(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Congresswoman Ashley Hinson, a Republican from Marion, says the cuts in the so-called “Big Beautiful Budget Bill” for Medicaid are only for people who shouldn’t be in the program. “The key I support is making sure this program exists for people who actually need it. What we’ve seen is that over a million illegal immigrants have been getting coverage on Medicaid,” she says.
She says the program is not intended for illegal immigrants. “That’s unacceptable, and that coverage should be going to people who actually need it. And when you look at the provisions in the bill, that is exactly what it’s supposed to do. It kicks illegal immigrants off of taxpayer-funded Medicaid benefits, one-point-four million of them. It also eliminates waste, fraud, and abuse by doing that,” Hinson says.

Hinson says she doesn’t want to touch the benefits for those who really deserve them. “The intent of Medicaid is to protect those with disabilities, seniors, mothers with single mothers with children, not 29-year-old men playing video games on their mother’s couch in the basement,” Hinson says. “We want people getting back to work. If you don’t qualify for Medicaid benefits, you shouldn’t be receiving them, and that includes illegal immigrants.”

IA (R) Congresswoman Ashley Hinson

Hinson made her comments during a conference call with reporters.

(Iowa News Service) – Rural Iowans are asking lawmakers to be more aggressive in fighting for cleaner water in the state’s notoriously dirty rivers, lakes, and streams. Advocates from across the country gathered in Des Moines this month to exchange ideas on how to address the issue.

People from as far away as Maine and Arizona gathered at the Rural Policy Action Summit in Des Moines to address health care costs, a labor shortage in rural America, declining funding for public schools – and manure runoff from large ag operations polluting the state’s waterways.

Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement’s Executive Director Lisa Whelan said ag pollution keeps many lakes closed for recreation in the summer. “We need clean water,” said Whelan. “We are facing a real water crisis here – not only about quality, but also about quantity.”

Lake Okoboji is a popular Tourist Area known as the Great Lakes of Iowa

Corporate ag operators contend they consistently look for ways to be more environmentally conscious, but are often cited for ground and surface water pollution. Beyond clean and healthy water, Rural Democracy Initiative Communications Director Michael Chameides said there was also consensus at the summit on addressing concerns about worker safety, especially in Iowa’s rural towns.

“And so, we saw this concern for agricultural communities where there can be really harsh conditions for farm workers or for workers who are working in meat processing plants,” said Chameides, “but also other small factories, for people sort of needing a safe work environment.”

Chameides said people at the summit also expressed frustration about corporate consolidation and the undue influence of special interest groups in Washington, D.C. having an outsize influence on policies that affect rural Americans.

(Radio Iowa) – Bills to overhaul Iowa’s property tax system were developed, but not adopted during the now-concluded 2025 Iowa legislature. House Speaker Pat Grassley says the goal now is to act in 2026. “The frustrations I’m hearing, hopefully those are being expressed at the local level,” Grassley says. “This is – a lot of it – is about local taxation, local spending. That being said, I think it has risen to the level where the legislature cannot just sit here and not do something to try and make the system better.”

Grassley says lawmakers in the past have put minor band-aids on the property tax system, so he and others working on a comprehensive approach want to ensure an adjustment in one area doesn’t create problems in other areas. “If we don’t know what a massive overhaul would actually impact our constituents, we shouldn’t just rush something through,” Grassley says.

Representative Bobby Kaufmann, the Republican who leads the House Ways and Means Committee, says lawmakers will spend the next eight months perfecting the plan that’s already gone through several adjustments. “It takes time to funnel through those, so we’re meeting with the cities and the schools and the counties and the hospitals and the community colleges and the taxpayers,” Kaufmann says, “… developing the proper policy for what will become, I believe, the single biggest bill of the 2026 session.”

Senator Dan Dawson, the Republican who leads the Senate Ways and Means Committee, says lawmakers are on the right path and getting close to a final version. He says the key component is a limit on how much local government budgets can increase year to year. “If you just raise taxable value, that’s a property tax increase for everyone, but if you put a revenue restriction in place on all the taxing entities, the rates automatically collapse down,” Dawson says, “and make lower rates for everyone.”

House Speaker Grassley says lawmakers basically have two choices to make when it comes to property tax reform. “You’re going to have to pick a team here. Is it purely on Team Taxpayer or is it on Team Local Government?…I happen to land on the position that we have to be on the side of the taxpayer,” Grassley said. “…Not to say that this thing is going to be easy to fix, but we have to have more certainty in the system.”

Grassley made his comments during an appearance on “Iowa Press” on Iowa P-B-S. House Democrats have proposed a one-thousand dollar property tax rebates for all Iowa homeowners and five-hundred dollar rebates for renters over the next few years to give lawmakers time to develop a true overhaul of the system. Senate Democrats say they’re concerned schools will be shortchanged in the future since the plan calls for the state to provide 400 million more each year to Iowa’s public school districts.

(Missouri Valley, Iowa) – A collision in Interstate 29 early Saturday morning, resulted in the death of a woman from Nebraska, and two persons injured. The Iowa State Patrol reports the crash happened on southbound I-29 near mile marker 79, at around 2:53-a.m.

Authorities say a 2009 Chevy Cobalt driven by 30-year-old Malka Bingham, of Omaha, was traveling northbound in the southbound lanes, when the car struck a 2012 Dodge Durango SUV driven by 22-year-old Efrain Flores, of Sioux City. Both vehicles came to rest in the southbound lanes of I-29. Bingham suffered life-threatening injuries in the crash and was transported by Council Bluffs EMS to the UNMC, in Omaha. A passenger in the car, 22-year-old Aaliyah Draine, of Omaha, died at the scene. Bingham and Draine were not wearing seat belts.

Efrain Flores was injured in the collision, and transported by Missouri Valley EMS to CHI Health in Missouri Valley. Flores’ injures were described as non-life threatening. The Patrol says after the vehicles came to rest, a third, southbound vehicle came upon the crash scene and went out of control in the debris field left behind by the crash. The driver took evasive action, causing their vehicle to enter the west ditch, where it rolled over.

The driver of the third vehicle was not injured. Their name was not released in the report. The accident was under investigation.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Two people suffered what were described as minor injuries, during a three-vehicle crash Saturday, in Red Oak. According to the Red Oak Police Department, a 2009 Hyundai Sonata passenger car driven by Collin Nathaniel Evans, of Malvern, was traveling north on Broadway Street in Red Oak, and was attempting to turn left onto Oak Street. The car turned into the path of a 2012 GMC Acadia (SUV), driven by Hallie Straw, of Villisca.

The SUV struck the Hyundai broadside on the passenger’s side of the vehicle. The force of the impact caused the car to hit a 2021 Chevy Silverado pickup, driven by Brett Elliot Hosch, of Johnston (IA), as Hosch was waiting at the stop light to turn south onto Broadway. Police say two people in the SUV were transported by Red Oak Rescue to the Montgomery County Memorial Hospital. Damage vehicles was estimated $16,000 altogether ($10,000 to the Sonata [declared a total loss]; $5,000 to the SUV [disabling damage]; and $1,000 (Minor damage) to the pickup truck).

Collin Evans was cited for Failure to Yield upon making a left turn, and for having no valid driver’s license. Red Oak Police were assisted at the scene by Red Oak Rescue, the Red Oak Fire Department, Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, Montgomery County Dispatch, and the Montgomery County EMA.

(Dubuque, Iowa) – Dubuque County Sheriff Joseph Kennedy declined to join the federal 287(g) ICE Task Force program. Kennedy told KCRG-TV, that cracking down on immigration is one thing, but ICE should hire the personnel needed and do their job, not order other agencies to do the work for them. The 287(g) ICE Task Force program authorizes local and state law enforcement to carry out immigration enforcement duties.

Sheriff Kennedy says his office has and will enforce those laws and cooperate with federal immigration requests, including ICE, if they need assistance in picking-up a wanted party, but that it’s not in the best interest of the sheriff’s department to give up their personnel to do ICE’ job full-time.

Kennedy told KCRG the Trump administration’s directive is “heavy-handed,” and demands the Sheriff’s Office pull deputies off the street to become trained ICE enforcement agents. It comes as the office uses overtime to meet minimum staffing levels. In 2024, the county spent around $120,000 on about 2,200 hours worth of overtime pay. In a letter addressed to the Dubuque County Board of Supervisors, Kennedy says the program asks law enforcement agencies to “sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that essentially force(s) local agencies to have trained ‘ICE’ representatives on their staff to do the government’s immigration work.”

In the letter, Kennedy warned that Dubuque will likely be placed on a list by the federal government, flagging Dubuque as a “sanctuary jurisdiction” due to the fact that Kennedy is not joining the program. Kennedy argues it inaccurately describes the county. According to Kennedy, the list was created for the “sole purpose of ‘shaming’ the City.  However, an executive order by President Trump suggests otherwise, authorizing the Attorney General to “pursue all necessary legal remedies and enforcement measures to end these violations and bring such jurisdictions into compliance with the laws of the United States.”

Kennedy plans to discuss his decision to reject the federal 287(g) ICE Task Force program invitation with the Dubuque County Supervisors during their May 19th meeting.

Pella, IA & Seattle, WA — An Iowa industrial equipment manufacturer took a giant leap in the effort to harvest natural resources from space. Pella-based Vermeer Corp. and Interlune, a Seattle, Washington-based natural resources company, unveiled a full-scale prototype of a lunar excavator earlier this month. According to a news release, Vermeer built the excavator, which is “designed to ingest 100 metric tons of Moon dirt, or regolith, per hour and return it to the surface in a continuous motion.”

A rendering of the Interlune Harvester, which will incorporate excavation hardware developed in partnership with Vermeer.

Interlune co-founder and CEO Rob Meyerson said iN a press release, “When you’re operating equipment on the moon, reliability and performance standards are at a new level. Vermeer has a legacy of innovation and excellence that started more than 75 years ago, which makes them the ideal partner for Interlune.”

A full-scale prototype of the Interlune excavator, which was developed in partnership with Vermeer.Testing as shown was done with auxiliary components. Final Interlune excavator hardware will be integrated with the Interlune Harvester.

Interlune officials said their immediate focus is harvesting helium-3, which they say is scarce on Earth but abundant on the moon. Space.com calls helium-3 a “lightweight, elusive isotope” that is “highly prized for its potential uses in nuclear fusion, clean energy research, cryogenics, quantum computing and even medical imaging and neutron detection.”

Interlune and Vermeer built the full-size prototype after successfully developing and testing a subscale version in the summer of 2024.  Company officials say the lunar excavator is capable of ingesting 100 metric tons of moon dirt per hour, and its design reduces tractive force, power consumption and dust compared to traditional trench-digging techniques.

(Shenandoah, Iowa) – Funeral services for a southwest Iowa woman who went missing in southern Oregon in early April, and whose remains were found nearly a month later, will be held later this month. According to the Nishna Valley Funeral Home in Shenandoah, services for 29-year-old Kaylee Danae Birt, of Shenandoah, will be held May 27th.

Birt was declared missing on April 4th. She was last seen with her vehicle, leaving The Fields Station in Oregon. Her car was discovered two-days later, in a remote part of Southern Harney County, OR. Kaylee was not with the vehicle. An extensive search for her by land and air, using horses, off-road vehicles and many volunteers trained in traversing the rugged terrain, was eventually suspended. Kaylee’s body was found by volunteer searchers, on May 3rd.

Kaylee Birt (Photo from her obituary on the Nishna Valley Funeral Home website)

Additional information, including the location of where her remains were found, or the cause of death, was never released.

(Griswold, Iowa) – A regular monthly meeting of the Griswold Community School District’s Board of Education will take place Monday, May 19th. Their session in the High School Conference Room takes place at 5:30-p.m.

On the agenda, is the consideration and possible approval of, a Girls Wrestling Program. The options are to continue the current sharing agreement with Red Oak, or, to start the District’s own Wrestling Program. The Board will also consider and possibly act on awarding a bid for the Concession Stand remodeling project. They’ll discuss Liability Insurance for groups who use the District facilities. The Griswold School Board is also expected to establish Activity Pass Fees for the 2025-26 School Year, and consider and act on, the (renewal) of a City Agreement.

Other action items include: approving a Middle School Coach Amendment, and, approving a Volunteer High School Baseball Coach.