DES MOINES, Iowa [KCCI]  — Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds says President Joe Biden “has been a disaster for our country” and that she is endorsing former President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. Reynolds made the announcement Wednesday on her X (formerly known as Twitter) account. She had previously endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ahead of the Iowa Republican Caucus.

Trump had criticized Reynolds in 2023 after she did not endorse him, and again when she endorsed Ron DeSantis saying “it will be the end of her political career.”

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Court of Appeals is upholding discipline imposed on a University of Northern Iowa professor for plagiarism. A university investigation committee found communication and media professor Gayle Pohl committed plagiarism in a book chapter she published in 2017. The committee rejected the possibility that problems in her writing were honest errors. It recommended five sanctions that included prohibiting her from applying for promotion to full professor. Pohl asked for a judicial review on a variety of claims, including allegations of bias and a lack of substantial evidence.

The Court of Appeals upheld the U-N-I committee’s findings, saying its decision making, and resulting discipline against Pohl was not illogical, unreasonable, arbitrary, capricious, or an abuse of discretion.

(Radio Iowa) – A report finds more than two dozen Iowa hospitals are still not compliant with the three year old federal price transparency requirements. The report by the non-profit Patient Rights Advocate reviewed 43 Iowa hospitals. It found 60 percent were not compliant with the Hospital Price Transparency Rule. The founder of the non-profit, Cynthia Fischer, says when hospitals don’t comply, Iowans could end up paying much more for their medical care.

“The hospitals that were not fully compliant were missing significant amounts of the information that would help people be able to make sure their bills were right or shop upfront,” Fischer says. The feds have issued fines to 14 hospitals nationwide so far for non-compliance. No Iowa hospitals have been fined.

(Radio Iowa) – During the pandemic, some Iowans chose not to vaccinate themselves or their children, which has led to a gradual rise in some diseases that were long thought eliminated in the state and nation. Brian Simmons, an infection preventionist with Gundersen Health System, says there have been isolated cases of measles in Iowa in recent years, but no outbreaks. Measles can be easily spread when a person who’s infected breathes, coughs or sneezes, and it can lead to severe complications, even death. Simmons says it’s not necessarily a concern, but people need to be aware as it’s very contagious. The vaccine is highly effective, he says, but some people continue to campaign against getting the shots.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa House has voted to require teenagers to have a parent’s permission to use social media accounts. If the bill becomes law, social media companies must give a parent access to their minor child’s Instagram, SnapChat or other accounts and the ability to shut down those accounts. Federal law currently prohibits anyone under the age of 13 from having their own social media account. Representative Charley Thomson, a Republican from Charles City, led House debate of the bill.

“I believe this is an important step forward for parental rights in Iowa,” Thomson said. “It still permits parents to have some supervision over their children, while the children can have the social media accounts with monitoring.” Thomson says some teens have been harassed on social media and subjected to what’s called “sexploitation” on social media — without their parent’s knowledge and with devastating consequences.

“It’s a very sad situation…almost a homicide, because some of these bad actors have to encouraged he suicide victims to commit suicide,” Thomson says. The bill passed the House on an 88-to-six vote and goes to the Senate for review. The House approved another bill targeting the use of artificial intelligence to embed real images into pornographic content.

Representative Helena Hayes of New Sharon says they’re commonly called “deep fakes.” “These A.I. generated images are a more modern take on revenge porn without a defendant needed to obtain compromising photographs of the intended victim,” Hayes says.

The House unanimously approved a separate bill to specifically crack down on deep fakes that manipulate the images of children.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak, today (Wednesday), arrested a man on an assault charge. 37-year-old Tyce Samual Watts, of Red Oak, was taken into custody at around 1:25-p.m. in the 100 block of West Corning Street, for Domestic Abuse Assault – Impeding Air/Blood Flow, Causing Bodily Injury, a Class-D Felony.

Watts was transported to the Montgomery County Jail and held without bond, pending an appearance before a magistrate.

(Sioux City, Iowa) – A man who was found with a firearm after being a convicted felon, was sentenced February 29, 2024, to 10 years in federal prison. 34-year-old Kevin DeWolf, of Denison, received the prison term after a September 21, 2023, guilty plea to possession of a firearm by a felon. Shortly after being indicted for the firearm charge, DeWolf set a vehicle on fire in Crawford County, attempting to fraudulently collect the insurance proceeds.

DeWolf was previously convicted of manufacture, deliver, or possess with intent to manufacture or deliver controlled substance, in the Iowa District Court for Crawford County, Iowa on or about July 15, 2022. DeWolf also has a prior assault conviction.

DeWolf was sentenced in Sioux City by United States District Court Judge Leonard T. Strand and was sentenced to 120 months’ imprisonment. He must also serve a 3-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

The case was brought as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN). PSN is the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime. DeWolf is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.

The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Ron Timmons.

(Radio Iowa) – A northwest Iowa school district at the center of an assault investigation involving its high school wrestling team, is losing two administrators. The Hinton School Board accepted the resignations last night (Tuesday night) of middle and high school principal Phil Goetstouwers and athletic director Brian DeJong, who is also an elementary school principal. No reasons were given for the resignations that are effective at the end of the school year.

The Coralville Police Department launched an investigation after wrestlers said older teammates tasered them at a hotel during a wrestling tournament last month. A video circulating on social media showed a wrestler being held down on a bed during the attack. A police spokesperson says additional information will likely not be released because all involved are juveniles.

Several parents attended the meeting on Tuesday night. (IPR photo by Sheila Brummer)

The public wasn’t allowed to speak at the special meeting, but afterward, one woman who identified herself by only her initials, D-H, says her son was one of seven freshmen targeted.  “There’s still a lot of people who need to be held accountable where we don’t have answers,” she says. The woman says more information will be coming out. “A lot of things have been unraveling more and more. It’s going to hit the Hinton community hard. It’s going to be getting worse before it gets better,” She says.

Hinton’s head wrestling coach is still on administrative leave. Parents say he is being allowed to teach math.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Cass County (IA) Auditor’s Office reports a candidate filing for the June 4th Republican Primary took place, today (Wednesday). Fifth District Board of Supervisor Bernard Pettinger submitted his nomination papers.

On Monday, Republicans Kathy Somers, incumbent Cass County Auditor, filed for re-election, and Chief Deputy John Westering, filed to run for Cass County Sheriff.

Candidates for County Office have until 5-p.m. March 22, 2024, to file their nomination papers.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Court of Appeals has upheld the life sentence of a Dickinson County man in the shooting death of women outside a Milford medical staffing office in 2022. Christian Goyne-Yarns of Sprit Lake was found guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Shelby Woizeschke in the parking lot of her workplace.

Woizeschke was the mother of his two children, but they were separated. Goyne-Yarns appealed, saying there was not enough evidence to support his conviction or to show he planned the shooting ahead of time.

The Court of Appeals ruling says there was some evidence missing from the case, including the gun, but Woizeschke’s 9-1-1 call identifying Goyne-Yarns as the shooter and corroborating surveillance video was substantial evidence to uphold the conviction.