(Atlantic, Iowa) – Republican Presidential Candidate Nikki Haley will make stops in Carroll and Treynor this Monday, Dec. 18th, and in rural Atlantic on Tuesday, Dec. 19th.  Her campaign stop in Cass County (IA) is at Wickman Chemical, northeast of Atlantic (at 53597 650th St [Highway 71], beginning at 10:15-a.m., Tuesday. Doors open at 9:15-a.m. The event is scheduled to run about 90-minutes. The public is welcome to attend the events, but you must reserve your general admission spot through Haley’s campaign website.

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley on the Iowa campaign trail. (RI file photo)

Nikki Haley is the former Governor of South Carolina. She served as Governor from 2011 to 2017. Haley also served as the 29th U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, from January 2017 through December 2018. In recent campaign events, she highlighted the bills she signed into law as governor, including a voter ID law, small business tax cuts, and “one of the toughest illegal immigration laws in the country,” (according to her campaign). She has also highlighted high rates of homelessness, suicide among veterans, conflicts abroad and education issues.

To solve some of the problems, Haley advocates for imposing term limits, administering a mental competency test for lawmakers over the age of 75, going after pandemic relief fraud and taking a hardline stance on the federal budget. New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu announced his presidential endorsement of Haley Tuesday evening, saying she is the “candidate with the momentum to win and get our party back on track to delivering conservative victories across the country.”

(Radio Iowa) – A survey finds eight in ten American consumers experienced some type of fraud this year, and scams are ramping up with just ten shopping days until Christmas. A-A-R-P Iowa spokeswoman Alissa Brammer says we need to be especially watchful for unsolicited emails or texts about non-existent shipments. “Consumers really need to be on the lookout for those package delivery scams,” Brammer says. “We’re all ordering so many things online, and receiving gifts, that it can be tricky to keep track of all your purchases. Scammers really know that this is what’s happening with consumers, so they take advantage of that as best they can.”

At first glance, the notifications may look legitimate and appear to be checking in with a customer about something they’ve ordered, with a link to confirm where the package is in the delivery process. “Consumers click the link, and a lot of times what happens is, that allows the scammer access to your personal information,” Brammer says. “They can put malware on your computer or your phone after you click it. Or also, they oftentimes ask for your financial information, maybe saying something like, ‘We need to confirm your credit card in order for this delivery to be made.'”

If you have doubts about the message, Brammer says to scrutinize the return email address, for starters. “A lot of times scammers will have a slight misspelling in the name of the company, or it has a name that is similar to the delivery company you might expect it to be from but it’s not quite exact,” Brammer says. “Look up the name of the company to be sure you’re clear on the exact name and maybe even contact that company to see if you are expected to get a package from them.”

Older Iowans tend to be easy targets for scammers, and she suggests you check in with your parents or grandparents to make sure they’re aware of these identity thieves and how they operate. “One thing AARP completed recently was a survey of older consumers, and a lot of people failed a quiz about what kinds of common scams are out there,” Brammer says, “so more education is definitely needed in a lot of areas.”

One key finding from the survey is the dramatic increase from last year in the percentage of consumers who report receiving a false notification about a package shipment issue. Brammer says the number jumped from 29% last year to 52% this year.

(Radio Iowa) – Volunteers will start putting Christmas wreaths on the graves of veterans across the country this weekend, including those at McDivitt Grove Cemetery in Urbandale. Area veteran Dennis Appelhons asked Wreaths Across America to include McDivitt in the program. “Because we have over 100 veterans there. And at least one of them dates from the Spanish American War. We have Civil War, World War One, World War Two, Korean War,” Appelhons says.

He says it started out as a pioneer cemetery in 1855 and eventually became a family cemetery as the city grew up around it. Applehons was part of an Army Air Defense Artillery unit stationed in Korea, and at Fort Bliss, Texas, and the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. He says the 112 wreaths that will be placed on the graves of veterans in Urbandale have a significant meaning to him. “Recognition and remembrance that what all veterans did not go unnoticed or unhonored,” he says.

Applehons says he got the idea after most the V-F-W group and Legion group participated in Wreaths Across America at the Iowa Veterans Cemetery and Van Meter. He says it is something unique. “The typical Memorial Day and Veterans Day, decorations and flags would be the only two events that we see flags in recognition of those veterans,” Applehons says. “And in the middle of a winter, especially here in Iowa, to drive by and see those wreaths on those headstones, it’s quite moving.”

You may have seen the pictures of the wreaths on rows and rows of white tombstones in large military cemeteries. He says the sight is a little different in the Urbandale cemetery because there are all types of headstones and markers on the graves. “The one common thing about all of the veteran’s graves is the veteran medallion on a steel post sitting next to their headstone. What you’ll see is the wreath with a red ribbon, either propped against the headstone, or the veteran medallion that is in the ground next to it,” he explains.

Applehons says donations paid for the wreaths that will be placed Saturday. He says you can donate to help the program by going online to the Wreaths Across America website. “It’s a fairly self explanatory procedure. You will click on ‘sponsor a wreath,’ and once you’re on that page, it’ll guide you to basic information on the cost of a wreath how many you can buy, how to pay for them. And you have to designate what cemetery you want that wreath for,” he says.

Applehons says their cemetery has been assigned I-D number IA0062 and they pass out flyers or send email reminders to people in the community for donations that go to their effort. The wreath laying begins at 10 a-m Saturday and everyone is invited to come and help out.

(Ames, Iowa)  – An SUV that was traveling at a high-rate of speed and passing other vehicles on the left shoulder of I-35 northbound in Ames, Thursday, crossed both lanes of traffic before flipping multiple times and coming to rest in the east ditch. The Iowa State Patrol reports the driver of the 2018 Ford Explorer, 29-year-old Zackery Coltin Harker, of North Bend, Oregon, was injured. The accident happened near mile marker 118, at around 4:20-p.m.

Harker – who was wearing a seat belt – was transported by the Iowa State Patrol to the Story County Medical Center. The crash remains under investigation.

(Radio Iowa) – A man from Mississippi who’s a former Navy pilot has been charged with vandalizing the Satanic Temple of Iowa’s holiday display in the Iowa Capitol. The Iowa Department of Public Safety says 35-year-old Michael Cassidy of Lauderdale, Mississippi was arrested, charged with criminal mischief in the fourth degree and released. The Satanic Temple of Iowa announced early Thursday that the statue in its Iowa Capitol display had been damaged beyond repair. According to a conservative website called The Sentinel, Cassidy beheaded the statue.

Cassidy is quoted on the site saying he did so to awaken Christians to the anti-Christian values that are being mainstreamed. The founder of Turning Point U-S-A, a conservative youth organization, has pledged 10-thousand dollars to support a legal defense fund for Cassidy.

The Satanic Temple of Iowa had planned to take down its display today (Friday), but will leave what’s left in the Iowa Capitol for a few more days.

(Radio Iowa) – The governors of Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska and Kansas are assessing flood prevention efforts in the Missouri River corridor — and finding progress. Governor Kim Reynolds says levee maintenance and making structures as flood resilient as possible are key. “Instead of waiting for that disaster to hit like in 2019, and then we have no money…and then we have a bunch of money come in and then we’re fixing the same highway structures, the same ag impact that we did prior to that.” Reynolds and the governors of the other three states met yesterday (Thursday) in Omaha. Reynolds says the design and structural performance of 900 miles of Missouri River levees are being evaluated.

“Then grants will be available to the different levee districts to get the levees where they need to be,” Reynolds says. Reynolds says nearly all the levee districts lack the resources to make significant improvements and government funding is necessary. Reynolds and the other Missouri River governors began meeting in the midst of the devastating floods of 2019 and Reynolds says their main frustration at the time was the pace of the response from federal agencies.

“We tend to study things to death instead of moving forward and getting things done,” Reynolds says, “and we’ve seen a lot of progress since that first meeting in 2019 and the way that we’re doing things.” In the spring of 2019, melting snow and rainfall combined to cause the Missouri River to jump its banks and quickly flood vast swaths of western Iowa.

(Radio Iowa) – The head of a conservative law firm is asking the Iowa Supreme Court to find that State Auditor Rob Sand, a Democrat, has violated the state’s public records law. Alan Ostergren, chief counsel of the Kirkwood Institute, asked the auditor for emails related to Sand’s since discredited claim that the governor improperly used federal COVID-19 funds for a public service announcement. Ostergren appeared before the Iowa Supreme Court yesterday (Thursday).  “Who audits the auditor?” Ostergren asked. “Do we have in our law that the auditor is just above examination to make sure he is discharging his duties correctly?”

A district court judge dismissed the case last year, saying the emails could be kept confidential because they’re part of an audit or examination. Iowa Supreme Court Justice Dana Oxley says state law protects information received in an audit.  “For me, that’s really the issue, is how do we decide whether or not something is within an audit when we’ve got an affidavit from the auditor that says this information was received, they identify the dates, they identify specific audit reports and audits that are ongoing,” Oxley said.

Ostergren has been seeking an email chain that includes comments from State Auditor Sand, an Associated Press reporter and a blogger. Sand has said he denied the request because it would chip away at his ability to protect whistleblowers and save taxpayers money.

(Radio Iowa) – The number of international students attending the University of Iowa has fallen for eight straight years, only in part due to the pandemic. Russell Ganim, the U-I’s dean of international programs, tells KCRG-TV the trend really comes from changes other countries are making in higher education. ”If you look at China, the country has invested a lot in higher education. They built many colleges and universities,” Ganim says, “so they no longer needed to outsource higher ed to countries like the U.S. or the U.K. or Australia or western Europe.”

One of the largest international student groups at the U-I is China, which had roughly 25-hundred international students in Iowa City in 2015. Now, that number has dwindled to just 432, a drop of 83-percent. The New York Times reports American students looking to study in China may be hesitant because of the relationship between the two countries, something Ganim says students from China consider, too.

“Students still want to come here,” Ganim says. “They are concerned about world events but in many instances, it doesn’t necessarily affect their plans to study at Iowa or elsewhere in the United States or anywhere in Western Europe.” Instead of seeing a major drop in all international students, the U-I is seeing a shift in which countries are sending students. “It’s true that the Chinese contingent has decreased,” Ganim says, “but now we’re seeing more countries than ever represented among our international student body.” China, along with India, still sends more international students to the university than any other country.

“India is trying to build education infrastructure the way China did say 15-20 years ago, but it’s having trouble keeping up,” Ganim says. “As a result, it is outsourcing at least some of its higher education needs to the West.” Ganim says the U-I has increased recruiting efforts in India and the Middle East to lure more international students.

The overall number of international students has dropped 56% since 2015, but Ganim says the numbers are now moving in the right direction.

(Radio Iowa) – A spokesman for the Iowa DNR says hunters are on pace for a good season harvest as the end of the second deer gun season approaches Sunday. Pete Hildreth talked about the numbers at the Natural Resources Commission meeting today.

“Just under 80,000 deer have been reported through our harvest reporting system,” Hildreth says. The DNR report shows hunters in Clayton County have taken the most deer thus far at 3,390, followed by Allamakee County at 2,589. No other counties have topped 2,000 deer taken, but a few are very close, including Winnesheik 1,943, Jackson, 1,941, Warren 1,814, Madison 1,888, and Dubuque 1,881.

(Iowa DNR photo)

“So based on this year’s harvest, we’re right on track for our typical annual harvest of 100 to 110-thousand deer statewide,” Hildreth says. He says the only downside is three hunting accidents last weekend. “That does serve as a reminder for hunters to review safety measures before heading out. Overall, there have been 12 hunting incidences and again sadly two fatalities across all hunting seasons this fall,” he says.

There were two separate deer hunting incidents that involved shooting at deer that were running between two hunters and one hunter was struck by a wayward shot from another in their party. The other incident involved a self-inflicted injury due to what the DNR calls “carelessly handling a firearm and lack of muzzle control.”

(Radio Iowa) – Democrats in the Iowa Senate say there’s a nursing home crisis in Iowa and the Senate Oversight Committee should launch a bipartisan investigation.

Senator Claire Celsi, a Democrat from West Des Moines, said some facilities are not being properly managed and it’s “a life and death issue” for some nursing home residents. “Our state’s current nursing home system is fundamentally broken and failing to protect Iowans,” Celsi says.

There are over 400 nursing homes in Iowa and Celsi said the state should be employing far more than 49 nursing home inspectors. She points to Michigan, which has a similar number of nursing homes and 47% more inspectors. “We need accountability in our nursing homes,” Celsi said. “…We need the help of our Republican colleagues to make these changes and to make any new laws.”

Republicans hold the majority of seats in the Iowa Senate and control the debate agenda, including what gets committee review. A spokesperson for Senate Republicans was not immediately available for comment.

Senate Democrats hosted a statehouse news conference this morning that included retired state employees who worked as nursing home inspectors. Mary Weaver of Rippey is a retired registered nurse who worked in the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals. She’s concerned about a friend in an eastern Iowa nursing home who isn’t being bathed regularly and recently waited 90 minutes for assistance in getting to the rest room. “This is not the kind of treatment we want for our older Iowans,” she said. “This is inhumane. This is neglect.”

Dean Lerner was director of the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals for a decade. “I don’t know whether to cry or scream about these horrific events that are going on in our nursing homes,” Lerner said.

John Hale, a long term care advocate, spoke during a news conference in the Iowa Capitol on Dec. 14, 2023. (RI photo)

John Hale, a consultant who focuses on long term care issues, said there aretoo many “head-shaking instances” of abuse and neglect in Iowa nursing homes. “Where’s the outrage from legislators?” Hale asked. “Where’s the outrage from the governor, from leaders of state agencies, from prosecutors or from the good apples in the nursing home industry that are tarred by the bad apples?”

Hale estimates $800 million in state tax money will go to Iowa nursing homes this year and he said there must be more accountability.