EARLY VOTING
This Wednesday is the first day Iowans can cast an early ballot in the 2022 General Election. You may vote in person at your county auditor’s office. Under the state’s new voting regulations, Iowans who choose to vote by mail must mail their absentee ballot themselves or drop it off at their county auditor’s office or have a relative do it. It’s now a crime for a non-relative to collect or deliver absentee ballots. The law also changed the deadline for absentee ballots. Absentee ballots that arrive in county auditors’ offices after 8 p.m. on Election Day will not be counted.
SENATE POLL
A Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll released this weekend shows Republican Senator Chuck Grassley with a three percent lead over Democratic challenger Mike Franken. The poll of likely voters was taken from October 9th through the 12th. Forty-six percent of those surveyed said they supported Grassley. Forty-three percent said they supported Franken. Seven percent said they were undecided or plan to skip voting on the U.S. Senate race. Franken was still unknown to about a third of those surveyed. Nearly two-thirds said Grassley’s age was a concern and that includes 37 percent of the Republicans questioned, who said they’d still vote for the 89 year old senator. The Iowa Poll found Republican Governor Kim Reynolds holds a 17 point lead over Democratic opponent Deidre DeJear.
UIHC SETTLEMENT
The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics has agreed to pay 15 million dollars to settle a wage dispute with thousands of employees. Earlier this year a federal judge ruled the health system owed as many as 11-thousand current and former employees of the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics for delaying overtime payments by more than a month. Iowa law requires all wages earned to be paid within 12 days of the end of the pay period. Documents being filed in federal court indicate the university admits no wrongdoing, but is offering the 15 million dollar settlement to avoid additional litigation costs. The lawsuit was filed in 2019, on behalf of health care workers and support staff. Under the agreement, employees who may have been underpaid are to be contacted and given 45 days to opt out of the settlement. Then, the full list of employees who’ll be getting payments will be developed.
MOUNTAIN LIONS
D-N-R Conservation and Recreation Division Administrator, Pete Hildreth, gave the Natural Resources Commission an update on recent mountain lion sightings during their meeting last week. He told the N-R-C members the advent of trail and other cameras has led to more videos showing the animals.
He says the number of mountain lions in the state is still very small.
Hildreth says the animals are capable of moving long distances across the state.
He says the D-N-R’s goals are to notify the public in a timely manner of sightings, and provide technical assistance to individuals and communities regarding the best available scientific information. Hildreth says are some key things they always point out.
He says one thing he hears is that people are more apt to be killed by a dog or struck by lightning than being attacked by a mountain lion. Hildreth said he wanted to update the commission after all the news and social media reports of the recent camera footage of the mountain lions in Madison County.
POLICE GRANTS
The Le Mars Police Department is one of four Iowa law enforcement agencies that will split $750,000 in federal grant funding from the U.S. Department of Justice to hire six new law enforcement officers. Le Mars will receive 250-thousand dollars to hire two more police officers. The funding was announced Friday. The money comes from the Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services COPS Hiring Program. The competitive award program provides grant dollars directly to law enforcement agencies to hire new or rehire additional career law enforcement officers and deputies to advance community policing and crime prevention efforts.
ORANGE CITY COUNCIL
The Orange City Council will revisit their proposed 28E Agreement to form an Explorer Trail group. The matter was postponed at their last meeting, but was tabled. This group is forming to develop a recreation trail from Sioux Center to Orange City via the Sandy Hollow Park. The City Council of Sioux Center and the Sioux County Board of Supervisors have approved this agreement. Once Orange City signs on, the new 28E group will seek a state grant to help fund construction of the trail.
The city council will also consider a zoning amendment which will restrict the crossing of Iowa Highway 10 by snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles. The amendment would allow crossings at four points in the city – the three intersections where there are stoplights, and a fourth at Iowa Avenue.
IDA GROVE CRASH
One driver sustained critical injuries in a two vehicle collision Saturday shortly after noon on US Highway 59 near Ida Grove.
The Iowa State Patrol says a southbound car crossed the center line into the northbound lane and struck the drivers side of an oncoming F-350 pickup pulling
a livestock trailer.
The car entered a ditch at the entrance to Cobb Memorial Park.
The driver of the car, 35-year-old Alan Kennedy of Ida Grove, was flown to Mercyone in Sioux City with life threatening injuries.
The driver of the truck and trailer, 71-year-old Kenneth Hurley of Odebolt, was not injured.
BIRD FLU
New bird flu cases have been reported this fall in Minnesota, South Dakota and Nebraska. The virus hasn’t resurfaced in Iowa since May, but experts are cautioning it could come back as wild birds migrate.
That’s State wildlife veterinarian Rachel Ruden. She says while bird flu hadn’t been making wild bird sick, a more severe form of the virus has been circulating and that strain has hung around. Iowa State University Extension wildlife specialist Adam Janke says another reason for heightened risk is that birds migrate a lot slower this time of year.
Janke says November is the peak time for water fowl, like ducks and geese, to migrate through Iowa. State and federal officials have been surveying heathly birds being harvested by hunters. In September, the bird flu virus was detected in three small ducks that were shot in western Iowa. The hunting season for blue-wing, green-wing and cinnamon-wing teal ducks was in the first half of September.
GOVERNOR DEBATE
Iowa Republican Governor Kim Reynolds will debate issues with her Democratic Party opponent Deidra DeJear in Johnston this evening in the Iowa PBS studios.
The hour-long debate will begin at 7 p.m. and will be hosted by Iowa Press moderator Kay Henderson of Radio Iowa.
Reynolds, the incumbent, is seeking another four years in office.
She and DeJear will answer questions from political reporters from Des Moines and Cedar Rapids.
The debate will air live on statewide Iowa PBS and be streamed on iowapbs.org, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.
SENATE FINANCIALS
Republican incumbent Chuck Grassley has three times the cash on hand than his Democratic Party opponent for the US Senate, Mike Franken.
The Grassley campaign announced they have $3.9 million dollars cash on hand compared to Franken’s $1.3 million.
By contrast, when Theresa Greenfield ran against Joni Ernst in 2020, Greenfield had $9.5 million on hand.
