(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Legislature convenes at 10 a.m. today (Tuesday) in special session, to vote on the first plan for reconfiguring legislative and congressional district boundaries. The new district maps are based on 2020 U.S. Census data, showing population loss in rural Iowa and gains in metro areas. The top two Democrats in the Iowa legislature have announced they’ll vote for the plan. Senate Minority Leader Zach Wahls of Coralville says there’s no legitimate reason to vote no.

“If Republicans vote down the first map, that is a clear signal that they are planning to gerrymander Iowa legislative districts to keep themselves in power,” Wahls says. Republicans hold the majority of seats in both the Senate and the House. Republican leaders have avoided making any public declaration about the maps. House Speaker Pat Grassley was a recent guest on Iowa Press on Iowa P-B-S.

“This is a decision for 10 years. I don’t think it’s something you just rush out immediately and be like, ‘Yes’ (or) ‘No,'” Grassley says. “I think you have to make sure you really think through and take all the factors in play.” Today (Tuesday), legislators will be voting on what’s called Plan 1 and Iowa’s redistricting process does not allow the plan to be amended. If Plan 1 is rejected, the non-partisan Legislative Services Agency has 35 days to submit Plan 2 to lawmakers.

The reapportionment process is usually done in the spring, but the late arrival of Census data pushed the process beyond the constitutional deadline for getting it done. The Iowa Supreme Court has given legislators leeway to follow Iowa’s redistricting rules, but has set December 1st as the deadline for completing the process.

(Radio Iowa)  – Democratic Congresswoman Cindy Axne says remarks she made during an online forum that were recently broadcast on Fox News program were misinterpreted. Host Tucker Carlson criticized Axne’s reference to “anti-vaxxer crazies” and he accused Axne of hating human beings.

“As this talking head normally does, it’s taken out of context and completely misconstrued and, as a matter of fact, he put words in my mouth,” Axne says. During the brief video segment played on Fox, Axne appears to be commenting on the recent uproar over mask mandates in schools and she’s heard suggesting the situation is a “hot mess.” Here’s what Axne had to say to reporters on Monday:

“I’m frustrated by folks around this country who use religion as a way to deny science and put our communities at risk because I grew up as a Catholic saying that you support people in your community, you serve others,” Axne said, “and you put others above yourself.” After a meeting with constituents in Norwalk, Axne told reporters the Christian right is wrong to try to weaponize religious to make political points.

“We’ve got to stop. We’ve just got to stop,” Axne says. “I hope that, as a country, we should come together as a country better and realize that we should be talking to the people, like I’m doing right now and going out and talking to the people I serve, as opposed to trying to create false narratives.” State and national Republican groups have criticized Axne’s remarks on the Fox video, in which she’s heard saying the Christian right uses the cross like a political weapon.

A spokesman for the Iowa G-O-P called the remark disgusting. The Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition says Axne is out of step with the overwhelmingly Christian culture in Iowa. Axne, who describes herself as a life long Catholic, suggests she’s following the words of Pope Francis.  “I’m not sure when we’re going to get past having the public understand that what they see on Fox television is being misinterpreted,” Axne says.

Last month, the pope said the cross should not be used as a political symbol or a flag to wave.

(Radio Iowa) – A new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll finds former President Donald Trump’s favorability rating in Iowa is higher now than it was while he was president. Trump is scheduled to hold a rally in Des Moines this Saturday, his first trip back to the state since leaving office in January. The Des Moines Register Iowa Poll found 53 percent of those surveyed have a very favorable or mostly favorable view of the former president.

Among Republicans, Trump’s favorability rating is 91 percent. That’s 10 points better than Senator Chuck Grassley’s favorability measurement among Republicans.

(Radio Iowa) – Third district Congresswoman Cindy Axne, a Democrat from West Des Moines, says there is less turmoil among Democrats working on an infrastructure package than is being portrayed in the media. “Progressives and the moderates are working together on a lot of issues…like ensuring that we can include dental and vision and hearing with Medicare,” Axne says. “We’re all pushing for that.” But Axne says she wishes Democrats had gone about this process differently.

“I’ve never seen a good organization, quite honestly, start with: ‘Here’s the dollar amount.’ You start out with what you need to get done,” Axne says. “…Then, if we have to meet a dollar amount, we start pulling back from that, but it’s based on the values that are most important for the people that we’re serving.” The Senate passed part of the package — the $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill that got bipartisan support and Axne says Senate Democrats then left it to Democrats in the House to draft the rest of the so-called “Build Back Better” plan.

Axne spoke to a handful of people at a park in Norwalk over the noon-hour. She emphasized the need for broadband expansion, federal aid for the biofuels industry and help for families struggling with child care expenses — elements of the infrastructure package Axne supports. “This is not an additional massive expense for this country. It’s an investment that we will see a return on and Iowa is poised to see one of the best returns in the country,” Axne said, “and that’s why this is so important and why I will fight tooth and nail to make sure both of these bills get passed into law.”

Axne suggested failure to pass the legis;ation will be an economic set back for the country. “If we don’t make a turn around for working families at this point in our country, which is what the president wants to do, we won’t see the success that we deserve,” Axne said.

Axne told reporters a vote on raising the federal government’s borrowing limit isn’t about future expenses, it’s about paying current bills that are due. Republicans say they will vote no on raising the debt limit because Democrats control the House, Senate and White House and it’s their responsibility to act.

(Radio Iowa) – The last of five statewide Traffic Fatality Reduction Task Force special non-holiday enforcement efforts wraps up in the state today (Monday). Iowa State Patrol spokesman, Sergeant Alex Dinkla, says they used a new technique this (Monday) morning in central Iowa. “We had a trooper who was in with a semi driver and we were driving up and down I-80/35 specifically looking for motorists who were using their cellphone or electronic communication device in an inappropriate manner that was unsafe driving up and down the roads,” Dinkla says.

Dinkla says they only used the Trooper and the truck for a few hours, but were busy. “We saw a lot of violations happening. The troopers who were working on that project stayed completely busy. And when you drove up and down the interstate all you saw were troopers pulling people over,”Dinkla says. “We wrote 21 citations in the two hours this morning — and ten of those alone were for texting and driving.” He says texting was one of the top violations, but there were other unsafe things going on as well.

A trooper rode in a semi to find drivers illegally using their cellphone in central Iowa. (ISP photo)

“We had a person who was watching a movie going down the road. People have to take responsibility for their own actions — and that’s supposed to be driving — not using a cellphone while driving down the road,” he says. Dinkla says the number of drivers seen using their phones shows there’s a lot of work left to do. “You know, we preach about it, other people preach about the dangers, you hear about the dangers, but the natural reality is that we still have people doing it all the time and the temptation is still there, Dinkla says. “Until people understand that temptation and can alleviate that temptation — we are going to continue seeing motorists use those cellphones every time they hear that chime for a text message, or they want to go and check their social media.”

The five special enforcement dates were set based on past history of traffic fatalities on the roadways outside of the holiday driving periods. Dinkla says the Fatality Reduction Task Force will be looking at their success.  He says they are going to reevaluate each of the projects and things they may change or add, with the ultimate goal to drive down the fatality rate. “But we cannot do that alone,” he says. One of the first goals is to have the yearly deaths on Iowa roadways drop below 300.

Driver pulled over during special operation. (ISP photo)

“We’re close and approaching that 300 fatalities for the year, but we still have two-and-a-half months left in the year. If we are going to achieve that first goal of 300 or under — we are going to need the public’s help, we need everybody’s help,” Dinkla says. State roadway deaths were at 256 as of today (Monday).