(Radio Iowa) – Supply chain issues continue to impact businesses in Iowa, including the Ankeny-based Casey’s convenience store chain. Chief financial officer, Steve Bramlage, talked about the issue during a recent conference call on their third-quarter results. “While supply chain challenges have improved since the second quarter — notably in cups — the company still experienced disruption within prepared food and dispensed beverage,” Bramlage said.

He says supply shortages continue for one item in particular. “Bakery items — specifically our popular glazed donuts — continue to be in acute short supply as our vendor partners experience COVID-related disruptions,” he said. Bramlage says the supplies they are able to get for their prepared food are costing more — and the company has passed some of the cost on to customers. “The merchandise team was able to partially offset the cost increases with a round of proactive menu price increases and a more significant round of increases is scheduled for mid-March,” Bramlage said.

The company says its inside sales improved in its third-quarter as traffic into stores continues to improve.

(Radio Iowa) –  State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald says he supports withdrawing any state investments in Russian companies, but it’s difficult to do today given the status of Russia’s economy.  “The ruble has crashed and the stock market in Russia is closed,” Fitzgerald says, “…so if you wanted to sell out you can’t and if you sold out, you get pennies on the dollar.” Roby Smith is the Republican who’s running against Fitzgerald, a Democrat, in this fall’s election. Smith recently released a statement saying the State of Iowa needs to strategically divest of any Russian securities it may hold and prevent any future investment in Russia with Iowa’s public funds. Fitzgerald has signed onto a statement with 38 other state treasurers calling for public pension funds and other state and local governments to divest from Russia.

“We’ll be pushing for more measures,” Fitzgerald says. “If a pension fund like IPERS has been hurt, well maybe we can sue and get Russian assets like all of those yachts you see floating around that are worth hundreds of millions of dollars because we’ve been damaged by Putin and there’s a good legal argument to be made.” Fitzgerald made his comments this weekend on Iowa Press on Iowa P-B-S.

The state treasurer says IPERS — the Iowa Public Employees Retirement System — has mutual funds that have investments in Russian entities. And Russian-linked investments account for about one-half of one percent of the portfolio for the state-run College Savings Iowa plan.

(Glenwood, Iowa) – The Glenwood Police Department today (Monday), reported that a Windsor, Colorado man, 40-year-old Joshua Coots, was arrested Sunday. Coots was being held in the Mills County Jail without bond, until seen by a Magistrate. He’s been charged with Domestic Abuse Assault.

(Radio Iowa) – With gas prices rising, farmers are feeling the impact of inflation, as higher costs for fuel and fertilizer are shrinking profit margins for Iowa growers. Chad Hart, an agriculture economics professor at Iowa State University, says while commodity prices are good, rising fuel prices can significantly increase production expenses. “It’s not only the cost to run the tractor across the fields to plant and harvest the grain,” Hart says, “there’s a lot of fuel used to move our farm products down the supply chain line.”

Hart says farmers also face challenges with price volatility, as fluctuating prices are making it harder to know when to buy and sell. Kelly Garrett, a farmer from Denison, says his planter tractors use at least 100 gallons of diesel fuel every day. “It’s gone up $1.50 or $2 a gallon,” Garrett says, “so, there’s an extra couple hundred dollars a day to put your crop in just from a fuel standpoint.”

Garrett says higher fuel prices means he’s also paying more for shipping. In the past year, he says he’s seen his shipping costs double. Triple-A-Iowa says the statewide average for gas is $3.91 a gallon. That’s 11-cents below the all-time Iowa high of $4.02 set in July of 2008. The current national average is a record $4.32.
(Kendall Crawford, Iowa Public Radio)

(Creston, Iowa) – Three people were arrested early this (Monday) morning at the Union County Law Enforcement Center, in Creston. According to Creston Police, the following individuals from Creston were taken into custody at around 1-a.m., and charged with Disorderly Conduct-Fighting/Violent Behavior:

• 43-year-old Amanda Beth Zelasko
• 32-year-old Chelsie Nicole Liesener
• and, 19-year-old Elizabeth Ann Cunningham.

All three were cited and released from custody. Authorities said also, 20-year-old Elyice Bolin Stow, of Creston, was arrested at his residence a little after 2-a.m. Monday (Today). Stow was taken into custody on a warrant for Probation Violation with regard to an original charge of Sexual Abuse 3rd-Non forcible felony. Stow was being held without bond in the Union County Jail, until seen by a Magistrate.

Creston Police said a woman residing in the 800 block of W. Mills Street, reports Friday evening, that sometime between 5:30-p.m. March 10th and 5:45-p.m. March 12th, a large boulder weighing 40 pounds was taken from her yard. The same rock was later located on top of another rock, on the north side of the residence.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – Iowa Auditor of State Rob Sand’s office reports taxpayers are reaping the rewards of a more than 55% increase in participation in Sand’s Public Innovations and Efficiencies (PIE) program in just its second year. The increase includes entries from 84 counties, 310 cities, and first-time submissions from 121 school districts.

Sand says he’s “thrilled government entities in every Iowa county used this opportunity to save taxpayers money. Ultimately, the PIE program has the potential to unlock hundreds of millions of dollars in savings for communities across our state.”

The government entities participating in the 2021 PIE program in Cass County, are:

• The Griswold Community School District (CSD)
• City of Lewis
• Countywide Submission (Aud)
• CAM CSD
• City of Cumberland
• Atlantic CSD
• City of Massena

Auditor Sand created the PIE program in 2019 to spark innovative ideas to cut waste and save tax dollars. The PIE program also provides local leaders with tools to collaborate and share their cost-cutting concepts, known as PIE recipes, via the Auditor of State website. The submissions range from installing solar panels to shutting down computers when not in use. The PIE program has proven so successful, it is being replicated by Mississippi Auditor of State, Shad White who said his office was “inspired” by Auditor Sand’s PIE program.

“The across-the-aisle friendship shows what elected officials should put first: public service, not party,” said Sand. “I’m humbled to share what we started in  Iowa, but also excited to in turn copy innovations uncovered in Mississippi.” Auditor Sand will announce the winners of the 2021 PIE awards at a later date and recognize their money-saving achievements by hand-delivering a pie to community leaders.

For more information on the PIE program, contact Drew Stensland at drew.stensland@aos.iowa.gov.

(Radio Iowa) – Regional air carrier SkyWest has announced they are planning to pull their commercial service out of Sioux City, Mason City, and Fort Dodge. Assistant city manager Mike Collett oversees the Sioux Gateway Airport and says this SkyWest also gave a 90-day notice they were ending service during the height of the pandemic. “The good thing for Sioux City is that we’re part of the essential air service program, so as soon as they file this notice — it triggers a process with the federal D-O-T to start the 90-day — which they’ll go out and take bids from other airlines so we don’t have an absence in service,” according to Collet.

SkyWest cites the ongoing pilot staffing shortages as the reason for ending service. Collett is confident another airline will step up to provide flights:  “We’ll reach out to our airline contacts and foster those relationships we’ve had with them through the years. We’ll have other interest, we had three last time and I think we’ve had two to three bidders each time we’ve gone through this bidding process for essential air service,” he says.

Collett is also hopeful SkyWest will extend their service past the next 90 days: He says when American filed to leave in August of 2020 and were in the market into the following April and he expects SkyWest to be in the market for a smooth transition like American did.

SkyWest had recently suspended one of its three daily flights from Sioux Gateway Airport to Denver, and Sioux City officials last month announced they were extending their service agreement with the air carrier.

(Radio Iowa) – A Girl Scout troop in Council Bluffs is turning cookie sales into opportunities for girls who are homeless. The Micah House Homeless Shelter sponsors a troop that’s sold more than four-thousand boxes of cookies so far, with the money raised going toward field trips for the girls and their families. Shelter associate director Ashley Flater says the troop gives the girls a chance for stability and fun.  “That’s the way that we’re going to improve their self confidence,” Flater says. “That’s how they’re going to learn and grow and make those connections that help determine what their future looks like.”

Last year, the troop sold more than 20-thousand cookies to customers in all 50 states. This year, the girls are asking each buyer to consider giving an additional box of cookies to a friend or neighbor. Kayla Terrillion oversees the shelter’s Girl Scout program. She says it’s about more than just badges. It’s about community. “Most of their friends probably have no idea what it’s like to be homeless,” Terrillion says. “And so for them, it’s the idea that I’m here, and everybody else is going through the same thing that I’m going through.”

Cookie sales can pay for things like zoo passes or going horseback riding, while Terrillion says meeting cookie sales goals empowers the girls. “Some of these kids are pushing against the odds right now,” she says, “and what better way to show that we can beat the odds then by starting with Girl Scout cookies?”

The troop will be accepting orders until the end of March.

(reporting by Kendall Crawford, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – Democrats are considering a plan that could bump the Iowa Caucuses out of the first-in-the-nation position — and the party will be hosting three forums to give Democrats across the country a chance to weigh in on how the party picks its presidential nominees. Later this summer, the Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee is to recommend the sequence of voting events in 2024. Former Iowa Democratic Party chairman Scott Brennan is a member of the committee, which met this past weekend.

“I have been assured that it’s going to be a fair and open process,” Brennan says, “and I take everyone at their word that is going to be the case.” National party leaders have been encouraging states to hold primaries rather than caucuses. By 2020, Democratic Parties in just Iowa, Wyoming and Nevada held Caucuses — and officials in Nevada already are planning to hold a presidential primary in 2024.

“Caucuses have their challenges, but I think we want to work with the Rules and Bylaws Committee to come up with a proposal that makes the Caucuses even more open and accessible.” The Des Moines Register was first to report national party leaders have developed a memo that outlines some new rules for which states have early voting contests in the 2024 presidential election, but the committee took no action on the matter this weekend.

The chairman of the Iowa REPUBLICAN Party says national party leaders are poised to confirm that the Iowa Republican Party’s Caucuses are to be first in 2024 and send the message that Middle America matters to the G-O-P.