City Employee Bargaining Unit Submits Initial Contract Proposal
(Le Mars) — The city of Le Mars employee bargaining unit submitted its initial proposal for salary requests to city officials this morning. Jeff Kramer, who is employed by the city as a police officer, and also serves as the president of the Le Mars employee bargaining unit offered the request.
If the city council accepts and agrees to the terms of the new contract it would become effective on July 1st, 2020, the start of the new fiscal year.
Kramer talks about how many city employees would fall under the bargaining unit.
Kramer says the contract proposal involves only the salary of city
employees, and it doesn’t include any benefits. Kramer says this year’s requests are similar to contract proposals from recent past years.
City Administrator, Jason Vacura received the initial proposal on behalf of the city and the city council. Vacura indicated the city will submit its initial offer within two weeks. Once the city submits its counter proposal to the city employees, negotiations will then take place on reaching a salary contract.
Woman Intentionally Runs Over A Hispanic Student With SUV
CLIVE, Iowa (AP) – Police say they’ve charged a Des Moines woman with attempted murder after she told officers she intentionally ran over a 14-year-old girl because she believed the teen was Mexican. Natalia Miranda suffered a concussion and severe bruising in the attack but is expected to make a full recovery. Clive Police Chief Mike Venema said Friday during a
news conference that 42-year-old Nicole Marie Poole Franklin admitted to steering her SUV onto a sidewalk on Dec. 9 in the suburban Des Moines community and intentionally running over the teenager. Natalia was walking to school to watch a basketball game. Police say Franklin made derogatory statements about Latinos during a police interview.
Grand Jury Indicts Director Of Metro Waste Authority
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A federal grand jury has indicted a former employee of the organization that collects trash in Des Moines and more than a dozen other communities in central Iowa. Jeffrey Dworek was the director of operations for Metro Waste Authority. He’s charged with 10 counts of mail
fraud. U.S. Attorney Marc Krickbaum says in a statement Friday that a trial is scheduled for Feb. 3. The indictment alleges Dworek diverted more than $1 million from the trash collection agency to a company he created for his own benefit. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Iowa Auditor Rob Sand investigated.
Iowa’s Unemployment Rate Rises Slightly
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa’s unemployment rate remained at 2.6% in November as the number of people with and without jobs both increased. Iowa Workforce Development reported Friday that the number of Iowa residents with jobs climbed by 8,200 from October to November. The number of unemployed
people also increased, from 45,100 in October to 46,200 in November. Iowa’s 2.6% unemployment rate was the nation’s fifth lowest, tied with Colorado, Hawaii, New Hampshire and Virginia. Vermont had the lowest rate, at 2.3%.
The national unemployment rate in November was 3.5%.
Corn Growers Meet With White House Officials To Discuss Ethanol Situation
(Washington) — A northwest Iowa farmer who was at the White House earlier this week says he’s disappointed President Trump has failed to uphold the renewable fuels deal he agreed to in September.
That’s Kelly Nieuwenhuis, a farmer from Primghar. Nieuwenhuis and four other Iowans met with Larry Kudlow, the president’s top economic advisor, on Tuesday — and Kudlow provided a briefing on the E-P-A’s final decision on the ethanol production mandate.
Nieuwenhuis was at the White House with representatives from the Iowa Corn Growers and the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association. Nieuwenhuis says the group made it clear to Kudlow the E-P-A’s 2020 biofuels blending requirements are
“woefully inadequate.”
Nieuwenhuis says Senator Grassley set up the meeting with the president’s economic advisor, so the Iowans could make a last-minute pitch for changing the E-P-A’s plan for ethanol and biodiesel.
Nieuwenhuis says it’s frustrating the president didn’t keep his promise.
Nieuwenhuis is chairman of the board of Siouxland Energy. The ethanol plant in Sioux Center shut down for a few weeks, but has been running this fall at about half its normal capacity.
Klobuchar Criticizes Buttigieg During Campaign Trail
CENTERVILLE, Iowa (AP) – Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar is stepping up her criticism of Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, as she embarks on a four-day tour of Iowa, the first state to vote in the Democratic presidential primary. Klobuchar is trying to cut into Buttigieg’s support in Iowa by arguing that being mayor of a small city doesn’t prepare
him to be president of the United States. She brought her most aggressive attacks yet against Buttigieg in Thursday night’s debate and continued them on Friday. He’s frequently made the argument that mayors have a better track record of tackling real issues than politicians in Washington.
Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against City Of Windsor Heights On Speed Trap Tickets
WINDSOR HEIGHTS, Iowa (AP) – Drivers who received tickets from traffic cameras at a notorious speed trap in suburban Des Moines filed a lawsuit Friday alleging that their rights have been violated. The proposed class-action lawsuit seeks damages from the City of Windsor Heights, which announced earlier this month that it would remove the speed cameras on University Avenue this spring. The cameras have brought in millions of dollars for the city since their installation in 2012. But business owners
say that they keep away customers. And drivers complained that, until a recent change, the cameras were at a location where the speed limit unexpectedly dropped.
