The Woodbury County Sheriff’s Office has become the second in the state to use a full body scanner to check inmates into their jail. Sergeant Lee Blanchard says the SecurePass systems is faster and more efficient. "It allows us to see things you wouldn't normally see -- any kind of contraband … [Read more...]
Iowa area codes received 135 million automated calls in 2017
An estimated 30 billion"robo-calls" were made in the U.S. last year and so far this year, the pace of these nuisance calls in Iowa and the rest of the country is dramatically accelerating. According to YouMail.com, 3.3 billion automated robocalls were made in the U.S. in April -- a 34 percent … [Read more...]
Online grocery delivery service expands into Iowa
Residents in eight communities in two Iowa metro areas can now order groceries online and have them delivered to their doors. Instacart operations manager Megan Zigler says they recently launched service in the Council Bluffs-Omaha area as well as in the Quad Cities. "Instacart is a service … [Read more...]
Dubuque mayor hears from top Facebook official during conference
At least two Iowa mayors are at the U.S. Conference of Mayors which will conclude its three-day run in Boston today. Mayor Roy Buol of Dubuque says one of the weekend's keynote speakers was Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, who announced a plan to train one-million people and small business owners in … [Read more...]
Facebook CEO testifies for several hours before Grassley and other Senators
Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, chair of the Judiciary Committee, led a hearing Tuesday that featured testimony from Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The online social network is at the center of a data scandal in which Cambridge Analytica gained access to personal information of 87-million … [Read more...]
Grassley confirms Facebook CEO will attend Senate hearing
The CEO of Facebook has agreed to testify before a U.S. Senate committee chaired by Iowa's Chuck Grassley. Senator Grassley had announced last week that he planned to hold a Judiciary Committee hearing on data privacy in the wake of the revelation that data from some 50 million Facebook … [Read more...]
The sky isn’t falling, but a large chunk of space junk may be headed for Iowa
An empty Chinese space station is expected to fall back to earth as soon as today and it's possible pieces of it that survive the fiery reentry may fall on Iowa. Allison Jaynes, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Iowa, says Tiangong I will likely come down between now and … [Read more...]
Bill would cut taxes for Iowa ‘telecos’ by $30 million a year
Republicans on a state senate committee have advanced a plan that would save Iowa-based telecommunications companies nearly $30 million in property taxes each year. The plan changes the way land lines, telephone poles and other property owned by cable and phone companies is taxed. Republican … [Read more...]
Senate votes for audit, appraisal of troubled state-owned telecom network
Senators this week backed away from a proposal to sell the state-owned fiber optics network. Instead, the senate voted for an audit of the Iowa Communications Network, to see what parts could be sold. Republican Senator Randy Feenstra of Hull said he initially thought selling the network was the … [Read more...]
Senate proposes $40,000 fine for spoofing an Iowan with an Iowa area code
All 50 members of the Iowa Senate have voted for legislation that would penalize people caught "spoofing" in Iowa. "We all receive the calls where it looks like a local number, just to find out its a telemarketer or some other unwanted call," Senator Dennis Guth of Klemme said during senate … [Read more...]