(Iowa Capital Dispatch) – The Iowa Senate passed two bills relating to community colleges and the Iowa College Student Aid Commission Monday, sending one to the governor’s desk and the other to the House. House File 2153 would change reporting requirements for the Iowa College Student Aid Commission, or Iowa College Aid, including striking requirements for annual reports on certain tuition grants and student loan forgiveness programs. Sen. Jeff Taylor, R-Sioux Center, said the legislation would minimize the number of reports the commission must make for the programs it runs. The bill heads to the governor, after unanimous passage in the Senate and House.

House File 2615 would require community colleges to publish a link to the Iowa Student Outcomes website on their sites and for school districts to provide high school juniors and seniors who have expressed an interest in postsecondary education with a report from the Iowa Board of Regents detailing graduate outcomes. Income and student loan debt of state university graduates, as well as information on the Iowa Student Outcomes site, would be included in the report.

An amendment adopted by the Senate ensured that schools are not required to provide hard copies of the board of regents report, just a link to it. The legislation also makes college and career transition counselors exempt from the supplementary weighting received by school districts who share operational functions with community colleges or other organizations. It will head back to the House for consideration.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak report a man was arrested early this (Tuesday) morning (April 2nd), on charges of OWI/1st offense, and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. 40-year-old Christopher Robert Fowler, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 2:50-a.m. in the 200 block of W. Washington Avenue, in Red Oak. Fowler was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $1,000 bond.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) – A former Iowa City hospital administrator pleaded guilty on Monday to an identity theft scheme that spanned three decades and caused the victim to be falsely imprisoned for nearly two years. Officials said 58-year-old Matthew Keirans, from Hartland, Wisconsin, pleaded guilty to one count of false statement to a national credit union administration insured institution and one count of aggravated identity theft.

During the hearing, attorneys presented evidence showing Keirans and his identity theft victim worked together at a hot dog cart in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the late 1980′s. Keirans used the victim’s identity for the next three decades, in every aspect of his life, obtaining documents and a Kentucky birth certificate in the victim’s name.

Keirans was hired at an Iowa City hospital as a high-level administrator in 2013, using these false identification documents. He then worked for the hospital remotely from his Wisconsin home. Officials described Keirans as the “key administrator of critical systems” whose role in the hospital’s computer infrastructure was “the highest it could be.” Officials said Keirens used the false identity to obtain eight loans with a value of more than $200,000 from two credit unions in the Northern District of Iowa between August 2016 and May 2022..

Keirans remains in custody. He faces a possible maximum sentence of 32 years in prison and a $1.25 million fine. A sentencing date has not yet been set.

DES MOINES, Iowa (WHO-TV) — Several years ago the state expanded who needed to get an ignition interlock device (IID); making sure all those who had an operating while intoxicated charge had to use an IID if they wanted to apply for a temporary restricted license. The Iowa Senate passed Senate File 2261 on Monday afternoon 39-8, which adds a couple of changes to current state code that tries to avoid false positive samples.

The bill adds in waivers for those with medical conditions that limits their ability to blow into an IID. It also adds that the removal of a device without authorization is counted as ‘tampering’ and will be charged as such. Along with changing the language in code, where a person needs the device installed to their primary vehicle, but not every vehicle they have access too.

The senate also approved changes to what counts as a failed test on random IID tests. Currently, if a test is randomly required while an individual is operating a vehicle, it would not be deemed a violation unless the person breaks the .025 blood alcohol concentration threshold. The approved change raises the random test threshold while already operating a vehicle to .04. The reasoning is that false positives are somewhat of a reoccurring theme with these devices, and after so many failed tests, true or not, the individual’s license would be extended even longer.

Along with changes to the threshold, the bill also adds different ladders of penalties. Meaning the more tests that are failed over that limit in a certain day window, the more severe the extension of the fine.

The legislation still needs to work through the Iowa House for a chance to be signed into law.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s economy bucked the regional trend and improved slightly during March, but the monthly Creighton University survey of supply managers in Iowa and eight other Midwestern states finds the region’s manufacturing sector slipped into recession — and has been there for a while. Creighton economist Ernie Goss says the overall Business Conditions Index fell below growth neutral for the third time in four months. “When it’s all said and done, that would be when the federal government revises their numbers later on this year, I think we’re going to be able to say that the manufacturing economy in the region was in a recession for all of 2023,” Goss says. “Now not a deep recession, just a dipping into negative territory for the year of 2023 and now beginning 2024.”

The index is measured on a zero-to-100 scale where 50 is considered growth neutral. Iowa’s Business Conditions Index for March improved to 51-point-8 from 49-point-3 in February. Goss says the employment situation for the region is bleak as the Midwest’s manufacturing sector lost jobs for a third straight month.  “Twenty-seven-point-three percent of supply managers reported job losses for the month and job openings were down for all nine states over the past 12 months,” Goss says. “So the job market’s definitely weakening, but overall remains okay. Now, the manufacturing numbers are not good and that’s what we’re reporting on here.”

Wholesale prices climbed to the highest level in more than a year, and the report shows March’s inflation reading is the highest since February of 2023. Goss says last week’s deadly bridge collapse that blocked the port of Baltimore, Maryland is having ripple effects well into the Midwest. “That’s going to mean supply chain disruptions,” Goss says. “There will be more supply chain disruptions moving forward than we’ve seen in the past. Most of the survey was conducted before the disaster in Baltimore, so I expect the numbers to worsen in terms of supply chain disruptions in the weeks and months ahead.”

According to the latest month’s U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, there were two job openings for every unemployed worker in Iowa, which is the same ratio recorded 12 months ago.

(Radio Iowa) – The wife of a Woodbury County Supervisor has been sentenced to prison after being convicted late last year on 52 counts of voter fraud. Kim Taylor must serve four months in federal prison and four additional months on home confinement. Taylor is the wife of Woodbury County Supervisor Jeremy Taylor.

In November, a federal jury convicted her on 26 counts of providing false information in registering and voting, 23 counts of fraudulent voting, plus three counts of fraudulent registration. Taylor was born in Vietnam and witnesses testified she manipulated local residents of Vietnamese descent to illegally cast ballots for family members during elections in 2020 when her husband ran for congress, then won a seat on the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors.

The federal judge who sentenced Taylor on Monday afternoon has ordered her to pay a special assessment of 52-hundred dollars. She must also serve two years of supervised release. Kim and Jeremy Taylor are the parents of six children. Jeremy Taylor has resisted calls for him to resign from the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors. He recently announced he will not seek reelection.

(Radio Iowa) – Republicans in the Iowa legislature have voted to prevent city and county building codes that restrict what kind of siding can be used on the outside of homes. Senator Janice Weiner, a Democrat from Iowa City, says it’s a bill that benefits the vinyl siding industry.

“I don’t understand why we are voting on a bill that supports one particular industry,” Weiner says. “…This takes away local control to regular local design standards. Vinyl also happens to be very flammable.” Senator Scott Webster, a Republican from Bettendorf who works in construction, responded.

“It’s not about vinyl siding because a city could easily tell you you can’t put brick in particular areas, you couldn’t use aluminum siding in particular areas, you’ve got to paint your house a certain color in certain areas,” Webster said. “This is telling cities and counties that the ultimate local control is the home buyer and the home owner.”

If the governor signs the bill into law, there could be exceptions for cities that have building code requirements for the outside of homes that are in historic districts or homes in special purpose zones.