(Radio Iowa) – A top leader in the U-S House is urging Iowa Republicans to stay engaged to ensure G-O-P candidates in competitive races win in 2026. All four Iowans serving in the U.S. House today are Republicans — but Minnesota Congressman Tom Emmer notes that at this time five years ago, the Iowa delegation was split 50/50 between Republicans and Democrats.

“It wasn’t that long ago that didn’t have all of this wonderful red that you see across Iowa…The worst thing you can do is just sit back on your laurels,” Emmer said. “…You win because everybody grabs ahold of the rope and does their part. Everybody’s got to be pulling every day.” Emmer, the assistant majority leader in the U.S. House, was the keynote speaker at a Friday night fundraiser for Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks.

“It’s great that all of you are in this room, but you’ve got to keep reminding Republicans: ‘Yeah, we hold it all right now, but we could lose it all tomorrow,'” Emmer said. “Republicans have a tendency that when they win they suddenly say, ‘All right, we’ve got it. It’s good,’ and they don’t show up. This time we cannot take that attitude.” Miller-Meeks won in 2020 by just six votes. Last year, her margin of victory was 800 votes.

She says Democrats have already spent two-point-eight MILLION dollars campaigning against her this year. “But we’re still standing. We’re still going and we are never going to give up. We never back down. I’m like the defensive line of the Iowa Hawkeyes,” Miller-Meeks said, to chcers. “Don’t come at me. Don’t after my family. Don’t come after my district.” Miller-Meeks faces a repeat challenge from fellow Republican David Pautsch, who finished 12 points behind Miller-Meeks in the 2024 G-O-P primary.

Three Democrats are running in the district, including Christina Bohannan of Iowa City, who has run against Miller-Meeks twice before.

(Lee County, Iowa) – Two adults and three children were injured during a rollover accident Sunday morning, east of Swisher, in eastern Iowa. All of injured, including the driver, were from Union Grove, Alabama.  The Iowa State Patrol reports a car driven by 29-year-old Amanda N. Hufnagle, was traveling north on Highway 27 (The Avenue of the Saints) at around 9-a.m., when the car drifted onto the left shoulder of the road. Hufnagle over-corrected, causing the car to slid across the northbound lanes before it entered the east ditch. The vehicle then rolled-over and came to rest on its wheels,

A juvenile passenger in the car  was ejected from the vehicle. The injured included the driver, 32-year-old Nathan T. Oden, an 11, five and 3-year old juveniles. All were transported by ambulance to the hospital in Fort Madison.

The crash remained under investigation.

(Pottawattamie County, Iowa) – An adult and a child were struck and killed by a pickup struck as they stood in the median off of Interstate 880 Sunday night. The Iowa State Patrol reports 27-year-old Til Baswa and a 2-year-old, both from Des Moines, were in the median because their SUV had struck a deer and became disabled in the middle of the roadway.

27-year-old Brody Barrier, of Neola, was traveling eastbound on I-880 in a pickup truck at around 7-p.m., when he saw the disabled SUV in the traveled portion of the road and swerved to avoid hitting it. When he took evasive action, his pickup truck entered the median and struck the two pedestrians before coming to rest in the median.

Baswa and the juvenile died at the scene. The driver of the SUV (which was not hit), was not injured. He was identified as 47-year-old Om Neupane, of Des Moines.

The Patrol was assisted at the accident site by the Pott. County Sheriff’s Office and Iowa DOT personnel.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Sheriff’s officials in Montgomery County report a traffic stop late Saturday night near Villisca, resulted an arrest. Authorities say 54-year-old Pedro Quintanilla-Flores, of Lenox, was taken into custody at around 10:10-pm near Highway 71 and 250th Street, for Driving While Barred – An Aggravated Misdemeanor. Quintanilla-Flores was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $2,000 bond.

(Clarinda, Iowa) – The Page County Sheriff’s Office reports the Page County Communications Center received a call a little after 8-pm Friday, about a person who allegedly fired a shotgun at his neighbor. Deputies from the Page County Sheriff’s Office, Adams County Sheriff’s Office, Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, Taylor County Sheriff’s Office, Fremont County Sheriff’s Office, Clarinda Police Department, Red Oak Police Department, Iowa State Patrol and Clarinda Regional Health Center EMS responded to the scene at 112 2nd Street in Hepburn, Iowa.

Pictured: Michael Lee Rose Sr (Fremont County Sheriff’s Office photo)

After a short standoff Michael Lee Rose Sr. was taken into custody. He was transported to the Page County Jail where he was booked in. Lee was charged with two-counts possession of offense weapon by a prohibited person, intimidation with a dangerous weapon, going armed with intent, and possession of a short- barreled shotgun.

“A charge is merely an accusation and that the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.”

(Radio Iowa) – Iowans are being warned about a new type of scam that might sound like Halloween fun, but it’s actually the first step toward having your identity stolen. Khesha Duncan, with the Better Business Bureau, says what’s known as “ghost tapping” can be frightening — to your personal finances.

“It’s actually a type of scamming that takes advantage of tap-to-pay credit cards and mobile wallets,” Duncan says. “Scammers will purchase a tap machine. If someone doesn’t have an RFID wallet or sleeve for protection, it will allow that person to just bump into you and scan your credit card.” Duncan says ghost tap scammers can use these portable machines to steal your credit card information, often in crowded places.

“Like festivals or flea markets or even concerts,” she says. “They want to get in places where they can bump into people, and it’s very, very scary. You’re much more vulnerable, so you need to be very careful about that.” As technology advances, so do the criminals, and Duncan says Iowans need to be vigilant with their personal financial data.

“If you’re in a high traffic area, even in the store, you might consider just going ahead and inserting your card or using the swipe feature for your card,” she says. A little caution can go a long way in avoiding a costly scam, Duncan says. She recommends using the Better Business Bureau’s Scam Tracker, a free tool that helps Iowans spot and report suspicious activity.

https://www.bbb.org/scamtracker

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Supreme Court is upholding the conviction of a Washington County man for assault after he showed a gun to two deputies. The deputies were investigating an illegal fireworks report on July 9th of 2022 at Matthew Meisheid’s home in Kalona. Deputies say he responded by pulling a handgun out of his pants, pointing it at the sky, and saying “I’ll show you a firework, boom boom.”

Mieshied’s appeal says there is insufficient evidence for the charges because he did not point or move the gun in the deputies’ direction. The Supreme Court ruling says deputy bodycam footage shows he did not directly point the gun at deputies, but says a person can display an object toward another person without moving the object any closer to them or-in the case of a firearm-pointing it at them.

Mieshied was sentenced to prison with a five-year mandatory minimum as the involvement of law officers made the crime a felony.

(Radio Iowa) -[updated] Republican Congressman Randy Feenstra says tax credits for some of the middle income Americans who’ve been buying health insurance policies on the Affordable Care Act marketplace must be examined. “ObamaCare has always been very expensive. I mean, it continues to go up. It has never been affordable and when we had COVID, the tax credits were dramatically increased,” Feenstra says. “…We’re saying, ‘No, we can’t do that.'”

Americans with an annual income within 400 percent above the poverty line will still receive the tax credit next year, but current law says middle-income Americans will no longer qualify next year. Senate Democrats are insisting an extension of these health care subsidies be included in the plan to temporarily fund the federal government. “I want quality and affordable health care for all Iowans, but there’s a better way and that’s why we say to Democrats: ‘Open the government. We can talk about this. We can work through it, but we want to do it in the right way.’ And you don’t do that when you have a government shutdown.”

Feenstra was first elected to the U.S. House in 2020. That was after bills to repeal the Affordable Care Act passed the Republican-led House, but failed in the Senate. Feenstra has said protecting people with pre-existing conditions from losing their insurance should be part of any future health care legislation, but he says taking steps to inject competition in the system will reduce premium costs. Feenstra has also proposed that patients who pay with cash should get a discount on their health care bills.

This past May, Feenstra formed an exploratory committee for a run for governor in 2026, but has not formally kicked off a statewide campaign.

DES MOINES, Iowa – A federal grand jury in Des Moines has returned an 11‑count indictment on October 16, 2025, charging a Des Moines man with wire fraud. The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa said Friday (today), as alleged in the Indictment, 65-year-old Marin James Tirrell, ran a scheme to defraud multiple individuals between February 2024 and January 2025. Tirrell’s scheme involved obtaining money from individuals that he claimed would be used to buy tickets to high-demand sports and concert events and resold at a profit. Instead, Tirrell used a majority of the funds for gambling and personal expenses, repaying loans, and paying other investors for earlier payments. In total, investors provided Tirrell several million dollars and the victim investors sustained a combined loss exceeding $1.5 million.

Tirrell was on federal supervised release for a 2019 mail fraud conviction. Tirrell was released from his 41-month prison sentence in January 2023. Tirrell made his initial court appearance on October 20, 2025, before a United States Magistrate Judge of the United State District Court for the Southern District of Iowa. Trial was set for December 1, 2025. Tirrell will remain detained in federal custody pending further proceedings.

United States Attorney David C. Waterman of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating this case.

An indictment is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.