DES MOINES, IA — Representatives Zach Nunn (IA-03) and Emanuel Cleaver (MO-05), today (Thursday), introduced the bipartisan Rural Housing Service Reform Act to preserve affordable housing, improve program oversight, and expand access to safe homes for families, seniors, and workers across rural Iowa. In a news release, Rep. Nunn said “More and more Iowans are watching the dream of homeownership slip out of reach. Too many programs meant to help are outdated, buried in red tape, and no longer work for the families they were created to serve. This bipartisan bill cuts through that bureaucracy to protect affordable housing, speed up repairs, and modernize USDA’s tools—so rural families, seniors, and workers can build their future right here in Iowa.”

More than 40 percent of Iowans spend over a third of their income on rent, while rural communities face worsening shortages as aging USDA-financed properties leave the program when mortgages mature. Outdated USDA systems, slow processing times, and limited oversight have only compounded these challenges—leaving families with fewer options and raising the risk of displacement.  Lance Henning Greater Des Moines Habitat for Humanity CEO said in the news release, “A safe, stable home is the foundation of a good life, but far too many of our neighbors are priced out of homeownership. The affordable housing crisis confronting our nation is felt in our small towns as much as it is in any big city. All efforts that help make homeownership more accessible are a step in the right direction.”

Key provisions of the Rural Housing Service Reform Act include:

• The creation of a permanent program to preserve USDA-financed affordable rental housing by enabling nonprofits to acquire properties and keep rental assistance after loans mature
• Modernize USDA technology and staffing to speed up applications, improve oversight, and prevent fraud in the system
• Expand home repair grants and financing to help rural families maintain and grow their homes
• Support rural childcare by allowing loan guarantees for homes with in-home daycare facilities
• Require annual reporting and Government Accountability Office (GAO) audits to ensure transparency and protect taxpayer investments

The Senate version of the Rural Housing Service Reform Act, led by Senators Tina Smith (D-MN) and Mike Rounds (R-SD), recently advanced through the Senate Banking Committee as part of a broader housing package. The overall package is sponsored by Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC) and Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).

Text of the bill can be found here.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s attorney general has joined three dozen other attorneys general in calling for Instagram to make changes in a new feature that shows where people are when they’re using the app. Instagram’s new location-sharing service shows a users precise location on a map.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird says that poses unacceptable and serious risks for children and the victims of stalking and domestic violence who should be able to use Instagram without putting their lives in jeopardy.

Bird and the other attorneys general are asking Meta, the parent company of Instagram, to create an easy way to disable the feature and to ensure it not used on the Instagram accounts of minors. The group says Meta should disclose how it intends to use the data is collects from seeing where people are when they use Instagram.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s numbers are out for July and Iowa Workforce Development director Beth Townsend says things held steady.  “Unemployment remained at three-point-seven percent (3.7%) and our labor force participation also remained the same in July at 67-point four percent (67.4%),” she says. Townsend says there are positives when you look deeper into the numbers. “This was the first month we hadn’t seen an increase in unemployment for a few months, so that was a good sign. We added 18-hundred Iowans to the workforce, another good sign. Not enough to move the needle in terms of the labor force participation rate, but it’s still a good sign to be adding more workers,” Townsend says.

Townsend says there were 11-thousand more people working this July compared to one year ago. “We’ve had some layoffs in the last 12 months, and so the fact that we still have 11-thousand more Iowans with jobs is a good indication that we’re able to absorb and recover from those layoffs,” she says. Manufacturing has been one of the sectors taking loses, but Townsend says there was better news there in July. “We saw an increase in manufacturing jobs in both durable and non-durable goods in July of 600, and that’s the first month that we’ve seen an increase in manufacturing since March,” she says.

Unemployment had gone up one-tenth of a percent in March, April, May and June. The national unemployment rate increased to four-point-two percent in July.

(Radio Iowa) – Every stall in the Horse Barn at this year’s Iowa State Fair has been occupied — and Clydesdale and Percheron draft horses have arrived as their National Shows get underway today (Thursday). Noah Levy is the Horse Barn Superintendent, which means he’s in charge of the two-acre, 12-aisle barn. “It’s about as big as we can get,” Levy says. “It’s about as many horses as we can put in the barn.” Levy started volunteering in the barn in 2017 to help out a friend — and this is his third year as superintendent. “You know, you want friends with boats, you may not want to own your own boat. I do this so I don’t have to own horses,” Levy says. “For me, it’s about the people and the horses are a bonus.” The Horse Barn is a MOSTLY tranquil place.

“The noise you’re going to hear is when one of them is hungry and has decided, even though it’s not technically meal time for them, they want it now and they’ll start banging on the stalls,” Levy said, “and especially with our drafts and you’ve got 2000 pound horses, their banging on the stalls sounds like thunder in this barn.” After the July deadline for entries in this year’s horse shows, there was a wait list. “When they enter for these classes, it’s difficult for us to know how many stalls they’re going to need versus what we had because we run a bunch of different breed shows and they overlap in the barn,” Levy says. “It’s not as simple as, ‘Oh, we’ve got 500 stalls in this barn. Once you sell out 500, you close it.” Levy says the wait list was eliminated, though, by laying out the puzzle pieces differently.

Horse Barn on the Iowa State Fairgounds

“A lot of credit for that goes to the team working on it and also our exhibitors themselves,” Levy says. “We called many of them and asked them: ‘What is the minimum number of stalls you need in order to show at the Iowa State Fair?’ And a lot of our long time exhibitors really came to the plate for us, gave back stalls, so that we could get exhibitors off the wait list so that everybody could get in and we cleared that wait list just a few days, I would say, less than a week before the Fair started.” Levy says all the horse shows are getting more popular based on the number of exhibitors — and the number spectators. There have been standing-room-only crowds for some of this year’s shows.

“If you’re popping in, especially to one of our evening shows with a six-horse hitch running in the ring, you’re generally hooked,” Levy said, “and your generally coming back and you’re bringing more friends with you.” The show ring in the Jacobsen Building on the Fairgrounds opened in 2010. Two years ago, state fair officials ended ticket sales for the Horse Shows and entry is now free. As soon as this year’s Fair is over, phase two of Horse Barn renovations will start. “New stalls on new flooring, new ventilation — that’s a big draw for some exhibitors,” Levy says. “These old barns are wonderful and historic and they’re really cool to walk through, but given their age they’re maybe not as nice to show in anymore, but the Fair has really stepped up and we’re looking at a very expensive renovation of this barn that should be completed before the Fair next year.”

Phase one of the project focused the outside of the building was completed before this year’s Fair. The Horse Barn was built in 1907, with additions in 1909, 1912 and 1929.

(Radio Iowa) – Dozens of Iowa school districts will be starting classes soon without a full roster of full-time teachers and staff. This (Thursday) morning, the state’s “Teach Iowa” website shows public and private K-12 schools have nearly 38-hundred openings for all sorts of positions — coaches, cooks AND teachers. Professor Mark McDermott, associate dean of the University of Iowa’s College of Education, says it’s difficult to generalize and say the state is experiencing a “significant” teacher shortage. McDermott says, “Anytime that there’s a school district that is in need of hiring a particular teacher and hasn’t been able to fill a particular position, for that school and that school district, that is a teacher shortage.”

Iowa has more than half-a-million students enrolled in nearly 330 public districts and over 180 private schools. McDermott says administrators routinely contact him as fall approaches, checking to see if any recent U-I graduates are available to fill teaching positions. “Our job is to try to develop and create not only teachers that will get licensed, but teachers that will be retained in the field,” McDermott says. “We don’t know exactly where our students are going to go and where they’re going to end up teaching, but by doing that, we’re doing our part to help figure out ways to provide quality teachers for all students.”

While elementary school teachers are typically in the most plentiful supply, McDermott says there’s demand for teachers at all grade levels. “Right now, districts are really in need of some special ed teachers,” McDermott says. “Physics teachers are always challenging to find. A lot of school districts are looking for English Language Learner teachers, the ELL-endorsed teachers.” Every school district will handle its teacher shortage differently. McDermott says some will simply not be able to offer all of the courses they’d planned to offer this fall. “Some school districts are looking towards online programs to try to offer opportunities for their students, even if they’re not able to hire a teacher specifically for that area,” McDermott says. “Back when I was teaching high school, one of the things that would happen would be class sizes would increase.”

State education officials say there are more educators in Iowa classrooms today than ever before, with a 10 percent increase in the total number of teachers in the past 12 years.

https://iowa.schoolspring.com/

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Cass County Sheriff’s Office has issued a report on arrests.

• On August 7th, 29-year-old Ismael Alejandro Cerpa Huerta, of Monticello, was arrested on charges that include: Sexual exploitation of a minor; Enticing a minor under the age of 16; Four counts of dissemination and exhibition of obscene material to minors, and Grooming. Huerta was being held in the Cass County Jail.
• On August 9th, 38-year-old Paige Renee Rebarcak, of Walnut, was arrested for OWI – 1st Offense. She was later released on her own recognizance.
• On August 10th, Cass County Sheriff’s Deputies arrested 68-year-old Gary Lynn Kent, of Clarinda, for Possession of a controlled substance, and Possession of drug paraphernalia. Kent was was later released on his own recognizance. And, 30-year-old Christian Monreal Sempek, of Elliott, was arrested August 10th, on a warrant for failure to appear. Sempek was later released on bond.

(Creston, Iowa) – Officials with the Creston Police Department say two men were arrested on separate charges, Wednesday (Aug. 13):

• 40-year-old Jarod James Wilmeth, of Creston, was arrested for Violation of Probation. Wilmeth was being held without bond in the Union County Jail until seen by a Judge.
• 40-year-old John David Foster, of Creston, was arrested Wednesday for Theft in the 5th Degree. Foster was released from the Union County Jail after posting a $300 bond.

MONTICELLO, Iowa (KCRG) – The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reported a plane crash near Monticello, Monday. According to the the report, at around 2:49 p.m. Monday, the Jones County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a plane crash in a field south of Monticello. According to the NTSB, the crash involved a 1950’s-era North American T-28B Trojan, registered to East Iowa Air, Inc.

Another plane located the crash in a soybean field. The plane circled the area to alert first responders of the crash location. First responders located the crash shortly after. The pilot, identified as James Rohlf, died as a result of the crash. Rohlf was a member of Trojan Thunder – a team of pilots that perform in air shows all across the country. He was also a flight instructor and was the founder of his own nonprofit called the Aviation Heritage Foundation.

(Photo credit: https://www.warbirdsflyhere.com/t-28d)

After further investigation, authorities say the plane reported engine trouble shortly after leaving the Monticello Regional Airport and was returning to the airport. The pilot reported they were going down in a beanfield a minute later.

(Radio Iowa) – The leader of Lutheran Services in Iowa (LSI) says donations from across the state helped them continue working with around 200 refugees, despite the January loss of federal funding. L-S-I’s director of refugee services, Nick Wuertz, told supporters at the community’s response to the funding cut was immediate and generous.

Donations ranged from ten to 200-thousand dollars. He says organizations all across the country had to make staff layoffs immediately, and but they didn’t have to because of the donations.

L-S-I received donations from almost 600 people.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Supreme Court Justice Thomas Waterman won’t be a part of the case surrounding the deadly collapse of a Davenport apartment building in 2023. Three people died in the collapse and one woman had her leg amputated be rescue workers to get her out. A statement from the Iowa Judicial Branch says Justice Waterman decided to step away from the case because his former law firm is involved. The firm represents the City of Davenport and two city officials who are named in the lawsuit.

The Iowa Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments in early October.