(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Republican Party leaders say there have been clear signals this week that their Iowa Caucuses will be first-in-the-nation again in 2028. Iowa G-O-P chairman Jeff Kaufmann was chosen to deliver the nominating speech for former President Trump and Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird was chosen to preside over the V-P’s nomination at the party’s national convention. Bobby Kaufmann, the son of the state party’s chairman, is a senior advisor to Trump’s reelection campaign.

“President Trump has repeatedly told many people that he values Iowa’s first-in-the-nation status,” Kaufmann says. “…He is what kept us first-in-the-nation when other states were coming after us, he stepped in and said, ‘No, we’re going to have Iowa (first).’ And I think him putting us in prominent roles in the first day of the convention just solidifies what he’s already said I’m confident we will have his backing for 2028.”

Steve Scheffler — Iowa’s Republican National Committeeman — says national party rules approved last week keep the Iowa Caucuses first, followed by New Hampshire’s Primary. “When you’re from Iowa, you’ve always got to keep two eyes in the back of your head to make sure that nobody’s trying to take us out,” he says. Nearly 30 percent of the Republican National Committee members are new this year, so Schefler says he and other Iowa G-O-P leaders will be meeting with them to tout the Caucuses.

“Making them understand we play a unique role and there is no reason on God’s green Earth that you should upset the apple cart and start from some other direction,” Scheffler says. Governor Kim Reynolds says having the Iowa Republican Party’s chairman AND Attorney General Brenna Bird in prominent speaking roles this week is a good indicator Iowa’s Caucuses will remain first.

“Just super proud of them and the role they’ve been able to play in the convention and really bringing Iowa just front and center,” Reynolds says. The Democratic National Committee kicked the Iowa Democratic Party’s Caucuses out of the lead-off position in 2024. Some Iowa Democratic Party leaders have said they intend to try to get their Caucuses back in the first voting slot for the 2028 presidential campaign.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa law allows schools to start on August 23rd this year — but the fall semester will begin September 5th in the Rock Valley school district as the community recovers from severe flash flooding that hit in June. In a message posted online, Rock Valley Superintendent Mike Van Voorst says district officials hope returning to classes can bring some normalcy back to students’ lives. School rooms aren’t ready, though, so students in kindergarten, first and second grades will start classes at a Rock Valley church.

Third, fourth and fifth graders will start school in cleaned, sanitized but unfinished classrooms. The State of Iowa is constructing six temporary classrooms that will be used by students in sixth through 12th grades and those older students will rotate back and forth to unfinished spaces in the school building where reconstruction is underway.

The superintendent says while the situation is far from ideal, the plan provides staff with the necessary space to educate students in person.

[updated 5:37-p.m.] (Atlantic, Iowa) – A fire at a home in Atlantic was declared under control about 20-minutes after the first firefighters arrived. The blaze was reported at around 4-p.m. at the home located at 1402 Bryn Mawr Blvd.  Heavy smoke was reported coming from the dwelling when the first firefighters arrived on the scene.

Atlantic Fire Chief Tom Cappel said firefighters entered the south door of home and went downstairs, where the fire was primarily located. He says there was a lot of heavy smoke damage. Ventilation and clean-up operations  wrapped-up at around 5:40-p.m

Cappel says after speaking with the residents, he thinks the cause may have been a candle that was burning in the downstairs area, but a final determination was still being investigated at last report. He said three youth were at home when the fire was first noticed. All were reported to be safe. The home’s owner, Todd Glade and his wife had just arrived at the residence the kids told him about the fire.

AFD was assisted at the scene by Atlantic Police and Cass EMS.

(Radio Iowa) – An Algona woman is accused of stealing $1.8 million in state and federal funds from a state agency in South Dakota. Sixty-eight-year-old Lonna Carroll is charged with two felony counts of aggravated grand theft.

Carroll was an employee of South Dakota’s Department of Social Services who retired in 2013. She’s accused of embezzling money intended for child care services between 2010 and 2013. Carroll was arrested Wednesday in Algona and is awaiting extradition to South Dakota. Her bond has been set at $50,000.

(Kossuth County booking photo)

According to South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley, Carroll’s position within South Dakota’s Department of Social Services let her request payments and then intercept the checks. Jackley says staff in the agency discovered the scheme this past February, more than a decade after Carroll retired.