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Keep up-to-date with Fox News Radio, Radio Iowa, Brownfield & the Iowa Agribusiness Networks!
DES MOINES, Iowa (KCRG) – A federal appeals court will hear arguments Tuesday (Today) over Iowa’s book ban law, continuing legal battles that began shortly after the legislation was signed in 2023. The law requires schools to ban books depicting sex acts from school libraries and prohibits instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation through sixth grade.
Hundreds of books have been taken off shelves by many school districts, but some struggled to make lists of books to remove to comply with the law. In May 2024, the court temporarily blocked portions of the law. The state appealed that decision.
Arguments are scheduled to begin at 9:00 a.m. in St. Louis, Missouri.
(Radio Iowa) – The 2026 Iowa legislature convened Monday and tonight (Tuesday) Governor Kim Reynolds will deliver the annual “Condition of the State” address to legislators (beginning at 6-p.m.). Reynolds says she and her fellow Republicans are ready for what’s next. “We’re back and we’re ready for what’s next: property tax relief, smaller government, smarter government, stronger and healthier Iowa communities,” she said, “and a whole lot of work that really matters for Iowa families.”
Reynolds made her remarks during an Iowa G-O-P fundraiser yesterday (Monday). Reynolds is not seeking re-election in November and she’s striking a theme of G-O-P unity for this 9th and final legislative session she’ll preside over. “I don’t have to tell you what we’ve all done, but the point is we could only do it because we came together,” Reynolds said. Reynolds notes, however, campaign season is right around the corner — and that was evident in remarks from some legislative leaders yesterday (Monday).
House Majority Leader Bobby Kaufmann says maintaining G-O-P control of the House, Senate and governor’s office is critical. “I really, truly do detest the woke left,” Kaufmann aid. “…Number one, we say ‘Merry Christmas,’ not ‘Happy Holidays’ and by the way we support the nativity scene in front of the courthouse,” Kaufmann said. “When it comes to this gender nonsense, there’s two genders. There’s male and female, there’s sir and ma’am and that concludes the end of your choices.”
Senate Democratic Leader Janice Weiner says something has gone wrong in Iowa while Republicans have been in control of state government over the past nine years. “We have some of the lowest income growth and GDP growth in the country,” Weiner said. “…It’s gone wrong for our state’s finances. Iowa is running a $1.26 billion deficit this year. It is time for change.” House Democratic Leader Brian Meyer says too many Iowans are working hard, playing by the rules and falling behind.
“After nearly a decade of nearly total Republican control of this state, working families are facing higher costs, fewer opportunities, public schools are being undercut,” Meyer said, “…and most concerning our state budget is in a fiscal death spiral.” House Speaker Pat Grassley says Democrats are in no position to weigh in on Republican tax and spending plans. “We’re not going to take advice from a group of people that can’t even count the number of genders,” Grassley said. Grassley was elected to the Iowa House in 2006 and is entering his seventh year as House Speaker.
(Atlantic, IA) – Members of the Atlantic School District’s Board of Education will hold their regular monthly meeting in the Atlantic High School Media Center, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, beginning at 6-p.m. The meeting will be viewable in-person, and via YouTube. Among the items the Board is expected to act on (Under approval of the Consent Agenda), are the resignations/retirement of the following:
Also under their Consent Agenda, the Atlantic School Board will act on approving the following Recommendations to Hire:
In other business, the Board will act on approving an “Agreement between Owner and Architect and Proposal for Design Services from SVPA,” and a “Snyder and Associates Topographic Survey Services Agreement.” Their final action item is approving the retirement of Board Director Laura McLean, effective Jan. 15, 2026.
(The complete agenda can be viewed here:PUBLIC AGENDA 01142026-1)
(Clarinda, IA) – A Page County man has entered a guilty plea to a felony charge of Enticement. The Page County Attorney’s Office today (Monday), announced 50-year-old Roger Kurtis Cromwell, of Shenandoah, plead guilty to one count of Enticing a Minor Under 16 years of age, a class D felony.
Roger K. Cromwell (Page County Attorney’s Office photo credit)
Chief Judge Craig Dreismeier sentenced Cromwell, in accordance with his plea agreement, to a five-year sentence of incarceration in the Iowa Department of Corrections. Cromwell will also be required to register as a sex offender.
The case was investigated by the Shenandoah Police Department and prosecuted by the Page County Attorney’s Office.
(Radio Iowa) – Iowa is among more than two-thirds of the states that have no state program requiring paid parental leave for teachers. The report from The National Council on Teacher Quality found just two states offer required fully-paid parental leave for teachers up to 12 weeks. Another 14 states have some other kind of required paid leave, while seven have optional programs. Council president Heather Peske says research shows paid parental leave can reduce turnover.
Peske says, “Specifically when it comes to teachers, we know from national research and national surveys that many teachers rank ‘encouraged family support’ as one of their top three incentives to recruit and retain them.” Peske says without paid parental leave, teachers struggle to balance the demands of their job with their family, and some teachers simply chose to quit. “What this means is that teachers have to hoard their sick days or try to plan to have children in the summer,” she says, “because the state doesn’t offer paid parental leave for teachers.”
An Iowa law went into effect last year that offers state employees up to four weeks of paid parental leave, but it does -not- include teachers as they are employees of their school districts, not the state.
(Radio Iowa) – The new majority leader in the Iowa House is promising to push for a pay increase for state legislators. Bobby Kaufmann of Wilton says he knows it’s not political popular to raise lawmakers’ pay. “But here’s what’s going to happen if we do not do this there are going to be two qualifiers to serve in the legislature: Are you retired and are you wealthy? Nothing wrong with retired people, nothing wrong with wealthy individuals, but that is going to be the candidate pool if we continue to do it the way we are doing it,” Kaufmann said. The current salary for an Iowa legislator was set 18 years ago.
“$25,000 is simply not enough money for a family to serve and I think it’s in our best interest for us to have families, on both sides of the aisle, serving in the legislature,” Kaufmann said. A bill introduced in the House in 2024 would have raised the base salaries for House and Senate members to 35-thousand dollars a year and then link future increases to the negotiated pay hikes for state employees represented by a union.
The six lawmakers who have leadership roles in the House and Senate are currently paid a salary of 37-thousand-500 dollars a year. The other 144 legislators are being paid that 25-thousand dollar base salary. Most legislators also get over 17-thousand dollars in expense payments each year to cover things like mileage and renting hotel rooms or apartments in Des Moines during the legislative session. Polk County lawmakers get less since they have homes near the Capitol.
(Radio Iowa) – Senate Republicans are introducing a property tax plan on this first day of the 2026 legislative session — a plan that injects new ideas into the debate over how best to reduce residential property tax rates. Senate Majority Leader Mike Klimesh. “Real meaningful property tax relief requires the will to disassemble that system completely down to its bare bones and then rebuild in a way that we can provide real, sustainable relief for Iowans that are concerned about their property taxes and, inevitably in the end, in their ability to stay in their home without being priced out of it from property taxes,” Klimesh says.
Senator Dan Dawson, a Republican from Council Bluffs, is chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee and the plan’s main architect. “It’s not a tweak. It’s a total overhaul,” Dawson said. “Our viewpoint has always been that the greatest vehicle to build wealth for the middle class is home ownership.” The bill would permanently increase the state’s homestead tax credit to 50 percent of a home’s taxable value. And it would eliminate property taxes for older Iowans who own their home.
“We want to make sure the middle class can own their own home to the end and not pay rent to the government forever,” Dawson said, “so in this new proposal once your house is mortgage clear and once you’re above the age of 60, your involuntary property taxes will be eliminated, so ultimately in the end this bill can be real relief.”
Two elements of the plan would offset property tax revenue losses in city and county budgets. Local governments could go to voters and ask to increase the local option sales tax to one-and-a-half percent. It’s max today is one percent. The Senate Republicans are also proposing to add an inflation index to the state gas tax, which hasn’t been raised in a decade.
“If we want to deliver real property tax relief and steep property tax relief to Iowans, we have to consider off-setting some of those losses because we still do have local, important serves that need to be provided,” Dawson says. The plan has other elements, like eliminating several state-funded property tax exemptions and sending that state money to public schools — to reduce the amount property owners pay to their local school districts.
Governor Kim Reynolds has said she’ll present a property tax plan to legislators. House Republicans are expected to unveil their own approach and a key House lawmaker has indicated it will focus on limiting city and county budget growth.
(Radio Iowa) – This year’s Iowa legislative session is underway, with Republicans in control of the House and Senate for the 10th consecutive year. House Speaker Pat Grassley of New Hartford opened House action shortly after 10 a.m. “Today marks the starting line for the 2026 legislative session,” Grassley said. “It kicks off about a four month sprint to accomplish the goals the people of Iowa laid out for us over the past year.” Grassley says the chief goal will be reducing property taxes.
“Iowans have made it known the current property tax system is not working for them,” Grassley said. “Seniors on fixed incomes are being priced out of their homes, the high cost of taxes are causing young people to delay homeownership and every day Iowa families are seeing their taxes rise with no predictability.” Senate Republicans, led by Majority Leader Mike Klimesh, are unveiling their alternative today (Monday).
“Over the next hundred days, we will be addressing property tax reform to help bring relief to Iowans who have decided to build their lives, grow their families and dedicate their careers to our state,” Klimesh said. House Democratic Leader Brian Meyer of Des Moines says Democrats have three primary goals. “Our agenda is rooted in what we hear every day from families across this state,” Meyer said, “public education, affordability and quality of life.”
Senate President Amy Sinclair, a Republican from Allerton, began her remarks with a call for civility. Sinclair says it was shocking and horrifying that two Democrats from the Minnesota legislature were shot in their own homes and prominent conservative Charlie Kirk had been killed on a college campus. “When people disagree, it has become disagreeable,” Sinclair said. “The debate no longer stops with policy descriptions, it spiraled into slurs dehumanizing the opposition. Calling people facists, scum, deporables, bigots and a host of things I cannot and will not repeat on the Senate floor cannot be embraced as the status quo here.”
Senate Democratic Leader Janice Weiner of Iowa City says recent political violence in Minnesota and in Mississippi, where a Jewish synagogue was attacked, has shaken the country to its core. “We Iowans, we take care of our neighbors,” Weiner said. “We are tolerant and we stand up for the rights that are our rights, too, because we all know ‘Love thy neighbor,’ comes with no exceptions.”
Two women who won special elections in December have taken their seats in the state legislature. The 50th member of the Iowa Senate took the oath of office this (Monday) morning. The seat had been vacant since Senator Claire Celsi’s death in October. Democrat Renee Hardman is the first black woman to serve in the state senate. The 100th member of the House was sworn into office, too. Republican Wendy Larson of Odebolt won the seat that had been held by Mike Sexton of Rockwell City, who resigned after President Trump appointed him state director of U-S-D-A Rural Development.
(Glenwood, IA) – Officials with the Mills County Sheriff’s Office have issued a report on arrests that occurred over the past week. Sunday night (Jan. 11), Mills County Sheriff’s Deputies arrested 27-year-old Dylan Brendon James Miedl, of Pacific Junction. He was arrested in Silver City for Violation of a No Contact Order – Domestic related. Miedl was being held without bond in the Mills County Jail.
At around 1:40-p.m. on Thursday (Jan. 8), deputies in Mills County arrested 23-year-old Cole Jacob Bergantzel, of Council Bluffs, in Glenwood, for Failure to Appear in court. His bond was set at $5,000.
On Jan. 7th, at around 1:20-a.m., Mills County Deputies arrested 26-year-old Jonathan Jo Arrick, of Glenwood, for Domestic Assault – Choking or Bodily Injury. Arrick was arrested in Glenwood and held on a $5,000 bond.
And, on Jan. 5th, 34-year-old Damian Blain, of Council Bluffs, was arrested in Des Moines, for Violation of Probation His bond was set at $2,000.
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