(Radio Iowa) – The legislature has approved new rules for how Iowa landlords handle requests from renters who ask to have an emotional support animal or a service animal in their unit. Senator Scott Webster of Bettendorf says it aligns Iowa law more closely with federal regulations.

“A good majority of our veterans have emotional support animals…We don’t want other people damaging the system of people who need these particular items — dogs, cats,” Webster says. “…We want to make sure those that are abusing it don’t have quite the right to abuse it that they do now.” Representative Jacob Bossman of Sioux City says the bill provides common sense guidelines for what kind of documents landlords can request from tenants who ask to have a service or support animal in their rental. The bill also outlines when landlords may reject requests due to safety or financial concerns.

“Pets are wonderful companions and as anyone who’s ever had a pet knows, they can also be very healing as well, “Bossman said. “That’s why support animals are so vital, but to maintain the stability of the system, there must be guardrails.”

Representative Josh Turek, of Council Bluffs, says there’s a need for more regulation on emotional support animals, because service animals are a lifeline for many individuals with a disability.  “A service animal requires the individual to have a physical disability. It also is limited exclusively to a dog and, in incredibly rare cases, to a small horse,” Turek said. “This animal also has to be trained and, probably most important and significantly, it is required to perform a task that the individual with a disability, the disability prevents them from doing.”

The bill would let landlords ask for documentation from a health care provider if a tenant’s need for an assistance animal is not readily apparent. The bill won unanimous approval in the House and Senate and it’s now headed to the governor for review.

April 4, 2024 (DES MOINES) – At today’s meeting, the Enhance Iowa Board awarded $3,025,047 in Community Attraction and Tourism (CAT) grants to projects in 10 communities and a $350,000 Sports Tourism Grant to Newton Community Events, Inc, to promote the NASCAR race weekend at the Iowa Speedway in Newton.

Details for the projects receiving CAT grants follow:

The City of Fort Dodge and Webster County Conservation Board were awarded $400,000 toward the construction of $4,497,465 in park improvements including construction of a multi-purpose pavilion with seating for 200 people, a skate park, a shelter, green space, restrooms, swings, trails and native planting.

The City of Atlantic was awarded $102,047 toward the construction of an approximately 4,500 square foot water-based aquatic venue with a variety of features including fountains, spray pad, dump buckets and water cannons. Total project cost is $690,000.

The City of Clear Lake and North Iowa Cultural Center and Museum were awarded $400,000 toward the construction of the Surf District Music Enrichment and Immersive Center with a lobby, ticket office, gift shop, rooftop observation deck/performance space and 1,800 square feet dedicated to showcasing Clear Lake’s place in music history.

The Midwest Old Settlers and Threshers Association in Mt. Pleasant was awarded $210,000 toward the development of 100 additional camping sites, restoration of an existing heritage electric railway passenger car and purchase of an additional heritage electric railway passenger car. Total project cost is $1,420,111.

The Des Moines Community Playhouse in Des Moines was awarded $400,000 toward modernizing and expanding the Kate Goldman Children’s Theatre including a building expansion, storage and workshop space, meeting room, new costume shop and a configurable seating system to replace the existing fixed theatre seating. Total project cost is $2,736,481.

The City of Kalona was awarded $400,000 toward the $2,570,864 construction of a splashpad, natural playscape, large and small dog parks, parking and restroom facilities with an attached dog wash station.

Clayton County Conservation was awarded $220,000 toward the construction of a mile of paved trail to create the first segment of a two-mile looped trail connection between the existing termini of the Pony Hollow Trail. The trail extension will separate users from vehicle traffic on Highway 13. Total project cost is $1,098,140.

The City of Carroll was awarded $203,000 toward $1,019,000 in renovations to Merchants Park including press box improvements and expansion, bleacher improvements with ADA access and seating, baseline and backstop protective netting, dugout expansion, field lighting and fencing.

The City of Rock Valley was awarded $350,000 toward park improvements including accessible playground equipment with new fall-safe surfacing, interior trails and perimeter sidewalks to increase walkability, a new community event stage, open-air park shelters, a four-season shelter house and security lighting. Total project cost is $2,160,142.

The City of Mt. Ayr was awarded $340,000 toward the $3,243,700 replacement of the existing pool with a 4,000-square-foot outdoor pool with lap lanes, two diving boards, current pool, spray features, a family slide, a traditional slide, zero depth entry, sunshades and lighting.

Details for the project receiving a Sports Tourism grant follows:

Newton Community Events, Inc. was awarded $350,000 toward marketing the NASCAR Xfinity Series and ARCA Menards Series races on June 14-16. The funds will go toward a multi-media campaign in Iowa and Omaha, a street team, promotional events and small business activations.

The Enhance Iowa Program provides financial incentives to communities for the construction of recreational, cultural, educational or entertainment facilities that enhance the quality of life in Iowa. To date, 149 CAT grants have been awarded by the board, totaling $50,230,070.

(Radio Iowa) – It’s been seven years since a total solar eclipse darkened parts of the Midwest, and although Monday’s event won’t be a total eclipse in Iowa, it will be significant for most of the state. Chemistry and Planetary Sciences Professor Channon Visscher, at Dordt University in Sioux Center, says you will definitely notice something’s happening.

“Up in the northwest corner of Iowa here, we’re gonna see about 75% coverage,” Visscher says. “If you go down to southeast Iowa, you’ll get up to about 90% of the sun’s just getting covered, but throughout most of the state we’re going to see about three-fourths of the sun get covered up by the moon.” The eclipse will begin about 12:40 p-m, but Visscher says you won’t notice it until about 1 p-m. The maximum coverage will occur around 2 p-m, and the event will end about 3 p-m. If the weather is clear, you will be able to view the partial eclipse, but Visscher says you’ll need eye protection.

“We recommend solar glasses, eclipse glasses, welding glass works, shade 14 or darker is typically what’s recommended,” he says. “Another popular technique is using a pinhole in a sheet of aluminum foil and you can cast an image of the sun, and you can see the little bite out projected on a surface.” The most spectacular part of an eclipse is the diamond ring effect when the moon completely covers the sun and just slightly moves off. Unfortunately, you must be in the area of totality to see that effect and the nearest point is southern Illinois and southeast Missouri. However, Visscher says a partial eclipse has its own unusual things to look for.

“The most noticeable thing during a partial is sort of the quality of the light shifts, the shadows shift,” he says. “In fact, we won’t have a lot of leaves on the trees yet but if you see sun passing through a tree for example, a lot of times what you can see is all sorts of little projections with little bits of the sun bit out by the moon.” Visscher says if you have a chance, get out and see it, as the next total eclipse in the vicinity won’t happen until 2045, and that will cover parts of Kansas and Colorado, not Iowa. If you plan to make the drive to be in the path of totality, Visscher says you want to be in the middle of the swath of totality for the longest view, about a 50- to 100-mile-wide area.

The 2017 eclipse (NASA photo)

“Inside the path of totality, the total eclipse itself lasts about a maximum of about four minutes if you’re right near the center of it. It drops off to about two minutes near the edges,” Visscher says. “So that’s really a pretty brief moment in time, but that’s where you have that complete coverage of the moon in front of the sun.” Whether you travel to see the total eclipse, or stay put for the partial, remember to wear your solar eclipse glasses, which you can find at most retail outlets.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa lawmakers may create a grant program to help recruit attorneys to practice in rural areas of the state. Representative Brian Lohse of Bondurant says it would be modeled after a program in South Dakota. “They started small like we are with, I believe, five attorneys. I think they’ve now funded up to 13 different attorneys in different parts of South Dakota,” Lohse says. “So hopefully we have the same success both in attracting attorneys to rural areas, but also in increasing the number of contract attorneys that we have doing that important work across the state.”

Contract attorneys are appointed by judges to represent indigent clients in criminal court. According to the Iowa State Bar Association, since 2014 there’s been a nearly 50 percent decline in the number of attorneys willing to take those cases. Lohse, who is an attorney, says it’s difficult to find an attorney for any legal work in some areas. “Just like we see in many other professions, they’re older, they want to retire, they age out,” Lohse says. “We need to bring some young blood into that mix.”

A bill that’s won approval in a House committee would create a Rural Attorney Recruitment Fund to provide incentives to up to five attorneys for five years. The incentives could be worth 90 percent of the tuition for the University of Iowa Law School.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Workforce Development is now what’s called the I-D-me (ID.me) identity verification system for unemployment claims after a test run of the system. I-W-D executive director Beth Townsend says it’s a modern system the makes sure unemployment benefits aren’t stolen. “Helps you prove to us that you are who you say you are, so that when we pay you, we know the money is going to the person that’s ‘s legitimately making the claim,” Townsend says. She says all you have to do is present your information to be checked.

“There’s three different ways you can do that. You can do it online through the I-D-me app, you can do it through a video chat appointment with a I-D-me staff person who looks at your documents online, and then you know, and then verifies your documentation,” she says. “Or you can bring it into the American Job Center and our U-I staff there can take the documents, upload them and get your identity verified that way.”

Townsend says anytime you are dealing with paying a benefit there are going to be people who try to take advantage of it, and this bolsters their efforts to prevent that fraud. “We’ve always had a pretty robust security system in place, which we don’t discuss publicly, obviously, because we want to not give anybody a heads up on what we’re doing,” Townsend says. “But we but it is something that we have worked on for a long time, and Id me is used in about 29 other states.” She says they had good results in their pilot run. “It’s been thoroughly tested. We have seen really good success, 96 percent of the people who have used it so far have of over 21,000 people have successfully verified their identity. It takes less than five minutes to do it,” she says.

I-W-D says since January I-D-me has also already helped them identify and halt more than 12-hundred fraudulent attempts to obtain benefits. The I-D-me is now required of anyone who files an unemployment claim.