(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird attended Donald Trump’s trial in New York on Monday at the invitation of the Republican Attorneys General Association. She briefly answered a question about the trip during a news conference today (Tuesday) in Ankeny. “I went to New York to show my support for President Trump and to witness what was going on there in that courtroom in Manhattan,” Bird said.

Bird told Iowa reporters no tax dollars were used for the trip. A spokesperson for her campaign later identified the group that paid for it. Bird spoke with New York reporters Monday and said Trump’s trial was a travesty and the charges against the former president were a scam, but during her news conference in Ankeny she spoke about the trial for about 12 seconds. Bird was at a trucking company with Iowa Motor Truck Association representatives to announce legal action against E-V rules for semis.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Board of Directors of the Atlantic Community School District will meet at 5:30pm Wednesday, May 15, 2024 in the Atlantic High School Media Center. The meeting will be open to the public as required in Chapter 20 of the Iowa Code.

AGENDA
1. Call to Order
2. Roll Call
3. Approve Agenda
4. Action Item(s)
a. Approve 2024-2025 Certified Agreement between the Atlantic Education Association and the Atlantic School District
5. Discussion
a. The Atlantic Classified Union will present its initial contract proposal for the 2024-2025 school year between the
Classified Union and the District’s Negotiation Committee.
b. The District’s Negotiation Committee will present its opening proposal to the Atlantic Classified Union and its
representatives.
6. Adjournment
7. Exempt Session
a. The District’s Negotiation Committee will go into an exempt session to review proposals. Meeting closed to the public.

(Radio Iowa) – A ceremony on the state capitol grounds today (Tuesday) marked an anniversary for the state’s Vietnam Memorial.  “The Vietnam War Memorial was dedicated 40 years ago on Memorial Day May 28 of 1984 by then Iowa Governor Terry Branstad,” according to Dan Gannon, Commander of the Des Moines Chapter 20 of Vietnam Combat Disabled Veterans.

Gannon says the Iowa Memorial came two years after the National Vietnam Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D-C. Gannon, who served in the Marines in Vietnam says many other Iowans served our country as well. “During the Vietnam War years 115-thouand Iowans served in Vietnam in all branches of the military,” he says. “Their average age was 19. They were still teenagers barely out of high school and some not yet old enough yet to vote for the president’s who sent him there.” Gannon says nearly 900 Iowans gave the ultimate sacrifice.

“Eight hundred and 68 Iowans became casualties of that Vietnam War their names are etched as you can see in the black granite to my to my back,” Gannon says. “There are over 58-thousand-281 names on the Vietnam Wall in D-C.” He says it wasn’t very far into the war before the first Iowan died. “Iowa’s first casualty of the Vietnam War was Navy hospital corpsman second class Gerald Owen Norton. He served with the first Marine airwing and was killed in a helicopter crash in Vietnam on October the second of 1962, Gannon says.

He says Norton, who was from Moulton, was the first corpsman killed in the war. Gannon says the last Iowan killed in combat tragically came just before the war ended. “Nineteen-year-old United States Marine Corps Lance Corporal Darwin Judge from Marshalltown, Iowa. He died on the 29th of April 1975. The last day of the war during a rocket attack. His death occurred just prior to the final evacuation of the Embassy in Saigon.” Gannon says He says five Iowans received the Medal of Honor for their conduct in the Vietnam War.

It is the 17th year there has been a state ceremony for Iowa Vietnam Veterans Recognition Day. All of the names of the Veterans on the Iowa wall were read for the first time in another ceremony that followed the anniversary recognition.

(Radio Iowa) – Residents in the Sioux City area say their local community college needs to be more transparent about a $3 million settlement with 13 Chilean students who accused the school of human trafficking.

Three other international students from Chile have not yet settled with Western Iowa Tech. Dave Bernstein, the president of State Steel in Sioux City and a former member of the Iowa Economic Development Board, addressed the Western Iowa Tech board yesterday.

“I think there’s great concern over the fact that most likely there will be additional settlements taking that number up significantly, whether or not you actually have insurance in place to cover that or not, whether that’s going to take a hit to tuition’s or come out of your state funding or come out of the levy that goes against property tax holders within this area,” he said. “I think that’s a very significant concern that all taxpayers have a right to know.”

Rosanne Plante, a Sioux City lawyer, is a former instructor at the college. She said the school’s reputation has been tarnished. “You don’t reach a settlement of $3 million without spending a significant amount of money on lawyers,” Plante said, “and without determining that it’s far better to settle than it is to have your dirty laundry aired.”

The students say the college promised a free two-year program with internships, but they were forced into manual labor jobs at a dog food factory and a food processing plant to pay off tuition. The trial in a separate case involving Western Iowa Tech students from Brazil is scheduled to start about a year from now.

(Glenwood, Iowa) – The Glenwood Police Department reports the arrest today (Tuesday), of 19-year-old Jonathan Young, from Glenwood. Young was taken into custody for Failure to appear. His cash-only bond was set at $300.

DES MOINES – Governor Reynolds today sent a letter co-signed with Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig to Secretary Tom Vilsack at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) requesting federal assistance for farmers whose properties were damaged or destroyed by severe weather on April 26-27, 2024. 

The governor issued the letter after being notified earlier in the day that a Presidential Major Disaster Declaration had been authorized by the White House, opening Federal Emergency Management Agency and Small Business Administration programs to disaster-affected homeowners, renters, and businesses in eight counties. 

An excerpt from the letter to the USDA is included below: 

“Iowa farmers have been significantly impacted by these storms and require assistance to recover from these catastrophic damages and to rebuild and replace destroyed grain bins, farm equipment, and operational business losses.  Disaster assistance programs only offered through the Farm Service Agency following a Secretarial Designation, including the Farm Loans Program and the Emergency Assistance for Livestock Program, are needed to help Iowa farmers recover from these storms. 

“As a result, we respectfully request your consideration and prompt issuance of U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretarial Designation and activation of any and all eligible assistance for the following eight Iowa counties:  Clarke, Harrison, Mills, Polk, Pottawattamie, Ringgold, Shelby, and Union.” 

The letter can be read in its entirety online.