(Radio Iowa) – State Auditor Rob Sand says it’s time to change state law so there’s mandatory prison time for anyone convicted of large scale theft of taxpayer funds. Sand defines “large scale” theft as anything over 10-thousand dollars.

Sand says red flags about bookkeeping are showing up in several of the audits his office has done for small Iowa communities and counties. While it can be hard to find people in rural Iowa with the skills to manage local government accounts, Sand says that can’t excuse everything.

Sand made his comments this weekend on an episode of “Iowa Press” on Iowa P-B-S. Last week, Sand’s office released an audit that found the small southwest Iowa town of Lorimor had a quarter of a million dollar budget deficit. The town’s clerk had been fired by a different city in 2013 after auditors found she’d mishandled 27-thousand dollars in that city’s accounts.

(Greenfield, Iowa) – The Board of Supervisors in Adair County will meet at 9-a.m. on Wednesday, June 19th, in the Greenfield Courthouse Board Room. On their agenda is discussion facilitated by Maria Brownell, with the Ahlers and Cooney Law Firm, with regard to a Commercial & Industrial Development Ordinance.

Adair-Cass-Guthrie Environmental Health Director Jotham Arber will provide the Board with an Environment Health update, and County Engineer Nick Kauffman is expected to present for the Board’s approval, a contract with Adams County for Interim Engineer services, along with his regular report on Adair County Secondary Roads Department maintenance and activities.

(Radio Iowa) Iowa Republican Joni Ernst — the first female combat veteran elected to the U-S Senate — is blasting President Biden’s recent decision to let Ukraine send U-S weapons into Russia ONLY if it’s done in defense of a city that’s 30 miles from the Russian border.

Several media organizations reported in late May that Biden had given Ukraine authority to send U-S weapons into Russian territory to defend the city of Kharkiv (har-KEEVE) — but using long-range U-S missiles to go on offense into Russia is still barred. Ernst is also critical of the Biden Administration’s approach to Iran.

Ernst is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and its version of the annual National Defense Authorization Act is expected to be released in July. Last week, the U-S House approved a nearly 884 BILLION dollar spending plan for the U-S military and a group of 74 House Republicans failed in an effort to forbid any funds from going to Ukraine.

(Guthrie Center, Iowa) – Members of the Adair-Casey and Guthrie Center Community School District Board of Education will hold a joint session beginning at 7-p.m. Wednesday in Guthrie Center, in the AC/GC High School Media Center. On the agenda for both Board are contract recommendations.

In the Guthrie Center School District, the recommendations include: William Shull – Physical Education/Health Teacher/Junior High Weightlifting Coach; Kena Baier – 1st Grade Teacher;  Emma Bireline – Junior High English Teacher. and Rebecca Diemer – Junior High Cross Country Coach. The Adair-Casey Board will act on Contract Recommendations for:  Summer School Staff – Elementary, and Coaching Recommendations.

Both Board will review/discuss Spring 2024 Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress (ISASP) data, the final property tax rate and liability/workman’s compensation insurance renewal for 2024-25, an interfund loan between the general fund and school nutrition fund (for the GC District), and 2024-25 employee handbooks.

The Boards will also consider for joint approval, 2024-25 Operational Sharing Agreements, teacher 28E sharing agreements, milk and bread bids, Board memberships, TLC contracts and employee handbooks, along with fitness center memberships.

Action items for the Adair-Casey Board includes: Approval of a transfer from the student activity fund for elementary and junior high yearbooks; the purchase of equipment for the kitchen; purchase of  student and staff computers; disposal of obsolete equipment; a compact utility tractor trade, and the fourth pay application for the junior high bleacher project.

The GC Board will consider for approval: The purchase of a pressure washer, and beginning a high school dance team. The joint school Boards will adjourn to enter a joint closed session for superintendent evaluation. Once that’s completed, the will return to an open session for approval of the 2024-25 superintendent contract.

Creston Police report that on Monday, June 17 at 8:51 pm, 35-year-old Jessica Lee Marintha Ferber of Greenfield was arrested at the Creston Union County Law Enforcement Center.  Ferber was charged with Harassment 2nd Degree-Threatening Bodily Injury. Ferber was cited and released.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) joined her colleagues in calling on Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan to raise Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) volumes for biomass-based diesel and advanced biofuels to levels that are consistent with production and availability.

“America’s environmental and energy security depend on the widespread production, availability, and use of biofuels. Biofuels play a particularly critical role in emissions reduction for heavy-duty transportation — including aviation, shipping, rail, and trucking — while opening up economic opportunities for American farmers,” wrote the lawmakers. “A strong RFS and broad availability of homegrown agricultural feedstocks are critical for ensuring we keep up the progress we have made in decarbonizing our roads, seas, railways, and skies.”

“Since the volumes were set last summer, RIN values have decreased by an average of 66 percent, sending a discouraging market signal to farmers, feedstock producers, biofuel producers, blenders and investors,” the lawmakers continued. “Domestic fuel production facilities are closing as a result, putting Americans out of work and disrupting local economies. The negative signal to renewable fuel producers threatens billions of dollars of investment in feedstock and fuel production, including for Sustainable Aviation Fuel. Without EPA action, America will miss out on the carbon reductions delivered by advanced biofuels.”

(Radio Iowa) – A federal judge has temporarily blocked enforcement of Iowa’s immigration law to make illegal reentry a state crime. The law is designed to give state officials authority to arrest and deport immigrants who’d previously been deported or denied legal entry into the U.S. It was scheduled to go into effect July 1st.

In his ruling, U-S District Court Judge Stephen Locher said as a matter of politics, the new legislation might be defensible, but he said as a matter of constitutional law, it is not. Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird will appeal the ruling. Governor Kim Reynolds says President Biden is failing to enforce federal immigration law and the state law she signed is designed to protect Iowans from the border crisis.

Last month the U.S. Department of Justice and Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice filed lawsuits seeking to block the law from being enforced. An attorney from the American Immigration Council says the Iowa law is blatantly unconstitutional and could have led to prosecution of some immigrants who’d previously been deported, but now have current legal status to live in the U-S.

DES MOINES, Iowa — FEMA is opening Disaster Recovery Centers in Clarke, Polk and Pottawattamie counties to provide one-on-one help to people affected by severe storms, tornadoes and flooding this spring.

Recovery specialists from FEMA and the U.S. Small Business Administration will provide information on available services, explain assistance programs and help survivors complete or check the status of their applications.

CLARKE COUNTY
Clarke County Annex Building 109 South Main Street Osceola, IA 50213
Open 1-7 p.m. June 17
8 a.m.-7 p.m. June 18-20

POLK COUNTY
Riley Resource Group 4400 E. University Ave. Pleasant Hill, IA 50327 1-7 p.m. June 18
8 a.m.-7 p.m. June 19-21

POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY
Charles E. Lakin Human Services Campus
North Parking Lot 815 North 16th Street
Council Bluffs, IA 51501 Open 1-7 p.m. June 18
8 a.m.-7 p.m. June 19-21

FEMA funding is available to homeowners and renters for severe storms, tornadoes and flooding that happened May 20-31 in the counties of Adair, Montgomery, Polk and Story. FEMA funding is also available for homeowners and renters in Clarke, Harrison, Mills, Polk, Pottawattamie, Ringgold, Shelby and Union counties for the April 26-27 tornadoes and storms.
To save time, apply online or by phone before visiting a Disaster Recovery Center by:

• Visiting DisasterAssistance.gov
  Calling FEMA directly at 800-621-FEMA (3362)
  Using the FEMA app

All centers are accessible to people with disabilities or with access and functional needs. They are equipped with assistive and adaptive technology such as amplified phones, caption phones, video phones, wheelchair ramps and other resources to help ensure all applicants can access resources.

Anyone using a relay service, such as video relay service (VRS), captioned telephone service or others, can give FEMA the number for that service. For an accessible video on three ways to apply for FEMA assistance, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU7wzRjByhI.

(Radio Iowa) – One of the experts in all things creepy-crawly who helps to run Iowa State University’s Insect Zoo just returned from a four-day road trip exclusively to study the rare, double-brood emergence of cicadas. Ginny Mitchell, the I-S-U Insect Zoo’s education program coordinator, says the 13-year and 17-year cicadas are coming out of their underground burrows simultaneously, which only happens once in every 220 years.

Mitchell says the 17-year cicadas can be found in northeastern Iowa along the Illinois border, while the 13-year cicadas are in southeastern Iowa, along the borders with Illinois and Missouri. Their song can be almost deafening, as some estimates say there are perhaps trillions of the bugs emerging across the region.

The inch-long creatures that are appearing now are relatives of the ones that will start buzzing across the rest of Iowa within a few weeks.

Another difference in the three-year versus the 13- and 17-year cicadas is what time of day they choose to make themselves known.

On her road trip, Mitchell says she collected hundreds of both 13- and 17-year cicadas, including adults and nymphs. She plans to cook, yes, cook a variety of them for visitors to sample during the I-S-U Insect Zoo’s “Bug Village” event on August 24th. It will also feature a class called Insect Collecting 101, a Bug Costume Contest, and more than 150 species of living arthropods on display, with plenty of hands-on opportunities.

(Radio Iowa)- The State Transportation Commission has approved the five-year transportation improvement plan. D-O-T systems planner Stuart Anderson says the plan is updated every year, and last year was a difficult one due to inflation.

That meant they had to delay 12 projects in the plan last year. Anderson says the outlook was much different as they updated the plan this year.

There is approximately four-point-five billion dollars of state and federal funding forecast to be available over the next five years for road and bridge improvements in the plan. Anderson says bridges and interchanges get a lot of focus.

The program includes:

• I-80 Middle Road Interchange reconstruction in Bettendorf
• I-80 Mississippi River bridge replacement
• I-35/80/235 Southwest Mixmaster modernization in Polk County
• I-35 bridge replacement and widening at the U-S 30 interchange in Ames
• I-35 widening between Ankeny and Iowa 210
• I-29 interchange construction in Woodbury County
• and adding more than 50 truck parking spots.

You can find the complete five-year plan on the D-O-Ts website. https://www.news.iowadot.gov