(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Democratic Party has lost its seat on the powerful rule-making panel that will decide which states go first in 2028 when Democrats select their next nominee for president. The Des Moines Register was first to report the slot on the Democratic Party’s national rules committee has gone to someone from New Hampshire. That’s the state that ignored party rules and hosted the first presidential primary of 2024.

The Democratic National Committee had followed President Biden’s call for South Carolina’s Primary to go first — and for the Iowa Democratic Party Caucuses to no longer be first-in-the-nation. However, National Republicans kept the Iowa G-O-P’s Caucuses are their lead-off event and Iowa Democratic Party chair Rita Hart says there should be serious concerns about Biden’s calendar because excluding Iowa gave Donald Trump a head start in 2024.

Hart says Iowa Democrats simply can’t afford to be ignored again by their national party leaders.

(Glenwood, Iowa) – The Glenwood Police Department reports two arrests occurred today (Thursday). 35-year-old Kara Vezeau-Crouch, of Council Bluffs, was arrested for Driving While Barred. She posted a $2,000 bond and was released from custody. And, 26-year-old Trevor Kerr, of Rapid City, SD, was arrested for Failure to appear in court. He was being held in the Mills County Jail on a $20,000 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – A Cedar Falls woman is charged with murdering her husband last (Wednesday) night.  Cedar Falls Police say they were called to the couple’s home at about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday and officers found 72-year-old David Alan Charlton had been shot to death. Sixty-six-year-old Kimberly Ann Charlton told police her husband had tried to assault her, the family’s dog intervened and, as he threatened the dog with a walking stick, Charlton said she grabbed a handgun and told her husband to stop pursuing the dog down a hallway.

Police say Charlton admitted she then shot her husband in the back.

(UPDATED) – (Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds has signed a bill into law that reduces the taxes businesses pay into the state fund that pays out unemployment benefits. “It’s a signature piece of legislation, one of my top priorities this session,” Reynolds said, “and a key part of our ongoing effort to make Iowa’s economy stronger, more competitive and built for the future.”

Reynolds points to Iowa’s population — which ranks 32nd among the states — while Iowa’s Unemployment Trust Fund is the ninth largest in the country. “But not anymore,” Reynolds said. “Senate File 607 will cut the taxable wage base in half, it lowers the maximum tax rate to 5.4% –which was 9% before this.” Reynolds says that nine percent rate needlessly punished Iowa businesses because nearly two BILLION dollars is sitting in the Unemployment Trust Fund today.

“This bill streamlines Iowa’s unemployment insurance tax system by bringing overdue reform to how we support our workforce and how we support the businesses that create jobs across our state,” Reynolds said, “while most importantly keeping the fund healthy and sustainable for the long term.” Under state law, higher tax rates will be triggered if the Unemployment Trust Fund falls below 900 million dollars.

Estimates indicate the lower tax rates Reynolds has approved will save businesses 975 million dollars in taxes over the next five years. Democrats say laid off workers are footing the bill for this corporate tax break since Republican lawmakers reduced the maximum time Iowans may receive unemployment benefits from 26 to 16 weeks. That change was made in 2022.

(Council Bluffs, Iowa) – The Pottawattamie County Secondary Roads Department reports the Burlington Northern-Sante Fe (BNSF) railroad crossing at Pott. County Road L-55 (2nd Street) in Neola, will be closed on Tuesday,  June 10th, beginning at 8-a.m., to perform maintenance on the crossing. The closure is scheduled to take six hours. The roadway will be back open by end of day.

The Iowa DOT has placed message boards on Railroad Highway and on L55 to warn traffic of the closure.

(Clarinda, Iowa) – The Page County Attorney’s Office has released the outcome of several cases heard in Page County District Court, during the week of May 19th. The following individuals appeared through their attorney and pled guilty to their respective charges, and in addition to their sentences, were ordered to pay court costs, surcharges and court-appointed attorney fees.

• 32-year-old James Robert Castillo, of Bedford, entered a plea of guilty to Driving While Barred. He was sentenced to 14-days in jail, which was then suspended by the Judge.
• 41-year-old Dustin Lynn Gebhart, of Auburn, NE, pled guilty to Assault Causing Bodily Injury. He was placed on probation for nine-months.
• 35-year-old Christian David Hull, of New Market, pled guilty to Gathering. He was placed on three-years of probation and ordered to undergo at drug/alcohol evaluation, and follow-through with program recommendations. In a related case, Hull admitted to violating the terms and conditions of his probation, which was subsequently extended by six-months.
• 34-year-old Hope Marie Kalkas, of Shenandoah, pled guilty to Disorderly Conduct. She also admitted to violating the terms and conditions of her probation. Kalkas was ordered to serve 10-days of incarceration and fined $430 for the Disorderly Conduct offense. She was also ordered to serve the remaining underlying sentence of 35-days in the Page County Jail. The sentence will run concurrently with the aforementioned case.
  

  Page County Courthouse

•  22-year-old Michael Jospeh Mayer, of Essex, pled guilty in Page County District Court to OWI/1st offense. He was sentenced to two-days in jail and given credit for those two days for completing the 48-hour Prime for Life Program.
• 30-year-old Lauren Renee Offenbacker, of Clarinda, pled guilty to OWI/1st offense. She was granted a deferred judgement and place on nine-months probation. She was also ordered to undergo at drug/alcohol evaluation, and follow-through with program recommendations, and, complete a Drinking Driver’s School.
• 27-year-old Victor Manuel Sanchez, of Shenandoah, pled guilty in Page County District Court the week of May 19th, to Possession of a Controlled Substance/Marijuana-3rd offense. The judge suspended a prison sentence and placed Sanchez on probation with related (required) drug/alcohol evaluation.
• And, 65-year-old Cristobal Mercado Serna, of Council Bluffs, admitted in court to violating the terms and conditions of his probation. His probation was revoked and the original sentence of five-years was imposed. Serna was unsuccessfully discharged from probation.

The Page County Attorney’s Office said also, 44-year-old Timothy Lee Strange, of Shenandoah, appeared with council and denied violating the terms and conditions of his probation. The Court found he was in willful contempt of court, and sentenced him to 120 days in the Page County Jail. Strange was unsuccessfully discharged from probation.

(Radio Iowa) – The Kossuth County Board of Supervisors and the motorcycle riders’ association known as ABATE are discussing the cost of county services during the group’s annual gathering near Algona. ABATE of Iowa’s 2025 “Freedom Rally” is scheduled for July 3rd through the 6th on a property ABATE owns. Dave Duffy, state coordinator for ABATE of Iowa, says the group had been making a donation to the county to cover emergency medical services, but have stopped helping to pay E-M-Ts. “We decided not to do a donation to the EMS just because Kossuth County, now being an essential service, gets money from our taxes now where they were a volunteer before,” Duffy said, “and they also get paid as they take people in.”

Phil Albers is Kossuth County’s director of Emergency Medical Services. “I don’t want to build a wall between us and ABATE. I really don’t,” he said. “The very first year ABATE was here, I worked ABATE. I worked first aid stands for many years as a volunteer…When you guys first came, we were able to staff it with volunteers…Now, we have to do it with full-time staff, so our staff are required to give up their 4th of July weekend every year to provide this service.” Albers says on a typical day, four full-time E-M-S staff are on duty, but adding several thousand motorcyclists means his staff has to double. “Last year we ran 19 calls to ABATE Park,” he said, “Friday and Saturday being our busy days.”

Albers has suggested ABATE cover the costs of two E-M-S staffers being on stand-by during the four day event and he says that’s a similar request to organizations having other events in the county.  “We know it’s happening, we have to prepare and we have to cover it properly,” Albers said. “We’re other going to incur the costs ourselves and eat it, or they’re going to help offset the costs. That’s the question.”

Duffy says ABATE had expected their previous donations meant an ambulance would be positioned at the event, but he says that didn’t happen. ABATE has been hosting an annual rally in Iowa for over 40 years. Motorcyclists from as far away as Canada are expected at this year’s event at ABATE Park, which is northeast of Algona and covers about 20 acres.

(Radio Iowa) – Volunteers are needed to help compile what’s known as Iowa’s Bumble Bee Atlas, an effort to gauge the state’s populations of the vital pollinators. Stephanie Shepherd, a wildlife diversity biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, says it won’t take much time and it will be a tremendous help to researchers who study the tiny-yet-important insects. “Volunteers are basically trained and then asked to go out to a natural area that is at least two-and-a-half acres in size that has flowers and habitat for bumblebees,” Shepherd says, “and then spend 45 minutes looking for and catching bumblebees, and then submitting photographs of those bumble bees.” Volunteers don’t have to identify each bee they temporarily net, as experts will be studying the photos to determine the various species. She says there are between 300 and 400 types of bees living in Iowa.

“But the bumblebees are a group within there, and they’re a fairly smallish group,” Shepherd says. “We have anywhere between 14 and 17 species, depending on again, this is part of why we’re doing the Atlas, is to figure out exactly what we have here.” Distinguishing bees from bumble bees isn’t hard, she says, with a little training. Bumble bees are typically larger than your standard bee, they’re fuzzier, and they carry pollen in a way that’s obviously different. Shepherd says you should start by watching the first few training videos posted on the Iowa Bumble Bee Atlas website, then consider attending an in-person session. “We have a bunch of field training events around the state,” Shepherd says. “They’re not required, but people can come out and get some hands-on experience catching bumble bees, handling bumble bees, how to take photos, and generally just meet a bunch of other fun people who like bumble bees.”

Rusty patched bumble bee (Photo by Rich Hatfield, The Xerces Society)

This is the second year for the program and Shepherd says volunteers are needed in every one of Iowa’s 99 counties. “Bees are incredibly important pollinators,” Shepherd says. “I think everybody understands the importance of pollination and bees are probably our superstars of doing that. Bumble bees have some unique traits that make them especially valuable for pollination, and the more we know about them, the better we can do at making sure they have habitat available.”

The first of the eight training events is scheduled for June 21st in Peosta, with more to follow through July in: Ames, Waterloo, Dakota City, Anita, Okoboji, Moravia and in New Castle, Nebraska. Registration is free and pre-registration is required.

More information can be found:
https://www.bumblebeeatlas.org/pages/iowa?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery
https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/2a2cc3da7eb841ac8f5d29718b0c63d8?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery

(Red Oak, Iowa) – A man and a woman from Red Oak were arrested this (Thursday, June 5th) morning, in Red Oak. According to Red Oak Police, the female, 23-year-old Carrington Jade Jackson was arrested at around 8:16-a.m. in the 600 block of N. Broadway Street. The male, 25-year-old Damon Allen Jackson, was arrested at around 8:45-a.m., in the 200 block of E. Washington Street. Both were charged with Violation of a No Contact Order. The pair were being held without bond in the Montgomery County Jail, pending a court appearance.