(Red Oak, Iowa) – The Board of Supervisors in Montgomery County, today (Tuesday) passed a FY 2023-24 Budget Amendment, following a public hearing, during which there were no comments made. Board Chair Mike Olsen…

The Board received a weekly report from Montgomery County Engineer Karen Albert, who provided an update on the 250th Street Bridge Project.

Montgomery County BoS mtg, 2-6-24

The Board also approved reports with regard to Recorder and Sheriff’s fees for the month of January, totaling $31,607, and the Treasurer’s Semi-Annual report.

(Radio Iowa) – An Iowa Senate subcommittee has given unanimous approval to the governor’s proposal to extend Medicaid coverage of post-partum care for new moms for 12 months after their babies are born. Current law provides coverage for 60 days after birth for Iowans with an annual income below 375 percent of the federal poverty level. The governor’s proposal lowers that cap to 215 percent. Iowa Health and Human Services director Kelly Garcia says Iowa’s current income Medicaid eligibility for pregnant moms is the highest in the country. “The concept is to bring our (Federal Poverty Level) in line with other states,” Garcia says, “and to use those investment dollars to extend coverage.”

Blank Children’s Hospital lobbyist Chaney Yeast says the lower threshold will hurt working moms who aren’t getting health insurance coverage from their employer. “We have a maternal mortality crisis. We have an infant mortality crisis,” Yeast says. “This is a single policy lever that you can pull to improve the health of moms and babies but also support our workforce.”

Iowa is among a handful of states that has not extended Medicaid coverage of post-partum care for a year after a child is born. The national group that represents O-B/G-Y-Ns says post-partum check-ups should include discussions about emotional well-being and care of the baby as well as a physical exam.

DES MOINES, Iowa [KCCI] — The federal weapons trial for Adair police Chief Brad Wendt, began Monday. Wendt is charged with making false statements to the ATF about buying machine guns for the police department and instead selling them in his gun store. KCCI reports Federal prosecutors said during opening statements, that Wendt used his position of trust to make money selling firearms for his personal gain. Wendt’s defense attorney told the jury he did nothing illegal and informed the ATF of all of his gun sales and purchases. This began in 2018, when Wendt was hired as the Adair police chief.

The government says he immediately started buying guns. A total of 90 guns over the years, which he said were for the two-man Adair police force. One of the weapons is an $80,000 electric Gatling machine gun that can fire 6,000 rounds a minute. Prosecutors say that the machine gun ended up on his personal Humvee SUV. Prosecutors say many of the guns he allegedly bought for the police department, he later sold at the two gun stores he owns.

Monday afternoon, several gun manufacturers testified about their dealings with Wendt. He faces 10 years in prison if convicted. The trial continues today (Tuesday).

Coralville, Iowa – The Iowa Department of Corrections reports a man serving a prison term for multiple crimes, including Habitual Offender and Robbery 1st Degree from Union and Wapello Counties, had died. 44-year-old Joseph Allen Bloom was pronounced dead due to natural causes at 6:58 a.m. on Friday, February 2, 2024 in a hospice room of the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Bloom had been serving a 110-year maximum term.  His sentence began on April 15, 2004.

(Creston, Iowa) – A man from northern Iowa was arrested late Monday morning, in Creston. According to Creston Police, 40-year-old Steven Christopher Lamer, of Clear Lake, was arrested at the intersection of Summit and Elm Streets, at around 11:25-a.m.  Lamer was taken into custody for Interference with Official Acts, and Theft in the 1st Degree (in the amount of $10,000+). He was being held in the Union County Jail on a $12,000 cash or surety bond.

And, Monday afternoon, Creston Police cited 26-year-old Shyanna Sue Fizer, of Creston, for allowing an animal to run at-large. She was issued the citation on a Promise to Appear in court.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Congressman Zach Nunn is co-sponsoring legislation he says will improve housing in rural communities. Nunn and North Carolina Congressman Wiley Nickel have introduced the Promote Affordable Housing Act. Its goal is to improve the U-S-D-A’s Section 524 loan program by extending the term for rural housing site loans and expanding their use. Nunn, a Republican from Bondurant, says rural America is facing a severe housing shortage.

“I’ve held dozens of public forums and it comes up every single time,” Nunn says, “particularly in our rural communities, getting access to builders for those first-time homebuyers, to somebody who might be able to downscale, to folks who are — like most of us — on a pretty light budget, and can’t go out there and buy a model home that’s in a suburb around Des Moines.” Nunn’s proposal calls for modernizing the U-S-D-A program providing loans used to purchase and develop housing sites for low-income and moderate-income families. Now, the program allows only a two-year loan term at below-market rate. Nunn says the bill would expand the loan repayment window to five years.

Nunn says, “That’s been one of the areas that I’ve heard, particularly from my rural communities, that they don’t even have the ability to get started on this, let alone make the investment to build a house, that then has to meet a number of compliancy requirements.” Nunn says the proposal would also allow loans to be used for development projects, including surveys, architecture designs and engineering.

(File photo) Third district Congressman Zach Nunn (R-Bondurant) speaks Oct. 27, 2023, at a Des Moines, IA news conference. (RI photo)

“This would really open up those low-interest loans for communities to be able to put a lot more housing up,” he says, “and help not only from the actual build site, but from everything that prepares it, to the actual construction, to then the final selling and compliance.” A companion piece recently passed in the U.S. Senate.

DES MOINES, Iowa [KCCI; WHO-TV; KCRG] — Non-credible threats to schools are no laughing matter, authorities say, and they’re happening with alarming frequency. Des Moines Police Sgt. Paul Parizek told KCCI officers respond to each threat as if an incident might occur, even though it is most likely a hoax.

Des Moines police responded in force Monday to a call of a student being held hostage inside a bathroom at Lincoln High School, which they eventually deemed a non-credible threat. Lincoln students said the school made an announcement over the loudspeakers. No one was injured, and now Des Moines police say they’re investigating it was a swatting incident.

It was not the first false threat to a central Iowa school over the last several days. A bomb threat at Ankeny Centennial High School shut down a state speech competition last Saturday. And there were other threats to Perry schools, just a month after the deadly shooting there. KCRG report the Cedar Rapids Police Department has seen an increase in the number of swatting calls this year. They say technology has made it hard to pinpoint where the calls come from.

When a school shooting hoax call is made, every on-duty officer in the Cedar Rapids metropolitan area responds. That includes Marion, Linn County Sheriff’s Department, and Federal partners. The response from these groups is immediate, but it does take time for them to clear buildings when a hoax call is made. That takes them away from other calls for service that arise across the city.

Safe+Sound Iowa, which launched last year as part of the governor’s School Safety Bureau, says it receives about 30-40 anonymous tips about school safety issues every month. WHO-TV reports lawmakers say they want to increase the punishment for those who make them. A bill, HF 2165, introduced in the Iowa House in January aims to create harsher punishments for those making swatting calls.

Currently in Iowa, charges for swatting calls are either a simple misdemeanor or serious misdemeanor, depending on the severity of the false report. If the bill becomes law, anyone who makes a false report that includes a specific criminal act to a public safety entity they will be charged with a Class D Felony. Those criminal acts include:

• A forcible felony
• Intimidation with a dangerous weapon
• Terrorism
• Unlawful possession of biological agents or diseases
• Arson

If a false report includes any of the aforementioned acts and results in someone being injured or killed, the charge will increase to a Class C felony.

The bill passed out of a house committee in January and will now go to the house floor for debate.

(Creston, Iowa) – Police in Creston say no injuries were reported following an accident at the intersection of Jefferson and S. Bureau Streets, Monday. The incident happened at around 4:15-p.m.  Authorities say a pickup being driven by 71-year-old Jerry Huffman, of Creston, was making a U-turn at the intersection, and an SUV driven by 32-year-old Nicholas Neitzel, of Creston, was traveling north on S. Bureau Street.

The pickup, which was facing west after completing the U-Turn, stopped at stop sign for the intersection. As the SUV was passing through the intersection, Huffman failed to yield to Neitzel’s vehicle. The driver’s side front bumper of the pickup struck the passenger side of the SUV.

The SUV, a 2011 Ford Explorer, then veered over a curb and into the yard of a residence. The impact with the curb caused the left front tire to pop. The vehicle sustained $3,000 damage. Damage to the 2000 Ford Ranger pickup was estimated at $1,500.

The Police report said no citations were issued, but it noted Huffman made an improper turn.

(Radio Iowa) – Democrats in the Iowa House are raising concerns about the pending sale of a southeast Iowa fertilizer plant. Koch Industries plans to buy the Iowa Fertilizer Company near Wever for three-point-six BILLION dollars. Representative J-D Scholten of Sioux City, says four companies already control 75 percent of the nitrogen fertilizer market in the U-S.

“Ask any row crop farmer and fertilizer is one of the number one costs they’ll bring up as an issue,” Scholten says. “This issue is not new and this is what Governor Branstad did when he gave to tax breaks to the Iowa Fertilizer Company over 10 years ago to create competition in the market.” In 2012, the State of Iowa provided 112 million dollars in tax credits and loans for the project. Lee County provided a 30 million dollar property tax abatement. Representative Elinor Levin, a Democrat from Iowa City, says state officials need to ensure Koch meets the terms for those incentives.

“Governor Branstad, when he awarded all of these tax incentives, pointed to competition specifically with Koch Industries as a reason to provide these incentives,” Levin says. “Well, now they’re being provided and incentivizing Koch to buy here in Iowa.” Scholten says the other concern is what happens to the 260 Iowa Fertilizer Company employees. “When the company has their monopoly power and they have record profits for these companies and they have these CEOs making huge amounts of money where workers get left behind, it’s a constant theme throughout our nation,” Scholten says, “so there’s nothing that won’t be the same.”

Koch’s acquisition of the southeast Iowa plant is being reviewed by federal anti-trust regulators, House Democrats have sent a letter to the U-S Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission and Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird that outlines concerns about the sale. Koch Industries already operates a fertilizer plant in Fort Dodge.

(Radio Iowa) – Attorney General Brenna Bird is asking the legislature for over half a million dollars to start a cold case unit in the Iowa Department of Justice. “There are 585 unsolved cold cases in Iowa,” Bird says. “About 400 of them could be considered active cold cases.” Bird proposes hiring three investigators and a prosecutor to dig into those unsolved murders.

“It’s important that we’re always trying to solve these cases because over time new evidence can come to light,” Bird says. “There’s new science available for DNA, but also witnesses after the passage of time may choose to come forward if they’re not as afraid of the person involved as they were in the past or if they have made changes in their life where they want to get certain things off their conscience that they know about.” Bird is asking legislators for money to hire three other prosecutors for her office as well as a prosecutor to focus on so-called cold cases.

“These cases are very difficult ones to try because of the passage of time,” Bird says, “so we do want the prosecutor involved from the beginning.” The Iowa legislature voted to create a cold case unit in the Iowa Department of Public Safety in 2008, but never provided the money for it to operate. More than a decade ago, state officials used a federal grant to hire a couple of investigators and a lab technician to cull through cold cases.