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Iowa Lottery’s Board of Directors discusses sports betting after court ruling

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Iowa Lottery Board

The five-member board that oversees the Iowa Lottery has directed lottery staff to “explore…the feasibility” of having Iowa retailers use lottery terminals for sports betting.

Sports betting has been legal in the State of Nevada for decades, but a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in May overturned a federal law which had prohibited legalized sports betting in other states. On June 5, Delaware began offering full-scale sports betting in casinos along with a more limited sports lottery in retail locations.

“In the last month, we’ve heard from several of the lottery’s largest retail organizations who have said that if sports betting is legalized in Iowa, they want the option of offering it as a product in their locations,” Neubauer said today during the lottery board’s meeting.

Mary Neubauer

Scientific Games, the company that helps run Delaware’s sports lottery, also has the service contract for Iowa Lottery terminals that handle play slips and print lottery tickets.

“Given the expertise involved, we fully anticipate that our current system provider could allow the Iowa Lottery to offer sports betting,” Neubauer said. “Ultimately, the decision as to whether sports betting will be legalized in Iowa and exactly what sports betting were to look like if that were to occur here is a decision for our state’s lawmakers.”

The casino industry has been lobbying Iowa legislators for several years to pass a bill that would allow sports betting run by the state’s casinos, if the court ruled states could proceed. Mary Rathje of Marion, a member of the Iowa Lottery’s board, said Iowa Lottery retailers “need to be represented,” too, and that’s why lottery staff need to continue doing the research about how a sports lottery could work here.

Rob Porter

“The casinos, I’m sure, have already got their scope and how they want to proceed with this and we need to be able to be on the same page, if and when it’s decided,” Rathje said during today’s board meeting.

Rob Porter, the Iowa Lottery’s legal counsel, said the businesses that sell Iowa lottery products are looking for ways to boost in-store traffic as consumers shift more of their purchases online.

“One of the things that has the most interest for our retailers is if individuals had a convenient option to place legal bets, it certainly would drive traffic to their store, especially in rural locations,” Porter said, “and the potential for economic development and additional traffic in the store is something that helps them and, by extension, helps us.”

Iowa Lottery officials will not lobby legislators to approve a sports lottery option, but have been directed by the board to research, monitor and prepare for a state law that might involve the lottery in sports betting.

A sports lottery would not be a big revenue producer for the state. Lottery officials predict is would yield between $1 million and $6 million annually. Last fiscal year, the Iowa Lottery generated nearly $81 million in revenue for the state.

‘March for Our Lives’ tour stops in Sioux City

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Jaclyn Corin talks during stop in Sioux City.

The national gun control advocacy group “March for Our Lives” bus tour stopped in Sioux City today.

A student from Marjorie Stoneman High School in Parkland, Florida Jaclyn Corin was the keynote speaker.

Seventeen people were killed during a February shooting at the high school and Corin talked about her advocacy to stop gun violence in the wake of the killings of her fellow students and teachers.

“I personally organized a protest to our state capital of Tallahassee less than a week after the shooting. And we amazingly did not stop advocating from the start — and here we are four months out and we are still not stopping,” Corin says. Corin says her group wants what she calls “morally just leaders” elected to political office.

The bus tour is stopping in three Iowa Congressional districts represented by strong gun rights supporters. Corin criticized the National Rifle Association and it’s support of those lawmakers such as 4th District Congressmen Steve King:

“Lobby groups like the National Rifle Association have such a stranglehold over our politicians and they bar these politicians from passing common sense gun laws to protect their own constituents — which is completely unAmerican,” Corin says.

Corin and a student from Chicago talked to a predominantly Democratic audience of 100 people that included King’s opponent for Congress, J.D. Scholten and numerous local party leaders and supporters. Corin’s group then met with local high school students to discuss how to get young people out to vote. They also made posters for a planned afternoon protest outside of Congressman Steve King’s Sioux City office.

She says they will hold a vigil at King’s office to honor all the lives that have been lost to gun violence. “because Steve King is not a morally just leader.”

King is in Washington, D.C. and not at his Sioux City office. The Congressman declined to respond to Corin’s remarks or the protest at his office.

(Photo and story by Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City)

 

Parkland students to protest at Congressman King’s office

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The national gun control advocacy group “March for Our Lives” is making three stops in Iowa this week in Congressional districts represented by strong gun rights supporters.

Today’s stop will be outside the offices of Congressman Steve King, a staunch supporter of the second amendment and a critic of March for Our Lives. Organizer Kyrah Simon is from Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed during a high school shooting in February. Simon has a message for King.

“It’s really that the young people are not afraid, we’re not willing to back down to hatred,” Simon says. “Our voices are just as important, just as strong as his. We’re willing to make a change if he’s unwilling to do that.” Simon says a vigil will be held outside King’s office in Sioux City at noon today, as he’s a fervent supporter of gun rights and has sparred with the students on social media.

Simon says, “I think what’s amazing with the movement is that a few days after the shooting when everything was still raw, they had the courage, they had the bravery to go out and speak to the media, get their voices out, make an organization to implement change in our country.” They’re calling this the “Road to Change” bus tour. On Thursday, the group plans to hold an afternoon rally in Cedar Rapids and another event at Linn-Mar High School in Marion on Thursday night.

(Thanks to Rob Dillard, Iowa Public Radio)

 

Groups seeks to block abortion ban exceptions for rape, incest

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A group that opposes abortions for pregnant women who’ve been raped is asking Iowa courts to block the limited exceptions allowed under Iowa’s new ban on most abortions.

Iowa’s new “fetal heartbeat” law is on hold until a different legal challenge is settled that argues the abortion ban is too limited. A group called Save The 1 says the new law is too broad and does not protect children conceived in rape.

The group is asking the court to preserve the central focus of the new law and ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat may be detected, but then strike down exceptions for cases of rape, incest or fetal abnormality. Save The 1 argues those exceptions send the message that children conceived by rape or incest “are worth less” than others.

Republicans nominate Jeremy Davis to run for state treasurer (AUDIO)

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Jeremy Davis

A former Ames City Councilman is now the Republican challenging long-time State Treasurer Mike Fitzgerald, a Democrat. Jeremy Davis was nominated this past weekend by delegates at the Iowa Republican Party’s state convention.

“When I was first contacted by Governor Reynolds to consider this, I didn’t say, ‘Yes,’ right away because I needed to think about it,” Davis said Saturday. “…I talked to friends, but more importantly, I listened to my family and I listened to my heart and I listened to God.”

AUDIO of Davis’ nomination and speech, 5:00

Davis, who grew up on a Jones County farm, worked in Congressman Steve King’s Ames office and is now director of grassroots programs for the National Pork Producers Council. Davis has run for office twice before — an unsuccessful bid for the state senate in 2014 and, in 2009, when he won a term on the Ames City Council.

“I believe one of the most important things about being state treasurer is that we need to have 100 percent transparency when it comes to our financial operations of government,” Davis said. “I believe that it is inappropriate that the current state treasurer has utilized public funds to promote programs that he administers leading up to an election.”

Fitzgerald’s office has paid to advertise the “College Savings Iowa” program and the “Great Iowa Treasure Hunt” which seeks to connect Iowans with unclaimed property. A spokesman for Fitzgerald’s campaign says no tax dollars have been used in the advertising, because both are “self-sustaining programs.”

Fitzgerald briefly spoke to delegates at the Democratic Party’s state convention last weekend.

“Dmeocrats need to assert themselves and Iowans know it because the Republicans have been so irresponsible at all levels,” Fitzgerald said. “You know, the state budget — it’s a mess. It’s a real disaster.”

AUDIO of Fitzgerald’s speech, 3:00

Fitzgerald, who is seeking a 10th term as state treasurer, said Republican control of the statehouse has had “terrible consequences.”

Tom Miller, a Democrat who has served as the state’s attorney general for 35-and-a-half years, is also seeking reelection, but will not face a Republican opponent this fall. Libertarians nominated Marco Battaglia of Des Moines to run for attorney general. Battaglia unsuccessfully ran for governor on the Libertarian ticket on June 6th.

King says ‘nothing cruel’ about separating kids from parents at southern border

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Republican Congressman Steve King has been an active tweeter today, urging people to call congress and voice their opposition to bills that would provide what King calls “amnesty” to anyone who entered the U.S. illegally.

King tweeted out a link to an interview he did with TMZ about the separation of children from parents crossing illegally at the southern border. King told the TMZ cameraman there is “nothing cruel” about the way the children are being treated and they are not being held in cages.

King has toured detention centers near the southern border before. The use of chain link fencing is needed, King has said, to separate the boys from the girls.

King also said on Twitter today that the only way to stop what he describes as a “flood of illegals” is for the U.S. to deport “substantially more…than the number of those who arrive seeking amnesty.”

 

 

Day long public safety forum underway at Mitchellville prison

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Iowa Department of Corrections director Jerry Bartruff.

Iowa Department of Corrections director Jerry Bartruff says the state is facing “new and, in some cases, daunting challenges” when it comes to public safety.

“The rise of the opioid crisis, rising violent crimes and arrests in rural areas, disparities in our criminal justice system and an ever-growing population of persons with mental illness and other behavioral health issues in our jails and prisons are just some of the troubling areas we really need to start to address collectively,” Bartruff says.

Bartruff made his comments early this morning at the opening of a day-long forum on public safety at the state women’s prison in Mitchellville. Iowa Department of Public Safety Commissioner Roxann Ryan said the forum is focused on problem solving.

Iowa Public Safety Commissioner Roxann Ryan makes a presentation with Governor Reynolds.

“Public safety has always been one of the foundations of every community,” Ryan said. “I hope that our discussions today will lead to many more discussions throughout the state. The ideas that we discuss today will be the policies and programs that we develop tomorrow.”

Governor Kim Reynolds gave a welcoming speech at the forum and touted some already launched policies, like apprenticeship programs in the state prisons for inmates who’ll eventually be paroled.

“We need to give hope to incarcerated Iowans so that they can make positive decisions,” she said, “and begin new lives upon release.”

Legislators, officials from several state agencies and mental health advocates and are among the dozens of people who stayed to participate in the forum.

Senator Grassley calls for repeal of agreement that allows family separation at the border

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Senator Chuck Grassley. (file photo)

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is joining the growing chorus of Republicans who are denouncing the Trump Administration’s so-called “zero tolerance policy” to separate children from parents who cross the border illegally.

Grassley says the Flores Agreement, approved in 1997, stated children who were part of detained families could legally be separated for up to 20 days. Grassley says, “I want the Flores Agreement repealed so that we don’t have family separation because I don’t think we should have family separation and we don’t need to have.”

Senators Dianne Feinstein and Ted Cruz are offering separate pieces of legislation that address the administration’s policy on dividing families. Grassley isn’t yet ready to commit to backing either of them, but says he’d support a measure that eliminates the Flores Agreement. “These bills will probably do that,” Grassley says. “They might do more than that but what more they do, I don’t think is necessary, but I’ll comment on those when I read them.”

Reports say in the past few weeks, more than two-thousand children have been separated from their parents or guardians at the U.S. border with Mexico. Many are being housed in camps in Texas, including tent cities and one camp that’s inside a former Walmart. Grassley says any legislation that passes also needs to address funding.

“The Department of Justice needs more resources to handle the increased number of people that are in detention, particularly, more judges to speed up the process,” Grassley says, “because justice that’s slow is not necessarily fair.”

Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller is joining 20 of his counterparts from other states in calling on U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Homeland Security leaders to end what Miller calls the “cruel and illegal actions against children and families lawfully seeking asylum” in the U.S. Miller and the other attorneys general say the practice of separating families is contrary to American values and should be abolished.

 

Reynolds says children being used ‘as pawns’ in immigration impasse

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Governor Kim Reynolds.

Governor Kim Reynolds is calling on federal lawmakers in both parties to resolve the impasse over immigration policy. Her remarks to reporters this morning come amid a growing national debate about whether children should be separated from their parents who illegally cross the southern U.S. border.

“Children are being used as pawns in this situation and I don’t think that that’s the right thing to happen,” Reynolds said this morning. “I’m a mom and a grandma and what I believe is that congress needs to do their job. They need to get back and they need to work with the executive branch.”

The Republican governor of Massachusetts yesterday cancelled the deployment of National Guard troops and equipment from his state to the southern border. A spokesman for the Massachusetts governor said the move was because of “the federal government’s current actions resulting in the inhumane treatment of children.”

Reynolds stopped short of calling on President Trump to end the policy. “This isn’t a partisan issue. We need everybody working on this. We need congress to get back to Washington, D.C. and put an end to this,” Reynolds said. “We need to provide stability for families that are living in a very unstable situation. We shouldn’t be separating children from their family, but we are a nation of laws, so we need congress to act. We can get it done this week.”

There are two bills pending in congress to address the issue and Reynolds indicated passing either is preferable to passing nothing.

“It’s just horrific that children are being used as a pawn in this situation,” she said.

The Iowa National Guard has not been called to mobilize for immigration enforcement, according to the governor.

“So I think we need to wait and see what they’re asking of the National Guard and so we’ll respond at that point,” Reynolds said.

On Monday, officials announced about two dozen Wisconsin National Guard troops were heading to Arizona to assist in border security, with more to be deployed in the coming weeks.

Congressman King, challenger Scholten focus on trade concerns (AUDIO)

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Congressman Steve King is urging his fellow Republicans who are “apprehensive” about President Trump’s trade talk to give Trump “time and room” to make some deals.

“I’ve been asking for years for a president who would play brinksmanship who was also an enigma,” King said Saturday. “It’s really a powerful position to have when you’re doing foreign trade and negotiations and geopolitical maneuvers of all kinds. Well, we elected Donald Trump and I think we got both of those things.”

King made his comments this weekend at the Iowa Republican Party’s state convention.

AUDIO of King’s speech, 6:44

King predicted there will be a “red tsunami” this November. King also spoke up for the nation’s embattled attorney general who’s drawn Trump’s ire at time and who has defended the policy separating children from parents entering the country illegally at the border.

“I’m a supporter of Jeff Sessons. He’s a noble man,” King said. “He believes in the Bible and the Constitution and in the rule of law.”

King’s Democratic opponent, J.C. Scholten of Sioux City, rallied with delegates at the Iowa Democratic Party’s state convention this weekend.

“Who’s ready to beat Steve King?” Scholten asked, getting a big cheer from the Democratic delegates. “Now my second question: ‘Who thinks this race is unwinnable?’ Because that’s what I’ve been told every day since I launched my campaign back in July and I’m sick of it. I’ve modeled my campaign after two of my political heroes: Tom Harkin and Berkely Bedell.”

Harkin and Bedell — both Democrats — are former congressmen who represented many of counties included in Iowa’s current fourth congressional district. Scholten suggested there’s a reason King recently re-tweeted the views of a neo-Nazi.

“He doesn’t have an answer to farmers who have been struggling for four consecutive years on low commodity prices at a time, now, with tariffs to add on top of that,” Scholten said. “…But this is race is not about the crap that comes out of his mouth. It’s about what we can do.”

AUDIO of Scholten’s speech, 3:35