(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.

(Radio Iowa) – Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says Russian President Vladimir Putin has been testing the west and whether the U.S. would defend important American interests in Ukraine.  “I love the Ukrainian people,” Pompeo says. “I’m confident they will fight. What they need is support from their friends and allies and we can most certainly do that.”

Pompeo is in Iowa for events in three cities. He spoke with Radio Iowa early last (Wednesday) night, just before reports began to indicate the situation on the ground in Ukraine was growing more dire. Pompeo criticized the Biden Administration for letting a bad man roll around Europe and he also suggested former President Trump’s recent description of Putin as “savvy” and “genius” was being misinterpreted. “We should respect Vladimir Putin’s capabilities and his cunningness,” Pompeo said. “We should recognize he is evil and has malign intent for the west and we should work every day to protect freedom loving people. I wish, I only wish the Biden Administration had done that.”

Pompeo says Putin’s aggression is primarily a European challenge and Europe must show it can defend itself. “President Trump and I made clear to NATO they needed to do more. They needed to actually spent money to defend their own countries in ways that they weren’t,” Pompeo told Radio Iowa. “If there was ever a signal moment for them to all step up and say: ‘I’m going to actually make my 2% promise for spending…2% of GDP, I’m actually going to build out my army and my Navy, I’m going to make my helicopters fly’ — this is the moment for NATO to come together.”

Pompeo spoke at an event last (Wednesday) night hosted by a brand new group called the Bastion Institute. Iowa Senator Joni Ernst spoke, too, and warned instability in Europe has ripple effects in the United States. “Our NATO friends are asking us to step up. Does that mean sending troops in? No, it doesn’t,” Ernst says. “But what it does mean is providing more lethal aid to the Ukrainian people, using some of those sanctions against Vladimir Putin and specifically against him and all of the primary banks within Russia.”

Ernst had been calling for the Biden Administration to impose pre-emptive sanctions against Russia and she says the financial restraints Biden has announced thus far don’t go far enough. Ernst and Pompeo will speak tonight (Thursday) at a G-O-P fundraiser in Fort Dodge and another one on Friday in Davenport. Senator Chuck Grassley says the U.S. needs to draw a line in the sand with sanctions against Russia.

Grassley faults the Biden Administration for not revealing earlier what steps the U.S. would take. “If you wanted to go back to what should have been done already, I’d say these sanctions maybe shouldn’t have been put on before they invaded,” Grassley says, “but they ought to have known what they were, so it would have retarded their efforts.”

Grassley made his comments Wednesday in Atlantic, hours Russia began attacking Ukraine.

(Radio Iowa) – The family of the correctional officer murdered nearly a year ago by two Anamosa prison inmates is urging legislators to give prison employees more workplace rights and more on the job protection. Robert McFarland’s widow, Sara McFarland, spoke at a news conference in Anamosa. “No other spouse, no other family can get this call,” McFarland said, “the call that I did.”

Cathie McFarland says her son paid the ultimate price for doing his job and the employees still working in the prison system need a lot of help. “I want the people who work in there to be safe,” she said. “I want them to go home to their families.”

One bill introduced in the Iowa House has been named the Robert McFarland Act. Another is named in honor of Lorena Schulte, the prison nurse who was murdered, and staffer Lorrie Matthes, who was taken hostage. The bills require the state to provide health care benefits to the spouse and children of prison staff killed on the job and to provide up to 30 days of paid leave if a staffer witnesses a traumatic event at work.

The bills also call for employees in the Iowa Department of Corrections to have the same collective bargaining rights as public safety workers, like state troopers. Robert McFarland’s brother, Dave, says the family made a promise to do what they can to make change. “How many more officers must die or be assaulted? What will it take for people to realize this is not a Republican thing, this is not a Democratic thing?” he asked. “This is an us thing.”

The bills would increase the penalty for assaulting a prison employee to a class D felony and would increase funding for contraband screening inside prison walls. Due to last week’s deadline for action on policy bills, these proposals would have to be tacked onto other legislation in order to be voted upon this year.