(Radio Iowa) — Operators of big rigs traveling through Iowa and seven other states are starting to take advantage of a new system designed to make it easier for commercial drivers to locate parking in rest areas and private truck stops. Phil Mescher, with the Iowa DOT’s Office of Systems Planning, says the effort was launched several years ago and went “live” earlier this month. “People can travel all across our interstate system and at certain times see overcrowding of trucks in our rest areas and truck stops,” Mescher said.

Truck drivers can get information on available parking spaces along select interstates through various smart phone apps that access a data feed provided at trucksparkhere.com (trucks park here dot com). Officials in each of the eight states that are part of the “Trucks Park Here” system chose their own state-specific plans. In Iowa, the information is focused primarily on parking spots located along Interstate 80. “In Iowa, we picked the Interstate 80 corridor because that is where most of our truck traffic is. Mescher said also, “We have some sites that are very close to I-80. They go up I-29 and we also have one off of I-235. We go up Intestate 35 all the way to the rest areas that are south of Story City. We go up Interstate 380 as well, up to the Cedar Rapids area.”

Information on the available truck parking spots in Iowa will eventually be included on the state’s 511 system (www.511ia.org). The system should help truckers who need to find a parking space before reaching limits on how many hours they can be on the road. “It will never say that there are no spots available, it will just say the availability is low. But that at least gives them advanced information to make a decision…if they know their hours of service are about up, then they should probably go ahead and park in that first one rather than trying to risk getting to the next one,” Mescher said.

The Trucks Park Here system uses a variety of in-pavement and parking lot entrance/exit sensors. The effort was funded by a $25 million federal grant and involves the states of Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

WAUKEE, Iowa (AP) — The superintendent of the embattled Waukee Community School District will be leaving her post at the end of the school year. The school board voted Monday to accept Superintendent Cindy McDonald’s resignation, effective June 30. The third year of her three-year contract will be voided. A special state audit report released last month said administrators improperly used state credit cards and spent nearly $129,000 on items and services that “were not in the taxpayers’ best interest.”

The report says the items included nearly $28,000 for lounge chairs and furniture for the superintendent’s office and more than $83,000 on district administrators’ retreats. The district’s former chief operating officer, Eric Rose, is charged with two counts of solicitation to commit a felony and one count of felonious misconduct in office. Dallas County court records say Rose has pleaded not guilty.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CST

WASHINGTON (AP) — Iowa Republican congressman Steve King is losing his place on House committees after GOP officials condemned his comments about race. The nine-term congressman had lamented in a recent interview that white supremacy and white nationalism have become offensive terms. House Democrats are pursuing censure and other punishments for King, who has been criticized for his remarks about race over the years.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s top elections official has acknowledged that his office mistakenly derailed a long-sought plan to grant residents more expansive gun rights by forgetting to notify the public of the proposed constitutional amendment. Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate cited a “bureaucratic oversight” for his office’s failure to publish notice of the proposed amendment in newspapers before the November election, which the state constitution requires.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Republicans who control the Iowa Legislature are vowing to continue building the state’s workforce while reducing taxes and government dependence, the kind of reforms they say voters had in mind when returning them to power. Both parties pledged bipartisanship as the legislative session opened but largely laid out priorities unlikely to foster much agreement.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — House Democrats appointed to a committee to review the results of a contested northeast Iowa House seat are vowing to fight any attempt to rush to judgment on whether to count 29 absentee mail ballots. Kayla Koether trails Republican incumbent Michael Bergan by nine votes in the Iowa House district 55 seat. The dispute is the result of a conflict between state law and current practices of the U.S. Postal Service.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Veteran Republican Rep. Steve King will be blocked from committee assignments for the next two years after lamenting that white supremacy and white nationalism have become offensive terms. King, in his ninth term representing Iowa, will not be given committee assignments in the Congress that began this month, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Monday night.

King served on the Agriculture, Small Business and Judiciary committees in the last Congress, and he chaired Judiciary’s subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice. McCarthy, R-Calif., called King’s remarks “beneath the dignity of the Party of Lincoln and the United States of America.”
King’s comments “call into question whether he will treat all Americans equally, without regard for race and ethnicity,” McCarthy said, adding: “House Republicans are clear: We are all in this together, as fellow citizens equal before God and the law.”

The action by the GOP steering committee came after King and McCarthy met Monday to discuss the remarks on white supremacy, the latest in a years-long pattern of racially insensitive remarks by King. King called McCarthy’s decision to remove him from committees “a political decision that ignores the truth.” He vowed to “continue to point out the truth and work with all the vigor that I have to represent 4th District Iowans for at least the next two years.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell denounced King earlier Monday, saying, “There is no place in the Republican Party, the Congress or the country for an ideology of racial supremacy of any kind.” Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, also condemned King, telling CNN Monday that King “doesn’t have a place in our party” or in Congress and should resign.

Meanwhile, House Democrats moved to formally punish King. Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., the third-ranking House Democrat and the highest-ranking African-American in Congress, introduced a formal resolution of disapproval late Monday. Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., said he will introduce a censure resolution, a more serious action by the House, that Rush said would announce to the world that Congress has no home for “repugnant and racist behavior.” A third Democrat, Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio, introduced a separate censure resolution against King.

One Republican did not join the chorus of criticism. Asked about King’s remarks Monday, President Donald Trump said, “I haven’t been following it.”

Firefighters from Bridgewater, Greenfield, Fontanelle, Adair and Massena, were called to a residential structure fire in Bridgewater, at around 4-p.m. Monday. A blaze broke out at 109 W. 1st Street. Adair-Guthrie County Emergency Management Coordinator Robert Kempf said the home was a total loss. A single male occupant of the residence was able to escape unharmed. The American Red Cross was notified to offer the man assistance.

Most fire crews were on the scene until around 9:45-p.m. Some units remained on the scene a little longer, when the fire flared up again at around 10-p.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday denounced Rep. Steve King over his latest remarks on white supremacy, saying, “There is no place in the Republican Party, the Congress or the country for an ideology of racial supremacy of any kind.” McConnell is the highest-ranking Republican to criticize King, R-Iowa, who lamented last week that white supremacy and white nationalism have become offensive terms.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and other GOP House leaders have also condemned King’s remarks as racist. Meanwhile, House Democrats said they’ll seek formal punishment for King.
Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., said a censure resolution against King would announce to the world that Congress has no home for “repugnant and racist behavior.”

“As with any animal that is rabid, Steve King should be set aside and isolated,” Rush said Monday in a statement that also called on Republicans to strip King of his committee memberships until he apologizes. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, introduced a separate censure resolution against King. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat or Republican, we all have a responsibility to call out Rep. King’s hateful and racist comments,” Ryan said, noting that the white supremacy comments were not the first time King has made headlines for inappropriate language.

The text of Rush’s censure resolution lists more than a dozen examples of King’s remarks, beginning with comments in 2006 in which he compared immigrants to livestock and ending with his lamentation in the New York Times last week that white supremacy and white nationalism have become offensive terms.

McConnell, in his statement, said he has “no tolerance” for the positions offered by King, and said “those who espouse these views are not supporters of American ideals and freedoms. Rep. King’s statements are unwelcome and unworthy of his elected position. If he doesn’t understand why ‘white supremacy’ is offensive, he should find another line of work.” McCarthy on Sunday said that “action will be taken” against King.

One Republican did not join the chorus of criticism. Asked about King’s remarks Monday, President Donald Trump said, “Who?” Told it was King, Trump said, “I haven’t been following it.” King on Friday suggested he’s been misunderstood. He said the foundation of the Times interview was partly a Sept. 12 tweet in which he wrote: “‘Nazi’ is injected into Leftist talking points because the worn out & exhausted “racist” is over used & applied to everyone who lacks melanin & who fail to virtue signal at the requisite frequency & decibels. But…Nazis were socialists & Leftists are socialists.”

On Friday, King said on the House floor that the interview with the Times “also was discussion of other terms that have been used, almost always unjustly labeling otherwise innocent people. The word racist, the word Nazi, the word fascist, the phrase white nationalists, the phrase white supremacists.” King said he was only wondering aloud: “How did that offensive language get injected into our political dialogue? Who does that, how does it get done, how do they get by with laying labels like this on people?”

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who is the only black Republican in the Senate, cast King’s remarks and those like them as a blemish on the country and the Republican Party. “When people with opinions similar to King’s open their mouths, they damage not only the Republican Party and the conservative brand but also our nation as a whole,” Scott wrote in an op-ed last week in The Washington Post. King’s views, Scott added, are separate from the conservative movement and “should be ridiculed at every turn possible.” “Some in our party wonder why Republicans are constantly accused of racism — it is because of our silence when things like this are said,” Scott wrote.

King’s position in the GOP had been imperiled even before his remarks about white supremacy.
Shortly before the 2018 midterm elections, in which King was running, Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, then the head of the GOP campaign committee, issued an extraordinary public denunciation of him.
King has already drawn a primary challenger for the 2020 election: Randy Feenstra, a GOP state senator.

ROME, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say they have found the body of a missing snowmobiler in southeast Iowa. The Henry County Sheriff’s Office says searchers on Monday morning found the body of 25-year-old Spencer Adam, of Richland. He was reported missing just before 2 a.m. Monday.

His snowmobile was found about an hour later west of Mount Pleasant, just south of the village of Rome. His body was found in the Skunk River, about three-fourths of a mile from where the snowmobile was found. An autopsy is planned.

Firefighters from Massena were called to assist Bridgewater fire this afternoon. The page went out just before 4-p.m. for a residential fire at 109 W. 1st Street, in Bridgewater. No other details are currently available.

The National Weather Service today (Monday) said a widespread snow event is forecast for much of Friday into early Saturday across the state. There remains some uncertainty with respect to actual snowfall totals, but confidence is increasing in the timing and location of the snow event. In addition the widespread snow, blustery north to northeast winds are expected and will likely cause significant visibility restrictions along with blowing and drifting snow Friday afternoon into Saturday.

Then, an Arctic blast of bitter cold temperatures and wind chills filter into the state over the weekend. Sub-zero wind chills are anticipated for much of the weekend, with many locations dipping as low as 20 to 35 below zero by Saturday night into Sunday morning.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A senior member of the Congressional Black Caucus is pushing formal punishment for Rep. Steve King over his comments about white supremacy. Illinois Democratic Rep. Bobby Rush said Monday that he’ll introduce a censure resolution over the Iowa Republican’s remarks to The New York Times. The paper quoted King as asking how the terms “white supremacy” and “white nationalism” became offensive.

The censure resolution calls for Congress to send the message that it rejects “repugnant and racist behavior.” Rush also called on Republicans to strip King of his committee memberships. Republicans denounced King’s remarks. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said “action” will be taken to punish the lawmaker.

King says he is an advocate for “Western civilization” but denies that he is a racist. He is serving his ninth term.