CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – Colleges and universities are constantly working to combat cyber-attacks and scams. One concerning trend is called “ghost students,” and schools here in Iowa are seeing them pop up in increasing numbers. A “Ghost Student” is a college applicant using a fake identity to try to get financial aid. They’re filing for that aid without any intent of going to the college and attending classes, as a form of fraud.

Iowa Western Community College reports catching 109 ghost students posing as students so they could steal federal grant money. In a report to the Board this week, Iowa Western President Dan Kinney says they caught the ghost students before they could cash out the money and disappear. Kinney says ghost students are a national problem, and often schools are left to repay the stolen grant money.

Matt Falduto is the Senior Director of Financial Aid at Kirkwood. He’s seen “ghost students” trying to slip through the cracks several times over his 20 years in the department. In November of 2023, Kirkwood identified approximately 100 financial aid applicants for suspected fraud. Falduto says thanks to the hard work of staff and their verification process, none of those applicants saw any money.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) — A woman from Le Mars was federally sentenced in Sioux City on Tuesday for conspiring to steal firearms and other valuables from her family member’s home. Tresa Fiedler, 24, was given 87 months, or 7 years and 3 months, of prison. The sentencing comes after she pled guilty on Sep. 28, 2023, to one count of conspiracy to possess stolen firearms and one count of possession of stolen firearms.

According to a release from the Department of Justice, Fiedler, along with co-conspirator Ian Bigler, planned and committed a burglary at the home on Oct. 1, 2021. After ensuring the home would be empty, the duo stole 10 guns. In the days succeeding the burglary, Fiedler and Bigler attempted to conceal the crime. Fiedler tried to leave town by purchasing a car, while Bigler later fled from police and hid in his home with firearms and another person held against their will.

After her prison term, Fiedler will also serve one year under supervised release. The federal system does not allow for parole. Bigler was sentenced in July 2023 to 15 years in prison and three years of supervised release.

FORT DODGE, Iowa [KCCI] — Hundreds of Fort Dodge residents are signing a petition to hold a special election on a proposed franchise fee to hire eight new police officers in the city. After seeing more violent crimes in the last year, Fort Dodge Police Chief Dennis Quinn said the officer would make a big difference. “We’ve had a higher rate of homicides this last year than what we have in the past,” he said.

After a failed attempt to get the funding last year, City Manager David Fierke said the city has devised a new plan to get it done. “This year we looked at doing it with probably the only other source of consistent revenue, which is a franchise fee,” Fierke said.

The proposed five percent franchise fee on neighbors’ gas and electric bills would provide to money to make the hires. The fee has passed through two city council readings and would be instated starting in July if it passed a third and final one.

(Radio Iowa) – The application process is underway for millions in federal dollars to fund new electrical vehicle charging stations along Iowa’s interstate highways. The D-O-T’s Stuart Anderson says Iowa is getting 50 million dollars to fund the new E-V chargers, and there will be 20-30 million available in this first round. “The cost of each individual application or site could vary significantly based on for example, the amount of electrical power at that location already,” Anderson says. He says some of the sites could require some upgrades from the electrical utilities to provide the necessary power levels to serve the chargers. The chargers will go along Interstates 35, 80, 29, and 380. Those applying for the money have to be within one mile of the interstate and provide a certain number of amenities.

“Of course, we want safe and well-lit locations, we want to have access to restroom facilities, and access to services like food and beverages,” Anderson says. “So we anticipate the most likely locations and applicants will be from convenience stores or truck stops those types of facilities.” Anderson says there are specifications that require a certain level of chargers be available. He says they could charge a vehicle in around 20 minutes, depending on the model. Anderson says Iowa had three-point-75 million registered vehicles at th end of 2023, and a little more than 15-thousand of them are two types electric vehicles.

“The full battery electric vehicles, we have eight-thousand-772 of those electric vehicles. And then we also have plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. And we have six-thousand-387 of those registered in Iowa,” he says. The deadline for applications to get the federal funds to build an electric vehicle charger is March 13th.

(Radio Iowa) – A former Iowa Democratic Party spokesman who worked on congressional and presidential campaigns in Iowa has written a book about his experience as a foster parent. Mark Daley will be at a Des Moines bookstore tonight (Thursday) to discus his memoir. “Initially I had this idea that I was going to write a policy book on how we were going to solve this and I quickly learned I don’t have the answers,” Daley says, “so what I decided to do was share our story and drive more conversations and bring more people to the table to discuss this.”

The book’s title is “Safe: A Memoir of Fatherhood, Foster Care and the Risks We Take for Family.” Daley and his husband are now the parents of three adopted children, but they first became foster parents for two young brothers they hoped to adopt. In the book, Daley describes their worry and angst as the boys’ biological parents who were dealing with addiction and mental health issues went to court and eventually regained custody of the children. Later, Daley learned the two boys and another sibling were back in the foster care system.

“I wrote this book with the hope that it would really inspire some sort of change and greater awareness of the children and families that are struggling, living on the margins in this country,” Daley says. Daley’s target audience, though, isn’t just policymakers. “It really is something that’s on all of us to be aware of what’s going on in our own families and own communities and our own neighborhoods,” Daley says. “Where can we help? How do we get involved to help families before they reach this ultimate tragedy of losing their child to foster care.”

Every day in America, over 700 children enter foster care. The latest data from the State of Iowa is for the fall of 2021, when there were 41-hundred children in Iowa’s foster care system. Daley, who lives in California, is an investor and business consultant who’s founded and sold two marketing agencies. Daley was the chief spokesman for Hillary Clinton during the 2008 Iowa Caucus campaign, then he served as communications director for Iowa Congressman Leonard Boswell’s campaign for reelection in 2008.

(Radio Iowa) – A public hearing at the statehouse gave over two dozen parents and educators an opportunity to share their opinions on proposed changes in how Iowa’s nine Area Education Agencies operate. The governor released her proposed overhaul in January. Republican senators have made some adjustments to the governor’s bill. Republicans in the House have their own alternative. Spirit Lake Superintendent David Smith called the House plan a watered down bill and he urged lawmakers to make most of the changes Reynolds has proposed.

“The system has been in place for a long time and where we live the system doesn’t work,” Smith said. “..Allow us in Spirit Lake the ability to pick and choose what we want to do…Put the funds toward the school district and let the AEAs earn our business.” David Tully of Adel, a former deputy director of the Iowa Department of Education, says his local A-E-A has been a safety net for his daughter who has a disability.

“It feels like these AEA bills are playing fee-for-service politics with our childrens’ futures,” Tully says. “Changes are being proposed to the AEA structures without appropriate study, nor sufficient stakeholder input and it terrifies us whose children depend on the future of the AEAs.” Ottumwa superintendent Mike McGrory says he supports the House Republicans’ plan to improve outcomes for students with disabilities.

“My support for this bill includes no wish to devastate our AEAs and the good staff that work there,” McGrory said. “However, the world has changed…It’s time for reform.” Doug Glackin, the superintendent of Woodbury Central Community School District, supports some of the changes that have been proposed, including a reduction in the salaries for top A-E-A managers, but he’s urging lawmakers to slow down the timeline. “I want you to consider that reform doesn’t have to be in the form of demolition,” Glackin said. “I am for an independent study of the system, taking the time to look at what is working and what needs to be addressed.”

Jacob Bolsom, a member of the Hubbard-Radcliff Board of Education, says if the plans as proposed are adopted, A-E-A services will be degraded and the state will be sued. “This rushed policy will harm students the most in small schools in rural areas such as mine,” Bolsom says. Megan Brink runs the A-E-A’s bulk purchasing program for school lunches and she told lawmakers if large districts opt out of this service, the food bills for small schools will rise.

“We rely on those big school districts to be able to look attractive to our distributor partners and our vendor partners,” she says. The chairman of the House Education Committee says last (Wednesday) night’s testimony was similar to previous input lawmakers have received about A-E-As and House Republicans will continue their conversations about the bill.

The following is a press release from the Marion (IA) Police Department: