DES MOINES, Iowa (Gray Television Iowa Capitol Bureau) – It’s getting harder to make ends meet in Iowa, according to a report by the nonpartisan group Common Good Iowa. Wages are growing in Iowa, yet more families are struggling. Common Good Iowa’s report finds that 17.5% of Iowa families find it hard to meet even the most basic of needs.

Sean Finn, a policy analyst for Common Good Iowa, says “We’re seeing that the inflation of the past few years has really counteracted the wage growth of those years and families are really in a pinch when it comes to affording their basic needs.”  Finn says half of single parents in Iowa don’t make enough to cover a bare-bones budget. To meet that, a parent would have to make $24.64 per hour. For a family of four, both parents would have to make at least $19.55 per hour. “Clearly, we see that’s far above the minimum wage for the state of $7.25, which needs to be updated,” Finn said.

Iowa Senator Joni Ernst says Israeli Defense Forces have confirmed the son of the woman she invited as a guest for the State of the Union Address was killed by Hamas on October 7th. Ernst invited Hagit Chen to the address to highlight the fact Chen and her husband did not know if their son Itay was dead or alive.

Ernst says now that they know what happened, she will not forget Itay’s bravery on October 7th, as he defended other innocent civilians from Hamas’s terrorist attacks.

Iowa Senator Joni Ernst speaks on the death of the death of American citizen Itay Chen.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department says a man from Omaha, NE.,  was arrested Tuesday evening, following a traffic stop in the 1000 block of Highway 34. 24-year-old Osvaldo Fabian Gonzalez was arrested on two active Pottawattamie County warrants for OWI/1st offense, and Possession of Marijuana/1st offense. Gonzalez was transported to the Pott. County Jail and held on a $2,000 cash-only bond.

MANNING, Iowa [KCCI] — A former western Iowa teacher has been sentenced to 33 years in prison after pleading guilty to a slew of sexual abuse and lascivious acts charges. 24-year-old Cassidy Kraus was a teacher in the IKM-Manning Community School District in Carroll County, when she was arrested last October and accused of sexually abusing three boys between the ages of 13 and 14.

In January, she pleaded guilty to one count of third-degree sexual abuse, two counts of lascivious acts with a child and three counts of dissemination and exhibition of obscene material to minors. Investigators say in addition to engaging in sexual activity with the minors, she also sent obscene material over Snapchat.

On Tuesday, Kraus was sentenced to the maximum sentence of 33 years in prison and a total fine of $5,400 plus 15% criminal surcharge. She will also be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of her life.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa House has voted to impose new limits on hemp products, including a cap on how much T-H-C extracted from hemp can be in food or drinks sold in Iowa. The bill would require labels warning the products are intoxicating and set criminal penalties for selling hemp products with T-H-C to anyone under the age of 21. Representative Steven Holt, a Republican from Denison, says when the state made it legal to grow and sell hemp, the legislature had no idea products with high concentrations of T-H-C would be produced.

“It is a little bit of the wild, wild west out there in Iowa right now thanks to the loopholes we did not know we created,” Holt said. The bill passed on a 79 to 16 vote. Opponents like Representative Bob Kressig of Cedar Falls say retailers that are selling hemp-infused products will see sales slide if the bill becomes law. “We have 1100 retailers in Iowa with these products, we have 3000 employees and we have 800,000 Iowans that access these products,” Kressig said.

Bill backers say some of the hemp-infused drinks and other consumables being sold in Iowa have incredibly high levels of T-H-C and it’s time to act. A similar bill was introduced in the Senate, but has not cleared a Senate committee.

(Radio Iowa) – N-Double-A-C-P leaders are raising concerns about a bill that would ban citizen review boards in five Iowa cities that review complaints about police. Iowa/Nebraska N-Double-A-C-P president Betty Andrews says her organization helped establish four of those boards. “We believe in transparency in law enforcement and government and citizens review boards are an opportunity for a fair look-in,” Andrews says, “and making sure our law enforcement knows that we, as citizens, are watching.”

The Iowa Fraternal Order of Police says the citizens review boards in Dubuque, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Coralville and University Heights would standardize the process for reviewing complaints about police. Andrews says Iowa’s citizens review boards were established after specific cases, many of which involved local police accused of racial profiling. “We’ve seen that time and time in Iowa, that call for justice and not being able to have any insight in what’s happening with law enforcement,” Andrews says.

Tuesday was N-Double-A-C-P lobbying day at the Iowa Capitol. Andrews and members of the group met with Governor Kim Reynolds and discussed several priorities. David Walker, co-chair of the Iowa/Nebraska N-Double-A-C-P’s legal redress committee, says Iowans called to jury duty today are randomly selected from Iowa driver’s license and voter registration records. “The jury pool is filled with addresses that are outdated — 11-12% and sometimes 15% they go in the wastebasket. They are never delivered. People have moved,” Wright says.

The N-Double-A-C-P proposes that the Iowa Department of Revenue forward the names and addresses of Iowans who file state income taxes to the state’s courts to improve the accuracy of jury summonses. “We’ve seen in some instances where this has been implemented in six states the number of summons that have to be issued are much fewer, costs are saved and jury panels are more diverse,” Walker said.

Andrews, the president of the Iowa-Nebraska N-Double-A-C-P, says diverse juries boost confidence in the justice system. among people of color. Andrews was recently elected to serve on the N-Double-A-C-P’s national board of directors.