(Radio Iowa) – Florida Senator Marco Rubio, the third place finisher in the Iowa Republican Party’s 2016 Caucuses, is in Iowa helping local Republicans raise money. As for whether he’ll run for president again, Rubio says he doesn’t know what the future holds. “I imagine in 2024 I, like others, will have to view what the opportunities are and I’ve run for president before, so clearly it’s something that’s interested me, but it’s certainly not something that right now I’m either planning or not planning,” Rubio says. “I don’t know what my life, the world, the country or politics will look like in two years.”

Rubio says his focus right now is on winning reelection to his U.S. Senate seat in 2022. Rubio, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says there should be some accountability in the Biden Administration for its handling of withdrawal from Afghanistan. “It didn’t have to be this way,” Rubio says. “…Afghanistan now presents a vast, ungoverned space for not just al-Qaida to now return, but even elements like ISIS khorasan to come in and create a place where they can begin to recruit and plot against America and our allies.”

Earlier this month, President Biden said America has developed “over the horizon” capacity to deal with terrorist networks. Rubio, who is also the top Republican on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, sent Biden a letter last week, asking for details on how the U.S. will rebuild its counter terrorism activities in the Afghanistan and tribal regions of Pakistan. Rubio says the closest state department consulate to assist Americans and our allies still trying to get out of Afghanistan is nearly 24-hundred miles away in Doha. “At this point, unfortunately, we’re in the ‘beggars can’t be choosers’ situation. I mean we have to figure out which countries in the region are willing to assist us not just in housing refugees, but in the ability to process paperwork and so forth,” Rubio says. “…I would hope that more places would step forward and provide us the capability to do that, but all of this should have been done a long time ago. I mean, it really was just poorly planned.”

Rubio was the keynote at a Story County G-O-P breakfast fundraiser this (Tuesday) morning and then visited a business in Ankeny to discuss supply chain issues. A spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee says Rubio is in Iowa teasing another presidential run rather than addressing the spike in Covid hospitalizations in his home state of Florida.

(Radio Iowa) – It’s been more than a month since thousands of bicyclists on RAGBRAI pedaled through the northwestern Iowa town of Lytton, but the benefits are still rolling in. Scott Matter, who helped organize Lytton’s events during the annual ride, says about 30-thousand dollars was raised that one day, money that will be split between helping to offset the cost of a new fire station and another local project. “One that people really rallied around is helping pay for a new community sign or digital sign,” Matter says. “With Lytton not having its own newspaper anymore, it’s a great way to let people know about what’s happening in town, whether it be a Legion meeting, a church supper, somebody’s anniversary or whatever. We don’t really have that and that’s something people are hoping we can contribute to.”

Lytton Mayor Jeff Ellerbrock says a member of the fire department’s board of trustees approached him shortly after the cyclists went through town on July 26th. “He came in all smiles and said, ‘Guess what? The fire station’s paid for,'” Ellerbrock says, laughing. “It just floored me. It was fantastic. I was just thrilled.”  Lytton RAGBRAI collected more than 15-thousand dollars earmarked for the fire station. Ellerbrock says one of the cyclists who stopped there during the ride remembered the town’s fund drive when he got home. “The fella’s name is Aaron Thompson and he lives in Chesapeake, Virginia,” Ellerbrock says. “He’s retired Navy, he was a SEAL for 30 years. He heard that we got the fire station out of debt and he still wanted to donate so he sent us $2,000 for Emanuel St. John’s Church in Lytton.”

In addition to the money raised by local organizations, another 54-thousand dollars has come in for local organizations. Matter says it took the entire community, and then some, pulling together to make it happen. More than 300 volunteers were in Lytton during RAGBRAI, a town with a population of only around 275. People from across Iowa and as far away as Florida came in to help out.

A man from Pottawattamie County was arrested Monday in Mills County, for OWI/3rd offense, and on a warrant for two counts of Indecent Contact with a Child. The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports 46-year-old Craig Raymond Janssen, of Council Bluffs, was taken into custody at around 2:15-p.m. His bond was set at $9,000.

(Creston, Iowa) – An apartment building in Creston sustained about $10,000 damage Tuesday morning, after it was struck by a white SUV. Creston Police say a witness reported the vehicle ran over a grassy area next to an apartment building east of the T-intersection of Laurel and S. Sumner Street. The vehicle continued until striking the side of an apartment at 1001 Sumner. When The incident occurred at around 8:20-a.m. When Police arrived, the vehicle was not on the scene, and they did not see it while enroute. The driver was not immediately known.

The wall of the building that was hit had a visible brick indentation, enough so that the vehicle broke through into the inside of an apartment. No injuries were reported. Due to the damage, the tenants door was jammed shut, and required the services of the Creston Fire Department to pry it open.

A collision this (Tuesday) morning in Guthrie County caused a total of $6,500 damage, but there were no injuries. According to the Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office, a 2012 Ford Focus driven by 15-year-old Tage Jordan Monahan, of Bayard, was stopped at the stop sign for 200th Street and Highway 4 at around 7:30-a.m.  A 2019 Chevy Traverse driven by 27-year-old Jacey Lyn Tuel, also of Bayard, was southbound on Highway 4.

Monahan took off from the intersection, and failed to yield to the SUV, striking it on the passenger side.

(Audubon, Iowa) – The Audubon School Board held a special meeting Monday evening, and along with it, a public hearing on the Proposed Issuance of approximately $3.4-million in school infrastructure sales, services and use, tax revenue and refunding bond. Superintendent Eric Trager explains…

Trager says this time around, they hope they have the necessary authority to proceed with the process.

The monies are sales tax dollars they are able to bond against because the sales tax is pretty much guaranteed through 2052, and not an increase in your taxes.

He said asking for money again from the taxpayers was not an option the Board wanted to consider. The Board passed the Resolution supporting the issuance of the bonds. Eric Trager said also, the school year is off to a good start, they’re happy to see the kids in the building and having things get back to normal as possible. He said “We’re off and running, so that’s a good thing.”

JOHNSTON, Iowa (August 31, 2021) – Kay Henderson, the dean of the Iowa Capitol press corps and long-time guest panelist on Iowa Press, will be the next host and moderator of the Iowa PBS public affairs program. Henderson replaces David Yepsen, who retires from the Iowa Press desk on September 10, 2021. Her first formal broadcast as host will be Friday, September 17.  “Kay is already a member of the Iowa PBS family,” said Molly Phillips, executive director and general manager of the statewide public television network. “She has capably subbed as host and has been a regular second chair at the Iowa Press desk. She’s participated in countless campaign debates over the last three decades. We couldn’t ask for a stronger, more esteemed and experienced journalist to continue the Iowa Press legacy.”

Henderson first appeared on Iowa Press in October of 1987. For the past 20 years, she has been the national political director for Learfield news networks in Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota and Wisconsin. She has served two terms as president of the National Association of State Radio Networks’ news directors group. Henderson was hired by Learfield in 1987 as a statehouse reporter for Radio Iowa, a statewide news and sports network serving more than 70 commercial radio stations. She’s been that network’s news director since 1994 and will remain in that role alongside her new weekly assignment at Iowa PBS. “It’s an honor to be invited to take on this new role,” Henderson said. “Watching Iowa Press hosts Dean Borg and David Yepsen guide the program over the past 34 years has given me a glimpse of the responsibilities ahead. I’m humbled by the opportunity and excited about the task of helping Iowa Press move into its fifth decade of service to our viewers.”

O, Kay Henderson

Henderson received the Iowa Broadcast News Association’s 2002 Jack Shelley Award, an annual recognition of “outstanding contribution to the cause of professional journalism.” The list of Shelley Award recipients includes the late Dean Borg, who retired as Iowa Press host in 2016, and the late Dan Miller, the long-time Iowa PBS general manager who was an Iowa Press producer early in his 37-year career with the network. “After three decades of Iowa public affairs coverage on radio and on Iowa Press, Kay Henderson is the backbone of political journalism in this state,” said Andrew Batt, Iowa Press senior producer. “Our viewers have found Kay to be a trusted source for news and information throughout annual legislative sessions and nearly 20 election cycles.”

Henderson’s first salaried job in journalism was a three-month summertime stint as managing editor of the Lenox Time Table, the weekly newspaper in her southwest Iowa hometown. In addition to her work in Iowa broadcasting, Henderson has appeared on the PBS NewsHour, NBC’s “Meet the Press” and ABC’s “This Week” as well CNN, Fox News and MSNBC.

Since its inaugural broadcast in 1971, Iowa Press has engaged the best local journalists to interview experts, political and other newsworthy figures while exploring issues of state and national interest. Each week, Iowa Press invites newsmakers, policy makers and elected officials to join capitol reporters in a weekly discussion. The program airs Friday evenings and Sundays at noon on Iowa PBS. It is rebroadcast Saturday mornings on Iowa PBS WORLD.3. Past episodes of Iowa Press are available online at iowapbs.org.

Program support for Iowa Press is provided by Associated General Contractors of Iowa and Iowa Bankers Association.