WASHINGTON – This week, Rep. Cindy Axne (IA-03) was named Vice-Chair of the Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Housing, Community Development and Insurance. In a statement to the media, Axne said “During my first two years in Congress, it has been my privilege to work with my Committee colleagues to support improving the safety and affordability of housing, and it is my honor to be named as Vice Chair of the Housing, Community Development and Insurance Subcommittee.

“This past year has shown how absolutely critical housing is to the health and prosperity of American families, and I look forward to working with our Chairs and with members on both sides of the aisle to continue crafting and advancing policies that will help improve access to affordable housing, promote equity, and ensure that rural and urban communities alike have the resources to invest in the success of their residents.”

Her office says Rep. Axne has used her position on the subcommittee to support improved housing access and increased investments in affordable housing, and to advocate for the tens of thousands of Iowans that work in the insurance industry. Earlier this year, two Rep. Axne bills aimed at supporting Iowa’s homeowners and renters were included in the American Rescue Plan, a COVID-19 relief package that included over $30 billion in housing support. The House also recently passed legislation authored by Rep. Axne to preserve affordable housing options in rural areas. 

Rep. Axne is also a member of the Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship and Capital Markets

The Atlantic Chamber Ambassadors were hosted by NISHNANET on Thursday, May 20^th, 2021. The Ambassadors learned more about NISHNANET’s goals and expansion with their new 514 Chestnut store.

NISHNANET came to serve the rural Atlantic and Audubon counties in 2018. Since then, NISHNANET has expanded to serve over 300 customers providing them with low cost, high-speed internet, fiber optics, phone service, tech support, and more.

With the opening of their new Customer Service hub at 514 Chestnut Street, NISHNANET will be able to better support their existing customers and non-customers alike by providing internet technology support and high-quality technology retail. Scott Bennett, owner, shared that with this store, the company can answer questions in a detailed way and offer unique support in which when a customer purchases an item, the employee will configure the device and when the customer returns home, the device will work providing one on one customer support.

With NISHNANET’s new walk-in space, the question is raised, “What will be done with their original location at 2 East 6^th Street?” Scott explained that with Cass/Atlantic Development’s help, they plan to turn their previous space into a “shared workspace.” A shared workspace allows those that work remotely to have access to a desk, telephone line, fast internet, printer, etc. The spaces can be rented with the purchase of a membership. More details will be released as the space comes together in July.

To keep up with NISHNANET, visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/nishnanet and be sure to check out the new space located at 514 Chestnut Street.

NISHNANET can also be reached at 712-243-2497.

The Cass County Sheriff’s Office reports two arrests. On May 14th, 34-year-old Reciever Berdon, of Atlantic, was arrested on a charge of OWI 1^st offense.  Berdon was transported to Cass County Jail and was later released on his ow recognizance.

And, on May 17th, Cass County Sheriff’s deputies arrested 37-year-old Ryan Joel Castle, of Griswold, on two Cass County warrants for probation violations.   Castle was transported from the Pottawattamie County Jail to the Cass County Jail where he is being held on $40,000 bond.

“All criminal charges are merely accusations and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in the court of law.”

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds asked Republican legislators to pass a bill to prohibit transgender athletes from competing in girls sports, but House Speaker Pat Grassley says they ran out of time. “We just had a lot of other things on our agenda and on our plate to wrap up the end of session and I don’t think we ever got to the point where everyone was comfortable with what that would look like right now,” Grassley says.

The 2021 legislative session ended late — very late — Wednesday evening. Reynolds says letting biological males who identify as females compete in volleyball, softball and other girls sports in Iowa is unfair to girls who’re trying for college scholarships. While the issue was tabled in the 2021 session, Grassley says there remains a level of support among Republicans for the ban.

“That will be part of the conversations between now and the next session, what legislation would look like,” Grassley says. “I think we just want to make sure the House, Senate and the governor are all on the same page.” Governor Reynolds publicly revealed her request for the transathlete ban three weeks ago during a Fox News forum with other G-O-P governors. House Democratic Leader Todd Prichard of Charles City says that’s part of a pattern.

“This is a governor that’s put headlines and impressing viewers of Fox News over being a leader for Iowa,” Prichard says. Representative Jennifer Konfrst of Windsor Heights, the second-ranking Democrat in the House, says it’s a divisive policy that hurts Iowa’s reputation and transgender students. “She’s been working to make sure that she’s a national figure by making political statements…and trying to build her brand. That’s not her job,” Konfrst says. “She’s supposed to serve Iowans.”

Nearly two months ago, South Dakota’s governor issued an executive order banning transgender athletes from girls sports in public high schools and public colleges and universities and similar legislation has been introduced in more than two dozen other states.

(Radio Iowa) – The Republican-led Iowa legislature passed a second round of election law changes this week, including limits on who can take someone else’s absentee ballot to the county auditor’s office. Senator Roby Smith, a Republican from Bettendorf, says there are all sorts of security provisions once an absentee ballot reaches a county auditor’s office, but without these changes, anyone can grab someone’s absentee ballot and claim they’ll deliver it.

“It was treated like a Kleenex. There’s no security when someone can knock on your door. ‘Oh, yeah, I’ll return your ballot,'” Smith says. “You don’t know who it is. They can open it up. They change the vote. They can throw it away. They could shred it.” Family members may deliver a relative’s absentee ballot and any registered voter in Iowa can help two blind or disabled voters deliver their absentee ballot to the county auditor’s office.

Political parties, unions and campaigns cannot have paid representatives or volunteers collect absentee ballots. Senator Pam Jochum of Dubuque and all the Democrats present Wednesday opposed the bill. “One more nail in democracy’s coffin,” Jochum said. “You’ve been working overtime, pal…to make sure you are creating an obstacle course for Iowa’s voters.” Senator James Carlin, a Republican from Sioux City, says the FEDERAL election law congress has proposed is designed to facilitate fraud and Iowa needs strong state rules.

“I like knowing that the people who are voting are who they say they are,” Carlin said, “and my trust issue, whatever it is, has really been triggered since Election Day.” Senator Tony Bisignano, a Democrat from Des Moines, says Republicans are using former President Trump’s claims of a rigged election as their guide for this year’s election-related bills. “What you’re doing is all based on a premise of a lie,” Bisignano said. “It’s a big lie.”

The election bill Republicans approved on the 2021 legislative session’s final day covers a wide range of issues. It stipulates 17-year-olds who’ve registered to vote because they’ll be 18 by Election Day are not to be removed when voters are cut from registration lists if they haven’t cast a ballot in the last General Election. That problem cropped up as a result of the election law passed earlier in the legislative session.

Creston police report the arrest of John Antonio Medina, 35, of Waterloo, Iowa at 1:48 pm on May 20, 2021, on a charge of Theft 5th.

Medina was cited and released on a Promise to Appear

The Trevor Frederickson Memorial Fund donated $500 to The Friends of Lake Anita for their free fishing clinic which will be held on Saturday, June 5^th at Lake Anita State Park.  This is a wonderful opportunity to spend time as a family fishing and enjoying the great outdoors at one of Iowa’s beautiful state parks.  Trevor loved to fish and this donation fits our mission statement perfectly.

The fund is in full swing getting ready for their 13^th Annual TFred Memorial Golf Tournament which will be held on Saturday, August 14^th at Nishna Hills Golf Club in Atlantic.  Please contact Melanie Petty at 249-3696 if you would like reserve a spot for a team, donate to our silent auction or become a hole sponsor.  All donations are given back to the community Trevor loved.  Since Trevor’s passing we have been blessed to give back over $250,000 and we look forward to giving back for many more years.

Today, Governor Kim Reynolds signed a proclamation that eases transport for crews and drivers hauling motor fuels.

The proclamation temporarily suspends regulatory provisions of Iowa law pertaining to hours of service for crews and drivers hauling motor fuels, including gasoline, diesel #1, diesel #2, ethanol and biodiesel. The proclamation also temporarily provisions of Iowa law pertaining to oversize and overweight loads of fuel. Increased demand, along with above average wait times at petroleum product terminals, along with ripple effects of the Colonial Pipeline shutdown, have created challenges to timely access of these fuels.

While some states across the country are experiencing shortages, the state of Iowa wants to proactively take steps to maintain supply. The proclamation is effective immediately and expires on June 19, 2021 at 11:59 pm.

(Radio Iowa) – An officer has testified that the man accused of killing college student Mollie Tibbetts in 2018 led investigators to the field where her body was found. Pamela Romero was an Iowa City police officer two years ago who interviewed suspect Cristhian Bahena Rivera. “He showed me the corn field and he goes: ‘This is the corn field where I came, took her out of the trunk, carried her on my shoulder, went inside the corn field, dropped her on the ground, covered her with leaves and I left right away,'” she testified.

Romero said during an 11 hour police interview, Rivera admitted chasing Tibbetts and fighting with her when she threatened to call the police. She says Rivera told her he couldn’t remember how he killed Tibbetts. “The next thing that he told me was that he remembered him driving and looking down into his legs and finding the ear buds that belonged to Mollie,” she testified, “and that is when he remembered that he had Mollie in the back of his vehicle, in the trunk.”

Based on the questions Bahena Rivera’s attorneys are asking witnesses, it appears they plan to argue Rivera was sleep deprived and coerced into making a confession.

(Reporting by Iowa Public Radio’s Kate Payne)

(Radio Iowa) – Leaders of Iowa’s dairy industry are praising the state legislature for passing a pair of bills before adjourning to address the hauling of milk and also what are known as anaerobic digesters. Mitch Schulte, executive director of the Iowa State Dairy Association, says permission to use those digesters will mean Iowa dairies can improve their sustainability and environmental footprint — in addition to their financial pictures.

“It’s going to give us the ability to have more animals in an area,” Schulte says. “We’re still going to care for those animals in the same way, but as long as we have that anaerobic digester in place, we’re going to be able to clean the manure, we’re going to clean the water, and we’re going to clean that air as it comes out of there. And, we’re going to produce a fuel source that can be used by our consumers out there.”

One byproduct of anaerobic digestion is biogas, which can be burned to generate electricity and heat. It can also be processed into transportation fuels and into renewable natural gas.”The dairy industry has a collective goal of being carbon neutral or better by the year 2050 and it’s going to take everyone in our industry to work together to do that,” Schulte says. “A lot of what we need to do to be carbon neutral is just documenting the great work that our farmers are already doing today.” He says some of those efforts include the reusing of water at farming operations and the planting of cover crops to reduce erosion.

Schulte says the other piece of legislation to relax regulations on hauling milk will allow producers to truck larger loads on Iowa’s interstates starting in January of 2022. They’re now restricted to local roads and state highways. “It’s going to allow our milk haulers to get up on the interstate system with overweight loads,” Schulte says. “The way this bill is structured, our milk haulers will be able to obtain an overweight permit for the interstate system. We think this is beneficial, not only for our sustainable footprint and moving the product more efficiently, but it’s also good for the community.”

Schulte says being able to move milk on the interstate system will create a much safer environment by getting those vehicles off of town roads and out of congested areas.