w/ Mark Saylor

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A judge in Pottawattamie County late last week granted an extension of time request by the defense, in the case of a teacher from Treynor who’s been charged with two counts of Sexual Exploitation by a School Employee. The request, filed by Attorney Jon Jospeh Narmi, sought more time for the filing of pre-trial motions and notice of defense. Fourth District Court Judge Mark Eveloff, on Friday, approved the motion and ordered a continuance in the jury trial of 44-year-old Michael Douglas Travis. The trial, which was supposed to have begun today (Tuesday, 8/19), is now slated to begin October 14th.

Travis had previously plead not guilty to the charges that were filed following an investigation this spring into complaints from two former students, who accused Travis of inappropriate contact. Court records show the incidents allegedly occurred in May, 2002 and May, 2006.

The makers of a documentary about a prohibition-era whiskey are promising new revelations about how a small Iowa town became a bootlegging empire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MuhrPTOFaEQ

Dan Manatt directed the film Whiskey Cookers: The Amazing Story of the Templeton, Iowa Bootleggers. “The film is really going to rewrite the history of Templeton Rye,” Manatt said. “It introduces so many new characters, so many new plot lines, and so much new back story.” Roughly a decade in the making, Manatt said the documentary draws on never-before-seen files from the National Archives, court documents, and other materials.

Manatt said the secret to Templeton Rye’s success went far beyond the ingredients used to make the whiskey. “In the middle 1920s, Carroll County juries basically started engaging in civil disobedience and refused to convict bootleggers,” Manatt said. An advance screening of the film will be held this Friday at 7 p.m. at the Templeton Community Center in Templeton. The film’s “world premiere” is scheduled for Saturday at 5:45 p.m. at the Englert Theatre in Iowa City as part of the Landlocked Film Festival.

The film will air later this year on Iowa Public Television. Manatt noted that the film is not affiliated with and received no funding or editorial input from Templeton Rye Spirits LLC.

(Radio Iowa)

Twenty-two of Iowa’s 99 county sheriffs are no longer complying with requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to hold people suspected of being illegal immigrants unless they have a judge’s approval, according to the Iowa A-C-L-U. ICE issues what’s called a “detainer” which asks the counties to hold the individuals for 48 hours while ICE determines if they will pursue immigration proceedings. Iowa A-C-L-U spokesperson, Erica Johnson, says ICE detainer requests are often unconstitutional.

“The ICE detainer requests in and of themselves, if they’re not accompanied by any sort of warrant signed by a judge, don’t necessary give local law enforcement any reason to detain an individual,” Johnson says. Johnson says it’s up to local law enforcement whether they want to corporate with ICE.

“It’s really-like I said, it’s a good showing to the community as saying, ‘Hey, we want to work with you.’ Especially those vulnerable communities, especially immigrants,” Johnson says. The counties which have told the A-C-L-U they won’t comply with the detainer requests are: Allamakee, Benton, Cass, Clinton, Dubuque, Franklin, Fremont, Ida, Iowa, Greene, Jefferson, Johnson, Linn, Marion, Monona, Montgomery, Polk, Pottawattamie, Sioux, Story, Wapello, and Winneshiek.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in special sessions at four locations across the state during its upcoming term. The Des Moines-based court said Monday that justices will travel to hear arguments next month in Iowa City, to Storm Lake in October, to Creston in March and Decorah in April.

The visits build on an outreach campaign that Chief Justice Mark Cady instituted after three justices were ousted by voters following the court’s decision to legalize gay marriage in 2009.

In a statement, Cady says the court has visited 13 communities for oral arguments and public receptions in the last three years. He says the visits give justices “a tremendous, first-hand insight into what Iowans expect from their court system now and into the future.”

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The commission that oversees water quality regulations in Iowa is considering adoption of rules that align state regulations with those imposed by the federal Clean Water Act. The Environmental Protection Commission’s proposed rules primarily give the Iowa Department of Natural Resources authority to issue permits that regulate manure handling for livestock farms shown to discharge manure into waterways. Permits aren’t required, however, and environmental groups say the rules are too weak and too friendly to livestock farms.

Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement wants all farms with spills to be required to get a permit. The group also wants five members of the nine-member, governor-appointed commission to abstain from voting because they have financial interests in livestock farming.

A vote on the rules is scheduled for this (Tuesday) morning.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Des Moines man faces charges in connection to a car crash last year that injured a young girl. Twenty-two-year-old Omar Jimenez was charged with operating while intoxicated, child endangerment, failure to maintain control and failure to have a valid driver’s license. Court records do not list an attorney. Jimenez was driving a car on Aug. 15, 2013, when it crashed into a pole. He and a 4-year-old girl in the car were injured and taken to a local hospital.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A judge has ordered a delay until Sept. 29 in the trial of a former Iowa State University researcher charged with falsifying data to make a developmental AIDS vaccine appear promising. Han pleaded not guilty in federal court to four counts of making false statements in research reports. His attorney, Joseph Herrold, says case research is time consuming and Han requires a Korean translator.

PAULINA, Iowa (AP) — The Department of Natural Resources says a manure spill at a northwest Iowa dairy has likely caused the death of thousands of fish. The DNR says the spill at Summit Dairy near Paulina apparently happened Friday during a rainstorm. The DNR responded and dug a trench that redirected the manure to a field. On Sunday, DNR staffers noted many dead fish, including suckers, minnows, darters, shiners, a few catfish and a few small largemouth bass.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Federal officials say an allegation that a border officer drew and pointed a gun at a Boy Scout from Iowa appears to be unsubstantiated. The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General says security footage and interviews helped officials investigate the claim. The Office of Inspector General says at least $19,000 was spent investigating the case.

Iowa’s jobless rate saw a small uptick in the past month, according to Kerry Koonce at Iowa Workforce Development. The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose from four-point-four percent in June to four-point-five percent in July. “We did have a slight increase in our unemployment rate for July over June by just a tenth of a percent,” Koonce says. “Although our civilian labor force grow, so did our number of unemployed individuals grew just slightly as well.” The number of unemployed Iowans rose to almost 77-thousand during July, up from about 74-thousand during June. Overall, Koonce says, the total number of working Iowans fell to about one-million 624-thousand in July. “We really saw no change in the non-farm jobs,” Koonce says. “All of the gains that we had in the private sector were offset heavily by government areas and also in the leisure and hospitality areas. Some of the summer stuff starts to slow down.” Education and health services added the most jobs during July, Koonce says, due to gains in both private education services and health care services. She says the state’s workforce is in better shape than it was a year ago. “July of this year, our non-farm numbers are significantly higher,” Koonce says. “We’re 16,500 jobs higher than we were at this time last year, so that’s very good. Plus, our unemployment rate this time last year was at 4.8% so we’ve lost 3/10th of a percent there as well. All in all, our numbers are looking very good compared to this time last year.” Many seasonal jobs are vanishing as summer gives way to fall and back-to-school time, which may contribute to the jobless rate next month. “You’ll see a little bit of that, but you’ll also have teachers and colleges and universities and things like that going back as well so you’ll see an increase in the employment there,” Koonce says. “It usually tends to level out pretty good.” Iowa’s unemployment rate at four-and-a-half percent for July is well below the national jobless rate of six-point-two percent.

Bill and Hillary Clinton are the headliners for Senator Tom Harkin’s Steak Fry in September. “This is the last one,” Harkin says, “my 37th and last.” And it may wind up as the biggest ever. Harkin’s annual fall fundraiser has been a proving ground for presidential candidates of the past. This year’s September 14th event will mark Hillary Clinton’s first appearance in Iowa since her 2008 campaign and it will be seen by many in the Democratic Party as a first step for a 2016 campaign. Hillary Clinton’s husband was the final speaker at the 2003 Harkin Steak Fry and over 10-thousand people turned out on a hillside in Indianola that year. It rained most of the day, but the sun came out just before the former president took the stage.

“I’ll never forget it,” Harkin says, laughing. “Bill Clinton.” Harkin ran for president in 1992, but he dropped out of the race in March and endorsed Bill Clinton. In 2008, Harkin did not endorse any of the candidates competing for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, but his wife, Ruth, campaigned extensively for Hillary Clinton. Senator Harkin says Bill and Hillary Clinton are “close friends” who “have contributed so much good, inspiring leadership to this country.” Harkin talked about the upcoming Steak Fry during a recent Radio Iowa interview.

“I hope we have a really good last Steak Fry and I think we will. There’s only one thing left to do: pray for good weather,” Harkin said, with a laugh. This will be Bill Clinton’s fourth appearance at a Harkin Steak Fry. Hillary Clinton spoke at the event in 2007 along with the other Democratic presidential candidates running that year. A farm in rural Madison County was the site of the first-ever Harkin Steak Fry. In 1991, Harkin used the event to launch his own presidential campaign. The 2014 edition of the Harkin Steak Fry will be staged on the balloon field on the east side of Indianola.

(Radio Iowa)

An online publication has named Ames, Iowa as the best college town in the nation. The operators of Livability dot com note Ames provides affordable housing and a variety of restaurants, cultural attractions, and parks. Director of Communications at the Ames Chamber of Commerce, Lauren Frandsen, says Ames encourages students to make the city their home. “We’ve been working really hard here at the Chamber and the Ames Economic Development Commission to make sure Ames is a place is not just a place people think of coming to Iowa State and going to school and getting an education, but then a place they really feel connected to and they want to stay after they get their degree,” Frandsen said.

Director of the Campustown Action Association in Ames, Kim Hanna, is thrilled to hear about the rating. She attributes the success of the city to the relationship between the university and local businesses.  “The research park, which is bringing so many young professionals to the community and keeping them there…all of the businesses and start ups and entrepreneurial programs that are coming out of the research park are adding more excitement and vibrancy to the community,” Hanna said.

The website gathered data on housing costs, population of degree holders, and entertainment venues to rank the cities. The town support for the Cyclone football program also contributed to Ames’ top ranking. Logan, Utah came in second, followed by Oxford, Ohio; Fayetteville, Arkansas; and Tempe, Arizona.

(Radio Iowa)