(WASHINGTON, D-C) – After the Small Business Administration (SBA) claimed it had run out of funds for disaster relief, U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), the top Republican on the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, alongside her fellow committee members Senators Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Todd Young (R-Ind.), and James Risch (R-Idaho), demanded answers over the agency’s mismanagement of disaster resources. In the letter, the senators highlighted that the SBA failed to notify Congress of the need for supplemental funding ahead of time, as required by law. They also stressed how bureaucratic inefficiency was to blame for the SBA coming up short for Americans in need.

The senators wrote, “Under existing law, the SBA already has several reporting requirements to provide Congress with sufficient notification and information before any shortfall occurs in its disaster account. Unfortunately, the SBA failed to comply, or only partially complied, with several of these provisions and is now, at the eleventh-hour, sounding alarm bells. We must consider whether SBA’s internal decisions were the catalyst for this unfortunate situation. For example, SBA currently has more than $550 million in its disaster administrative expenses account to pay for salaries, but did not request any reprogramming to their disaster loan fund.”

They said also, “Further, during a disaster, on-the-ground staff and training is essential. Congress has long recognized the need for agencies to scale up and down during times of disaster. In light of this, the SBA has a statutorily authorized disaster cadre, which is not meant to fall below 1,000 employees. Based on information recently provided by the SBA in response to questions as it sought supplemental funds, it appears that this cadre may have vanished, but no one was notified. This raises stark concerns about the SBA’s ability to provide for disaster victims during the immediate aftermath of these storms and its ability to inform Congress in accordance with the law,” the senators concluded.

Click here to view the full letter.

Des Moines, IA – State Auditor Rob Sand, Friday, issued a response to the Iowa Judicial Branch’s statement explaining how errors in the collection and distribution of court debt occurred and the steps being taken to rectify the problem.

“The Judicial Branch should be commended for its transparency and bringing forward plans to resolve problems with the coding used to distribute court debt.  They have clearly stated how this process has unfolded this far – something the Auditor’s Office is statutorily prohibited from doing,” Sand said. He added, “This problem is not entirely of the Judiciary’s own making but partially due to legislators demanding very quick changes, and rather than mischaracterize facts, legislators should work to reallocate the money as only legislators can do.”

State Auditor Rob Sand

Chapter 11.42 of the Code of Iowa requires the Auditor’s Office to maintain confidential all information received during the course of an audit or examination, including allegations of misconduct or noncompliance, until a report is issued.

(DES MOINES, Iowa WHO-TV/Iowa Dept. of Ed)— Iowa will soon have a new education license plate and it will be designed by a student. The Department of Education is hosting a statewide contest where all kindergarten through 12th graders can take part in designing the state’s next education license plate.

Student have until December 1st to submit their designs to their art teachers. Teachers can submit up to 10 to the Department of Education. A panel will pick out the semi-finalists and all of these designs will be on display at the Iowa Department of Education. Iowans will then get to vote on their favorite.

The winner will be notified in late May, and production of the new license plate will start next summer.

Any Iowan can choose to have an education license plate on their vehicle. There is a $35 registration fee and a $10 annual recurring fee. All proceeds will go towards student transportation costs.

For more information on the license plate challenge, click this link.

**10/21: Corrects story to show the pedestrian was a woman**

(Webster County, Iowa) – A 72-year-old woman was injured this (Friday) morning, when she was struck by an SUV while he was crossing a road in Fort Dodge. The Iowa State Patrol says Wen Hsing Drew, of Fort Dodge, was crossing N. 29th Street from the west side walk at around 7:53-a.m., when she was hit by a 2023 Ford Bronco. The SUV – driven by 36-year-old Amanda Lawler, of Ft. Dodge – was turning south onto N. 29th Street after stopping at the E. 6th Avenue stop sign.

Her vehicle struck Drew in the middle of N. 29th Street. The Patrol said there are NO painted crosswalk lines between the sidewalks crossing 29th.

Wen Drew was transported by ambulance to Unity Point Hospital and then flown by Life Flight to Iowa Methodist in Des Moines. There was no report on her condition. The accident remains under investigation.

(Radio Iowa) – The director of the Iowa Department of Public Safety talked in detail for the first time today (Friday) about the investigation into the January shootings at Perry High School that left the principal, one student and the 17-year-old student shooter dead. Director Stephan Bayens talked about the potential motive, and says they found was no theme from a belief system standpoint, no evidence to substantiate any claim of bullying or the existence of a grievance. “There is significant evidence of this shooter’s fascination with prior school shootings. There is evidence of copycat behavior from the school shooter regarding prior school shootings where significant details reside in the public domain,” Bayens says.

He says the victims were not targeted and appeared to have been a product of immediate availability, there was evidence of meticulous week long planning, rather than an unprepared emotional response. Bayens says they recovered writings from the shooter that indicated he was suicidal.  “He desired to be famous, he desired to commit suicide, he desired to take others with him,” he says. Bayens says the primary weapon used in the shooting was a 20 gage Remington 870 shotgun. ” There was significant investigative efforts made to identify the source of the shotgun. I can say that agents were able to trace the original purchaser of that shotgun, and it happened roughly 20 years before the shooting,” he says. “We traced it through successive purchasers where we could but eventually that shotgun was sold in a private sale, and at that point in time, the trail went cold. The last time we could put that shotgun in a particular person’s hand was roughly 10 to 15 years prior to the shooting.”

Steven Bayens, Iowa Public Safety Commissioner

Bayens says they can say that the shotgun did not come from the parents home, and though not confirmed, is likely that the shotgun came from a large gun collection within the extended family, and that the shotgun was likely taken without the owner’s knowledge. The shooter also had Ruger 22 caliber revolver that was not used and had been legally purchased by the shooter’s father in 2020. It was unsecured in the family home. There was also an improvised explosive device, that investigators found was not particularly complex. He says there were some red flags surrounding the shooter.  ” I can say that there was no evidence that any other person knew of the shooter’s specific intentions on January 4th,” Bayens says. “That being said, I can say that others were aware of the shooter’s general interest in school shootings. Others were aware with of his fascination for violence.”

Bayens says there had been concerns in school before the shooting. “We can say that the shooter in this case, did have broad behavioral issues, had broad mental health concerns, and that many of these concerns were present years in advance of the shooting on January 4th,” he says. Bayens says the Iowa D-C-I’s investigation was purely criminal in nature and not an audit or a review of the processes, and it was turned over the county attorney to determine charges.

The Dallas County Attorney announced Thursday there would be no charges in the shooting.

(Radio Iowa) – The aquarium at Dubuque’s National Mississippi River Museum is closed due to a chemical leak. A pipe from the museum’s H-VAC system dripped glycol into one the aquarium’s 40-thousand-gallon tanks last week, killing all but 17 of the fish inside on Tuesday. Aquarium staff were alerted to the presence of glycol in the water due to a milky bacteria blooming in the water. Kurt Strand, the museum’s president and C-E-O, says that made rescuing the fish difficult. “Bacterial bloom can happen in a few short hours,” he says. “As soon as our team got in at 7 a.m., it was all hands on deck. They knew they couldn’t dive in because it was murky, but they were doing everything possible to save as many as they could.”

The H-VAC leak was first identified in early October and was patched. Strand says museum staff had been watching the tank’s oxygen levels and had introduced bacteria designed to detect and fight chemicals in the water. “When they took the steps they took and the figures that were coming for the oxygen in the tank and everything else, I felt like we were past that time where something could happen,” Strand says.

Strand hopes to reopen the exhibit in about six weeks, but that depends on the health of the surviving fish.

(Radio Iowa) – The recall of ready-to-eat meat and poultry products sold at major retailers like Target, Walmart, Costco and Trader Joes has expanded. The recall is due to possible listeria contamination of meat and poultry from BrucePac, an Oklahoma meat producer and it now covers nearly 12 million pounds of ready-to-eat products. It affects over 300 branded products like burritos, chicken wraps, salads, pastas and other items. Consuming products contaminated with listeria can cause a serious infection and, in some cases, lead to death.

The recall of BrueePac products now includes food distributed to U-S schools, but no Iowa schools or preschools are included on the U-S-D-A’s preliminary list.