DES MOINES, Iowa (KCRG) – The Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines will be soon be renamed the Casey’s Center. Oak View Group, which operates the Iowa Events Center, made the announcement on Monday. It‘s a 10-year naming rights partnership with Casey‘s that’s expected to take effect on July 1, 2025. The Polk County Board of Supervisors is expected to vote on the proposed name at a meeting on Tuesday. It‘s the first naming partnership for Casey’s, the nation’s third-largest convenience retailer and fifth-largest pizza chain. In addition to renaming the event center, Casey’s will bring its pizza and other branded snacks to events for sale to attendees. Wells Fargo, the current naming rights partner of the arena, opted not to renew its agreement. The current contract expires on June 30, 2025.
IOWA COUNTY, Iowa (KCRG) – Iowa State Patrol tells TV9 that a semi driver escaped injury after the semi caught fire on westbound I-80 Monday morning near the Williamsburg area. It happened near the rest stop between Exit 211 and Exit 205. State Patrol says at 6:22 a.m. it was notified by Iowa County about a semi on fire on the westbound side of the interstate. The driver had noticed smoke coming from the semi and pulled over before getting out. The right lane of westbound I-80 was blocked for about 80 minutes before normal traffic resumed.
DUBUQUE, Iowa (KCRG) – Dubuque County will not get insurance coverage for more than half a million dollars meant for the City of Dyersville that was inadvertently sent to scammers. KCRG-TV9 obtained the letter from the Iowa Communities Assurance Pool, or ICAP, which is self-insurance for Iowa municipal governments, denying coverage for the $524,283, meaning local taxpayers may be on the hook for the stolen federal funding. The money came from the federal American Rescue Plan was meant to go to the City of Dyersville for its Field of Dreams project. Scammers stole the money in December 2023 when they sent a fake email to Dubuque County pretending to be the City of Dyersville and requesting the grant money be wire transferred to a new bank account. The letter says the County did not discover the funds were stolen until the same scammers contacted the County again in February seeking another transfer. Dubuque County Sheriff Joe Kennedy has said that the money had been transferred to cryptocurrency meaning it would likely be impossible to ever recover the funds. The letter denies coverage for a couple of reasons. Primarily, ICAP says because the County actively sent the money to the wrong account, it does not meet coverage for a hacking or fraudulent act.
DES MOINES, Iowa (KCRG) – State Auditor Rob Sand fired back on letters critical of his office’s handling of an error within the Iowa Judicial Branch that resulted in a $53 million error, calling it “partisan politics or ignorance”. Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley and Director of the Department of Management Kraig Paulsen released letters last week detailing an IT issue that caused the Department of Justice to misallocate funds it collects in court fees. It resulted in some state and local agencies receiving an extra $26.6 million while others were shorted $26.6 million. The letters from Speaker Grassley and Director Paulsen criticized the Auditor Sand for not alerting lawmakers or other agencies to the issue when his office first learned of it in 2022 after the Iowa Department of Transportation noticed missing funds. In a reply to Speaker Grassley, Auditor Sand pointed to state law that that bars the release of audit paperwork, including allegations of misconduct or non-compliance, until the full audit is finished and published. Rep. Grassley and Paulsen also questioned why the Auditor did not include the issue in recent audits his office completed and released last month. Sand points out those audits only cover through June 30, 2022. The Auditor‘s Office was first alerted to the issues in October 2022. And while the errors started as early as 2020, Sand’s Office said an annual audit would not normally catch coding errors like those that happened with the Judicial Branch.
