SIOUX CITY, Iowa [KCAU] — A lawsuit has been settled between northwest Iowa landowners and BNSF Railway over a 2018 train derailment and oil spill. Plaintiffs Phillip Kooima, Krisi Kooima, John Kooima, Helen Kooima, and the four trusts in which they are each the trustees filed the lawsuit against the railway, asking for actual damages and punitive damages. According to court documents, a settlement had been agreed upon on Jan. 17 with the case being dismissed with prejudice on Feb. 13. Details of the settlement have not been not provided. The lawsuit was initially filed in Lyon County as a district court case but was later moved to federal court.

On the morning of June 22, 2018, a train owned by BNSF carrying more than 30 cars of crude oil derailed just south of the community of Doon, Iowa. Some of the cars were compromised and leaked oil into floodwaters in Lyon County. The derailment and oil spill also forced the evacuations of several farms in the area. According to the lawsuit, the derailment caused 160,000 gallons of tar sand oil to spill into the waters, flooding the train tracks. The National Transportation Safety Board found that speed was not a factor in the derailment. Instead, over 48 hours of heavy rain washed out the tracks. Multiple agencies responded to the derailment and assisted in cleaning up the spill. The plaintiffs own approximately 464 acres of farmland in Lyon County that was damaged by the oil spill.

Progressive Railroading (photo) – Derailment near Doon, IA 2018

In December 2021, BNSF Railway agreed to pay a $1.5 million settlement to the Environmental Protection Agency.

DES MOINES, Iowa [KCCI]  — A Des Moines man has been arrested for allegedly shooting his girlfriend early Thursday morning at a hotel.  The Polk County Sheriff’s Office said deputies were dispatched to the Quality Inn and Suites at 4995 Merle Hay Road just before 1:00 a.m. Thursday after receiving a call from a man who said his girlfriend had been shot.

When deputies arrived they found Garriett Robinson, 48, outside the hotel room where the shooting was reported. A woman was found inside, suffering from a gunshot wound to the back, near her shoulder. She was transported to a Des Moines hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries. Investigators believe the shooting was a result of a domestic abuse situation. The PCSO says there was a child in the room with the couple when the shooting happened.

Robinson was arrested on several charges, including domestic abuse/assault while displaying or using a weapon, willful injury-causing serious injury, reckless use of a firearm with serious injury, child endangerment, possession of a controlled substance, and two counts of possession of drug paraphernalia.

He was being held in the Polk County Jail.

MOORLAND, Iowa [KCCI]— Two people are dead in a tiny Webster County town, after an apparent murder-suicide. Webster County Sheriff Luke Fleener says deputies were dispatched around 11:40 a.m. Thursday to a home in the 400 block of 1st Street in Moorland. There they found a deceased female in the living room and a deceased male in a bedroom.

In a news release, Fleener identified the woman as Sharon Jones, 79, and the man as her 55-year-old son Eric Jones. The sheriff said Eric Jones shot and killed his mother before turning the gun on himself. “This is an isolated incident and there is no immediate threat to the citizens of Webster County,” Fleener said in the release. “Our investigation will continue to try and determine what lead to these tragic events.”

Moorland, with a population of 176, is located about 10-miles southwest of Ft. Dodge.

(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.