(Radio Iowa) – Republicans on two Iowa House subcommittees have advanced bills that would loosen restrictions on who can buy and carry handguns. One bill would strike three disqualifying conditions for carrying a gun from state law. As a result, it would allow people addicted to alcohol and people convicted of misdemeanor assault charges to carry a gun. Iowa Firearms Coalition lobbyist Richard Rogers says current law in this area is too subjective.  “There’s nothing in code about who gets to decide that the person is addicted to alcohol or on what basis they’re addicted to alcohol,” he said, “and so that’s quite subjective and problematic.”

Connie Ryan, executive director of the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa, testified against the bill. “When someone has violently another person, it shows a propensity to commit violence,” she said. “Allowing the person to then have a gun lacks common sense or commitment to public safety.”

A separate bill would lower the minimum age to buy and carry a handgun from 21 to 18.

(Creston, Iowa) – No injuries were reported following an accident Tuesday evening, in Creston. According to the Creston Police Department, a pickup driven by 29-year-old Kelsie Hulett, of Creston, was traveling east on Highway 34 at around 5:25-p.m., and was going to make a left turn onto 12 Mile Road, when the pickup was struck on the right rear side by a Chevy Impala, driven by 17-year-old Sidney Staver, of Afton. Both airbags on the Impala deployed during the collision. Damage amounted to a police-estimated $9,000 altogether. Both vehicles were able to be driven away from the scene.

No citations were issued. Authorities noted in their report, Staver followed too closely, and operator inexperience, as being factors in the accident.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – A man from Red Oak was arrested early this (Wednesday) morning, on an Assault charge. Red Oak Police say 25-year-old Jeffrey Allen Arnold was arrested at around 12:30-a.m. for Domestic Abuse Assault/1st offense – A Simple Misdemeanor. Arnold was being held without bon in the Montgomery County Jail .

(Des Moines, Iowa) – The Iowa Department of Transportation is strongly advising against travel is in western Iowa. The latest report from 511ia.org shows the roadways are completely covered with snow. Some roads are drifted shut, including Highway 44 between Portsmouth and Harlan, and Highway 6, which is impassable from about seven-miles east of Oakland and seven miles west of Atlantic. There are blockages on I-80 eastbound near Avoca, and I-80 westbound near Menlo, due to crashes.

(Greenfield, Iowa) – Adair County Auditor Mandy Berg reports a Public Measure pertaining to the Dissolution of the Orient-Macksburg Community School District passed Tuesday, by a vote of 174-Yes to 8-No. View the results below:

(Radio Iowa) – The father of the Iowa woman killed nine years ago by a drunk driver who was in the country illegally attended President Trump’s speech to congress last (Tuesday) night. Scott Root first met Trump in the summer of 2016, while Trump was campaigning in Iowa. “He’s been there for my family and always had our back,” Root said. The Honduran charged in 2016 with killing 21-year-old Sarah Root in Omaha disappeared after posting bond. Last month President Trump signed “Sarah’s Law” to deny pre-trial release to illegal immigrants charged with a violent crime and require that they be detained.

“It won’t change anything for my family. My daughter’s as dead as they come, but if happens again and somebody loses their child, at least this keeps them from leaving the country,” Root said. “You have some type of closure, some type of justice.” Root was at the White House to witness Trump signing “Sarah’s Law.” It was part of the Laken Riley Act which requires detention of illegal immigrants charged with burglary and theft. Last week, the Honduran National Police announced they had arrested Eswin Meija, the man charged with killing Root’s daughter.

“You raise a child from a baby to an adult, a child that’s productive — she wasn’t in prison, wasn’t doing drugs. She was well on her way to rock the world and got taken out by somebody who shouldn’t have been here.” Sarah Root, who was from Council Bluffs, was killed a few hours after graduating from college. Scott Root was Senator Joni Ernst’s guest for the president’s speech in the U-S House.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowan and former acting U-S Attorney General Matt Whitaker went before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Tuesday for his nomination to be the U-S Ambassador to NATO. Whitaker was asked about the contributions to NATO’s defense systems, and says our European allies and Canada need to do more. “In the ten years of under spending, up until the outbreak in 2022 of the war in Ukraine, I think it is really a weakness of the alliance,” he says. Whitaker says it appears President Donald Trump’s calls for them to do more is working. “We’re getting a lot of positive words from our NATO allies that they will spend dramatically more, that they finally understand this time,” he says. Whitaker says some countries have already stepped up.

“We also have some allies like Poland and some allies in the Baltics that are have been, you know, on message and are spending much more. And so we have to make sure that we don’t group everybody in one group, and chastise them all, because there’s many allies that are doing more,” he says. Whitaker says those countries are increasing their contribution mainly because of their location on the border of Russia. Whitaker says the issue is not just a matter of spending money,

“It is how that money is spent, making sure it goes to modernization, interoperability, to address the hybrid threats in cyber, in space,” Whitaker says. “You know, we’re seeing sea cables cut in the Baltic Sea. All of these issues are NATO is on the forefront, and that alliance is built and should be equipped to address those threats and to be, continue to be, the most successful alliance ever conceived.” Whitaker served as chief of staff before his stint as acting attorney general in the first Trump administration. Whitaker grew up in Ankeny and played football for the Iowa Hawkeyes. He also served as U-S Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa during President George W. Bush’s second term.

(Radio Iowa) – A bill that would have required local police to partner with federal immigration enforcement activities has been tabled and likely won’t be revived during the 2025 legislative session. Iowa House Judiciary Committee Chair Steven Holt of Denison says he decided not to advance the bill because of concerns from law enforcement groups.

“The main one that I heard that sort of hit home with me was the concern about manpower,” Holt told reporters. “If they were mandated to do this and they didn’t have the manpower, how that could impact other aspects of public safety.” Immigrant rights advocates strongly opposed the bill, saying it would lead to racial profiling and undermine police relationships with immigrant communities. Holt hopes to advance a different immigration-related bill.

It would say Iowa law enforcement officers could be charged with a felony if they refuse to cooperate and let Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest people being released from jail.

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Reynolds has submitted a bill that would give Iowa governors authority to transfer up to 10 percent of funds out of the state’s Economic Emergency Fund to respond to disasters. Under current law, the legislature has to approve those withdrawals, but the legislature’s generally in session from January through part of May — and last summer’s massive flooding hit northwest Iowa in June. The governor’s bill would also require insurance umpires, appraisers and independent adjusters to be licensed to work in the State of Iowa.

Craig Sepich is a lobbyist with the National Insurance Crime Bureau. “While we recognize most public adjusters assess and evaluate damage in a professional manner, there’s often you know dishonest and predatory adjusters that may fraudulently inflate these claims and estimates to line their own pockets,” he said, “so these protections will offer kind of enhanced tools for the department to investigate and go after these bad actors.”

The bill would also set aside two MILLION dollars for demolishing buildings damaged in the 2024 disasters, along with nearly 12 million dollars for repairing storm-affected homes.

(Radio Iowa) – Two federal office buildings in Iowa are targeted for sale.  Both buildings are on a list of over 400 federal facilities rated by the Trump Administration as “non-core assets” to government operations that should be sold. The 10-story Neal Smith Federal Building in downtown Des Moines was built in 1960. Iowa Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst have offices in the building. It also houses the regional office of the Veterans Administration as well as offices for the I-R-S and the U-S-D-A’s Natural Resource Conservation Service.

The Iowa City Federal Building opened in 1974 and its primary tenants are the U-S Geological Survey and the Veterans Health Administration.