(Radio Iowa) – As president pro-tempore of the U-S Senate, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says he’ll put his signature on the legislation to release the so-called Epstein files before the bill is sent on to President Trump later today (Wednesday). The Senate agreed to unanimously approve the bill, so there won’t be any individual votes to be made public. Grassley says if he was given the opportunity to vote on it, he would have voted “yes,” as these files have been the topic of discussion for years. “Iowans didn’t want the delay,” Grassley says. “This is going to loosen up information I’ve been trying to get ever since Epstein was first arrested, or the second time he was arrested in 2019. That’s how long I’ve been trying to get some of these records.”

Financier Jeffery Epstein was convicted of sex crimes in 2008, and died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal charges for sex trafficking minors in Florida and New York. During a conference call with Iowa reporters at 8 A-M Central, Grassley said he wasn’t sure how soon it would be before the Senate acted on the legislation. “We don’t have the bill going to the president yet because we haven’t received it from the House,” he says. “Then it has to be enrolled and I have to sign it as president pro tem of the Senate, and then it’ll go to the president for his signature.” House Speaker Mike Johnson says there are flaws in the bill, and Grassley was asked if he sees anything wrong with it.

“The president said he would sign the legislation. If there’s something needs to be some changes later on, not in regard to the records being released on Epstein, there’s no dissenting views on that in the Senate,” Grassley says. “There might be some dissenting views on the policy changes that were made, but that would have to be done now in separate legislation.”

Under the bill, U-S Attorney General Pam Bondi will be tasked with releasing all “unclassified records, documents, communications and investigative materials” related to Epstein at the Department of Justice within 30 days.

(Griswold, IA) — The Griswold Community School District’s Board of Education met Monday evening and approved two new hires. Superintendent Dave Henrichs told KJAN the new hires include Bindy Paige and Mason Anstey.

Henrichs said the Board also continued their discussion on establishing a 4-day School Week, but no action was taken.

The next step, he said, is for Griswold School Board members to take home the information they received during Monday’s meeting, and study it before they submit their questions or thoughts to the committee tasked with researching the prospect of a 4-day school week.

Superintendent Henrichs said the Griswold School Board voted to increase the price for school meals, because the District was losing money. During COVID, school hot lunch programs received State and Federal funding, along with reimbursement for meals, and lower food costs. That isn’t the case today, and now the Griswold School District is anticipating and end-of-year hot lunch program deficit -if nothing changes – of $47,000. He says “that’s just something that we really can’t have.”

Dave Henrichs says Pre K through 12 breakfast will go from $2.00 to $2.15. The cost of Pre K through 5th grade lunches increases to $3.00 from $2.70, and lunch for grades 6 through 12 will increase 3-cents, to $3.20. A la carte items will increase 10- to 15-cents apiece. All changes are effective January 1st, 2026. Henrichs was asked if people can help reduce the school nutrition deficit with a donation. He said “We always accept those donations.”

The bottom line, is that no student who wants lunch, will go without, regardless of ability to pay. “The last thing we want to do is have kids go hungry.” In other business, the Griswold School Board cast their ballot for AEA Director District 2 in support of John Gans, out of Red Oak.

(Atlantic, IA) – Cass/Guthrie County Environmental Health Executive Director Jotham Arber, Tuesday morning, provided a monthly report to the Cass County Board of Supervisors. Arber said they’re coming to a close of the perc (percolation) test season. A perc test determines how quickly soil absorbs water, a critical step before installing a septic system.

He said also, they’re working on their radon detection project.

Radon is an odorless, colorless, radioactive gas that forms from the natural decay of uranium in soil and rocks. It can accumulate in buildings, posing a health risk, particularly lung cancer, as it is the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking. Jotham Arber said they suggest people test in multiple areas of their homes, for multiple days.

He said they have ordered 12 devices for testing that should arrive by the end of this month.

He noted, older homes that are breezier, tend to have lower radon levels…until they are sealed for the winter. Once they are sealed-up the radon tends to pool in a home more than if there is good air flow. Arber says the latest radon testing devices are Wi-Fi enabled, so the readings are transmitted directly to the Environmental Health Department. The ultimate goal of getting the test results, he says, in addition to learning where the higher concentration of radon is found, is to try and get a local database of radon mitigators.

Jotham Arber says radon awareness is an important enough issue that his office, which also covers Adair and Audubon Counties, is taking it on separately from the State level.

(Creston, IA) – A man and woman from Creston were arrested on separate charges, Tuesday. According to the Creston Police Department, 39-year-old Joshua Zachary Mohr was arrested at around 8:10-p.m. in the 1300 block of W. Mills Street. Mohr was charged with Domestic Abuse Assault/1st offense – causing bodily injury. He was transported to the Union County Jail and held without bond pending a court appearance.

And, at around 6-p.m., Tuesday, 30-year-old Taylor Dawn Flemming was arrested at the intersection of Summit and Chestnut Streets, in Creston. Flemming was charged with Disorderly Conduct (for loud raucous noise), Violation of a No Contact Order, and Harassment in the 2nd Degree, for allegedly threatening bodily injury. Flemming was transported to the Union County Jail for processing, then transferred to the Ringgold County Jail and held without bond, pending a court appearance.

(Radio Iowa) – With the busy holiday shopping season just ahead, Iowans are being warned to be on guard for a boost in robocalls and phone scams, which are getting more sophisticated using artificial intelligence. Matt Mizenko, general manager of Nomorobo — an app that blocks spam calls and texts, says there was a big spike in robocalls and scammers in recent weeks, including fraud attempts related to the federal government shutdown. “For Iowa, specifically, you guys were a little higher than average,” Mizenko says. “You guys were at about 18%, but in that 18% increase, we saw an increase in the amount of bad calls or calls that we are blocking for customers in Iowa — about 50%, which is about 20% more than the national average.” One phone scam he says to be especially mindful of right now relates to open enrollment for health insurance, and those could last for the next several weeks.

“Once we get past the holidays and get into the beginning of next year, we start to see the IRS tax scams. The people calling you and telling you owe this or you owe that, or you’re going to be in trouble, or we’re going to come take your house and take your car and all those sorts of things,” Mizenko says. “So you need to be vigilant. You need to be prepared for these things because like every year, they’re coming and they’re going to be looking for you.” For starters, he suggests you be wary of any call that comes in from an “unknown caller,” but even calls that look legit may not be.  “Anybody that calls you asking for information or — one of the new trends is — they already have a little bit of information about you that they have gotten using AI or something to try and increase your confidence that they’re real,” Mizenko says. “Treat all that stuff with skepticism. Obviously, don’t give out information. Don’t be afraid to hang up and call back whoever it is that they say they are.”

He recommends downloading some sort of phone protection product to provide another layer of security, quizzing callers about who they are and why they’re calling. “Bad guys aren’t going to go through that trouble. They’re not going to give you a fake name. They’re not going to press the button,” Mizenko says. “Most of the time, it’s a robot on the other end of the phone anyway, and basically that call will just disappear. And you kind of know, okay, it didn’t pass the screening process. It’s not somebody I need to worry about.” He says his company is also seeing a recent surge in “spoofed” government numbers, which appear local and legitimate, but are neither.

(Radio Iowa) – A majority of the Haitian immigrant workers let go from the J-B-S meatpacking plant in Ottumwa have stayed in the community. More than 200 employees at the plant were impacted by when the Trump administration changed their work authorization status in July. Paulina Ocegueda with the Ottumwa League of United Latin American Citizens says a small percentage were able to find new authorizations and stay at the plant, while others are stayed without the meatpacking jobs.

“They have to move in with each other and stack up each other in housing, because they can no longer afford it. They can’t afford utilities, they cannot pay off their rents. It’s very hard for them to keep up with that, especially if they have children,” she says. Ocegueda says some of the former J-B-S workers left the country. “We work closely with the Haitian community. They said there have been quite a few, I would say, from a range of numbers, 10 to 30 individuals heading back home.”

Ocegueda says J-B-S has filled all the positions held by the workers who were let go.

(Red Oak, IA) – The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest at around 10-a.m. Tuesday, of 38-year-old Sarah Kay Reafleng, of Red Oak. She was charged with Driving While Revoked and transported to the Montgomery County Jail, where she was being held without bond.

And, Red Oak Police report the arrest at around 12:30-a.m. today (Wednesday), of 20-year-old Dea Rose Anderson, in the 700 block of Market Street, in Red Oak. Anderson was charged with Domestic Assault with [a] weapon, and Child Endangerment – both are Aggravated Misdemeanors. She was transported to the Montgomery County Jail and held without bond.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) – The Johnson County bomb squad safely removed a grenade from an Iowa City home Monday night. Iowa City police responded to a report of suspicious activity after the grenade was found inside the residence. Police say the pin was still in the grenade.

Officers secured the scene while the bomb squad confirmed the grenade was real but had been rendered inert. The squad x-rayed the grenade before taking custody of it.

No other information is known at this time.

(IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH) – Just 3% of corn acres and 1% of soybean acres across the state of Iowa remain unharvested, according to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s crop progress and condition report. The according to the report, the corn harvest is just slightly ahead of the five-year average and on target with 2024 harvest figures. Soybean harvest was 100% completed this time last year, but this year’s pace is in line with the five-year average.

The weekly harvest-season reports from USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service were paused during the 43-day government shutdown. The report for the Nov. 10 through Nov. 16 period shows the tail end of Iowa’s harvest.

According to the report, soil moisture conditions were slightly dry across the state. On average, 62% of topsoil and 63% of subsoil across the state had adequate moisture. Twenty-seven percent of both top and subsoils averages across the state were short in terms of moisture. Eastern parts of the state had the driest soils, with between 39% and 57% of topsoil and subsoil in the regions listed as short.

According to State Climatologist Justin Glisan, precipitation across Iowa was low for the reporting period, with most stations reporting no precipitation. The normal statewide average for the period is four-tenths of an inch, but Glisan said the statewide average was below a measurable amount.

Temperatures at the beginning of the week were 18 degrees Fahrenheit below the climatological normal, but on Friday, average temperatures across the state were 15 to 30 degrees above normal. The statewide average temperature for the week was about 42 degrees, which is nearly 4 degrees above normal.

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig said the dry weather and warm temperatures allowed farmers to make a “final push” on harvest and move on to other field work. According to the crop report, farmers had 6.4 days suitable for field work during the period. “With dry conditions and drought creeping back in, many will welcome the forecasted moisture that could help recharge our soils as we head toward Thanksgiving,” Naig said in a statement.

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH) – An Iowa nursing home company has faced at least 17 wrongful-death and negligence lawsuits over the past 16 months, a review of court records shows. The lawsuits have been filed against Care Initiatives, a nonprofit corporation based in West Des Moines that operates 43 Iowa nursing homes as well as several assisted living centers and hospice locations. While some of the lawsuits have been settled out of court and dismissed during the past 16 months, others are still being litigated or have been stayed as the disputes are handled through private arbitration. In each of the lawsuits, Care Initiatives has denied any wrongdoing.

The company, which says it does not comment on pending litigation, cares for roughly 2,800 elderly or disabled Iowans who receive care in one of its state-licensed nursing facilities or assisted living centers. The latest lawsuit, brought by the estate of Maris Bergis, seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages from Care Initiatives and one of its nursing homes, Parkridge Specialty Care of Pleasant Hill, for alleged dependent adult abuse, recklessness, negligence and wrongful death.

The lawsuit alleges Parkridge “negligently cared for Bergis and violated numerous regulations, laws, rights, and industry standards, causing (him) personal injury, illness, harm, and a decline in health.” According to the lawsuit, Bergis was admitted to Parkridge on Sept. 1, 2023, for a 48-hour stay following his hospitalization for pneumonia. Upon admission, he was allegedly alert, awake and oriented, and Parkridge was tasked with providing physician-prescribed breathing treatments and monitoring him for difficulty with breathing and any signs of anxiety, confusion or restlessness.

During the course of Bergis’ stay at Parkridge, the staff at the home allegedly failed to administer the breathing treatments. The Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing subsequently cited Parkridge for its care of Bergis finding that it had delayed providing necessary medical care and treatment. While the lawsuit does not indicate when, where or how Bergis died, it claims the “gross negligence, and/or recklessness” of Care Initiatives and Parkridge “were the cause of Bergis’ decline in health, injuries, damages and untimely death.”

State inspection reports indicate Bergis was alive, but was increasingly nonresponsive, late in the afternoon on Sept. 4, 2023, which was three days after his admission to Parkridge. The inspection records indicate Bergis was sent to a hospital by ambulance at his spouse’s insistence, but they provide no information as to the hospital’s diagnosis or treatment outcome.

Read about other wrongful death or negligence lawsuits litigated against Care Initiatives over the past 16 months, HERE.