(Radio Iowa) – A Montana man has pleaded guilty to scamming a Cedar Rapids derecho victim out of thousands of dollars. Fifty-seven-year-old William Hurlbut Junior of Belgrade, Montana pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud and admitted he posed as a contractor following the August derecho in 2020. He promised a disabled Cedar Rapids man he would fix his derecho-damaged home and took a 10-thousand dollar prepayment.

Hurlbut also admitted to taking supplies he said were for the work and got refunds. and sold the man’s car without permission. He spent the money on gambling and personal items — and never did any work on the man’s house. He is awaiting a sentencing date.

(Radio Iowa) – Tax negotiations among key Republicans at the Iowa Capitol appear to have yielded a final plan. Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver spoke with Radio Iowa after meeting with his fellow Republicans in the senate early this (Thursday) morning.  “This is going to be a historic day here in the Iowa Senate and in Iowa in general,” Whitver told Radio Iowa. “We’re about to pass the largest tax cut in state history. Happy to get agreement with the governor and the House to get this done and deliver on a promise that we made for the past year, that when we have excess revenues, we’re going to continue to cut taxes.”

Whitver said the final version that will be making its way through the legislature today hews closely to the plan Republican Governor Kim Reynolds unveiled on January 11. It shrinks Iowa’s personal income tax rate to a single rate within four years. “We’re going to be at 3.9%, which of the states that have an income tax will be the fourth lowest in the entire nation,” Whitver told Radio Iowa. “That’s a huge improvement from the eighth worst, which is where we started.” The plan will erase the income tax on retirement income and it will reduce the corporate income tax. The final deal also reduces a handful of refundable tax credits, including the research activities tax credit that yields refund checks for some corporations.

“It’s kind of a compromise between what the governor laid out day one and what the House and the Senate have been working on,” Whitver said. “so we’re going to continue to, over time, ratchet down the corporate rate as the governor laid out, but as the Senate and the House we wanted to continue to look at some of the tax credits and how big the checks are that we’re writing out to some of the biggest entities in the state of Iowa, so we’re going to start to ratchet down the refundability of those over the next five years and try to make the (corporate income tax) rate flatter and fairer for everybody, instead of just special interest carve outs.” Whitver says the plan does not eliminate tax credits, but in some cases will reduce a corporation’s ability to use the credit to eliminate it’s entire tax liability and wind up getting a refund check from the state.

“Starting that conversation of what we need our tax code to look like long term,” Whitver says. Last year, the state issued 44 million dollars in tax refund checks to a small group of corporations that claimed the state’s research activities tax credit. Last June, the governor signed a bill that cut personal income taxes, eliminated the inheritance tax and got rid of a property tax levy. Senate Republicans estimated it would reduce state tax collections by one billion dollars over eight years. Early estimated indicate the plan to be voted upon today be far larger.

“This has been a Senate Republican priority for the six years we’ve been in the majority, to continue to reform taxes and make us competitive,” Whitver said. “When we pass this bill today and hopefully the House does the same, Iowa will be one of the most competitive states in the country now for taxes.” On Tuesday night, Governor Kim Reynolds is scheduled to deliver the Republican response to President Biden’s State of the Union speech. Action today (Thursday) on the tax plan means she’d be able to mention it in her remarks.  “Iowa has a great story over the last couple of years and we’re really excited that the governor gets to go on a national stage and explain that story and this is just part of it,” Whitver says, “but it certainly is a big part of it.”

(Glenwood, Iowa) – Sheriff’s officials in Mills County said Thursday (today), one person suffered unknown/possible injuries during a single-vehicle accident that occurred at around 2:36-a.m., Saturday. Authorities report 67-year-old Roger Allen Klabunde, of Pacific Junction, was traveling south on 195th Avenue in a 2016 Kia, and attempting to turn onto Eastman Avenue. For reasons unknown, Klabunde turned the steering wheel too soon, causing the vehicle to enter the east ditch, where it hit a tree.

Rescue personnel transported Klabunde to Mercy Medical Center for evaluation.

(Glenwood, Iowa) – The Mills County Sheriff’s Office is reporting numerous arrests from Feb. 9th through the 22nd. Five people were arrested on separate warrants for Violation of Probation, including: Tera Lee McAtee, of Glenwood; 32-year-old Kassandra Lee Shoemake, Monta Arnell Johnson, Jr., Shanna Marie Black, and Sheena Marie Griffin, all of Omaha.

Authorities say 24-year-old Jacob Lee Reafleng, of Red Oak, was arrested Feb. 14th, on a warrant for Failure to Appear on drug charges, and 46-year-old Brent William Michael, of Malvern, was arrested for Possession of a Controlled Substance, Poss. of Drug Paraphernalia, and Driving Under Suspension.

31-year-old Ryan Jarrett Wright, of Glenwood, was arrested Feb. 11th for OWI/1st offense. 24-year-old Taylor Marie Otis Wright, of Council Bluffs, was arrested Feb. 17th for Driving While Revoked or Denied. And, 30-year-old Shialea Kay Cozad, of Omaha, was arrested Feb. 22nd, for Driving While Barred.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Members of the Atlantic School District’s Board of Education met Wednesday evening at the Schuler Elementary School. The Board received updates and discussed matters pertaining to “Positive Team Culture,” and the Instructional Framework. Superintendent Steve Barber reminded the Board a Public Hearing on the 2022-23 School Calendar will be held 5:30-p.m. March 16^th. (See the tentative calendar posted below)

In addition to the school calendar hearing, March 16^th at 5:30-p.m., is also the date/time for a Public Hearing on the High School South Parking Lot Project. The Atlantic School Board moved discussion with regard to the 2022-23 Certified Budget Review from March 23 to the 16^th, also, due to schedule conflicts. Spring Break in Atlantic takes place from March 21^st through the 25^th.

The Board, Wednesday, approved a Progress Invoice Request with regard to the Atlantic Middle School Fire restoration project. Superintendent Steve Barber said the District still has not received a check from EMC Insurance but is working hard to make that happen. The Board approved an amount of slightly more than $1.7-million to First Onsight, the disaster recovery and property restoration company, once the check is received.

Barber said there are several sub-contractors still waiting to be paid, and it’s hoped that the check will come by March 16^th.In other business, the Board approved a pay application in the amount of $13,089 for the Middle School & Schuler HVAC/Aur Quality Project. The payment will come out of the ESSER funds the District has received. They also approved a bid from Camblin Mechanical in the amount of $132,135, to replace seven HVAC units. This will complete the cycle started a number of years back, and means all original units from 1995 will have been replaced at the completion of the project.

The Board’s final order of business was to approve extra options for the 77 passenger bus they approved last month, the base bid for which was $122,319.

With those added components (Luggage storage and air conditioning), the grand total comes to $135, 719. Mr. Barber said the bus was ordered after last month’s Board decision, but has not yet been built. That process will take several months.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Rescue crews from Marne and Atlantic were dispatched to the scene of a rollover accident late Wednesday night. According to scanner traffic, a 2020 Chevy Traverse rolled over near 590th and Marne Road. The accident happened a little after 11-p.m. The female driver and sole occupant of the vehicle was injured and extricated from the vehicle. She was transported to the Cass County Hospital and then flown by LifeNet3 helicopter to an undisclosed hospital.

Additional details are currently not available.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – The latest COVID-19 information released Wednesday by the Iowa Department of Public Health, indicates the state’s death total has surpassed 9,000 since the start of the pandemic. IDPH reported 9,085 total deaths Wednesday, up 137 since last Wednesday. The health department reports 4,814 positive COVID-19 tests in the last seven days, down from 7,375 one week ago.

U.S. Health and Human Services data show 345 patients hospitalized with the virus in Iowa, down from 446 last week. That’s the lowest that number has been since mid-August 2021. The federal health department is reporting 38 COVID-19 patients in intensive care units in Iowa.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show 1,892,672 Iowans have completed a vaccine series, or 61% of the state. The CDC reports 987,974 Iowans have received a booster shot.

(Radio Iowa) – A survey that was one of a series of recommendations aimed at strengthening efforts to protect free speech rights at the three state universities after lawsuits at all three schools was reviewed by the Board of Regents Wednesday. Regents Chief Academic Officer, Rachel Boon, says the survey found 74 percent of students were comfortable expressing their opinions on campus. “Most students do agree that they’re comfortable expressing their opinions more in campus settings than in our off-campus settings. This was an interesting finding — in fact — in classrooms is where the greatest number of them agreed they feel comfortable,” she says. The survey found 90 percent of students felt they were open to listening to different views and thought only 59 percent of other students were that open.

“We like to see ourselves in our best possible light — I’m sure present company included in that. I would note that the students judged their peers a lot more harshly than the employees were judging how students’ openness was to hearing different views,” Boon says. The survey was completed by just ten percent of the students — with the numbers split fairly evenly between the University of Northern Iowa, University of Iowa and Iowa State University.

“We had over seven-thousand student respondents and that was a big enough number that we can work with it. If you think statistically speaking, seven-thousand is a big enough number that we can feel pretty good about the results we have,” Boon says. Thirty-eight percent of the faculty and staff returned the survey. The survey was done before the free speech training on campus. Boon says these numbers right now give basic results and don’t tell the complete story.

“We can seldom answer the question of why people answer the way they do. So we see how they answered — but we don’t know exactly what was going on that made them say that,” she explains. Boon says they need to do some more analysis of the survey information to get a better idea of what is happening.

(Radio Iowa) – Two Iowa State University freshmen face charges in connection with social media posts warning people to avoid campus buildings. Eighteen-year-old Abdullateef Malallah, and 19-year-old Ty Jerman, both of Ames, were later arrested and have since been charged making terroristic threats in the case. University officials say there is no known connection between the two students and the posts were made separately. While there is no indication that either student planned to enact violence against the campus community, university officials say actions of such nature are treated as a serious crime.

Monday evening, ISU police received a report about an anonymous Yik Yak post, which referenced Carver Hall, an academic building on campus. The post contained a warning advising people not to come to Carver at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday. A second anonymous post was reported a few hours later with a warning to avoid Parks Library. ISU police, with assistance from the FBI and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, worked overnight Monday to identify and monitor the individuals responsible for the posts.

Based on information gathered during the initial hours of the investigation, police determined it was not necessary to close the university and worked with building administrators to implement safety measures as a precaution, the university said in a press release.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak, Thursday morning, arrested a man for Public Intoxication. Authorities say 26-year-old Daniel John Platt, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 12:42-a.m. in the 1200 block of Senate Avenue. Platt was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $300 bond.