CLIVE, Iowa — Officials with the Iowa Lottery announced Wednesday, that an Oklahoma man took a business trip to southwest Iowa, and won a $50,000 lottery prize. Jason Martin, of Mooreland, OK, said “It doesn’t even sound real.” He claimed his prize at the lottery headquarters Tuesday, in Clive. Martin said of his winning, “I don’t know if it’s set in yet. It will, I guess, when I go to the bank.”

The 38-year-old Martin, who works for a shoe retailer headquartered in Shenandoah, won the sixth top prize in the Iowa Lottery’s “Roll The Dice” scratch game. Martin said he and some colleagues stopped at Casey’s in Shenandoah, to buy some lottery tickets. He bought four tickets in the $5 game and checked them on the store’s self-checker.

Jason Martin

As soon as he realized he won, he called a coworker who lives in town and asked to keep the ticket in his safe until he could make the 2-hour trip to central Iowa to claim his prize. “It’ll make a difference for sure,” Martin said. “We’re able to pay some bills and take some monthly obligations away, and that’s what we’re going to do.” Martin said that news of his win traveled fast around Shenandoah. “I’ve had my bald head rubbed like 15 times for luck since,” he said. “Kind of weird, but cool.”

Roll The Dice is a $5 scratch game that features seven top prizes of $50,000 and overall odds of 1 in 3.44.

(Radio Iowa) – The Judiciary Committee in the Iowa House will be issuing subpoenas, seeking notes and other information from the commission that interviewed candidates and nominated two people for a district court judge vacancy. Governor Reynolds threw out the nominations after some commission members complained the judge chairing the panel coached one candidate and lied about another withdrawing.

House Judiciary Committee chairman Steven Holt says legislators have been unable to get notes or email related to the commission’s October 12th meeting from the judicial branch and the subpoenas will require a response within 14 days. “We want to try to get the information that’s available so we can get a bigger picture of what actually took place,” Holt says.

The House committee is also asking the judicial branch if a complaint has been filed against Judge Kurt Stoebe, of Humboldt. He’s the judge accused of manipulating the process for nominating a replacement for a district court judge from Carroll who was appointed to the Iowa Court of Appeals last year. Democrats say lawmakers should wait for a report from the Judicial Qualifications Commission, which they say is likely investigating Stroebe.

The commission’s investigations are confidential, unless a final report calls for sanctions against a judge.

(Radio Iowa) – Republicans in the Iowa House have passed their plan to shrink the personal income tax to a single rate of 4% and erase the state tax on retirement income. It’s nearly identical to the plan Republican Governor Kim Reynolds unveiled in January, with the exception of her proposed reduction in the corporate income tax. “This is a historic tax bill that will change the climate in the state of Iowa for years to come,” said Representative Lee Hein, a Republican from Monticello who is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

House Democrats offered an array of alternatives, but each was rejected by Republicans, including the idea of altering the GOP’s schedule tax rate reduction schedule — to speed up tax cuts for low and middle income Iowans. Representative Charlie McConkey, a Democrat from Council Bluffs, unsuccessfully argued that the Earned Income Tax Credit should be raised. “This tax credit rewards work, not wealth,” McConkey said.

House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, a Democrat from Windsor Heights, said the GOP tax proposal helps the wealthy, “helps them first, helps them most and helps them best and that is not what we should be doing here in Iowa.” Representative Dave Jacoby, a Democrat from Coralville, said the bill leaves out Iowans who are struggling to make ends meet. “This bill is Republican socialism and sends the middle class taxpayers’ dollars to the ultra rich,” Jacoby said, “to the millionaires.”

House Majority Leader Matt Windschitl, a Republican from Missouri Valley, pointed to the state surplus, with an expected $2 billion in a taxpayer relief fund by July. “Iowans overpaid. That’s their money, not ours,” Windschitl said. “…This is not going to stop us from funding the priorities of Iowans. This merely means that we’re not doing that in a way where we have a bloated government bureaucracy and growing government at an unsustainable rate.”

Three Democrats joined with all the Republicans present to approve the House bill. House Speaker Pat Grassley said today’s vote shows tax relief is the number one priority for Republican legislators. “We’ve been clear since the beginning of session we have the money to pass a tax cut without raising a tax on others,” Grassley told reporters, “and that’s what we just followed through with.”

Senate Republicans have released their own, more expansive plan that includes a corporate tax reduction along with a mechanism that could ultimately wind the state income tax down to zero.

(Radio Iowa) – Republicans on a House committee have voted for a bill that would ban mask mandates and any future vaccine mandates in schools — including colleges, as well as in businesses, non-profits and government agencies. Republican Representative Jon Jacobsen of Council Bluffs says the bill prevents discrimination and protects personal medical information. “The people of Iowa want action on this,” Jacobsen says. “…They’ve lost their jobs. They’ve lost their livelihoods.”

The bill would forbid employers from firing a worker because of their vaccination status. All the Democrats on the panel voted no. Representative Bruce Hunter, a Democrat from Des Moines, says it’s a dangerous bill. “We’re a country torn apart not just by a virus, but by conspiracy theorists who fundraise and demagogue that wearing a mask at the grocery store will somehow lead to the rebirth of the Third Reich,” Hunter says.

The bill is now eligible for debate in the full House.