(Radio Iowa) — Republican Congressman Steve King says he’s ready to mount a vigorous defense of the president in the U.S. House Judiciary Committee next year. King predicts “a good number” of Democrats will try to impeach the president once Democrats take the majority in the House in January. “I sit on the House Judiciary Committee, you know, up on the top bench. I will be third in seniority, I believe, so if they try to bring impeachment of President Trump through the Judiciary Committee, I’ll be sitting there doing battle with all of the vigor that I can to defend this president and help him be as effective as he can be,” King says. “I dread that. I don’t look forward to that, but it must be done.”

Once he returns to Washington, King plans to confront Ohio Congressman Steve Stivers, the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee. On October 30th, Stivers took to Twitter to say the country “must stand up against white supremacy and hate” and Stivers “strongly” condemned King. “When he criticized me, that lended validity to the charges made by all the Democrats…and I believe Steve Stivers was worth to my opponent at least $1.5 million for what he said and so there will be a reckoning for that kind of behavior and I would say of Steve Stivers, he has no path to leadership for the rest of his political life, but that’s not enough,” King says. “He and I haven’t had a conversation yet, but you can just about imagine how that’s going to go.”

King won his eight previous races for congress by an average margin of 23 percent. His victory margin in 2018 was about two percent. “I feel like Kirk Ferentz when the Hawkeyes beat Michigan State in a triple overtime,” King says. “I talked to him after the game and he said: ‘We cut that one a little close.'” J.D. Scholten, the Democrat who came within two points of defeating King this year. King has accused his critics of trying to “Kavanaugh-ize” him in the closing weeks of the election.

“The people over here knew better, on balance,” King says. “It peeled some off. It may have peeled off 15-18 percent, but in the end I’d stopped into 382 towns. Our staff has been there every year, in each town, and I got to all 39 counties at a minimum every year and that’s what sustained the victory here.” Scholten has not ruled out another run against King in 2020. Long-time Iowa Congressman Berkley Bedell and Senator Tom Harkin — who was first elected to the House — were both elected in their second try for a House seat.

(Radio Iowa) — A faculty member and alumna of a struggling Iowa college is donating half a million dollars to keep the school open. Iowa Wesleyan. Biology professor Dolores Poulter Wilson wants her school in Mt. Pleasant to stay open much longer than that.

“I could do a whole lot with a half million dollars. That even staggers me, you know? But what would’ve been the gain there? And we’re at a critical point,” Wilson says. Wilson says she graduated from Iowa Wesleyan with one dollar and 87 cents to her name, and that she only got her degree because of the school’s scholarships and donations. She went on to teach a the school for 56 years.

(Radio Iowa) — The location of Iowa’s newest casino is raising critical concerns from the C-E-O of a nearby homeless shelter. Candace Gregory, who runs the Open Door Mission in Omaha, Nebraska, says the new Prairie Flower Casino in Carter Lake, Iowa, is only eight-tenths of a mile away. The casino, run by the Ponca Tribe, opened earlier this month and Gregory fears the impact will soon be felt.

“It’s within walking distance of a very vulnerable population that already has a high addiction level,” Gregory says. “I truly believe the Open Door Mission and other non-profits will be left picking up the pieces of broken lives again, and the social issues that are going to be created, it will be costly to taxpayers.”

The new gambling hall is located almost within sight of the homeless mission, which serves many hundreds of meals daily and offers shelter for up to 600 people nightly.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Animal rescue officials in Iowa are asking for the public’s help in tracking down whoever tossed an emaciated dog trapped in a kennel into a trash bin. The Animal Rescue League of Iowa says in a news release Friday that a passerby found the Chihuahua Nov. 2 in a dumpster in Des Moines’ River Bend neighborhood and took the starving dog to Animal Rescue League.

Vets there say the dog, dubbed “Oscar,” weighed just 4 pounds and was suffering from a loss of muscle mass and fur as well as intestinal parasites. His fur was stained from being caged in his own filth for a long period.

The League says Oscar is recovering and regained 25 percent of his body weight in the first two days of treatment.

(Corrects earlier street value) — A traffic stop on an RV in Fremont County early Friday morning resulted in the discovery of nearly 300 pounds of high-grade marijuana worth almost $2.9-million. The Fremont County Sheriff’s Office says the 2017 Chevy Coachman RV was pulled over for several moving violations at around 2:40-a.m., on Interstate 29 southbound, four-miles from the Iowa-Missouri border.

A Fremont County K9 was deployed and indicated and alerted to the presence of controlled substances inside the vehicle. The pot was worth $2.88-million. Deputies arrested 65-year old Richard Jordan, of Elizabeth City, North Carolina, 44-year old Elwood Perry, Jr., of Chesapeake, Virginia, and 45-year old Patrick Hawes, of Norfolk, Virginia.

Hawes

Perry

Jordan

Each of the men were charged with Possession of a Controlled Substance with Intent to Deliver more 100 Kilograms, a Class B Felony.  All parties are being held at the Fremont County Jail without bond, pending an initial appearance with a Magistrate. The Fremont County Sheriff’s Office was assisted by the Iowa Division of Narcotic Enforcement.