(Radio Iowa) – It was a happy homecoming for 90 soldiers from the Iowa National Guard’s 113th Cavalry – Troop C from Le Mars. Hundreds of people lined the route waving flags, displaying posters, and cheering as the soldiers returned home Wednesday from a 10-month deployment to Africa. Barbara Grady of Granville was there to see her son, Specialist David Grady. “I am so delighted and God is so good — and it turned out to be a beautiful day,” Grady says. Grady says she tried to ease any homesickness by corresponding with her son on a regular basis. “We kept him in touch with the family and hopefully made him feel at home even though he was not at home,” she says. She says there were a lot of letters and texts and messages online throughout the deployment.

Specialist David Grady says it is good to be back home — but added his time at Africa for the National Guard mission was time well spent. “It was a lot of fun. Really helped out a lot, we interacted with the locals lot and helped them out when we could and protected our little FOB (forward operating base) there in Somalia,” he says. Grady says he has been looking forward to the trip back home for about three months. He says the soldiers had a general idea as to when their mission would be completed, but it was only recently that they learned the specific date for returning home. After months of military food — he is looking forward to something different. “Probably eat a big nice juicy hamburger I think — and spend time with my family,” Grady says.

Specialist Grady says the guard unit will be off for a couple of months, then it will be back to their regular training schedule once a month.

Officials with the Creston Police Department say a man residing in the 500 block of Livingston Avenue, in Creston, reported Wednesday morning, that his Orange 2013 Harley Davidson Heritage Soft Tail was missing from his front patio. The loss was estimated at $13,000.

2013 HD Heritage Soft Tail (File photo. Not the actual cycle stolen)

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa House has passed a wide ranging bill that would escalate penalties for protests that damage property and provide police with new liability from lawsuits. Fifty-five Republicans and eight Democrats voted for the package. Republican Representative Jarad Klein of Keota says the bill is a response to protests that created unsafe situations in Iowa and other parts of the country over the past year. “We know our law enforcement officers are some of the bravest men and women in our state,” Klein said. “They sign up to risk their lives to keep us safe. It is our job as Iowa legislators to minimize that risk as much as possible.”

Two Republicans and 28 Democrats opposed the bill, which does not include the anti-racial profiling proposal from Republican Governor Kim Reynolds. Representative Ako Abdul-Samad, a Democrat from Des Moines, suggests the bill is tone deaf to what is fueling racial justice protests. “When are we going to start talking instead of just putting bills out there? And I do support police officers,” Abdul-Samad said, “…but I also support the communities that are in pain and have suffered.”

Representative Mary Wolfe, a Democrat from Clinton, says the bill makes damage of any publicly-owned property a felony and jumps up the penalties for protests that blocking sidewalks or yelling rude and annoying things at police. “I can’t vote yes on a bill that targets a specific population of Iowans and in my opinion for no other reason than to teach them a lesson, send them a message,” Wolfe said, “which is basically sit down and shut up.”

Klein says his constituents were pretty unhappy graffiti was painted on the Children’s Hospital in Iowa City during protests last June. “Protests are fine. Protests are great as long as they’re peaceful,” Klein says. “But when they start going down destructive paths and they start assaulting and going after people and spitting on law enforcement and going after them the way I’ve seen, that is now a violent protest.”

Several other proposals were folded into the bill. It would make it a crime to use a lazer to try to blind police. Police, prosecutors and judges could enter a program that makes their home addresses confidential if the bill becomes law. The Senate has approved parts of the bill already, but must review and pass the entire package before it would go to the governor.