LA CROSSE, Wis. (WBAY) – Kwik Trip – which has stores in Iowa and five other Midwestern States, has announced it’s getting rid of pennies at its 900 convenience stores. Instead, cash transactions will be rounded down to the nearest five cents, to the advantage of customers paying in cash. Credit card and digital transactions will remain the same.

For example, a $1.04 cash purchase in the store will round down to $1.00, but a credit card purchase of $1.04 will still cost you $1.04. Kwik Trip says stores will enact the new cash transaction policy as their penny supplies are exhausted, indicating stores will be going “penniless” at different times.

“This change reflects our ongoing focus on guest experience. We apologize for any confusion this may create for our guests” president/CEO Scott Zietlow said. Kwik Trip says its register systems have been updated to automatically apply the rounding rules on cash transactions.

In a statement, the company cited a lack of guidance from the U.S. Department of Treasury after the decision to stop minting new pennies. Kwik Trip said the policy is in effect “until a permanent legislative solution is enacted.”

According to its website, Kwik Trip serves almost 12 million people every week. It has stores across Wisconsin, Minnesota, northern Michigan, Iowa, Illinois and South Dakota.

(Radio Iowa) – The Des Moines School Board will meet this (Friday) morning to consider legal action related to the district’s former superintendent who faces federal gun possession charges and a deportation order. Immigration agents arrested Ian Roberts last Friday. Des Moines School Board President Jackie Norris says the board will review the process used to hire Roberts and consider how to recoup damages from those who contributed to the district’s current situation. The district hired a consulting firm that recommended Roberts in 2023 and another company conducted a background check.

A Des Moines law firm reviewed Roberts’ payroll documents. The board president says from misrepresenting his citizenship status to degrees that did not exist, Ian Roberts appears to have misled people in Des Moines and other states where he worked. The Pennsylvania district Roberts left to take the job in Des Moines is considering legal action as well.

Des Moines defense attorney Alfredo Parrish says he’s scheduled to meet with Roberts at the Polk County Jail early this (Friday) morning. Parrish spoke with several dozen Roberts supporters in a Des Moines church last (Thursday) night. “Don’t forget the complexity of the situation we’re in and don’t give up hope,” Parrish said. “…Because someone is charged with something, particularly an immigration type of situation, don’t look at them any differently.”

Parrish is seeking to reopen Roberts’ immigration case and Parrish says his client will plead not guilty to the gun possession charge.

(Radio Iowa) – Court records indicate the former Des Moines superintendent who now faces federal gun charges lost his authorization to work in the United States well before he was hired to lead Iowa’s largest school district.

Ian Roberts, who was born in Guyana, has been charged with being an illegal alien in possession of firearms. A-T-F agents found three guns in a search of his home after his arrest last Friday. A loaded gun was also found in his Des Moines Public Schools vehicle and court records indicate that gun was purchased in Arkansas by a woman believed to be Roberts wife. Between 2001 and 2018, Roberts submitted four applications to become a legal permanent resident of the U.S. — all of which were rejected. He had been authorized to work in the U.S. for four years — but that ended on December 18, 2020. That’s two and half years before Roberts was hired to be superintendent in Des Moines.

The criminal complaint against Roberts contains other details. Roberts renewed his passport from Guyana last year and had it with him when he drove to work last Friday. The car agents found parked in Roberts’ garage is registered to a woman in Texas. The deportation order issued to Roberts in 2024 was in the back seat of the car, under a floor mat. The Des Moines Register is reporting that shortly after Roberts was hired in 2023, local deputies served Roberts with a restraining order issued by Jackson County, Missouri, which is part of the Kansas City metro.

A spokesman for the Polk County Sheriff’s Office told the newspaper a Missouri court had sealed the protective order, so it’s contents are not public.

(Radio Iowa) – Over three dozen people are being laid off from a Dubuque bank that was recently acquired by a bank based in Kansas City, Missouri. U-M-B Financial Corporation purchased the Dubuque bank early this year. Thirty-eight employees were notified yesterday (Wednesday) that they’d be laid off November 1st.

With the purchase of Heartland Financial Services — which had operated Dubuque Bank and Trust — the Kansas City bank now operates in 13 states.

(Radio Iowa) – Today (Thursday) marks six years since a Fort Dodge pastor was murdered outside his church, while a groundbreaking ceremony will be held tomorrow on a new public structure designed to honor his memory. Pastor Al Henderson served St. Paul Lutheran Church, and was also chaplain for the Fort Dodge police and fire departments, the Webster County Sheriff’s Office and the Iowa State Patrol. T-J Pingel is spearheading the pavilion project.

The Pastor Al Pavilion

“We wanted to have a memorial here somewhere in the area for Pastor Al,” Pingel says. “He was buried in Boone, and there’s a lot of people in the community that wanted a spot just to remember him and celebrate his life and all that he did for them.” The Pastor Al Pavilion will be built on a particularly scenic area of Kennedy Lake Park just north of Fort Dodge. The groundbreaking on the 100-thousand dollar project is scheduled for Friday afternoon.

Pastor Henderson

“We’re hoping to have the actual kit for the shelter here soon, where they can put up the physical structure,” Pingel says, “so that hopefully depending on weather, we can have that done this year still. If not, we’ll get it done first thing in the spring.” The pavilion’s brick work will also be done early next year, along with things like plaques and name plates honoring the donors.

Donations for the project are still being accepted at the SOS (Serving Our Servants) Facebook page.

(Radio Iowa) – A Mexican man who gave a fake name when he was arrested for drunk driving in northwest Iowa has pleaded guilty to illegally re-entering the country. Forty-nine-year-old Jesus Banuelos-Lepe had been living in the small town of Maurice when he was picked up for drunk driving in Sioux County in July.

Prosecutors say he’s been deported five times and had a 2007 felony conviction in Oregon for transporting an illegal alien. He’s currently in the custody of U.S. Marshals and could be sentenced to up to 10 years in a federal prison.

DES MOINES— Today, Governor Kim Reynolds authorized a disaster proclamation for Calhoun County, Iowa effective immediately through November 1, 2025. The USDA has confirmed a positive case of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in a commercial turkey flock.

This proclamation allows state resources from Iowa Homeland Security, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, and other agencies to assist with tracking and monitoring, rapid detection, containment, disposal, and disinfection. The proclamation also waives regulatory provisions related to commercial vehicles responding to affected sites.

The recent HPAI detections in birds do not present an immediate public health concern, and it remains safe to eat poultry products. If producers suspect signs of HPAI in their flocks, they should contact their veterinarian immediately.

(Radio Iowa) – The chair of the Iowa House Oversight Committee says the arrest and evolving details about former Des Moines superintendent Ian Roberts are a great embarrassment for the state — and citizens expect lawmakers to respond. Republican Representative Charley Thomson of Charles City has sent the Des Moines School Board a letter, telling the board to keep every document related to the situation, including email and voice mail messages. “We’re going to have to reconstruct a lot of what happened and see where the points of failure were,” Thomson says. The Des Moines School Board hired a search firm that recommended Roberts, paid another firm to review his credentials and hired a Des Moines law firm to review his payroll application, which included a drivers license and Social Security card. Roberts also submitted fingerprints and other materials to the Iowa Board of Examiners two years ago and was granted a state license to serve as a superintendent.

“There are several gaps that we’ve identified in the process and we’re going to dig into every one of those,” Thomson said. “There are so many permutations that happened with this case that it’s going to keep us busy analyzing exactly what happened.” The Associated Press has reported the Des Moines School Board hired Roberts after learning he had been enrolled at Morgan State, but did not receive the doctorate in urban educational leadership listed on his resume. Roberts’ attorney and a spokesman for the school board say Roberts has a doctorate from Trident University International, a for-profit school that has not responded to media requests to confirm that. “It’s hard to imagine how this series of errors could occur with otherwise rational people running the show,” Thomson said. “It’s a stunning situation — unprecedented, and I hope it’s one of a kind, but we’ll find out.” Thomson has not scheduled a committee hearing at this point, however.

State Representative Charley Thomson (R-Charles City) is chairman of the House Oversight Committee (official photo)

“There is so much information coming out really every day, almost every hour, on what’s going on,” Thomson said. “We’d like the news to slow down a little before we can get a full focus of what the hearings would be, if we do have hearings.” Thomson says nothing is off the table in terms of legislation that would address whatever lawmakers discover, but he says they have to develop a timeline based on the established facts of the case first. Thomson, who is an attorney, says it’s important that the constitutional rights of those involved are respected — and he wants to ensure the committee’s work doesn’t interfere with any federal prosecution of Roberts. “This is an area of significant concern on a bunch of levels for the taxpayers and my constituents…are absolutely fed up with this,” Thomson said. “It’s a great embarrassment for the state and maybe a wake up call.”

The Woodbury County Sheriff announced this (Thursday) morning that federal authorities had taken custody of Roberts.  He was booked into the Polk County Jail Friday afternoon, and held on a U-S Marshal’s Service hold. Roberts had been held in the Woodbury County jail in Sioux City since Sept. 26th.

(Radio Iowa) – Leaders of the 21 businesses that make up the Iowa Business Council have a positive outlook for the third quarter of the year in the latest survey. I-B-C president Joe Murphy says the survey overall index was up more than two points. “That being said, you know there does seem to be a great deal of uncertainty with respect to tariff policy, trade policy and even at the Federal Reserve level trying to determine what the Fed will do with respect to interest rates,” he says. A 50 on the survey scale is positive and the latest survey is at 60 — or about even with the historical average.

“That tells us that they’re holding steady. They’re cautiously optimistic about the future of the economy. There’s not a lot of responses saying that they’re drastically cutting back on anything,” he says, “but again, you know, keeping their powder dry.” Murphy says hiring expectations in the survey increased, despite the concerns about the business climate, showing some hope things are going to improve.  “More than 30 percent of our members are actually looking to increase their employment base here in the state, which is great news. And so I think as we look. towards the future, shoring up some of this uncertainty that will allow business leaders to make decisions with respect to hiring and move forward in a in a positive way,” he says. Murphy says federal tariffs are one thing that could turn out to be very key for businesses.

“Everybody is closely monitoring the situation, even if a company is not directly impacted by tariff policies, it’s impacting the economy and therefore their business decisions,” Murphy says. “The folks who are definitely watching this with a great deal of urgency are those in the agricultural sector, so specifically getting this deal done with China is hugely important.” Murphy says the members know the business climate has a lot of room to get better if some of the issues are solved.  “There are some opportunities here, I think in the next, you know, three to four months for some action to be taken that will clear up some of that uncertainty and help and hopefully launch us into the new year with a burst of momentum and positivity,” Murphy says. You can see the full survey at: iowabusinesscouncil.org.

I-B-C member companies include: Alliant Energy; Atlantic Coca-Cola Bottling Company; Casey’s General Stores, Inc.; Collins Aerospace; Corteva Agriscience; Deere & Company; Fareway; HNI Corporation; Hy-Vee, Inc., Iowa Bankers Association; Kent Corporation; MercyOne; MidAmerican Energy Company; Pella Corporation; Principal; Ruan Transportation Management Systems; The Weitz Company; UnityPoint Health; Vermeer Corporation; Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield of Iowa; and Workiva.