From the KCRG-TV9 Newsroom:
Black Hawk County Supervisor Chris Schwartz remains on the Board despite a vote by his colleagues yesterday calling for him to step down. Schwartz faces three sexual abuse charges. He was arrested most recently on March 30. The board fears the scandal is distracting the public from the county’s work. But the board can’t force him out. Schwartz must resign on his own. He was the only supervisor to vote “no” to the resolution yesterday.
Iowa lawmakers are moving to ban out-of-state doctors from prescribing abortion pills to patients in Iowa. A new bill that passed a House subcommittee yesterday would ban the medication from being prescribed by doctors in other states. Opponents, including healthcare advocates, call it government overreach. Supporters argue the bill shields women from unregulated abortion drugs. Iowa banned abortions after 6 weeks in 2024. But patients can still get abortion pills prescribed by out-of-state doctors and mailed to them.
The community spoke out last night about plans to reopen the Duane Arnold Nuclear power plant in Palo. Next-Era Energy and Google look to open the plant in 2029. They want to restart the energy plant to help power data centers. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission held the meeting as part of the on-going process to re-commission the nuclear power plant.
The state says officers issued more than 500 tickets last week to drivers who were using their cellphones while driving. Iowa’s “hands-free” law went into effect last year with officers first issuing tickets this year. Last week, 551 hands-free citations and 329 hands-free warnings for a total of 880 hands-free driver violations were issued. Since the first of the year, more than 3,600 citations and 3,100 warnings have been issued.
The Iowa football team has been forced to vacate four wins from the 2023 season. The NCAA handed down the ruling after a 2022 recruiting violation. The violation happened in 2022 when head coach Kirk Ferentz and assistant coach Jon Budmyer illegally contacted quarterback Cade McNamara too early, before McNamara entered the transfer portal. McNamara played in 4 Iowa wins in 2023. The NCAA says those wins are vacated.
