Coralville, Iowa – Officials with the Iowa Department of Corrections, Monday, said 75-year-old Jeffrey Lynn Hannah was pronounced dead due to natural causes at 6:47 a.m. on Friday, May 19, 2023 at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center.

Hannah had been serving a 25-year maximum term for the crime of Sex Abuse – 2nd Degree from Kossuth County. His sentence began on June 3, 2015.

(Radio Iowa) – State Auditor Rob Sand says a bill sent to the governor that would limit the auditor’s access to some confidential information could lead to a lot of extra time in court. “If the governor signs the bill then we’re going to have to see how it’s applied and what it is that they do to prevent our access to records — and at that point and every point thereafter we’ll be trying to figure out whether or not there’s a challenge on a constitutional basis that’s worth bringing,” Sand says.

Sand, who is the only Democrat holding a statewide office, spoke to the Sioux City Rotary Club and later held a town hall in Onawa. He says the bill has been a hot topic. “I think there’s actually a pretty surprising level of knowledge but a surprising level of concern about it and I’m gonna keep talking about it until every Iowan in the state knows exactly what it is and what it does,” he says.

Sand says if the governor signs the bill the state auditor would need to get approval from a three-member panel to take a state agency to court. The auditor, the department being audited and the governor would each appoint someone to the panel. Sand says they would let everyone know which agency is trying to “hide” information. “That’s again one of the things where I think that I’m not sure that the people who are advocating this bill have really thought through it,” Sand says. “Because if they deny us access to records we have a legal and ethical obligation to disclose that and then everyone is going to be left wondering what it is that they’re hiding.”

Rob-Sand.-(KSCJ-photo)

He says taxpayers should be concerned about the potential information the panel could allow to stay hidden. “Corruption and waste at the government level is your tax dollars. This is our government. And the idea that people in trust and power in those positions would use that power to reduce oversight of themselves and make it so they could sweep things under the rug is, I think an affront to our Constitution the idea of self governance but also to your pocketbook,” Sand says.

Governor Kim Reynolds has not commented on the bill.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Two men were arrested on separate warrants Monday, in Red Oak. According to Red Oak Police, 45-year-old Chad Michael Hill, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 10:50-p.m., on an active Mills County warrant for Driving While Barred. Hill was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $2,000 cash-only bond.

And, a little after 7-p.m. Monday, 52-year-old Richard Bryan Jenkins, of Red Oak, was arrested on an active Montgomery County warrant for Failure to Appear on an Unlawful Possession of Prescription Drug, charge. Jenkins was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $1,000 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – An official who’s in charge of state boating safety courses says the first step to a safe boating weekend is checking the equipment that will be transporting a vessel on land. Susan Stocker has been the boating law administrator for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources since 2009. “Memorial weekend is coming up and, of course, it’s the start of the Iowa boating season,” Stocker says. “People, before they even head out to the lake, make sure that their trailer, wheelbearings and their lights are all in working condition so you’ll be able to get yourself to the body of water you want to go on.”

Once on the water, Stocker says boat operators and passengers need to be on the look out for floating debris. “We’ve got some higher water throughout Iowa, so you want to make sure that you see if there are any logs that are just under the surface of the water and you want to make sure that you, though surrounded by water…drink plenty of water and have sunscreen.” Stocker says, “and make sure that you save the alcohol when you’re back on shore.” Stocker says drunk boating can be as dangerous as drunk driving on the roads because the affects of the wind and glare of the sun can enhance the effects of alcohol.

“It can slow a person’s reaction and cause some hazardous conditions when trying to operate a boat,” she says. A wearable life jacket is required safety equipment for every person aboard a boat. Vessels that are 16 feet or longer need a floating device, like a ring buoy on a rope, that can be thrown to someone who may be in trouble in the water.

(Radio Iowa) – Historic buildings that used to be part of Maytag’s campus in Newton will be renovated into a hotel and an apartment building. The former Maytag campus was donated to Des Moines Area Community College in 2016 — nine years after Maytag closed. The college has sold nearly four acres to a Des Moines developer who plans to repurpose four buildings and open the hotel and apartments next year.

Kim Didier , the executive director of business resources for DMACC, says the two buildings that will become a boutique hotel have “The Maytag Company” written in large letters along the rooftops.  “Very iconic for the community and for Maytag over the years,” she says. The two buildings were built in the early 1900s. Another building nearby, completed in 1914, will be converted into 70 apartments.

“A brick building, exposed rafters, wooden floors — just very historic,” Didier says. “Kind of a warehouse, factory feel to it.” A smaller building next door will have some amenities for the apartment dwellers. According to a DMACC news release, the hotel and apartment building project will cost about 35 million dollars. DMACC will continue to have an academic center nearby.

“DMACC on the Newton campus has a baking program,” Didier says, “and we’re very hopeful we’ll be able to have that kind of collaboration and synergy where the baked goods that would be offered in the hotel restaurant or just as a cafe would be coming from our culinary program, our baking program.” Didier, who used to work at Maytag, has lived in Newton for 24 years. She says there’s been a lot of collaboration in the community to get this latest project going.

“It’s monumental and transformational,” Didier says, “and we think will continue to propel the redevelopment of the rest of the buildings that were part of the Maytag headquarters.”A couple of other former Maytag buildings already have been turned into commercial space. A brewery and a pub are among the 18 tenants. “We’ve had this vision of really creating this mixed use neighborhood that would have the residential component,” Didier says, “that would have the retail.”

Maytag was founded in 1893 and by the 1920s one of every five washing machines in America was made in Newton. The company was sold to Whirlpool in 2006 and a year later operations in Newton were shut down. There were three previous owners of the emptied out Maytag campus until DMACC took over. The State of Iowa is providing a 14 million dollar “reinvestment district award” that will support the development of the apartments and hotel as well as several other related projects in Newton.

(Corydon, Iowa) – Two people were injured during a head-on crash Monday afternoon, east of Corydon, in Wayne County. The Iowa State Patrol reports a 2014 Dodge van driven by 72-year-old Norman George, of Allerton, was traveling west on Highway 2, and was attempting to pass a 1967 John Deere 40-20 farm tractor pulling a hay trailer, when the van hit the rear of the tractor/hay trailer, causing the van to be pushed into coming traffic. The tractor was operated by 68-year-old George H. Harders, of Corydon.

The van then struck a 2014 Chevy Sonic head-on before rolling over. The impact resulted in the car entering the north ditch. The tractor/hay trailer stopped on the right shoulder of the road. The crash happened at around 2:35-p.m.

Norman George, and the driver of the Chevy Sonic, 34-year-old Robert W. Schuler, of Seymour, suffered severe injuries and were flown by Mercy One helicopter to Mercy Hospital, in Des Moines.

The Patrol says George was not wearing a seat belt.

(Radio Iowa) – Farmers saw enough dry weather last week that planting season is closing in on the end. The U-S-D-A crop report shows 95 percent of the corn crop is now in the ground. That’s nine days ahead of last year and 12 days ahead of the five-year average. Sixty-five percent of that corn is poking through — about six days ahead of average.

Soybean planting moved from 69 to 84 percent complete in the last week. that puts farmers around one week ahead of last year and two weeks ahead of normal. Forty-three percent of the beans have emerged — which is six days ahead of average.

(Creston, Iowa) – A collision Monday afternoon (May 22) in Creston, resulted in one person being transported to the hospital for treatment of unknown/possible injuries. Creston Police report the accident happened at around 12:49-p.m. on Highway 34, near Sumner Avenue.

A 2000 Saturn LS1 driven by 27-year-old Jerrie Michelle Boothe, of Creston, was traveling westbound on Hwy 34 and approaching the intersection with Sumner. Boothe thought she was clear to make a left turn into the Creston Wal-Mart parking lot, but her car was struck on the front right side by an eastbound 2008 Chevy Silverado pickup, driven by 27-year-old Jose Luis Carreon, of Creston.

Boothe complained of neck pain. She was transported by ambulance to the hospital. Carreon was not injured. He was unable to provide proof of financial liability, and was cited. Damage from the collision amounted to $3,000.

(Radio Iowa) – Creighton University economist Ernie Goss says he expects D-C negotiators will strike a deal to raise the federal government’s debt ceiling. “To paraphrase Winston Churchill, when you try every other thing that doesn’t work, you somehow stumble upon what does work,” Goss says, “and I think there will be a solution.” But Goss says investors should expect volatility as the stalemate between Republicans in congress and President Biden remains unresolved.

“There will be some real deviations, some real swings here in the next week or so as they try to find that solution,” Goss says. “That would be swings in the stock market, swings in the bond market and also in terms of gold prices, for example.” If the impasse isn’t resolved before the U.S. government runs out of cash to pay its bills, Goss says things like Social Security checks could be delayed. The main impact of default, according to Goss, would be damage to the U.S. dollar, since central banks in other countries hold U.S. currency in reserve.

“The dollar will remain the reserve currency, but it will undermine it,” Goss says. Goss says it would aid China’s push to make the Yuan the reserve currency of the globe. Having the U.S. dollar be the dominant currency around the world aids U.S. trade and creates stability for the goods and services Americans buy.

(Dallas Center, Iowa) – The driver of a pickup truck died following an accident this (Monday) morning, in Dallas County. The accident happened on Highway E-44 near Dallas Center, at around 9:46-a.m.

The Iowa State Patrol reports a 2021 Chevy pickup driven by 69-year-old Michael Remus, of Grimes, was stopped in traffic westbound, waiting for other, turning traffic, when a westbound 2018 Kenworth concrete mixer driven by 32-year-old Kodi Hoback, of Grimes, struck the rear of the pickup.

Remus suffered fatal injuries in the collision. A passenger in the pickup,  65-year-old Julie Remus, of Grimes, was transported by Dallas County EMS to Methodist Hospital, for treatment of non-serious injuries. The driver of the Concrete mixer was not hurt.