(Radio Iowa) – A spokesperson for Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird says prosecutors have filed felony charges in six cases of alleged election fraud. In March, Secretary of State Paul Pate announced an audit found 35 non-citizens voted in Iowa last year and five others tried to vote, but their ballots were rejected. Another 237 people were registered to vote in Iowa, but did not cast a ballot.

“It does take a while for the DCI to get through that many names,” Pate says. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation is in charge of reviewing Pate’s list of 277 potential non-citizens who allegedly voted OR were registered to vote in 2024. This year, the legislature gave Pate authority to use federal data or hire private entities to check Iowa’s voter registration records and flag potential non-citizens.

“What we’re trying to do is put safeguards in now so that on the registration side we can deal with this much more effectively,” Pate said. Two weeks before last November’s election, Pate asked county election officials to challenge the ballots of over two-thousand registered voters who were legal U-S residents when they got an Iowa driver’s license, but might not have become U-S citizens.

“Doing it on Election Day at a polling site when you have thousands of people coming into vote and you’re trying to expedite the process is not ideal for trying to check on citizenship,” Pate says. Pate says that’s why it was important to get authority to be pro-active well before Election Day and cross-check voter registration records with citizenship data.

Nearly one-point-seven MILLION Iowans voted in 2024 and critics say Pate’s list of 40 people who voted or tried to vote last year is a small fraction of all votes cast.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Lottery is on track to finish the fiscal year at the end of this month ahead of projections. Lottery CEO Matt Strawn updated the Lottery Commission today.

“Through May 2025, total lottery sales of $400,986,731 are 4.61% or $17.7 million ahead of forecasted budget projections in sales for the fiscal year,” Strawn says. The money the Lottery will send to the state is also ahead of projections. “Total lottery proceeds $81,063,349 are up 14.3% or 10.1 million dollars ahead of forecasted budget projections for proceeds for fiscal ’25,” he says.

The Lottery is coming off a record for sales of nearly 490 million dollars in the last fiscal year after five lotto game jackpots hit more than one billion dollars. “There was not a single Powerball jackpot that exceeded 600 million dollars this fiscal year,” Strawn says “As equally unprecedented as last year’s billion dollar jackpots were, that’s unprecedented and certainly had a significant impact when it comes to Powerball sales.”

Iowa Lottery Headquarters. (RI photo)

Strawn spoke after the Commission meeting and says the economy has had some impact on sales. )”Everybody’s wallets are a little skinnier as it relates to, you know, increased prices, whether it is at the gas pump or whether it’s, you know, products at the grocery store,” Strawn says. “I always remind I wins that a lottery product is to be enjoyed responsibly with your discretionary income and when there’s less discretionary income, Iowans are responsible consumers. So one of the first things to go is, you know maybe buying that five dollar scratch ticket.”

Powerball ticket sales are down nearly 53% from last year, Mega Millions sales are down nearly 31$ and scratch tickets are down 4.2%t. Lotto America sales were up 35% and InstaPlay and Pulltab sales were also up.

(Greenfield, Iowa) – The Adair County Roads Department is notifying motorists about two, temporary road closures in Adair County:

Beginning at Noon on Wed., June 25th, Norfolk Avenue will be closed north of 260th Street, until Noon on Friday, June 27th, as part of a construction project. (See map below)

Norfolk Ave.

And, beginning at Noon on Wed., June 25th, 130th Street in Adair County will be closed from Orange Avenue to the Quarry entrance at 2434 130th Street, until Noon on Friday, also. This is also part of a construction project.

130th

AVOCA – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is investigating a petroleum release at the West Nishnabotna River near Avoca in Pottawattamie County. On June 24, staff from the DNR’s Atlantic Field Office observed a petroleum sheen entering the West Nishnabotna River, just north of the Avoca exit off Interstate 80.

The petroleum originated from the Eagles Landing Flying J Truckstop located just north of the City of Avoca. The facility is a registered leaking underground storage tank (LUST) site with the Iowa DNR, with a No Further Action classification since 2011.

This spring, a complaint was filed with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) regarding potential petroleum contamination at the facility. During the investigation of the complaint, it was discovered that a petroleum product was being discharged into an on-site stormwater retention basin. The investigation found that the release did not reach any state water body. Eagles Landing has been cooperative in conducting cleanup activities following the discovery of the release.

Recent heavy rainfall in the area has impacted cleanup efforts at the facility, leading to an unknown amount of product reaching the West Nishnabotna River.

A contractor hired by the facility has added absorbent booms and sphag sorb to the river to prevent further downstream movement. The public is asked to avoid the area at this time. No dead fish have been observed, and the investigation is ongoing.

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.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says he and fellow Republicans in the chamber are forging ahead with the wide-ranging so-called Big, Beautiful Bill and he remains hopeful they will be able to pass the massive tax-and-spending cut package by the White House’s deadline of July 4th.

“All I can tell you is last night from 6:00 to 7:30, we had a caucus and there’s a commitment on everybody’s part to get this done,” Grassley says. “We probably won’t finish until Sunday, but we’re going to stay in session until we get it done.”

The Senate’s parliamentarian has removed several key elements from the bill, including a provision that would have prevented people who aren’t documented from getting benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

“Illegal immigrants are illegally in the country. I don’t think we should be supporting people that entered illegally into the country,” Grassley says. “There’s legal ways to get here and we’ll help people that need help that legally enter our country and obey our laws.”

Reports say the parliamentarian also removed a measure for price supports on a host of farm commodities.

“That’s a loss from this standpoint, that if we get it in the reconciliation bill, it’ll be taken care of and make up for the fact that we have a seven-year Farm Bill now from 2018,” Grassley says. “We should have had two years to get a new five-year Farm Bill. We won’t get it. I think we’ll get it this year. We’ll take care of these things in the five-year Farm Bill.”

Another controversial measure was reportedly removed that would have created a framework for the sale of some 250-million acres of federal land, though Grassley says he might have supported that portion of the legislation.

“Two-hundred-fifty-million acres sounds like a lot of land, doesn’t it,” Grassley asks. “It’s one-half of one-percent of all the federal land. That’s what this statute says.”

The land is now owned by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. The plots are in 11 states, all in the western U.S., none in Iowa. The provision would have opened up broad expanses of that wilderness for development.

(Muscatine, Iowa) –  One person died and another was injured during a collision this (Tuesday) morning in eastern Iowa’s Muscatine County. The Iowa State Patrol reports the accident happened at around 7:15-a.m. in the 2300 block of Burlington Road, in Muscatine. The Patrol says a 2015 VW driven by 39-year-old Daniel Owen Lincon, of Muscatine, was traveling at a high rate of speed on eastbound Burlington Road, when it crossed the center line and struck a westbound 1995 Chevy passenger car. Both vehicles came to rest on the roadway.

Lincon was injured in the crash and flown to the University of Iowa Hospital. The driver of the other vehicle – whose name was being withheld pending notification of family – died at the scene.

(Radio Iowa) – Two people escaped from a house fire in Estherville yesterday (Monday) and one was taken to a hospital for treatment. Estherville Fire Chief Travis Sheridan says there was heavy smoke inside the house when firefighters arrived. “The person that they were communicating with was not completely coherent. They transported him by ambulance because he had injuries to his arm (from) coming out the window,” Sheridan says. “He was cut on some glass.”

Sheridan says the fire started next to a recliner in the living room and there were smoking materials and electrical cords in that area. Firefighters were on the scene for about 45 minutes and the fire chief says most of the damage to the home is from the smoke.

(Radio Iowa) – A study of the Food and Drug Administration tobacco compliance checks in Iowa from 2017 to 2023 found about seven percent of inspections resulted in violations. Many inspections were suspended during the pandemic and violations spiked in 2021 to more than ten percent. University of Iowa assistant professor of pediatrics Tony Fischer says the spike is a concern.  “This is a weak point in in terms of our ability to prevent tobacco use. If it’s really accessible, then it makes it easier for people to try it. And if they try it, they might get addicted,” Fischer says.

The study found tobacco and vape shops, liquor stores and some gas station chains had the highest number of violations. “It’s likely that that we need to do more surveillance to keep retailers honest and not sell tobacco to underage persons,” he says.

The study says federal penalties to retailers totaled nearly 153-thousand dollars in the seven years, while tobacco marketing in Iowa exceeds 100 million dollars annually.

(Radio Iowa) – A special investigation by the State Auditor’s Office has found the former city clerk in a small eastern Iowa town improperly spent about 127-thousand dollars in city funds. Yamira Martinez, the part-time city clerk in Conesville, left the job in March of 2024 and her replacement raised concerns about the city’s accounts. State Auditor Rob Sand says auditors have determined Martinez overpaid herself by about 47-thousand dollars. “Unfortunately what we have seen across the state of Iowa far too commonly happened in Conesville,” Sand said, “a city clerk who had the keys to the kingdom made off with taxpayer money.” Auditors conclude that over the 34 months Martinez was the city clerk, she failed to deposit nearly 18-thousand dollars worth of utility payments AND failed to send out bills for about 23-thousand dollars worth of sewer and garbage services. Sand says Martinez adjusted accounting records to make it appear bills that were due had been paid on time.

“We don’t know if someone paid their bill and it went into her pocket with cash or it was uncollected,” Sand says. The report from the state auditor’s office also shows Martinez used the town’s credit card to make 14-thousand dollars worth of Amazon purchases for things like clothes and make-up, Gucci sunglasses, mattresses, Apple air pods and toys for children. The report from the auditor’s office has been forwarded to Muscatine County officials. “The consequences that she will face will be up to law enforcement,” Sand says. Sand has recommended changing Iowa law to require mandatory prison time for a public official convicted of large scale theft of taxpayer dollars.

“It doesn’t mean that we lock people up and throw away the key, but we shouldn’t be giving them probation when they are stealing tens of thousands of dollars from taxpayers. If we did that, if we made that a mandatory prison sentence, it would send a message across the state of Iowa that this kind of crime is taken seriously and that it will have consequences,” Sand says, “and that would stop some people from doing it.” Some cases involving the theft of taxpayer dollars are referred to federal courts.

Last year, the former city clerk for the small Tama County town of Clutier was sentenced to nearly two years in FEDERAL prison after pleaded guilty to stealing over 100-thousand dollars from the town of about 200 residents.

(Glenwood, Iowa) – The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports four arrests took place over the past week. Two men were arrested June 18th on charges of Theft in the 2nd Degree (re: Property valued at $1,500 to $10,000): 39-year-old Steven Michael Trotter and 35-year-old Jonathan Jo Arrick, both of Glenwood, were taken into custody at a location on Bunge Avenue, and held on $5,000 bonds, each.

On June 20th, 28-year-old Devin Michael Ramirez, of Bellevue, NE, was arrested in Glenwood for Violation of Probation, with bond set at $2,000. And, on June 17th, 22-year-old Colten James Sorensen, of Pacific Junction, was arrested in Glenwood, for OWI/1st offense. Bond was set at $1,000.