Radio Iowa

Iowa's Radio News Network

You are here: Home / Archives for O. Kay Henderson

State approves incentives for Waterloo pork plant upgrade; 245 new jobs promised

By

Officials today approved state incentives for a project in Waterloo that’s expected to create 245 new jobs at a pork processing plant. Tyson Fresh Meats already employs 2,900 at the facility.

“It will be a $28 million capital investment that the company is making,” says Iowa Economic Development Authority spokeswoman Tina Hoffman. “That will give them the ability to expand and renovate their existing facility in Waterloo.”

The Iowa Economic Development Authority’s board has voted to provide the company with $2  million in state tax credits and refund nearly $400,000 in state taxes that would be charged on construction materials. Company officials pledge to pay the 245 new plant workers at least $17.29 an hour.

“These are great jobs for the area,” Hoffman said. “The High Quality Jobs program has a qualifying wage that is based on a market wage….so all 245 new jobs will be at or above that wage.”

Also today, state economic development officials approved incentives for a new fiberglass recycling facility in Newton. Global Fiberglass Solutions will employ 57 people in Newton once the facility is completed.

“They’re going to locate in some of the old Maytag facilities where they can create recycled materials from decommissioned wind blades and other products,” Hoffman says.

Newton is already home to a company that makes the towers for wind turbines. The headquarters for Global Fiberglass Solutions is near Seattle. The company’s spending $6 million on its new facility in Newton.

Businesses in three other Iowa cities that are expanding are getting state tax breaks.

Beck’s Superior Hybrids plans to spend nearly $11 million expanding its processing facility in Mount Pleasant. Ten more people will be hired to work there once it’s completed.

A bank holding company based in Dubuque has promised to hire 31 more people after the company’s headquarters in Dubuque is expanded. Heartland Financial USA is getting an $80,000 state grant as well as the tax credits in support of the project.

A company in Marion that makes huge industrial “mixers” for chemicals, minerals, plastics and food is building a new testing facility next door to its manufacturing plant in Marion. The company promises to hire three new people in exchange for the state tax incentives.

Dubuque police seek tips from public to find wanted woman

By

Payton McCarville

Dubuque Police have released a photo of a wanted woman — in hopes of locating an accused scam artist.

Twenty-three-year-old Payton McCarville is among a crew of six people from Dubuque who were charged with wire fraud in August. Federal prosecutors say from December 2015 through September of last year, McCarville and her co-conspirators defrauded people throughout the U.S. Authorities say they called elderly people and told them a relative was in jail and needed bail money.

Court records indicate McCarville and the others collected at least $225,000 in wire transfers that victims made through Western Union and Money Gram.

Iowa party leaders debate state’s finances, federal health care bill

By

Iowa GOP chair Jeff Kaufmann and Iowa Democratic Party chair Troy Price.

The leaders of Iowa’s two major political parties had a face-to-face discussion of state government finances Thursday.

It’s a debate likely to continue for months among the 2018 candidates for governor and the legislature. Iowa GOP chairman Jeff Kaufmann said Republican Governor Kim Reynolds showed “steady management” by withdrawing $13 million from the state’s economic emergency fund to cover the state budget deficit.

“If you have a shortfall, we can’t cut services in the middle of a fiscal year like that. That would be completely irresponsible. We’d be going back to the Culver years if that’s what we did,” Kaufmann said.

Iowa Democratic Party chairman Troy Price said Republicans opposed the use of “one time money for ongoing expenses” when Democrat Chet Culver was governor.

“I was in the governor’s office during that time and (Republicans) railed at the fact that we had to….occasionally do the exact same thing that Kim Reynolds is doing,” Price said.

Kaufmann said the shortfall was an unavoidable. Price said former Governor Branstad and Reynolds have drained “about half” of the billion dollars in the state’s cash reserve and “rainy day” fund.

“This is a manufactured crisis,” Price said. “…This is coming about because the state is giving out way too many tax credits to corporations.”

Kaufmann said the $13 million Reynolds removed from the economic emergency fund will be paid back.

“You can prepare a budget, but there’s always going to be factors that come into play,” Kaufmann said. “The commodity prices, sales tax revenues — that had to be reacted to. I think this was the most appropriate way for the governor to do that.”

Kaufmann and Price made their comments during taping of the “Iowa Press” program that airs Friday night on Iowa Public Television. The two chairmen discussed a variety of other issues, including health care policy. Kaufmann, the Republican leader, suggested a GOP-sponsored bill pending in the U.S. Senate that would repeal ObamaCare would be a “starting point” for negotiations on replacing ObamaCare.

“If there is a message from the Donald Trump victory and if there’s a message that’s been sent to us by Iowa voters and, I think by the entire country, that is: ‘You’d better remember what you promised in the campaign,'” Kaufmann said. “Repealing and replacing ObamaCare was one of the prime promises that were made.”

Price, the Democratic leader, said the latest GOP proposal would be a “disaster” for consumers.

“Democrats agree on one thing and that is that everyone should have health care. Health care is a right, not a privilege,” Price said. “…We may disagree exactly what the process, what vehicle it is that’s going to get us to our goal, but we all agree on the same goal.”

And Price noted the Democratic Party platform “supports a single payer” health care system.

December traffic stop leads to 70 month sentence for Denison man

By

A 31-year-old from western Iowa will spend nearly six years in prison after pleading guilty to drug charges.

Ivan Antonio Cervantes of Denison was arrested after a vehicle stop south of Harlan in December of last year.Authorities found nearly 15 grams of pure methamphetamine in the vehicle. There were three children in the vehicle with the drugs at the time of the traffic stop, too.

Cervantas pled guilty earlier this year and this week he was sentenced to 70 months in a federal prison.

Johnston mayor says massage parlor regulation helps cut sex trafficking

By

Paula Dierenfeld

The mayor of a Des Moines suburb is urging other Iowa cities to pass ordinances that establish concrete rules for businesses offering massage services.

Johnston Mayor Paula Dierenfeld says three years ago, her community’s police department began investigating allegations of human trafficking.

“When I learned that we had sex trafficking going on in our community, I was initially surprised,” she says. “And our sex trafficking took the form not of what was going on in our hotels and motels, but rather what was going on in massage businesses that were locating in our community.”

Johnston is just north of Interstate 80, with major commercial districts at the exits off the highway. The mayor says Johnston police first took the “traditional approach” of trying to catch people in the act of offering sexual services from a massage business.

“Knowing that even though we drove that first one out using that method, we would be vulnerable to the next one moving in to our community,” Dierenfeld said, “so we took a more proactive approach and we decided to pass an ordinance that would regulate these businesses coming into our community.” The ordinance, which was approved last summer, requires background checks and special licenses for massage businesses in Johnston.

Earlier this year, the legislature passed and Governor Branstad signed a bill making it clear cities have the authority to license massage parlors. A recent analysis concluded there are at least 45 established businesses in Iowa — and eight in the Des Moines metro — where sex is for sale. That number comes from an organization that went online and read the reviews posted by people who said they’d paid a sex worker in Iowa.

Earlier this week the City of Johnston got an award from the Iowa Network Against Human Trafficking and Slavery for its ordinance that tries to combat the issue.

 

USDA loans available for severe storm losses on Iowa farms

By

Iowa farmers may be eligible for low-interest government loans to cover “severe” physical losses from summer storms.

These USDA emergency loans are not for damage or struction of corn and soybeans in the field, but can cover “physical losses” to farm buildings, equipment and the death of livestock, The loans may cover damage to “perennial” crops like fruit trees as well as any crop that had been harvested and stored.

The losses must be connected to four storm systems that hit Iowa between June 22nd and August 18th. Those storms spawned flooding, hail and tornadoes.

Details provided by the USDA are below:

For the June 22 disaster event, an Administrator’s Physical Loss Notification has been issued for Butler and Franklin counties as the primary damaged area.

Additionally, 10 Iowa counties are contiguous to this designated disaster area, making these producers also potentially eligible for programs based on this designation. The contiguous counties are: Black Hawk, Bremer, Cerro Gordo, Chickasaw, Floyd, Grundy, Hamilton, Hancock, Hardin and Wright.

For the June 28 disaster event, an Administrator’s Physical Loss Notification has been issued for Fremont, Jones, Linn, Marion, Page and Taylor counties as the primary damaged area.

Additionally, 20 Iowa counties are contiguous to this designated disaster area, making these producers also potentially eligible for programs based on this designation. The contiguous counties are: Adams, Benton, Buchanan, Cedar, Clinton, Delaware, Dubuque, Iowa, Jackson, Jasper, Johnson, Lucas, Mahaska, Mills, Monroe, Montgomery, Polk, Ringgold, Union and Warren.
Three Missouri counties, Atchison, Nodaway and Worth, and two Nebraska counties, Cass and Otoe, are also eligible for emergency loans because they are contiguous.

For the Aug. 10 disaster event, an Administrator’s Physical Loss Notification has been issued for Clinton County as the primary damaged area.
Additionally, four Iowa counties are contiguous to this designated disaster area, making these producers also potentially eligible for programs based on this designation. The contiguous counties are: Cedar, Jackson, Jones and Scott.

Three Illinois counties, Carroll, Rock Island and Whiteside, are also eligible for emergency loans because they are contiguous.

For the Aug. 18 disaster event, an Administrator’s Physical Loss Notification has been issued for Osceola County as the primary damaged area.

Additionally, five Iowa counties are contiguous to this designated disaster area, making these producers also potentially eligible for programs based on this designation. The contiguous counties are: Clay, Dickinson, Lyon, O’Brien and Sioux. 

Two Minnesota counties, Jackson and Nobles, are also eligible for emergency loans because they are contiguous.

FSA’s low interest emergency loans may be made available to any applicant with a qualifying loss in the counties named above. Approval is limited to applicants who suffered severe physical losses only.

Physical loss loans may be made to eligible farmers and ranchers to repair or replace damaged or destroyed physical property essential to the success of the agriculture operation, including livestock losses. Examples of property commonly affected include essential farm buildings, fixtures to real estate, equipment, livestock, perennial crops, fruit and nut bearing trees, and harvested or stored crops and hay.

Producers in eligible counties have eight months from the date of the declaration to apply for loans for physical losses.

Please contact FSA for more information on loan eligibility and the application process. FSA office information is available at http://offices.usda.gov. Additional FSA disaster assistance program information is available at http://disaster.fsa.usda.gov.

Reynolds: budget fix without special session ‘right thing to do’

By

Governor Kim Reynolds.

There will be no “special session” of the Iowa legislature this fall to discuss fixes to the state budget and the debate is now shifting to topics for the 2018 legislative session. Governor Reynolds announced yesterday she’d be able to cover the short-fall in last year’s state budget by withdrawing $13 million from the state’s economic emergency fund.

Reynolds said in July, she was getting “a lot of push” to have legislators reconvene to fix things.

“That was reckless and we took our time and we monitored where the revenue stood and it was the right thing to do,” Reynolds said during a stop in southwest Iowa on Wednesday.

The governor’s budget director said during a briefing at the statehouse that more than $70 million in money that was due the state by June 30th was actually paid in July. That whittled the deficit for the last budgeting year to a level Reynolds had the authority to erase on her own, without legislative action. Reynolds said it’s now time for policymakers to look at changing Iowa tax rates in 2018.

“I’m optimistic about Iowa’s future and the economy and we’re going to continue to put policies together that really build on what we’ve done the past six years,” Reynolds said, “so we can keep our economy growing.”

Reynolds made her comments during an appearance yesterday in Shenandoah. The candidates who hope to challenge Reynolds in 2018 as she seeks a full, four-year term as governor are lining up to question the state’s finances. Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett, the Republican running against Reynolds, said Reynolds needs to bring legislators back to Des Moines now to cut the current year’s state budget because tax projects are way off.

“But it looks like they’ve done the traditional ‘establishment’ solution and that’s borrow more money and hope that the problem gets better in the future,” Corbett told reporters at the statehouse. “Hope is not an economic strategy.”

State Senator Nate Boulton of Des Moines, one of the Democrats running for governor, questioned the governor’s approach, too.

“My hope would be that we won’t keep having these budget crises and I think a special session could have dealt with that,” Boulton said. “We have a cause and effect issue…We have an over-extension on corporate tax credits, exemptions and give-aways.”

The state is now providing businesses more than half a billion of tax breaks that Boulton says should be examined. Boulton was at the statehouse and talked with reporters yesterday who’d been in the governor’s office for a budget briefing.

Other Democratic candidates for governor issued written statements. Retired businessman Fred Hubbell said Reynolds and former Governor Terry Branstad are guilty of “extreme fiscal mismanagement.” John Norris, a former aide to Governor Tom Vilsack and Senator Tom Harkin, said Reynolds is “bankrupting Iowa with corporate giveaways and rotten Apple deals.” Andy McGuire, a former chair of the Iowa Democratic Party who’s running for governor, said Reynolds is “writing blank checks to out-of-state corporations and sticking hardworking Iowa taxpayers with the bills.”

(Reporting in Shenandoah by KMA’s Brent Barnett)

Governor withdraws $13 million from emergency fund to close books on last state fiscal year

By

Dave Roederer

Governor Kim Reynolds will withdraw $13 million from the state’s economic emergency fund to balance last year’s state budget.

The governor’s budget chief told reporters this morning that $70.6 million in past-due payments were made to the state after June 30, dramatically reducing the deficit. If the deficit had been larger than $50 million, the governor would have been forced to call legislators back to Des Moines in a special session this fall to withdraw more. Iowa governors have the authority to withdraw up to $50 million from the economic emergency fund to cover a deficit.

Iowa Department of Management director Dave Roederer spent more than an hour briefing reporters on the accounting methods used to come up with the final number.

“This is the exact same thing that was done for 30 years, the system that we are using, the same progress,” Roederer said. “This is also audited every year by the auditor.”

One unexpected windfall came when some businesses paid the state more than $41 million dollars in income taxes in July — the withholding taxes from paychecks issued on Friday, June 30. Roederer told reporters this happens once every five or six years in the month of June when workers who are paid every two weeks have three rather than just two Friday paydays.

“Does everybody get this part?” Roederer asked. “Because this is kind of the key area that’s driving this.”

Some critics like Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett suggest creative accounting methods were used. Corbett is challenging Governor Kim Reynolds in the 2018 Republican Primary.

“It’s accounting gimmicks that were used,” Corbett said. “There may not be anything illegal about it, but in this case it just pushes the problem under the rug.”

The problem, according to Corbett, is that the state is spending too much. State Senator Nate Boulton of Des Moines is one of the Democrats running for governor and he said the state spending too much on tax credits for big businesses. Boulton, though, told reporters it’s too early to question the accounting methods used to close the books on the last state fiscal year.

“This is a very surprising, just sudden increase in funds that were found in the couch cushions,” said Boulton, who spoke with reporters in the Iowa Senate chambers after Roederer’s briefing concluded. “But at this point, we’re going to have to wait and see where all of that came from as we look through the numbers.”

This is the third time in 2017 that state officials have used the state’s cash reserves to cover expenses for the budgeting year that ended June 30th.

Amber Alert canceled after three abducted Northwest Iowa girls found

By

Authorities say three northwest Iowa girls who were the subject of an Amber Alert yesterday  are safe, but the search for the girls’ biological mother continues.

Authorities say at about 7:30 yesterday morning, 26-year-old Danica Noel Arzaga abducted her eight-year-old twins and four-year-old daughter from a relative’s home in Royal. It’s a small community near Spencer.

An Amber Alert for the girls was issued Tuesday afternoon, shortly after 4 p.m.

Authorities announced at about 9 p.m. the Amber Alert was cancelled because the girls had been found in Sanborn. Sanborn is about 26 miles away from Royal and authorities say the girls were abandoned there by their biological mother. She remains at large. Investigators believe she’s still driving a 2003 maroon-colored Cadillac with an Iowa license plate.

The Amber Alert for the three girls was immediately picked up by broadcasters and other media yesterday, but officials say technical issues delayed delivery of text messages to cell phones for a few hours.

Training hotel/motel workers to recognize, report sexual exploitation

By

George Belitsos

Next week, hotel and motel employees in Cedar Rapids will undergo training in how to spot the victims of sexual exploitation. It’s part of a new, statewide effort to combat human trafficking in Iowa hotels and motels.

George Belitsos of the Iowa Network Against Human Trafficking and Slavery says commercial sexual exploitation is now a bigger business than the drug trade.

“Humans can be exploited for many years,” Belitsos says, “plus human trafficking is more hidden from public view.”

He says that’s why training everyone who works in an Iowa hotel or motel is so important. Training exercises were held last week in the Des Moines area.

Steven Patrick O’Meara

Steven Patrick O’Meara, the former leader of the Nebraska Human Trafficking Task Force, is now president of an Omaha-based coalition that has trained employees in more than 100 Omaha hotels to be on the look-out for victims of sex trafficking. He’s now conducting similar seminars in Iowa.

“Much, if not most of sex trafficking is actually carried out in hotels and motels,” O’Meara says, “although I think currently that is often without the awareness of the hotel and motel.”

O’Meara cites Creighton University research indicating in any given month, more than 800 people in Iowa and Nebraska are at “high and moderate risk” to become victims of sex trafficking. O’Meara has appointments with groups in the Quad Cities, Dubuque, Council Bluffs and Sioux City to discuss how to teach hotel and motel employees about the warning signs of human trafficking.

“To build in growing concentric circles to squeeze the air out of this market,” O’Meara says.

People who pay for sex are willing to drive more than an hour to a hotel or motel, according to O’Meara. He says that means hotel staff in urban and rural Iowa need to be trained. He’s also encouraging people who book events at hotels to ask if the facility has trained its hospitality staff to report suspected cases of human trafficking.

O’Meara and Belitsos discussed the project late this morning during the governor’s weekly news conference (audio here).