(Radio Iowa) – Former President Donald Trump kicked off his campaign for the 2024 Iowa Caucuses in Davenport by promising to promote Iowa-made ethanol and to oppose raising the retirement age for Social Security. “We won Iowa twice and unfortunately we’re going to have to do it a second time because something happened,” Trump said as he took the stage. Trump was greeted with chants of U-S-A and got several standing ovations last (Monday) night.

“2024 is the final battle,” Trump said. “…We will evict Joe Biden from the White House.” Trump used a derogatory nickname to describe Florida Senator Ron DeSantis, who is likely to challenge Trump in 2024. Trump also spent a section of his speech talking about the war in Ukraine. He suggested the casualties and destruction have been underestimated and there is a threat of the conflict spiraling into nuclear war.

“Standing before you today, I am the only candidate who can make this promise: ‘I will prevent World War III,'” Trump said, to cheers, “because I really think you’re going to have World War III.” Trump promised as president he’d ban biological men from competing in women’s sports and he called for the direct election of principals by parents. “I will immediately sign a new executive order cutting federal funding for any school that’s pushing critical race theory (or) transgender insanity,” Trump said, to extended cheers.

Trump also said any school should be denied federal funds if they require masks or have a COVID-19 vaccine mandate. As he did during his first official Iowa campaign stop in mid-2015, Trump finished the event by taking questions from the crowd in Davenport’s Adler Theater, then stayed to shake hands and pose for pictures.

(Norwalk, Iowa) – Officials with the Iowa Department of Public Safety report the Norwalk Police Department was contacted March 8, 2023, over concerns for the safety of a child in Norwalk. With the assistance of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI), officers began an investigation. On March 9th, law enforcement and professional volunteer searchers located a deceased newborn child along the road in the 5300 block of Delaware Street, in Warren County.

Further investigation revealed that 25-year-old Megan K. Staude, of Newton, gave birth to a baby at home during the last days of February, 2023. With cooperation of Megan’s father, 64-year-old Rodney A. Staude, the baby was left to die and was then disposed of along Delaware Street. An autopsy was conducted by the State Medical Examiner’s Office. The results are still pending.

Both Rodney and Megan Staude were taken into custody and charged with Murder in the 1st Degree. The investigation is ongoing.

(Radio Iowa) – If you’ve changed your address in the past year, the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office is asking for your help. The annual National Change of Address process is underway, which helps maintain the accuracy of Iowa’s voter registration records. Secretary of State Paul Pate says notices are being mailed to around 90-thousand registered voters in Iowa who have filed a change of address with the U-S Postal Service in the past year.

“We want Iowa’s voter roles to be as up-to-date and accurate as possible. Tens of thousands of Iowans move within the state each year,” Pate says. “This is a very important yearly procedure to ensure that those moves are reflected accurately in the voter registration database.” Pate says voters who receive the cards should follow the instructions on the return postcard to verify or correct their voting address, then return it to their county auditor’s office as soon as possible.

Some 38-thousand registered voters moved within their county during the past year, while more than 52-thousand moved outside their county but stayed in the state.

(Radio Iowa) – A Davenport man will spend nearly 20 years in prison for distributing meth. Information presented at the sentencing of 47-year old David Parrow showed he sold one pound of meth on to different occasions to an undercover informant. Police got a search warrant in 2022 and found marijuana and cocaine base at his residence. He was sentenced to 235 months in federal prison.

The case was part of the Project Safe Neighborhoods program.

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA – A former Iowa State Patrol trooper was sentenced on March 7, 2023, to two years of probation for deprivation of rights under color of law.

According to court documents, on September 25, 2017, Robert James Smith, 58, was on patrol and observed an individual traveling on a motorcycle on Interstate 80 at a speed above the posted speed limit. Smith attempted to catch up to the motorcycle. The motorcyclist exited Interstate 80 in Cedar County, stopped the motorcycle and dismounted. In his marked squad car, Smith exited behind the motorcycle, engaged the overhead lights and siren on his patrol vehicle, parked near and quickly approached the victim with his pistol drawn and pointed at the victim.

As the victim was standing next to the motorcycle with hands in the air, Smith delivered an open palm strike to the victim’s chin area. The force of the strike caused the victim to fall back over the motorcycle, after which Smith knelt on and handcuffed the victim, then stood the victim up. In a report about the incident, Smith wrote that he reached with his hand intending to take hold of the victim’s shoulder but instead inadvertently came into contact with the front side of his helmet.

In his plea agreement, Smith admitted that his open hand palm strike was intentional, done with a bad purpose or improper motive to disregard the law, and was an unreasonable use of force. Smith plead guilty in September 2022. Smith was also ordered to pay a fine of $7500.00.

United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. The Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated the case.

(Radio Iowa) – The January labor numbers are in and they show unemployment dropped to three percent in the month compared to three-point-one percent for December. Iowa Workforce Development spokesman Jesse Dougherty says there’s another number that’s more important. “Even more significant to us was that the state surpassed the 68 percent labor force participation rate,” he says. The labor force is the number of people working and those who are actively looking for work. “That number, in particular, that participation rate number is one that the state has a really close eye on, you know, just as significant as the overall unemployment rate, because that’s actually telling us what that labor pool is looking like and where it’s moving,” Dougherty says.

The January numbers are just being released now because the Bureau of Labor Statistics first did its annual review of the previous year’s numbers. “From the previous year, we actually have around 17,000 more Iowans in the labor force than we were a year ago,” he says. Dougherty says the job picture continued to get better as the state recovered from the pandemic. “We actually had around 38,000 — just over 38,000 jobs added within the last year. And that’s also significant because of the labor force participation rising at the same time, meaning that we’re also seeing more Iowans entering the pool,” he says. “That’s good news for employers too, because when they see that number climbing, it means that their talent pool is also getting bigger.”

Dougherty says the growth has been widespread. “And within the job numbers itself –the good news from that front was that there wasn’t one particular industry that was dominating that growth — we saw a lot of different growth within industries. Leisure and hospitality, which has continued to be a large sector has continued to grow,” Dougherty says, “But this past month, we also saw construction, we saw manufacturing, we even saw a couple of industries such as education and health services, that struggled during the pandemic that are starting to pick up more. So that’s also an encouraging sign.”

Dougherty says the labor force participation rate before the pandemic was in the 69 to 70 percent range — so to see it surpass 68 percent is significant.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has finalized its state drought plan. D-N-R hydrology coordinator, Tim Hall, says the plan is a resource for state, county and local use. “We think it’ll give us a better opportunity to stay in front of drought conditions,” Hall says. The Iowa Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and the Iowa Agriculture Department helped develop the plan. Hall says the plan also draws from the longtime U-S Drought Monitor and provides a more localized version of that national program. “The drought plan also provides schedules and structure for having discussions and meetings and providing information to local decision makers during times of drought,” Hall says. “So we think it’s going to be a good tool to both prepare for and respond to drought conditions.”

State climatologist Justin Glisten is one of the primary contributors of Iowa information to the U-S Drought Monitor — and Hall says he’s helped develop the components of this state plan. “For example, in northwest Iowa stream level stream flows are very important for groundwater resources. So we’ve got the ability to look at statistical analysis of streamflow around the state to help us be better prepared for drought conditions,” he says. The plan divides the state into five regions, and will provide information on the drought status in each area. “Right now there are eight counties in northwest Iowa that are in our drought region one that we classify as being in drought watch. So it’s the lowest level of drought situation in the state,” Hall says. “So we do recognize that that corner of the state does still have some drought challenges.”

Hall says they will tweak the state drought plan as needed. “We’re going to spend the next this next year using the drought plan — and I suspect we’re going to learn quite a bit as we put it into practice,” he says. “We anticipate issuing a new version of the drought plan in about a year based on experience we get here in this first year.” You can see the full Iowa Drought Plan at the D-N-R’s website: iowadnr.gov.

(Greenfield, Iowa) – The Adair County Sheriff’s Office reports two arrests took place last week. Friday afternoon, 27-year-old Matthew Henry Paulsen, of Adair, was arrested on an Adair County Felony warrant for Violation of Probation. He was later released on a $5,000 bond.

And, at around 5-p.m. on March 8th, Greenfield Police arrested 34-year-old Shaun David Shelley, of Greenfield, following a traffic stop. Shelley was charged with OWI/2nd offense, Driving Under Suspension, and Carrying a weapon while intoxicated. Deputies recovered a loaded pistol with a round in the chamber, from between the driver’s and center seats, and a fully load .270 caliber rifle with a scope and a round in the chamber. He was also cited for speeding and Open Container as a driver over the age of 21. Shelley was cited and later released.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Board of Directors of the Atlantic Community School District will meet 6:40-p.m. Wednesday, March 15th, in the Atlantic High School Media Center, for the purpose of sharing Collective Bargaining proposals with the Atlantic Education Association. First up is a presentation an initial proposal from the Atlantic Education Association for the 2023-24 school year, followed by the initial contract proposal for the ’23-’24 school year from the Atlantic Board of Education.

The session can be viewed through the following YouTube link: https://youtube.com/live/KtsIqrJAoOo?feature=share

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds will soon sign a bill that would ban Iowa doctors from providing gender transition medication or procedures to minors. “Our legislature just passed blocking gender reassignment and puberty blockers, so that’s on its way to my desk, so thank you legislature for getting that done,” Reynolds said. Reynolds made her comments during an event in Davenport on Friday. The bill passed the Iowa House and Senate last week with Republican support.

All Democrats in the legislature and five Republicans in the House voted against it. A Des Moines Register Iowa Poll released this (Monday) morning has found 52 percent of the Iowans surveyed support the legislation.