WASHINGTON – Iowa Senator Charles Grassley will hold two area town meetings this week as part of his annual 99 county meetings. Grassley will be in Audubon County on August 7th and Adams County on August 9th. The schedule is as follows:

Tuesday, August 7: Audubon County Town Meeting; 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. at the Audubon County Economic Development Corporation (800 Market Street), in Audubon.

Thursday, August 9: Adams County Town Meeting; 3:45 p.m. – 4:45 p.m. at the Corning Opera House (800 Davis Avenue), in Corning.

Grassley says “Representative government is a two-way street. I’m one half of the process and the people of Iowa are the other half. You can’t have representative government without dialogue between elected officials and the people we represent. I appreciate the opportunity to hold town meetings, answer questions and take comments from Iowans.”

Grassley is in his 38th year of holding meetings in each of Iowa’s 99 counties. Grassley has held at least one meeting in every county, every year since he was first elected to serve in the U.S. Senate. He takes and answers questions on any subject raised.

Beginning Monday, August 6th, Fred Hubbell, Democratic nominee for governor and Rita Hart, State Senator and Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, will launch a statewide tour to meet with mental health providers and Iowans affected by the ongoing mental health crisis. Organizers say the tour will highlight the Hubbell-Hart commitment to investing in mental health care across urban and rural Iowa.

As part of the tour, Senator Hart will take part in a Shelby County Rural Mental Health Discussion on Tuesday, beginning at 2-p.m., at Rosa Blanda Farms (1027 1400th St, Harlan). That same day, Fred Hubbell will participate in a Pottawattamie County Mental Health Roundtable at the Council Bluffs Public Library (2nd Floor, Meeting Room D, 400 Willow Ave.), beginning at 2:30-p.m.

According to the Treatment Advocacy Center in 2016, Iowa ranks “dead last in the number of psychiatric treatment beds available per capita,” and “47th in the number of psychiatrists licensed to provide care.” The Hubbell Campaign says “Unlike Governor Reynolds who has not only failed to address the mental health crisis but cut mental health funding, Fred and his wife Charlotte have personally helped fund increasing mental health beds and adding two new psychiatrists at Broadlawns Medical Center.

“Following a statewide mental health tour with patients and providers last December, the Hubbell campaign released a substantive mental health plan to invest in community based treatment, including adding 50-75 long-term care beds, establishing a youth mental health system, and investing in diversion and substance abuse programs.”

MUSCATINE, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say the body of a small child was recovered from the Mississippi River in southeast Iowa. It was pulled from the water Sunday night near Brown’s Island at Riverside Park in Muscatine. Authorities would not comment on whether the body was that of 2-year-old Hawk Newberry, who fell into the water July 24 from a dock at Schwiebert Riverfront Park in Rock Island, Illinois. He’d been fishing with his family.

(Radio Iowa) — Two firefighters were treated and released, and one person was rescued from a fire that destroyed the Tama building Saturday night in Burlington.
The initial call was made at 10:55 P-M Saturday. Burlington Firefighters arrived within four minutes of that call and began rescue efforts to save a woman who was trapped on the third floor of the building. She was uninjured and able to climb down a ladder under her own power. Witnesses say she was pulled from the building wearing only undergarments, it’s unclear why she was in the unoccupied building or if she was working with the crew on renovations. Her identity has not been released at this time.

The fire department says the building is a total loss, and unstable due to the partial collapse. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.

Officials with the Stuart Police Department, late Sunday night, posted on their social media page that at around 9-p.m. Sunday, a local juvenile reported being followed at 7:30-p.m. by a white van, for a few blocks near the post office. The juvenile who was with a friend also reported that as the van passed the two juveniles, a female passenger in the van took photos of them. The van never stopped, nor did the occupants attempt to make contact with the juveniles, and it left in an unknown direction of travel.

Out of an abundance of caution, officials say they are passing that information along to the community. Authorities say “There is no indication that the occupants were attempting to commit a crime, however their behavior was suspicious. Again, the occupants of the van never stopped or tried to communicate with the juveniles and no other reports of similar incidents have been reported.” Officials said also, “We do not wish to create any unnecessary panic in the community.”

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa State Fair opens this week, complete with its signature deep-fried Oreos and prize hog judging. Country star Reba McEntire will be on the grandstand, but another type of celebrity will be missing: marquee names eyeing the White House. The fair’s time-honored mix of late-summer family fun and high-wattage political pageantry will instead feature the Democratic backbench of presidential hopefuls, including Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro and Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan. The visit generating the most buzz this week is Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for the adult-film actress suing Trump who is attending the state Democratic Party’s annual summer fundraiser.

For now, top-tier prospective Democratic presidential candidates, including former Vice President Joe Biden and Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kamala Harris of California and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York are largely steering clear of Iowa.

The Democratic Party’s top stars have their reasons. Several say they are focused on ensuring the party is successful in regaining control of at least one chamber of Congress in the midterm elections. Some will be on the ballot themselves in November so they must lock down their own victory before being so bold as to go to Iowa. Still, their absence surprises veteran Democratic activists and stokes the perennial worry about the future of the state’s early status.

The anxiety isn’t entirely misplaced. The case for giving the overwhelming white, rural state a prized role in picking the Democratic nominee has become more complicated as the party’s base becomes less white and rural. Meanwhile, other states have been challenging it on influence and candidate appeal. For aspiring politicians, the place to make an impact this cycle is Georgia, which has a hot governor’s race and a sizable African-American population. The quiet has been observed by Iowans with typical understatement. The positioning that is happening in Iowa ahead of 2020 is largely playing out in private.