(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Senate has unanimously voted to create a task force to study the distribution of state court fines and recommend changes to the system. The move comes after computer programming errors in the Iowa Judicial Branch misdirected $27.5 million over a five year period. The directors of six state agencies as well as city and county officials and groups that were shorted funds would serve on the review panel.

Senator Janet Petersen, a Democrat from Des Moines, wished them luck. “It’s an important group that we’re bringing together to really try and simplify and streamline a very complex system that many groups depend on for accuracy,” she said.

The bill names the governor and three other Republican elected officials as panel members. The Supreme Court’s chief justice and the state auditor are not on the list. Republican Senator Mike Bousselot of Ankeny made it clear that’s intended as a rebuke to State Auditor Rob Sand, a Democrat. Bousselot has accused Sand of failing to immediately act when first notified about the funding errors.

“What is the mission of our auditor’s office? To ensure that government officials use taxpayer money for the intended purpose?” Bousselot asked during Senate debate. “Well, I hate to tell you, but he failed at that mission in every single way on court debt.”

Sand has said his office became aware of the issue in October 2022, but it could not be made public until an audit of the Judicial Branch was completed and released. Other state officials disclosed the computer errors last October and the funding distribution has been corrected.

March 13, 2025 (Altoona, Iowa) — The Iowa Tourism Office presented 11 awards recognizing excellence in the tourism industry during the 2025 Iowa Tourism Conference at Prairie Meadows in Altoona today (Thursday).

In addition, conference attendees voted for the People’s Choice Award. Nominees were selected by Iowa Tourism Office staff to recognize partners going above and beyond with projects that can serve as inspiration to others that didn’t fit neatly into any of the award categories.

The complete list of 2025 Iowa Tourism Award recipients:

Outstanding Marketing Collaboration: Jefferson Matters and the Greene County Historical Society, Jefferson

Recognizes exceptional collaborations between destination marketing organizations, local businesses and/or other industry partners that result in a strategic and impactful marketing campaign or project.

Innovation in Marketing: My County Parks

Recognizes a destination marketing organization or tourism business that has demonstrated innovation and creativity in marketing.

Outstanding Niche Marketing Campaign: American State Bank Sports Complex, Sioux Center

Recognizes outstanding tourism campaigns by a destination marketing organization or tourism business that effectively targets a specific, well-defined audience.

**Outstanding Marketing Campaign (marketing budget less than $50,000)

• City of Manning

 Outstanding Marketing Campaign (marketing budget greater than $50,000)

Iowa State Fair

Champion of Iowa Tourism (two winners): ChildServe, Johnston, and Siouxland Sports Academy, Sioux City

Recognizes an individual or organization not traditionally part of the tourism industry that nevertheless made an extraordinary contribution to the Iowa tourism industry in the last year.

Iowa Tourism Legacy Award (three winners): Rod Marlatt, Fayette County Conservation Board; Greg Edwards, Catch Des Moines; and Wes Ehrecke, Iowa Gaming Association

Presented to an individual or individuals who have worked in the tourism industry for a minimum of 10 years and whose contributions significantly and measurably impacted tourism in Iowa.

People’s Choice Award: Visit Quad Cities – Tourism Accessibility Efforts

The Iowa Tourism Office, part of the Iowa Economic Development Authority, works closely with community partners, attractions and events, to promote the state’s beautifully vast scenery and unique history. Tourism in Iowa generated $7.3 billion in expenditures in 2023, with more than $1.1 billion supporting state and local governments, while employing a total of 70,954 people statewide. For more information on everything Iowa has to offer tourists, visit traveliowa.com.

(Radio Iowa) – Federal grant money to help Iowa’s homeless youth is in limbo due to a clerical error by the U-S Department of Housing and Urban Development. The Iowa agency which helps fund and coordinate homeless services was supposed to get an initial 200-thousand dollar payment from a nearly seven-million dollar grant, but there was a slip-up. Courtney Guntly, director of the Iowa Balance of State Continuum of Care, says the group hasn’t received any of the money yet.

Guntly says, “It is very, very stressful being at this point that we don’t know, and I’m not even sure when we will know, what things look like for the long term.” The agency was notified in mid-January of the clerical error by a HUD liaison, but she says the remaining funds are also in doubt due to federal funding freezes and contract cuts. Guntly says the group already hired extra staff and they’re working with the expectation the money will eventually come through.

“We have to continue to do the work,” she says, “but we don’t know what’s going on or what the future of this funding looks like.” A HUD employee confirmed Iowa was the only grant recipient affected by the error. Guntly says HUD also hasn’t signed the contract for the annual grant funding which starts April first. Last year, HUD signed the contract on February 1st.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa House has voted to let state legislators, Iowa’s attorney general and judges apply for a professional permit to carry a weapon while at work. State law says professional weapons permits may be issued to people whose employment reasonably justifies being armed.

Under the bill, members of the Iowa House and Senate, Iowa’s attorney general and the deputy and assistant state attorneys general would be allowed to apply for a professional weapon permit. They could carry a concealed weapon not only while at work but while traveling to or from the work. Judges would only be allowed to carry a concealed weapon while in a courtroom and the Iowa Supreme Court could require additional training.

A state law passed in 2017 allows gun owners to bring a concealed handgun into the state capitol if they have a valid weapons permit. The bill on professional weapons permit for state officials passed the House on a 79-to-17 vote and goes to the senate for consideration.

(Radio Iowa) – Eight small business owners from Iowa have been in Washington, D-C with their counterparts from 15 other states to talk with lawmakers and policymakers. Ashley Kuhns owns a non-profit child support program in Grinnell and says they are discussing several issues.”Some of them include access to capital, affordable capital. Child care is one of them, the workforce is another one of them, competing with big businesses,” she says. She says lack of access to affordable capital makes it hard for small businesses to grow. “For us, because I don’t have a building, and I’m a nonprofit, it’s really difficult for us to access affordable capital, to be able to build a building if I want, or to afford that in this landscape, because I don’t have access to SBA loans, I don’t have access to the same things that some rural or small businesses have,” Kuhns says. She says she can’t offer the same pay packages and benefits that larger companies can.

“Being able to compete with those bigger businesses with those other businesses, is really something that lawmakers need to consider when building policy or having those conversations,” Kuhns says. Matha Hooglan from the Woudstra Meat Market in Orange City says they have the same concerns about access to money. “If we could take monthly what we’re putting into our interest payments, putting that into our businesses instead, the growth rate and the people that we would be able to impact and hire would grow drastically,” she says. “So that is definitely what I am advocating for the most.” Aaron Lenz owns the Roadhouse sports bar in Orange City and is concerned about supply costs.

Eight Iowa small business owners met with policymakers in Washing6ton, D.C. (Photo by Jimmy Centers)

“Since we opened four years ago, we’ve seen our cost of food products go about 47 percent higher than it were than there were when we opened,” Lenz says. “And that same pressure is felt on the average consumer and how they spend their dollars at the grocery store, which trickles into every other aspect of their life.” Lenz says looming tariffs are part of that cost concern. “My ask from our representatives is that if we’re going to see tariffs being implemented across the board, if we can somehow figure out how to exclude food products from those, I think that would help just about every consumer in the United States,” he says.

Lenz says they also want consistency in regulations. The Iowa business owners met with lawmakers and Small Business Administration leader Kelly Loeffler.