Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz is expected to announce his intentions with regard to running for the 3rd Congressional District during a press conference this morning, in Council Bluffs. The conference is scheduled to take place at the Council Bluffs City Hall,  beginning at 10:30 a.m.

Last month, Schultz said he would use the holidays to decide whether or not to run for the 3rd Congressional District seat being vacated by Republican Tom Latham.

The Fremont County Attorney’s Office has filed additional charges against a man who was arrested late last month following allegations he sexually abused children. 23-year old Andrew James Kluver, of Randolph, was initially charged with three felony counts of second-degree sexual abuse involving minors. In addition to those charges, he was recently charged with three felony counts of lascivious acts with a child, and three felony counts of incest. If convicted on all charges, Kluver could face up to 75 years in prison for the sex abuse charges, 30 years for the lascivious acts charges and 15 years for the incest charges.

Kluver was arrested Dec. 28th.  after Fremont County Sheriff’s deputies were called to a crime in progress in the Randolph area. According to Fremont County Attorney James S. Burger, there was at least one victim involved with the incident, and there could possibly be two others. An arraignment is scheduled 1:30 p.m. Jan. 21st at the Fremont County Courthouse.

Kluver remains in the Fremont County Jail on  $50,000 bond.

The Iowa State Fair’s board of directors will “consider” the governor’s suggestion that they “listen to fairgoers” before switching to a cashless system for food and drink purchases during the fair. The board issued a written statement Wednesday afternoon following an onslaught of negative reaction and the governor’s caution about making such a “big change” to use 50-cent tickets as currency on the fairgrounds.  The Board said it has “been moved by the passion of fairgoers.”

State Senator Dick Dearden, who represents the part of Des Moines that includes the state fairgrounds does not expect lawmakers to get embroiled in the controversy over a “cashless” 2014 Iowa State Fair. The Iowa State Fair Board now refers to its plan to require fairgoers to buy tickets in order to buy Fair food as merely “proposed” rather than a done deal. Senator Dearden does not plan on drafting any legislation to address the issue. “You know, there’s always resistance to change and it seems a little strange to me, but I guess the Bud Tent’s been doing this for years and nobody seems to have any real opposition to that,” Dearden says.

The “Bud Tent” at the State Fair — an outdoor beer garden — has been in operation since 1947. The fair charges a per-keg fee for beer vendors. Food vendors are to pay 17-and-a-half percent of their profits to the fair. The Fair Board, in its statement late yesterday, said their intention “is not to harm our Fairgoers’ experience, but to improve the integrity of our financial systems.”

The Texas State Fair — the largest fair in the country — uses a ticketing system for food and beverage purchases and the Iowa State Fair’s new system would be modeled after the one in Texas.

(Radio Iowa)