Iowa’s Ethics Board has found that Gov. Kim Reynolds did not violate any laws when she appeared in a series of taxpayer-funded advertisements last fall. The State Auditor’s Office released findings of an investigation back in June, in which Auditor Rob Sand accused the governor of using public money to promote her own image when she appeared in several ads encouraging mask-wearing. The governor’s spokesman, Pat Garrett, released a statement on the board’s findings, saying, “The ethics board’s unanimous decision validates what was already clear. The governor was right and her actions were supported by both Iowa law and commonsense. Auditor Sand chose not to meet with our team regarding his concern or his investigation. If he had, all of this could have been avoided and we would have pointed him to an essential part of the law that he missed.” Sand expressed his displeasure with the board’s ruling in a Facebook post saying, “A sad day for taxpayers & for the rule of law when a board full of the Gov’s own appointees decides she can do what the law against self-promotion with taxpayer funds clearly makes illegal — especially after her ’emergency’ justification for it had two plainly false statements.”
Troy Price, who resigned as chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party after a disastrous leadoff caucus in 2020, is taking a new job in the fellow first-in-the-nation state New Hampshire. The New Hampshire Democratic Party says Price will start work as its executive director on Monday as it gears up for the 2022 elections and 2024 primary. Price resigned in February 2020 after a meltdown in tabulating results from the lead-off presidential caucuses. But he was the unanimous choice in New Hampshire, where officials called him part of an “all-star team of experienced leaders.”
Starting today, Mercy Cedar Rapids is adjusting its safety measures and visitor guidelines as COVID-19 cases are rising around the country and locally because of the spread of the new and highly contagious Delta variant. The changes, which take effect immediately, include: all inpatient admissions will be tested for COVID-19; patient visitation hours will be limited to 6 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., and most areas will return to a maximum of one visitor at a time; visitors must be in good health; and masks will now be required for all visitors during the entirety of their visit, including inside patient rooms.
Two people were injured after a car accident near in Black Hawk County, near the Bremer County town of Denver, on Thursday afternoon. The Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office says Zachary Cibula “apparently” fell asleep at the wheel while driving in the 2200 block of E. Cedar Wapsi Road. Cibula’s vehicle hit another car head on and the other driver ended up trapped inside his vehicle. That driver had be extricated by mechanical means by Denver Fire. Both drivers were taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
