SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) — A Sioux City man is now facing arson charges after allegedly starting a fire using a bible.  KCAU says according to court documents, the incident occurred at 3 a.m. on Tuesday at a residence on the 1300 block of Jones Street. The documents state that Robelio Cabrera Escobar, 29, of Sioux City, was in his bedroom with the door locked when he set a bible on fire.

Cabrera Escobar resided in the top unit of an “apartment house.” At the time of the fire, three other adults and one child were in the residence. The complaint states that the bottom unit is occupied but did not specify if anyone was home.

While the bible was burning, the carpet began to burn causing the residence to fill with smoke. When the other residents learned of the fire, they tried to enter Cabrera Escobar’s room. Due to the locked door, they had to force their way in and extinguish the fire, according to the documents. During a later interview, Cabrera Escobar admitted to starting the fire because he was angry but would not offer any other reason for it.

Cabrera Escobar was charged with first-degree arson and held on a bond of $25,000.

DES MOINES, Iowa (WHO-TV) — Around a month and a half ago, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds announced the state would not opt in to the federal Summer EBT program. The program would give $40 per month to each child in a low-income family during summer months. Organizations have been calling on Reynolds to revert course. Earlier this week Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen changed his decision and opted in to the program. Kollin Crompton, Deputy Communications Director for the Governor’s Office, told WHO-TV, “The Governor’s decision is firm. Pandemic-era programs were not intended to be permanent. The answer isn’t creating a new government program, instead we should be investing in existing programs that work. Iowa already runs summer feeding programs that provide healthy meals for children with fruits, vegetables, milk, grains, and meats/proteins, based on age-appropriate meal patterns. The Governor is investing more into Iowa’s existing programs to focus on expansion and participation across the state.”

Those programs mentioned in the statement can be seen here. The state is seeking sponsors for a federally funded program that provides healthy meals and snacks to kids in low-income areas of the state when school is out. The state is also seeking sponsors for the program to expand availability of the meals and announced a new grant program for it earlier this month. While there will be avenues for children to be fed, democratic senators do not believe that it is enough compared to the $29 million the state could have received from the federal government for Summer EBTs. The state would be required to spend several million dollars to get the $29 million back from the federal government.

(Radio Iowa) – Maple sap harvesters across northeast Iowa got the season started nearly three weeks early thanks to warmer than normal temperatures. Floyd County Conservation Director Adam Sears says this is the earliest start to the sap season he’s seen in 10 years. “Normally, next week’s when we start thinking about tapping trees, not 10 days ago. Everything’s just moved forward, but we’re hoping we get a little longer season this year, rather than just an earlier season,” Sears says.

He says the recent series of 50-degree days changed his usual timeline and they’ve already collected about one third of their normal sap collection. ” We hope that we still get the full season that we’d normally get on top of it, but we don’t really know that. It depends on how much it warms up continuously,” he says.

Floyd County Conservation typically harvests close to ten thousand gallons of sap each season, which yields about 200 gallons of maple syrup.

(Radio Iowa) – House Speaker Pat Grassley says Republicans in the Iowa House have developed an alternative to Governor Kim Reynolds’ proposed overhaul of Area Education Agencies that help educate students with disabilities.  “We wanted to provide certainty for special education,” Grassley says. “We took Iowans’ feedback that we’ve been having in our meetings and realized how important that was.”

Reynolds wants to let schools use a private firm, a different A-E-A or hire more special ed staff in their districts for the next school year. The House G-O-P plan would start sending state and federal special education funding directly to schools rather than the A-E-As — as the governor proposed — but it may only be used for special ed services from the local A-E-A.  “We’re not changing the ability for AEAs and schools to work together,” Grassley says. “This plan would continue to encourage that.” Grassley says the plan calls for a study that would involve legislators, educators and parents.

A new state Division of Special Education would be created as the governor proposed, but with half as many employees and most of them would be assigned to work in the A-E-A regions. The nine A-E-A administrators would see their salaries cut to be in line with local superintendents in their region. In years two and three of the House G-O-P plan, schools would no longer have to use the A-E-As for media services or other education-related services, like teacher training and curriculum materials.

“We know that there’s still work to be done on some of the details,” Grassley says, “but we also know we’re against the clock right now and we feel we’ve taken a lot of input to get to the point where we’ve addressed a lot of the concerns that have existed on all of these issues, to try to continue to move their conversation forward for the legislative session.”

House Republicans decided a few weeks ago to table the governor’s bill on A-E-As. In a written statement, Reynolds said she appreciates that she and lawmakers will be able to continue the conversation about A-E-A changes. In a separate bill, House Republicans propose raising the salary for new teachers to at least 50-thousand dollars — as the governor called for — but over the next two years. Grassley says that would give schools time to adjust the pay levels for current teachers. House Republicans want to send 14 million dollars to schools — to raise the pay for other school staff.

“Really looking at your in-the-classroom para educators and others that we know our school districts are struggling to find right now and retain,” Grassley says, “and part of that also gets back to that one-on-one instruction in the classroom dealing with special education students, so we think it feeds in and ties into what that other conversation is with the AEAs.”

These proposals are scheduled for debate in the House Education Committee later today (Thursday), along with a bill that would increase general state per pupil spending on public schools by three percent.

(Radio Iowa) – A bill to ban traffic enforcement cameras AND require motorists to mainly use smart phones in hands-free mode while driving is eligible for debate in both the Iowa House AND Senate. The bill passed out of the House Transportation Committee on a narrow 11-to-10 vote yesterday (Wednesday). Some committee said the two issues should be separated. Others oppose the ban on traffic cameras. Committee chairman Brian Best of Glidden says he hopes to craft a compromise.

“Sometimes in the political world…things we do don’t make sense completely,” Best said, “but, at the same time….my ears are open.” Law enforcement officials are raising concerns about an outright ban on traffic cameras, along with continuing to allow motorists to handle a smart phone while driving if they’re talking or using the phone for navigation. Johnston Police Chief Dennis McDaniel is president of the Iowa Police Chiefs Association.

“We’re going to partner with our legislators to find common ground…to take two totally separate traffic safety initiatives and make it safer for Iowans,” he says. “We believe that the hands free legislation can be likely strengthened to make it a safety option and an easier option that creates commonality for motorists across Iowa.”

Law enforcement officials say they’re open to state regulation of cameras that generate tickets for speeding or running red lights, but oppose an outright ban on automated traffic enforcement technology.