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DeSantis, Haley, Ramaswamy, Binkley to court Feenstra endorsement at Saturday caucus event

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DeSantis, Haley, Ramaswamy, Binkley to court Feenstra endorsement at Saturday caucus event


Four Republican presidential candidates will make the trek to northwest Iowa on Saturday for an event with U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, who is perhaps the state’s biggest potential endorser still up for grabs ahead of Caucus Day.

Texas Pastor Ryan Binkley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy are slated to attend the Faith & Family with The Feenstras event in Sioux Center on Saturday morning.

The event is scheduled to run from 9 a.m. to noon in BJ Haan Auditorium at Dordt University.

Feenstra, who represents the deeply conservative 4th Congressional District, previously said he intends to endorse. And after Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds and evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats weighed in on behalf of DeSantis, his is likely the outstanding endorsement most coveted by campaigns.

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“I do plan to endorse,” Feenstra said in July. “I’m not sure when that will be, but I’m just looking forward to spending time this summer with all the different candidates that want to come through Iowa and want to come through western Iowa.”

Iowa’s Republican U.S. senators, Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, have said they intend to remain neutral.

And while U.S. Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Ashley Hinson previously have left the door open to endorsing, Feenstra’s cachet with Republicans in this critical corner of the state could be meaningful to campaigns trying to attract and motivate religious conservatives.

Feenstra’s Saturday event — which is likely to be one of the last multi-candidate events of the caucus cycle — could be a chance for candidates to sell him and undecided caucusgoers on their candidacies.

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According to an October Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa Poll, Trump still leads the field with 43% of likely caucusgoers saying he is their first choice for president.

DeSantis and Haley are tied at 16%. Ramaswamy is at 4% and Binkley is at 0%.

A new Iowa Poll is scheduled to be released Monday at 5 a.m.

Brianne Pfannenstiel is the chief politics reporter for the Register. Reach her at bpfann@dmreg.com or 515-284-8244. Follow her on Twitter at @brianneDMR.



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Iowa Co. Sheriff’s Office asking for public help in locating missing 10-year-old

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Iowa Co. Sheriff’s Office asking for public help in locating missing 10-year-old


MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) – The Iowa County Sheriff’s Office is asking for the public’s help Friday night in locating a missing 10-year-old.

The sheriff’s office says 10-year-old Roseame Doyle has been missing since 6 p.m. and was last seen wearing an olive green shirt.

The Iowa County Sheriff’s Office is asking for the public’s help in locating a missing 10-year-old.(Courtesy of the Iowa County Sheriff’s Office)

An Iowa County Emergency Management alert says she was last seen walking south from a residence in Hollandale. Doyle stands 4′5 tall, has brown shoulder length hair and blue eyes.

ICEM also noted that Doyle had a brown flowered backpack and paint on her face.

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The sheriff’s office asks that anyone with information to call 608-930-9500.

Click here to download the WMTV15 News app or our WMTV15 First Alert weather app.



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Iowa attorney general resumes funding of Plan B for rape victims, but not abortions • Iowa Capital Dispatch

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Iowa attorney general resumes funding of Plan B for rape victims, but not abortions • Iowa Capital Dispatch


Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird announced Friday that her office will reinstate payments for emergency contraceptives, like Plan B, for victims of sexual assault and rape, but will no longer reimburse victims for abortions.

The announcement marks the end of the “full audit of victims services” announced by Bird shortly after winning the 2022 election against former Attorney General Tom Miller, the Democrat who held the office for 40 years.

That review involved the suspension of state payments for emergency contraception – and in rare cases, abortion – for victims of rape. The state’s Sexual Assault Examination Payment Program gave reimbursements to providers for these medical services through the Iowa Victim’s Restitution Fund, fees collected from people convicted of crimes.

That review involved the suspension of state payments for emergency contraception – and in rare cases, abortion – for victims of rape. The AG’s office formerly paid for these services through Iowa’s victim restitution fund, fees collected from people convicted of crimes. Bird said that while there is no state law requiring the practice of paying for these treatments, she said she would reinstate part of the payment program moving forward.

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“I agree that Plan B contraceptive prescriptions for victims to prevent pregnancy should be reimbursed,” Bird said at the news conference. “The office will reimburse all pending victim claims for Plan B contraceptives and continue reimbursing providers moving forward. However, Iowa will not use public dollars to pay for abortions.”

The announcement ends the pause on payments for emergency contraceptives — meaning roughly 400 pending reimbursement requests from the review period will be paid, Bird said. She also emphasized that while the payment program was halted, no victims were denied or delayed in getting services because of the review.

She also said that during this period, there was only one reimbursement request through the AG’s office for an abortion. This request will be denied.

Bird, an outspoken abortion opponent, had faced months of criticism from Democrats and reproductive health advocates for the long process in finalizing the review and announcing whether the reimbursements would be reinstated.

Auditor Rob Sand, the only Democrat to currently hold statewide elected office in Iowa, said during a news conference in March that Bird was attempting to avoid “accountability” for pausing payments for sexual assault and rape victim services by categorizing the review as an “audit.” Neither the auditor’s office nor a third party conducted a review of victims’ services for the AG’s office, he said — adding that if an audit was happening, payments would not need to be paused.

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“Every city, every county, every school district in the entire state of Iowa gets an audit every year,” Sand said. “None of them have ever suspended business while waiting for their audit to get completed. This is a policy decision the attorney general made.”

In a news release Friday, Sand reiterated this point and said there was no justification provided for the need to cease reimbursements.

“For a year, Iowa’s Attorney General inflicted even more trauma on rape victims just for politics,” Sand said in the statement. “We know because her report doesn’t provide a single legal or financial reason to have withheld payments for emergency contraception.”

Mazie Stilwell with the Planned Parenthood Advocates of Iowa said Bird’s decision to pause payments was unnecessary, and turned hundreds of sexual assault survivors “into political pawns.”

“Politicizing sexual assault survivors is absolutely reprehensible and sickening,” Stilwell said in a news release. “These are real people who are vulnerable and deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Although state-paid emergency contraceptives will resume, those in need of abortion care will now have to shoulder the cost. This is the last thing survivors should have to worry about. It’s not right, and we must demand better from the people elected to represent us.”

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Bird said the office encountered “some roadblocks” in the process of making the review and report, including problems involving missing documents or having to reconstruct certain grants. She thanked John Gish, section chief for the Victim Assistance Section at the office for taking on much of the work involved in the process.

In addition to the emergency contraceptives decision, Bird plans to make or request several changes based on the audit. These recommendations include raising pay for certified sexual assault nurse examiners from $200 to $400 per exam, the first increase since 2005, in addition to providing transportation reimbursement for trained nurses to travel for conducting exams.

Bird said these measures could ease problems caused by the shortage of nursing staff across the state. There are roughly 470 sexual assault nurse examiners currently certified in Iowa, Bird said, adding that she believed the steps would both better compensate nurses and ensure victims do not encounter long wait times.

“We do not want someone who’s going to a hospital to report an assault to go away without an exam,” she said. “They might not come back, or key evidence might be lost. We know of at least one victim who waited more than eight hours at a Polk County hospital before seeing a sexual assault nurse. Victims deserve immediate care, and our heroes in nursing deserve our support.”

Other measures include restarting notification services required by state law for victims of sexual assault and domestic abuse. The system was eliminated under Miller in 2019, Bird said, and the office is working to create a new system. The service, working with Iowa’s judicial and prison systems, would send victims a text message or other message when a requested protective order has been issued, and 30 days before it expires.

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While the new system is not up yet, Bird said she hired a coordinator to build the new system.

Bird also said the office is fixing problems with the Iowa Victim Notification System, a currently operational program that notifies victims when their abusers are released from custody. The review found that the current notifications are often inaccurate, telling victims that a person had been released from custody when they were being transported between different facilities, like county jail and state prison.

“Victims have already been through enough and shouldn’t be scared by false notifications,” Bird said. “We worked with our partners to correct the messages and to keep victims informed about the perpetrator’s status.”

In addition to state-level changes, Bird also repeated her call for the federal government to stop a discussed cut of victim services funding provided through the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA). Iowa receives roughly $5.5 million in VOCA funding each year for a variety of victim services — 42%, more than $2.3 million, of which would be cut if Congress does not act, she said.

“That cut, if it’s allowed to happen, will go through to the advocacy agencies that we have all across the state serving victims,” she said. “It will cause personnel cuts, it will mean less support for victims, especially in rural Iowa. It will mean fewer resources for healing.”

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Is Verizon down? Iowa, other Midwestern states experience outages from wireless company

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Is Verizon down? Iowa, other Midwestern states experience outages from wireless company


Verizon customers in Iowa were among those affected by a national outage on the company’s mobile network Thursday and Friday.

States in the Midwest and West experienced the highest number of outages, according to Verizon Support.

“We are aware of an issue impacting service for some customers, primarily in Midwestern and Western states,” a spokesperson for Verizon said in an email to USA TODAY on Thursday.

In a response to a complaint on social media the company’s support account shared a similar message.

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Multiple customers reported cell network outages on social media.

At 6:39 p.m. ET Thursday, the website Down Detector recorded 12,599 reports of outages, by 9:54 p.m. the number of reported outages fell to 5,831.

Where is the Verizon outage in Iowa?

Dubuque experienced some of the highest reports of outages in Iowa, according to Verizon’s page on Down Detector. There were over 200 reports of outages for Verizon customers in Dubuque on Thursday afternoon. By the evening the outage number dropped to 12, with another 12 reports trickling in Friday morning. Other areas of the Midwest including Chicago and Omaha also had high reports of outages.

“Some customers, primarily in Midwestern and Western states, experienced a service interruption for several hours yesterday,” Verizon support told the Register. “Our engineers worked quickly to solve the issue.” The account reported most service in Iowa was restored by 3 a.m. CT.

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If you are still experiencing service issues in Iowa, Verizon’s support team recommends power cycling your phone.

Kate Kealey is a general assignment reporter for the Register. Reach her at kkealey@registermedia.com or follow her on Twitter at @Kkealey17.





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