REYNOLDS BEGINS PLANNING FOR 1ST FULL TERM AS GOVERNOR
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds says she has just started thinking about personnel changes in state government and the policy agenda she’ll ask her fellow Republican lawmakers to pass in 2019.
This week, she became the first woman ever elected governor of Iowa and Reynolds says shattering that glass ceiling gives girls in Iowa a new perspective.
Reynolds says she hopes to meet with Fred Hubbell, her Democratic challenger.
The discussion is likely to center on privatized Medicaid, which Hubbell campaigned against;
As for staff changes, when Reynolds took over as governor last year she inherited the roster of state government administrators appointed by Terry Branstad.
Reynolds says she’s evaluating the state’s finances, aiming to carve out a reduction in the state’s corporate income tax rate – perhaps eliminating some income tax credits in the process.
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KING HOPES TO SEE COMPLETION OF LEWIS & CLARK WATER PROJECT
Coming off his closest re-election win Tuesday night, Iowa Congressman Steve King visited South Dakota’s Lewis & Clark Regional Water System treatment plant north of Vermillion Thursday.
The project also serves northwest Iowa and King, who was at the ground breaking of the plant, says he wants to be there when the project is completed:
The project is set to get about fifteen million dollars in federal funding next year.
King says it has been more difficult to get adequate funding without earmarks:
King says he will push for more funding next year:
The project, still under construction, is serving towns and cities in South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota from wells near the Missouri River south of Vermillion.
Thanks to Jerry Oster WNAX
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YANKTON STUDENT ARRESTED FOR ALLEGED SCHOOL THREAT
Yankton police have arrested a high school student who allegedly made a threat against the school.
The buildings in the Yankton school district were put on lockdown Thursday morning following the threat.
Superintendent Wayne Kindle says it involved an online post about a shooting at school.
Police detained the student off campus and arrested the student for allegedly making a terroristic threat.
It wasn’t immediately clear how old the student was.
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IOWA DAIRY PENALIZED $100,000 FOR AIR-QUALITY VIOLATIONS
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A northeastern Iowa dairy that makes cheese has agreed to pay a $100,000 penalty and install expensive pollution control equipment for violating air-quality rules for a dozen years.
The Iowa Attorney General’s office said in a written statement Friday that Prairie Farms Dairy in Luana admitted to the violations in a consent decree signed earlier this week. The plant formally operated under the name Swiss Valley Farms. Prairie Farms and Swiss Valley merged in April 2017.
State prosecutors and environmental officials say the plant removed an air pollution control device called a baghouse in 2004 without seeking a permit. In 2016, it installed a dryer stack fan that reduced emissions.
As part of the consent decree, Prairie Farms has agreed to install a baghouse at a cost of $1.4 million.
