Grassley Says He Has Confidence In New Acting EPA Director
(Le Mars) — U-S Senator Chuck Grassley told reporters during his weekly news conference held Monday that he feels confident with the newly appointed Acting Environmental Protection Agency Director, Andrew Wheeler. The Republican Senator from Iowa recently met with Wheeler at a meeting held in Des Moines, along with Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds. Grassley says he is hopeful the new E-P-A director will approve E-15 blended ethanol to be used all year round.
Grassley says oil refineries concerns about the price of RENS credits is no longer justified, and therefore, the Iowa Republican believes Wheeler should grant E-15 blended fuels.
Grassley says Wheeler has not given any indication as whether or not he will approve the higher blended renewable fuel.
The U-S Senator told KLEM he is still hopeful that E-15 will be approved within the next month.
Mason City Woman Ordered To Repay Employer
MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) – A 55-year-old woman has been ordered to pay back more than $32,000 she stole from her employer in Mason City.
Cerro Gordo County District Court records say 55-year-old Melissa Gott, of Mason City, was sentenced last week to three to five years of probation and told to pay restitution to Yesway. She’d pleaded guilty to theft.
Gott must undergo a mental health and gambling evaluation and complete all recommended treatment as part of her probation.
Authorities say she stole the money from a Yesway store’s bank deposits between Jan. 3 and Jan. 14.
Board of Educational Examiners Reprimands Davenport’s School Superintendent
DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Board of Educational Examiners has reprimanded the Davenport school superintendent for spending more than the state allows districts to spend.
The board’s order issued earlier this month says Art Tate’s conduct “constitutes a violation of the Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics governing the teaching profession.” Tate and the board staff negotiated the reprimand to settle the state’s complaint.
The Iowa Education Department filed the ethics complaint in December 2016, saying the district broke state law by using money in a reserve account to pay for ongoing programming. Davenport officials have said some districts
can spend up to $175 more than Davenport per pupil, so the district used reserve funds to make up that difference. Tate announced in 2015 that he intended to violate the state law for the district’s 2016-17 budget.
Man Sentenced To Ten Years In Prison For Trying To Smother Fellow Psychiatric Patient
INDEPENDENCE, Iowa (AP) – A man accused of trying to smother a fellow state psychiatric hospital patient has been sentenced to 10 years in an Iowa prison.
Buchanan County District Court records say 45-year-old Terrance Rooney Jr. was sentenced last week after pleading guilty to burglary and harassment.
Prosecutors dropped a charge of attempted murder in exchange for Rooney’s pleas. Court records say an evaluation determined Rooney was competent to go to trial.
Rooney has been a patient at the Mental Health Institute in Independence for years and was a patient there when he pleaded guilty in 1999 to making a threat to the life of President Bill Clinton.
Authorities say in the latest case that Rooney tried to suffocate
another patient in November and twisted the thumb of a staffer and threatened to kill her in February.
Boy With Leukemia Wants Racing Stickers For His Casket
OSKALOOSA, Iowa (AP) – Race drivers and others have been answering the call from an 11-year-old Iowa boy who wants racing stickers to cover his casket after he dies from leukemia.
Caleb Hammond’s uncle, Chris Playle, told The Des Moines Register that his family returned him to Oskaloosa after determining the painful treatments he’d been undergoing at a Des Moines hospital weren’t working and other options offered little hope. Playle says Caleb’s been home for about three weeks, doing normal 11-year-old things, but tires easily.
He says he and his nephew became racing buddies as Caleb visited Playle’s home near Southern Iowa Speedway.
Playle says the stickers pouring in from social media appeals have helped keep spirits up and says the family is “just trying to do as much as we can with him while he’s here.”
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Veterans Memorial Being Planned Near Dubuque
DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) – A Dubuque racing group hopes to spend $3.4 million on a veterans memorial for an island in the Mississippi River that’ll include walkways, a waterfall and a sculpture.
The Telegraph Herald reports that the Dubuque Racing Association Board of Directors is expected to vote on the project during their monthly meeting on Tuesday.
The memorial would honor local World War II veteran Chaplain Aloysius Schmitt, who was aboard the USS Oklahoma on Dec. 7, 1941, when the ship was torpedoed and eventually capsized. He was one of more than 400 crew members who died in the attack.
The project also needs approval from the Dubuque City Council and the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission before it can move forward.
If the project is approved, DRA officials would expect to break ground next spring.
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Eldridge To Create Industrial Park
ELDRIDGE, Iowa (AP) – Leaders of the Quad Cities suburb of Eldridge are moving to create a commercial and industrial park in the hopes of attracting new employers and lowering property taxes.
The Quad-City Times reports that the proposed 500 acre (202 hectare) site is mostly privately-owned farmland located between Eldridge and the Eastern Iowa Industrial Center in north Davenport.
Eldridge has been working with Quad-Cities First, the economic development arm of the Quad-Cities Chamber of Commerce, to pursue site certification through the Iowa Economic Development Authority. Officials are also working to market some of the parcels that are available in the future business park.
Eldridge Mayor Marty O’Boyle says the Industrial Center is running out of large-sized tracts to attract another major development. Sterilite and Kraft Heinz recently constructed plants at the center.
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