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Town Hall in Davenport featured Fox News host & former President Trump; DeSantis to hold Council Bluffs meet & greet Thursday

News

December 6th, 2023 by Ric Hanson

DAVENPORT, Iowa (KWQC via KCRG) – Sean Hannity hosted a town hall with former president Donald Trump at the RiverCenter in Davenport Tuesday afternoon. Reports say hundreds, if not a thousand, of potential voters lined up outside the Davenport RiverCenter hours before a recorded town hall that started at 4 p.m. but aired at 8 p.m. on the Fox News Channel. Several potential voters, waiting in line, said Florida governor Ron DeSantis would be their second choice if Trump were not the nominee. However, for now, Donald Trump remains number one.

Not everyone near the RiverCenter Tuesday was there to show their support for the former president. Some attendees who proclaimed support for the former president say there are areas they believe he can improve in. The press was not allowed inside the town hall, so it is unclear what Hannity and Trump discussed with potential voters during the event. After the event, the former president stopped at Front Street Brewery in downtown Davenport. The next Republican debate will be held tonight (Wednesday night), but Donald Trump is not expected to participate.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – Florida Governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis will head to two Iowa cities this Thursday. DeSantis will head to Union Station Sports Bar and Grill in Cedar Rapids in the afternoon before traveling west to Lincoln’s Pub in Council Bluffs. Details follow, below.

Thursday, December 7, 2023 @ 12:00 p.m. CST

Cedar Rapids Meet and Greet with Special Guest Gov. Ron DeSantis.

  • VENUE – Union Station Sports Bar & Grill (1724 16th Ave SW, Cedar Rapids, IA 52404)
  • DOORS OPEN – 11:30 a.m. CST
  • EVENT BEGINS – 12:00 p.m. CST

Thursday, December 7, 2023 @ 5:30 p.m. CST

Council Bluffs Meet and Greet with Special Guest Gov. Ron DeSantis

  • VENUE – Lincoln’s Pub (157 W Broadway, Council Bluffs, IA 51503)
  • DOORS OPEN – 5:00 p.m. CST
  • EVENT BEGINS – 5:30 p.m. CST

Anyone interested in reserving tickets can find them at the link here.

Iowa U.S. Rep. Hinson: Fingerprint migrant kids at border

News

December 6th, 2023 by Ric Hanson

(Washington, D-C/KCCI) – Iowa U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson is proposing a bill that would require agents at the southern border to start fingerprinting migrant children younger than 14. Currently, border patrol agents aren’t allowed to fingerprint kids under the age of 14. Hinson, a Republican, represents Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District.

If passed, she says her bill can help immigration officials keep track of non-citizen children and protect them from getting caught in the trafficking system.

Woodbury County Supervisors resigns Vice-chair position but stays on the Board

News

December 6th, 2023 by Ric Hanson

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) — Woodbury County Supervisor Jeremy Taylor resigned Tuesday from his position as vice-chair of the county Board of Supervisors while remaining as a county supervisor. Jeremy Taylor’s resignation was approved unanimously. Supervisor Mark Nelson was voted unanimously as the vice-chair for the rest of the 2023 session.

Calls for Jeremy Taylor to resign came after his wife, Kim Taylor, was found guilty on Nov. 21 of more than 50 counts of federal election fraud charges. The fraud charges stem from when Jeremy Taylor was a candidate for U.S. Representative of Iowa’s 4th District in June 2020 and again during the 2020 general election when he successfully ran for Woodbury County Supervisor, the seat he now holds. A trial brief in Kim Taylor’s case identified Jeremy Taylor as an “unindicted co-conspirator.”

In the Nov. 28 Supervisor meeting, County Auditor Patrick Gill asked supervisors to approve a request of the Iowa Attorney General to investigate Jeremy Taylor’s actions. However, on Tuesday night, the board decided to not take any action on that resolution.

Near record warm temperatures expected by Thursday

News, Weather

December 6th, 2023 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – The weather is going to cooperate if you still have some outdoor work to do this week. National Weather Service meteorologist, Alexis Jimenez (hih-MEN-ezz), says temperatures are forecast to be double the norm.  “Where our normal high temperatures are usually in the upper 30s around this time of year, we’re going to have temperatures reaching near 60 degrees, especially by Thursday. We can start seeing some records breaking,” she says.

The warmth will spread from the western side of the state. “The warmest will especially be in western Iowa on Wednesday, and Thursday it’s going to be much of Iowa will be near 60,” Jimenez says. If you are working outside, be prepared for windy conditions. “It’ll be a little bit breezy. The afternoon hours we’re expecting some gusts up to 30 miles per hour at times as we get through the middle part of the week,” she says. “So just be careful with that portion of the weather, but as far as temperatures go it’s gonna be pretty nice out there.”

As is always the case with warm weather in December, enjoy it while you can.  “Those warm temperatures will last up until we get a cold front moving through on Saturday, where our highs will fall back down into the upper 30s,” according to Jimenez.

She says there is a chance for some rain in southeast Iowa on Saturday, and maybe some snow chances on the backside of it there as well.

Red Oak man arrested Tuesday evening on a Theft charge

News

December 6th, 2023 by Ric Hanson

Police in Red Oak (IA) report the arrest at around 5:45-p.m. Tuesday, of 26-year-old Dillion Cole Baldwin, from Red Oak. Baldwin was taken into custody in the 200 block of W. 5th Street on a charge of Theft in the 3rd Degree, an Aggravated Misdemeanor. He was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $2,000 cash bond, as of the latest report.

Study showing rising suicide rates could be particular worry for Iowa

News

December 6th, 2023 by Ric Hanson

A University of Iowa researcher says he’s troubled by a new federal report which finds the nation’s suicide rate has reached its highest level since 1941, with nearly 50-thousand people taking their own lives last year. Professor Jonathan Platt, a U-I social epidemiologist, studies changes in the population patterns of mental illness and suicide. Platt says certain findings in the C-D-C report are especially worrying.

The federal report shows suicide deaths are rising among older adults, especially those over 70, and Platt offers some insights into why that demographic may be more at risk.

While suicide rates had been sharply rising in young people in recent years, this latest report indicates those numbers are starting to level off, which Platt says would be encouraging news. Experts are studying the recent rise in youth suicide rates, and Platt says many theories point to a single culprit.

Free, confidential, round-the-clock help is available through the 9-8-8 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, a resource Platt says holds promise for helping to reduce the numbers. A report released earlier this year from Trust for America’s Health shows 549 Iowans died by suicide in 2021, which is a drop of three-percent from the year before.

Congressman Feenstra says economy weighing down Iowans

News

December 6th, 2023 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) -Fourth District Congressman, Randy Feenstra, says his constituents are concerned about the country’s economic situation.

He says high interest rates are also making it tough on businesses.

Feenstra, a Republican from Hull, says mounting credit card debt is another issue.

Feenstra says Congress needs to find a way to balance the federal budget and the Biden Administration needs to stop increasing spending. He says without changes the federal debt will continue to climb and that means we need more taxpayer dollars to fund the interest of our debt.

Clean-up of former missile site in western Iowa

News

December 6th, 2023 by Ric Hanson

The U-S Army Corps of Engineers is accepting public comments through mid-December about the on-going clean-up of a former missile site in western Iowa. Jessica Messerschmidt — a program manager at the Corps of Engineers’ office in Omaha — says the site near Missouri Valley was used for maintenance, storage and potential launch of missiles during the Cold War.

Messerschmidt, who is a geologist, says work began in 2013 to determine the extent of groundwater contamination in the area from T-C-E. It’s a synthetic chemical that has been shown to cause kidney cancer after prolonged exposure.

The Corps of Engineers has installed 28 filtration systems for residents who get their drinking water from wells in the area.

The Corps regularly tests over 140 wells for contamination. The Corps’ clean up plan is also focused on removing contaminants from the soil.

The Corps hosted a public meeting in Missouri Valley last Thursday.

The 178-acre area was part of Offutt Air Force Base and known as Site 3 for the potential launch of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. It was deactivated in 1964.

State income tax collections down $243 million since July

News

December 5th, 2023 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – The latest information from the Legislative Services Agency shows a 243 million dollar drop in personal income tax payments to the State of Iowa over the past five months. In October, the three-person panel that sets an estimate of state tax receipts predicted state income tax tax payments would drop, mostly due to the tax reduction plan Governor Reynolds signed into law.

For the first five months of the state fiscal year, there’s been a more than 12 percent decline in income tax payments to the state compared to same period a year ago. That is a larger drop than had been predicted, but recent accounting changes in state government make direct comparisons difficult.

Grassley: Investigation shows Nazi-tied money is still held in Swiss bank

News

December 5th, 2023 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says new investigations show money may still be hidden that German government and military leaders stole during the wartime years of the early 1940s. Grassley, who serves on the U-S Senate Budget Committee, says he’s stunned there’s still some plundered funds that haven’t been returned to the ancestors of those who likely died in concentration camp gas chambers.

In 2020, Grassley says Credit Suisse (SWISS) was given credible information that it was holding Nazi-linked accounts. An ombudsman was hired who turned up evidence, who Grassley says was then fired. The bank has rehired the ombudsman so he can, in Grassley’s words, dig deeper into the “troubling details” of the bank’s history.