With Ric Hanson.

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(Corning, Iowa) – The Superintendent of the Southwest Valley Community School District posted a statement on social media, Monday, with regard to an alleged racial slur spoken during a high school football game against Earlham last Friday night. During the reported incident, Earlham High School Quarterback Darrell Matchem said Southwest Valley players uttered a racial slur against him. Matchem was ejected when he yelled at the other players. In addition, at the conclusion of the football game accusations were made of inappropriate and aggressive fan and spectator behavior. Southwest Valley won the game, 15-13. After the allegations came into the spotlight, the Iowa High School Athletic Association was notified.

Southwest Valley Superintendent Chris Fenster said on social media, “The Southwest Valley School District has conducted multiple interviews with people closest to the situation. We did not discover any more evidence to report to Earlham Administration or the Iowa High School Athletic Association. The Southwest Valley District would like everyone to know that we have good, positive students, and this type of behavior is never tolerated. We are a proud school district that will never condone treating people because of race, gender, sexual orientation with anything but respect, dignity, and kindness. We will continue to work with Earlham and investigate any new information that would surface. We are proud of our student-athletes, fans, and communities for allowing the administration to investigate the incident and reach our conclusion.”

On Saturday, Fenster and Earlham Interim Superintendent Tony Alysworth issued a joint statement, saying “The Earlham and Southwest Valley school administration are both aware of and actively investigating multiple concerns stemming from the Earlham vs Southwest Valley football game on October 1, 2021. Toward the end of the football game, an Earlham football player reported that an inappropriate racial slur was directed at him by a member of the Southwest Valley team. Additionally, at the conclusion of the football game accusations were made of inappropriate and aggressive fan and spectator behavior.The administration from the Earlham and Southwest Valley schools have been in touch and are working cooperatively to investigate these matters. The Iowa High School Athletic Association was notified and both schools are committed to working through these serious matters in accordance with school and district policy.

(Radio Iowa) – The program which helps low-income Iowans with their heating bills will have more money this year. Christine Taylor oversees the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program known as LIHEAP. “Our program begins November first of every year, but if there are households that have someone in the home that is 60 years of age or older, or disabled, then those households can begin applying October 1st. This year we do have more money than we have had in the past. We received funds from the American Rescue Act just for that specific part of our program,” Taylor says.

That money is on top of what they will get from the state. She says they will be passing the extra money onto the recipients. “Regular payment is around 470 dollars and we are anticipating that households will receive an extra bump sometime in the spring, and we’re hoping it will be somewhere around that amount,” according to Taylor. Taylor says the spring payment is important as it will come after the moratorium that prevents utility shutoffs for lack of payment ends. “Usually when they are coming out a moratorium there are bills that they haven’t been able to pay over the winter — and we can help with that,” she says. “We can be proactive, and we might be able to relieve some of that tension that everyone has been feeling.”

Taylor says they’ve already helped some Iowans through their emergency program. “This year because of the influx of funding we have been able to help people with some really high arrearages — and hopefully that will help them stay on top of their bills a little easier,” Taylor says. Taylor says the unpaid bills can get quite high. “We’ve seen quite a few at three-thousand or four thousand in arrears. And when it gets that high you begin to feel pretty helpless — like you’ll never be able to pay that down,” Taylor says. “The people that we serve, many of them are working poor, and they simply don’t make enough.” To find out more about the LIHEAP program — go to the Department of Human Services website.

(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).

(Greenfield, Iowa) – Adair County Sheriff Jeff Vandewater, Monday, reported the arrest Saturday evening, of 39-year-old Michael Gail Steward, from Fontanelle. Steward was taken into custody at his rural residence after an altercation with his parents at the Avondale Church, and an alleged previous incident with his father at residence.

Deputies arrested Michael Steward on an Adair County warrant charging him with two counts of violating a No Contact/Protective Order, Assault, and Contempt of Court for Violation of a No Contact Order. His total cash-only bond was set at $6,000.

Steward was released from custody Monday morning.