(Radio Iowa) — Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says the president’s criticism Wednesday of the late Senator John McCain may have been inappropriate but Grassley doesn’t think Trump needs to apologize. Grassley was asked about the president saying McCain had pushed for a war, failed America’s veterans, and Trump complained he wasn’t thanked for how the Arizona Republican’s funeral was handled. Grassley says, “I would think that it would be best to let a person that has served his country, like John McCain has, to respect that service and not criticize somebody who’s passed away.”

Following a town hall meeting in DeWitt, Grassley simply said “no” when asked if Trump should apologize to the McCain family for his negative comments. When pressed for elaboration, Grassley said, “You better ask the president that.”  “You’re asking me all of these things about Trump and you’re asking me about apologizing and all that, you know, I’m a member of the United States Congress,” Grassley says. “We don’t spend much time in Congress worrying about what the president says. We’ve got our own work.”

Grassley says it makes him “irritated” when he’s asked to respond to something — like a comment from the president — which he doesn’t know anything about. “I don’t want to comment on what you tell me somebody else said. I want to comment on what I read, if I’m going to comment on it,” Grassley says. “But I’d rather comment on stuff I’m doing as chairman of the Finance Committee, what I’m doing on Government Oversight, what I’m doing as a member of an individual branch of government.”

Grassley says his committee priorities include trade deals with Canada and Mexico and getting drug prescription prices down. McCain was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2017 and died last August. Trump and McCain had long been rivals. Speaking in Ames during the presidential campaign in 2015, Trump said of McCain: “He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” McCain served in the U-S Navy. His plane was shot down in Vietnam in 1967, he was captured, held prisoner and tortured for more than five years.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Lottery officials say the Powerball jackpot has climbed to an estimated $625 million. The jackpot on Saturday would be the seventh-largest in U.S. history, with an estimated lump sum payout of $380.6 million before taxes. The odds of winning are extremely long, at 1 in 292.2 million, but they do get beaten.

The buyers of three tickets shared the country’s largest jackpot — a $1.586 billion Powerball prize drawn on Jan. 13, 2016. Meanwhile, a South Carolina purchaser won a $1.54 billion Mega Millions jackpot — the nation’s second-largest lottery prize ever.

The Atlantic High School is collecting donations to help support the flood victims in Mills County and Glenwood. They are collecting donations of bottled water and hygiene products. They are asking people to bring items to the boxes outside of the high school office by this Friday the 22nd.

Other ideas for items include toilet paper, gas gift cards, Bomgaars and Tractor Supply gift cards to help those with animals and livestock.

Items will be taken to Glenwood after donation collection ends on Friday.

More State and area news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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The Creston Police Dept. reports one arrest and an incident of Theft. Officials say 33-year old Trel Curtis Peterson, of Creston, was arrested Wed. morning on an outside agency warrant. Peterson was later released on a $5,000 bond.

And, a Creston man reported Wednesday, that sometime over the past month, someone stole tools from his garage/shed in the 500 block of N. Birch Street. Among the items missing: A Ryobi impact gun; 18 volt batteries; a drive ratchet; sander, and LED flashlight. The loss was estimated at $300.

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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SUMNER, Iowa (AP) — A 26-year-old eastern Iowa man has been accused of phoning in a bomb threat to an elementary school. Authorities say Ean Weipert was arrested Tuesday at his home in Colesburg. Bremer County court records say he’s charged with intimidation and with threat of terrorism. A criminal complaint says Weipert called a staffer Tuesday at Durant Elementary School in Sumner and threatened to blow up the school. Sumner Police Officer Trey Myers says an investigation showed the threat had to be taken seriously.

(Radio Iowa) — Republicans in the Senate have approved a bill that would no longer require Iowa schools collect proof that students have been screened for lead poisoning as well as vision and dental problems. Senator Amy Sinclair, a Republican from Allerton, says it gives schools the option of telling parents and health care providers to forward that information to the Iowa Department of Public Health.

“Schools are bearing the burden of this paperwork nightmare, a paperwork nightmare that does nothing to support the health and safety and well-being of students,” Sinclair said. “It’s simply paperwork.”

Senator Herman Quirmbach, a Democrat from Ames, says local schools are better able to track down parents who haven’t had their kids tested. “The bill removes the requirement for the schools to report to the Department of Public Health the list of kids who are enrolled in kindergarten,” Quirmbach said. “So, under this bill, the Department of Public Health won’t even know who to follow up with.”

Senator Liz Mathis, a Democrat from Cedar Rapids, says schools should collect this information because healthy kids perform better in school. “I think this bill looks at screening and testing as a transaction,” Mathis said.  Sinclair says she’s baffled by the push back. “It’s the 21st century, ladies and gentlemen,” Sinclair said. “Why are we having parents shuffle papers to and from providers that ultimately get stuffed in somebody’s drawer and doesn’t really serve the interests of the child anyway?”

The bill now goes to the House for consideration.

(Radio Iowa) — The U-S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has awarded Iowa funding to help the homeless in the state. Iowa Finance Authority spokesperson, Ashley Jared, says it will help what’s call the Continuum of Care (CoC) program will fund 47 homelessness assistance initiatives. “It’s highly competitive. Iowa was awarded nine-point-five million statewide — which was an increase — and that’s really a credit to our amazing partners throughout the state that run these service programs for Iowans who need the help the most to get back on their feet again,” according to Jared.

She says a variety of programs won funding — including a unique one in Iowa City. “We’re actually calling it a national model. Shelter House has done a housing first project, helps Iowans who might have some other issues, who are chronically homeless, getting a roof over their head first, and then assisting them with some other issues,” she explains. Those other issues involve physical and mental health. Sioux City, Forest City, Davenport, Muscatine, Waterloo, Clinton and Oskaloosa are some of the other cities that received funding. Jared says homelessness impacts thousands of Iowans.  She says the Iowa Institute on Community Alliances 2018 report found around 16-thousand Iowans were homeless at one point in 2018
“So it is a problem. Of course, our goal is to eliminate that problem altogether,” Jared says, “and these projects that were awarded these funds will certainly help to do that.”

Jared says the funding to Iowa has been increasing in recent years, and that is because the organizations have done a good job of showing the need. She says HUD looks at things like data-driven results and the Finance Authority helps the organizations put together the grant requests. “And again we are thrilled with the nine-point-five million, it is the highest we’ve gotten in several years.” There are three CoCs, including Des Moines/Polk County, Sioux City/Woodbury County and the Iowa Balance of State CoC, which covers the rest of the state with the exception of Council Bluffs, as it is included in the Omaha CoC.

(Radio Iowa) — The Iowa Senate has passed a bill that would prohibit the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation from borrowing money from a state fund to purchase land for water quality projects. Senator Tim Kapucian, a farmer from Keystone, is among the 31 Republican senators who voted for the bill. “This bill is simply putting in place the intent of the original law and that is none of these dollars are to be spent for land acquisition and that’s all we ask here,” he said. “We want to continue to do water quality projects, use this money for what it was intended for.”

Farmers in the senate said too much Iowa farmland has been taken out of production for conservation projects, making it difficult for beginning farmers to buy land. Democrats like Senator Rob Hogg of Cedar Rapids say the bill will undermine efforts to create wetland areas upstream that will reduce downstream flooding. “This is a practical tool that Iowa has had to help fight future flood damage and we’ve got a bill here to take that away.” Hogg said. “That is one of the cruelest, meanest things you can do, especially while half the state of Iowa is underwater.”

The bill passed on a mostly party-line vote. One Republican voted against it and one Democrat voted for it.