(Radio Iowa) — The U-S Department of Housing and Urban Development is giving four Iowa cities nearly 13-million dollars in grants to deal with potentially dangerous lead-based paint and other health and safety hazards. The city of Dubuque won three-point-six million dollars, Sioux City won a total of four-point-one million dollars Marshalltown nearly three-point-five million and Council Bluffs two-point-three million dollars. Dubuque Housing & Community Development Director, Alexis Steger, says the bulk of their grant goes to handling lead paint.  “This continues a program that we have going now. We will do another 120 units — and that will be for the lead side of three million — and then there’s a 500-thousand additional healthy homes grant,” Steger says.

The healthy homes grants provide help in handling issues other than lead paint to make homes healthier. Steger says Dubuque has been working on the lead paint issue since 1992. “The housing stock in Dubuque was in the era that lead paint was often used — so that lead paint can now be flaking, the siding can have that lead, it can be inside the home. The windows are often needing to be replaced because of the lead inside the windows as well,” Steger says.  She says taking care of the lead in the homes can be very expensive. “It depends on the deterioration and how much lead is in the home. And it also depends if the home is historic,” she says. “But it can be remediated just scraping the paint and then you have to do another paint coat over that. There’s standards for scraping and painting.”

Steger says they’ve gotten grants almost every year since they began the program, and the grant total is little more than 16-point-six million dollars. “What has been happening is as we end one grant, we have so much more need that people are applying and we don’t have enough money from the grant to get to their home,” according to Steger. “So they end up in kind of a waiting period until we get another grant — and so we start with those applicants that were trying to apply for the previous grant.” The program has gone on so long, that there are some homes that need a follow up. “Lead remediation can mean that a home may need us to come back and visit it in another 40 years. So, we do see some of those things happen where remediation is just sealing the lead in place and making sure it is not a hazard. But that can deteriorate if it is not maintained, so we do see some of those as well, but not as often.”

Steger says they probably have enough homes with lead issues to continue getting grants for another 10 years.

Fremont County Sheriff Kevin Aistrope reports the Fremont County K9 unit Thursday evening, conducted a narcotics investigation into the delivery of methamphetamine in Tabor. As a result of the investigation 27- year old Matthew Whitt, of Essex, and 25-year old Tra Perry of Corning, were arrested for the Possession of Methamphetamine with the intent to deliver (a Class “B” Felony). They were arrested after deputies located Meth, packaging equipment and scales. Whitt and Perry were transported to the Fremont County Law Enforcement Center and held on a $25,000 bond, each. The Fremont County Sheriff’s office was assisted by the Tabor Police Department during their investigation and in conducting the arrests.

Tra Perry

Matthew Whitt

(Radio Iowa) — Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren’s trek through western and central Iowa this weekend marks the first visit in this new year of a contender for the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential nomination. Governor Kim Reynolds says it shows Iowa again will serve as a valuable proving ground for Warren and the other candidates who’ll follow.   “I am so proud of the fact that we are the ‘first-in-the-nation’ caucus,” Reynolds says. “Iowa voters are engaged and informed. They ask good questions and I think, regardless of which side of the political aisle that you’re on.”

Reynolds, a Republican, is supporting Donald Trump’s nomination for a second term, but Reynolds says if a G-O-P challenger emerges, they’re welcome to compete in the Iowa Republican Party’s 2020 Caucuses. “That’s what elections are all about and so I don’t think we ever want to discourage that,” Reynolds says, “but I’m supporting the president.”

Trump finished second among the 15 candidates competing in the 2016 Iowa Republican Party Caucuses. More than twice as many Democrats are rumored to be considering a bid for the White House in 2020. “We welcome all of them and it’ll be kind of fun to be on the other side of that and see maybe 30 candidates on a debate stage or see what that looks like,” Reynolds says.

Senator Warren formed an “exploratory committee” this week, viewed as the first step in a presidential run. Warren’s first Iowa event is tonight (Friday) at McCoy’s Bar in Council Bluffs. Katie Larson, the manager of the bar’s gathering room, says the prep work is well underway. “Reconstructing our room so that we can have auditorium-style seating,” Larson says. “…She’ll have an entrance set up just for her.”

Warren will also make stops in Sioux City, Storm Lake, Des Moines and Ankeny this weekend.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:25 a.m. CST

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has hired former Iowa Department of Transportation director Paul Trombino III as her chief operations officer to provide leadership of state government agencies. Reynolds said Thursday Pat Garrett is her new communications director and former campaign field director Nick Boeyink is the governor’s director of boards and commissions. Nate Ristow, a former staffer for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, is Reynolds’ public safety policy adviser.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee’s newly elected U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn will be one of the first two Republican women to ever serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Blackburn confirmed in a Wednesday tweet that she had been appointed to the committee alongside Sen. Joni Ernst from Iowa.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Chicago-area for-profit college has agreed to reform its recruiting and enrollment practices and forego collecting about $493 million in student debt. Career Education Corp., of Schaumburg, Illinois, agreed to a settlement with attorneys general from 48 states and the District of Columbia. New York reached an earlier agreement. California is considering joining the settlement. Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller says the agreement will end what he termed deceptive practices.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa legislators must create rules to regulate hemp production in the state now that Congress has legalized the crop. Many Iowa farmers are eager to start planting. Hemp comes from the same plant as marijuana but doesn’t contain THC, the compound that causes a high. Hemp is used in clothing, textiles, building materials, paper and food. The Des Moines Register reports that the Iowa attorney general and state agriculture officials will meet this month to discuss regulations.