(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Legal Aid is now operating four help desks in county courthouses across the state to help tenants avoid eviction. The agency opened its help center at the Johnson County Courthouse this week and has others operating in Polk, Linn and Black Hawk counties. Ericka Petersen, of Iowa Legal Aid, offers important advice to tenants, and is letting landlords know they can get rent assistance without seeking an eviction. “I think the number-one piece of advice for people is to come to your hearing,” Petersen says. “In several counties, you will now be greeted with people that can offer you legal assistance and people that can offer you and your landlord rent assistance.”

A recent federal survey shows some 84-thousand Iowans are behind on rent, many due to the pandemic. Petersen wants tenants to know they do have rights. “If you can, reach out early,” she says. “We’re there. We’ve got rent assistance folks there, but if you reach out to us beforehand, even better. We can get things rolling even faster, maybe we can avoid even having the court date in the first place.”

With the federal eviction moratorium set to expire July 31st, attorneys and service providers are anticipating a surge in evictions. Residents can call Iowa Legal Aid at 800-532-1275.
iowalegalaid.org

(By Kate Payne, Iowa Public Radio)

(Update 9:50-a.m.) – Apparent engine failure is reportedly to blame for the emergency landing of a crop duster Tuesday evening, in Carroll County. According to reports, the pilot was forced to make an emergency landing in near a field off Mahogany Avenue near Swan Lake south of Carroll, at around 5 p.m. Tuesday. The aircraft ended up on a terrace, near a corn field.

Authorities say the pilot suffered no serious injuries, but he crop duster, an Air Tractor AT-401 registered to Central Ag, LLC of Corisca, S.D., was an apparent total loss.

The Federal Aviation Administration, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) were notified and will be conducting a joint investigation into the incident.

(Radio Iowa) – Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Ottumwa is pushing to ensure a current benefit for military veterans and the families of soldiers who died while on duty is a permanent policy. The National Park Service issues free park passes to veterans and Gold Star families and Miller-Meeks is sponsoring a bill to make that policy law.

“The VIP Act protects these veterans’ passes by codifying them into law and making them lifetime passes instead of annual passes that have to be resent and reapplied for every year,” Miller-Meeks says. “Making the passes lifetime instead of annual makes the job of Park Service easier and ensures our veterans have full access to all the benefits they deserve.” Passes into the Badlands National Park in South Dakota, for example, cost 15 dollars per person and 30 dollars per vehicle.

Miller-Meeks is getting bipartisan support for her bill. More than 140 House members had signed on as co-sponsors.  “As a 24-year Army veteran, I understand the sacrifices made by our military and their loved ones…and as a doctor, I understand the healing power of nature and outdoor activity,” Miller-Meeks said. “with mental and physical benefits.” Miller-Meeks outlined her bill Tuesday during a hearing held by the U.S. House committee that oversees policy on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands.

Ottumwa native John Paluska, a retired Army Captain, also testified. “There’s something about connecting to nature that all these parks have that helps with the healing,” he says. Paluska, who is a Green Beret, says he visited Yellowstone National Park after his deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.  “I’ll always carry the wounds of war with me wherever I go,” he says, “but when I go to these beautiful places I am able to connect with one of the reasons I decided to serve and that is this incredible, beautiful country, so I feel a connection to this country when I visit these national parks.”

Paluska was injured in a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2006 and Staff Sergeant Travis Strong, the soldier at his side, lost both legs. “Now Travis finds his strength in challenging himself physically at a national parks,” Paluska says. “He’s summited various peaks throughout the US with only his hands and, for him, his park is Yosemite.” There are more than two-thousand national parks, national forests and wildlife refuges and Paluska says he looks forward to showing his newborn son Yellowstone and many others in the coming years.

The bill Miller-Meeks is sponsoring would let active service members, who get annual free passes to the national parks, turn that in for a lifetime pass when they retire or are honorably discharged.

(Radio Iowa) – The first woman to serve as a warden at an Iowa prison for men has retired. Chris Weitzel spoke during the Board of Corrections meeting last week and reflected on her career that started as a corrections officer. “When I started in 1982 at Mitchelville my goal was to be a warden. And I have had an amazing career with wonderful opportunities,” Weitzel says, “but those opportunities were there because I made those opportunities. I got involved in every single thing I could possibly involve myself in.” Weitzel’s last position was as the interim warden at the Fort Dodge prison, and she had also held that job in Newton and Clarinda.

Weitzel says there were many things she liked about the job.  “We never have the same day twice. We make a difference in somebody’s life every single day. And I preach that over and over and over to my staff — because corrections is not a positive environment — and I think sometimes we get caught up in the negativity,” Weitzel says. She says the staff doesn’t see the daily impact they make and underestimate their value.

“And so I am constantly reminding staff ‘you make a difference whether you see it or don’t.’ and then, just our staff. We have the best staff in the state, and they are so dedicated to the mission of our work every single day, even in times of hardship,” Weitzel says. Weitzel says the reality of retirement didn’t hit her until the Board of Corrections approved her replacement.

“I have a lot of things that I am proud of through my career,” she says, “buy I think probably the thing that I am most proud of is that I was the first female warden at a men’s institution in Iowa. I hope that that has paved the way — I know it has paved the way for other women.” Weitzel says she looks forward to spending more time with her family and being able to go on vacations without taking along an Ipad.

Department of Corrections director, Beth Skinner, says Weitzel has laid a 38-year foundation in corrections that will never be forgotten.

(Radio Iowa) – A Democrat who came within a couple of points of defeating Republican Congressman Steve King in 2018 has announced his plans for the 2022 election cycle. J.D. Scholten, of Sioux City, released a video message this (Tuesday) afternoon. “I have decided not to seek elected office this time around,” Scholten says. “Instead, I’m joining RuralVote.org as their executive director.”

Scholten had been among those Democrats mentioned as potential candidates for the U.S. Senate in 2022. Scholten says the national group he’s now leading aims to boost Democratic turnout in about three dozen rural counties around the country. “RuralVote.org last fall in just a few weeks put 42,500 yard signs in three battleground states in rural communities,” Scholten says. “Now, this cycle we’re looking take 39 counties across this nation and improve Democratic performance by 5%.”

JD Scholten

Scholten, who also ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. House in 2020, got more votes than Joe Biden did in Iowa’s fourth congressional district. Scholten drove himself around in an R-V he called “Sioux City Sue” and visited each of the district’s 39 counties. Scholten suggests Democrats have to learn the lessons of 2020 as they prepare for the next election.  “Right now, Democratic policies are very popular, however they’re being drowned by mis- and disinformation. We have to remember that we’re just a handful of states and under 100,000 votes from a Donald Trump second term and a Republican-controlled House and Senate,” Scholten says.

“Our campaign’s going to be focused on being in battleground states in 2022.” He says that may or may not include Iowa. Before he entered politics, Scholten played professional baseball in Canada, Europe, and the U.S., including a stint with the Sioux City Explorers. This season, at the age of 41, he’s been pitching for a Minneapolis-based team in an amateur baseball league.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is introducing a bill today (Tuesday) which he says will help rural Iowa communities — as well as isolated towns across the U-S — get high-speed internet connections. The measure is called the Assisting Broadband Connectivity Act and it’s being co-sponsored in the Senate by Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchar.

Grassley says, “This bipartisan bill will make changes to the rural broadband program at the U.S. Department of Agriculture so that areas aren’t automatically ineligible for federal funding because a project previously received state funding.” The update will help rural Iowa to move forward, Grassley says, by providing more coordination and funding for broadband projects. He says the bill should help to remove barriers to broadband expansion and streamline the process for hard-to-serve rural areas.

“States will be able to use federal funds such as COVID aid for broadband,” he says, “fulfilling their requirement in most applications to match federal dollars.” Grassley, a Republican, says the legislation promises to help small communities connect all the pieces from state and federal levels to get the expensive, urgent projects completed. Grassley says he’s held town halls in 85 of Iowa’s 99 counties so far this year, and at practically every meeting, broadband is brought up.

“Some places you go in rural Iowa are mostly connected with the work of small telephone companies,” Grassley says, “and some of them have outstanding service and then other areas you go and they have no service or they’re underserved.” He says boosting broadband will spark economic development and create jobs in rural America.

(Radio Iowa) – Visitors to a popular tourist destination in Omaha-Council Bluffs may have been exposed to a dangerous disease, and it’s not COVID-19. The Henry Doorly Zoo held an event over the 4th of July weekend where guests stayed overnight in the aquarium complex. One woman reportedly awoke to find a wild, brown bat near her head. She wasn’t injured but a total of seven wild bats were later caught in the building and one tested positive for rabies.

The zoo is recommending all 186 people who attended camping events that weekend and the last weekend in June seek treatment for exposure to rabies — at the zoo’s expense.

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports five arrests. At around 3:15-a.m. Monday, four people: 39-year-old Pi La; 36-year-old Has Ger Htoo; 24-year-old Ler Lar Shee, and 35-year-old Kta Dee, all of Omaha, were arrested for Possession of a Controlled Substance and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. Their bonds were set at $1,300, each.

And, last Friday night, 21-year-old Monta Arnell Johnson, Jr., of Glenwood, was arrested for Domestic Abuse Assault, and Child Endangerment. He was being held without bond in the Mills County Jail. The Sheriff’s Office reports also, two people suffered minor injuries during a collision at around 11-a.m. Friday at the I-29/Bunge Ave ramp. Authorities say a 2021 side-dump dirt hauler driven by 33-year-old Arthur Saucier, of Bellevue, NE, was traveling west on Bunge Avenue. A 2019 Subaru driven by 59-year-old Timothy Charon, of Emerson, was traveling behind the dirt hauler when it slowed to turn left (South) onto an un-named dirt road (used for construction purposes).

Saucier advised authorities when he slowed, activated his turn signal, and was in the process of initiating the turn, the Subaru began to pass him. The front of the Subaru collided with the side/front of the dirt hauler, and entered the south ditch before continuing west and hitting a construction fence. The dirt hauler entered the south ditch and continued south. Charon told authorities the turn signal of the dirt hauler was activated AFTER he began the process of overtaking the truck.

(Radio Iowa) – A man who got federal pandemic relief through banks in Iowa and Minnesota for a non-existent business has been sentenced to more than three years in federal prison. Fifty-seven-year-old Donald Franklin Trosin of Armstrong, Iowa, used to live in Champlin, Minnesota. He submitted more than 20 applications for Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loans for a business he claimed had 120 employees and a five MILLION dollar payroll — but Trosin didn’t operate a business.

He pleaded guilty this spring to major fraud and money laundering. Prosecutors say he tried to transfer the pandemic relief he got to people in other states and countries, including China. He’s been ordered to pay one-point-three million dollars in restitution.

(Radio Iowa) – A northwest Iowa man wanted for what witnesses described as a hit-and-run has been charged with attempted murder for allegedly driving over someone in Rock Valley early Sunday morning. Police say their investigation revealed the driver of the vehicle and the pedestrian had gotten into an argument. Police allege the argument continued into the street when the pedestrian confronted the driver on the side of the road. The driver backed his vehicle away from the pedestrian and then allegedly drove towards the pedestrian, striking and dragging them under the car until they were run over by the rear wheels.

The driver’s been identified as 39-year-old Jaime Martinez Montiel. He was found inside a closet at an apartment in Rock Valley. He was arrested and charged with attempted murder and serious injury by vehicle. He is being held on a $50,000 bond in the Sioux County Jail. The investigation is ongoing and police are expecting more charges to be filed. The condition of the victim is unknown.