(Radio Iowa) – Republican Congresswoman Ashley Hinson and an Arkansas senator who’s among the potential 2024 G-O-P presidential hopefuls visited with veterans in Independence this weekend. Hinson says the Biden Administration had intelligence reports that Kabul would fall to the Taliban and congress must investigate. “Instead of talking about spending $3.5 trillion more dollars, we should be trying to find solutions to the problems happening in Afghanistan right now,” Hinson says.

President Biden says it’s time to end the war and there would have been chaos if the departure of U.S. forces had been delayed. Hinson says congress should investigate why American military equipment is ending up in Taliban hands and she says any arbitrary deadline for withdrawal should be shelved until all Americans and allies in Afghanistan are evacuated.

A traffic stop Wednesday in Clarinda resulted in an arrest. The Page County Sheriff’s Office reports a Sheriff’s Deputy initiated a traffic stop on a person whom is known not to have a valid driver’s license. During the traffic stop, 41-year-old Phillip Jay McClish, of Clarinda, was arrested for Driving while license is suspended / revoked. McClish was transported to the Page County Jail where he was held on $491.25 bond pending further court proceedings.

A traffic stop in Glenwood, Sunday, resulted in the arrest of 42-year-old Mark Schepker, from Glenwood. He was taken into custody for OWI/1st offense. Schepker’s cash/surety bond was set at $1,000.

An accident last week in Guthrie Center resulted in $1,000 damage to the local Dollar General Store. According to the Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office, a 2017 Chevy Silverado pickup driven by 24-year-old Christopher Stamp-Powders, of Guthrie Center,  struck the store when, as Stamp-Powders told deputies he “just wasn’t paying attention.” The truck hit the southwest corner of the store, sustaining about $2,000 damage. The incident happened at around 6:35-p.m. Wednesday (Aug. 18th).

Authorities say Stamp-Powders was not injured, and there were no citations issued.

(In an update to our earlier post) – A man from Shenandoah died as the result of a motorcycle accident Sunday night, in Fremont County. According to the  Iowa State Patrol, 40-year-old Ric West-Lytle was traveling east on Highway 2 at around 9:45-p.m., when for reasons unknown, his 2001 Harley Davidson XL200S entered the westbound lane and then went into the north ditch. The motorcycle flipped several times before coming to rest in the ditch. West-Lytle was ejected from the machine during the crash.

His body was transported to the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Ankeny. The accident remains under investigation.

(Radio Iowa) – The National Association of Secretaries of State Task Force on Vote Verification has released six recommendations for states on handling post-election audits. Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate was on the bipartisan task force and says the “best practices” are similar to what Iowa already does. “We do post-election audits, in fact, I am very proud of the fact we did 99 post-election audits — one in each county,” Pate says. “And the hand count matches exactly what the tabulator said, and I think that speaks to the integrity of our process.

The recommendations include how to handle ballots and being transparent in releasing the results.”It is imperative that the public has total confidence in the process and the results,” Pate says.  He says the public is now demanding more information. “They want to know more than just that you ran a safe election. They want you to share with them what steps are you using,” according to Pate. “The fact that we have bipartisan teams working side-by-side who can observe the process from beginning to end. The fact that the machines are certified in front of other people and tested and retested. Our ballots get hand-counted in the post-election audits.”

Pate says another key recommendation is to get the process set long before the voting starts. “Let’s set the rules for an election well before the election — none of this midstream stuff. That’s when you start creating doubt with the public,” Pate says. “My role as Secretary of State, I am a referee, I don’t get to wear a uniform. If you are at a sporting event don’t change the rules in the middle of the game and go ‘hey you know we are going to rethink that’.”

The task force released its recommendations late last week.

(Radio Iowa) – Union organized Labor Day events in several Iowa cities are being cancelled because of the pandemic. The Hawkeye Area Labor Council has voted to cancel all Labor Day events in Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Iowa City, Marshalltown and Mason City. Rick Moyle, executive director of the Hawkeye Area Labor Council, issued a written statement. Moyle said with Covid case numbers sadly rising, the group knows it has a responsibility to do the right thing and does not want to contribute to the spread of what he referred to as “this evil virus.”

According to the Iowa Federation of Labor’s website, the annual Labor Day observances organized by union members also have been cancelled in Clinton, Des Moines and the Quad Cities.