(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa House has voted to increase the fines for violating Iowa’s open meetings law. The House bill would require government officials to complete a course that explains Iowa’s open meetings and open records law within 90 days of being elected to public office or appointed to a board. Representative Brent Siegrist of Council Bluffs says public officials need to understand the state’s sunshine law and make sure it’s followed.

“Each year in the state of Iowa we see numerous open meetings law violations,” Siegrist says. “Many of them are simply because of not understanding the law. Others are blatant disregard of the law…and then there are simply egregious examples of breaking the law that we have seen in the Davenport area in the wake of the apartment building collapse last year.”

Representative Gary Mohr of Bettendorf is the bill’s sponsor. “Last May we had a six story apartment building collapse in downtown Davenport,” Mohr says. “As the local media groups asked questions and many of the citizens asked questions, the city was very reluctant or would not provide information such as: ‘Did the building pass inspection? When was the last time that building was inspected? Who was involved in approving the inspections?’ And the city simply did not provide timely responses to those questions.”

Mohr says citizens found out two days after the November election that Davenport’s city attorney had approved about two million dollars in payments to three city employees to settle harassment claims. “Apparently there had been a discussion with the city council, but the city council never approved that expenditure in a public meeting,” Mohr says.

Mohr quoted the late Bill Wundrum, a long time columnist for the Quad City Times as he urged his colleagues to act. “Periodically Bill would say: ‘Is anybody there? Does anybody care?’ I’ve thought of him so many times over the last nine months. Yes, Bill, some of us are there. Some of us do care and ladies and gentlemen of the House, we’re either going to have open records in this state or we’re not. I asked you to support this bill.”

The bill passed on a 92-to-two vote. If the Senate agrees to the policy and the governor signed it into law, Siegrist expects some local officials to complain about the required training. “Too often in Iowa they just simply claim ignorance of the law,” Siegrist says. “This would make sure that’s no longer a viable option and we would make sure that we maintain our open meetings laws.”

The Iowa Freedom of Information Council and the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa are the only groups that have registered on the legislature’s website as supporting the bill, while a number of groups representing government officials have checked the undecided box. The Iowa Association of School Boards is the only group on record as opposing the bill.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The City of Atlantic’s Board of Adjustment will meet Monday evening (Feb. 26th), in the City Council’s Chambers at City Hall. On the agenda for the 5:30-p.m. session, is a Public Hearing to Consider a Conditional Use Permit Application by Massena Telephone Company, for the Property Currently Identified as 703 East 14th Street, that Would Allow for the for the Operation of a Telephone Transmission Equipment Building (Fiber-Optic Network) in a R-2 Low Density Single Family Residential District as Allowed in the City’s Zoning Ordinance, with the Conditional Use Permit Transferring to a New Lot  identified as 1400 Olive Street (Pending Regulatory Approval). Board of Adjustment E-packet 02-26-2024-compressed

AMU will provide the electricity for the structure, which will house MTC’s fiber optic line terminals and related electronics. There will be no need for water and sewer utilities, and vehicle traffic (limited to technicians), will be minimal.

Following the hearing, the Board will discuss and then vote on the Conditional Use Permit Application for Massena Telephone Company, as described above.

(Marion, Iowa) – Officials with the Marion Police Department said Thursday (Today),  third person suspected of being involved in the weekend death of a woman was arrested this afternoon. 20-year-old Logan William Michael Kimpton, of Hiawatha, was charged with Conspiracy to Commit a Forcible Felony, a Class-C Felony. Kimpton was being held in the Linn County Jail in Cedar Rapids.

According to a criminal complaint filed in the case, during an interview with police, Kimpton said he was with two other people at Walmart in Cedar Rapids last Saturday night. He admitted to purchasing a machete at the store, and confirmed one of the other subjects purchased a machete as well.

Surveillance footage and a receipt corroborated his statement. The receipt showed two machetes and two pairs of coated gloves were purchased. During questioning, the investigator confronted Kimpton and advised him he was being investigated for Conspiracy to Commit a Forcible Felony (murder). When told he “Chickened out” regarding the murder, Kimpton said “Damn right I did.”

Yesterday (Wednesday), authorities announced 18-year-old Dakota Van Patten, of Cedar Rapids, was charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping, and conspiracy in the death of 20-year-old Melody Hoffman of Marion. Police say Van Patten and 23-year-old McKinley Louisma, of Cedar Rapids, kidnapped Hoffman from a park in Cedar Rapids. She was strangled, beaten and stabbed. Louisma was charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping Tuesday.

Hoffman’s bodyfound at Lily Lake in Amana, Sunday. Marion police say  investigators determined through Hoffman’s smartwatch that she was in Louisma’s car before being killed. The complaint says the two had been in a relationship.

(Radio Iowa) – Gas prices have followed the temperatures and gone up in this week. Triple-A Iowa spokesman Brian Ortner says oil prices have gone up a bit, but there’s another factor impacting gas prices.  “Really the biggest factor has to do with a B-P refinery in Indiana. They had a power outage about a week and a half or so ago, and it cut their production and they’re looking to be out of service to the end of the month. So that has a direct impact,” Ortner says. The price of regular unleaded gasoline was averaging more than three dollars a gallon across Iowa.

“When you look at prices as a whole, thankfully we’re still lower than we were last year at this time by about 17 cents,” he says. “But we have gone up since a week ago, almost eight cents since last week, which is something we haven’t seen in quite some time across the state.” He says getting that refinery back up to speed will help.

“Once that gets back online, we should see the increases slowed down a lot. I mean, we’ll still see a little bit because we’re moving into spring and people want to be driving, you know the demand is gonna go up,” Ortner says. “but that’s probably the one factor we can point to at this point if we want to say hey, this is happening and something we can say is happening has affected us around the region.”

The national average for a gallon of gas was up one cent to three-dollars, 27 cents.

(Radio Iowa) – Republicans in the Iowa House have voted to provide a three percent boost in per pupil state funding for public schools in the next academic year — as well as a three percent increase in state payments into Education Savings Accounts for private school students who’ll qualify for the program. Representative Phil Thompson, a Republican from Boone, says the plan calls for three-point-eight BILLION dollars in state spending on public schools in the next school year.

“I am proud of this investment in our public schools,” Thompson said, “especially when you put it in context with the other pieces of the education funding puzzle that we’re bringing forward this year: teacher salaries, paraeducator pay, school security infrastructure.” Representative Molly Buck, a Democrat from Ankeny, says with a three percent oost in per pupil spending — the 116 public school districts with shrinking enrollment will raise local property taxes to fill a gap, so next year’s budget isn’t lower than this year’s.

“How are rural schools going to keep the lights on?” she asked. “…At what point do we stop and realize that we, in the legislature, are responsible for the shuttering of our schools?” Representative Sharon Steckman, a Democrat from Mason City, says three percent just isn’t enough for schools dealing with inflation and trying to keep salaries high enough to hire and retain staff.

“Three percent is totally inadequate for our schools. They have been cutting and cutting and cutting over the last 12 years,” Steckman said. “They have reached a point where there’s not much left to cut.” House Republicans plan to vote later to set beginning teacher salaries at 50-thousand dollars within two years. They’re also proposing a 15 dollar an hour minimum wage for paraeducators. House Speaker Pat Grassley says those moves are priorities for House Republicans.

“My expectation is that the legislature acts on a bill addressing teacher salaries,” Grassley says. “I just don’t know what it looks like at this point,” A Senate committee has voted to increase the mandatory minimum salary for beginning teachers to just over 46-thousand dollars. In January, Governor Reynolds recommended a 50-thousand minimum salary for first-year teachers, as well as a 62-thousand dollar minimum salary for those who’ve been teaching for at least 12 years.