GRIMES, Iowa – Nov. 17, 2023 – If you travel on Interstate 80 near Altoona, you need to be aware of an upcoming construction project next week that may slow down your trip.

Starting on Monday night, Nov. 20, from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m., weather permitting, construction crews will work on resurfacing the bridge decks on I-80 over Fourmile Creek near Altoona. This will require alternating lane closures on the westbound lanes of I-80. On Tuesday night, Nov. 21, from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m., crews will work on resurfacing the bridge decks on the eastbound lanes of I-80 which will require alternating lane closures. You will follow a marked detour route for ramp closures affected by this construction project.

The latest traveler information is available anytime through the 511 system. Visit 511ia.org; call 511 (within Iowa) or 800-288-1047 (nationwide).

(Radio Iowa) –  Dozens of Iowa pastors and worship leaders are endorsing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for president today (Friday). Darran Whiting, pastor of Liberty Baptist Church in Cedar Rapids, is one of the people signing on to the DeSantis campaign’s Faith and Freedom Coalition. Whiting says it’s time to make his choice public. “I appreciate the stand that Governor DeSantis has taken, especially on life,” Whiting says. “Not that there aren’t other good candidates, but at this point I think Governor DeSantis is the right man at the right time.” Former President Donald Trump’s criticism of DeSantis for signing a Florida law to ban most abortions after the sixth week of a pregnancy was a defining moment for Whiting.

“I am pro-life. I don’t think it’s a terrible mistake to protect life at six weeks,” Whiting says, “and I think it’s a terrible mistake for former President Trump to say that.” And, if Trump winds up being the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nominee, he will not get Whiting’s vote.  “I cannot vote for somebody who tried to overthrow the government,” Whiting says. “I appreciate the Supreme Court justices that he put into place.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on the Iowa campaign trail. (RI photo)

“I appreciate some of his policies, but I absolutely, positively cannot endorse his rhetoric, his divisiveness, his lack of constitutional knowledge…We can’t afford at this point having a president who could be a felon running this country.”

Whiting says he thought and prayed about this decision and will be proud to Caucus for DeSantis in January. “Just his unwavering stance on life and social issues and his ability to articulate that position is essentially what led me to him,” Whiting says. Nearly 80 percent of likely Iowa Caucus-goers in the recent Des Moines Register “Iowa Poll” said a candidate’s stand on abortion restrictions is either “important” or “extremely important.”

The head of the Iowa Coalition of Pro-Life Leaders endorsed DeSantis in September, as did two Iowa attorneys who’ve represented the State of Iowa against legal challenges of a six week abortion ban.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – Auditor of State Rob Sand, today (Friday), released an audit report on Guthrie County.

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS:
The County’s revenues totaled $19,612,679 for the year ended June 30, 2022, a 2.8% increase over the prior year. Expenses for County operations for the year ended June 30, 2022, totaled $14,213,357, a 10.0% decrease from the prior year. The increase in the revenues is due primarily to an increase in property tax revenue and the significant decrease in the expenses is due primarily to a decrease in rock and sand inventory purchased in fiscal year 2022.

AUDIT FINDINGS:
Sand reported seven findings related to the receipt and expenditure of taxpayer funds. They are found on pages 92 through 98 of this report. The findings address issues such as lack of segregation of duties, material amounts of accounts payable, prepaid expenses and infrastructure and capital asset additions not properly recorded in the County’s financial statements. Sand provided the County with recommendations to address each of these findings.

Five of the seven findings discussed above are repeated from the prior year. The County Board of Supervisors and elected officials have a fiduciary responsibility to provide oversight of the County’s operations and financial transactions. Oversight is typically defined as the “watchful and responsible care” a governing body exercises in its fiduciary capacity.

A copy of the audit report is available for review on the Auditor of State’s website at Audit Reports – Auditor of State.

(Radio Iowa) – Lakeside Casino in Osceola is paying a 40-thousand dollar penalty for allowing two minors on the gambling floor in separate instances in January. One cases involved a 12 year old who got onto the floor with his mother, and the other involved a 14 year old who got onto the floor with her mother and played a slot machine. Lakeside general manager David Monroe told the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission Thursday security measures were not followed. “The incidents that occurred in January are the result of a couple of employees failing to follow the training and guidelines that they had committed to,” he says. “In both instances, the minors would not have gained access if the employees and just to even a marginal job.”

Monroe says they took a number of steps to ensure there is not a repeat. “First of all, we did the obvious we retrained every employee on property and had them sign an acknowledgment that they understood that it’s everybody’s responsibility on the property, not just security’s. And we went back and retrained the security officers on turnstile responsibilities,” Monroe says. “And we added a step where the security manager and assistant security manager were the only two that could approve somebody work in those stations. So not only do they have to demonstrate

IRGC (Radio Iowa photo)

the ability to verbally stay, they understood the job.” He says they reviewed the entry area and put in a new turnstile at the entrance to the gambling floor.

“The new turnstile has a physical arm barrier that requires a security guard to push a button that says I’ve acknowledged and I won’t let you in. We upgraded our I-D scanning system to a state of the art system which gives our security guards a better opportunity to identify fraudulent I-Ds,” he says. Monroe also apologized to the Commission. Commission member Allen Ostergren says his first thoughts on the violations involved a possible license suspension.” I can tell you in my mind, when I first read this, I was extremely punitive in my thoughts as to what should happen,” Ostergren says.

He says there was a lot going on in the one case with a mother bringing a 12 year old to the casino near midnight. Ostergren says the measures taken by the casino made him decided to go along with the fine. “But I can tell you and I want to tell other licensees, had there not been this level of remedial measures taken, I would have, I would have had a very hard time agreeing to just this kind of financial penalty, it would have been a lot more or something that would have hurt a lot more,” Ostergren says.

The Commission unanimously approved the 40-thousand dollar penalty.

(Corning, Iowa) – Adams County Sheriff’s Deputies responding to an alarm call last week, in Corning, ended-up arresting a juvenile on several charges. The Sheriff’s Office, Thursday (Nov. 16th), said incident investigation began at around 1:17-a.m. Friday, Nov. 10th, following a call from the Casey’s General Store at 204 6^th Street, in Corning.

Upon arrival, Deputies did not observe anything, but shortly after 2-a.m., Adams County Dispatch received call from a Casey’s employee who said they heard glass shattering. Upon further investigation, Deputies charged a 12-year-old with Minor in Possession of Alcohol, Theft in the 5^th Degree, Criminal Mischief in the 2^nd Degree (A Class-D Felony), and Burglary in the 3^rd Degree (a Class-D Felony).

The juvenile was not identified because of their age.

**Sheriff’s Office disclaimer: “Any potential criminal charges identified above are merely allegations, and any defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.“

(Red Oak, Iowa) – A woman from Red Oak was arrested Thursday night on an Assault charge. Red Oak Police report 31-year-old Makayla Dawn Hudson was taken into custody in the 1100 block of Kelly Circle at around 10:45-p.m., for Assault causing bodily injury. She was transported to the Montgomery County Jail and held on a $1,000 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – There’s another tick to be on the look-out for, especially if you raise cattle or horses in Iowa. The Asian longhorned tick has been found in 19 states, including Missouri. Veterinarian Grant Dewell says “They can bite humans, but they tend to prefer livestock.” Dewell is with Iowa State University Extension, and his research specialty is beef cattle.

The Centers for Disease Control has issued a warning about these ticks due to recently published research about three Ohio cows that died after being bitten tens of thousands of times by Asian longhorned ticks. This tick species was first found in the U-S in 2010. Dewell says a female can produce on her own. “A single female will produce several thousand eggs…so they can really expand exponentially their numbers once they get into a population,” Dewell says, “They can really overwhelm an animal in some cases.”

Asian longhorned tick (Iowa State University Extension photo)

Researchers in Ohio concluded the cattle there died of blood loss. Dewell says it’s important to keep grass cut around feedlots and make sure animals are grazing in pastures, because ticks prefer to live in areas with tall grass.”We’ll see how far north it spreads,” Dewell says. “It is somewhat cold tolerant, but it doesn’t love the cold either. We have ticks in Iowa, but they’re not as severe as in Missouri and Arkansas and those types of (warmer) places.”

While Asian longhorned ticks seem to prefer cattle and horses, they have been found on dozens of animals in the United States. A man from New York is the first known human to be bitten in the U-S by this species of ticks. That happened in June of 2018.

(Radio Iowa) – Three of the four Iowans who serve in the U-S House are calling on a fellow Republican to resign immediately. Congressman Zach Nunn of Bondurant says a report from the House Ethics Committee shows New York Congressman George Santos has not lived up to the ideals of honesty and transparency that Americans deserve from their elected representatives.

Congresswoman Ashley Hinson of Marion says Santos conduct was illegal and unacceptable. The ethics panel’s report found Santos blatantly stole from his campaign fund and lied about his background. Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks of LeClaire says if Santos doesn’t resign, the House should vote to expel him.

Nunn, Hinson and Miller-Meeks posted their statements on social media shortly after the House Ethics Committee released its report today (Thursday). Congressman Randy Feenstra of Hull has not commented publicly on the report. At the beginning of the month, all four Iowans who serve in the U-S House voted against a resolution to remove Santos from office — joining the majority of House Republicans who said they were waiting on the Ethics Committee report before making a judgment.

Santos has said he will not seek reelection in 2024, but he has refused to resign.

(Radio Iowa) – A-C-T scores among Iowa high school students who took the test dropped slightly from a year ago and far fewer students are taking the test.

The average A-C-T composite score for seniors who graduated from an Iowa high school last spring was 20-point-eight. That compares to a score of 22 for the 2014 graduating class in Iowa. Nine years ago, 68 percent of high school seniors in Iowa took the A-C-T. Just under half took it this past year.

Iowa, Iowa State and U-N-I no longer require students applying for admission to take the A-C-T.

(Radio Iowa) – The trial of the Sioux City woman accused of committing election fraud in elections when her husband’s name is underway and expected to last into next week. Kim Taylor is accused of filling out ballot request forms AND absentee ballots for several Vietnamese residents in the Sioux City area.

An Iowa State University student testified that when he tried of file his absentee ballot from Ames, he discovered someone had already cast a vote in his name. His mother, who testified through an interpreter, said Taylor called her to see if she needed help voting and Taylor completed the paperwork, but Nguyen signed the ballot. She also testified Taylor told her it was o.k. to complete ballot request forms for her son and daughter, but she never would have done that if she knew it was a crime.

Kim Taylor and her husband Jeremy Taylor have denied the charges.