Des Moines – Rep. Cindy Axne (IA-03), today (Wednesday), announced that her office is now accepting requests for Community Project Funding for the Fiscal Year 2023 Appropriations grants for qualified local non-profits, organizations and local governments in Iowa’s Third Congressional District.

“After I successfully secured more than $10 million last year to invest in child care centers, bridges, cleaner water and much more in Iowa’s Third Congressional District, I hope communities will look at this as a great opportunity to find the support they need for projects in their communities,” said Rep. Axne. “This year I get to submit even more projects for review, and I am ready to work with our communities to make everyone has a fair chance at accessing these grants.”

Under guidance issued by the Appropriations Committee, each Representative can request funding for up to 15 projects in their community for Fiscal Year 2023. Additional accounts have also been added for Fiscal Year 2023, including Distance Learning and Telemedicine through the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Aging and Disability Services Programs through the Department of Health and Human Services. Projects are restricted to a limited number of federal funding streams, and only state and local governments and eligible non-profit entities are permitted to receive funding.

The Community Project Funding request process is highly competitive, and applicants should be advised that not every request submitted by a Member of Congress will be included in the Fiscal Year 2023 appropriations bills.

All materials for Fiscal Year 2023 Community Project Funding requests must be submitted by 11 p.m. CT on April 18, 2022. Visit Rep. Axne’s website to review the guidelines established by the House Appropriations Committee and to submit a request.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA – The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa reports 32-year-old Jeffery Scott Holsinger, of Avoca, was sentenced today (Wednesday) in Council Bluffs federal court, to 70 months (Nearly six-years) in prison, for being a Prohibited Person in Possession of a Firearm. His term of imprisonment will be followed by three years of supervised release.  According to court documents, Holsinger pleaded guilty to the charge on November 18, 2021.

On June 2, 2021, Holsinger was driving in Shelby County when he was stopped by law enforcement for not wearing a seatbelt and driving without a front license plate. During the traffic stop, law enforcement smelled the odor of burnt marijuana coming from the car and performed a probable cause search. During the search, law enforcement found a loaded 9mm handgun in a pouch on the front passenger seat that also contained pawn receipts for Holsinger. Holsinger is a prior convicted felon and prohibited from possessing a firearm.

United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office and the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement investigated the case. This case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Offices for the Southern District of Iowa.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Court of Appeals says an age discrimination case brought by a fired Swift Pork Company employee should be heard. Sixty-year-old David Feeback was fired from the Marshalltown Swift plant where he had worked for more than two decades after sending a text to his supervisor using an expletive. Feeback sued, alleging age discrimination, workplace harassment, and wrongful termination. The district court dismissed all three claims.

The Appeals Court says Feeback’s observations that nine people over the age of 50 left the company before retiring is “competent evidence even if it is not the strongest evidence” of possible age discrimination. And says a jury could find this evidence persuasive on his discrimination claim.

(Radio Iowa) – Eighteen Iowa law enforcement agencies have donated more than 700 bulletproof vests and nearly 150 helmets for shipment to Ukraine. A crowd in an Iowa National Guard warehouse watched as the last few crates of protective gear were loaded in a truck. “This has been an incredible team effort from the start and I’m proud to say that help is on the way for Ukraine from Iowa.”

Governor Kim Reynolds says authorities from Cherkasy — Iowa’s sister-state in Ukraine — put bullet-resisting helmets and body armor vests on their list of desperately needed supplies. Several Ukrainians, some waving or wearing their home country’s flag, joined the governor today (Wednesday). Taras Slyvka left Ukraine seven years ago after Russia’s capture of a southeast region of Ukraine. “The war didn’t actually start a month ago and this war didn’t even start eight years ago,” Slyvka says. “This war of Russia against Ukraine and the Ukrainian nation is continuing already for 400 years.”

Slyvka is a design engineer for John Deere’s Dubuque Works and helped make some of the arrangements for the shipment of protective gear from Iowa along with contributions from Nebraska. The shirt Slyvka wore today had a Ukrainian emblem on the front, with a motto he says translates into one English word: freedom. “I would like to say and direct my message to all of Iowans and all of U.S. citizens: We need to unite,” he said. “We need to help. Only together, we are the power. Only together we can stop that Russian evil.”

The governor says today’s (Wednesday) event is the kick-off of state efforts to aid Ukraine. “That a free people can be threatened at the whim of an evil tyrant should be unthinkable today,” Reynolds said, “But Putin now faces a force that he didn’t expect: the spirit of the Ukrainian people and their unwavering commitment to democracy and freedom.” Law enforcement officials like Pottawattamie County Sheriff Andrew Brown say once a protective vest or helmet reaches the manufacturer’s recommended end date for use, the gear is retired and put in storage. “It generally would cost us thousands of dollars to have our equipment destroyed properly,” he says. “The reason we pay for disposal is because we just simply don’t want to just throw it away…it could wind up in the wrong hands on our streets.”

Iowa Public Safety Commissioner Steve Bayens says this shipment of ballistic vests and protective helmets can still save lives. “Once we learned the plight and the needs of the Ukrainian people, it was immediately apparent we could put our decommissioned equipment to good use,” Bayens says. The governor says state officials are hoping to coordinate volunteer efforts to send meal kits to Ukraine and Reynolds has notified federal officials Iowa would accept refugees from Ukraine.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The firm of Gronewold, Bell, Khynn & Company P.C. CPA’s, have released an audit report on the City of Atlantic, Iowa. The report can be found in the link below. A copy of the audit report is also available in the office of the Auditor of State, and City Administrator’s office.

AtlanticAudit