(Radio Iowa) – M-O-C-Floyd Valley assistant high school principal Grant Hegstad was surprised with a major award Thursday during an assembly at the Orange City School. Milken Awards Senior Vice President, Jane Foley, announced Hegstad’s award. “The Milken Educator Award goes to Grant Hegstad,” she says. Hegstad is the only Iowa educator to receive the award. “I’m honored and humbled to say the least. I’m here today because I had incredible teachers growing up,” Hegstad says. “So I am so excited for you as M-O-C Floyd Valley and our student body, because I know the incredible group of people you have pouring into you as well.” Hegstad is is the 47th Iowan to receive the award.

Grant Hegstad is congratulated on his award. (KSCJ photo)

“Again, I’m so honored, so humbled, I’m glad. look forward to representing us and you as well. Just because it is people like you students and staff and leaders who have given me opportunities to grow and to learn and serve and lead as well. Thank you very, very much,” Hegstad says. The award includes an unrestricted gift of 25-thosuand dollars.

(Radio Iowa) – State funding would support full-day preschool for children from low-income households under legislation eligible for debate in the Iowa Senate, The state’s voluntary preschool program for four year olds provides state funding for 10 hours of preschool per week. The bill would provide state funding to support 20 hours of preschool each week for children whose parents have a yearly income at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty level. Senator Lynn Evans, a Republican from Aurelia, says many school districts offer full day preschool, but have to find other ways to finance it. Some are charging tuition, but Evans says that means children from low income families are left out.

“This offers them additional funding for those who are already trying to do the right thing for their kids,” Evans says. Evans says the proposal has the potential to close the achievement gap for some students. “Data from the Des Moines Public Schools has shown that fifth graders who don’t participate in preschool don’t catch up to their peers,” Students who qualify for free and reduced lunch are five percentage points behind their peers on the FastBridge reading test.”

Representative Henry Stone, a Republican from Forest City, introduced a similar bill in the Iowa House that offered schools state funding to support all-day preschool for four year olds from low income households. “The more we get kids around that structure, the sooner we get them into the education system, the better their outcomes are,” Stone says. Senator Herman Quirmbach, a Democrat from Ames, supports the bill, but he’s like to go farther and have full-day, state-funded preschool for all Iowa four year olds.

“The research is overwhelmingly positive as far as it benefiting students in terms of their academic achievement, in terms of a whole lot of longer term measures,” Quirmbach said, “things like progression on to college, things like avoiding incarceration.” Senator Sarah Trone-Garriott, a Democrat from Waukee, would also like to see full day state-funded preschool for all four-year-olds, but she voted for the bill to support preschool for children from low income households.

“This investment pays off in a big way for educational outcomes, for our communities, for social behavioral, emotional, mental health — everything,” Trone-Garriott said. “It is such a good way to spend our money as a state.”

The bill cleared the Senate Education Committee this week, but did not come up for a vote in the House Education Committee.

(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.