WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — Another Democrat has been elected to represent the Waterloo area in the Iowa Senate. Eric Giddens beat Republican Walt Rogers and Libertarian Fred Perryman for the District 30 seat in Tuesday’s special election. Giddens will replace Jeff Danielson, who resigned Feb. 14 for a new job as a regional state policy director for the American Wind Energy Association, a national trade group for the wind energy industry.

The 45-year-old Giddens is a Cedar Falls school board member and a program manager for the University of Northern Iowa. The district includes Hudson, Cedar Falls and Waterloo in Black Hawk County.

(Radio Iowa) — Power was restored in the western Iowa city of Hornick Monday and residents could return to their flooded town. Mayor Scott Mitchell says he’s worried some residents won’t want to stay and the town will lose people. “In turn, you can’t really blame them, but I hate to see it. This is a small community, we’re all a little family and we all kind of stick together. Anybody we would lose or could lose, it’s a big hit to every one of us,” Mitchell says.

People in the city have been asked to avoid using their toilets, sinks and showers as officials work to get the city’s sewer system back to 100-percent functional. Mitchell says people have already started cleaning up their properties. “They’re tearing out carpet and we have groups of volunteers in to help deal with the cleanup effort and start the process of rebuilding and trying to get back to a normal life,” he says.

Mitchell says his own basement had about five feet of water when he first got back in Monday. Flooding took out his furnace, washer and dryer. Governor Kim Reynolds visited Hornick on Sunday to see the damage.

Red Oak Police say a 17-year old male was issued a Juvenile Referral Tuesday night, for Possession of a Controlled Substance/Marijuana (a simple misdemeanor), after officers were sent to investigate a suspicious vehicle in the 400 block of E. Joy Street, at around 10:15-p.m.  Police located the vehicle where it was parked, and made contact with a juvenile, who was issued the referral and then released to the custody of his parents. Because of his age, the teens’ name was not released.

(Radio Iowa) — Vice President Mike Pence surveyed flood damage in Iowa and Nebraska yesterday (Tuesday) and Pence used the word “crisis” to describe the situation.

Pence stopped to pray with a small group of flood victims at a shelter in Omaha. He thanked Midwesterners for their resolve and for helping their neighbors in need. Pence also flew over the flood zone. The governors of Iowa and Nebraska have asked President Trump to declare a national emergency in both states.

The governor of Nebraska told Pence his state was facing an “epic” disaster. Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds used the word “catastrophic” to describe the flood damage in western Iowa.

Every Missouri River levee from Council Bluffs to the Missouri River has been compromised by flooding and rebuilding that system will take billions. Tuesday morning, the water treatment plant in Glenwood was shut down after it was inundated by floodwaters. Officials say 300-thousand gallons of water will be hauled each day to Glenwood from Shenandoah and Red Oak. In Hamburg, residents have to drink bottled water because Hamburg’s water treatment plant was compromised by flooding too.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:45 a.m. CDT

BROOKLYN, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa highway patrolman who was recently elected to the Legislature wrote almost no tickets to his future constituents as he made his first run for public office. The annual number of citations issued by Trooper Jon Thorup plummeted in 2018 as he campaigned for the Iowa House. He issued 8 tickets, or 1 for every 45 issued by the average trooper statewide. Thorup says he should have written more but that his priority was responding to calls in rural areas.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Vice President Mike Pence took a look at the raging Elkhorn River at the small town of Waterloo, Nebraska, which found itself cut off from the outside world last week by floodwaters. Pence met with a group of first responders who helped pluck people from their flooded homes along the river’s banks.

ANKENY, Iowa (AP) — Police in the Des Moines suburb of Ankeny say an officer has shot a burglary suspect who advanced on officers. Police say the incident happened around 4 a.m. Tuesday when Ankeny officers were called to a car wash for a burglary in progress. Police say arriving officers a masked man inside the business, and Officer Tony Higgins fired when the man advanced on Higgins and other officers. Police have identified the suspect as 27-year-old Myles Matthew Regenold. He is expected to recover.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Police in eastern Iowa say officers and firefighters have found the body of a person in a burning car. The Iowa City Police Department says in a news release Tuesday that the body was found after first responders were called just before 11 p.m. Monday to a car on fire in an Iowa City parking lot. The person’s identity has not yet been released.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Farmer Jeff Jorgenson looks out over 750 acres of cropland submerged beneath the swollen Missouri River, and he knows he probably won’t plant this year. But that’s not his biggest worry. He and other farmers have worked until midnight for days to move grain, equipment and fuel barrels away from the floodwaters fed by heavy rain and snowmelt.

The rising water that has damaged hundreds of homes and been blamed for three deaths has also taken a heavy toll on agriculture, inundating thousands of acres, threatening stockpiled grain and killing livestock.

In Fremont County alone, Jorgenson estimates that more than a million bushels of corn and nearly half a million bushels of soybeans have been lost after water overwhelmed grain bins before they could be emptied of last year’s crop. His calculation using local grain prices puts the financial loss at more than $7 million in grain alone. That’s for about 28 farmers in his immediate area, he said.

Once it’s deposited in bins, grain is not insured, so it’s just lost money. This year farmers have stored much more grain than normal because of a large crop last year and fewer markets in which to sell soybeans because of a trade dispute with China.
“The economy in agriculture is not very good right now. It will end some of these folks farming, family legacies, family farms,” he said. “There will be farmers that will be dealing with so much of a negative they won’t be able to tolerate it.”

Jorgenson, 43, who has farmed since 1998, reached out to friends Saturday, and they helped him move his grain out of bins to an elevator. Had they not acted, he would have lost $135,000.

The flooding is expected to continue throughout the week in several states as high water flows down the Missouri River. Swollen rivers have already breached more than a dozen levees in Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. The flooding, which started after a massive late-winter storm last week, has also put some hog farms in southwest Iowa underwater. The dead animals inside must be disposed of, Reynolds said.

The water rose so quickly that farmers in many areas had no time to get animals out, said Chad Hart, an agricultural economist at Iowa State University. “Places that haven’t seen animal loss have seen a lot of animal stress. That means they’re not gaining weight and won’t be marketed in as timely a manner, which results in additional cost,” he said.

Vice President Mike Pence says the Trump administration will expedite presidential disaster declarations for Nebraska and Iowa. Pence was in Omaha, Nebraska, on Tuesday to tour areas ravaged by the flood that has killed at least three people and forced hundreds of Midwesterners from their homes. Pence says he spoke to the governors of both states shortly after landing in Omaha to assure them federal aid will soon be on the way.

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds were among a group of Republican leaders accompanying Pence during a brief tour of damaged areas. Others included U.S. Sens. Ben Sasse, of Nebraska, and Joni Ernst, of Iowa, as well as Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska.

(Radio Iowa) — If you think your homeowner’s insurance covers flooding, think again. As snow melts, rain falls, and rivers rise, the Federal Emergency Management Agency reminds Iowans to learn about flood insurance and buy appropriate coverage. David Maurstad heads FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program and says only about 30-percent of properties located in high-risk areas are covered, and only four-percent outside those areas.

“Maybe 2012 or so, there was another pretty significant flooding event in Iowa and the number of people covered was about 12% in the effected areas,” Maurstad says. “We have a lot of work to do in making sure people understand that flood insurance is their first line of defense to recover from flooding events.”

Damage to buildings and their contents is covered if the high water is caused by rain or rising lakes or rivers. Maurstad says the policies are affordable, averaging less than 500-dollars a year in locations that are not flood-prone. “An inch of water can cause $25,000 worth of damage,” Maurstad says. “We’re trying to encourage people when they renew their homeowner policy that they consider flood insurance. They need to get that flood insurance, they need to not wait. We have to do a better job of encouraging renters to have flood insurance. They can be as negatively impacted as whoever owns the building.”

Be advised, after buying flood insurance, there’s a 30-day waiting period before it goes into effect. More information is available at floodsmart.gov.

(Radio Iowa) — Republicans in the Iowa Senate have voted to require able-bodied adults to work, volunteer or go to school for at least 20 hours a week to remain qualified for Medicaid benefits. Senator Jason Schultz, a Republican from Schleswig, says the “Iowa work ethic” is eroding and this will help.

“We’ve told people that you don’t have to work…’Oh, here, by the way, here’s enough stuff to get by. You still don’t have to work,'” Schultz said. “That destroys a culture, people.” Senator Liz Mathis, a Democrat from Cedar Rapids, had this reply. “People don’t wake up every morning, Senator Schultz, and say: ‘I’m so glad I’m on Medicaid. I’m so glad I’m poor,'” Mathis said.

Senator Pam Jochum, a Democrat from Dubuque, says there are better ways to spend the cost five-million dollars it will cost to keep and analyze the reports Medicaid recipients submit about their work, volunteerism or school attendance. “This is not about new work requirements. We can keep saying it is. It is not,” Jochum said. “It’s about new reporting requirements.”

Jochum and the other Democrats present in the Senate today (Tuesday) voted against the bill, while all 32 Republicans voted for it. Senator Jerry Behn, of Boone, a Republican, says work requirements for welfare should be enforced. “It is simply a compassionate nudge toward being successful,” Behn said. “…This is a bill that we are in dire need of. Will it fix everything? No. Will it help? Yes.”

The bill now goes to the House. The Senate has passed two other bills aimed at making welfare program changes. One created a new crime of illegally possessing more than two food stamp cards and it passed unanimously.

In response to Governor Reynolds’ disaster declarations for many Iowa counties, the Iowa Department of Revenue has granted a 30-day extension and suspension of any penalty or interest for taxpayers whose principal residence or business is located in the disaster areas and whose payment or return is due on or before March 31. This includes all tax types.

The governor has issued declarations for 41 counties impacted by the recent flooding, including (locally): Adair, Crawford, Dallas, Fremont, Guthrie, Harrison, Mills, Monona, Montgomery, Page, Pottawattamie, and Shelby.

State law authorizes Iowa Department of Revenue Director Kraig Paulsen to extend the period of time for filing tax returns and making associated payments. This includes the suspension of any penalty or interest associated with those returns or payments.