(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s Attorney General has reached a settlement with a Florida company that was accused of sending mailers that appeared to be from government agencies. Attorney General Tom Miller says Centurion Filing Services and owner Dean. Marshlack used the name “IA Certificate Service” to send out mailers that looked like invoices requesting 67 dollars for an “Iowa Certificate of Existence. ”

The Iowa Secretary of State provides them for only five dollars. The certificates are not required to do business in Iowa, although companies may need them to do business out of state. Centurion has agreed to provide nearly 79-thousand dollars in refunds to more than 12-hundred Iowa business owners and charity operators — and will also not send mailer solicitations to Iowans or from any Iowa location.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – The Iowa Department of Public Health today (Wednesday) released its first weekly COVID-19 data update after the state’s emergency proclamation expired Tuesday night. The new data dashboard reports 7,375 positive virus tests in the last seven days, down from 8,370 on Monday. IDPH reported there were 119 additional deaths since the last report on Feb. 9. That brings the total number of virus deaths to 8,948 since the start of the pandemic.

The new weekly dashboard features several changes. There are links to federal government websites for hospitalization and long-term care facility data. The state is no longer requiring entities to provide positive COVID-19 test results, and long-term care facilities are no longer required to report then they have three or more infections to the state. Officials said in a news release, “IDPH began collecting COVID related data from Iowa hospitals in March 2020 to satisfy state and federal data reporting requirements throughout the pandemic response. The state is no longer requiring this reporting to occur. However, the US Department of Health and Human Services will continue to require hospital data reporting, and Iowans can access that information here.”

Health officials said the state identified an additional 6,700 positive COVID-19 tests that had not been previously reported when people received both a positive and negative test in the same day. That data has since been added to the totals reported on the new dashboard. A new feature on the health department’s website shows COVID-19 variants detected by month. The new graphic shows how alpha, delta and omicron variants moved through the state since March of 2021.

Find the new IDPH dashboard here.

(Radio Iowa) – A House committee has approved a bill to classify most of Iowa P-B-S archived content as public record, giving anyone access to it. Representative Megan Jones, a Republican from Sioux Rapids, is the bill’s manager. “The ultimate goal of this bill is to make sure that Iowans have access to their memories…so that grandpas can show their grandkids their state finals at wrestling,” Jones says. “This is about nostalgia and this is a beautiful way to share our past with our future.” If the bill comes law, Iowa P-B-S videos, tapes, documents and other stored material would become public record 10 years after it was created. Jean Berger is executive director of the Iowa High School Girls Athletic Union. She says if Iowa P-B-S loses copyright protection for its content, the union may end its agreement for Iowa P-B-S broadcasts of girls state basketball, softball and volleyball tournaments.

“It’s important, our partnership, because Iowans know where to go to watch the state basketball tournament. They know where to go to watch for free…They know what channel to find us on,” she says. “…My concerns are that if our contests become part of the public domain that they can be used in a way that we have no control over by people we don’t wish to be associated with, that don’t match what we stand for.” Representative Jones says these and other arguments against the bill give her whiplash. “The mission is to be free and accessible,” Jones says, “but this bill makes it too free and accessible.” The dispute over Iowa P-B-S content started after former Iowa State wrestling coach Jim Gibbons sought access to Iowa P-B-S broadcasts of college wrestling for a California company’s documentary.

“I think there’s a lot of good news in this legislation,” Gibbons says. “…The net result of this is there is a sharing process. You’re sharing this content here with…parents, grandparents, to be able to share their cherished memories, or have the access to the cherished memories that they really don’t have access to right now.” The version of the bill now eligible for House debate limits the public’s use of Iowa P-B-S material to educational, historical or cultural purposes and says it cannot be used to make a profit or for political purposes. Michael Egel, artistic director of the Des Moines Metro Opera, says the bill would pose a problem for past and future Iowa P-B-S broadcasts of the Opera and other artistic productions.

“Behind each of these performances is a complex set of labor negotitions, contracts, etc. that govern the use of this content, protect the rights of its creators, performers, authors, composers, copyright holders,” he says, “people on stage and those behind the scenes.” He says the loss of copyright, trademark and intellectual property protections could also impact Iowa P-B-S broadcasts of the All-State Music Festival.

(Des Moines, Iowa) — The Iowa Court of Appeals has upheld the conviction of a Red Oak man for first-degree murder. In their opinion released today (Wednesday), a three-judge panel from the Court of Appeals affirmed the District Court’s 2019 handling of the case, in which Toby McCunn was convicted of murdering Joshua Jordan at a Shenandoah home in April 2019. The decision comes five weeks after McCunn’s Attorney Mary Conroy argued for a new trial in the case, saying the jury in the trial was not instructed properly on what it could and could not consider in the case, namely their instructions on how to decide if the shooting was justified. McCunn’s defense claimed the shooting was an act of self-defense after Jordan pulled a gun first.

Assistant Attorney General Aaron Rogers – arguing on behalf of the state – said the actions of McCunn following the shooting did not point to self-defense. Authorities eventually took McCunn into custody several hours after the shooting following a brief standoff at another residence. Rogers says authorities found the gun used to kill Jordan hidden under a floor board in the attic, not something consistent with self-defense.

Toby McCunn

McCunn’s legal team had also asked for the conviction to be thrown out, claiming a juror in the case admitted to having prior knowledge of the events surrounding the incident. In the opinion authored by Judge Mary Tabor, the Appeals Court says the court did not commit instructional error, pretrial publicity did not compel a change of venue, seating a challenged juror did not warrant a new trial and that the court did not abuse its discretion in allowing testimony about prior bad acts by McCunn.

McCunn is currently serving a life sentence without parole at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Court of Appeals has upheld the conviction of an Earlville man found guilty of killing his wife with a corn rake. Todd Mullis was convicted by a jury in September of 2019 of first-degree murder in the death of his wife Amy. Mullis appealed — saying there was not enough evidence to show he was the one who attacked Amy in a hog barn and killed her with the corn rake. The Court of Appeals disagreed — saying there was ample evidence presented that Mullis was the only one who could have killed his wife –and that he had a motive because he was suspicious she was having an affair and did not want to lose his farming operation in a divorce.