(Radio Iowa) – Four Iowans have pleaded guilty to a scheme that prosecutors say led the U.S. Small Business Administration to lose more than four-and-a-half million dollars on bank loans.
Three of the people who pleaded guilty worked for Valley Bank, based in the Quad Cities and shut down by regulators in 2014. Seventy-year-old Larry Henson of Davenport, the bank’s president, and two other bank employees have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution. The president of a company that provided lending services to Valley Bank has pleaded guilty to the same charge.

According to a news release from the U.S. Justice Department, the group altered loan payment histories, renamed businesses and hid the fact that borrowers had previously defaulted on loans. Court records indicate the scheme involved getting the Small Business Administration to guarantee the failed loans. Each of the four defendants face a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.

Valley Bank had six Quad Cities locations, plus banks or loan offices in Altoona, Ames, Clive, Ankeny, Pleasant Hill, Knoxville, Oskaloosa and Cedar Falls when regulators declared it “unsound” in 2014. Great Southern acquired the banks assets, but not its losses, estimated to be in the range of 81 million dollars.

The broadcast News at 7:06-a.m.

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(Creston, Iowa) – The Creston Police Department reports 49-year-old Connie Ann Hallberg, of Lorimor, was arrested late Thursday afternoon, in Creston. Hallberg was taken into custody at 302 N. Pine Street on a charge of Failure to Appear (in court). She was transported to the Union County Jail and later posted a $300 cash bond, before being released.

And, a Creston lawn service (Green Valley Pest Control& Lawn, reported Thursday afternoon, a Stihl leaf blower had been stolen from 1103 N. Birch Street. The loss was estimated at $125.

(Radio Iowa) – A national report ranks Iowa’s highway system 22nd in the country, a drop from 20th last year, in terms of its condition and cost-effectiveness. The study’s lead author, Baruch Feigenbaum of the Reason Foundation, says they calculated the rankings based on a series of 13 categories, including pavement quality, spending, safety, and traffic congestion. “Iowa does nothing outstanding but it also does nothing terribly,” Feigenbaum says. “Its highest ranking is 13th and that’s in rural and urban fatality rates, and its lowest ranking is — well, it does one thing poorly — structurally deficient bridges which is 48th, but the majority of Iowa’s rankings are right there in the middle.”

Among Iowa’s other placements, the organization’s Annual Highway Report showed Iowa ranked 30th in urban interstate pavement condition, 22nd in traffic congestion and 18th in overall fatality rate. The study also rated the states for how much they spend per mile of state-controlled road. “In terms of state-controlled highways, Iowa’s spending $63,471 (per mile) and that is an average across all state-controlled roads,” Feigenbaum says. “In overall spending, Iowa’s 19th and in capital and bridge costs, Iowa’s 34th.” Earlier this week, President Biden signed a massive infrastructure bill into law which promises to pump some five-billion federal dollars into Iowa for projects from roads to public transportation to airports. It likely won’t mean anything visible right away, he says, as far as improvements to our highways.

“I don’t think they’ll change radically in the near future,” Feigenbaum says. “It tends to take a couple of years for any changes that the state DOT makes in terms of more repavings, newer roads, things of that sort, to take effect.” Even with the influx in federal dollars, he’s doubtful Iowa’s 22nd place ranking on the report will shift significantly in either direction. “Over time, I think that will improve the state’s performance, but it will also improve other states’ performance,” Feigenbaum says, “so everyone will get better, hopefully.”

Compared to nearby states, Iowa’s overall highway performance is better than Illinois (ranks 40th overall) and Wisconsin (26th) but worse than Missouri (2nd), Minnesota (18th) and Nebraska (21st). The Reason Foundation is a non-partisan, non-profit think tank, based in Los Angeles.

See the full report at:
https://reason.org/policy-study/26th-annual-highway-report/

(Radio Iowa) – The Farm Bureau’s annual survey of items used for a traditional Thanksgiving feast found a 14 percent increase in cost compared to last year. Iowa Farm Bureau economist, Sam Funk, says they based the cost on a meal for ten people. “That amount was 53 dollars and 31 cents on average — which is on average for across the United States for those voluntary shoppers who went out there and purchased those market basket items,” he says. The price of the meal centerpiece turkey was up an average of one dollar, 50 cents per pound. “The turkey was the highest cost increase year-over-year for that particular survey. And U-S-D-A has put out their own survey as well — and those turkey prices increased,” Funk says. “In general what we’re seeing is there are a lot of different factors coming into play. They are going to cost just a little bit more for the turkeys this year.”

Some people canceled the big holiday gathering last year, but plan to return to the tradition this year — and that comes as he says the supply of turkeys is down by about four percent. “You’ve got a little bit of a reduction in the supply, you’ve got more demand because people are probably going to gather around for those celebrations and will be looking for that traditional turkey or meat centerpiece,” Funk says. “So, you are going to find that tighter supplies, higher demand, yields higher prices.”

Other items in the Farm Bureau survey include frozen pie crusts, pumpkin pie mix, whipping cream, dinner rolls, fresh cranberries, rolls, whole milk, frozen peas, sweet potatoes, and stuffing. The increase for those items minus the turkey is six-point-six percent compared to last year. Funk says many people will tell you they can get a better turkey price by shopping. He says you can go to several different stores and find prices that are all over the board.

Funk says in some cases you might find a late sale where turkey prices are below a buck a pound.

Police in Red Oak report 29-year-old Nathan Aldrich, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 4:15-p.m. Thursday. He was arrested on an active Montgomery County warrant for Contempt (of court) – Resisting a Court Order. Aldrich was transported to the Montgomery County Jail and posted a $300 bond before being released.

(Radio Iowa) – The lead negotiator for the U-A-W local that represents employees at John Deere’s plant in Ankeny died of Covid the day after the strike at Deere and Company ended. Curtis Templeman‘s death from Covid was announced late Thursday on the Facebook page for U-A-W Local 450. According to a Facebook post on Thursday morning, Templeman had what he thought was the sniffles, but found out he had Covid.

The Des Moines Register reports Templeman was hospitalized at the beginning of November and Templeman told a Register reporter he planned to participate in last week’s contract talks by phone from the hospital. The union praised Templeman’s selfless service during negotiations and said he held on long enough to see the contract with Deere had been ratified.

(Radio Iowa) – President Biden has appointed the leader of a climate action group and the Democrat who unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Senator Joni Ernst a year ago to the top two U-S-D-A posts in Iowa. Matt Russell will be executive director of the Iowa Farm Service Agency which oversees U-S-D-A credit and loan programs as well as conservation and disaster programs. Russell raises cattle and produce on a 110-acre farm near Lacona. His Coyote Run Farm sells grass-fed beef, uses cover crops and grasses to sequester carbon in the soil and was a frequent stop for presidential candidates, including Biden, before the 2020 Iowa Caucuses.

Theresa Greenfield will be the U-S-D-A’s director for rural development in Iowa. Greenfield, who grew up on a farm in southern Minnesota, has worked as a community planner and was the president of a central Iowa property development firm before running for the U.S. Senate in 2020. The White House issued a written statement, saying Greenfield’s life experiences fit the mission of strengthening the rural Iowa economy.

The White House also noted Russell, the new Farm Service Agency director in Iowa, has been the leader of a climate action group called Iowa Interfaith Power and Light since 2018.

(Radio Iowa) – Officials say as many as 13-hundred Afghans who were evacuated from their Asian homeland this summer could be relocated to central Iowa by June of 2022. Three weeks ago, the Pentagon announced nearly 67-hundred Afghans had been resettled throughout the country, but more than 53-thousand remained at U.S. military facilities in six different states. Polk County Supervisor Robert Brownell has been leading efforts to make arrangements for Afghans who’re being sent to the Des Moines area.

“I know that the military bases are wanting these folks off military bases ASAP,” Brownell says, “and so time frame keeps getting compressed a little bit because they want these folks resettled.” Brownell says the coalition working on the resettlement project has secured warehouse space for beds and other furniture.  “My understanding is Catholic Charities is about out of beds, if not out, so we’re in the process of going through our procurement folks to see what it would cost to get a lot of beds in here for our future Afghans.”

Pashto and Dari are the two official languages of Afghanistan and Brownell says they’re also working on a contract with a call-in translation service so Afghans can communicate with English-speaking Iowans as soon as they arrive.

(Marne, Iowa) – Officials with the Marne-Elk Horn Telephone Company announced Thursday, that in the next several years, underserved Internet customers in western Iowa will be served with Marne Elk Horn fiber Internet after the company completes fiber projects in the region. The company announced that they have accepted the $4.5 million grant award from the Empower Rural Iowa Broadband Grant program, which was announced in September, as well as the locations of the fiber projects they will be doing.

According to Rachel Hamilton, CEO of Marne Elk Horn, in 2022 the company will complete the fiber project in the City of Neola, which it started in 2021 as part of the company’s vision to serve all customers in their services areas with fiber. Also next year, they will begin work in the community of Exira and the Iowa grant awarded area near Underwood (see map for details of the project area). The company already has fiber to the community and rural areas of Brayton, Elk Horn, Marne, McClelland, Kimballton, and Walnut. Additionally, in the communities (and some rural areas) of Avoca, Underwood &
Neola.

“Projects like this are tremendous for customers and exciting for us to do, and we’re pleased to announce details of all we have been working on,” said Hamilton. “It’s important to remember that under normal circumstances projects of this size take a couple of construction seasons to complete. Right now things aren’t normal. It’s more difficult to acquire materials, electronics and contractor crews, which impacts our ability to build these projects as quickly as we’d like. But we won’t let that hinder our efforts.”

Today, broadband (fiber Internet) is as important as electricity was in the 1930s. The disparity of available broadband Internet offerings across the state has left many rural residents and businesses without the reliable, ultra-fast fiber Internet that most Marne Elk Horn customers already have. This fact was exacerbated and exposed further by the pandemic when people needed to work and attend school from home.

“Rural Underwood is in need of internet options and upgrades in order for our regional community to stay progressive and competitive with the shift to remote workforce and the need for speed to run more technologically advanced applications. Marne Elk Horn’s project will meet this need, and we are thrilled,” said Angie and Jim J. of rural Underwood. “Marne Elk Horn’s investment will also benefit Underwood Schools and our rural student population.”

Zach Kerber, who has Marne Elk Horn service at his machine & design shop in McClelland said, “I was very happy to hear that they are expanding their fiber and soon I’ll be able to get service from them at my home. At the office, Marne Elk Horn saved us from very poor service from a previous provider, and I can’t wait to have Marne Elk Horn fiber at home too.”

Hamilton said that Marne Elk Horn is excited to continue to bridge broadband gaps with these projects, some made possible only because of grant funds. “Because of the tremendous cost to build fiber networks, without grants or other low-cost funding sources, it would be tough to make a business case to build fiber into these rural neighborhoods,” stated Hamilton.

“The Marne Elk Horn team is excited about 2022. We know our fiber projects will positively impact the day-to-day activities of rural residents who live here and we can’t wait to welcome you to our services and team. If you live in one of these areas you will be hearing more from us soon,” concluded Hamilton.

This project was supported by funds made available through the State of Iowa, acting by and through the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO). Points of view expressed herein are those of the author and speaker and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the State of Iowa or endorsement of the project. 68.69% ($4,550,861.64) of this project was financed with State funds.