(Ames, Iowa) –  The Iowa Department of Transportation is seeking the public’s input, with regard to the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA’s) Long Distance Passenger Rail Service Study. Section 22214 of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) of 2021 tasks the FRA, with conducting an Amtrak Daily Long-Distance Service Study to evaluate the restoration of daily intercity passenger rail service and the potential for new Amtrak long-distance routes. Now is the time to provide feedback on what passenger rail long distance routes could be developed and considered for future development.

Any comments can be submitted via the project email address, contactus@fralongdistancerailstudy.org or online form on the study’s website.

By statutory definition of the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008, a long distance route is service over 750 miles at endpoints that Amtrak operates. Please consider the endpoints could be located in adjacent states or even multiple states away. Under BIL, the FRA is required to conduct a study to evaluate the restoration of daily intercity rail passenger service along:

• any Amtrak long-distance routes that were discontinued; and
• any Amtrak long-distance routes that occur on a non-daily basis.
• In evaluating intercity passenger rail routes, FRA may evaluate potential new      Amtrak long-distance routes, including with specific attention provided to routes in service as of April 1971 but not continued by Amtrak, taking into consideration whether those new routes would:

o   link and serve large and small communities as part of a regional rail network;
o   advance the economic and social well-being of rural areas of the United States;
o   provide enhanced connectivity for the national long-distance passenger rail system; and
o   reflect public engagement and local and regional support for restored passenger rail service.

The FRA Long-Distance Service Study has developed working groups and will continue to meet around the country to explore all the feedback received, as well as any additional comments submitted via the project email or website links above.

As of mid-March, more than 1,000 comments on potential routes and cities for further study from working group meetings. The study team is currently reviewing and cataloging those comments to help inform the future phases of the study. We want to ensure that every comment is consider so please continue to provide comments with routes regardless if it may already have been suggested. Additional information on the study, meeting schedules, history of passenger rail, and other project details can be found at the study’s website: https://fralongdistancerailstudy.org.

(Glenwood, Iowa) – The Mills County Sheriff’s Office says there were three arrests over the weekend. Late Saturday night, 32-year-old James Michael Rodridguez-Roncka, of Omaha, NE., was arrested following a traffic stop on Interstate 29. He was arrested on a Fremont County warrant for Failure to Appear (FTA). Bond was set at $1,000.

Saturday afternoon, Mills County Deputies arrested 28-year-old Creighton Paul Catlett, of Glenwood, on a warrant for FTA. He was taken into custody at the Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office, and held without bond in the Mills County Jail.

And, at around 11:36-p.m., Saturday, 27-year-old Tyler William Kennedy, of Council Bluffs, was arrested in the vicinity of 380th Street and Highway 34 in Mills County. He was charged with Driving Under Suspension, with bond set at $300.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird says she’s involved in developing legal strategy as her office prepares to ask the Iowa Supreme Court to let the state’s new Fetal Heartbeat Act take effect. “I’ve got a team member that’s working hard on that,” Bird says, “but I’m very involved in that case.” Bird says there have been big changes in the legal landscape since the U-S Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade last year. “We will be arguing to uphold the heartbeat law in Iowa’s Supreme Court in light of that new case law,” Bird says.

Attorneys from outside groups represented the state when Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union successfully blocked a similar 2018 law from taking effect. The previous Attorney General, Democrat Tom Miller, declined to defend the law in court. Bird, a Republican, defeated Miller in last year’s election. “This time around I am defending Iowa’s laws in court,” Bird said. “I am defending Iowa’s heartbeat law in court as well.”

Governor Reynolds asked the Republican-led legislature to meet earlier this month and pass a bill that bans most abortions when cardiac activity can be detected, typically around the sixth week of a pregnancy. The move came soon after a three-to-three vote among the Iowa Supreme Court justices over whether to lift an injunction that had prevented the 2018 law from taking effect.  “They didn’t actually reach any kind of decision,” Bird says. “…There were some very different procedural issues at issue there.”

Bird, a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, made her comment during a weekend appearance on “Iowa Press” on Iowa P-B-S.

(Glenwood, Iowa) – A man from Pottawattamie County was arrested this (Monday) morning, in Mills County. The Glenwood Police Department reports 18-year-old Marshall Rocha, of Council Bluffs, was arrested for keeping a premises of vehicle for [a] controlled substance, possession of marijuana, and possession of drug paraphernalia. Bond was set at $3,300 altogether.

(Radio Iowa) – State officials report around 120-thousand Iowans have been removed from the Medicaid program since April, with about three-quarters of them being dropped from the rolls for procedural reasons, like not returning paperwork.

Enrollment swelled during the pandemic and federal rules said no one was to lose Medicaid coverage, even if their income rose above program limits. That rule was lifted this spring and states began Medicaid eligibility checks. State Medicaid director Elizabeth Matney says she expects the number of Iowans being removed to fall off sharply in the next few months. That’s because she says the state is first targeting people who are likely ineligible for the program. “It’s not incredibly surprising to see a high number in these first handful of months, not returning their redeterminations, especially when we expected them to not be eligible anyway.”

There’s a 90-day grace period for Iowans who have been removed, but still qualify to be reinstated with no gaps in their Medicaid coverage. “When we look at the individuals who are going through these procedural disenrollments as well, about 80% have other health insurance,” she says, “so losing Medicaid under this circumstance does not equal losing health coverage.”

As of this past June, about 860-thousand Iowans were enrolled in Medicaid — nearly 20 percent more than in June of 2020.

(Audubon, Iowa) [UPDATED] – The Rose Theater in Audubon will offer an extended show time for the movie “Sound of Freedom.” Rose Theater Board Member Linda Bloome said the interest shown in the movie was “Very, very overwhelming.”

She said she and her crew worked during the showing on Sunday.

The movie deals with the subject of sex trafficking.

The Sound of Freedom is a 2023 American action film starring Jim Caviezel, Mira Sorvino, and Bill Camp. It’s about former government agent Bill Ballard, who embarks on a mission to rescue children from sex traffickers in Colombia. The plot centers around Ballard’s Operation Underground Railroad, a non-profit, anti-sex trafficking organization.The film is rate PG-13. It was released on July 4^th.

An anonymous donor paid for the weekend tickets, and that spirit of local philanthropy was paid forward, allowing another showing of the movie.

The show can be viewed this Wednesday, August 2nd, at 7-p.m. And once again, there is NO charge to see the movie, thanks to donors. While this movie and others over the past years, have led to a resurgence of persons coming to the Rose, there was a time when it wasn’t as popular.

Linda Bloome said the effort was definitely a “Labor of love,” supported by the community. The first movie shown in the renovated theater was in June, 2018. She said the popularity of the theater has been “amazing.” She says since the Atlantic Atlas Theater closed last December, Cass County residents have traveled to Audubon to see movies, which Bloome says has been “heartwarming.”

The Rose is entirely run by volunteers. Normal admission for each movie just four-dollars. Bloome notes admission fees (for all movies except the Wednesday show), are cash-only. The use of volunteers and absence of credit card fees , she says, helps to keep down the cost of admission.

(Greenfield, Iowa) – The Adair County Secondary Roads Department reports 130th Street southwest of Stuart, from the Schildberg Quarry entrance to Pinewood Avenue (Between Orange and Pinewood Avenues), will be closed to through traffic for road reconstruction. The closure is expect to last a week. (See the map below)