COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA –Officials with the U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa said Thursday, a former federal agent with the ATF (Dept. of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives) was sentenced in the District Court of Nebraska to one year of probation and a $5,000 fine, in association with Structuring Financial Transactions (in order) to Evade Reporting Requirement.

52-year-old Paul A. White had previously pleaded to a United States Attorney’s Information charging a violation of Title 31, United States Code [Sections 5324(a)(3) and 5324(d)]. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa, based on the recusal of the District of Nebraska United States Attorney’s Office.

According to court documents, from October 29, 2018, to February 26, 2019, White deposited a total of $99,900 in two banks. White structured the deposits to evade the requirement that banks report cash transactions in excess of $10,000.

United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. The Office of Inspector General investigated the case.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – SHIFT ATL, a 501(c)3 nonprofit based in Atlantic, is hosting a Prom Dress Pop-Up event on February 5 and March 5, from 9-until 2-p.m., each day. The events are an opportunity for area teens to shop for a dress to wear to their upcoming Prom. All dresses available can be purchased at a free-will donation shopping experience. Patrons can pay what they are able to or would like to. Any monetary donations received from this shopping experience will be donated to Atlantic High School’s After Prom.

There will also be a limited number of free hair appointments shoppers can sign up for during each shopping day in February and March. Hair appointment sign-ups will be on a first come
first serve basis and are available only for proms held on April 9th, which includes Atlantic’s prom. SHIFT ATL is also currently accepting dress donations for this event. Dresses should be in
gently used condition, free from visible stains or wear and tear. Dresses do not need to be steamed or pressed.

Dress donations can be made through January 28, 2022 by dropping dresses off at The Chamber in Atlantic, contacting SHIFT at: shiftatlantic@gmail.com, or by contacting Mallory Robinson at 712-249-1985 for pick-up arrangements.

Any questions can be directed to SHIFT ATL (via the email provided above).

DES MOINES — Gov. Kim Reynolds and the Iowa Economic Development Authority today (Thursday), announced more than $500,000 in grant funding will be awarded to rural communities across the state through the Governor’s Empower Rural Iowa Initiative. The Governor says “The Empower Rural Iowa Initiative has played a key role in transforming our rural communities by expanding broadband access and affordable housing options, which are essential to the growth and retention of our state. These programs help turn innovative ideas into reality for small communities across Iowa, paving the way for opportunity and prosperity for generations to come.”

The grants cover 38 projects across the state. For example:

• The City of Treynor, and Adair/Guthrie Counties, have both received a $1,000 grant for a Rural Leadership Bootcamp.
• The City of Red Oak received $10,000 from a Rural Housing Assessment grant
• The City of Manning has received a $20,000 Rural Innovation Grant to: leverage the outcomes from the Rural Housing Assessment Grant process with ISU Extension & Outreach. The grant funds will be used for development of an engineering plat and HOA documents for a pocket neighborhood development by the City, to address housing needs. (Total project cost, $94,000)
• The City of Wiota has received a $20,000 Rural Innovation Grant to leverage local assets to draw visitors, and retain residents, inviting them to enjoy their time downtown. Through the addition of a community park, in partnership with the Wiota Boosters, they will be adding an additional amenity to attract visitors to the annual flea market, Wiota Steakhouse, and downtown community events. Funding from the Grant will support the removal of dilapidated playground equipment, and the addition of new and ADA (handicapped) compliant features. (Total project cost, $30,034)
• And, Midwest Partnership Economic Development/City of Stuart is receiving a $1,500 grant in partnership with the school arts dept., to display art on a rotating basis in stores, offices, restaurants and gathering spaces throughout the community. The grant funds will support the launch of the program, with the goal of improving aesthetics in the community, and mental health of residents, through exposure to art. (Total project cost, $60,000).
• Sac Development Corp will put Rural Innovation funding toward a feasibility study for a soon-to-be-vacated school building and adjacent green space. Communities across the state struggle with vacant school buildings, which can create an eyesore and financial strain on cities. Sac City is taking steps to ensure the building has a transformative use.   In its inaugural year, the Rural Return grant is funding five innovative recruitment programs across the state, including a business incentive strategy in Jefferson. The program through Jefferson Matters: A Main Street & Chamber Community will provide a start-up incentive fund for new businesses and complimentary use of shared workspace for remote workers.

The Governor’s Empower Rural Iowa Initiative developed the following grant programs for rural communities:

• The Rural Innovation Grant program supports creative, nontraditional ideas to overcome rural community development challenges, such as workforce development and housing shortages.
• The Rural Housing Assessment Grant program supports efforts to expand access to quality housing tailored to communities. The program leverages data from the Iowa Finance Authority’s Profile of Iowa tool and provides support through a partnership with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach.
• The new Rural Return and Rural Child Care Market Study grant programs: The Rural Return Grant program supports creative programming that attracts new residents to move and/or work in rural communities. The Rural Child Care Market Study Grant program supports the use of data and analysis by rural communities, in partnership with First Children’s Finance, to determine the specific needs and solutions for their area.

For more information on the Center for Rural Revitalization programs, visit https://www.iowaeda.com/empower-rural-iowa/ or contact Liesl Seabert at Rural@iowaeda.com. A full list of the of the 2022 Rural Grant recipients is available here.

(Clarinda, Iowa) – The Page County Sheriff’s Office reports that on January 13th, they received a report of a burglary / theft from a building in rural Page County, located south of Essex. A partial list of the property stolen includes:

• Miller Millermatic 211 MIG welder on cart
• a Honda generator
• a Large floor fan
• 2 log chains: 1- 3/8” chain and 1- ½” chain
• Electric cords: 2- 50’ and 2- 100’
• 2-forced air kerosene / diesel fuel “torpedo” heaters
• A very large anvil
• A children’s air-tired tricycle
• A set of combination wrenches
• A set of ½” sockets
• Jumper cables and welding leads

Those items were in very good condition and should be easily spotted if someone is trying to sell them. Sheriff Lyle Palmer says the Burglary / theft is now a Crimestopper’s case. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Page County Sheriff’s Office at 712-542-5193 or their local Law Enforcement agency. The caller can remain anonymous and will be given a number. They will need to give a contact phone number for member of the Page County Sheriff’s Office to call them back to get their information about the case. The case is eligible for a Crimestopper’s reward if the information given by the caller leads to the arrest and filing of charges on a suspect(s).

(Radio Iowa) – MidAmerican Energy has filed plans with the Iowa Utilities Board for a three-point-nine BILLION dollar($3.9) renewable energy project. Company spokesman Geoff Greenwood says the goal is to hit net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. “It includes wind projects, solar by 2024 — but we’d also like to study some new technologies for clean energy. And that includes, carbon capture, energy storage, and modular nuclear,” Greenwood says. They are calling the project Wind PRIME and Greenwood says they would add more than two-thousand megawatts of wind generation and 50 megawatts of solar. The location of each has not yet been decided.

“It’s a little bit hard to say. We know what we would like to add right now in terms of additional wind and solar generation. What we don’t know yet is where we would have these projects,” Greenwood says. So, we know roughly how many more projects we need to add — but we don’t yet know exactly where we would add them.” Greenwood says past projects were built with federal production tax credits — but the amount paid in tax credits is dropping — and could lead to customers paying more. “It’s not as much as it used to be — it used to be 100 percent — and now it has gone down to 60 percent. So we expect that this will still be of value for our customers — but there likely will be a modest cost to our customers over the life of these project,” according to Greenwood. “But nonetheless, it is renewable energy and that is something that our residential and business customers are demanding more of.

The wind and solar projects are the major part of the plan, while Greenwood says they want to explore other things like carbon capture. That would help reduce emissions for coal-fired energy plants. “Our current plan calls for retiring our existing (coal) generating plants no later than 2049. So we are looking for a shorter-term carbon capture technology that may allow us to capture that carbon sooner rather than later,” he says. He says they want to look at all the technology available and the does include the small modular nuclear generation.

“We certainly have not decided to pursue this — but it is something that we think is worth exploring, because it is an emissions-free technology. And it is something that can help us get to where we want to get and where our customers want us to get — which is NetZero greenhouse gas emissions,” Greenwood says. The proposal has to go through the I-U-B process to get the plan approved. That will include public hearings and comments on the plan.

(Radio Iowa) – Veterans groups are urging legislators to increase a tax break for veterans. A property tax exemption worth 18-hundred-52 dollars is available to veterans who served in a war or were on active duty during peacetime for at least 18 months. Iowa Veterans Affairs Commission chair Elizabeth Ledvina says the exemption reduces the assessed value of a veteran’s home. “There’s not been an improvement or an increase of that since 1974,” she says, “so we feel it’s very important.”

The commission is also calling for more money in the fund that provides grants to first-time home buyers who’re veterans of the first Gulf War in the early 1990s or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in this century. Each grant is worth five-thousand dollars and Ledvina says there are often more applicants than grants available. “It’s a great thing to move to Iowa and get these benefits,” Ledvina says. “so we need more support to further fund that Home Ownership Grant for our veterans and our service members coming back into the State of Iowa.”

The grants may be used to cover down-payments and closing costs on a home, townhouse or condo that will be the veteran’s primary residence.

(Radio Iowa) – Charges are dismissed against a man who was accused of breaking into a Wright County hog operation in 2020, placing hidden cameras and stealing a live piglet. Thirty-five-year-old Matthew A. Johnson of Berkley, California was to have had his trial starting today in Wright County District Court in Clarion on the charges of third-degree burglary, electronic or mechanical eavesdropping and agricultural production facility trespass. On Tuesday, Wright County assistant attorney Joseph Corrow filed a motion to dismiss the charges.

According to criminal complaints and court documents, Johnson and an accomplice entered the Iowa Select hog site in rural Dows in May of 2020 without permission. Johnson and his accomplice, Linda L. Cridge of Fishers, Indiana placed two live video streaming cameras and an audio recording device in the facility. Johnson was being prosecuted under a new section of the Iowa Code known as the Iowa Ag Gag law put into law prior to the break in at the Iowa Select farm facility. Meanwhile Johnson’s motion to dismiss on the grounds that the ag gag law is unconstitutional under the first amendment was denied.

Wright County district court judge Derek Johnson dismissed the charges with prejudice, meaning the defendant cannot be charged with these crimes for the offense again.

More area, and State News from Ric Hanson.

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WASHINGTON – You see them during television news and hear them on other programs multiple times per day: advertisements for prescription drugs for everything from diabetes control and maintenance, to skin treatments and arthritis relief. On Wednesday, Iowa 3rd District Representative Cindy Axne introduced legislation that would end taxpayer subsidies for prescription drug advertisements targeted at American consumers by big pharmaceutical companies. Under current law, drug manufacturers are allowed to deduct the cost of advertising expenses from federal taxes, meaning taxpayer dollars are used to subsidize drug advertisements.

According to Axne, “Iowans are paying more than ever for their prescription drugs while giant pharmaceutical companies clear record profits in part by exploiting loopholes in our tax code to flood our airwaves with T.V. ads subsidized by Iowa tax dollars. This is unacceptable and insulting to the Iowans who tell me at every town hall I hold, the incredible lengths they are going to just to afford their medications.”  Axne says she’s joining with Congresswoman Slotkin, of Michigan, and Congressman Trone, from Maryland, “to introduce legislation that will cut off these tax breaks for drug companies and stop my constituents’ tax dollars from funding the never-ending carousel of prescription ads on their televisions.”

The No Tax Breaks for Drug Ads Act would prohibit any tax deduction for direct-to-consumer (DTC) prescription drug advertising, thereby making sure that taxpayer money isn’t being used to subsidize drug ads. The bill would cover any ad that refers to a prescription drug product and is primarily targeted to the general public, including through journals, magazines, newspapers, broadcast media such as radio and television, and digital platforms such as social media and web applications.

DTC advertising expenses by pharmaceutical companies have more than quadrupled over the past two decades, rising from $1.3 billion in 1997 to $6 billion in 2016. In that same time period, advertising from drug companies has increased from 79,000 ads to 4.6 million ads, including 663,000 TV commercials. Margarida Jorge, Campaign Director for Lower Drug Prices Now, call the tax breaks for drug companies “…corporate welfare of the worst kind.”

The Senate companion of this bill was introduced by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH).