(Waukon, Iowa) – A collision that occurred at around 6:50-p.m. Wednesday in northeastern Iowa, claimed the life of a motorcyclist. The Iowa State Patrol reports a pickup truck and a motorcycle were both traveling north on Highway 76 in Allamakee County, when the pickup left the road to make a U-turn in order to proceed southbound. The motorcycle,  operated by 60-year-old Kerry Gene Nuehring, of Waukon, collided with a trailer the pickup was pulling, causing Nuehring to be ejected from the cycle. He died at the scene.

The driver of the pickup, 32-year-old Cody Gene Bauer, of Dubuque, was not injured. The crash remains under investigation.

(Radio Iowa) – Republican presidential candidate Tim Scott is back on the campaign trail in Iowa, touting a parents’ bill of rights that primarily focuses on parental involvement in education.

Scott says it’s time to break the backs of teachers’ unions and let all parents use public funds to pay for their children to attend private schools, charter schools or be homeschooled.

Scott says his plan is designed to empower parents from the school room to the smart phone. Scott is calling on social media companies to improve safety features that protect children and he says there should be country-of-origin labels for smart phone apps. Scott says Big Tech is stealing the attention spans of children and online predators are stealing their futures.

Democrats say Scott has spent his career working to divert taxpayer dollars to wealthy private schools and his parents’ bill of rights would devastate public education. Scott, who is a U-S Senator from South Carolina, campaigned in Le Mrs and Sioux Center yesterday (Wednesday) is scheduled to make stops in southeast Iowa today (Thursday).

Republican presidential candidates Mike Pence and Vivek Ramaswamy are also campaigning in Iowa today (Thursday).

(Coburg, Iowa) – A crash in Montgomery County late Wednesday morning resulted in two people being injured. According to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, deputies were called to the scene at Highway 48 near 270th Street (east of Coburg), at around 11:15 a.m.

Authorities say Christopher P. Heilen, of Shenandoah, was driving a 2024 Chevrolet K2500 that was pulling a utility trailer. The vehicle/trailer were northbound on Highway 48, when a 2017 Lincoln MKZ driven by Lester A. Nelson, of Red Oak, entered the intersection. Heilen attempted to stop, but was unable to avoid striking the car.

Both drivers were transported by Red Oak Rescue to Montgomery County Memorial Hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries. Damage to Hielen’s vehicle was estimated at $15,000, while Nelson’s vehicle sustained $8,500 in damage.

Deputies say no citations were issued, and the investigation is complete.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Cass County Auditor’s Office has updated the list names, of candidates who have filed their nomination papers for the November 7, 2023, City/School Elections. Current City Councilman Jim Behrens today (Wednesday), filed nomination papers for Atlantic City Council, Ward 2. And, as previously mentioned:

On Tuesday, incumbent Elaine Otte filed papers to run for one At Large seat on the Atlantic City Council. Three candidates filed on Monday (8/28):

Incumbent Pat McCurdy for Atlantic City Council – Ward 3

Incumbent Linda Hartkopf, Atlantic City Council – Ward 4

Incumbent Mary Strong, Parks and Recreation Board. (2 seats open on the Board).

The filing period for the November 7^th City and School Elections continues through September 21^st.

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is calling for an investigation of the Internal Revenue Service after a watchdog report found the agency lost the backup data from millions of taxpayers’ returns. Grassley says a fortune has been spent to upgrade I-R-S technology in recent years, money which he says evidently wasn’t a good investment.

Grassley, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, says I-R-S bungling has led to pallets full of tax records either going missing or being left in insecure locations. In one case, the agency sent dozens of cartridges containing some 200-thousand photos of tax records to an outside contractor for reformatting. That contractor went out of business in 2018 and the records vanished.

The American people deserve better, Grassley says, and they deserve an I-R-S that prioritizes protecting their confidential information.

Grassley says the information contained in the lost records can be used by “nefarious actors” to commit tax fraud and identity theft. He says there must be accountability to prevent this type of misconduct from happening again.

The sale of the Iowa-based Kum & Go convenience store chain is now complete.

The Salt Lake City-based Maverik convenience store chain announced that it has completed the acquisition of approximately 400 Kum & Go stores. The sale also includes the Solar Transport trucking company. Bill Krause and his father-in-law T.S.

Gentle started Kum & Go in Hampton in 1959 and it has been run by the family until the sale. The purchase price was not disclosed, and Maverik says this will expand their company to more than 800 stores in 20 states.

Former Vice President Mike Pence says extending the Trump era tax cuts will be a priority if he’s elected president.

Pence, who has started a three day campaign swing through Iowa, says he’d like to lower the income tax rate for individuals and families — and make a strong move on the corporate tax rate.

The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act cut the corporate tax rate from 35 down to 21 percent. The plan also doubled the standard deduction and cut individual income tax rates. Pence is critical of a tax idea floated by another G-O-P candidate.

Ramaswamy — in his book “Nation of Victims” — has suggested the inheritance tax could be used to save the country’s meritocracy from sinking into autocracy — and would be a way of redistributing duty. Pence says he’ll oppose any effort by Ramaswamy or anyone else to raise inheritance taxes.

Ramaswamy has recently said he supports a 12 percent flat tax on income. On his campaign website, Ramaswamy says he mentioned the inheritance tax in the book he released last year as part of a calculation for fully eliminating the federal income tax.