(Radio Iowa) – To many Iowans, it seems like winter ran long this year, with plenty of springtime snowstorms and frigid wind chills, but it turns out that our temperatures were right on target during April. State climatologist Justin Glisan says there were extremes on both ends of the thermometer, but it all averaged out to be normal for the month.

“If we look at the statewide average temperature, it was right on the average of 49 degrees,” Glisan says. “We did have pockets of slightly above average temperatures in southwestern Iowa, and then over into eastern Iowa, but overall, near-normal temperatures across the state.” There was severe weather on April 4th that included large hail, high winds and several funnel clouds and tornadoes, as well as multiple bouts with snow during the month, but overall, Iowa was lacking for rainfall during April.

“So if we look at the statewide average, it was a little over two inches, and that’s about an inch and a half below average,” Glisan says, “with the driest part of the state down in southeastern Iowa, with departures of up to one to three inches below average.” Computer models are pointing to a continued dry spell for the month ahead, while Glisan says the immediate forecast looks about right.

“Basically, across the upper Midwest and through the Corn Belt, an elevated signal for drier conditions in May,” Glisan says, “and May is the second wettest month climatologically for the state with almost five inches, so we don’t like to see that dry signal, but at least in the short term, we are seeing near-normal precipitation.”

Forecasters anticipate an El Nino weather pattern will develop over the region within the next few months, which typically means moderate temperatures and better chances for precipitation.

(Glenwood, Iowa) – The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports two women were arrested on the first day of May:

35-year-old Nicole Katherine Spracklin, of Plattsmouth, NE., was arrested at the Pottawattamie County Jail, on a Mills County warrant for Harassment in the 3rd Degree. She was being held without Bond; and, 35-year-old Jessie Amanda Harman, of Glenwood, was arrested at the Mills County Sheriff’s Office, on a warrant for two counts of Violation of Probation, and Violation of a No Contact Order. She too was being held without bond.

(Radio Iowa) – The Drake Relays attract an international roster of athletes and spectators to Drake University every year, but last week’s event left the Des Moines campus with something extra — an outbreak of COVID-19. What’s billed as America’s Athletic Classic is considered one of the nation’s top track and field events, drawing some five-thousand high school, college and elite-level competitors and 40-thousand fans.

The 113th annual event ran last Thursday through Saturday and university officials are now reporting at least 76 Drake students have tested positive for COVID-19. Finals start next week at Drake and all instructors are being told to use their best judgment as to whether to hold the remaining classes — and those finals — online or in-person.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa legislature has approved a compromise bill designed to limit future property tax increases. Many Iowans saw the assessed value of their home or farmland rise dramatically this spring. Those assessments will impact property taxes due in September of 2024. Senator Dan Dawson, a Republican from Council Bluffs, says the bill includes a formula that requires cities and counties to lower property tax levies next year. “We stop the old practice of assessement windfalls being a windfall for local government budgets,” Dawson says. The bill is projected to save Iowa property owners about 100 million dollars.

“It’s a complicated system that’s going to require multiple bills over multiple years. The work here isn’t finished. It’s only just begun.” The bill hikes the homestead credit for property owners who are 65 and older, providing relief for an estimated 200-thousand Iowans. More than 100-thousand Iowa veterans will get a property tax exemption that’s double the current homestead credit for veterans. Representative Bobby Kaufmann, a Republican from Wilton, says those are big moves for veterans and older Iowans.

“For all Iowans the predictability and the transparency that this bill brings is a big deal and for all Iowans the foundational changes that we’re making is a big deal,” Kaufmann said, “and what I’m going to sit here on the floor today and say is phase one of bold property tax relief.” The bill passed the Senate this (Tuesday) morning unanimously. Senator Pam Jochum, a Democrat from Dubuque, says it will slow the growth of property taxes.

“It’s a $6 billion-plus system,” Jochum says, “and we all know that every tax system can use some change” The bill passed the House this (Tuesday) afternoon on a 94-to-one vote. Representative Elinor Levin, a Democrat from Iowa City, was the only no vote in the legislature. All other House Democrats, like Representative Sharon Steckman of Mason City, voted for it, but say they prefer the proposals in the original House version of the bill rather than the final compromise.”I wonder why we’re rushing it through,” Steckman said. “Do we not want any comments from people that this might affect? I thought we were all for local control. We’re taking away that local control.”

Representative Dave Jacoby, a Democrat from Coralville, says despite its flaws, the bill is a move in the right direction. “We’ve listened to the taxpayers of Iowa, we’ve listened to the property owners, we’ve listened to the leasees who are saying: ‘I can’t afford to live here if my taxes go up astronomically,'” Jacoby said.

Governor Reynolds says the package provides much needed property tax relief and lays the groundwork for more reform in the future.

DES MOINES, IA – Four individuals have been sentenced in federal court for schemes to smuggle drugs into the Polk County Jail. The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa reports that on December 19, 2022, Michael Joseph Wilson, 35 of Des Moines, was sentenced to 12 months in prison for attempt to possess contraband in a federal facility. On April 11, 2023, Fawn Ann Colyn, 57 of Des Moines, was sentenced to 30 months in prison after pleading guilty to providing contraband in a federal facility. On April 28, 2023, Randall Joseph Verbeski, 61 of Sioux City, was sentenced to thirty months in prison for possessing contraband in a federal facility. On April 28, 2023, Ashley Michelle Evans, 35 of Ottumwa, was sentenced to a term of five years’ probation for attempt to provide contraband in a federal facility.

According to court documents, as well as evidence presented at the sentencing hearings, Colyn and Verbeski engaged in a scheme to mail Suboxone and other opioids into the Polk County Jail, which houses federal prisoners. The scheme involved Colyn, who was not incarcerated, hiding drugs in envelopes and documents disguised as legal mail, and then sending those envelopes to Verbeski. Verbeski was in the Polk County Jail serving a federal sentence related to a prior gun and drug trafficking offense.

According to court documents, Wilson and Evans engaged in a similar scheme to mail MDMB-4en-PINACA, commonly known as K2, into the Polk County Jail. Evans, who was not incarcerated, hid the K2 in an envelope and document disguised as legal mail which she sent to Wilson. At the time, Wilson was in the Polk County Jail after officers found methamphetamine, heroin, MDMA, and a loaded revolver at his residence in Des Moines. At the time of his arrest, Wilson was on federal supervised release out of Indiana for a firearm conviction. Wilson was ultimately sentenced to a total term of 240 months, for the Iowa and Indiana federal charges. Following their prison sentences, Colyn, Verbeski, and Wilson will serve terms of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system.

The investigated was conducted by the United States Marshals Service and the Polk County Sheriff’s Office—Jail Division.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa legislature is poised to raise the pay for attorneys who represent indigent defendants by five dollars an hour. The state budget plan G-O-P lawmakers in the House and Senate have agreed to will — for the first time — provide 35 dollars an hour for travel time, as some attorneys drive hours driving around Iowa to court hearings. Jim Carney, a lobbyist for the Iowa Bar Association, calls these moves unprecedented and historic. “It’s the best thing that’s happened since about 1986 when the state assumed the responsibility of funding indigent defense,” Carney said, “so thank you, thank you.”

According to the Iowa Supreme Court’s chief justice, only six-hundred Iowa attorneys are willing to be appointed to represent indigent clients because of the pay and it’s leading to trial delays. Representative Brian Lohse, a Republican from Bondurant, says he’s been hoping to address the issue since he joined the legislature five years ago. “Hearing the issue from the chief justice, from her address in January, I think really shed a light on that,” Lohse says. “Various members heard a lot from their home districts in regard to the need for and the crisis that’s really out there.”

Lohse leads the House panel that’s drafted the budget plan for Iowa’s justice system.

DES MOINES – Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate and his team are working with county auditors to prepare for the upcoming 2023 City/School elections on November 7, 2023. His office reports County auditors from across the state convened in each of the six Iowa State Association of County Auditor (ISACA) Districts over the last two weeks for important training and workshops as a part of the Secretary’s commitment to ensuring fair and accurate elections.

A photo courtesy Paul Pate, from one of the ISACA District trainings

(Radio Iowa) – Democrats in the U-S Senate propose creating a code of ethics for the U-S Supreme Court, a move Iowa Senator and Republican Chuck Grassley opposes, calling it a “hit job” on conservative Justice Clarence Thomas. Grassley serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee which is holding a hearing today (Tuesday) to press Chief Justice John Roberts to create a code of conduct for the court. Grassley says that’s unnecessary. “The Supreme Court has rules that it follows on recusal,” Grassley says. “We just had a justice recuse himself just last week I read because his wife has some stock in a company that is before the Supreme Court.”

The U-S government is set up with a system of checks and balances which Grassley says Democrats are flaunting with their proposed legislation. He says the high court is policing itself. “The court is taking action,” Grassley says, “and under separation of powers, I’m not sure Congress has the authority to tell the Supreme Court what they must do as far as recusal.” Last month, reports accused Justice Thomas of not disclosing hundreds of thousands of dollars in lavish gifts and globe-trotting vacations from a wealthy Republican donor. New rules were put in place on March 7th which set stricter policies for the disclosing of gifts to any federal judge, including Supreme Court justices.

Grassley says he wants to see how those new requirements work out and so far, he says members of the nation’s high court are abiding by the rules.”Seeing what these other justices have done to amend their reports on travel and on entertainment and things of that nature, I think that it’s been pretty much a hit job on Thomas.” Grassley says he sees the court “taking the lead on trying to satisfy people” about any perceptions of improper behavior.

(Adair County, Iowa) – The Iowa Aviation Museum at Greenfield, today (Tuesday) announced James Zangger, of Larchwood, Iowa, is the 2023 inductee into the Hall of Fame. The induction program will be held August 19 at 11:15 following a fly-in breakfast served from 7:30 – 11 am.   Zangger was born July 18, 1949, in Sioux Falls, SD. He grew up and learned to fly on the family farm near Larchwood. His parents, Russell and Dolly Zangger, were flight and ground school instructors at the airport they established on the farm.

Jim began flying lessons at age 10 and accumulated 64 hours by his 16th birthday. On that day (July 18, 1965), Jim soloed a 1946 BC12-D Taylorcraft, a 1959 Cessna 150, a 1956 Piper Tri-Pacer, and flew his solo cross-country flight. Later that week, Jim flew to the county seat and traded in his school permit for a driver’s license. Jim took his private check-ride on his 17th birthday and his commercial flight test on his 18th birthday, followed by instrument and multi-engine ratings. He received his A&P certificate and began Jim’s Aircraft Repair at his home field in Larchwood.

Jim’s aviation career includes flying more than 25 years for Rockwell Collins and contract flying before moving back to Larchwood and operating Zangger Vintage Airpark, the oldest privately owned public use airport in Iowa and a residential airpark since 1991. His aviation awards include the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award, the Charles Taylor Master Mechanic Award, and a safety award from the NBAA (National Business Aircraft Association). Jim estimates his total flight hours at 26,750 to date. His parents, Russell and Dolly Zangger, are also members of the Iowa Aviation Hall of Fame.

James Zangger (Photo courtesy of Mr. Zangger & the IA Aviation Hall of Fame)

Nominations to the Hall of Fame are made by the public and selection is made by an independent judging committee. Neither the Board nor employees of the Iowa Aviation Museum make nominations or selections. Last year’s winners were Nicholas A. Turner, a native of Elliott, and Connie Rex Younger, who launched his company CY Aviation in Boone, in 1990.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Cass County Board of Supervisors met this (Tuesday) morning and received a weekly report from County Engineer Trent Wolken, who mentioned the Secondary Roads Department is still working on delivering road rock for driveways in various districts, and are finishing those projects up, but he said that the supply is slow to come out of the quarries. Wolken also updated the status of work on various County Bridges.

Work Bridge 319 west of the landfill over Indian Creek is still on track to begin in June.

Wolken said also, he’s been talking with his employees about insurance enrollment, with the hopes they’ll get sign-ups finished by July 1st. The Secondary Roads Department Budget along with some others in the County, will need to be amended.

In the Supervisor’s Committee Reports, Steve Green mentioned SWIPCO (Southwest Iowa Planning Council) is looking to acquire some new buses with next year’s budget. Green was also impressed with how much the organization continues to grow and serve southwest Iowa.

Supervisor Mark O’Brien reported on an EMA meeting he attended. He said the new Communications Tower project has been delayed.

Board Chair Steve Baier quipped, “In this day and age of supply chain issues and everything else, I don’t think there is such a thing as a deadline.”