DES MOINES, Iowa — Last week, two subcommittees of the Iowa House of Representatives worked on bills involving privacy and the possibility of police overreach. One bill was drafted to regulate the use of drones in Iowa. The other concerns strip searches. The two subcommittees came to very different conclusions. The
Read More →DES MOINES, Iowa — The Iowa Legislature’s first try at regulating e-cigarettes got off to an unusual start, as public health groups strongly opposed bills introduced to prevent the use of the devices by minors. Their opposition is based on a desire to have e-cigarettes classified as tobacco products, even though
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Posted January 22, 2014in Iowa Watchdog
DES MOINES, Iowa — The recently released state audit of Iowa’s Sixth Judicial District’s Department of Correctional Services found the department had inappropriately spent more than $500,000 over a four-year period to support a nonprofit organization, Community Corrections Improvement Agency. CCIA was founded in 1991 to support the work being
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Posted January 16, 2014in Iowa Watchdog
DES MOINES, Iowa — A state audit has revealed $775,716.72 in improper spending by the Sixth Judicial District Department of Correctional Services. Most of that money was spent supporting a nonprofit organization whose executive director was also the agency’s director. The report released by State Auditor Mary Mosiman also identifies
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Posted January 09, 2014in Iowa Watchdog
MADISON, Wis. — As Congress debates extending long-term unemployment benefits for some 1.3 million Americans, lost in the heated rhetoric are some very important numbers for taxpayers. The state and federal unemployment insurance system has helped a lot of people in need, but it’s also allowed some ineligible recipients to fraudulently
Read More →DES MOINES, Iowa — On the last Friday of 2013, almost 16,000 Iowans who believed they had enrolled in Obamacare and would begin receiving health care coverage Jan. 1, received an unwelcome surprise — an email telling them they needed to enroll again. They were instructed to the use the
Read More →DES MOINES, Iowa —In September 2009, Volga City was awarded a $100,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to build a public services and emergency shelter facility. More than four years later the grant, part of the federal government’s stimulus program, remains in a USDA bank account. This northeast Iowa community
Read More →WASHINGTON, D.C. – As Democrats in the filibuster-free U.S. Senate fill key administration vacancies, U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley assailed a Department of Homeland Security nominee for playing a key role in aiding Terry McAuliffe’s electric-car company raise funds through a visa-investor program. “Whistleblowers have provided my office with very troubling
Read More →WASHINGTON, D.C. — America’s EB-5 visa-investor program has opened a gateway for Iranian operatives to infiltrate the country, a government memo says. Citing a report by the Homeland Security Investigations division, U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley said EB-5 is vulnerable to the “export of sensitive technology and economic espionage,” as well as
Read More →WASHINGTON, D.C. — The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee charges that the Obama administration’s handling of EB-5 investor-visas “poses a gigantic risk” to national security. U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, says Jeh Johnson, nominated to lead the Department of Homeland Security, has failed to address dozens of allegations raised
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