Branstad has no comment on ‘inappropriate’ questions to judicial candidates
Gov. Terry Branstad is declining to comment about two of his judicial nominating appointees who publicly asked questions to judicial applicants about their covenant vows and church involvement. And...
View ArticleIowa’s Human Rights Department overbilled state $25,000, audit shows
Poor record keeping resulted in the Iowa Department of Human Rights overbilling another state agency $25,100, an audit released today shows. The overbilling took place in work known as the “Rapsheet...
View ArticleIowa pays for another wrongful employment decision case; costs $45k
A woman who claimed the Glenwood Resource Center denied her employment because of a disability was today awarded a $45,000 settlement, the second wrongful employment decision settlement since July....
View ArticleBlind Iowans issued gun permits sparks international debate
Advocates for Iowa’s blind have found themselves amidst an international buzz about a state law that allows blind people to carry guns in public. The discussion was sparked by the publication of a...
View Article‘Field of Screams’ costs Iowans $225k; the latest in tax credit scandal
Iowa has agreed to pay $225,000 to a Rhode Island man who claims the state cost him millions of dollars when it ended its film tax credit program. The settlement is with financers of the movie “2001...
View ArticleAudit: Woman defrauded Iowa’s deaf voucher program
A Council Bluffs woman signed vouchers to provide equipment to deaf Iowans while also running a side business that allowed her to use them, an audit released this morning shows. The situation – brought...
View ArticleFirst arrest warrant issued in Iowa’s attorney overbilling scandal
An arrest warrant has been issued for a former Spencer attorney who allegedly overbilled the state. Ney McDaniel, 60, was improperly paid at least $177,755 for his work as a privately contracted public...
View ArticleIowa’s GOP senate candidates attack Obamacare in first debate
Joni Ernst, the farmer’s daughter, got big laughs with a one-liner about castrating hogs. Paul Lunde amused with his sales pitches for the many books he’s written. Sam Clovis said he wants to be a U.S....
View ArticleNew state government pay database: 2,162 earn more than Gov. Terry Branstad
Candidates for governor in 2014 might consider a different position in government if their aspirations are financially based. That’s because 2,162 state employees were paid more than Gov. Terry...
View ArticleIowa agrees to pay $1.9 million to settle workplace violence/medical...
A former employee of Polk County District Court will be paid $125,000 as part of a settlement alleging wrongful termination stemming from retaliation following a violence in the workplace complaint....
View ArticleJudge: Iowa violated worker’s rights in attendance/driving phobia case
The Fort Dodge Correctional Facility warden illegally prohibited an employee from seeking union representation during questions about his attendance, an administrative law judge has concluded in an...
View ArticlePTA official admits responsibility for missing cash, audit shows
A parent/teacher organization in northwest Iowa had $9,357 of undeposited collections and $2,875 unpaid to vendors that its former treasurer at least partially has taken responsibility for, a state...
View ArticleOmbudsman warns: Ruling will lead to Iowa open meeting violations
A ruling Thursday by a state board opens the door for Iowa governments to elude a law requiring that the public be given at least 24-hour notice before meetings are held, Ombudsman Ruth Cooperrider...
View ArticleIowa warns: Falsifying school bus repairs will increasingly lead to criminal...
Iowa officials are warning that school districts that falsify school bus repairs mandated by the state are more likely to face criminal charges than in previous years due to a new reinspection process....
View ArticleLakeside Casino drops effort to keep sexual harassment court filings secret
Lakeside Casino executives who face a sexual harassment lawsuit today dropped their effort to keep secret all future court filings related to the case. The lawsuit was filed last year by Gail Wilson, a...
View ArticleIowa to pay $71,000 after former prisoner wins employment discrimination case
Iowa will pay $71,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by a former inmate at the Mount Pleasant Correctional Facility who alleged sexual harassment in employment at her prison job. The lawsuit established...
View ArticleIowa will relocate all girls from juvenile home in Toledo
All the girls at the Iowa Juvenile Home in Toledo are being relocated, state officials announced this afternoon. The home – which currently houses 21 girls and has 93 employees — has been the focus of...
View ArticleToledo mayor: Closure decision at the Iowa Juvenile Home flawed; abuse is...
The state’s decision to close that the Iowa Juvenile Home came during a Friday evening meeting between Department of Human Services director Charles Palmer and Gov. Terry Branstad, Palmer said today....
View ArticleThree Iowa Board of Parole members resign
Three Iowa Board of Parole members have resigned since September, two of whom will leave later this month, state records show. Each told The Register they resigned for personal reasons. These...
View ArticleAudit: $21k in ambulance employee incentives were improperly documented
A northern Iowa volunteer ambulance service failed to properly document almost $21,000 in expenses for a program that provided such perks as hotel stays and amusement park admissions to employees, an...
View ArticleDeath of northern Iowa man shocked by deputies’ Tasers ruled a homicide
The death of a man shocked by Worth County deputies’ Tasers in September has been ruled a homicide, state medical examiner officials have concluded. The man, Michael Zubrod, 39, was beating his...
View ArticleIowa information board to review video of juvenile home abuse
The state’s Public Information Board declined to decide Thursday whether the Department of Human Services should be allowed to keep secret the video footage of a youth being mistreated by Iowa Juvenile...
View ArticleAudit: $64,000 improperly spent in Riverside’s ‘flexible spending accounts’
City employees of Riverside improperly spent $64,062 in so-called “flexible spending accounts,” a state audit released today shows. The city additionally spent $274,048 prior to council approval and...
View ArticleMentally disabled woman Tased by Iowa officer receives $67k settlement
Chariton has agreed to pay $67,500 to settle a lawsuit where a police officer tased a women he knew to have a mental disability three times, including once while she lay in the back of squad car with...
View ArticleMuscatine now admits: Report on Taser use on mentally ill woman exists
A report about a Muscatine County jailer using a Taser four times on a mentally disabled inmate has been found, reversing statements county officials have made for months that the document never...
View ArticleIowa pays for damaging First Lady’s car; settles malpractice lawsuit
Taxpayers spent $1,420 to fix First Lady Christine Branstad’s car following an incident at Terrace Hill last year, records made public today show. A gate fell on top of Branstad’s personal car, causing...
View ArticleDes Moines will keep $15.2 million in federal grants under new agreement
Des Moines will keep $15.2 million in federal grants under an agreement that will go before the city council later today. But the city will have to annually submit to reviews from transit officials to...
View ArticleIowa State Patrol officers to be issued Tasers
A decision has been made to arm Iowa’s state law enforcement officers with Tasers, Iowa Public Safety Commissioner Larry Noble said Tuesday. The decision means as many as 430 state officers involved in...
View ArticleIowa pays $15k to settle loose ceiling tile lawsuit
Iowa taxpayers will pay a Des Moines woman $15,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging she was injured from a ceiling tile. Sara Hoover, 59, of Des Moines, alleged she was injured when the tile fell and hit...
View ArticleStandardized Taser training bill steps ahead in Iowa Senate
Iowa’s law enforcement officers who use Tasers would be required to partake in standardized training of the devices under a legislative proposal that was praised by a law enforcement lobbyist and was...
View ArticleIowa settles lawsuit alleging negligence led to man’s death
State officials have agreed to pay $67,500 to settle a lawsuit alleging that a University of Iowa doctor dismissed health problems that led to a man’s death, according to a settlement agreement...
View ArticleVideo of state worker allegedly abusing a girl must be kept secret, public...
Video footage showing what Iowa officials say is a former state worker physically abusing a 17-year-old girl is a medical record and must be kept confidential, a split Iowa Public Information Board...
View ArticleIowa pays $25k to reinstated officer after ‘buttocks’ hazing
A Department of Public Safety officer accused of helping to handcuff a recruit to a bed, pouring Gold Bond powder onto the man’s buttocks and rubbing him has been reinstated to his job and will be paid...
View ArticlePolk County man wins AR-15 rifle in gun rights advocacy group’s giveaway
A Polk County man has won a semiautomatic rifle given away by a gun rights advocacy group. The giveaway from Iowa Gun Owners made headlines last month when it sent to supporters an email that listed...
View ArticleFeds attempt to keep Iowa records secret would violate constitutional rights,...
Iowan’s First Amendment rights will be violated if federal officials successfully prohibit Story County from releasing public records, a county attorney argued before a federal judge this morning. The...
View ArticleIowa clerk in $60,000 scandal: ‘I am not competent’…‘I know how much I owe’
A former clerk of a Woodbury County township is at the center of a state audit that shows more than $60,000 was improperly spent, according to a report released this morning. The special audit shows...
View ArticleFormer Iowa school bus worker pleads guilty to record tampering
A former transportation director at an Iowa school district has pled guilty to tampering with records in connection to bus inspections. Douglas Anthony Wessling, 51, submitted a written plea of guilt...
View ArticleBranstad administration’s secret settlements ‘disturbing’ and ‘unacceptable,’...
Democrats on Sunday launched efforts demanding Gov. Terry Branstad provide Iowans an explanation about six secret settlements paid to former Iowa employees, most who claim they lost their jobs because...
View ArticleIowa oversight chairwoman: I want answers to Gov. Branstad’s secret ‘hush money’
The Senate chairwoman of the Iowa Legislature’s Oversight Committee is demanding answers about six secret settlements paid to former state employees. “Spending almost $300,000 provided by taxpayers to...
View ArticleSenate floor remarks: Branstad didn’t know about hush money? Let’s get real
Fallout from Iowa’s ongoing controversy surrounding secret settlements to former state employees, most who allege they were fired for having Democratic ties, continues. Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City,...
View ArticleTardy response to Iowa state rep’s records request ‘harmless error,’ board says
The City of Waterloo’s nearly two-month lag time in responding to a state representative’s public records request was “harmless error,” the Iowa Public Information board decided today when dismissing a...
View ArticleGov. Branstad says he wasn’t aware of secret settlements
Gov. Terry Branstad today said he wasn’t aware of secret settlements approved by his administration until reading an investigation in Sunday’s Des Moines Register. Branstad generally declined to...
View Article10 more state agencies found to have secret settlements; Branstad: ‘Iowans...
At least 10 more state agencies have entered into secret settlement agreements, Gov. Terry Branstad said today as he took responsibility and vowed that “heads will roll” if it happens again. “It is...
View ArticleDisqualified Iowa candidate for governor challenges Secretary of State’s ruling
The Iowa Secretary of State’s unbalanced approach to accepting nomination petitions is fundamentally flawed and will lead to voter disenfranchisement if not stopped by the courts, a disqualified...
View ArticleNarcisse loses Democratic primary battle; appeals judge’s ruling
A wannabe candidate for governor lost his battle to compete in Iowa’s Democratic primary when a Polk County District Court judge ruled against him Thursday. Jonathon Narcisse, a former Des Moines...
View ArticleSearch warrant related to investigation of ISU student
RELATED STORY: ISU student’s arrest followed undercover federal probe
View ArticleDocuments related to the case
The state is investigating whether an Iowa driving instructor who was convicted two years ago of supplying alcohol to his teenage students stole another instructor’s identity so he could continue to...
View ArticleInvestigation of UI field hockey coach Tracey Griesbaum
RELATED: Register files records complaint with UI RELATED: Potential violations of NCAA rules cited RELATED: UI secretly settled field hockey complaint NCAA violation memo 2011 U of I’s investigative...
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