[UPDATED] (Radio Iowa) – A group of nurses from four central Iowa hospitals is trying to form a union. Hundreds of nurses work at UnityPoint hospitals in Des Moines and West Des Moines. An online petition indicates a group of them is working to have the Teamsters union represent nurses at Methodist, Lutheran and Blank Children’s Hospitals in downtown Des Moines and Methodist West Hospital in West Des Moines. The petition says they’re seeking safe staffing ratios as well as better insurance benefits, pay and improved working conditions to improve the health and safety of both patients and registered nurses. UnityPoint executives say they are taking steps to support their nurses and learn from their feedback.

There are several steps before employees at a workplace can join a union. Thirty percent of employees in the group must agree to hold an election by signing cards that are presented to the National Labor Relations Board. Then a majority of all employees who would be represented have to vote to join the union. The Teamsters Union represents about 50-thousand U-S health care workers. That includes nearly 10-thousand nurses at a group of Michigan hospitals who voted earlier this month to join the union. The Service Employees International Union represents about 38-hundred employees who work at University of Iowa Health Care’s hospitals and clinics in Iowa City and Coralville.

(Rockwell City, Iowa) – The Calhoun County Attorney’s Office, Tuesday, said a man from Minnesota was sentenced to 25-years in prison, for sexually abusing a 13-year-old child in rural Manson, on July 27th, 2024. 37-year-old Troy James Holicky, of Lamberton, MN, received the maximum sentence for the crime, and was ordered to be placed on the sex offender registry for life. Under Iowa law, he must serve 70-percent of his 25-year sentence, before he is eligible for parole.

The Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office was assisted in its investigation of the matter, by the Rockwell City Police Department. The case was prosecuted by the Calhoun County Attorney’s Office.

Publicly accessible court documents for this case and others, can be found at https://www.iowacourts.state.ia.us.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Atlantic City Council held a Special Meeting Tuesday evening (Nov. 26th), and as expected (and previewed in our previous report), passed several measures that it was required to do, in order for them to filed with the State by December 1st.

The Council passed a resolution “Obligating funds from the Southeast Urban Renewal Area Revenue Fund for Appropriation to the payment of Annual Appropriation Tax Increment Financed Obligations which shall come due in the next Succeeding Fiscal Year.” The resolution pertains to tax increment financing for the Redwood Subdivision.

The second resolution that the Council approved, was for “Obligating Funds from the Hotel Whitney Urban Renewal Area Revenue Fund for Appropriation to the payment of Annual Appropriation Tax Increment Financed Obligations which shall come due in the next Succeeding Fiscal Year.”

The City Council eight-years ago passed a resolution for a TIF agreement with the Whitney Group enabling them to make improvements to the Whitney Inn. The annual appropriation allows the City to capture taxes paid by the Whitney Group using TIF. The agreement will continue until the $750,000 cap is reached or 20 years pass. A similar resolution was adopted during the November 15, 2023, meeting.

The Council Tuesday, approved the City’s Annual Urban Renewal Report. Iowa law requires local governments with Urban Renewal Areas to submit an annual Urban Renewal Report to the Iowa Department of Management by December 1, 2024. The report, which is merely a formality, summarizes TIF districts, projects, and previously approved plans, agreements, and budgets. Failure to file the report would have prevented the County Auditor from collecting property tax revenues for TIF obligations.

And, the Council approved the 2023 Road Use Tax Report, which is also required under the Code of Iowa (for all cities). It details spending on street improvements and allows the City to receive Road Use Tax funds.

Atlantic’s report includes spending from the Road Use Tax Fund, Local Option Sales Tax Capital Improvement Fund, bond proceeds, and stormwater utility funds. Failure to submit would halt state funding.

(Radio Iowa) – Senator Joni Ernst says she’s led a “squeal team” of staff who’ve come up with ideas that would chop at least one TRILLION dollars out of the federal budget. She’s presented the list to the businessmen President-elect Trump has asked to lead his Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE. Ernst recently went to Florida and met with DOGE co-leader Vivek Ramaswamy.

“At the end of the weekend, I was able to huddle up with President Trump and Elon Musk and Howard Lutnick (Trump’s pick for Commerce Secretary), all of them very interested in saving our taxpayers’ dollars,” Ernst says. “I was able to walk them through my ideas, my decade’s worth of work with my ‘squeal team’ and they were over the moon and very excited about our contributions.”

Senator Ernst was at Mar-A-Lago last weekend. Pictured, from left to right, are Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee for Commerce Secretary; Senator Ernst; President-elect Trump; Lisa Goeas, chief of staff in Ernst’s U.S. Senate office; and Elon Musk. (Photo courtesy of Ernst’s Senate staff.)

Ernst was first elected in to the U-S Senate in 2014 after running an ad promising to — in her words — “make ’em squeal” in Washington. Ernst says one of her most important recommendations relates to unused federal office space and federal employees who are working from home. “Those employees need to come back to work and utilize the office space that we’re paying for,” Ernst says, “or if their agencies say: ‘We don’t need them working from an office building,’ then let’s get rid of that underutilized or vacant space.”

Ernst says it costs nearly 16 BILLION dollars a year to lease, maintain and pay the utility bills for federal government office space. Ernst’s budget cutting list also calls for collecting millions of unpaid taxes from Internal Revenue Service employees and contractors.  “So if we could get those dollars in the door, that would be great,” Ernst says. “There are also secret slush funds that exist out there.” Billions of dollars set aside to deal with COVID hasn’t been spent and Ernst says it is no longer needed for that purpose.

“And then we’ve got all these ‘billion dollar boondoggles’ that are over budget and behind schedule,” Ernst syas. “There are several projects for trains in California. One of them costs us $1.8 million per day to build and it’s still a decade away from completion. We need to scratch it.”

One of the penny-pinching ideas on Ernst’s list calls for changing the composition of two coins. According to Ernst, it costs the government three cents to produce each penny and over 11 cents to produce each nickel. Ernst is the co-chair of a new group of Senate Republicans who call themselves the DOGE Caucus.

(Orient, Iowa) – Patrons of- and residents in- the Orient-Macksburg School District were invited to attend a district-wide Thanksgiving dinner Tuesday. It’s the last time they are able to do so before the district merges next year with other area schools. The dinner was served in the O-M gym in Orient.

Staff say the food director, along with others, worked hard to plan the event. Other events will be held planned throughout the year.

The most recent plans for the district have a bulk of the students going to Nodaway Valley Community School District when the doors at Orient-Mackburg close. Creston and Winterset school districts will also absorb some students.

(Radio Iowa) – The president and C-E-O of one of Dubuque’s casinos is resigning after three years on the job. Alex Dixon, president and C-E-O of the Q Casino and Resort, announced his resignation during the Dubuque Racing Association’s monthly board meeting today (Tuesday).

The D-R-A is the non-profit that holds the licenses for both casinos in Dubuque. According to a news release, Dixon will leave the job January 15th to pursue a leadership opportunity in another state. The non-profit’s chairman says the renovation and expansion of the Q casino will continue on schedule, along with development of Schmitt Island in the Mississippi River as an entertainment destination with an outdoor amphitheater and a 90 room hotel.

The Q Casino — formerly known as the Mystique — used to be connected to the greyhound race track in Dubuque. The track closed two and a half years ago. The other greyhound race track in Iowa, in Council Bluffs, closed in 2006.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds talked more about her proposal to ban cellphones in classrooms Tuesday. The governor says she wants to add to what some districts are already doing. “First of all, I want to just give a lot of respect to the really large number of school districts that have already implemented the policies, that have listened to the parents, that have listened to the educators that are in the classroom,” she says. Reynolds says she wants a policy that will blend in with what is already being done.

“The stories that I’ve heard from the different school districts that have implemented are really encouraging. Parents are very, very supportive of this, and there’s been different variations. So whatever I put forward, I want to make sure that I’m respecting the hard work that’s already gone into place by the school districts that have stepped up and implemented it,” Reynolds says. She says they need to work out a plan that helps the schools that have phone policies in place, while looking to get more schools to take part.

” I want to supplement that and enhance that. I don’t want to really step on anything that they’ve done. So it’ll probably be more of a floor, is what we’re looking at, but just to encourage people to really move in that direction in time,” she says. Reynolds says some schools have gone bell to bell and restrict cellphone use all day, while others give them back to the kids to used during lunch.

“And some of the stories I’m hearing is, even when they’ve let them use their phone during the lunchroom, the kids aren’t that. They really are starting to reconnect with the kids and doing and being kids, and that’s what they, you know, should be doing,” Reynolds says. “They should be learning while they’re in the classroom that should be where their full attention is at, and when they’re with the kids in the lunchroom or whatever, during the breaks, then talk. Let’s get back to communicating and having a conversation with each other. We’ve gotten so far away from that, I think that’s part of the problem.”

Reynolds says she’s excited to work with schools that have already done it and come up with a plan.