Akron City Council Member Seeks Senate Seat
(Akron) — An Akron city council member is seeking the Republican party’s nomination for the State Senate District 3 seat. Alex Pick recently was re-elected to the Akron city council, but he believes, if nominated by the Republican nominating committee, he will be able to perform both jobs.
Pick explains his interest in the State Senate position.
Pick says he will be able to draw upon his experience as a city council member
for issues he would face as a state legislator.
The Akron Republican says if elected to the State Senate, he would like to work on ways to reduce regulations for small businesses.
Pick says he has been a life-long resident of the Senate 3 district, so he understands the people, and the issues.
Republicans To Create Human Resource Position
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Republican leaders in the Iowa Legislature are creating a human resources manager position to oversee sexual harassment complaints at the statehouse. The move comes about six weeks after the state agreed to pay $1.75 million to settle a lawsuit involving a former Senate Republican staffer who alleged sexual harassment at work. Staff for the GOP-controlled House and Senate in Iowa plan to hire
someone before the start of the legislative session in January. The job, which does not directly reference sexual harassment issues in its description, will not involve oversight by an independent state agency. Experts on sexual harassment issues say the setup raises questions about accountability. Senate staffer Kirsten Anderson filed the lawsuit after being fired in
2013, hours after reporting sexual harassment in the GOP caucus office. There also have been growing complaints about alleged sexual harassment at state capitols around the country following sexual abuse allegations against film
mogul Harvey Weinstein.
Grandson Arrested For Grandfather’s Death
ROCK VALLEY, Iowa (AP) – Authorities have arrested a grandson of an 84-year-old man whose body was found by firefighters in northwest Iowa.
The Rock Valley Police Department said in a news release Friday that 19-year-old Santos Rodriguez Jr. is charged with first-degree murder and arson in the slaying of Luis Luevanos. The older man’s body was found Oct. 29 after firefighters extinguished the blaze at the home he shared with Rodriguez. Investigators have since learned that Luevanos had been stabbed several times.
Police say Rodriguez left for Utah after the fire and was taken into custody there. Iowa investigators went to Utah to interview him, and police say Rodriguez admitted stabbing his grandfather and setting the fire.
Court records don’t list an attorney who could comment for Rodriguez, who remains for now in Utah.
MidAmerican Energy To Update Wind Turbines
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – MidAmerican Energy says it plans to spend $1 billion updating more than 700 older wind turbines across Iowa. The turbines will be retrofitted with newer, more efficient components, including longer blades, to extend their lifespans an estimated 20 years.
Tennis Coach Has Teaching License Suspended
IOWA FALLS, Iowa (AP) – A state board has suspended the coaching license of a former high school tennis coach who took wine to a tournament. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports that the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners last month suspended Sarah Henle’s license for two years. The board says Henle had planned to drive Iowa Falls-Alden High School students back from a tennis competition in Waterloo this spring after drinking the wine. The district superintendent says Henle didn’t drive the students back.
Iowa Fur Farm Told To Improve Conditions
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Federal inspectors have repeatedly ordered a southeast Iowa fur farm to improve the grim living conditions for ferrets, foxes, raccoons and skunks it sells to government laboratories and pet stores. Many of the animals have been forced to live in sweltering heat or maggot-infested filth, sometimes with decomposing carcasses in their cages. So far no charges or enforcement action has been taken against the Ruby Fur Farm.
