(Radio Iowa) – Maple sap harvesters across northeast Iowa got the season started nearly three weeks early thanks to warmer than normal temperatures. Floyd County Conservation Director Adam Sears says this is the earliest start to the sap season he’s seen in 10 years. “Normally, next week’s when we start thinking about tapping trees, not 10 days ago. Everything’s just moved forward, but we’re hoping we get a little longer season this year, rather than just an earlier season,” Sears says.

He says the recent series of 50-degree days changed his usual timeline and they’ve already collected about one third of their normal sap collection. ” We hope that we still get the full season that we’d normally get on top of it, but we don’t really know that. It depends on how much it warms up continuously,” he says.

Floyd County Conservation typically harvests close to ten thousand gallons of sap each season, which yields about 200 gallons of maple syrup.

(Radio Iowa) – House Speaker Pat Grassley says Republicans in the Iowa House have developed an alternative to Governor Kim Reynolds’ proposed overhaul of Area Education Agencies that help educate students with disabilities.  “We wanted to provide certainty for special education,” Grassley says. “We took Iowans’ feedback that we’ve been having in our meetings and realized how important that was.”

Reynolds wants to let schools use a private firm, a different A-E-A or hire more special ed staff in their districts for the next school year. The House G-O-P plan would start sending state and federal special education funding directly to schools rather than the A-E-As — as the governor proposed — but it may only be used for special ed services from the local A-E-A.  “We’re not changing the ability for AEAs and schools to work together,” Grassley says. “This plan would continue to encourage that.” Grassley says the plan calls for a study that would involve legislators, educators and parents.

A new state Division of Special Education would be created as the governor proposed, but with half as many employees and most of them would be assigned to work in the A-E-A regions. The nine A-E-A administrators would see their salaries cut to be in line with local superintendents in their region. In years two and three of the House G-O-P plan, schools would no longer have to use the A-E-As for media services or other education-related services, like teacher training and curriculum materials.

“We know that there’s still work to be done on some of the details,” Grassley says, “but we also know we’re against the clock right now and we feel we’ve taken a lot of input to get to the point where we’ve addressed a lot of the concerns that have existed on all of these issues, to try to continue to move their conversation forward for the legislative session.”

House Republicans decided a few weeks ago to table the governor’s bill on A-E-As. In a written statement, Reynolds said she appreciates that she and lawmakers will be able to continue the conversation about A-E-A changes. In a separate bill, House Republicans propose raising the salary for new teachers to at least 50-thousand dollars — as the governor called for — but over the next two years. Grassley says that would give schools time to adjust the pay levels for current teachers. House Republicans want to send 14 million dollars to schools — to raise the pay for other school staff.

“Really looking at your in-the-classroom para educators and others that we know our school districts are struggling to find right now and retain,” Grassley says, “and part of that also gets back to that one-on-one instruction in the classroom dealing with special education students, so we think it feeds in and ties into what that other conversation is with the AEAs.”

These proposals are scheduled for debate in the House Education Committee later today (Thursday), along with a bill that would increase general state per pupil spending on public schools by three percent.

(Radio Iowa) – A bill to ban traffic enforcement cameras AND require motorists to mainly use smart phones in hands-free mode while driving is eligible for debate in both the Iowa House AND Senate. The bill passed out of the House Transportation Committee on a narrow 11-to-10 vote yesterday (Wednesday). Some committee said the two issues should be separated. Others oppose the ban on traffic cameras. Committee chairman Brian Best of Glidden says he hopes to craft a compromise.

“Sometimes in the political world…things we do don’t make sense completely,” Best said, “but, at the same time….my ears are open.” Law enforcement officials are raising concerns about an outright ban on traffic cameras, along with continuing to allow motorists to handle a smart phone while driving if they’re talking or using the phone for navigation. Johnston Police Chief Dennis McDaniel is president of the Iowa Police Chiefs Association.

“We’re going to partner with our legislators to find common ground…to take two totally separate traffic safety initiatives and make it safer for Iowans,” he says. “We believe that the hands free legislation can be likely strengthened to make it a safety option and an easier option that creates commonality for motorists across Iowa.”

Law enforcement officials say they’re open to state regulation of cameras that generate tickets for speeding or running red lights, but oppose an outright ban on automated traffic enforcement technology.

(UPDATED 2/15/24) – DES MOINES, Iowa – The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa reports that on Wednesday, February 14, 2024, a federal jury in Des Moines convicted 47-year-old Bradley Eugene Wendt, of Adair, of conspiring to make false statements to the ATF, making false statements to the ATF, and illegal possession of a machine gun.

Since July 2018, Wendt has been the Chief of Police for Adair, Iowa.  He is also the owner of BW Outfitters, a federal firearms licensee in Denison, Iowa. Evidence at trial showed that, between July 2018 and August 2022, Wendt used his position as Chief of Police to obtain machine guns for his own personal use and profit, including to buy machine guns for his own store.

Generally, machine guns made after May 1986 are illegal to transfer and possess.  But, law enforcement agencies can buy machine guns for their official use and authorized dealer can get machine guns to demonstrate to a police department for the department’s future possible purchase.  If a police department wants to purchase or receive a demonstration of a machine gun, it can submit a letter to ATF, referred to as a “law letter,” expressing its need for and interest in the machine gun.

Between July 2018 and August 2022, Wendt wrote nearly 40 law letters, requesting the purchase or demonstration of 90 machine guns for the Adair Police Department.  In the law letters to purchase machine guns for his two-man department, Wendt said he was buying the machine guns for the official use of his department and was not getting the machine guns for resale.  In the law letters requesting demonstrations of machine guns, Wendt said the Adair Police Department wanted a demonstration for the department’s future possible purchase of the requested machine guns.

A jury found that Wendt made false statements in several of these letters, convicting him of conspiracy to make false statements to the ATF and eight counts of making a false statement to the ATF.  Evidence at trial showed that Wendt purchased machine guns for the Adair Police Department, but later resold those machine guns at a personal profit of nearly $80,000.  The evidence also showed Wendt used demonstration law letters to purchase machine guns for his own gun store, BW Outfitters, including a .50 caliber machine gun called a “Ma Deuce,” which he immediately mounted to his personally owned armored Humvee.

Wendt was also convicted of illegal possession of a machine gun, based on his personal possession of a belt-fed, M60 machine gun registered to the Adair Police Department.  Wendt, along with his gun store BW Outfitters, hosted a machine gun shoot in April 2022, where he charged the public to shoot machine guns, including several registered to the Adair Police Department.  The jury found Wendt was not acting within the scope of his official duties when he possessed the M60 machine gun.

Wendt faces  up to five years’ prison on the conspiracy count, five years’ prison for each false statement charge, and up to ten years’ prison for illegal possession of a machine gun. Sentencing is scheduled for June 14, 2024 at the United States Courthouse in Des Moines.  A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the United States sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.

FBI Omaha Special Agent in Charge Eugene Kowel said “In a stark abuse of the position of trust he held, Brad Wendt exploited his position as chief of police to unlawfully obtain and sell guns for his own personal profit. When so many law enforcement officers in our country are working to protect our communities and uphold the law,  Brad Wendt did exactly the opposite. The FBI is committed to working with our law enforcement partners to investigate and hold accountable those who violate their oath of office to enrich themselves.”

Kansas City Field Division Special Agent in Charge Bernard Hansen stated “Mr. Wendt was in a position of trust and his egregious behavior betrayed his community he was entrusted to protect.  Wendt was sworn to uphold the law, but instead he abused his authority as the Chief of Police for his own personal benefit.”

United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) made the announcement. “No one relishes seeking criminal prosecution of a law enforcement officer,” stated U.S. Attorney Richard Westphal,
“however, with the oath of public service, comes the accountability of putting the public trust at the forefront of this duty. An oath that most officers zealously pursue every day with honor. If an individual law enforcement officer is the exception to this rule, then we should not shirk from holding them accountable. Our thanks to the dedicated work of the investigative ATF and FBI agents, and our hard working trial team.” This case was investigated by ATF and FBI, and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Mikaela Shotwell, Ryan Leemkuil, and Shai Gonzales.

(Radio Iowa) – Travel by planes, trains, and automobiles was up across Iowa in 2023. D-O-T spokesperson Stuart Anderson says airplane travel led the way. “We did end 2023 setting a record for passenger counts at our eight commercial service airports. With four-point-six (4.6) million passengers, which was higher than four-point-five million, which was in 2019,” Anderson says. Travel on the state roadways in the last year was also above the pre-pandemic level.

“We did end the year slightly below the 2019 December, but overall we are one-point-seven percent higher in vehicle miles of travel than in calendar year 22, and one tenth of a percent higher than calendar year 2019,” he says. He says there was an increase in rail shipping of some products that had slowed during the pandemic.

“We did see motor vehicle and motor vehicle parts shipped on rail increased by twelve-point-three percent (12.3%) over the previous calendar year, petroleum products on rail went up eleven percent,” he says. “Grain products on rail went down nine-point-eight percent (9.8%) compared to 2022, in large part due to less exports of our grains overall.”

Anderson provided the numbers during the State Transportation Commission meeting Tuesday.

(Radio Iowa) – A bill introduced in the Iowa Senate would let state agencies hire private C-P-A firms to audit government spending rather than have the state auditor’s office do it. Senator Mike Bousselot, a Republican from Ankeny, says private C-P-As can audit state agencies in Illinois. “It is a flexibility that exists today for our cities. In fact the City of Des Moines, the largest city in our state, hires not the state auditor’s office — even though they could, but they hire a private CPA firm,” Bousselot says, “as well as the vast majority of school districts in our state.”

Senator Tony Bisignano, a Democrat from Des Moines, says this is the second year in a row Republicans have introduced a bill to limit the authority of State Auditor Rob Sand.  “You know we can all act like there’s no elephant in the room, but there is. We have one Democrat elected statewide — one — and he’s the auditor, unfortunately for you because he’s the guy that can look in to see what the rest of yous are doing,” Bisignano said. “That seems to be a problem here now.”

John McCormally is chief of staff in the state auditor’s office. He told lawmakers it would likely cost the state five MILLION dollars more to have private C-P-As do the work that’s being done now by the state auditor’s office. “Voters make a choice for state auditor every four years and the author of this bill doesn’t like who they chose,” McCormally said, “so he wants to use more taxpayer money to hire somebody else.”

Marlys Gaston recently retired as the chief deputy in the financial audit division in the state auditor’s office. She worked for two Republican state auditors as well as Democrat Rob Sand and she’s raising concerns about the bill. “Allowing the departments to choose their independent auditor would, I think, eliminate economy and efficiency to begin with,” Gaston says. “…You’re increasing costs exponentially.”

A lobbyist for the Iowa Society of Certified Public Accountants told lawmakers fewer C-P-A firms are willing to audit government agencies due to the nationwide shortage of C-P-As. Bousselot says letting state agencies hire private C-P-A firms for audits might boost the workforce. “The flexibility to hire ethical but private CPAs that are answerable to the same standards as a public CPA,…is something that we could leverage here at the state to get more CPAs and greater expertise in delivering audits for state government.”

The bill has cleared a Senate subcommittee and is likely to be approved by a Senate committee later today (Wednesday).

(Radio Iowa) – The National Weather Service is seeking volunteers to be trained to be storm spotters for the spring severe weather season. Meteorologist Andrew Ansorge says spotter classes will begin next month. “This is just an opportunity for us to come out into the community and provide refresher training on spotter training, as well as for people who might be interested that haven’t taken it before. It gives them information about how to spot a storm safely and to report that information back to us here at the National Weather Service,” Ansorge says.

Ansorge said the first class will be held in southwest Iowa, and you can find out more about the classes online. “They can go to our website, weather.gov forward slash Des Moines and there’s a link at the top there that talks about storm spotting,” he says. The first class is on March 19th in Creston.

(Clarinda, Iowa) – The Page County Sheriff’s Office reports a man from Montgomery County was arrested at the conclusion of a pursuit that began in northwest Missouri and ended in Page County. Authorities say 21-year-old Drake Leslie Brown, of Red Oak, faces charges of Eluding, Interference with official acts, Reckless Driving, and four scheduled motor vehicle violation citations. Brown was being held in the Page County Jail on a $2,000 cash-only bond.

The Page County Sheriff’s Office says it was notified at around 1:46-a.m. Sunday, of a high speed pursuit that was entering the County on Highway 71. Officers with the Maryville, MO. Police Department and Deputies with the Nodaway County Missouri Sheriff’s Office, were pursuing the vehicle. Page County Deputies engaged in the pursuit on Highway 71 at 300th Street. The chase continued through southern Page County until Deputies lost sight of the vehicle.

Drake Brown

They later received a tip that the vehicle and two suspects were in Coin (Iowa). Following-up on the tip and after arriving at the suspect’s location, Brown was taken into custody. In addition to the aforementioned Missouri law enforcement agencies, Red Oak Iowa Police and Fremont County Iowa Sheriff’s Deputies assisted in handling the incident.

A charge is merely an accusation and that the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

(Greenfield, Iowa) – The Adair County Board of Supervisors, during their meeting this (Wednesday) morning, acted on approving several matters, including: Taxable mileage in the amount of $112.22 (1,071 miles) Supervisor Matt Wedemeyer, who uses his own vehicle to conduct county business. The Supervisors renewed a Grove Township Cemetery mowing contract with Mike Mangels was renewed; They also acted on Homestead and Military Disallowances; and authorized Kelly Mitchell to use the County Recorder’s Credit Card.

They also approved publishing a “Notice of Intent” to Appoint Kelly Mitchell as Adair County Recorder. Auditor Mandy Berg…

In other business, Adair County Auditor Mandy Berg discussed with the Board, an Election Equipment Contract. The current equipment is nearly 10-years old. The Board unanimously approved the contract as presented.

They also approved a Software License Agreement and an Extended Warranty and Maintenance Agreement.

County Engineer Nick Kauffman presented for the Board Chair to sign, a contract and performance bond and liability insurance, with Henningsen Construction, for a HMA (Hot Mix Asphalt) resurfacing project on Adair County Road P-33. Kauffman discussed with the Board a Summer Internship Program. The part-time position pays $15/hour.

And, he spoke about Secondary Roads Department maintenance and activities. He said there will be two projects (one is bridge, the other is a concrete box culvert) up for letting on February 26^th. He said also they will be looking at vacating five different roads, beginning in April.

(Radio Iowa) – Members of the Iowa House are scaling back the governor’s plan to consolidate or eliminate 111 state boards and commissions. A bill that cleared a House subcommittee this (Wednesday) morning only focuses on the elimination of 49 boards or commissions. Republican Representative Jane Bloomingdale of Northwood is chair of the House State Government Committee.

“I didn’t feel like the committee or subcommittee had time to really look through, look at the mergers,” Bloomingdale says. “…I didn’t think it was fair to ask my committee to vote on something they didn’t have time to look at.” A review committee met last fall and made recommendations about streamlining state boards and commissions, but Governor Reynolds’ bill to implement those changes wasn’t released until Monday. Bloomingdale says she reviewed the commission’s recommendations, developed a plan that focuses on the obvious changes and sent it to all of the members of her committee on Sunday.

“Everyone looked at it — Democrats and Republicans — and this was the list we came up with and said: ‘Let’s start here,’ and as we have time the rest of session we’ll look at adding to this, ” Bloomingdale says. “We’ll look at the merger recommendations. We’ll look at a couple of these that we didn’t eliminate that we can eliminate, but at this point this is the consensus.” A Senate subcommittee will meet at noon today (Wednesday) to review the governor’s bill which would eliminate or merge 43 percent of state boards and commissions.