(Radio Iowa) – An Iowa environmental group says state regulators should reject a proposal from MidAmerican Energy to release coal ash wastewater from a power plant near Sioux City. The proposal affects the George Neal Energy Center where water that leaches through coal ash waste is collected in storage ponds. When the ponds are full, some wastewater would be released into the Missouri River. Steve Guyer, with the Iowa Environmental Council, says the utility should follow the new, stricter guidelines for wastewater containing hazardous pollutants.

“Has this previously been released to the river? Yes,” Guyer says, “but the difference is now the EPA has called out additional standards that need to be applied.” Guyer says that wastewater carries chemicals and heavy metals such as arsenic and mercury.

“Many of these are what are known as bio-accumulators, notably mercury, for instance, is a bio-accumulator,” he says. “It accumulates in the fish tissue.” In a statement, the utility says it follows all state and federal guidelines, and the proposal would only come into play in years with extremely heavy rain. The Iowa D-N-R must approve the plan.

(reporting by Grant Gerlock, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – The latest report card from the American Society of Civil Engineers gives Iowa infrastructure an overall passing grade of C. The grade for the state’s roads improved to a B minus — up from a C plus in the group’s previous report card. Christy VanBuskirk, an engineer with the Iowa D-O-T, says the gas tax increase the legislature approved eight years ago has made a difference. “Today, 25% of Iowa’s roads are in poor or mediocre conditions, down from 29% in 2019,” VanBuskirk says.

The condition of Iowa’s bridges gets another D plus from the group of civil engineers, though. VanBuskirk says one out of every five bridges in Iowa are rated in poor condition. “Reducing the number of poor bridges is a DOT priority,” she says. “Over the past four years, it achieved a 26% reduction in state-owned poor bridges.”

However, more than 80 percent of the bridges in Iowa are owned by cities and counties. The group of Iowa-based civil engineers says getting more money to repair and replace poor bridges will raise the grade and they’re calling for more monitoring of bridges built before 1973. The group rated 11 other types of infrastructure, including airports, railroads and even public parks. Iowa roads and highways were the only category to see improvement in the group’s 2023 report card compared to the one issued four years ago.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Supreme Court heard oral arguments today (Tuesday) on whether a law passed in 2018 banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy should be allowed to take effect. Christopher Schandevel, argued for the state, saying the injunction should be lifted based on state and federal rulings that abortion is not a constitutional right.  “We know now today that even though this court and the U-S Supreme Court had previously misinterpreted the federal constitution and the Iowa Constitution that what the legislature did in 2018 and enacting the fetal heartbeat law it’s perfectly consistent with both constitutions because there is no fundamental right to abortion,” he says.

Schandevel says the legislature has a rational conceivable basis for the law — which is the state’s interest in protecting and preserving fetal life. “Especially in this case that case at a point in fetal development when the unborn child’s heart has begun beating when brainwaves are detectable when she can already move when she already has sensory receptors. When her facial features her chin, her jaw her cheeks have already begun to form at a point in pregnancy when absent abortion the vast majority of unborn children will survive until birth,” Schandevel says. He says the district court wrongly ruled that it could not dissolve the injunction.

“If there is a substantial change or if there’s a change in the law, the interpretation of the statute or the Constitution by this court, then the party is enjoined based on a prior interpretation that is determined to be erroneous, have the ability to come into court where that injunction was first issued, file a motion to modify or dissolve the injunction just like we did here,” he says. Peter Im presented the arguments for Planned Parenthood. “First the ban is void because it was unconstitutional when it was passed. Second Iowal procedures do not permit the state’s motion, and third there was no change in law that would justify vacating the injunction,” Im says.

The justices raised several questions about why the injunction couldn’t be dissolved based on the new rulings on abortion. Im responded. “I think that if this Court were to allow the state to proceed on the merits that would open the floodgates of litigation to any litigant who is bound by an injunction,” he says. Im says this case would set a new precedent on the issue. “Certainly this court has held that changes in fact do justify modifications of injunctions but I don’t believe that this court is squarely held that a change in the law justifies a motion to modify,” Im says.

Abortion is now legal up to 20 weeks of pregnancy in Iowa. The Supreme Court will issue a ruling at a later date.

(Griswold, Iowa) – The driver of a semi reportedly suffered from a head laceration following a rollover accident one-half mile north of 61282 Tucson Road. Cass County Communications dispatched Griswold Fire and Rescue and Cass EMS at 11:20-a.m. The driver was said to be out of the cab. The trailer was hauling soybeans.

Additional details are currently not available .

(Glenwood, Iowa) – Police in Glenwood say a man from Glenwood was arrested this (Tuesday) morning. 53-year-old Paul Bolton was taken into custody on a Mills County warrant. Bolton was being held in the Mills County Jail without bond, until seen by a Magistrate Judge.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Cass County Board of Supervisors today (Tuesday), passed two separate proclamations. The first declared Child Abuse Prevention Awareness Month, as encouraged by the Cass County Child Abuse Prevention Council. Council Member Lora Kanning read the proclamation, which in-part says….

They also passed a motion proclaiming this week (April 9-15) as National Public Safety Telecommunications Week, as we mentioned during Monday’s news on KJAN. Cass County Emergency Management Coordinator Mike Kennon read from the proclamation.

Kennon reminded the Board and the public also, about a Storm Spotter training class that takes place Wednesday, April 12th at 7-p.m., in the Courthouse Courtroom. The Board then heard from Jared Wyman , member of the Noble Initiative Community Foundation (Which is separate from the Noble Initiative Daycare Foundation), who spoke about housing development in Griswold and storm water management projects, along with a request for ARPA Funds.

Jared Wyman address the Cass County BOS 4-11-23

The Board advised Wyman to stop at the Auditor’s Office and pickup an application for ARPA funding, so it may be taken under consideration at a future meeting. A Public Hearing was then held on the proposed Maximum Property Tax Levy, followed by approval of the levy for Fiscal Year 2024. They also set April 25th as the date for a Public Hearing on the proposed FY 24 Cass County Budget. The Supervisors discussed and passed a Resolution amending Cass County’s official publication as the Atlantic News Telegraph, and to use the Anita Tribune and Griswold American as information sources for constituents. Board Chair Steve Baier explains the logic in doing so.

The Board then discussed and acted to approve, a Resolution to support the present Local Option Sales Tax (LOST). Once again, here’s Board Chair Steve Baier on Senate File 550…

(Details on SF550 can be found here) Critics say of the bill say large cities would see the most benefit from the proposed change, while smaller communities could see less money. The Supervisors received a weekly report on the Cass County Secondary Roads Department, from Engineer Trent Wolken. And, they approved the appointment of Norma Hemphill to the Southwest Iowa Housing Committee.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Supreme Court has ruled the state auditor does not have the authority to investigate an insurance risk pool for 75 counties as well as hundreds of other cities and taxpayer funded local government entities. The Iowa Communities Assurance Pool provides property and casualty insurance coverage. State Auditor Rob Sand had filed a subpoena seeking records about annual meetings the risk pool’s board of directors held at out of state resorts. The state’s highest court has ruled the risk pool was formed under a section of Iowa law that does not fall under the oversight of the state auditor’s office. Sand says the Supreme Court pointed out it might be good to subject local government risk pools that are entirely funded by tax dollars to some oversight and he is asking legislators to take that step.

Three Republican state senators say the ruling may show the auditor has abused his subpoena power and their bill to restrict what Sand can investigate is needed. Senator Mike Klimesh  is a Republican from Spillville. “He has subpoena power,” Klimesh says, “but we want to make sure that he’s not using it an an overarching method to, you know, unfairly reach out to Iowans that aren’t positioned in local government entities that would require them to provide him subpoenaed information.”

Klimesh and two other Republican senators have asked Sand to provide them with the records of all the subpoenas the state auditor’s office has issued since Sand took office in January of 2019.  “To ensure that his office is not going beyond his authority to execute subpoenas on private individuals and, if that if in fact happening, we have a right to know about it,” Klimesh says, “and I think Iowans have a right to know about it.”

Sand, the only Democrat holding statewide office, says the records request is a distraction from the bill Senators passed that outside analysts say would prevent his office from doing complete audits of state agencies and lead to the state government losing billions of dollars in federal funds. Sand has sent the senators a copy of the subpoena he issued to managers of the insurance risk pool for local governments.