(Radio Iowa) – The Native American operation, Ho-Chunk Incorporated, has launched a new division to manage and operate the expansion of casino gaming at three existing horse racing tracks in Nebraska. Ho-Chunk C-E-O Lance Morgan says each of those facilities will be in the 200 million dollar cost range and compete with Iowa casinos in nearby Council Bluffs. “The competition in Council Bluffs is a little weak, you know, they’ve been there for 25 years and they haven’t done much to change them. And so, we are going to come out with the best product possible,” Morgan says.

They’ve created WarHorse Gaming in partnership with the Nebraska Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association to develop casino gaming at the licensed horse racing tracks in Omaha, Lincoln, and South Sioux City. He says there’s a lot of planning and preparation to take place before those casinos become a reality as gambling just became legal in Nebraska on January 1st.”And they have to get the regulatory system in place. And we’ve got to raise four or five hundred million dollars to get them all built — so we’ve got a little bit of an issue to work through to get them all built,” according to Morgan. “With any luck, we should be starting construction and breaking ground here in the spring when the weather breaks. And it could take a year or more to finish them.”

Morgan says some of the money generated by their “Keep the Money in Nebraska” effort approved in last November’s election will be used for property tax relief. He funded a study that shows millions of dollars will come from the Iowa casinos. He says that’s about 80 million dollars each year that will stay in Nebraska and not go to Iowa casinos. A smaller-scale project is planned for South Sioux City’s Atokad Park, which will include a new horse racing track: He says they need a little more land and then he says they will expand the track and build a casino with 400 or 500 machines that be an investment of 50 to 60 million dollars.

That facility would compete directly with Sioux City’s Hard Rock Casino and Hotel. Morgan was part of a group who bid to place a land-based casino in Sioux City’s Warrior Hotel property after the riverboat casino left town. His group lost out to the Hard Rock’s bid.

(Radio Iowa) – Congresswoman Cindy Axne of West Des Moines has joined other House Democrats in calling on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove President Trump from office. In a written statement, Axne accused Trump of inviting and inciting the insurrection in the U.S. Capitol. Axne, in her statement, said the President’s words and actions have grown increasingly dangerous and erratic, and Axne said — quote — “it’s not safe for him to retain the powers of commander in chief for two more weeks.”

Under a provision in the 25th Amendment, the vice president can become acting president if a majority of cabinet members and the vice president agree the president is unfit for office. Axne is the only Democrat in Iowa’s congressional delegation.

Second District Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks, a Republican from Ottumwa, does not support the call by some House Democrats to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove President Donald Trump from office. “With two weeks remaining and the president having said there will be a peaceful transition and the inauguration of President-Elect Biden that it’s time to try to unify our nation, bring us together and help us to heal,”

Miller-Meeks says. Trump said he will follow an orderly transition. Miller-Meeks made her comments on the Iowa Public Radio Program “River to River.” The 25th Amendment has been used to briefly transfer power to the vice president when presidents have undergone surgeries, but it has never been used to permanently remove a president from office.

(Radio Iowa) – Senator Chuck Grassley says President Trump must “take responsibility” for his actions in Washington on Wednesday.Grassley issued a written statement, saying “as the leader of the nation, the President bears some responsibility for the actions that he inspires – good or bad.” Grassley went on to say that Trump “displayed poor leadership.” Grassley is the longest-serving Republican in the U.S. Senate. He is not joining Democrats call for Trump’s removal from office before his term expires at noon on January 20th.

In an email to supporters last (Thursday) night, Grassley said he was proud to vote to re-elect President Trump and doesn’t doubt there were irregularities in the 2020 election. But Grassley said after all the lawsuits filed on Trump behalf were unsuccessful, he hopes people can put aside disappointment in the election results and join him in accepting Joe Biden as our next president.

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds says the the pace of Covid-19 vaccinations for Iowa nursing residents and staff is unacceptable. Under a federal agreement, Walgreens, C-V-S and a regional chain called Community Pharmacy were hired to get the shots deployed to Iowa nursing homes. Some nursing home managers say they cannot find out when shots will be administered in their facilities. “This is a problem that’s happening in states all across the country,” Reynolds says. “None of us are happy with the way that this is being executed.”

Reynolds and other governors spoke with executives from the two national pharmacy chains late Thursday. Reynolds says if C-V-S and Walgreens can’t fulfill the contract in a timely basis, local pharmacies should get the business. “If they can’t reach a certain threshold, a certain percentage, then that ought to be a trigger for them to pass it to the states,” Reynolds says.

Reynolds says the agreement to have the national pharmacy chains in charge of delivering and administering the Covid vaccines in nursing homes seemed to address concerns about having enough staff to give the shots. “But it’s just not being allocated in a manner that we were hoping that it would be,” Reynolds says.

The first doses of vaccines in nursing homes were given December 28th. However, a dozen days later, it’s still unclear how many of the state’s more than 60-thousand nursing home residents and staff have been vaccinated. The governor says about 60 percent of the doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that the state has received so far have been given, but there’s no break-down on who’s getting the shots. According to the most recent federal data, Iowa’s Covid-19 vaccination rate is among the highest in the country.