(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Cass County Auditor’s Office has updated the list names, of candidates who have filed their nomination papers for the November 7, 2023, City/School Elections. Current City Councilman Jim Behrens today (Wednesday), filed nomination papers for Atlantic City Council, Ward 2. And, as previously mentioned:

On Tuesday, incumbent Elaine Otte filed papers to run for one At Large seat on the Atlantic City Council. Three candidates filed on Monday (8/28):

Incumbent Pat McCurdy for Atlantic City Council – Ward 3

Incumbent Linda Hartkopf, Atlantic City Council – Ward 4

Incumbent Mary Strong, Parks and Recreation Board. (2 seats open on the Board).

The filing period for the November 7^th City and School Elections continues through September 21^st.

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is calling for an investigation of the Internal Revenue Service after a watchdog report found the agency lost the backup data from millions of taxpayers’ returns. Grassley says a fortune has been spent to upgrade I-R-S technology in recent years, money which he says evidently wasn’t a good investment.

Grassley, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, says I-R-S bungling has led to pallets full of tax records either going missing or being left in insecure locations. In one case, the agency sent dozens of cartridges containing some 200-thousand photos of tax records to an outside contractor for reformatting. That contractor went out of business in 2018 and the records vanished.

The American people deserve better, Grassley says, and they deserve an I-R-S that prioritizes protecting their confidential information.

Grassley says the information contained in the lost records can be used by “nefarious actors” to commit tax fraud and identity theft. He says there must be accountability to prevent this type of misconduct from happening again.

The sale of the Iowa-based Kum & Go convenience store chain is now complete.

The Salt Lake City-based Maverik convenience store chain announced that it has completed the acquisition of approximately 400 Kum & Go stores. The sale also includes the Solar Transport trucking company. Bill Krause and his father-in-law T.S.

Gentle started Kum & Go in Hampton in 1959 and it has been run by the family until the sale. The purchase price was not disclosed, and Maverik says this will expand their company to more than 800 stores in 20 states.

Former Vice President Mike Pence says extending the Trump era tax cuts will be a priority if he’s elected president.

Pence, who has started a three day campaign swing through Iowa, says he’d like to lower the income tax rate for individuals and families — and make a strong move on the corporate tax rate.

The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act cut the corporate tax rate from 35 down to 21 percent. The plan also doubled the standard deduction and cut individual income tax rates. Pence is critical of a tax idea floated by another G-O-P candidate.

Ramaswamy — in his book “Nation of Victims” — has suggested the inheritance tax could be used to save the country’s meritocracy from sinking into autocracy — and would be a way of redistributing duty. Pence says he’ll oppose any effort by Ramaswamy or anyone else to raise inheritance taxes.

Ramaswamy has recently said he supports a 12 percent flat tax on income. On his campaign website, Ramaswamy says he mentioned the inheritance tax in the book he released last year as part of a calculation for fully eliminating the federal income tax.