(Radio Iowa) – Senator Joni Ernst says she’s led a “squeal team” of staff who’ve come up with ideas that would chop at least one TRILLION dollars out of the federal budget. She’s presented the list to the businessmen President-elect Trump has asked to lead his Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE. Ernst recently went to Florida and met with DOGE co-leader Vivek Ramaswamy.

“At the end of the weekend, I was able to huddle up with President Trump and Elon Musk and Howard Lutnick (Trump’s pick for Commerce Secretary), all of them very interested in saving our taxpayers’ dollars,” Ernst says. “I was able to walk them through my ideas, my decade’s worth of work with my ‘squeal team’ and they were over the moon and very excited about our contributions.”

Senator Ernst was at Mar-A-Lago last weekend. Pictured, from left to right, are Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee for Commerce Secretary; Senator Ernst; President-elect Trump; Lisa Goeas, chief of staff in Ernst’s U.S. Senate office; and Elon Musk. (Photo courtesy of Ernst’s Senate staff.)

Ernst was first elected in to the U-S Senate in 2014 after running an ad promising to — in her words — “make ’em squeal” in Washington. Ernst says one of her most important recommendations relates to unused federal office space and federal employees who are working from home. “Those employees need to come back to work and utilize the office space that we’re paying for,” Ernst says, “or if their agencies say: ‘We don’t need them working from an office building,’ then let’s get rid of that underutilized or vacant space.”

Ernst says it costs nearly 16 BILLION dollars a year to lease, maintain and pay the utility bills for federal government office space. Ernst’s budget cutting list also calls for collecting millions of unpaid taxes from Internal Revenue Service employees and contractors.  “So if we could get those dollars in the door, that would be great,” Ernst says. “There are also secret slush funds that exist out there.” Billions of dollars set aside to deal with COVID hasn’t been spent and Ernst says it is no longer needed for that purpose.

“And then we’ve got all these ‘billion dollar boondoggles’ that are over budget and behind schedule,” Ernst syas. “There are several projects for trains in California. One of them costs us $1.8 million per day to build and it’s still a decade away from completion. We need to scratch it.”

One of the penny-pinching ideas on Ernst’s list calls for changing the composition of two coins. According to Ernst, it costs the government three cents to produce each penny and over 11 cents to produce each nickel. Ernst is the co-chair of a new group of Senate Republicans who call themselves the DOGE Caucus.

(Orient, Iowa) – Patrons of- and residents in- the Orient-Macksburg School District were invited to attend a district-wide Thanksgiving dinner Tuesday. It’s the last time they are able to do so before the district merges next year with other area schools. The dinner was served in the O-M gym in Orient.

Staff say the food director, along with others, worked hard to plan the event. Other events will be held planned throughout the year.

The most recent plans for the district have a bulk of the students going to Nodaway Valley Community School District when the doors at Orient-Mackburg close. Creston and Winterset school districts will also absorb some students.

(Radio Iowa) – The president and C-E-O of one of Dubuque’s casinos is resigning after three years on the job. Alex Dixon, president and C-E-O of the Q Casino and Resort, announced his resignation during the Dubuque Racing Association’s monthly board meeting today (Tuesday).

The D-R-A is the non-profit that holds the licenses for both casinos in Dubuque. According to a news release, Dixon will leave the job January 15th to pursue a leadership opportunity in another state. The non-profit’s chairman says the renovation and expansion of the Q casino will continue on schedule, along with development of Schmitt Island in the Mississippi River as an entertainment destination with an outdoor amphitheater and a 90 room hotel.

The Q Casino — formerly known as the Mystique — used to be connected to the greyhound race track in Dubuque. The track closed two and a half years ago. The other greyhound race track in Iowa, in Council Bluffs, closed in 2006.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds talked more about her proposal to ban cellphones in classrooms Tuesday. The governor says she wants to add to what some districts are already doing. “First of all, I want to just give a lot of respect to the really large number of school districts that have already implemented the policies, that have listened to the parents, that have listened to the educators that are in the classroom,” she says. Reynolds says she wants a policy that will blend in with what is already being done.

“The stories that I’ve heard from the different school districts that have implemented are really encouraging. Parents are very, very supportive of this, and there’s been different variations. So whatever I put forward, I want to make sure that I’m respecting the hard work that’s already gone into place by the school districts that have stepped up and implemented it,” Reynolds says. She says they need to work out a plan that helps the schools that have phone policies in place, while looking to get more schools to take part.

” I want to supplement that and enhance that. I don’t want to really step on anything that they’ve done. So it’ll probably be more of a floor, is what we’re looking at, but just to encourage people to really move in that direction in time,” she says. Reynolds says some schools have gone bell to bell and restrict cellphone use all day, while others give them back to the kids to used during lunch.

“And some of the stories I’m hearing is, even when they’ve let them use their phone during the lunchroom, the kids aren’t that. They really are starting to reconnect with the kids and doing and being kids, and that’s what they, you know, should be doing,” Reynolds says. “They should be learning while they’re in the classroom that should be where their full attention is at, and when they’re with the kids in the lunchroom or whatever, during the breaks, then talk. Let’s get back to communicating and having a conversation with each other. We’ve gotten so far away from that, I think that’s part of the problem.”

Reynolds says she’s excited to work with schools that have already done it and come up with a plan.

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds is using eight-and-a-half million dollars of federal pandemic relief funds to provide bonuses to teachers whose students make big gains in the classroom. The money may be used to supplement the salaries of the top 10 percent of teachers in a district whose students show their reading, math, and other skills have advanced beyond their grade level.

Each Iowa school district may apply for up to half a million dollars in grant money for the current year and another 500-thousand in the next academic year.

An individual teacher may receive a bonus of up to 25-hundred dollars in both years. Schools have until January 10th to apply for the grants.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – A Creston man was sentenced today to 20 years in federal prison for receipt of child pornography.

According to public court documents, between approximately September and November 2023, Bryan Michael Vannausdle, 34, communicated with a minor victim. Vannausdle used his cell phone to send, receive, and store images and videos of child sexual abuse material, including material of the minor victim.

After completing his term of imprisonment, Vannausdle will be required to serve a five-year term of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system.

United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. This case was investigated by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, Creston Police Department, Fremont County Sheriff’s Office, and Federal Bureau of Investigations.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the resources tab.