(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Supreme Court has heard arguments in a case that will determine if Iowans may get voting materials in languages other than English. Last year, a Polk County District Court judge ruled counties may offer voter registration forms in different languages. The state appealed, citing the Iowa law that requires all government documents in the state to be in English. Leif Olson — the state’s chief deputy attorney general — says there are ways Iowa citizens who do not speak English can exercise their right to vote, without government-issued documents translated into another language. “The people in the auditor’s office could — speaking the person’s native language — walk them through the form,” he said. “They could call the translation line that’s available for courts for less frequently used languages to have that person walk someone through the form.”

The League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa sued the state three years ago to reverse the policy. The group’s attorney — Uzoma Nkwonta — says federal election law requires states to offer language assistance to citizens who have limited English proficiency — and translated voting materials are essential for non-English speakers.  “Congress did not require all jurisdictions to provide those materials because you obviously have to balance election administration,” he said, “but it’s already established that it’s necessary to secure the right to vote.”

The Iowa English Language Reaffirmation Act was signed into law in 2002 by Governor Tom Vilsack. It says English is the official language of the State of Iowa and all official documents should be in English.

(Greenfield, Iowa) – The Adair County Board of Supervisors met today (Wednesday) in Greenfield, and approved an ISAC (Iowa State Association of Counties) Wellness Agreement, and an agreement with Tenex for election equipment. They also approved an agreement with Richland Township, with regard to a FEMA project. Auditor Mandy Berg…

The Board received a county employee insurance renewal update from Ryan Berven, with Assured Partners. No decision was made on the information presented. Berven said they’ll probably start the Open Enrollment period in April. The Adair County Supervisors heard also from Jayne Lents, with regard FY 26 Compensation Board recommendations, which essentially amount to a five-percent increase for most County officers.

The Board took no action on the recommendations during their meeting, with the exception of the County Attorney’s salary. They heard from County Attorney Melissa Larson with regard to the status of her position, and presented a resolution for the Board to consider with regard to making the position full-time and a related salary adjustment. Larson has been serving as part-time County Attorney and is stepping away from her private practice. As a full-time County Attorney, Larson would be prohibited under Iowa law, from having a private practice. She said last month that since the County Attorney’s position won’t be up for election until the General Election in 2026, there won’t be any interference with that process.

After some discussion, the Board today (Dec. 18th) voted to make her position full-time and adjust her salary by $10,000 when she becomes full-time, effective at the beginning of the fiscal year, on July 1, 2025.

Larson will forgo the Comp Board recommendation for a 5-percent raise, in exchange for the salary adjustment. In other business, the Board approved an Interim County Engineer Agreement to continue sharing Adair County Engineer Nick Kauffman’s services with Adams County for another 180 days.

The Adair County Supervisors also passed a resolution awarding the W12 Harrison (Township) Box Culvert Project in the amount of $195,790 to Gus Construction. The engineer’s estimate for the project was $209,000. The Board passed a resolution awarding the IN6 Summerset (Township) Bridge Replacement Project in the amount of $322,821 to Murphy Construction. Kauffman said there were three bids for that project, with the lowest bid from Murphy. The original engineer’s estimate was $344,000.

DES MOINES, Iowa – Officials with the U-S Department of Justice/U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa, report federal search warrants were executed at 13 locations in the Des Moines metropolitan area, today (Dec. 18, 2024) :

• 700 block of SE 6th Street, Des Moines;
• 4700 block of 64th Street, Urbandale;
• 5800 block of Urbandale Avenue, Des Moines;
• 600 block of Kenyon Avenue, Des Moines;
• 7300 block of SE 19th Street, Des Moines;
• 3000 block of East University Avenue, Des Moines;
• 200 East Edison Avenue, Des Moines;
• 7200 block of SE 5th Street, Des Moines;
• 800 block of Knob Hill Drive, Des Moines;
• 14000 block of Lakeview Drive, Clive;
• 1200 block of East 34 Street, Des Moines;
• 5200 block of Douglas Avenue, Des Moines;
• 3700 block of East Sheridan Avenue, Des Moines.

The searches at the aforementioned locations were an official law enforcement action involving officers, agents, and investigators from Des Moines Police Department, United States Postal Inspection Service – Denver, San Francisco, Chicago, and Houston Divisions, FBI Omaha Field Office, FBI Des Moines Resident Agency, FBI Des Moines Central Iowa Gang Task Force (CIGTF), Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement (DNE), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Iowa State Patrol, Iowa Division of Intelligence and Fusion Center, Iowa State Patrol SWAT, United States Marshals Service, West Des Moines Police Department, Mid-Iowa Narcotics Enforcement Task Force, Polk County Sheriff’s Office, Story County Sheriff’s Office, Pleasant Hill Police Department, Johnston Police Department, Altoona Police Department, Indianola Police Department, Ankeny Police Department, Clive Police Department, Dallas County Sheriff’s Office, Norwalk Police Department, Urbandale Police Department, Waukee Police Department, Mid-Iowa Drug Task Force, Central Iowa Drug Task Force, Suburban Emergency Response Team (SERT), and Metro Special Tactics and Response (STAR), with assistance from the Chicago, Illinois Police Department and Houston, Texas Police Department.

Additional details were not immediately released.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa-based Harkin Institute is hosting a global conference that’s opening this morning (Wednesday) in Washington D-C. The annual Harkin International Disability Employment Summit is drawing private employers, government leaders, and disability advocates from more than 40 countries. Daniel Van Sant is director of disability policy for the institute, headquartered at Drake University in Des Moines. “The point of the conference,” Van Sant says, “is to bring those three populations from around the world together to solve for barriers that are keeping disabled people out of competitive, integrated employment.” The two-day conference will highlight talks from more than 80 presenters who hail from more than a dozen countries.

“We’ve got self-advocates coming from all over the world, people coming from Namibia and Guatemala and India,” Van Sant says, “as well as government officials from the U.S. and Canada and the U.K. and Jordan and then private companies as well.” The list of speakers includes officials from Apple, Microsoft, Walmart and Wells Fargo, as well as the U-S Department of Labor and the Social Security Administration. Former U-S Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa was the architect of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which banned discrimination based on disabilities. It was signed into law in 1990 by President George H-W Bush, and Van Sant says it’s still considered an example many other countries try to follow.

“There is now an international convention on people with disabilities through the U.N. but the U.S. is still very much seen as a leader in disability inclusion, especially in the employment space,” Van Sant says. “A lot of American companies are now global brands, and so people in other countries look to what some of the big U.S. companies are doing.” Van Sant says Harkin, who turned 85 last month, remains very passionate about the topic — and the summit. “He will be attending the entire conference. He’s actually giving part of the welcome remarks, and then he’s also doing a closing fireside chat with Judy Woodruff,” Van Sant says. “So he’s very much involved with the institute and excited to be in D.C. this week meeting up with old friends and new ones as well.”

Along with traditional employment topics, content this year will also cover disability in higher education, economic inclusion of disabled refugees, and disability-inclusive artificial intelligence. While the event is taking place in Washington, many of the addresses will be livestreamed.

For details on attending virtually, visit: https://harkininstitute.drake.edu/events/the-harkin-summit/

(Radio Iowa) – A former power plant near Hampton that was part of the national effort to bring electricity to rural areas of the country in the 1930s is now a National Historic Landmark. Franklin County Historical Society board member Rick Whalen says the Rural Electrification Administration helped get it built. “This is one of the first sites that was built with the R-E-A money from the New Deal when Roosevelt introduced that, and it was the first one west of Mississippi financed by that,” Whalen says. The loan to build a diesel-generated power plant was approved on December 30th of 1936, and it was owned by the Cornbelt Power Cooperative. It was decommissioned in 1950 and a local businessman bought it before eventually giving it to the Franklin County Historical Society. Whalen says there are two other plants still standing, but they were converted to other uses. He says a key to the historic designation is the plant is very close to the way it looked when it operated, with the original generator and control panels.

“So it’s a tie back to the rural area becoming electrified, and any all the coops in the country can basically trace our roots back to a plant like this,” he says. “And since it’s the only one left it deserves, I think, to be called a National Historic Landmark.” Whalen says the plants like this one brought the rural areas up to the same standard of living as people in the cities. He says there were some who didn’t think rural electrification would work. “The utilities were offered the same deal of low interest money to build into the country, but turned it down. Didn’t think the farmers would ever use enough electricity to make it worthwhile,” Whalen says “So the coops were formed, and the government, through the R-E-A, loaned the farmers money, and they formed the coops and put up the poles and wires and got things electrified.”

The REA plant near Hampton. (photo from U.S Parks Service)

Between 1935 and 1950, the percentage of rural households with electricity rose from eleven percent to 78 percent in large part due to the R-E-A and the rural electric cooperatives. Whalen is excited to finally get the historic designation after four years. He met with a panel in September that held the first vote to move it forward. “An advisory committee, it was made up of nine doctors and a Mr. Smith. They’re all professors of, I suppose, different disciplines in history. And they voted ten to nothing to move it on. And then last December 8th, here last week, they had another committee meeting, and they approved moving it on to the Secretary of the Interior, which resulted in that getting signed,” he says. Whalen says several organizations help contribute money to work on the presentation that led to the designation. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. Whalen is looking for one more designation.

“We’re also looking at trying to get it designated as the national R-E-A Museum. We’ve got a ways to go to do that we’re not sure how exactly you know, approaching, but that’s a long-term goal with that,” Whalen says. Whalen says they will be getting a plaque for the National Historic Landmark designation and are looking to have a ceremony acknowledging it sometime in the spring.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Atlantic City Council will gavel-in to a regular session this evening. Their session at City Hall begins at 5:30-p.m., and includes the following action items:

• Passing a resolution “Approving the Plans and Specifications for the West 22nd Street Improvements.” City Administrator John Lund says the project has a forecasted cost of slightly more than $1.32-million, and is one of 67 street improvement projects set to take place during the Spring and Fall of 2025. The new year marks the first new cycle of street improvement projects in the City’s 10-Year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). Lund says the FY 25-26 CIP projects a total investment of more than $3.4-million. In his agenda notes, Lund says “Due to careful and precise timing of the City’s Debt Management Plan and 10-Year CIP, West 22nd Street and the Downtown Project should be financed by Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) revenue, making it not a factor in the debt service levy, and not require[ing] property taxes service the debt.”
• The Council will act on passing the 3rd and final reading of an amended ordinance pertaining to ATV’s and Snowmobiles (As we’ve previously reported).
• And, following a public hearing, the Council will act on passing a resolution approving a Development Agreement with Vision Atlantic, Inc., authorizing annual appropriation Tax Increment Payments, and Pledging certain Tax Increment Revenue to the payment of the agreement. The agreement pertains to Vision Atlantic’s Development Project that includes more than $4.1-million in infrastructure, $48.8-million in housing development, and $10.7-million for a child development center on land the City purchased from the Comes Family Trust. That land was sold in 2022 to Vision Atlantic, for One-dollar, as part of their development proposal.
• In other action, the Atlantic City Council will act on passing a resolution that will set the date for a Public Hearing on a proposed ordinance “Vacating the street located between 3009 Palm Street and 3101 Palm Street.”
  

  Atlantic City Hall building

Following the conclusion of their regular meeting, the Atlantic City Council will hold a work session to report on issues Councilpersons encountered during their listening sessions. They will discuss those issues and come to a consensus on how to proceed with addressing the issues. The Work Session is scheduled to begin at 6:15-p.m.