(Des Moines, Iowa) – Auditor of State Rob Sand today (Wednesday) released a report on a special investigation of the University of Iowa (University), Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology (Department), for the period January 1, 2016 through December 31, 2023. The special investigation was requested by University officials as a result of concerns regarding certain financial transactions processed by a member of the Department, Dr. Calvin Carter, and Charles Searby with the Department of Pediatrics. As a result, the University placed Dr. Carter on paid administrative leave effective October 11, 2023. Dr. Carter was a
Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology professor and participated in research for the Department at the time he was placed on administrative leave. Charles Searby is a Research Specialist with the Department of Pediatrics. (View the full report here: SUI – Neuro Report)

Sand reported the special investigation identified $294,913.41 of improper disbursements which included $3,182.40 of federal question costs, and $7,257.13 of unsupported disbursements. The $3,182.40 of question costs identified includes $2,928.30 of purchases for Laboratory and Technology, $31.79 of purchases for Software, and $222.31 of purchases for Other. The $291,731.01 of improper disbursements identified includes $128,463.98 of purchases for Animal and Care, $82,252.39 of payments for Legal, $51,222.76 of purchases for Laboratory and Technology, $12,597.57 of purchases for Software, $11,619.97 of purchases for Consulting and Membership, and $5,574.34 of other purchases.

The $7,257.13 of unsupported disbursements identified includes $5,401.27 of purchases for Laboratory and Technology, $225.72 of purchases for Animal and Care, $275.46 of purchases for Software, and $1,354.68 of other purchases. The report includes a recommendation for University officials to continue to improve and communicate the disclosure requirements related to conflicts of interest and conflicts of commitment. The report also includes a recommendation that University officials implement procedures to ensure sufficient documentation and explanations are provided to verify the propriety of charges.

Copies of the report have been filed with the Iowa Board of Regents’ Office of Internal Audit, the University of Iowa’s Department of Public Safety, the Division of Criminal Investigation, the Johnson
County Attorney’s Office, and the Attorney General’s Office. A copy of the report is available for review on the Auditor of State’s website at Special Interest Reports.

(Radio Iowa) – A report from the Common Sense Institute Iowa shows the state has the third highest level of out migration of all 50 states when adjusted for population. Report co-author Ben Murrey says born-and-raised Iowans have some of the highest average incomes in the country but often choose to work elsewhere.  “That has implications for Iowa’s economy, right? It means we’re investing in human capital, and what turns out to be very valuable human capital, but Iowa is not getting the return on that investment. Some other state is getting the return on that investment,” Murrey says.

He says the study looked at people who left the state after graduating from a public university in 2022.  “One year of that flight of young, college-educated people, costs Iowa’s economy six-point-one billion dollars over their working life,” he says. “Now you have to imagine, you get the same negative impact in 2024 and 2025 and every year we have these people leaving.” Murrey says one reason so many people born and raised in Iowa are leaving is because they are able to fetch higher salaries elsewhere. He says there is a mismatch.

The number of white-collar jobs in Iowa simply can’t keep up with the number of young and educated adults the state produces. The report found the total cost to educate a single Iowan from 2006 to 2022 was more than 250-thousand dollars. Most of that is spent during college.

(Radio Iowa) – The leader of an Iowa City nonprofit does -not- expect any local impact as President Trump has ordered the United States to again pull out of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO. Iowa City is a designated City of Literature under UNESCO and program manager John Kenyon says the community’s international status should stay intact. “A city needs to be part of a country that is a member of UNESCO for it to be designated,” Kenyon says, “but then, once you have the designation, that relationship is then between the city and UNESCO.”

In 2008, Iowa City became the first place in America designated as a City of Literature. The U.S. also exited UNESCO in 2017 during the first Trump administration, then rejoined five years later under President Biden. Kenyon says through it all, Iowa City’s status as a City of Literature remained unchanged.  “Obviously there were negative repercussions of our country not being a member of UNESCO, but in terms of the designation and our status, nothing changed there,” he says. “My hope is that that’s the same this time, and I have no reason to believe it won’t be.”

The nation’s withdrawal from UNESCO will take full effect in 2027. The departure marks the third time this year the Trump administration has announced plans to exit a U.N. agency, following its withdrawal from the World Health Organization and the U.N. Human Rights Council.

(Radio Iowa) – Visitors to the sculpture park in downtown Des Moines will no longer have to glance at their watches or phones to determine the time, as a new two-story-tall clock overlooks the area, blending art and technology. Renae Mauk, a vice president with the Greater Des Moines Partnership, says the work called “TimePiece” is an innovative 3-D installation that displays real time in a giant clockface through 162 L-E-D panels on the side of the Fitch Building. “It’s a new digital clock for downtown Des Moines, and every hour on the hour it presents a whole new design,” Mauk says. “There’s 12 different clock faces, and we really encourage people to come down and see it. There’s a face on it that is called Colossal, this kind of robot character that comes out and changes the time every hour.”

The colorful clock’s dozen faces in stained glass, jewels and stones repeat every 12 hours, with mini-shows every 15 minutes. TimePiece is the creation of world-renowned French artist and filmmaker Yorame Mevorach, who’s known professionally as Oyoram. “He has a residence here in Des Moines, and so between the property owner and the artist, they kind of had approached the group about this and I think it was important for him to have a piece of work in one of his hometowns,” Mauk says. “That’s kind of the connection and we’re excited to have this piece and have it be such a permanent part of the downtown’s collection.” What did it cost? Mauk will only say that it was “a collection of in-kind donations” that made it a reality on the capitol city’s skyline.

TimePiece (Radio Iowa photo)

TimePiece creates the illusion of depth and movement, transforming a flat surface into an immersive experience, and she says it sparkles every 15 minutes, much like the Eiffel Tower does on the hour. “I saw a woman stopped, walking her dog, and admiring it. She lives around the corner and was just sharing how she’s already had so many wonderful interactions with neighbors and other downtown residents,” Mauk says. “She even struck up a 15-minute conversation with somebody she never knew before, and I loved her words, she said, ‘It’s doing exactly what art should do, in creating community and conversation.'”

Mauk says Oyoram is based in Des Moines’ Historic Sherman Hill neighborhood and maintains a working studio in Paris. With the addition of a gallery for immersive art installations under construction, he hopes to create a bridge between visual artists in the two cities.

(A report from the Iowa Capital Dispatch) –  A federal appeals court denied a rehearing petition Monday from Iowa counties involved in a case against Summit Carbon Solutions regarding a county’s ability to enact local pipeline ordinances.  Shelby and Story County supervisors petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit for an en banc rehearing earlier this month following the judge’s ruling in favor of Summit in June.

One judge dissented in the majority opinion that all of the ordinances set by the counties would be preempted by the Pipeline Safety Act. An en banc rehearing, as requested by the counties and supported via amicus briefs from the states of Minnesota, Michigan, Oregon, Vermont and from Pipeline Safety Trust, would require a rehearing of the case with all 11 active judges at the appeals court.

The order denying the petition for rehearing did not include any additional information or opinion from the judge.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – The Iowa Supreme Court Attorney Disciplinary Board reprimanded Brian Jorde, an attorney who has represented hundreds of landowners in lawsuits against pipelines, including Iowa and South Dakota landowners opposed to the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline.  The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports the disciplinary board wrote in the reprimand that Jorde presented information that was “misleading or deceptive” during Iowa and South Dakota utilities commission proceedings regarding permit applications for the carbon sequestration project.

Jorde, part of Domina Law Group out of Omaha, represented 155 landowners in the Iowa Utilities Commission’s evaluation of Summit Carbon Solutions’ permit application to construct more than 600 miles of a pipeline carrying liquid carbon dioxide sequestered from biorefineries across the state. The pipeline would travel through Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota and eventually be stored in underground rock formations in North Dakota.

In the Iowa permit proceedings, Jorde filed pretrial testimony on behalf of landowners, including Nancy Dugan. Dugan had filed her own information in the IUC proceedings as well and, according to the reprimand, had been in contact via email with Jorde.

Jorde also represented landowners in the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission’s hearings on Summit’s permit application. According to the records provided in the reprimand, he asked for and received Dugan’s permission to submit some of her research that had already been submitted in the IUC dockets, to the South Dakota hearings.  Jorde’s filings on behalf of Dugan, however, included introductory written testimony, which Dugan later said, in an email to Jorde obtained by the advisory board, were “not statements I would choose to submit.”

The reprimand said Dugan did not approve these written statements. The statement submitted in South Dakota had an electronic signature at the bottom, but the IUC document had not been signed by Dugan. Dugan clarified in her email to Jorde that she was not a landowner and was worried about being called to testify. Jorde, in response, said the filing with the IUC must have happened inadvertently by staff who filed a number of pretrial testimony. He assured Dugan he did not intend to call her to testify, according to the included emails.

In subsequent emails, Dugan asked Jorde to retract the statement, or allow her to submit a revised version that included her actual responses. According to the reprimand, Dugan later learned the same statements had been submitted in South Dakota and again emailed Jorde asking him to refrain from filing any affidavits on her behalf unless it was something she had written or reviewed or approved.

In April 2024, months after the IUC hearing occurred  Dugan brought up the issue again to Jorde asking him to rescind the statements from the IUC record, according to the reprimand. Jorde said the pretrial testimony was not used in the hearing and therefore not part of the record, so he was unsure what action the IUC would take. He later said to the board the filing was not “material” information to the proceedings, the reprimand states.

Attorney Brian Jorde gives his argument in front of the Iowa Supreme Court on Oct. 8, 2024, at the historic Iowa Supreme Courtroom at the Iowa State Capitol. (Pool photo by Cody Scanlan/The Des Moines Register)

According to the advisory board, Jorde contacted the IUC about removing the testimony, but did not contact the South Dakota commission about the issue.  The written testimony attributed to Dugan was not used in the commission hearings in either state. Dugan brought the issue to the attention of the IUC council and Nebraska attorney disciplinary authorities, where the matter was brought to the Iowa Supreme Court Attorney Disciplinary Board.

The board concluded the actions in South Dakota were “deceptive” and wrote it was “deeply concerning” that Jorde and his staff did not mention to Dugan the extra pages filed in addition to the research she had consented to filing. The board was less clear on its ruling on the Iowa document because Jorde claimed it was inadvertently submitted, which was enforced by the blank notarization. The board “found it troubling” Jorde did not withdraw the filing upon learning it had been inadvertently filed.

The board concluded that the “severity of the misrepresentation issues” did not “rise to level” of many previously prosecuted matters, but “the duty of candor is one of the most basic and fundamental obligations we require of lawyers.” Jorde did not file any exceptions to the reprimand within the allowed 30-day window, meaning the reprimand was made “final and public” according to the document.

In a message to Iowa Capital Dispatch, Jorde said his focus remains on his clients.  There is no further disciplinary action beyond the public reprimand.

FORT DODGE, Iowa – Nathaniel Cortez Griggs, convicted of Domestic Abuse Assault-3rd or Subsequent Offense in Black Hawk County, failed to report back to the Fort Dodge Residential Center as required on Saturday, July 26, 2025.

Griggs is a 34-year-old, 5’8″, 210-pound Black male. He was admitted to the work release facility on April 21, 2025.

Persons with information on Griggs’ whereabouts should contact local police.

Nathaniel Cortez Griggs

For more information on the state’s work release program, please see Iowa Code 904.901-904.910.

July 29, 2025 (DES MOINES, IA) — Rural grocers and food producers are among eight recipients of the latest Rural Innovation Grants, announced today by the Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA). Awarded through the Governor’s Empower Rural Iowa Initiative, the grants total $72,624 and will support projects designed to enhance local services and promote economic development. Among the eight recipients was the Minden Countryside Market. They will offer a drive-thru, with a faster, more convenient grocery pickup — ideal for busy households and individuals with mobility challenges.

IEDA/Iowa Finance Authority Director Debi Durham said “Rural businesses are essential to the health and prosperity of Iowa’s small towns. From improving access to fresh food to reaching new customers, they serve as anchors in their communities. This funding helps them modernize, grow and continue meeting the evolving needs of Iowans.”

The Rural Innovation Grant program encourages creative solutions to challenges faced by towns that have fewer than 20,000 residents and are not located next to cities with populations of 40,000 or more.

This round of funding prioritized independently owned grocery stores implementing technology upgrades or new service models; food producers investing in equipment, technology or regulatory support; and established businesses pursuing new markets through a partnership with the Colorado-based National Center for Economic Gardening.

IEDA received 10 applications from across the state. The other recipients selected include:

• Independence — Gedney Bakery & Coffeehouse
  The launch of a grab-and-go menu and expansion into small-event catering requires new equipment for food preparation, display, storage and delivery.
• Sumner — Ten Wasp Brewing Company
  A new fermenter and temperature control unit will increase production capacity by up to 17%, improve efficiency and allow for more seasonal and specialty brews.
• Winthrop — Nicks’ Family Grocery
  Equipment additions — including convection ovens, a Broaster and insulated food pan carriers — will support in-store take-and-bake meals and enable the delivery of hot, made-from-scratch food to households within a 5-mile radius.

The grant program is administered by IEDA’s Center for Rural Revitalization, in consultation with the Governor’s Empower Rural Iowa Initiative task force. The next round of Rural Innovation Grant funding opened July 1 and focuses on increasing rural housing availability. The deadline to apply is 4 p.m. CDT Aug. 29.

To learn more about the program, eligibility requirements or future grant opportunities, visit opportunityiowa.gov/community/revitalization/center-rural-revitalization/rural-innovation-grant-program or view the current application at IowaGrants.gov.

KELLOGG – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is investigating a fish kill at Rock Creek Lake in Jasper County.

On July 28, the DNR Field Office in Des Moines was notified of a fish kill at the lake. DNR field staff responded to the incident, and upon arrival observed dead fish sporadically throughout the lake and several miles upstream in the Rock Creek watershed.

Water samples were collected from several locations within the Rock Creek watershed, including the lake. DNR staff tested the water for dissolved oxygen, ammonia nitrogen, and pH, with all parameters falling within acceptable ranges for fish survival. There is no longer an active fish kill in the lake. The investigation is ongoing.

Out of an abundance of caution, a swimming advisory has been posted at the lake through Wednesday, July 30. Swimming is not advised until the advisory is lifted on Thursday.

To report a release after hours, please call the DNR’s emergency spill line at (515) 725-8694. Quick reporting can help DNR staff identify the cause of an incident. The DNR website has more information about spill reporting requirements.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – The Iowa Department of Corrections reports Ashley Nicole Duncan, who was convicted of Conspiracy/Commit Felony (Property) and Assault with a Weapon – Peace Officers/Others in Pottawattamie County, failed to report back to the Council Bluffs Residential Correctional Facility as required on Friday, July 25, 2025.

Ashley Nicole Duncan

Duncan is a 30-year-old, 5’2″, 146-pound White female. She was admitted to the work release facility on July 22, 2025.

Persons with information on Duncan’s whereabouts should contact local police.