(Radio Iowa) — Seven Iowa communities are ranked among the “50 Best Mid-Size Cities to Live In,” according to U-S-A Today, and one northwest Iowa city is in the top ten. Attributes include things like safe streets, available jobs, transportation options and cultural attractions. Le Mars is listed as number-seven and Mayor Dick Kirchoff calls it a “high honor” for the community. He says the report specifically mentions affordable housing rates as a major factor for Le Mars’ high ranking. Kirchoff says, “Housing is particularly inexpensive with the typical household spending about $8,124 a year, about 4,000 less than the average annual housing cost nationwide.”

The mayor predicts Le Mars’ high ranking may help with the town’s economic development plans, though he says their biggest obstacle is finding people to fill jobs. “One of our challenges is to get enough workforce personnel, particularly our industries, for them to be able to expand and do what they want to,” Kirchoff says.

Hand-in-hand with workforce shortage issues are housing shortage issues, and the mayor says they’re working on that. “Just within this last year, we were fortunate enough to find developers and our local builders to put up 91 apartments or townhouses,” he says, “and we built about 19 or 20 brand new homes here in town.”

Most of those new dwellings are already filled, he says, with 85-percent of the residents being new in town. Other Iowa cities on the U-S-A Today “Best” list include: Carroll at #11, Johnston at #22, Pella at #23, Spencer at #29, North Liberty at #39 and Storm Lake at #47. Overall, the top three towns listed are: Perryton, Texas at #3, Mandan, North Dakota at #2, and West University Place, Texas at #1.

Republican Congressman Steve King is disputing his Democratic opponent J.D. Scholten’s assertion that King’s views on many issues, including immigration, are out-of-step with fourth district voters. “He is the antithesis of the values of this district,” King says, “and I happen to embody them and that’s a matter of record, not a matter of conjecture or opinion.”

Earlier Friday, Scholten said King’s stand on immigration is “10 miles down the road” from most Democrats and Republicans. “First thing I thought when I heard that was: ‘There’s Steve King…standing right shoulder-to-shoulder with Donald Trump, who by the way borrowed my immigration policy when he came to Iowa to run for president,” King says. “…We sat at his desk in the Oval Office just a couple of weeks ago and agreed how we were going to move them.”

And King — who has sponsored bills in congress that would end “birthright citizenship” — points to Trump’s recent comment that he’d issue an executive order to end citizenship for babies born to parents who are in the country illegally. Scholten also has said the VISA guest worker program must be revamped so businesses, like the pork processing plants in northwest Iowa, can hire more workers. King says the border must be secured before those kind of issues are discussed in congress.

“The employers, they knew what the demographics were when they built these places,” King says. “I want to help them as much as I can, but they invested their capital and they shouldn’t be coming to congress saying, ‘Oh, whoops. I need cheap labor. Please change the laws.'” King says his evaluation indicates there are more than 100 million people already here who could or should be working.

“We need to put more Americans back to work. They’re sitting there right now, drawing down welfare checks. We’re borrowing money from China to pay people not to work and I’ll say short-term, narrow-minded people just want to take a look at how do we solve this problem in the here and now, real quick and real cheap,” King says. “You know, one thing that’s happening today is this tight labor supply is moving wages and benefits up. That’s a good thing because it broadens our middle class.”

King, who is recovering from laryngitis, spoke by phone with a reporter from Radio Iowa, Friday afternoon.

(Radio Iowa) — J.D. Scholten, the Democrat challenging Republican Congressman Steve King, says the end of “straight ticket” voting in Iowa may give his own campaign a boost this year.  “If you look at the 2016 election numbers, four percent of all the people who voted in my district, they undervoted in this race. They voted for president. They voted down ballot,” Scholten said. “…To me, that is a Republican who said: ‘I can no longer consciously vote for Steve King.'”

Those 2016 voters Scholten is talking about were picking and choosing among the candidates rather than checking the box to vote for all the Republicans on the ballot. Now that such “straight ticket” voting for all the candidates of one party is no longer an option in Iowa, Scholten says he expects more G-O-P voters to skip voting for King. “With straight ticket off, they’re going to have to see his name and make that decision,” Scholten says, “and I see that getting into a lot of people’s heads.”

There are 70-thousand more active Republican voters than Democrats in the fourth district. King has easily won the district in the eight previous elections, but Scholten suggests King’s hard-line stance on immigration is wearing thin in the area. “When it comes to immigration and a lot of things there’s Democrats and there’s Republicans and 10 miles down the road there’s Steve King,” Scholten says, “and especially when it comes to immigration because we have the pork plant we have in Sioux City that’s been open for about a year and the pork plant that’s going to open up in Eagle Grove and both of them have talked about the need for an immigrant workforce.”

Scholten says small business owners all across the political spectrum tell him they need workers. “Last harvest, I was down in Greene County and they needed for the harvest, their grain elevator needed 39 workers and they didn’t get one American citizen to apply for that.” Scholten says the country “absolutely” needs secure borders, but it also needs an improved VISA program to help businesses get guest workers. “Being the second-most agriculture producing district in American and having a congressman who doesn’t understand the needs of his own district because right now the VISA programs match, for agriculture, the coasts. They don’t match the year-round workers we need in our district,” and so he’s advocated — he, as in Steve King — has abdicated his own leadership for his own personal agenda on this.”

Scholten says the process of becoming a naturalized system must be improved as well. He made his comments Friday morning, during taping of Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press” program.

(Updated 6:50-a.m.) Anita Rescue, Wiota 1st Responders and Medivac Ambulance responded early this morning to an ATV accident on what was said to be private property. The accident at 606 Michigan Avenue (Highway 148), south of Anita, happened at around 5:15-a.m. A 41-year old woman was injured during the accident. According to dispatch reports, she was apparently a passenger on the ATV. No other details are available at this time.

ATLANTIC – Expecting moms and dads with young children are invited to participate in a Siblings Class at Cass County Health System on Tuesday, November 13^th at 7 pm.  The Siblings Class is a free class that will be held quarterly at CCHS. It is geared toward children between the ages of 2 and 10 to attend with their mothers who are at or past 34 weeks of pregnancy. The class includes hands-on activities like swaddling, feeding, diapering, and holding a newborn. All kids who participate will receive a special certificate and their very own teddy bear.

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Brooke Dreager, RN, says “Having a new baby is a huge event for a family. Everyone focuses a lot of attention on the baby and parents, which means that we often overlook the older siblings. Our goal is to recognize the older siblings and help them with this big transition. We want the Siblings Class to provide a fun night for the parents to connect with their kids while talking about practical advice and skills to help the older child adjust to a new baby in the family.”

Reservations are required for the Sibling Class; please call the CCHS OB Department at 712-250-8862.

Sheriff’s officials in Mills County, Friday, said 48-year old Thomas Shawn Johnson, of Stanton, was arrested Thursday on a warrant out of Pottawattamie County. Johnson was arrested on the warrant for Failure to appear in court on a Probation Violation charge. He was being held in the Mills County Jail on a $2,000 bond.

And, the Sheriff’s Office says no injuries were reported following an accident Thursday evening at Interstate 29 at Highway 34. 84-year old Edward Neill, of Emerson, was driving a 1977 Chevy northbound on the I-29 entrance ramp from Highway 34 westbound, when he fell asleep at the wheel at around 5:10-p.m.  His car left the road to the right, and entered the ditch before continuing through a fence and into another ditch. Neill woke up and managed to get his vehicle stopped in a nearby campground. Deputies cited him for Failure to Maintain Control.

The Iowa Department of Public Safety says a graduation ceremony was held Friday morning for 24 recruits from the Iowa Department of Public Safety’s 41st Basic Academy. The graduates were sworn-in as peace officers for the State of Iowa at Camp Dodge. Guest speaker for the ceremony was Colonel Timothy A. Glynn of the Iowa National Guard. Among the graduates was:

• Trisha Huerta, from Griswold. Before joining the Iowa State Patrol, Huerta graduated from The University of Iowa where she attained a BA in Criminology, Law and Justice. She will be assigned to Pottawattamie County in District 3.
  

  Trooper Trisha Huerta

• Tyler Mathis, who comes to the State Patrol from Lawton, Iowa and will be stationed in District 4 – Harrison County. Tyler is currently serving in the Iowa Army National Guard. He also serves as a volunteer firefighter and EMT in his free time. Before attending the academy Tyler received his BA in History and BA in Criminal Justice from the University of South Dakota.
  

  Trooper Tyler Mathis

• Zachary Jensen, who is originally from Greenfield, was assigned to Shelby County in District 4. Zach is currently serving the country in the Iowa Air National Guard. Before joining the Iowa State Patrol, he was active duty in the Air force for eight years.
  

  Trooper Zach Johnson

For the past 18 weeks, the recruits completed courses on laws of arrest, search and seizure, defensive tactics, arrest techniques, precision driving, firearms, emergency management services, criminal law, human relations, physical fitness, motor vehicle law, and several other courses in law enforcement.