Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, chair of the Judiciary Committee, led a hearing Tuesday that featured testimony from Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The online social network is at the center of a data scandal in which Cambridge Analytica gained access to personal information of 87-million Facebook users. In his opening statement, Grassley raised the possibility of legislation to protect consumers. “Our policy towards data privacy and security must keep pace with these changes,” Grassley said. “Data privacy should be tethered to consumer needs and expectations.”

Grassley also called on Facebook and the operators of other social networks to do more to protect users’ privacy. “The tech industry has an obligation to respond to widespread and growing concerns over data privacy and security and to restore the public trust. The status quo no longer works,” Grassley said. Later in the hearing, Grassley questioned Zuckerberg directly. “Why doesn’t Facebook disclose to its users all the ways that data might be used by Facebook and other third parties? And what is Facebook’s responsibility to inform users about that information?” Zuckerberg responded, “Mr. Chairman, I believe it’s important to tell people exactly how the information that they share on Facebook is going to be used.”

Zuckerberg said his company and others in the tech industry have “found it challenging” to draft privacy policies that are easy for users to understand. “And if you make it long and spell out all the detail, then you’re probably going to reduce the percent of people who read it and make it accessible to them,” Zuckerberg said. “So, one of the things that we’ve struggled with over time is to make something that is as simple as possible so people can understand it, as well as giving them controls in line in the product in the context of when they’re trying to actually use them, taking into account that we don’t expect that most people will want to go through and read a full legal document.”

Zuckerberg, who faced nearly five hours of questioning, called legislation that would require Facebook to automatically let users “opt out” of having their data collected or shared “the right principle,” but added “the details matter.”

(Radio Iowa)

The Iowa Farm Bureau is moving ahead with plans to sell new “health benefit” plans to perhaps tens of thousands of Iowans through Wellmark after legislation was signed into law last week by Governor Kim Reynolds. Iowa Farm Bureau President Craig Hill says the new law corrects a problem that was created by the federal government’s Affordable Care Act. “It provides us the opportunity to bring benefits to our members in health care,” Hill says. “We’ve done this for nearly 50 years as a partner with Wellmark but the Affordable Care Act eliminated our options and took us out of the market because of that legislation.”

Hill says one of the most pressing issues for farmers has been the inability to buy affordable health care. “Premiums have risen 300% since 2014 and many families are paying 20- and 30- and sometimes $35,000 a year for a policy with a large deductible,” Hill says. “It’s taken them out of the market. They’re going without insurance because they can’t afford it. They’re borrowing money to pay the premium.” Hill sees the new health benefit package becoming available by the end of this year or early next year. “We think there’s 20-to-30,000 Iowans who quickly will move toward this,” Hill says. “They’re on the individual marketplace and are either without a policy or are on an unaffordable policy. There will be more next year. We’re working with Wellmark to get the underwriting prepared and get the policies out.”

The Iowa Farm Bureau plan is under the rules for association plans offered by groups that have something in common, such as belonging to an association or a small employer. The Trump administration is drawing up new rules to offer health benefits outside the Affordable Care Act.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:50 a.m. CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has signed into law an immigration enforcement bill that bans so-called sanctuary cities. The Republican governor signed the bill privately Tuesday. The news was tucked into a press release about 16 other bill signings. The legislation will require law enforcement to follow requests from federal agents to hold a jailed person suspected of being in the country illegally. Local governments risk losing state funding if they don’t comply with the law.

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa (AP) — The University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls is proposing an undergraduate resident tuition increase of 2.8 percent for the upcoming academic year. The Courier reports that the Iowa Board of Regents will provide the first of two readings on the proposed rates for all three of Iowa’s public universities on Wednesday and Thursday in Council Bluffs.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa board has put on hold plans to require public workers in the state to preregister to vote in key union elections. The Public Employment Relations Board announced Tuesday it would not move ahead with proposed administrative rules that would have required a registration process before so-called recertification elections. Representatives for several unions said at a legislative committee meeting last week that such a system would suppress voter participation.

AMES, Iowa (AP) — An Ames manufacturing plant has been fined following the workplace death in January of an employee. Des Moines television station KCCI reports that the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has fined Danfoss Power Solutions $12,000 following an investigation into the Jan. 18 death of 45-year-old John Lavery.

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa (AP) — The University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls is proposing an undergraduate resident tuition increase of 2.8 percent for the upcoming academic year. The Courier reports that the Iowa Board of Regents will provide the first of two readings on the proposed rates for all three of Iowa’s public universities on Wednesday and Thursday in Council Bluffs.

UNI’s proposed rate, which comes to a $209 jump, is below the maximum 4 percent threshold established by the board earlier this year. With 90 percent of its undergraduate students coming from Iowa, UNI enrolls the highest proportion of resident undergraduates of all three public universities, which include the University of Iowa and Iowa State University.

The Union County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday, that officials with Agriland FS, Inc., of Winterset, reported Monday morning, that sometime between Sunday and Monday,  someone stole fuel from their bulk tanks in Afton.  The loss was estimated at $1,600.

The Cass County Sheriff’s Office reports Brian Todd Rink, of Atlantic, turned himself in to the Sheriff’s Office Tuesday, on a DCI charge of Assault. Rink plead guilty to an amended charge of simple assault, was fined and placed on placed on six-months unsupervised release before being released.

Eighteen Iowa communities (including Clearfield, Lenox, Stanton and Stuart) are getting grants of 100-thousand dollars from the Iowa Economic Development Authority to redevelopment of buildings under the Community Catalyst Program. Jim Thompson oversees the new program which has a simple goal. “Communities select a building that’s in need of remediation that will not only serve as an economic catalyst — thus the name — but also serve as an example to other property owners that are adjacent. To be able to see that economic activity can happen, even in the smallest of towns,” Thompson says.

The program is open to all communities, but the rules require 40 percent of the grants to go to those with populations of less than 15-hundred residents. Fifty percent of those size communities that won grants in this first year. “Smaller communities have less capacity,” Thompson says, “and it’s not just always in dollars. Sometimes it’s in administrative function and in leadership. So, we have been really working hand-in-hand with these communities as applicants for these buildings.” Fifty-three communities applied for the program and 18 received the maximum 100-thousand dollar award.

“One unique thing about this program is that it did not require any local match — although it was scored competitively against the other applicants based on their match,” Thompson says. “So, it didn’t’ have to be just a cash match. We also allowed communities to come up with an in kind contribution.” He says communities provided the in-kind match in a lot of ways, such as waiving building and other permit fees.

He says they allowed the communities to be creative and some are supplying trucks and labor to help renovate the buildings. Thompson says some of the projects are already in the works and are paying off. He says the program saves old buildings that may’ve been torn down and turns them into something that creates new things.

The communities have two years to complete the projects. Locally:

• The City of Clearfield received a grant to rehabilitate300 Broadway, for a 1st floor rehab to entice business development 2nd floor apartment and 2 rentable overnight rooms. The total project cost is estimated at $190,000.
• The City of Lenox received a $100,000 grant to rehabilitate the Bunn Jewelry Building Mexican Restaurant & Woodworking Shop with four apartments upstairs (a $571,000 project)
• The City of Stanton received $100k to rehabilitate the Historic Mason Building Mixed Use Renovation Adds Downtown Living & Additional Business Spaces (a $284,000 project)
• The City of Stuart received a grant to rehabilitate the Hotel Stuart: 1st floor restaurant Upper level hotel suites (a $761,964 project)

And, the City of Mapleton received a community technical assistance planning grant of five-thousand dollars ($5,000).

(Radio Iowa)

AMES, Iowa (AP) — An Ames manufacturing plant has been fined following the workplace death in January of an employee. Des Moines television station KCCI reports that the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has fined Danfoss Power Solutions $12,000 following an investigation into the Jan. 18 death of 45-year-old John Lavery.

Officials say a safety hood on a motor testing operation fell on Lavery, killing him.
In the days after Lavery’s death, officials for the hydraulic motors plant said the company was replacing all the other safety hoods with a new design in an effort to prevent similar accidents.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa board has put on hold plans to require public workers in the state to preregister to vote in key union elections. The Public Employment Relations Board announced Tuesday it would not move ahead with proposed administrative rules that would have required a registration process before so-called recertification elections.

Board chairman Mike Cormack says officials received negative feedback about the idea. Representatives for several unions told lawmakers last week that such a system would suppress voter participation.

The board says its election vendor initially sought the changes. The board may seek a new vendor, which could increase costs. The Republican-controlled Legislature approved a bill last year that scaled back collective bargaining rights for most public workers. It required more frequent elections on whether public workers should stay unionized.

Road construction work for the expansion of U.S. 20 in Ida and Sac counties will require closing the roadway to traffic between Ida County Road M-25 (near Galva) and U.S. 71 (near Early) from 8 a.m. Wednesday, Apr. 11, until Friday, Sept. 28, weather permitting, according to the Iowa Department of Transportation’s District 3 Office.

Motorists will be directed around the work zone on a signed detour using Ida County Road M-25, Ida/Sac County Road D-15, and U.S. 71.