Iowa

Auditor Rob Sand says his office did not ignore court spending errors • Iowa Capital Dispatch

Published

2 years ago

December 17, 2024

Auditor Rob Sand says his office did not ignore court spending errors • Iowa Capital Dispatch

Iowa Auditor Rob Sand disputed claims made by Republican leaders that his office was aware of a coding error that led to a misallocation of court debt funds years before taking action on the issue.

Sand held a news conference Tuesday about his report on the Iowa Judicial Branch, which found that $27.5 million in court debt receipts had been misallocated due to a coding error. The report had followed up on letters sent to the auditor’s office by House Speaker Pat Grassley and Iowa Department of Management Director Kraig Paulsen that more than $53 million of these funds had been misallocated — an amount Sand said was inaccurate.

In an October letter to Sand, Grassley wrote that the auditor’s office had been alerted of a financial irregularity by the Department of Transportation in 2022, but that these issues were not mentioned in the judicial branch audits for fiscal years 2021 and 2022.

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“I am writing to gain an understanding from you as to why your office has taken no action since being made aware of these drastic issues at least two years ago,” Grassley wrote. “The State Auditor’s office exists for this very purpose. When you are made aware of misallocated funds by a branch of government, it is your duty to Iowans to investigate, alert the public, and seek to rectify the issue. Your inaction in this case is baffling and inexcusable. If there is any other explanation why it appears that the taxpayer’s watchdog was sleeping on the job, I would be very interested to hear it.”

Sand said the auditor’s office has been in contact with officials from the state judicial branch and DOT multiple times after being notified of the issue in October 2022, and that the office remained in contact with the judicial branch in conducting internal and independent investigations into the issue.

According to the auditor’s report, there were seven state funds that were under-allocated because of the error from fiscal years 2021 through 2024 — the largest being the Road Use Tax Fund, which was under-allocated by more than $10.4 million, and the Victim Compensation Fund by $7.2 million. In the same time period, the state general fund received an over-allocation of $27.5 million, in addition to the SOS Revolving Fund being over-allocated $90,174 and the Jury Witness Fund by $74,166.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird released a statement in October criticizing the auditor’s office for failing to catch the misallocation related to the Victim Compensation Fund that goes toward services like sexual assault examinations, medical reimbursements and counseling.

“No domestic violence victim should have to stay with their abuser because they cannot afford to leave,” Bird said. “The State’s self-proclaimed ‘taxpayer watchdog’ failed at the most basic job of being an auditor: conducting an audit. Crime victims should not have to worry about whether victim services will be there when they need them.”

But Sand pushed back against Bird’s characterization of the issue, saying that the underfunded government accounts never ran out of money when they were impacted by the error.

Sand asked for an apology to his staff for the criticism of the auditor’s office over this subject, and making it a “political” issue.

“I’m asking again, the people who distort the facts around this issue for political gain to publicly apologize to our staff — I would settle for a private apology to our staff that works on these issues,” Sand said. “These accountants and the auditors in this office, they work long hours. It is a difficult profession to be in right now, … Our employees know that their families and their friends are seeing these headlines, and they know that they’re doing their job, they know that they are doing good quality work. But because of these attacks, they have to deal with it. They shouldn’t have to, and they deserve an apology.”

Paulsen, speaking with reporters Tuesday, said although the funds impacted by the error retained money despite the misallocation, it does not mean services — and their recipients in the state — were not affected by the lack of funds.

“You don’t spend your bank account down to zero every month, and neither do state entities funded by court debt,” Paulsen said. “When the funds run low, you cut back and so do state entities. Have citizens been harmed? That’s a question the Legislature should ask.”

While Sand said his office has never had staff with the ability to review coding to check for problems like in this case, Paulsen said the fact the misallocation occurred because of a coding error should not have prevented the office from being able to identify the funding irregularities.

“Don’t get bogged down in thinking auditing has anything to do with coding or programming a computer,” Paulsen said. “… [I]f that was the case, that you had to understand some computer language to audit, then how does the auditor of state do a single audit? How do they go from agency to agency? … There’s still a few very small communities who use paper, but otherwise, there’s no government in the state of Iowa that doesn’t have their financials in the computer system. So if that’s a limitation, how do they … do any of their audits? And the truth is, they do, because it’s not a limitation.”

The programming errors that led to the funds misallocations were found to have likely began after changes were made to the judicial branch’s information technology system for the process for distributing judicial fees and fines to government programs in 2020 and 2021, as directed by the Iowa Legislature.

While the error has been fixed moving forward, the misallocation that occurred in previous years cannot be fixed through administrative action, although the Legislature could take action when lawmakers reconvene in January 2025.

State Court Administrator Robert Gast said in a letter Dec. 6 that the judicial branch has implemented “new programming to correct programming errors in its case management system” as of Nov. 22, 2024, including retroactive corrections to distributions dating back to July 1, 2024. It has also contracted with a third party to review programming changes made to the branch’s IT system, is working with the state auditor “to set up an engagement to review the financial findings and verify that the over and under allocation numbers and the funds impacted as calculated by JBIT are accurate” and is developing an internal process to audit future programming changes.

“The branch cannot move funds that were misallocated in prior fiscal years,” Gast wrote. “We are interested and willing to work with all court debt stakeholders to correct all misallocations from FY21 through FY24.”

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Iowa

McKeever’s 7′3″ frame made Iowa the ‘obvious choice’ in the transfer portal

Published

5 hours ago

July 10, 2026

Press Room

McKeever’s 7′3″ frame made Iowa the ‘obvious choice’ in the transfer portal

IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) – Andrew McKeever is hard to miss at an Iowa practice. The St. Mary’s transfer and center stands 7 feet, 3 inches tall and averaged 8.2 points and 9.2 rebounds per game last season.

‘Nothing like I’ve seen in practice’

Teammates have taken notice of McKeever’s size. Forward Trey Thompson said the center’s hands alone drew a reaction.

“Yeah, he’s big. That’s for sure. I saw him looking at his phone and it looked like a tiny, little iPod in his hand. I was like, ‘Geez, man,’” Thompson said.

Forward Joey Matteoni said McKeever’s presence in the paint stands apart from what he has seen in recent seasons.

“He controls the paint for sure and nothing like I’ve seen in practice the last couple of years. No offense to Cam (Manyawu), but I mean 7′3” is just different,” Matteoni said.

McKeever on why Iowa made sense

McKeever said the decision to transfer to Iowa was straightforward.

“It was a pretty obvious choice for me,” McKeever said. “Their team was so good last year, making an Elite 8 run. I was maybe a key piece that they needed with a little bit more size, even though their bigs were good, but they just didn’t have the height as some of the other teams did in the Big Ten. So I figured I could help in that way.”

From baseball to basketball

McKeever was not always a basketball player. He stood around 6 feet, 2 inches early in high school before a significant growth spurt changed his trajectory.

“I was like 6′2” during COVID and then I grew to 6′10″ when I was out of COVID. I was playing baseball at the time, and I was like, yeah, I got to go to basketball. I locked in during my sophomore season,” McKeever said.

His high school coach pushed him to make the switch permanent.

“My high school coach who I had been with growing up said, ‘You need to stop playing baseball and just focus on basketball.’ That’s kind of when it flipped the switch for me,” McKeever said.

Adjusting to his own size

Even after committing to basketball, McKeever said adapting to his own frame took time.

“Maybe a little uncoordinated and slow for my size. But I kind of worked on it a lot when I was at St. Mary’s and I got better at it,” McKeever said.

McKeever now joins Iowa’s program under head coach Ben McCollum.

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Iowa

Iowa WWII veteran approaching 100th birthday honored in Cedar Rapids

Published

15 hours ago

July 9, 2026

Press Room

Iowa WWII veteran approaching 100th birthday honored in Cedar Rapids

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – World War II veteran Laverne Severson turns 100 years old on July 14. On Thursday, family, friends and fellow veterans gathered at the Freedom Foundation in Cedar Rapids to honor and celebrate the milestone birthday.

The National World War II Museum says fewer than 1% of World War II veterans remain alive.

Laverne served as a line medic during the war and was stationed in the Philippines.

“As soon as I turned 18, it didn’t take me about a month until I was going overseas,” Laverne said.

His son, Boyd Severson, recalled stories his father shared about life at his base.

“His base over there, he told me they would get air raids every morning. The Japanese would do an air raid and they’d have to run and jump into their foxholes. And this is stuff you see in movies, and he actually lived through this,” Boyd said.

Eric Parker, assistant director of the Freedom Foundation, said veterans like Laverne deserve recognition.

“As long as we are allowed to still be graced with their presence, then we need to just soak that up and just be really thankful,” Parker said. “There needs to be a remembrance and there needs to be a legacy there that we can honor.”

Boyd said the number of surviving World War II veterans in Iowa underscores the importance of events like Thursday’s celebration.

“Slowly but surely we’re losing this generation that, from what I’ve seen, there’s 250 to 275 surviving World War II veterans remaining in Iowa, and my father’s one of them and they all should be recognized. It all should be honored,” Boyd said.

And we had to ask…what’s the secret to a century of life?

“Crackers and peanut butter in the morning for breakfast!” Laverne said.

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Iowa

From caviar nuggets to bison, 10 new Iowa State Fair food trends

Published

1 day ago

July 9, 2026

Press Room

From caviar nuggets to bison, 10 new Iowa State Fair food trends

Summer at the Iowa State Fair has always been a celebration of Iowa’s appetite for fun, flavor and a little bit of culinary chaos.

On July 7, the Iowa State Fair revealed 84 new dishes served at the 200-plus food stands on the fairgrounds. And while the fair has always had an appetite for foods on a stick, novelty creations and glorious gut busters, the 2026 lineup pushes that spirit further than ever.

This year’s new foods reflect a fair in full technicolor: patriotic desserts exploding with red‑white‑and‑blue pride, global flavors stretching from Hawaii to Vietnam and over‑the‑top creations engineered for the camera as much as the palate. Strawberries dominate the sweets scene, butter becomes a starring ingredient and bison quietly emerges as the protein of the moment. Even classic comfort foods get a modern remix, whether wrapped in frybread, dipped in chocolate or topped with jalapeño heat.

Together, these dishes tell a story of a fair that’s evolving into louder, brighter and more playful dishes while still rooted in Iowa’s love of indulgence, nostalgia and big summer flavor. Here are the 10 trends defining the 2026 Iowa State Fair.

Hyper‑patriotic foods take over

This year, the Iowa State Fair celebrates America’s 250th birthday with a patriotic Fair Spirit theme that includes a massive 250-flag display, a “Spirit of ’76” historical exhibit, nightly drone shows and special events, as well as an official America 250 Tree and the Iowa Veterans Memorial Walkway on Expo Hill.

The State Fair’s 250th‑anniversary theme shows up everywhere, especially in desserts. Red‑white‑and‑blue sprinkles, flag toppers and “1776” branding dominate the fairgrounds.

Look for 1776 Dubai strawberries, dipped in a rich, creamy pistachio-tahini paste and crunchy toasted kataifi (shredded phyllo pastry) for $19 from The Strawberry Station. The Dairy Zone offers patriotic nachos, a sweet treat with waffle chips and vanilla ice cream, drizzled with cherry and blue raspberry dips, topped with whipped cream and festive red, white and blue star sprinkles for $10.

Bubbly Bar has Parmesan ice cream, a nod to an 18th-century sensation that combines the rich, nutty flavor of aged Parmesan with smooth, creamy ice cream. Bubbly layers in tart cherry and buttery pound cake for a Revolutionary-era treat for $14.

Over the Top goes patriotic with Sweet Americana, featuring strawberry shortcake, lemon bar and blueberry crisp ice creams, each topped with a shortcake cookie, a lemon bar square and chocolate-covered blueberries for $13.

Another sweet dish, the Star Spangled Frybread, comes with a sweet glaze, topped with festive red, white and blue sprinkles and finished with a light dusting of powdered sugar from Its Dough Time for $12.

On the savory side of the menu, Blue Ribbon Bar & Eatery has the 1776 Liberty Bowl with a sourdough bread bowl loaded with cheese curds, French fries and slow-roasted shredded beef, all smothered in gravy and topped with hand-breaded onion rings. Try it for $15.

This is the most overtly patriotic menu the fair has produced in years.

Chocolate‑covered everything

Chocolate is the year’s dominant sweet, whether it’s poured, drizzled, dipped or smothered.

Try Belgian chocolate-covered strawberries from The Strawberry Station for $17 or an affogato, an espresso ice cream drink drizzled with chocolate (or caramel), at the Biscuit Bar for $8.

The Iowa Specialty Crop Growers Association slathers its Strawberry Bliss in chocolate. A buttery shortbread cookie comes topped with a strawberry and a cloud of meringue. The entire creation is covered in milk chocolate, drizzled with white chocolate and finished with a sprinkle of fresh-cut strawberries. Try it for $8.

Chocolate + fruit + spectacle is a clear 2026 signature.

Sweet‑heat mashups

Spicy‑sweet combos are bigger, bolder and more chaotic than ever.

Make your dessert fiery with the Firecracker Churros from Applishus with Lola’s jalapeno and habanero pepper spice sauce, honey molasses and sugar topped with an apple butter and cream cheese dip for $10.

Maybe one of the craziest concoctions at the fair is the Cajun Cluck ’N’ Chaos, a Cajun-style chicken sloppy joe with crunchy sweet pepper coleslaw and fiery spicy pickles topped with a skewer stacked with a tangy pickled egg and extra pickles, finished with a cloud of lime-infused pickle cotton candy. It all comes on a brioche bun at Cluckin’ Coop for $14.

Cowboy Candy from Stockman’s Inn brings sweet and spicy breaded jalapenos for $5.

Whatcha’ Smokin BBQ returns with Star Spangled Swine with pork belly with an apple chipotle rub and Big Red soda glaze rolled in blue and white honey crystals for $15.

While this trend marks a continuation of the fair’s love affair with spicy‑sweet combos, this year they’re more extreme.

Cheese goes maximalist

Cheese isn’t a garnish — it’s the headliner in 2026, with dishes with the dairy product as the main event.

Start with America’s “Berry” Good Grilled Cheese from What’s Your Cheez for $16. It combines several trends with a sweet and savory grilled cheese made with caramelized brioche bread, stuffed with blueberry white cheddar, layered with tart raspberry amaretto jam and blueberry bourbon jam, then stuffed with crispy candied pork belly that has a touch of sweet heat. Patriotic, sweet and savory, maximalist and cheesy all in one dish.

Cheese takes center stage with the Mozza‑Tini from DG – Destination Grille for $10. These hand-breaded gluten-free mozzarella sticks come with warm vodka sauce, jalapeno ranch drizzle and fresh parsley. Spicy and sweet come together with cheese.

The garlic dill pickle cheese curds from Brad & Harry’s Cheese Curds for $9 combine the food stand’s two most popular flavors, garlic and dill pickle.

Strawberries are the star fruit

Strawberries appear in more new food dishes than any other fruit. Often, they are paired with chocolate or patriotic themes.

The 1776 Dubai Strawberries at The Strawberry Station, the Strawberry Bliss at the Iowa Specialty Crop Growers Association and Sweet Americana at Over the Top are just some of the dishes offered at the fair.

This mirrors national trends. Strawberries are having a moment.

Global fusion expands

Hawaiian, Vietnamese, Salvadoran and Mexican influences make this the fair’s most international menu yet.

New dishes include Saigon birria pupusa from Saigonais Cuisine for $10. A pupusa comes filled with pho-braised brisket and melted cheese, served with a hoisin birria consommé for dipping. “Just as Iowa’s heritage has been built by generations of people bringing their own stories and traditions to the table, the Saigon birria pupusa brings Salvadoran, Vietnamese and Mexican flavors together in one dish. It is a tribute to the fair spirit — a celebration of unity, heritage and the American tradition of creating something greater together,” the fair said of the dish.

A taste of Hawaii brings spam musubi to Kama’aina Grill for $5. This fusion food combines American spam with Japanese musubi (rice ball) techniques. The stand also has Kama’aina Bento for $23. The plate lunch from Hawaii features teriyaki beef, fried saimin noodles, spam or garlic chicken served with rice and macaroni salad.

Bao Bao’s Tanghulu brings tanghulu, a Chinese street food of candied fruit on a stick, for $12.

GoldenKDog brought Korean hot dogs to the fair in 2025. This year, they introduced the Cinnamozza Kdog, a mozzarella cheese Korean corn dog dunked in salted butter, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and topped with Cinnamon Toast Crunch for $18.

Dessert spectacle rules

Desserts are bigger, brighter and built for social media. These over-the-top dishes are shareable, both with another person and on Instagram.

Oreo Overload Nachos from Dairy Zone for $10 start with waffle chips piled around vanilla ice cream, hot fudge topped with crushed Oreo cookies for dipping and whipped cream. Dairy Zone suggested dipping the waffle chips into the sundae.

The deep-fried cookie dough pie from Minneapple Pie comes with vanilla or cinnamon ice cream for $12.

The walking taco goes dessert-style with the walkin’ Oreo sundae for $9 from Wonder Bars.

If combining savory and sweet is your thing, try the Ultimate Bacon-Brisket Mac & Cheese Donut. The $7 snack from The Rib Shack starts with mac and cheese loaded with bacon and brisket that’s breaded in a cake-style coating and finished with a sweet barbecue glaze. Not enough? It’s topped with chopped brisket and garnished with a slice of fresh jalapeno. You can nab six for $30.

Dessert nachos, dessert doughnuts and dessert frybread add up to the fair pushing “dessert as spectacle.”

Bison and pork dominate the protein scene

The Iowa Pork Producers lead the way with pork dishes at the Iowa State Fair. The fair estimates it sells 46-50,000 of its famous Pork Chop on a Stick during the 11-day event. But save room for some new riffs on pork that appear in 2026, including the Porky Pileup at the Stockman’s Inn for $15. The dish features fries layered with pulled barbecue pork, mac n’ cheese and cowboy beans topped with bacon bits.

Kalua pork appears at Kama’aina Grill as a plate lunch with rice and macaroni salad for $18, as well as in a poke bowl for $23.

DG – Destination Grille has the Porky Parm Gnocchi, a gluten-free potato gnocchi and Graziano sausage tossed in a house-made AE cream Parmesan sauce with a pesto drizzle and shaved Parmesan, all topped with an America 250th year flag and a souvenir piggy pal for $14. Note that everything at DG – Destination Grille is gluten-free.

Bison, though, is emerging as the breakout starring protein. Newcomer Sleepy Bison Grill has a bison burger for $13, a bison cheesesteak slider for $11 and bison nachos for $14.

Butter becomes a flavor

The Iowa State Fair is famous for its Butter Cow made with approximately 600 pounds of low-moisture, pure cream Iowa butter. In 2011, the fair turned food media on its collective head with the deep-fried butter on a stick from concessionaire Larry Fyfe. The indulgent dish featured frozen butter dipped in honey-cinnamon batter, deep-fried and topped with a powdered sugar glaze.

In 2026, butter is a micro-trend, with the butter-dipped ice cream cone from Coney Corner for $6 that swaps out chocolate for a buttery hard shell encasing vanilla soft serve.

That Cinnamozza Kdog comes with a salted butter dunk. And buttery desserts feature shortcake, pound cake and even Biscoff cookie butter cheesecake funnel cake from McGrath’s Funnel Cakes for $15.

Chaos foods define the fair

Maximalist, hybrid, over‑the‑top creations are now a fair signature, and the new dishes in 2026 do not disappoint. The Cajun Cluck ’N’ Chaos at Cluckin’ Coop and Ultimate Bacon‑Brisket Mac & Cheese Donut at The Rib Shack certainly fall into that category.

One of the most expensive dishes at the Iowa State Fair brings caviar and chicken nuggets from JR’s SouthPork Ranch for $99 that blends childhood nostalgia with pure luxury. JR’s calls it “a little bit county fair, a little bit Champagne lifestyle and 100% conversation starter.” Coqodaq, a Korean-inspired fried chicken restaurant in New York, served this dish during the 2025 U.S. Open, and McDonald’s followed with a Valentine’s Day special that combined McNuggets with caviar. Now, the trend hits Iowa.

Sign up for our dining newsletter, Table Talk DSM, which comes out on Wednesday mornings with all the latest news on restaurants and bars in the metro. You can sign up for free at DesMoinesRegister.com/tabletalk.

Susan Stapleton is the entertainment editor and dining reporter at The Des Moines Register. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, or drop her a line at sstapleton@gannett.com.

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