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Keep up-to-date with Fox News Radio, Radio Iowa, Brownfield & the Iowa Agribusiness Networks!
(Atlantic, Iowa) – The City Council in Atlantic will hold a Budget Work Session beginning at 3-p.m. Thursday (Feb. 15th), in the Council’s Chambers at City Hall. Here’s a look at the meeting agenda:
Review and Recommendation on Economic Development Focus for FY 2025
Order to go into Exempt Session Pursuant to Iowa Code Section 20.17(3) Providing for the Strategy Meetings of Public Employees for Collective Bargaining
Review and Recommendations on Local Option Sales Tax and & Hotel-Motel Tax
LOST Parks & YMCA Funds
Other Discussion
Adjournment
(Des Moines, Iowa; Iowa Capital Dispatch) – Lawmakers passed dozens of bills through committee Tuesday to keep them available for discussion as they near the first deadline of the 2024 legislative session. It’s “funnel week” at the Iowa State Capitol. That means most bills must be approved by a committee by the end of this week to remain eligible for consideration.
While bills that do not meet this deadline are considered “dead,” it does not mean that the proposals are completely out of consideration for the rest of the session. Legislation involving spending, tax and government oversight components are exempt from the funnel, and language from legislation that did not meet the deadline can be added as amendments to other bills or be brought up as leadership-sponsored legislation.
Legislators in both chambers met for 12 committee meetings Tuesday with packed agendas — the Senate Judiciary Committee had 23 bills on its schedule for discussion. Here are some of the bills kept alive:
Gender balance: The House State Government Committee passed legislation repealing Iowa’s gender balance requirement for boards and commissions on a 15-8 vote Tuesday. House Study Bill 670 would eliminate requirements of equal gender representation on state panels, a measure recommended by the Iowa Boards and Commissions Review Committee in their 2023 report to Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and lawmakers.
School buildings: Senate Study Bill 3112 was passed with an amendment by the Senate Local Government Committee. In its amended form, the bill would prohibit political subdivisions, like cities and school districts, from any restrictions on the sale, lease or transfer of educational institutions to private schools. The bill also would require the sale of former school buildings to private schools if they are the highest bidder. Sen. Cindy Winckler, D-Davenport, said the proposal would functionally mandate the sale of former educational buildings to non-public schools, as it would allow private schools to bid again if they are not the initial highest bidder on educational properties. Sen. Jesse Green, R-Boone, said the bill will ensure the best use of public funds by requiring that public school buildings can continue to be used for educational purposes, as well as prevent discrimination against private schools attempting to purchase property.
The measure passed out of committee with Republican support.
Public lands: Senate Study Bill 3129 was passed with an amendment by the Senate Natural Resources and Environment Committee on Tuesday. It would prevent the Iowa Department of Natural Resources from bidding for land and also from acquiring land from a not-for-profit organization that obtained it at auction. The bill was amended to remove an ambiguous clause that might have prevented all future land transfers from not-for-profit organizations to the DNR. Sen. Tom Shipley, R-Nodaway, said the bill aligns with current DNR policy. However, while there might be exceptions to department policy, the legislation does not provide any.
Republicans of the committee voted to advance it 9-4.
Hand-free driving and speed cameras: Democrats criticized Senate Study Bill 3016 during the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting for combining two measures that have been introduced in previous sessions as separate issues: banning drivers from using cell phones outside of voice-activated or hands-free modes, and banning state and local authorities from using traffic enforcement cameras to enforce traffic laws. Law enforcement officials spoke in support of the hands-free provision at a January subcommittee meeting but asked for lawmakers to remove the traffic camera provisions, saying the technology helps reduce accidents and uphold traffic laws.
The bill passed committee with a 10-8 vote.
Illegal immigration charges: The Senate Judiciary Committee passed Senate File 2211, which would make illegal immigration a state crime in Iowa. Under the bill, law enforcement would be given the authority to arrest immigrants who entered the country illegally, and state courts would be able to order the deportation of undocumented immigrants arrested in Iowa. Law enforcement officers and state agencies would be able to transport undocumented immigrants to ports of entry to ensure they comply with the order to leave the country, and those who refuse to comply with an order to return to their home country could face felony charges.
Gender-neutral language instruction: Iowa foreign language teachers would be prohibited from incorporating gender-neutral language into languages that use grammatical gender systems, like French and Spanish under House File 2060. Rep. Bill Gustoff, R-Des Moines, said the legislation was necessary both to ensure Iowa students are being taught languages as they are used by native speakers throughout the world, and because teachers had been threatened with disciplinary action for not using gender-neutral language or words in world language instruction. But Rep. Heather Matson, D-Ankeny, said the bill would prohibit teachers from including instruction that reflects evolutions in language. The bill passed 15-8.
DES MOINES, Iowa [KCCI] — A bull that got loose during the Iowa Beef Expo at the Iowa State Fairgrounds Tuesday morning has been euthanized. The Des Moines Police Department first notified the public through a post on X at 7:52 a.m. that the bull had been discovered missing, but they weren’t sure whether it had left the Fairgrounds’ property. They offered a warning not to approach the bull and instead call 911 if you see it. At 9:49 a.m., DMPD posted that the bull had been captured.
A statement provided later in the morning by the Iowa Beef Expo revealed the bull had been euthanized for safety reasons.
“We regret to inform you that, despite our best efforts, the loose bull during the Iowa Beef Expo has been euthanized for safety. We understand the concern this may cause, and we share in that sadness. Our primary focus remains the safety and well-being of the people and animals at the show. We appreciate the swift and diligent response of staff and the cooperation of attendees and exhibitors. Our thoughts are with all those affected, and we are committed to learning from this experience to prevent similar occurrences in the future.”
Iowa Beef Expo
A representative for the Iowa Beef Expo declined to provide information about how the animal was euthanized and said they had no further comment or information on the matter at this time. The Iowa Beef Expo runs through February 18.
PERRY, Iowa [KCCI] — School officials in Perry announced Monday night that Perry Community School District was awarded funding from the state for school safety. The Iowa Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management confirmed to KCCI that the district was awarded $50,000 for each of its three buildings — a total of $150,000.
This money is part of Gov. Kim Reynolds’ School Safety Improvement Program announced in 2022. The $75 million school safety improvement fund is coming from Iowa’s share of the American Rescue Plan Act signed by President Joe Biden nearly three years ago. Each public and nonpublic school district in the state may apply for up to $50,000 per school building to make minor capital security improvements aligned with each building’s completed vulnerability assessment.
The money can be used to install things like locks, cameras, reinforced doors, and other security measures. The superintendent said now that they’ve been approved, their next step is to meet as a safety group and assess their needs. The school district has until 2024 to designate money for projects and 2025 to get work completed and seek reimbursement. School districts will be reimbursed with proof of completed work.
(Radio Iowa) – A best-selling British novelist who writes crime-thrillers is releasing her tenth book this week, the second in a row that’s set in Iowa, more than four-thousand miles away from her home in Brighton, England. Erin Young’s earlier novel, “The Fields,” followed a sheriff’s deputy who was based in rural northeast Iowa, and the new book, “Original Sins,” picks up the story in Iowa’s capitol city with the heroine Riley Fisher in a new role. “She’s moved on, as you say, from being in Black Hawk County in the sheriff’s office where she had risen to become head of investigations, so she was pretty much at the top of her game and could have probably stayed there and done pretty well,” Young says, “but she’s decided to throw caution to the wind and has headed down to Des Moines on her first assignment as a rookie in the FBI.”
In a phone interview with Radio Iowa from the U-K, Young says that first book in the series started out as a small-town murder-mystery that spiraled into a global conspiracy involving high-level corporate and political corruption. “I’ve sort of done a similar thing in ‘Original Sin,'” Young says. “I’ve taken what looks to be a sort of standard serial killer format and I’ve tried to do something a little bit different with it, but it’s one of those things where it’s really hard to talk about without giving away the whole plot, so I better stop there before I do.”
Back in 2017, Young read an article about what she calls disturbing trends in big agriculture and corn production, which gave her a “lightning bolt idea” for the first novel. She Googled “world’s biggest corn producer” which led her to the Hawkeye State. “That kind of bounced me into somewhere that I’d never been,” Young says. “I didn’t know anything about it before I started the novel, and in 2018, when I got the go ahead from my publishers to write the book, I hopped on a plane and spent a good few weeks out in Iowa, doing as much research as I could, and ‘Original Sins’ follows on the story.”
In a Radio Iowa interview from 2022, Young said a production company had acquired the rights to “The Fields” with plans to launch a television series centered on Riley Fisher’s crime-solving adventures. She says it’s still in the works. “I had always been told that TV and Hollywood was kind of this very slow machine, but I had no idea quite how slow,” Young says. “Obviously, you know, with the pandemic, and with the writers’ strikes and actors’ strikes, it’s definitely slowed the whole thing down, but we have a fantastic screenwriter and showrunner and it’s all sort of poised at the moment.”
Young’s first eight books were all works historical fiction, written under her pseudonym, Robyn Young. All eight were international bestsellers that have sold two-million books worldwide. They’re available in 19 languages in 22 countries.
(Radio Iowa) – Republicans in the Iowa House are proposing joint training of state nursing home inspectors and nursing home staff. The twice-per-year training would have to include a review of the most frequent complaints about care from the previous year. Republican Representative Ann Meyer of Fort Dodge says she wants nursing homes to stay open and the policy would build a more collaborative relationship between inspectors and facilities.
“Making sure that complaints in the nursing home are going to be addressed,” Meyer says. “And (with) the training, we want to make sure that both entities are on the same page, the nursing homes and the inspectors.”
Democrats in the Senate have been calling on state officials to hire more nursing home inspectors. Senate Democrats have also proposed more state funding to raise direct care workers’ pay and an increase in Medicaid’s allowance for things like hair cuts, toiletries and clothing for nursing home residents.
(Radio Iowa) – A bill to make changes in Iowa’s early voting process for this year’s elections has cleared initial review in the Iowa House and will be considered in the House State Government Committee today (Wednesday). For the past two years, absentee ballots had to be in a county auditor’s office by the time polls closed on election day. The bill moves that deadline up, to the day BEFORE the election, and adds new requirements for absentee ballot envelopes. Adams County Auditor Becky Bissell, president of the Iowa State Association of County Auditors, says the group opposes the bill.
“Due to the unnecessary changes to the voting process and for making it more confusing and difficult for our voters along with the increased financial burden this would put on our counties,” Bissell said, “especially this year, when we are making cuts.” Amy Campbell is a lobbyist for the League of Women Voters of Iowa and A-A-R-P. “I also work with an organization that does turnout for voters with disabilities,” Campbell said. “The continual changes that happen every two years are adding to a lot of confusion for voters.”
The bill also wades into the national debate over attempts by officials in Colorado and Maine to bar Donald Trump’s name from the ballots in those states. The bill says federal candidates cannot be disqualified from Iowa’s ballot if they’ve been convicted of a felony. Representative Bobby Kaufmann, a Republican from Wilton, is the bill’s floor manager. “Individual states don’t get to play left or right wing politics with the ballot access,” Kaufmann said. “…It is not our job to decide who is on the ballot. It is the voters’ job and it’s arrogant, frankly, for us to think we should overrule what they choose to do.”
Representative Adam Zabner, a Democrat from Iowa City, asked Kaufmann if he’d checked with the Trump campaign on that part of the bill, since Kaufmann worked on Trump’s Iowa Caucus campaign, then Zabner raised concerns about the absentee ballot changes. “Are you concerned that on Election Day, voters won’t be able to turn in their ballots?” Zabner asked. Kaufmann replied: “Do you think they’re stupid? Because I don’t.” Representative Amy Nielsen, a Democrat from North Liberty, spoke next.
“I really resent you telling that to Representative Zabner asking him if he thinks voters,” Nielsen said and at that point in her sentence Kaufmann said: “He can defend himself.” Nielsen replied: “Stop interrupting me,” and Kaufmann replied: “I didn’t interrupt you and this is my subcommittee and I’ll refer to anybody I want to refer to whenever I want to refer to it.” Nielsen then walked out of the meeting and Zabner followed her out. Kaufmann spoke with reporters a few moments later.
“If they can’t stay in the room and have an adult conversation, then good riddance,” Kaufmann said. Zabner told reporters the bill makes perverse changes in early voting. “At the same time that we’re putting barriers in the face of Iowans who just want to exercise their basic rights, we’re making it easier for felons to run for president,” Zabner said.
A similar bill cleared a Senate subcommittee on Monday.
DES MOINES – Today, Gov. Kim Reynolds requested a Presidential Disaster Declaration for eighteen Iowa counties due to significant snowfall during the January winter storms.
The governor requested funding under the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Public Assistance Program for Adair, Black Hawk, Cedar, Clinton, Davis, Delaware, Dubuque, Jefferson, Johnson, Jones, Linn, Lucas, Montgomery, Polk, Scott, Story, Wapello, and Washington counties for the significant record-breaking snowfall that occurred between January 8 through January 14, 2024.
Following a joint federal, state, and local damage assessment of the affected counties, it was estimated the significant snowfall resulted in more than $8 million worth of damage that could be eligible under the Public Assistance program. Funding from this program is used to recoup costs related to snow removal, de-icing, salting, sanding of roads and other eligible facilities, and other emergency protective measures including but not limited to search and rescue and sheltering.
The letter can be read in its entirety here.
(Radio Iowa) – The director of the Iowa Department of Transportation says it took millions of dollars to clear the roadways from the double dip of blizzards in early January.
Director Scott Marler says the storms also generated millions of clicks on the 511ia.org road conditions site. “We had over 32 million hits on five on one during those back-to-back winter storms. We also had nearly 12 million impressions on our social media,” he says. The storms the second week of January dumped more than 24 inches of snow in some areas to go along with double-digit negative temperatures, and wind gusts of 45 to 50 miles an hour that created whiteout conditions.
Marler reported on the DOT’s costs for the storms today for the state Transportation Commission. “We spent nearly 104,000 in labor, $4.1. Our equipment hours were more than 63,000 hours and that was 2.3 million (dollars) in costs,” Marler says.”We spread nearly 30,000 tons of rock salt, nearly 6 million gallons of brine. That was 4 million dollars in our materials cost. So all in it was about a $10.4 million effort by the department fighting those back-to-back winter storms.”
Marler says there’s one surprising stat after reviewing the storms. “There were zero fatalities from those back-to-back winter storms, which was a miracle in and of itself,” he says. Marler says he traveled the interstate days after the storm and was surprised at the aftermath. “Many portions of the median were just like a litter ground of jackknifed semis and vehicles that had gone in the ditch. I shudder to think some of the conditions that these customers as well as the people working out on the road must have been under,” he says. “But zero fatalities is a wonderful story to tell after winter storms, like we experienced.”
Trucks in the ditch along I-80 after January blizzards. (RI photo)
Marler says many motorists did heed the warnings and stayed off the roadways during the storms. He says the amount of trucks caused problems because once things got slick and they couldn’t move, all traffic backed up and plows couldn’t get in to treat the roadways.
(Radio Iowa) – Senate Democrats are calling for a state minimum wage just for direct care workers in nursing homes. By July of next year, all nursing home direct care workers would have to be paid $15 an hour and Senate Democrats propose that it ratchet up to $20 an hour by the middle of 2030.
Senator Claire Celsi of Des Moines said staffing shortages are a huge issue in the nursing home industry and it’s led to tragic circumstances for some residents. “There are many good facilitis and we applaud them for the hard work they do every day,” Celsi said during a statehouse news conference, “but there are simply some facilities and some situations that just beyond the pale that we need to fix.”
According to state data, the average pay for direct care workers in nursing homes was $13 an hour in 2022. Republicans in the Iowa House say they’re concerned agencies supplying temporary employees to nursing homes are exploiting recently boosted state funding for nursing home care.
Senator Claire Celsi (D-Des Moines) (Official Photo)
Celsi and the 15 other Democxrats in the Iowa Senate are also calling for an increase in the allowance nursing home residents get if their care is covered by Medicaid. It’s called the Medicaid personal needs reimbursement rate, to cover things like hair cuts, clothing and toiletries. “This amount has not been raised in Iowa since 2002,” Celsi said, “and by doing so we can provide a greater level of self-sufficiency in these care settings.”
Senate Democrats say they support raising the state’s Medicaid reimbursement rate for nursing home care to cover these expenses as well as the hike in the minimum wage for direct care workers. It’s unlikely these proposals will be considered by Republican-led committees in the senate, but the proposals could be introduced during Senate debate of bills that outline state spending.
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