After months of jabbing from afar, President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden are overlapping today (Tuesday) in Iowa, a state that’s critical to their political futures. The former vice president is in Iowa hoping to hold his party’s front-runner role. Trump seeks to shore up support in a key Midwestern state he wrested from Democrats in 2016. The day could offer a glimpse of a Trump-Biden matchup in this battleground state.

Trump begins his trip in Council Bluffs to speak at Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy, which produces and sells the corn-based fuel additive ethanol. He will later address an Iowa GOP dinner in Des Moines. Biden is coming two days after nearly 20 Democratic rivals were in Iowa for a state party dinner. Several took veiled shots at his absence. He plans to use his visit to Iowa to criticize President Donald Trump’s economic policy as hurting those very voters who helped elect him.

Biden says in remarks prepared for delivery today (Tuesday) that Trump “thinks he’s being tough” and “it’s easy to be tough when someone else is feeling the pain.” Biden plans to speak in blue collar Ottumwa, the seat of Wapello County. Trump was the first Republican to carry the economically struggling county in southeast Iowa since Dwight Eisenhower.

Biden asks in his prepared remarks, “How many sleepless nights do you think Trump has had over what he’s doing to America’s farmers? Zero.” Trump has attacked Biden regularly and on a recent state visit to Japan echoed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s description of Biden as “low IQ.”

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A Cedar Rapids man who lied to officials so he could receive Social Security benefits has been imprisoned. Prosecutors said in a news release Monday that 58-year-old Larry Hanson Sr. was sentenced to six months in prison and ordered to pay more than $78,500 in restitution. He must also serve three years of supervised release after the prison term. Hanson had pleaded guilty to theft of government property.

Court documents say Hanson received Social Security disability benefits from April 2013 through March 2017 after telling the Social Security Administration that he was not able to work. However, Hanson was working at a company in Cedar Rapids during this time. Prosecutors say Hanson lied and said all of the money he was making came from renting his tools to the company and not from working.

(Radio Iowa) — The Iowa Department of Transportation is handing out four-point-six million dollars to help transit fleets replace buses as part of the Volkswagen settlement for the company’s 2015 Clean Air Act violations. The largest amount of money will partially fund 107 new school buses in 44 districts across the state. Half of these buses will use a propane engine. D-O-T grant manager, Zac Bitting says propane fuel generates less pollution than diesel. “Which is the main component of this Volkswagen settlement program is to try to reduce the amount of vehicle and engines that are currently out on the road and to replace them with engines and vehicles that will reduce the nitrogen oxide,” Bitting says.

School districts will receive their money this year and they have two years to spend it. This is the first of three grant cycles — with the next one in 2020 trying to make chargers more available for electric vehicles. “The focus of the program will be to minimize the mileage gaps along the Interstates,” according to Bitting, “we’ll be trying to outfit the charging infrastructure within 50 to 100 miles of each other.”

All 50 states are participating in similar vehicle pollution reduction programs funded by the Volkswagen settlement.

(Radio Iowa) — The U.S. Coast Guard closed the Missouri River to boat and barge traffic on Friday from north of Sioux City all the way to St. Louis and the closure is hurting some businesses that rely upon the river. Steve Engemann is president of Missouri River Towing, a company that provides towing services on that 750-mile stretch of the river. “We have fertilizer waiting to go north and grain waiting to go south,” he says, “about 15 modes of freight sitting there in Hermann.” Hermann, Missouri, sits just south of the Missouri River.

Engemann hopes commercial traffic can resume on the river next week. Brian Smith of the Iowa Department of Natural Resource says a lot of recreational boaters are impacted, too. “A lot of folks that’s kind of their nearly every weekend habit is to go out and float or water ski or boat or fish on the Missouri River,” he says. National Weather Service data indicates the MISSISSIPPI River is receding at all locations along Iowa’s eastern border.

Police in Red Oak stopped a vehicle early this (Tuesday) morning for speeding, and ended-up arresting the driver for OWI. Authorities say 24-year old Maiah Lyn Caron, of Red Oak, was cited for speeding and given a warning for having no insurance card, after she was pulled over at around 12:40-a.m.

Upon further investigation, it was determined Caron was allegedly under the influence of alcohol. She was arrested and transported to the Montgomery County Jail, where she was charged with OWI/1st offense, and held on a $1,000 bond.

The Fremont County Sheriff’s Office reports an incident took place Saturday morning in Shenandoah, involving a barricaded subject. The Fremont County K9 Unit was called at around 9:20-a.m. to assist the Shenandoah Police Department and Page County Sheriff’s Office with a barricaded subject at an address in Shenandoah.

Deputies were advised that Shenandoah Police were attempting to arrest 37-year old Jonathan Lynn Gray, of Shenandoah, on a Page County warrant. Gray ran into his home and barricaded the door. Deputies made several attempts to get the man to exit the home peacefully, but he refused.

Jonathan Gray

Once the K9 “Roby” was deployed inside the residence, Gray began throwing glass and metal objects at deputies and the K9, hitting the K9. Gray continued to resist the Police K9 and law enforcement resulting in injury to a law enforcement officer.

K9 Roby

Once placed under arrest, Gray was transported to Shenandoah Hospital by Shenandoah Rescue and then to the Page County Jail. He was charged in Page County for Assault on A Police Service Dog, Assault on Officer, Interference with Official Acts, and Contempt of Court.