(Radio Iowa) – U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley was at the Iowa Capitol Monday for the opening day of the state legislature, so he could administer the oath of office to his grandson, who is House Speaker.

Chuck Grassley served 16 years in the IOWA House before his election to congress. State Representative Pat Grassley is entering his 17th year in the Iowa legislature. “I will guarantee you I will still not being doing this, though, as long as he has, either way,” Pat Grassley said, to laughter. The 89-year-old Grassley is entering his 43rd year in the U.S. Senate and has the most seniority of any current senator. Grassley says when he left the Iowa House in 1974, he wasn’t sure his campaign for a seat in the U.S. House would be successful, as he faced four other candidates in a G-O-P Primary.

U.S. Senator Grassley swears in his grandson Pat as Speaker of the Iowa House. (Photo from Pat Grassley’s Twitter feed.)

“I was in the hospital, don’t forget, for 10 or 15 days before that primary and so my wife went out and campaigned for me and a lot of other people did and I won the primary with 42% of the vote,” Grassley says. “But at that point, when you’re laying in a hospital bed, you wonder what’s going to happen to you. In fact, I had to wait two days to decide whether they were going to amputate my leg or take care of it another way.” Grassley had a non-malignant tumor on his left leg.

Doctors at the University of Iowa used what was a new procedure at the time to transplant bone chips from Grassley’s hip into the area where bone had been removed from his lower leg. “Now, if you saw it on X-rays, you’d just see a little mark around where they grafted it in,” Grassley said. “But they took more than two thirds of the bone below the knee.” Grassley was on crutches then, for the rest of the 1974 campaign. Grassley then served six years in the U.S. House before his election to the United States Senate in 1980.

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds will deliver the annual “Condition of the State” address the legislature this (Tuesday) evening. During remarks at a G-O-P fundraiser, Reynolds told Republican lawmakers she’ll outline “big ideas” tonight.  “We ran as unapologetic conservatives,” Reynolds said, “and not only did Iowans approve of the job that we’re doing, they gave us a mandate to continue to be bold and to continue to be decisive.”

Lawmakers expect Reynolds to unveil a new, more expansive plan to give parents state money to cover private school expenses. Reynolds is featured touting “school choice” in a new T-V ad financed by a conservative political action committee. Senate G-O-P Leader Jack Whitver has made clear Republicans in the Senate will back a “school choice” plan in 2023.

“If it’s good to have a choice in preschools and community colleges and in apprenticeships and four-year colleges and universities, then Iowa K-12 parents and students should have the choice to choose the school that’s best for their family,” Whitver said. Democrats have opposed the governor’s private school plans in each of the past two years and Senate Democratic Leader Zach Wahls says they will again in 2023.

“It will magnify inequality and it will hit rural communities the hardest,” Wahls says, “forcing more school consolidation and driving more families away from our small towns.” House Speaker Pat Grassley says he’s optimistic House Republicans will approve an education reform package that includes state funds for parents who enroll their kids in a private school.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Cass County Sheriff’s Department reports the arrest on Friday (January 6th, 2023), of Meghan Paulsen. The 42-year old Atlantic woman was arrested on warrants for Child Endangerment.  Paulsen turned herself in to the Cass County Jail where she was booked and held pending her later release on bond.

On December 31st, 2022 Deputies in Cass County arrested 52-year-old Craig Griffin, of Wiota, on a warrant for Violation of Probation.  Griffin was transported to the Cass County Jail where he was booked and held pending his later release on his own recognizance. That same day, 43-year-old Joshua Mullen, of Corning, was arrested in Cass County on the charge of Possession of a Controlled Substance 3rd or Subsequent Offense.  Mullen was transported to the Cass County Jail where he was booked and held pending his later release on bond.

On December 30th, 51-year-old Joel Lary, of Massena, was arrested on the charges of OWI 2nd Offense, Driving While Revoked, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia and Harassment 3rd Degree.  Lary was transported to the Cass County Jail where he was booked and held pending his later release on his own recognizance.

(Radio Iowa) – New members have taken their oaths of office and the 2023 Iowa General Assembly has started with typical fanfare. The partisan floor leaders in the Iowa House note it happened without the kind of drama that gripped the United States House last week. House Majority Leader Matt Windschitl, a Republican from Missouri Valley, is starting his 17th year in the Iowa legislature.

“We see the dysfunction of what happens in D.C. all the time,” Windschitl says. “…Iowans are sick of it. I’m sick of it. I look at what’s gone out there over the last five, 10 years and I’m just baffled of how they can’t get their ducks in a row to actually govern the way we do here in Iowa.” House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, a Democrat from Missouri Valley, says voters want to see bipartisanship at the Iowa Capitol.

“Iowans are exhausted by politics as usual. Some of us might be, too. Let’s do things differently this year,” Konfrst says. “They want us to work together from beginning to end.” Speaker Pat Grassley, the top Republican in the House, says the G-O-P plans to cut property taxes and establish a new way for parents to use state money to cover private school tuition — and he suggests the debate about those ideas may be unpleasant at times.

“There’s going to be arguments and fighting, but I genuinely want you to know that I have an open office,” Grassley said, “more than happy to have any conversations.” Jack Whitver, the Republican leader in the Iowa Senate, says voters elected an historic super majority of 34 G-O-P senators for the first time in 50 years. “I think it’s safe to say that we are ready for bigger, bolder and better,” Whitver said. Whitver and newly-elected Senate President Amy Sinclair say the Senate G-O-P is ready to pass “school choice” — so parents can pick the educational setting that’s best for their child.

“This should not be exclusive to families with the financial means to pay for tuition or transportation,” Sinclair said, “or for those whose families can afford to move to a better zip code.” Senate Democratic Leader Zach Wahls says the 2023 legislature should instead turn its focus to the main dilemma Iowans see every day. “It’s been called a brain drain and a workforce crisis, but really this challenge is bigger than that,” Wahls says. “What we face is a people crisis, an exodus from the state of Iowa.”

The Iowa Republican Party hosted a fundraising breakfast two hours before the legislature began.

(Radio Iowa) – Health professionals are encouraging Iowa parents to take extra precautions with their kids amid a severe respiratory virus season. Wendy Woods, a medical officer at Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines, says R-S-V infection rates may bound again now that school is back in session, so she encourages anyone who’s sick to stay home to prevent spreading the illness to vulnerable children.

“They don’t have big enough airways to be able to support these illnesses,” Woods says, “and what to you or I is just a simple cold or upper respiratory infection, to them can be life-threatening.” Woods says it’s important for kids — and adults — to get the annual flu shot if they haven’t yet done so.

“They do decrease hospitalizations and decrease illness in kids,” Woods says, “and if you had an opportunity to do that, we should all take it.” The number of Iowa children hospitalized for R-S-V and the flu dropped off in the past month thanks to holiday school closures and severe weather having kept people inside.
(Natalie Krebs, Iowa Public Radio)

The driver of a 2002 Ford was cited for Failure to Yield (FTY), following a collision that occurred at around 10:07-a.m. Saturday, in Mills County. The Sheriff’s Office says a 2022 Mazda driven by Daniel Clark, of Papillion, NE, was traveling west on Bunge Avenue, when the Ford, driven by 67-year-old Leslie Smith, of Red Oak, left his stopped position. The Ford pulled out in front of the Mazda, causing the Clark vehicle to strike Smith’s Ford in the middle of the intersection at Bunge and 189th Street.

Clark and a passenger in his vehicle were transported to Mercy Hospital for treatment of their injuries. Authorities cited Smith for the FTY offense.

(Glenwood, Iowa) – The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports eight arrests took place over the past few days.

At around 11:57-p.m. Sunday, 21-year-old Bryan Keith Jones, of Tupelo, MS, was arrested for Interference with Official Acts, Domestic Abuse Assault, and on an Out-of-County/State warrant. Jones was being held without bond in the Mills County Jail.

There were two other arrests Sunday: 70-year-old Stanley Joseph Gredys, JR. of Omaha, was arrested at around 2:32-a.m. on I29, for Eluding/Speed 25 over the limit (Bond $2,000); and at around 8:08-p.m., 48-year-old Bryan James Jirkovsky, of Omaha, was arrested at the Mills County Jail, for OWI/1st offense (Bond$1,000).

Three people were arrested Friday, in Mills County: 39-year-old Becky June Sulley, of Griswold, was arrested for Possession of a Controlled Substance (PCS), following a traffic stop on Highway 59 at around 9:45-p.m. (Bond $1,000); 40-year-old Bradley Gene Olsen, also of Griswold, was arrested at the same time and place, on two counts PCS, and on an Out-of-County/State warrant (Bond $2,000); 55-year-old Tammie Elizebeth Schumacher, of Mineola, was arrested Friday afternoon in Mills County, for PCS (Bond $1,000).

Thursday night, 32-year-old Siara Nicole Butler, of Omaha, was arrested in Mills County for OWI/1st offense ($1,000 bond). And, 30-year-old Keith Patrick Schreck, of Council Bluffs, was arrested for Failure to Appear on a Burglary in the 3rd Degree charge. He was arrested at the Pottawattamie County Jail and transported to Mills County, where bond was established at $10,000.