(Radio Iowa) – The country’s largest book publisher, four authors and the state teachers union have filed a lawsuit challenging part of a new Iowa law that requires schools to remove books that describe or depict sex acts. Dan Novack is the Vice President and Associate General Counsel for Penguin Random House. “Senate File 496 is a book ban, plain and simple,” Novack says. “…It’s also created the paradox that under Iowa law a 16 year old student is old enough to consent to sex, but not old enough to read about it in school.”

Novack says Penguin Random House has filed a similar lawsuit against a Florida school district. “We are prepared for a drawn out battle to restore sanity in the way that we are approaching public education and literature,” Novack said. Melinda Lo — author of “Last Night at the Telegraph Club” — is another best-selling author who’s part of the lawsuit. “In the two years since it won the National Book Award it has been banned, challenged or restricted in over40 school districts and communities across the country, including six in Iowa,” Lo said. “…I am so grateful to have this opportunity to stand up for my readers and the First Amendment.”

Laurie Hulse Anderson is the author of SPEAK, a story about a 13 year old girl who struggles with the trauma of rape during her first year of high school.  “The families of Iowa have the right to supervise and choose what their own children are reading, of course,” Hulse Anderson said, “but no one group of parents or politicians has the right to limit the books available to other citizens.” Iowa State Education Association president Mike Beranek, a retired third grade teacher, says Iowa educators are trained in what are age-appropriate materials for classrooms and library shelves.

“This is an incredibly important issue not only for us here in Iowa, but for the country as a whole,” Beranek says. Earlier this week Governor Kim Reynolds said protecting children from pornography and sexually explicit content should not be controversial — and books with graphic depictions of sex acts have absolutely no place in Iowa schools.

There are now two lawsuits challenged new state education policies. A lawsuit filed by the A-C-L-U of Iowa on behalf of a group of parents and students also addresses a part of the law banning instruction about sexual orientation in elementary classrooms.

(Radio Iowa) – A Kentucky senator who’s an eye doctor performed the Heimlich maneuver on Iowa Senator Joni Ernst today (Thursday), as she was choking during a lunch with fellow G-O-P senators. Ernst thanked Senator Rand Paul in a social media post, and joked that she couldn’t help but choke on what she called “the woke policies Democrats are forcing down our throats.

Via Grassley’s X account

Senator Chuck Grassley posted a photo online showing Ernst holding a plate with a beef sandwich and some kind of side dish. It was an “Iowa Day” lunch for Republicans in the U-S Senate, with pork and beef on the menu.

(Radio Iowa) – Traffic was diverted from a portion of downtown Webster City after fire damaged some businesses Wednesday afternoon.

Firefighters from Webster City and seven departments from surrounding counties battled flames and smoke for several hours. Officials say the fire started in a building that at one time housed an appliance store.

The Wednesday afternoon fire caused water and smoke damage to the Webster Theater building, but no fire damage to the structure.

Fire in downtown Webster City on the afternoon of November 29, 2023.. (KQWC image)

It was nearly 10 years ago that the community rallied together to help save and reopen the theater with a fund raising campaign to renovate the theater that was built in 1906. The Webster Theater announced on its Facebook page that the theater is closed until further notice.

The fire also damaged a resale shop and forced the temporary closure of a jewelry store.

(Guthrie Center, Iowa) – Sheriff’s officials in Guthrie County said today (Thursday), there were no injuries following an accident that took place at around 5-p.m. on Nov. 22nd.  According to the sheriff’s report, 23-year-old Cory James Nevitt, of Menlo, was driving a 2018 Dodge Ram 3500ST pickup on 310th Street. He turned onto Zephry Trail, which is a gated and closed Guthrie County Road. As a result of his actions, the pickup went out of control and collided with a post holding one of the gates for the closed road.

The pickup sustained $6,000 damage from the collision. It sustained additional damage when Nevitt tried to leave the scene. He was able to get away from the post and gate, but then backed into a post holding a private property owners’ gate.

The Guthrie County Roads Dept. gate sustained about $407 damage. Damage to the Grinstead Farms post was estimated at $605. There were no citations issued.

(Radio Iowa) – The spokesperson for the Iowa Lottery says a human error caused them to incorrectly report the winning numbers for Monday’s Powerball drawing. The Lottery’s Mary Neubauer says it was a problem only in Iowa as the drawing results were entered into the computer system. “We have folks in two different locations entering the numbers. That’s obviously a check and balance that we have in the process. And, and they both entered the incorrect winning numbers,” Neubauer explained.

The winning numbers were apparently incorrectly entered for Powerball. Once the problem was discovered they had to put in the proper numbers to send them out to all the lottery terminals and self service kiosks in the state. “It takes several hours for that to occur. So throughout most of the of the workday on Tuesday, checking and cashing a Powerball tickets was shut down,” Neubauer says. “That resumed at about 3:30 p-m On Tuesday, with the correct Powerball winning numbers available. ”

Neubauer says the good news is the incorrect results were only available on the Lottery system from about 12:30 a-m until 7:15 a-m. She says that kept the number of tickets cashed with the incorrect numbers low. “During that time, you know, a lot of retail locations are closed, or even if they’re open, you know, lottery tickets may be sold at the customer service counter and the customer service counter is closed. So there weren’t a lot of locations where you even could have checked a ticket that early in the morning. But we know that there are some,” she says.

Iowa Lottery Headquarters. (IA Lottery photo)

Neubauer says they are still trying to figure out that number. She says they want to hear from people who have a concern. “If you have a ticket that you had a question about from Monday night’s Powerball drawing, please reach out to us at the Iowa Lottery. We will put you in contact with a member of our security team, they’ll be glad to review the details associated with your ticket to try to determine what occurred there,” Neubauer says. “The best way to contact us would be by phone at 515-725-7900 or by email to wmaster@ialottery.com.”

Neubauer says they do their best to ensure there are no issues, but as long as there are human beings involved in any process, there can occasionally be mistakes made. “We are going back and reevaluating our drawing procedures to see what changes we can make or improvements we can make there, because there is a learning opportunity for any situation like this,” she says. Neubauer says the last time there was an incorrect inputting of numbers was in 2016.

(Harlan, Iowa) – The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office received a phone call early this (Thursday) morning (11/30/23). Dispatch was advised that a black SUV with Nebraska License plate was parked on the side of the in the area of 1600th St. and Ironwood Rd. Additional information from the caller stated there was a male and female outside of the vehicle possibly attempting to wave them to stop.  The caller did not stop but continued past and the male and female got into the vehicle and left the area.

Responding deputies were advised the vehicle was heading west bound and responded to the area appropriately. A follow up call was then made after a duration of time that the vehicle actually went east bound. Deputies were unable to locate the vehicle and the plate given came back to a green Toyota Tacoma, not a black SUV.

To the Public: If you see anything suspicious please call 911 or 712-755-5026 and give as much detail as possible to the dispatch center to assist with a proper response. Thank you for being vigilant and continue to call with anything suspicious

(Radio Iowa) – There’s the potential for precipitation in southeast Iowa tonight, but State Climatologist Justin Glisan says it’s likely this November will rank among the 20 driest Novembers on record. “The first 20 days we were at 5% of normal, so a very dry first two-thirds of November,” Glisan says. As of this morning, the statewide average for precipitation is just four-tenths of an inch. “That’s almost an inch and a half below average,” Glisan says.

This is the 178th week of moderate drought somewhere in Iowa — the longest drought in Iowa since the U.S. Drought Monitor was launched 23 years ago. “If you combine November with the other meteorological months of October and September, it looks like around the 36th driest fall on record,” Glisan says. “Interestingly enough, last fall was drier. It was the 22nd driest, so you can see that we’ve just really stacked up precipitation deficits through various seasons.” Last spring was the 16th driest on record and this past summer was the 17th driest summer in the past 151 years. “When you’re not getting the expected precipitation in spring and summer, which is the dominant season for rainfall that supplies soil moisture and stream flows, that’s where we’ve seen the drought just expand and intensify,” Glisan says.

State Climatologist Justin Glisan (Official photo from Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship photo.)

The current drought is different from the droughts that struck Iowa in 2012 and 1988, according to Glisan. “This has definitely been longer, but it hasn’t been coupled with extremely warm temperatures for long periods of time,” Glisan says, “so we’ve kind of termed this drought a ‘cool drought’ in that, again, we haven’t seen those exceedingly warm temperatures that would really push drought conditions to lead to widespread crop failure and things of that nature.”

Glisan says there are some positives in preliminary forecasts for the middle of December. “There’s a very high probability of above average temperatures,” Glisan says, “and why that’s a good signal to see is perhaps we won’t see soils freeze as deep or as fast if we have warm temperatures through December.” It means precipitation could be absorbed rather than run off frozen ground.”As you’ll remember from last year, in early December we had widespread rainfall before we froze up that really helped supply moisture for this growing season,” Glisan says. “Also, wetter soils don’t freeze as fast or as deep, so as we get into winter melt into early spring, there’s faster infiltration if we don’t have a deep frost level.”

Preliminary forecasts indicate there are slightly elevated signals for wetter conditions in December.

(Radio Iowa) – The University of Northern Iowa’s campanile renovation project is getting a boost with 250-thousand-dollar donation from local alumni Jan and Scott Bittner . U-N-I Foundation President, Jim Jermier, says the phase one of the renovations improved the instrument’s sound. “There are nine new bells that were installed with the existing 47. All of those bells were completely refurbished along with the carillon itself, and I believe we gained nearly two octaves,” he says.

The second phase of the renovations focuses on renovating the plaza around the campanile and the addition of seating and landscaping to create a community gathering area.”It’s a unifying space, a community space, that will be even more welcoming when this project work is complete,” Jermier says.

A new bell lifted into place at UNI. (UNI photo)

Other renovations include a temperature-controlled room for the bells in the tower. The total cost of both phases is about two-point-two million dollars, which will come from private donations. The university hopes to complete the tower’s renovation by 2026, which will mark the school’s 150th anniversary.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – Iowa Auditor of State Rob Sand, today (Thursday), released an independent auditor’s report pertaining to a periodic examination of the City of Wiota’s management and financial practices. The audit – performed by Gronewold, Bell, Kyhnn & Co. P.C., in Atlantic – covered the period of April 1, 2022 through March 31, 2023. The City agreed to have the audit performed.

The report states, that among other things:

• The City should review its control procedures to obtain the maximum internal control possible under the circumstances utilizing currently available staff, including elected officials. Independent reviews of reconciliations should be documented by the signature or initials of the reviewer and the date of the review.
• The City has not implemented the recommended Uniform Chart of Accounts (COA) for Iowa City Governments approved by the City Finance Committee. The auditor’s recommendation: “To provide better financial information and control, the recommended COA, or its equivalent, should be followed.”
• City Council proceedings should be published with a list of claims allowed, including the reason for the claim. The City Council minutes tested published a list of claims allowed, but the list did not include the reason for the claim; Recommendation – The City should comply with the Code of Iowa and publish a list of claims allowed, including the reason for the claim.
• The City has not adopted a written investment policy as required by Chapter 12B.10B of the Code of Iowa; Recommendation – The City should adopt a written investment policy that complies with the provisions of Chapter 12B.10B of the Code of Iowa.
• Disbursements during the year ended June 30, 2022 exceeded the amounts budgeted in the public safety, culture and recreation, community and economic development, general government and business type activities functions. Chapter 384.20 of the Code of Iowa states, in part, “Public monies may not be expended or encumbered except under an annual or continuing appropriation.”; Recommendation – The budget should have been amended in accordance with Chapter 384.18 of the Code of Iowa before disbursements were allowed to exceed the budget.
• Chapter 384.20 of the Code of Iowa states, in part, “A city shall keep accounts which show an accurate and detailed statement of all public funds collected, received, or expended for any city purpose, by any city officer, employee, or other person, and which show the receipt, use, and disposition of all city property.”
  • The City Fire Department maintains a bank account for activity separate from the City Clerk’s accounting records. While the Department is part of the City, the transactions and the resulting balance were not included in the City’s accounting records and were not included in the City’s annual budget, monthly financial reports or Annual Financial Reports.
  • In addition, the transactions and resulting balance of this account were not reported to the City Council and disbursements from the account were not reviewed and approved by the City Council. Also, a summary of the account’s receipts, total disbursements and the listings of claims allowed each month were not published in accordance with Chapter 372.13(6) of the Code of Iowa;
  • Recommendation – In accordance with Chapter 384.20 of the Code of Iowa, and to  strengthen internal control and increase operating efficiencies, the financial transactions of the Fire Department separate account should be integrated with the City’s accounting records in the City Clerk’s office. The financial activity should be included in the City Clerk’s accounting records, monthly financial reports and the Annual Financial Reports. The activity in the account should be subject to City Council review and approval and should be included in the City’s budget process. Also, a summary of the account’s receipts, total disbursements and listings of claims allowed each month should be published, as required.
• The City’s Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) ballot requires LOST receipts be used 90% for community betterment and 10% for property tax relief. The City has not been tracking the
  use of LOST receipts; Recommendation – The City should implement procedures to track LOST disbursements.

Read the full report HERE.

Glenwood, Iowa (KETV) — The Mills County Board of Supervisors, Wednesday, accepted the resignation of Sheriff Travis Oetter. Their action came during a special meeting Wednesday morning. The Sheriff’s last day is Friday, Dec. 1, 2023. Oetter was elected in November, 2020. Chief Deputy Josh England will serve as interim sheriff.

The board of supervisors has the option of appointing England or another individual to complete the remainder of the sheriff’s term, which runs through December 2024. A special election could also take place if there is opposition to a board appointment and/or another person seeks to serve as interim sheriff for the remainder of the term.

Travis Oetter

The sheriff’s position will be on the November 2024 general election ballot. According to reports, England, who was in attendance at Wednesday’s meeting, said he doesn’t intend to run for sheriff in 2024.

Rural Glenwood resident and veteran law enforcement officer Greg Schultz, currently a captain with the Council Bluffs Police Department, has already announced his intentions to run for the sheriff’s post in 2024.