(Atlantic) The Atlantic City Council, during their regular meeting Wednesday evening, approved the FY 2026 maximum property tax levy, which amounts to 60-cents per thousand dollars of property valuation, or 5.8-percent. City Administrator John Lund says there are three levies included in the tax asking: The General Levy, which will increase 16-cents/$1,000; The Liability & Property Insurance Levy, will see a three-cent/1,000 increase; the Debt Levy increase amounts to 41-cents/$1,000.

The total proposed property tax levy is $17.85 per $1,000 taxable valuation. A Public hearing on proposed maximum property tax levy for Fiscal Year 2026 will be held on March 26th, at 5:00 p.m.
The Council also set the date for a public hearing on a proposal to enter into a General Obligation Solid Waste Management Loan Agreement and to Borrow Money Thereunder in a Principal Amount not to exceed $90,000. That hearing will take place March 5th, at 5:30-p.m.

Atlantic City Hall building

John Lund explained in his Council meeting packet, that the City is part of a 28E organization managing the Cass County Landfill and must provide financial support if needed. The Landfill has implemented a $12.00 per-capita fee, totaling $85,344 for the City, payable in four equal installments over the fiscal year. The public hearing will be held on March 5th at 5:30 p.m.

And, the Atlantic City Council, Wednesday, set March 5th at 5:30-p.m., as the date and time for a public hearing on proposal to enter into General Obligation Loan Agreement and to Borrow Money Thereunder in a principal amount not to exceed $4,300,000 for the purpose of paying the costs, to that extent, of constructing street, water system, sanitary sewer system, sidewalk and storm water drainage improvements; acquiring and installing street lighting, signage and signalization improvements; acquiring and equipping police vehicles; and acquiring and equipping ambulances.

(Radio Iowa) – A bill that would impose a new state tax on vapor cartridges for electronic cigarettes will be considered soon in an Iowa Senate Committee. The bill was the subject of a Senate subcommittee hearing yesterday. Michael Triplett, the lobbyist for a group of vapor product retailers called Iowans for Alternatives to Smoking and Tobacco, was among the first to testify. “We’re opposed to this bill because we don’t believe that there’s justification for treating a device that’s less harmful than smoking in a similar fashion to deadly cigarettes,” Triplett said, who told lawmakers it’s the smoke, not the nicotine, that makes cigarettes deadly.

Threase Harms, a lobbyist for a coalition called Clear Air for Everyone, said cigarettes and e-cigarettes are “kindred cousins” and vaping liquid has been linked to a condition called “popcorn lung” and it contains chemicals like formaldehyde. “Iowans are paying an estimated $1 billion annually for tobacco related health care costs,” Harms said, “and it’s time for vaping products to be paying their fair share because they certainly are going to be costing us a fair share.”

Senator Mike Klemish (R-Spilleville) is the sponsor of Senate Study Bill 1137. (official photo)

Other groups like the American Cancer Society applaud raising taxes on vaping products, but recommend some of the money raised go toward programs that discourage kids from vaping or smoking cigarettes. Amy Campbell, a lobbyist for the Iowa Behavioral Health Association, said school based programs are essential. “The use is just exploding among youth and you can look at the trend lines…It’s pretty startling,” Campbell said. “We have kids who have never tried a cigarette, but are addicted to these products.” Senator Mike Klemish, a Republican from Spillville, is the bill’s author.”I’m a former smoker. I still smoke once in a while myself. I’m being honest with this room. I don’t vape. I smoke cigarettes,” Klemish said. “…Nicotine is the addictive component of cigarettes that I’ve tried to wean myself off of, successfully and unsuccessfully, for the last 20 years.”

Klemish said he sees a lot of kids smoking and he worries the nicotine in the vaping liquid is the gateway to them moving on and smoking cigarettes. His bill also imposes a new tax on nicotine pouches, which are wedged inside a person’s bottom lip like smokeless tobacco.

The state sales tax is charged on vaping products and nicotine patches, but a far higher state tax is assessed on tobacco products.

(Radio Iowa) – Two tiny and exceptionally rare primates were born this week at a central Iowa zoo, important additions to a family of some of the most endangered primates in the world. They’re called cotton-top tamarins and the twins appear to be alert and healthy, according to Alex Payne, spokesman for Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines. “They are actually the second pair of twins that our cotton-top tamarin parents, Kida and Eddie, have had in the last year. On Saturday, we’ll mark the first birthday for the first pair of twins, Caitlin and Clark,” Payne says. “They are a critically endangered species, so we’re excited to have them here.” The adult tamarin is only about eight inches tall, weighing just 15 ounces, so visitors will have to watch very closely to spot one of their much-tinier twins.

“They’re a primate, so they’re like a small monkey,” Payne says. “They are very small, but have a lot of energy. ‘Cotton-top’ comes from kind of their punk rock-looking hairstyle on the top of their head. They have some white hair up there and are just a lot of fun.” The creatures are very rare, he says, due to deforestation in their native Columbia and the illegal trade of tamarins as pets. “They’re considered critically endangered. There are less than 6,000 of them still in the wild, so it’s very important,” Payne says. “They’re one of the most endangered primate species out there, so it’s vital that we’re able to help save these animals from extinction.”

Cotton-top tamarins at the Blank Park Zoo

The adult tamarins came to Iowa in 2023 as part of a breeding recommendation for the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan program. The S-S-P works to maintain genetically diverse and sustainable populations of threatened species in human care, contributing to global conservation efforts. The twins were born Tuesday in Des Moines and while they’re small, they’re visible now daily at the zoo. “They are out on exhibit, so you can go and see them in their habitat in the Discovery Center,” Payne says. “It’s inside, so even on a cold Iowa day like today, you can come out to the zoo and see the cotton-top tamarins. They are pretty small, but they hold on to their parents, and so you’ll see them holding on to the backs of each of them.” The new arrivals will be the subject of a naming contest this spring.

On the web at BlankParkZoo.com.

(Radio Iowa) – Our furnaces are going to get a chance to slow down and going outside isn’t going to require multiple layers as we hit a warmup from the sub-zero temperatures and windchills this weekend. National Weather Service Meteorologist Dylan Dodson says the cold air that’s been sitting on the state is moving out. “That’s going to be kind of moving off to our east through the weekend, and then we’re going to kind of get that warmer slowly flow that kind of brings those warmer temperatures back up into us into next week,” he says. “So just kind of a change in air masses that’s going to be overhead that, you know, bringing some warmer air to us.” We are going from high temperatures that barely hit double digits, to well above seasonal highs.

“Saturday we’ll be working up into the 30s. And then by Sunday, we’ll be looking at, you know, 30s and 40s across the area for the highs,” Dodson says. “So temperatures really warming up into the weekend. And then as we get into next week, we could be looking at, you know, 40s and potentially 50s into early next week.” He expects the snow to diminish quite a bit as temperatures rise. “That should start to melt off. It’s tough to say, obviously, how quickly that’ll happen, because the snow will also work to cool those temperatures down as it melts. But yeah, as we start getting these warmer temperatures for more days, it’ll start melting off that snow, for sure,” he says. Dodson says as we head into the last week of February we are getting closer and closer to spring.

“Normal temperatures as we get through the end of February and into the beginning of March, they really start, you know, climbing back up for around this time of year. You know, sun angles getting a little bit better or a little bit higher in the sky,” he says. “So we’re definitely starting to, going to start trending that way. You know, the cold is not over yet. I won’t say that we’re, we’re going straight to spring.” Dodson says the warm up is really going to feel balmy. “Yeah, when you’ve got a feels like overnight in the minus 20s, minus 30s, and then you go up to 40 to 50 degrees above zero, it’s going to feel warmer, for sure.”

(Des Moines, Iowa – The Iowa Board of Nursing has issued an emergency order suspending the license of a nurse who allegedly tested positive for drugs while working at an Iowa hospital in 2023. According to the Iowa Capital Dispatch, the board has charged Audrie Hubbard of Ringgold County, a registered nurse, with practicing nursing while under the influence of alcohol, marijuana, or illicit drugs; with being involved in the unauthorized possession or use of a controlled substance; and with failing to comply with an order of the board.

The board alleges that in October 2023, while working at the Greater Regional Health hospitals and clinics in Creston, Hubbard texted a coworker and indicated she had a flat tire, then failed to respond to messages from the hospital staff.

According to the board, Hubbard was at work the following day when a coworker grew concerned that Hubbard was showing “signs indicating substance use.” Hubbard was allegedly asked to complete a urine drug screen and a breath test while still on duty. According to the board, the test results were positive for alcohol and marijuana use and Hubbard admitted having consumed a THC gummy.

Hubbard was enrolled in an employee-assistance program but allegedly failed to stay in contact with program officials and was fired from the hospital in February 2024, according to board records. Eight months later, the Board of Nursing issued a confidential order of some unspecified nature against Hubbard.

According to the board, Hubbard failed to comply with that order and has not responded to any of the board’s subsequent attempts to contact her. Iowa Capital Dispatch was unable to reach Hubbard for comment.

The board alleges Hubbard has engaged in unethical behavior by practicing nursing while under the influence, by the use of a controlled substance and by failing to comply with a board order. Based on those findings, the board has determined Hubbard poses “an immediate danger to the public health, safety and welfare.”

As a result, the board on Jan. 16, 2025, issued an emergency order suspending Hubbard’s license for an indefinite period and scheduled a hearing on the matter for Feb. 18, 2025. The emergency order was only made public this week and the board has not disclosed whether the hearing took place.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s Constitution was drafted and ratified in 1857 and the original document is now better protected. “Being able to see this historic document first hand can create a powerful connection between our citizens and the document that establishes their fundamental rights and freedoms,” Pate said. The Iowa Constitution had been on display in Pate’s Iowa Capitol office, inside a wooden and glass case made in the 1980s. The document now sits atop a new structure that has internal humidity and temperature controls.

Clear acrylic panels screen out harmful U-V rays that could damage the 168 year old paper the constitution is printed on. Pate hosted an unveiling of the display case — and the Constitution inside it — yesterday. “I’m proud to present, for the first time, the new home for Iowa’s 1857 Constitution,” Pate said, to applause. Pate’s office in the Iowa Capitol is open Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. ’til 4:30 in the afternoon, and he’s inviting Iowans to stop by for a look at Iowa’s founding document.

Secretary of State Paul Pate, standing to the left of the display case right after its unveiling. (RI photo)

“Just like you might feel moved seeing a handwritten letter between your grandparents or some old photos of your ancestors, seeing the actual document can help these pieces of history feel even more real and more meaningful,” Pate said.

The case has a couple of lower drawers for displaying other historical documents. One contains the land records of the Iowa farms President Abraham Lincoln owned.

(Radio Iowa)- House Speaker Pat Grassley says popular policies the legislature has recently passed are in legal jeopardy because gender identity is included in the Iowa Civil Rights Code. In a written statement, Speaker Grassley said House Republicans will give full consideration to removing transgender Iowans as a class of people mentioned in the Iowa Civil Rights Act and therefore protected from discrimination in employment, housing, education and credit considerations.

Grassley cited a 2019 court ruling that has required taxpayers to pay for hormone treatment and gender reassignment surgeries for Medicaid patients and he said policies that have protected women’s sports and prohibited gender affirming care for minors are at risk of being overturned in court. The leader of One Iowa, an advocacy group for L-G-B-T-Q Iowans, says removing gender identity from the Civil Rights Act will upend the lives of transgender Iowans and legally define them out of existence.

Iowa Capitol Building (RI file photo)

Republican Representative Austin Harris of Moulton says he’s voted for and will defend policies like making sure minors are not having permanent gender reassignment surgeries, but he will oppose stripping Iowans of their civil rights with every fiber of his being. “We’re all God’s children and, to me, this is unnecessary and a cruel step,” he said. “…As the first openly gay Republican to ever serve in state government on any level, to my knowledge, I think this is wrong.”

The bill’s sponsor says at least 27 states do not have gender identity specified in their civil rights codes.

(Urbandale, Iowa) – Students will no longer be able to list their sex as anything other than “male” or “female” on state university admission forms in Iowa, according to documents submitted to the Iowa Board of Regents. According to  report by the Iowa Capital Dispatch, in response to federal and state actions, Iowa’s public universities are eliminating questions about gender identity on their admissions forms and removing references to diversity, equity and inclusion from their strategic plans.

Ahead of the Iowa Board of Regents Feb. 27 meeting, the board released documents detailing revisions to the University of Iowa, University of Northern Iowa and Iowa State University strategic plans, striking out language referring to diversity, equity and inclusion. The board will discuss the amended plans, as well as a change to admission application questions asking students to identify their gender.

According to board documents, Sen. Lynn Evans and Rep. Taylor Collins sent a letter to the board Feb. 10 citing recent executive actions taken by President Donald Trump and saying public university practices are going against Trump’s assertion that there are only two genders. The only example provided in the letter was of the UI’s admissions application listing seven genders for prospective students to choose from.

The lawmakers in the letter requested the board adopt a policy aligning with Trump’s “Restoring Sanity Agenda,” which they said put into policy that the only genders are male and female, and ensure the universities under its purview list only these genders on applications for admission.

“If we have recognized anything since the last election, Americans and Iowans are ready for a return to sanity, and that begins with recognizing this basic biological reality,” the letter stated.

State universities had begun discussions on this subject before the board received the letter, according to the document, and by Feb. 13, all three had changed their sex identifier question to include only “female,” “male” and “prefer not to answer,” and removed any questions relating to gender.

Like the board of regents did in January, state universities will present updated strategic plans at the meeting next week, having struck language pertaining to diversity, equity and inclusion.  (Read more HERE)

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Supreme Court is considering whether to allow the identity of a student and the parents to remain anonymous in a lawsuit over an alleged assault in the Western Dubuque School District. Attorney Richard Pundt represented the three who were only identified at Father Doe, Mother Doe and Minor Doe in the filing. During oral arguments Wednesday, Pundt said the names were not used because of the electronic court filing system would reveal them.

“We are compelled to bring an anonymous pleading when it involves a minor. The reason the parents need to be anonymous as well is if the parents identity were disclosed, everyone would know who the minor is, and that holds true of the address as well,” Pundt said. Chief Justice Susan Christensen said there are some exceptions to the rule, but questioned if this should be one.

“What allegations are in this case that are that rise to that level of that extra protection we take for child welfare cases or sex abuse cases of the victim. How does that extend beyond that?” she asked. Pundt replied the possible retribution against the minor is the concern. Justice Edward Mansfield said he also has a concern that this case rises to the need for an exception. “The general rule is, the business and courts is done in public. If you’re allowed to name a defendant publicly, kind of the trade off is you come forward publicly,” he says. Punt answered the retribution is the concern if the names are made public in the electronic filing system.

The school district’s attorney Dustin Zeschke said there are two filing rules that require the names to be included. “You’ll notice from plaintiff’s briefing that he acknowledges our rules do not permit a John and Jane Doe petition,” he says. Zeschke was asked if he know of any other cases where the names would need to be kept hidden. “The only case that I could really see that the Court considered and permitted a doe pleading was regarding an H-I-V-diagnosis,” Zeschke said. He said that situation is covered by another statute.

The Justices are also considering some other legal requirements of the case and will rule at a later date.