(Radio Iowa) – A coalition of groups is celebrating the 15th anniversary of the state law that banned smoking in most public places and urging lawmakers to do more. Threase Harms of the Iowa Tobacco Prevention Alliance says the adult smoking rate has fallen 33 percent since the Iowa Smokefree Air Act passed. Representatives from the American Lung Association, the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association are calling on lawmakers to increase the state tax on tobacco products and close a loophole that allows smoking on the gaming floors at the state’s casinos.

The coalition also wants e-cigarette use banned in the same places where it’s not legal to smoke a cigarette or a cigar.

(Radio Iowa) – Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids is closing two programs, downsizing a third, and laying off 28 full and part time workers. Both the dental technology and the energy production and distribution technologies programs were cut due to low enrollment and they will also eliminate the college’s behind-the-wheel portion of its Class A Commercial Driving License program which had 45 students in Fiscal Year 2023.

Kirkwood President Lori Sundberg said these decisions aren’t made easily or quickly. “If it’s been pretty flat for some period of time and there are high costs associated with this it kind of tells us that you know the demand is not as strong,” Sundberg says.

Kirkwood closed its Belle Plain and Tipton facilities last year and is consolidating the Johnson County and Iowa City campuses. The executive director of Community Colleges for Iowa, Emily Shields, says unlike their four-year counterparts, community colleges change their offerings at quicker pace.

“Community colleges have to really constantly evaluate their programs and whether they’re responsive to a community’s needs to the region’s industries, and kind of keeping up with the times,” Shields says.

Community Colleges for Iowa promotes Iowa’s 15 community colleges.

(By Zachary Oren Smith, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – A Monroe County man who was convicted of killing his brother has died after serving ten years of a 50-year prison sentence. The Department of Corrections says 85-year-old Richard Davis died from natural causes Monday in prison hospice. Davis was charged with first-degree murder, but found guilty by a jury of second-degree murder in the shooting death of his brother Gary in February of 2011at Gary’s home.

Gary Davis, who was 60 when he died, was a doctor in Albia, and media reports say the shooting came after a dispute between the two over a family farm operation.

(Montgomery County, Iowa) – Sheriff’s Deputies were called to the area of Main and Maple Streets in Elliott, Tuesday. They responded to a report of a possible domestic situation, but upon further investigation, determined there was not a domestic incident at the scene. Deputies however, arrested 57-year-old David Lee McClain, for Public Intoxication. He was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $300 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association has released an economic study that says using carbon dioxide pipelines at ethanol plants will increase profits and keep most of the industry from leaving the state.

Dave Miller of Decision Innovation Solutions wrote the report which says taking advantage of federal tax credits for reducing carbon in ethanol would dramatically improve margins. “We built the industry on operating margins in the 20 to 30 cents a gallon range on gross operating margins. Our estimate is that with a 45-Z tax credit that gross operating margin basically doubles,” he says.

The carbon dioxide has to be taken out to make ethanol more carbon friendly to compete with other fuels. Miller says without carbon sequestration, the ethanol production in Iowa would move out to another state who would take advantage of the tax credits. “From about 2007 to 11, we built the Iowa ethanol industry, and in about that same period, that whole industry could move, probably not far beyond the borders of Iowa,” Miller says.

Monte Shaw. (IRFA photo)

Iowa Renewable Fuels Association president, Monte Shaw, says Iowa farmers could still sell their corn to ethanol plants but would have to pay to ship it. “When you are shipping corn instead of adding value to it where you are dropping it off — you are not going to get the same money — about ten billion dollars in lost revenues,” Shaw says. Miller says pipelines are the best way to ship the carbon dioxide to keep the costs down and allow the plants to expand.

Dave Miller. (IRFA photo)

“It is an additional $2.16 billion a year that would flow into the state. We have not done an economic impact study on what all the secondary and tertiary effects are of that,” Miller says. But he says the second impact would exist and stimulate substantial economic activity within the state.

Shaw says other carbon capture options for ethanol plants take time to develop and Iowa could lose 75% of its plants without the pipelines. “You know, we’re in a competition to produce low-carbon transportation options. And so this technology — this carbon capture and sequestration technology is the single biggest and best tool we have to keep liquid fuels like ethanol, competitive with electric vehicles going forward,” Shaw says.

Shaw says he understands the concerns about pipelines but says overall pipelines have an incredibly safe track record. And when it comes to payment for easements — Shaw says the pipeline companies are willing to negotiate. “I have yet to run into a landowner who has a pipeline, proposed to go across their land, who has engaged with one of the companies. And then who I’ve talked to, that said, ‘you know, they really just weren’t offering a fair price’.” Shaw says.

Shaw says he’s familiar with one negotiation near his hometown and wishes the pipeline was running across his land because it would have been about the best way for his farm to make money for the next five years. Shaw says landowners should see what they can get for their easements.”We’re not saying hey, ram these things through, we’re saying ‘fair and equitable’. So we urge landowners not to listen to some of the misinformation that’s definitely been put out there about these pipelines. But to sit down and talk, bring your list of questions, bring your list of concerns,” he says.

Shaw says if we can’t have low-carbon biofuels, we’re going to be stuck with no choice other than electronic vehicles, and he says there should be competition and options for consumers.

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds is asking legislators to pass a bill that would forbid state agencies or pension funds from doing business with investment firms that boycott gun makers or the fossil fuel industry.

“An unfortunate trend has emerged in prominent investment firms that prioritize political agendas and woke ideology above their client’s returns,” Molly Severn, an aide to the governor, said during a Senate subcommittee hearing. “Environmental, Social and Governance or ESG practices are not only legally suspect, they are financially reckless.”

Richard Rogers of the Iowa Firearms Coalition said an international bank recently notified a prominent Iowa gun manufacturer and dealer it would no longer process its credit card sales because it was a gun business.

“If financial industries were to redline on the basis of race, creed, color (and) so on it would be both immoral and illegal,” Rogers said. “I don’t think they should be able to redline entire industries that are lawful and moral.”

A spokesman for the state universities as well as managers of the Iowa Public Employees Retirement System and a pension for fund peace officers said they have not invested in companies that are targeted by the governor’s bill.

Similar bills are being considered in other states as Republicans criticize firms making investment decisions based on the way a business approaches issues like climate change. However, Republican lawmakers in Mississippi recently rejected the plan. The Mississippi bill, just like the one Iowa’s governor has proposed, would require publication of a list of financial institutions the state is not to do business with because of their investment policies.

(Radio Iowa) – The University of Iowa will ask the Board of Regents to approve a housing master plan that includes building a new dorm and selling one that it currently owns.

The five-year plan includes building a new residence hall that would accommodate 250 to 400 students and is estimated to cost between 40 and 60 million dollars. The plan calls for funding some of the cost of the new dorm by selling the Mayflower Residence Hall.

Mayflower Residence Hall. (U-I graphic)

Mayflower was built in 1968 and at the time was a private apartment. It is one mile from campus and the U-I says it is the last chosen residence hall and the first one the students transfer from.

The plan the U-I will present to the Board next week also includes continued renovation of the current residence halls.

[Updated 6:10-a.m.] (Colwell, Iowa) – Six people were injured Tuesday afternoon, when the Amish buggy they were riding in was struck from behind by a pickup truck. The accident happened near Colwell in Floyd County, at around 3:40-p.m.  According to the Iowa State Patrol, a 1998 Chevy 1500 pickup driven by 66-year-old Jim Whitmarsh, of Charles City, was traveling east on 140th Street near 3160 140th, when it struck the eastbound buggy driven by 32-year-old Lavern Stauffer, of Charles City.

The impact caused the buggy’s occupants to be ejected. The injured, included Lavern and 27-year-old Teresa Stauffer, and the following children ranging in age from 0 to six-years of age: three females – ages 0, 2 & 6, and 1 male, age 4. All of the injured were transported by ambulance to the Floyd County Memorial Hospital in Charles City.

The accident remains under investigation. The Patrol was assisted by the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office, Colwell Fire, Floyd Fire, AMR Ambulance and Chickasaw EMS.

(Radio Iowa) – There’s a song lyric about “looking for love in all the wrong places” and on this Valentine’s Day, many Iowans are doing exactly that. Sonya Sellmeyer, a consumer advocate at the Iowa Insurance Division, says romance scams are on the rise, especially on this holiday. She says it’s important to take steps to protect yourself to make sure your dream of a new relationship doesn’t become a nightmare that’ll break your heart — and your bank account.

“We do want all Iowans to be aware of this problem,” Sellmeyer says. “We get a lot of complaints here at the Iowa Insurance Division from individuals who have been scammed in these romance scams by people usually that they meet online. We want to get the warning out to all Iowans so that no one else falls victim.”

While many millions of people use online dating apps, scammers use those same apps, pretending to be attracted to their targets. Sellmeyer says you have to be very wary and pay attention to warning signs. “Check them out. Know that if they’re refusing to meet you in person, they’re probably a scammer,” Sellmeyer says. “If they say that they live overseas, they could be a scammer. There’s always those excuses why they’re not meeting you in person. Those are big red flags.”

She says the rise of digital ecosystems is allowing romance scams to flourish in new ways, with scammers even using online games to try to develop fake romantic relationships and gain the victims’ trust. “Be careful what you’re putting on social media,” Sellmeyer says. “You’re putting information about yourself out there which opens the door to those scammers to walk right in when they’ve got that information about you.”

Scammers use the illusion of romance or intimacy to manipulate or steal from the victim and many of us know people who’ve been duped and dumped. “Anyone can be a victim. You can be smart, you can be a professional, it doesn’t matter,” Sellmeyer says. “These scammers, this is what they do for a living. We all like to think we’re good at our job, right? They’re good at their job. They know how to build the trust, and they know how to pull at those heartstrings and pull off that scam.”

If you or someone you know has been scammed, report it to the Iowa Insurance Division at 877-955-1212.

(Radio Iowa) – A Senate subcommittee has approved legislation that would change a legal standard for lawsuits involving employees who challenge workplace drug and alcohol testing at their worksite. J.D. Davis, a lobbyist for the Iowa Association of Business and Industry, said under current law, it’s up to businesses to prove they are innocent if a worker sues over drug testing protocols, “so what this does is flip it back to the way we normally do jurisprudence, that if you’re going to make an allegation, you have to prove your allegation.”

Nick Laning, a lobbyist for the Iowa Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, suggested that will make it very difficult for employees to challenge drug testing policies or the validity of results. “How is a low level employee able to make that argument against an employer?” Laning asked. “How do that make that argument when a lot of the evidence sits with the employer to start because they’re the one that did the drug test.”

Peter Hird, a lobbyist for the Iowa Federation of Labor, said it’s a big change. “It’s going to be really hard for an employee to even get to that point,” Hird said. “They’re going to have to hire an attorney, do some fact findings and discovery, where an employer actually has a lot of that information to begin with.”

Another part of the bill would let notices about drug testing be sent to employees electronically. Lisa Davis Cook, a lobbyist for the Iowa Association of Justice – the group that represents trial lawyers, said some employees might miss important notices about drug tests. “We see this happening in such a way that you’re checking all the boxes on a new employee form and you’re checking, ‘Yeah, I’ll get electronic notices,’ not realizing something as important as a drug test could be sent to you electronically,” Davis Cook said.

Republican Senator Adrian Dickey of Packwood, who owns a trucking company, said his employees are over-the-road drivers who may not be home to get their mail for a couple of weeks. “They’ve asked if I could just call them up and tell them or email them or whatever it may be, so I’ve heard that request for years,” Dickey said. “And for that issue alone, I’m happy to sign off on this.”

The bill also would let businesses designate which employees are in safety-sensitive positions, so they’re subject to drug testing. The proposal is a response to a 2021 Iowa Supreme Court ruling that Casey’s could not require random drug testing for all warehouse employees by classifying all of their jobs as safety sensitive.