WASHINGTON (AP) — A top Republican senator is defending GOP efforts to reduce the hit to the wealthy from the federal estate tax because it helps those who invest rather than people who spend their money on “booze or women or movies.”

Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley made the comments late last week in an interview with the Des Moines Register. “I think not having the estate tax recognizes the people that are investing as opposed to those that are just spending every darn penny they have, whether it’s on booze or women or movies.”

Under current law, when someone dies the estate owes taxes on the value of assets transferred to heirs above $5.5 million for individuals, $11 million for couples. The Senate bill doubles those limits but does not repeal the tax.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A northern Iowa radio station has fired a sports announcer and an elementary teacher who worked as a board operator for the station for racial comments about high school basketball players during an online game broadcast.

KIMT-TV reports that announcer Orin Harris confirmed he was fired Monday from Forest City radio station KIOW. The station manager for KIOW, Karl Wooldridge, confirmed that two employees were fired Monday.

The Forest City School District says it placed teacher Holly Jane Kusserow-Smidt, who worked as a KIOW board operator, on administrative leave. In a video of last Tuesday’s game between Forest City and Eagle Grove, Harris refers to Eagle Grove boys he believes to be Hispanic because of their names as “foreigners” and says they should “go back where they came from.” Kusserow-Smidt agrees and laughs.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s top elections official says his office is beginning to mail paper identification cards as part of a new law requiring voters to show ID at the polls. Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate says Monday that 123,000 registered voters will be sent the non-photo ID cards automatically. The Republican-controlled Iowa Legislature passed legislation last spring requiring voters to show acceptable identification at the polls, arguing it’ll maintain election integrity. There’s no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Iowa.

Acceptable identification will be an Iowa driver’s license, a non-driver’s ID from Iowa, a U.S. passport, military identification or veterans ID. The state provides the paper ID cards to certain registered voters. The identification requirement goes into effect in 2019, though voters without acceptable ID in 2018 must sign an oath acknowledging they will need it soon. In 2019, those voters will be offered a provisional ballot.

Police in Council Bluffs are asking for your help in solving a robbery. Officials say at around 7:25-p.m. Sunday, Bluffs Police were dispatched to McDonalds at 1607 West Broadway, for a report of an armed robbery at the business. An employee told officers that the suspect placed an order for food and approached the drive-thru window in a red Pontiac Grand Am with auto dealer paper plates. The driver of the Grand Am, described as a black male, displayed a handgun at the employee and stated “Give me all the money”. The employee then gave the suspect an unknown amount of cash from the register. The suspect sped off in the red Pontiac.
Anyone possibly having additional information about the robbery is encouraged to call CID at (712) 328-4728 or Crime Stoppers at (712) 328-7867.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — Two people accused of killing a teenage girl in Davenport have taken plea deals. The Quad-City Times reports that 19-year-old Trevor Owens pleaded guilty Friday to involuntary manslaughter and other crimes. A 15-year-old boy pleaded guilty as a youthful offender to attempted murder. Both had been charged with first-degree murder.

They’re scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 1. As a youthful offender, the younger shooter will be sentenced in juvenile court and will be under the court’s supervision until he turns 18. The case then would be sent to adult court, where a judge would determine whether to sentence the boy to adult prison or discharge him, among other sentencing options.

Authorities say 15-year-old Ayana Culbreath was killed when the two males began shooting at each other during a backyard gathering.

More area and State news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Briar Cliff University leaders have interviewed the three finalists to become president of the Sioux City school. The Sioux City Journal reports that the three include an executive vice president of the university, Rachelle Karstens. The two others are Thomas Knothe, dean of business and leadership at Viterbo University in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and Timothy Laurent, vice president of academic affairs at Providence University in Great Falls, Montana.

It’s unclear when one of them will be offered the post vacated by Hamid Shirvani. He announced his resignation July 26, saying it was “a result of a combination of family, personal and professional considerations.” Shirvani began his Briar Cliff stay on June 1 last year, replacing Bev Wharton, who led the private Sioux City college for 15 years.

The Creston Police Department received numerous reports of Theft and/or Vandalism late last week into the weekend. Friday afternoon, a man reported a cell phone was stolen from a vehicle parked near his residence in the 1100 block of Pratt Street. The loss amounted to $80. The incident is believed to have occurred sometime between 7-p.m. Thursday and 12-a..m. Friday. At around 9-a.m. Saturday, a man residing in the 500 block of N. Oak, in Creston, reported a rear tire on his vehicle was slashed while it was parked near his residence. The incident happened sometime overnight Friday into Saturday morning. The loss was estimated at $100.

A short time later on Saturday, a man living in the 600 block of N. Maple Street in Creston, reported to police that sometime between 10:30-p.m. Friday and 9:30-a.m. Saturday, someone shot the window of his truck using a bb gun. The incident happened while the vehicle was parked in an alley near the home. The damage was estimated at $300. And, at around 9:40-p.m. Saturday, a woman also living in the 600 block of N. Maple Street in Creston, reported that a rock was thrown through a window at her residence. The incident happened at around 8:15-p.m. The damage was estimate at $100.

Sunday evening, a man living in the 800 block of N. Birch Street in Creston, reported that his wallet was stolen from 309 N. Sycamore. The incident, which happened sometime between Nov. 29th and Dec. 3rd, resulted in a loss of about $20. And, just after 6-a.m. today (Monday), a woman residing in the 400 block of N. Oak Street in Creston reported that her solar yard light was broken. The incident happened over Sunday into early Monday morning, and the loss was estimated at $40.

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m., w/KJAN News Director Ric Hanson

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All the Democrats and one of the Republicans running for governor in 2018 will participate in a Tuesday evening forum, to discuss Iowa’s mental health system. Democratic candidate Nate Boulton, a state senator from Des Moines, has been calling for reopening the two state-run Mental Health Institutes former Governor Terry Branstad closed. “When those facilities were shut down, the services were lost. They weren’t replaced with anything. There was nothing new that came in to take care of those residents,” Boulton says. “We all know our state needs to be doing more, not less, for mental health care.”

Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett is challenging Governor Kim Reynolds in the Republican Primary next June. Corbett says a fragmented system was made worse by the decision to close the Mental Health Institutes in southern Iowa. “All that did was compress the system down,” Corbett says. “The state may have saved some money, but the patients didn’t evaporate, they just got pushed down and, in many cases, on local property taxpayers.”

Corbett says some state-run facility needs to provide up to 50 more beds for patients with acute mental illnesses. Corbett will attend Tuesday’s forum. Governor Reynolds won’t, but she’s sending a short video that will be played for the crowd. Democratic candidate Fred Hubbell, a Des Moines businessman, took a tour of hospitals and jails around the state last month. Hubbell says emergency rooms and jails have become the “last resort” treatment option for mentally ill Iowans. Andy McGuire, a medical doctor who’s also seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination, says police have become “mental health providers.”

“They take patients to jail and to emergency rooms, two of the most expensive and worst places for someone in crisis rather than preventing crisis with more up-front counseling,” McGuire says. “…We need to prioritize and focus resources and we need to destigmatize mental health. We need to love more and ignore less.”

McGuire made her comments at a recent Democratic Party fundraiser. John Norris, another candidate who spoke at the same event, accused Governors Branstad and Reynolds of “turning the heartland into the land of the heartless.” Tuesday’s discussion about the mental health system is sponsored by The Des Moines Register and Des Moines University and starts at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.

(Radio Iowa)