(Atlantic, Iowa) – Cass County Republicans are hosting a “Know Your Candidates” forum next Monday, April 4^th at the Cass County Community Center in Atlantic. The event takes place from 6:30-until 8:30-p.m., and includes:

• Jim Carlin – Candidate for U-S Senate
• State Senator Zach Nunn, candidate for U-S House in the 3^rd District
• Gary Leffler, Candidate for U-S House in the 3^rd District
• as well as representatives from Senator Grassley and Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig’s offices.

Nichole Hasso – Candidate for U-S House in the 3^rd District has also been invited to attend. Officials say some possible issues up for discussion, include: Laws & Regulations; Energy & Labor, and Exploring Candidates’ Views on Agriculture.

(Radio Iowa) – Republicans in the Iowa legislature have passed a bill to ban local government ordinances that restrict where fireworks may be sold in commercial or industrial zones. Senator Mike Klimesh of Spillville, says some cities are trying to use “spot zoning” to do an end run around the law that legalized firework sales in Iowa.  “Local control is a great thing when it’s applied in the spirit of the law,” Klimesh says. “When it’s used to circumvent the spirit of the law, then it’s time for the legislature to provide a little nudge in the right direction.”

Senator Tony Bisignano, a Democrat from Des Moines, says cities should have the authority to regulate where massive amounts of explosives may be sold. “This is a safety issue,” Bisignano said. “I don’t know what else to say.” Bisignano says downtown Des Moines is a commercial zone. “I mean we have hotels, we have kids walking around all over the place, visitors and so forth,” Bisignano said. “I don’t think that you want to put a fireworks stand down on Court Avenue.”

Representative Cindy Winckler, a Democrat from Davenport, says she gets more complaints about fireworks than most any other topic. “The city does need and citizens expect that they have some local control in regard to this,” Winckler says. Fireworks may be sold in Iowa in the weeks leading up to the 4th of July holiday and in the winter around Christmas and New Year’s celebrations.

Klimesh says the restriction on local zoning for fireworks doesn’t do away with requirements that fireworks businesses have to be licensed by the state and prove they are insured. “It’s the law of Iowa that fireworks are legal,” Klimesh says. “…Not allowing fireworks pop up tents, specific in areas that are zoned industrial or commercial — this just doesn’t allow cities to make that determination.”

Republicans in the Senate sent the bill to the governor yesterday (Wednesday). Reynolds has signed 44 bills from the legislature into law so far this year.

(Radio Iowa) – Republicans in the Iowa Senate have voted for the governor’s plan to provide state scholarships for low and middle income families — to cover private school expenses for 10-thousand children. Senator Amy Sinclair, a Republican from Allerton, says it’s elitist to deny the choice of a private education to the poor among us.

“Those who have the means and the desire to send their child to non-public schools, you know what? They’re already doing it. This bill does not target them,” Sinclair says. “…For this body to deny the choice of education for any child based on the ability of their parents to pay, that should be considered criminal.” Households with an income at or below 400 percent of the federal poverty level could apply for the money. For a family of four, the cut off would be a maximum income of about 110-thousand dollars a year.

Sinclair says this bill matters for parents who’d get to move their children out of a public school that’s not a good fit. “The public good is the education of the child,” Sinclair says. “Sustaining a system that may not be accomplishing that is not the ultimate goal, nor the ultimate public good.” Senator Jeff Taylor, a Republican from Sioux Center, says some parents feel like their values are under attack in public schools.

“The money, the control, the loyalty I think primarily has to be to parents and children of Iowa, not to particular systems of education,” Taylor said. One Republican senator from a rural area and all the Democrats in the Senate voted against the plan. Senator Kevin Kinney, a Democrat from Oxford, says there are no private school options in most rural areas. “Parents and kids in rural Iowa do not benefit from this bill,” Kinney says.

Senator Jackie Smith, a Democrat from Sioux City, says public tax dollars should be used for public schools. “Until we’re willing to provide adequate funding for the public systems, we should not create a private school entitlement program that will inevitably grow and will never disappear,” Smith says. Senate Democratic Leader Zach Wahls of Coralville says taxpayer dollars shouldn’t be directed toward private schools that can reject student applicants for any reason.

“It would be like using taxpayer dollars to pave a road that the public can’t drive on,” Wahls says, “or a pool that our kids can’t swim in.” There is an impasse among Republicans on taxpayer funded private school scholarships, as the proposal has stalled in the Republican-led House. On Tuesday night, the House passed an education bill that outlined measures that would give parents more options to monitor what their child is reading or seeing at school. Some of those ideas were incorporated in the bill that passed the SENATE last night (Wednesday).

(Radio Iowa) – Two fatal accidents have been reported in two days near the same small northwest Iowa town. The first accident occurred on Monday afternoon, east of the community of Hull. That accident took the life of 71-year-old Curtis Brownmiller, of Spencer.

The second accident, which happened Tuesday evening, took the life of 22-year-old Noah Salentiny of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, when he apparently made a left turn toward a residential driveway and his S-U-V was struck by an oncoming S-U-V, two miles north of Hull. His vehicle then entered the ditch and rolled. The other driver suffered only minor injuries.