottawattamie County, Secretary Naig will meet with FFA members and ag students from the Tri-Center FFA in Neola, and learn about their school’s efforts to partner on pollinator habitat and conservation and water quality projects with area partners, including the local Soil and Water Conservation District. Ahead of FFA Week, which is the following week,  Secretary Naig will also tour their livestock facility.

(Creston, Iowa) – Two people were arrested in Creston, late Wednesday morning. Creston Police report 54-year-old Mary Ann Giles, of Creston, and 59-year-old Jimmy Alan Robertson, of Bridgewater, were arrested in the vicinity of W. Union and New York Avenue, at around 11:30-a.m., Wednesday. Both were transported to the Union County Jail for Violation of a No Contact/Protective Order. They were subsequently released on their Own Recognizance, after being seen by a Judge.

(DES MOINES) – The Iowa Finance Authority (IFA) recently recognized Community Housing Initiatives, Inc., and Arch Icon Development as the inaugural recipients of the Excellence in Development designation. “This recognition celebrates affordable housing developers who garner robust and collaborative partnerships, attention to detail and a standard of excellence in both the development process and their commitment to providing housing for eligible Iowans through the Federal Housing Tax Credit Program,” said IFA Director Debi Durham.

IFA will annually recognize development companies awarded Federal Housing Tax Credits who exemplify excellence and go above and beyond to advance affordable housing opportunities for Iowans. This prestigious designation is granted on a competitive basis to honor the top affordable housing development partners working in Iowa. The designation showcases proven dedication to excellence, participation, and results. This includes meeting deadlines for allocation checkpoints, submitting applications that are thorough and complete for review that require minimal comments, and actively participating in policy planning, training and feedback opportunities.

Community Housing Initiatives, Inc. 

Community Housing Initiatives (CHI) is Iowa’s largest non-profit housing development and consulting group, headquartered in Spencer. Since 1993, CHI has closely collaborated with communities ranging in population from 800 to 200,000, dedicated to creating housing solutions that meet community needs and provide comprehensive services for residents. CHI has generated or preserved over 1,800 affordable housing units offered at rates below the market rate. “CHI is proud to work in partnership with IFA to build quality affordable housing for Iowans,” said Sam Erickson, CEO of Community Housing Initiatives. “CHI has invested $280 million in Iowa communities in addition to reinvesting all income from development and rental properties directly back into Iowa communities for more than 30 years and we are just getting started.”

Arch Icon Development

Founded in 2010 by Darin Smith and Dustin and Mindy Crook and headquartered in Woodbine, Arch Icon Development strives to develop market-rate and affordable housing, along with commercial space development in the Midwest. “We founded Arch Icon Development with the belief that the creation of housing is key to economic, community, and neighborhood development,” said Darin Smith, Arch Icon Principal. “To date, Arch Icon has leveraged $146.5 million to create 761 apartments in Iowa and Nebraska and we look forward to collaborating with IFA and other partners to create even more homes that Iowans can be proud to call home.”

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) — A Sioux City man is now facing arson charges after allegedly starting a fire using a bible.  KCAU says according to court documents, the incident occurred at 3 a.m. on Tuesday at a residence on the 1300 block of Jones Street. The documents state that Robelio Cabrera Escobar, 29, of Sioux City, was in his bedroom with the door locked when he set a bible on fire.

Cabrera Escobar resided in the top unit of an “apartment house.” At the time of the fire, three other adults and one child were in the residence. The complaint states that the bottom unit is occupied but did not specify if anyone was home.

While the bible was burning, the carpet began to burn causing the residence to fill with smoke. When the other residents learned of the fire, they tried to enter Cabrera Escobar’s room. Due to the locked door, they had to force their way in and extinguish the fire, according to the documents. During a later interview, Cabrera Escobar admitted to starting the fire because he was angry but would not offer any other reason for it.

Cabrera Escobar was charged with first-degree arson and held on a bond of $25,000.

DES MOINES, Iowa (WHO-TV) — Around a month and a half ago, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds announced the state would not opt in to the federal Summer EBT program. The program would give $40 per month to each child in a low-income family during summer months. Organizations have been calling on Reynolds to revert course. Earlier this week Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen changed his decision and opted in to the program. Kollin Crompton, Deputy Communications Director for the Governor’s Office, told WHO-TV, “The Governor’s decision is firm. Pandemic-era programs were not intended to be permanent. The answer isn’t creating a new government program, instead we should be investing in existing programs that work. Iowa already runs summer feeding programs that provide healthy meals for children with fruits, vegetables, milk, grains, and meats/proteins, based on age-appropriate meal patterns. The Governor is investing more into Iowa’s existing programs to focus on expansion and participation across the state.”

Those programs mentioned in the statement can be seen here. The state is seeking sponsors for a federally funded program that provides healthy meals and snacks to kids in low-income areas of the state when school is out. The state is also seeking sponsors for the program to expand availability of the meals and announced a new grant program for it earlier this month. While there will be avenues for children to be fed, democratic senators do not believe that it is enough compared to the $29 million the state could have received from the federal government for Summer EBTs. The state would be required to spend several million dollars to get the $29 million back from the federal government.

(Radio Iowa) – Maple sap harvesters across northeast Iowa got the season started nearly three weeks early thanks to warmer than normal temperatures. Floyd County Conservation Director Adam Sears says this is the earliest start to the sap season he’s seen in 10 years. “Normally, next week’s when we start thinking about tapping trees, not 10 days ago. Everything’s just moved forward, but we’re hoping we get a little longer season this year, rather than just an earlier season,” Sears says.

He says the recent series of 50-degree days changed his usual timeline and they’ve already collected about one third of their normal sap collection. ” We hope that we still get the full season that we’d normally get on top of it, but we don’t really know that. It depends on how much it warms up continuously,” he says.

Floyd County Conservation typically harvests close to ten thousand gallons of sap each season, which yields about 200 gallons of maple syrup.

(Radio Iowa) – House Speaker Pat Grassley says Republicans in the Iowa House have developed an alternative to Governor Kim Reynolds’ proposed overhaul of Area Education Agencies that help educate students with disabilities.  “We wanted to provide certainty for special education,” Grassley says. “We took Iowans’ feedback that we’ve been having in our meetings and realized how important that was.”

Reynolds wants to let schools use a private firm, a different A-E-A or hire more special ed staff in their districts for the next school year. The House G-O-P plan would start sending state and federal special education funding directly to schools rather than the A-E-As — as the governor proposed — but it may only be used for special ed services from the local A-E-A.  “We’re not changing the ability for AEAs and schools to work together,” Grassley says. “This plan would continue to encourage that.” Grassley says the plan calls for a study that would involve legislators, educators and parents.

A new state Division of Special Education would be created as the governor proposed, but with half as many employees and most of them would be assigned to work in the A-E-A regions. The nine A-E-A administrators would see their salaries cut to be in line with local superintendents in their region. In years two and three of the House G-O-P plan, schools would no longer have to use the A-E-As for media services or other education-related services, like teacher training and curriculum materials.

“We know that there’s still work to be done on some of the details,” Grassley says, “but we also know we’re against the clock right now and we feel we’ve taken a lot of input to get to the point where we’ve addressed a lot of the concerns that have existed on all of these issues, to try to continue to move their conversation forward for the legislative session.”

House Republicans decided a few weeks ago to table the governor’s bill on A-E-As. In a written statement, Reynolds said she appreciates that she and lawmakers will be able to continue the conversation about A-E-A changes. In a separate bill, House Republicans propose raising the salary for new teachers to at least 50-thousand dollars — as the governor called for — but over the next two years. Grassley says that would give schools time to adjust the pay levels for current teachers. House Republicans want to send 14 million dollars to schools — to raise the pay for other school staff.

“Really looking at your in-the-classroom para educators and others that we know our school districts are struggling to find right now and retain,” Grassley says, “and part of that also gets back to that one-on-one instruction in the classroom dealing with special education students, so we think it feeds in and ties into what that other conversation is with the AEAs.”

These proposals are scheduled for debate in the House Education Committee later today (Thursday), along with a bill that would increase general state per pupil spending on public schools by three percent.

(Radio Iowa) – A bill to ban traffic enforcement cameras AND require motorists to mainly use smart phones in hands-free mode while driving is eligible for debate in both the Iowa House AND Senate. The bill passed out of the House Transportation Committee on a narrow 11-to-10 vote yesterday (Wednesday). Some committee said the two issues should be separated. Others oppose the ban on traffic cameras. Committee chairman Brian Best of Glidden says he hopes to craft a compromise.

“Sometimes in the political world…things we do don’t make sense completely,” Best said, “but, at the same time….my ears are open.” Law enforcement officials are raising concerns about an outright ban on traffic cameras, along with continuing to allow motorists to handle a smart phone while driving if they’re talking or using the phone for navigation. Johnston Police Chief Dennis McDaniel is president of the Iowa Police Chiefs Association.

“We’re going to partner with our legislators to find common ground…to take two totally separate traffic safety initiatives and make it safer for Iowans,” he says. “We believe that the hands free legislation can be likely strengthened to make it a safety option and an easier option that creates commonality for motorists across Iowa.”

Law enforcement officials say they’re open to state regulation of cameras that generate tickets for speeding or running red lights, but oppose an outright ban on automated traffic enforcement technology.