(Radio Iowa) – A panel of lawmakers who oversee state agency regulations has conducted its initial review of how the Iowa Board of Medicine intends to enforce Iowa’s six-week abortion ban. The law, passed in July, has not gone into effect due to a court challenge, but the board has drafted guidelines for when doctors may perform an abortion in cases of rape, incest, fetal abnormality or to save the life of the mother. Representative Rick Olson, a Democrat from Des Moines who’s a member of the panel, says the exception in cases of rape requires it to be prosecutable –and that word isn’t defined.  “I practiced law for a long time and I do some criminal defense work,” Olson said. “What cases aren’t capable of being prosecuted? I would think all cases are capable of being prosecuted.”

Senator Nate Boulton, a Democrat from Des Moines, says the proposed rules do not use the same kind of legal terminology used in other types of medical cases, for example in workers compensation and malpractice claims. “When we’re looking at the standard for whether a fetal abnormality meets the exception and the judgment of the physician, in most areas of law here in Iowa and elsewhere we talk about whether something is in a reasonable degree of medical certainty,” Boulton says. “That’s not a standard that appears here. We see words like ‘consistent with standard practice’ and ‘reasonable medical judgment.'”

Republicans on the legislature’s Administrative Rules Review Committee did not comment. While there was an opportunity for members of the public to comment during the meeting, no one stepped forward to speak. The Board of Medicine is scheduled to meet Friday to review objections to the rules that were aired during a public hearing held last week.

(Radio Iowa) – Republican presidential candidates Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy say it’s concerning that America’s top military official was hospitalized, but neither the White House nor congress were notified. “The idea that the secretary of defense is in intensive care and the president doesn’t know about it and the administration doesn’t know about,” Haley said during an interview on KSCJ. “You are putting every man and woman in the military at risk.”

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who is 70, had an elective surgical procedure in late December, but after experiencing severe pain, he was hospitalized New Year’s Day. The president and other top foreign policy officials learned about it three days later. Haley said the deputy defense secretary who was notified she was on call was on vacation “and it’s everything that’s wrong with this administration.”

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley campaigning in Iowa in 2023. (RI file photo)

Ramaswamy said secrecy is “the new norm” in government. “I’m sorry to say that this is actually not just a Democrat issue, but a Republican issue as well,” Ramaswamy said during an interview on KSCJ. Ramaswamy made four campaign stops yesterday and posted a message on social media that his campaign vehicle got stuck in a ditch on the way back to Des Moines, but an Iowan had helped move it back on the roadway. Haley cancelled an appearance in Sioux City due to the weather.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa G-O-P chairman Jeff Kaufmann says the Republican Party’s Caucuses next Monday will start at 7 p.m. — whatever weather Iowa is experiencing at that time. “It’s going to go on, no matter what,” Kaufmann said. “…(I’m) putting the faith in people’s passion to get there.” There are more than 16-hundred precincts in Iowa and each is hosting a Caucus. The Republican Party has reserved countless meeting sites around the state for next Monday night and it would be a scramble to rebook or final alternative sites for a different night. “Hundreds and hundreds of hours just to get to this place,” Kaufmann says.

The forecast for next Monday night indicates temperatures will be below zero. Kaufmann says subzero temperatures aren’t likely to dampen turnout as much as an ice storm would. “I don’t think cold keeps people away — and I’m talking about a major, major ice storm that would almost load up transportation workers and it sounds like right now it’s going to be fine — so tentatively fine,” Kaufmann says. “I think it’s kind of cool that some of the national reporters like from Florida get a little below zero weather. I think it builds character.” The Iowa Republican Party’s Caucuses in 2016 set a turn-out record, when about 186-thousand Iowans participated.

Jeff Kaufmann, chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa, speaks with reporters in Des Moines after a party fundraiser on Jan. 8, 2024. (RI photo)

Kaufmann says he’ll get a sense at Iowa G-O-P headquarters next Monday — during the day — whether that record will be broken. “If we start getting a bunch of calls of ‘I’ve never Caucuses before’ and ‘How do I go about doing this?’ ‘Where do I go?’ And just nerves: ‘Am I going to fit in?’ The amount of people who call who are Democrats or independents asking…how to re-register as Republicans — those kind of calls, just the volume (of them),” Kaufmann says. “In 2016, we couldn’t even handle the volume starting at nine in the morning.” Kaufmann says he expects turn-out for the 2024 Iowa Caucuses to be “robust,” if not a record due to the precinct-level organizing he’s seeing from two leading campaigns. — which he’s declining to name.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s largest electric utility is reporting scattered power outages as the first statewide snowstorm of the season is blanketing much of Iowa with a layer of heavy, wet snow. MidAmerican Energy spokeswoman Tina Hoffman says they dispatched dozens of tree and line repair crews to strategic locations on Monday, before the storm hit. “When we know that we have events like this coming in, we take extra measures to make sure that we do have crews positioned to where they need to be,” Hoffman says. “That eliminates those travel concerns so we don’t have to worry about our crews driving to where they need to be in unsafe conditions. We get them there ahead of time and so they’re ready to go if we have any system issues.”

Photo by Mike Tenney in Johnston.

In some outages, there were equipment failures, but Hoffman says in many cases, the outages are being caused by tree limbs snapping under the weight of the snow, taking out overhead power lines as they fall. She says motor vehicle collisions with utility poles are another worry. “We’re hoping that everybody stays safe out on the roads, and those sorts of things, traffic accidents, cars versus poles, those are of concern and we’ll continue to watch for that,” Hoffman says, “but right now, this system has really held up very well and we’re hoping that it holds throughout the day as the winds pick up.”

When strong winds hit power lines that are coated with heavy snow or ice, those lines can sometimes “gallop” in gusts and snap. Forecasters say wind gusts may reach 40 miles an hour later in the day.

Des Moines – Officials with the Iowa Insurance Division’s Fraud Bureau report a Davis County man, 44-year-old David Lee Gordy, of Bloomfield pled guilty last Friday (January 5th), to one count of fraudulent submissions (a Class D Felony), following an investigation by the Iowa Insurance Division’s Fraud Bureau.

David Lee Gordy (Photo courtesy of the Davis County Sheriff’s Office.)

The investigation began on October 27, 2022, after the Iowa Insurance Division’s Fraud Bureau received information indicating Gordy had presented a written document in support of payment to an insurer knowing the document contained false information.

Gordy was arrested on April 15, 2023.  Following his guilty plea, Gordy was placed on supervised probation for five years and ordered to pay a civil penalty of $1,025.

Iowans with information about insurance fraud are encouraged to contact the Iowa Insurance Division’s Fraud Bureau at 515-654-6556.