CrayonMaster

On Dec. 16, Sheriff Tim Lane filed a sworn ethics complaint against Chris Cournoyer, a former Iowa state senator from LeClaire who is now lieutenant governor, with the Iowa Senate Ethics Committee. The complaint accuses Cournoyer of harassment of a citizen, disclosure of confidential information, improper use of confidential information to further her own interests or those of another person, and improperly or illegally obtaining confidential information. Both Lane and Cournoyer are members of the Republican Party.

Lane’s ethics complaint focuses on Cournoyer’s alleged role in handling information tied to the dismissal of Scott County Sgt. Josh Wall, who has admitted waging an unauthorized investigation into Jennifer McAndrew, Lane’s wife. McAndrew supervises probationers for the Iowa Department of Corrections.

According to Lane, Wall testified that he believed McAndrew was violating the rights of a sex offender by monitoring the man’s activities after his probation was completed.

Lane says Wall admitted that the 2023 investigation into McAndrew was unknown to others within the department and that he kept information related to it on a flash drive stored at his home

During the 2024 legislative session, Cournoyer introduced Senate File 2014, later renamed Senate File 2277, which provided that when a county sheriff intends to conduct a disciplinary or criminal investigation of an employee who is also an immediate family member, that investigation would have to be handed over to the attorney general or the Iowa Department of Public Safety. The bill failed to advance after being approved by a committee.

In May 2024, a letter signed by Cournoyer was published in the Quad-City Times. In his complaint, Lane alleges that Cournoyer’s letter served as an endorsement of Chris Laye, his opponent in the Republican primary race for Scott County sheriff.

After 30 summers of gathering and celebrating children with an HIV-positive status, Camp Heartland in Willow River, Minnesota is up for sale. Childhood HIV in the U.S. is almost non-existent, leading the camp to have less and less families to serve.

NEIL WILLENSON: ...So the year we were founded, 1,630 children were born with HIV ... it's just a medical miracle 30 years later. There might be a handful or less in the US born. They can prevent mother to child transmission. So any founder dreams of the day that their charity can go out of business.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/6063063

OER in Use Across Iowa

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/32076472

In a first since 1938, Des Moines, Iowa, kids will trick-or-treat on Halloween

According to the Iowa DOT, the lights aren't intended to appear blue. The department installed LED lights with a white coating "a while ago," Iowa DOT said in a Facebook post.

Now, that coating is flaking off, causing the lights to appear more blue or purple

Edit: other link was having issues, this should work

Three Libertarian candidates in Iowa running for the U.S. House will not be listed on ballots this November after a panel ruled they failed to comply with state law, a decision that could affect the outcome of at least one tightly contested race

The state’s objection committee, composed of one Democratic and two Republican elected officials, ruled 2-1 Wednesday in favor of Iowans who challenged the candidates’ legitimacy.

Democrat on the panel who opposed the candidates’ removal, State Auditor Rob Sand, accused his colleagues of political bias, saying in a statement that the decision was “a wrong-headed plot by Iowa’s uniparty to limit voters’ choices.”

One of Iowa's four congressional races was decided by a razor-thin margin in 2022. Republican Zach Nunn, who was challenging incumbent Democrat Cindy Axne, won by less than a percentage point. There was not a third-party candidate.

An advocate for seniors is calling on the state auditor’s office to investigate the state’s failure to collect $10.7 million in fees owed by corporate nursing home owners.

According to documents obtained through the state’s open records law, one for-profit company based in West Des Moines operates 18 care facilities that collectively owe the state $3.6 million in unpaid fees. The company’s top two executives, meanwhile, have made $293,000 in political donations to Statehouse leaders, the governor and industry lobbyists.

Hale said an investigation by the Iowa auditor of sate is warranted, in part to make sure nursing facilities that claim to be increasing staff pay are doing so.

Auditor of State Rob Sand said his office has publicly reported DHHS’ failure “to collect these fees as required by law. However, the auditor’s office isn’t an enforcement agency. We have no legal authority to force DHHS to collect the fees or impose penalties on the facilities that don’t pay them.”

Is this actually a widespread thing? I'd never heard of it (sorry if this doesn'tfit the sub)