A test run of Ramsey evidence? Offenburger, Evans, TV stations honored. Jail restraints confusion. And more Iowans are fishing.
5/6/2026The arrest of Kristin Ramsey in the Ashley Okland murder case has raised a few questions, as what the public has been provided so far is not very helpful in determining why it was presented to a grand jury 15 years later. The use of a grand jury is also unusual in Iowa. A person in the know tells Skinny that perhaps the prosecutor wanted to test run the known evidence to see if it was enough to convince the grand jury. Maybe. Or, this person says, it could be a situation where the attorney general’s cold case unit decided there would be no new information, and the family wanted some type of review. So the Dallas County attorney did a grand jury. Or, as many suspect, there is some new information that has not yet been disclosed. It is difficult to know at this juncture. Time will tell. …
Former Des Moines Register “Iowa Boy” columnist Chuck Offenburger was honored recently for his work on highlighting the importance of bikeable communities and the restoration of the 89-mile Raccoon River Valley Trail. Offenburger received the Trail Champion Award at the Raccoon River Valley Trail Association’s 20th Anniversary Fundraising Banquet on April 11 in Adel. This is the first year for the award, and organizers say they plan to make it an annual recognition. Offenburger, who famously wrote about Iowa’s people, places and events in the daily newspaper, said during the prime of his cycling career in 1995, he had ridden his bicycle on every Iowa trail. With all the growth in trails, he now says that he has not ridden even half. In speaking about the RRVT association, he said, “We’ve become the model for how you bind your communities to the trail so they will come in terms of investment, support, involvement and volunteering.” …
Another local writer also recently received an honor. Author of CITYVIEW’s Stray Thoughts column and Iowa Freedom of Information Director, Randy Evans, was inducted into the hall of fame at the University of Iowa School of Journalism and Mass Communications. Evans, who also served the editorial page editor for The Des Moines Register, has influenced writers and readers for six decades. …
KCCI might need to add some more shelves to its trophy cabinet after the local CBS affiliate’s recent showing at the Iowa Broadcast News Association awards ceremony in April. The awards include the distinction of Overall Excellence, First and Second place in the In-Depth Series, Public Affairs for DMPS Superintendent in ICE Custody, In-Depth Series for State of Cancer, Feature for Do You Want To Get Married Today, General Reporting for KCCI Investigates Iowa’s Foster Care Task Force, Spot News for Arrest of DMPS Superintendent Ian Roberts, Best Sportscast for Iowa State Wins in Ireland and Best Newscast for News at 4:00. …
Iowa PBS also received recognition recently at the IBNA awards. First-place awards included Farm and Agribusiness for Market to Market: Women in Ag, and Sports Play-by-Play for the 2025 IGHSAY Girls State Softball Championship between 3A teams Williamsburg and Wahlert. Second-place awards were for Public Affairs for Market to Market: Study: Ag Sources of Nitrates in Water, MtoM Podcast: Cattle Complex is Living Up to its Name, General Reporting for Market to Market: Migrant Labor in Texas. Iowa PBS also received third place for In-Depth Series for Market to Market: CRP Investigation. …
Over the course of a month, CITYVIEW was playing a game of phone tag with the Iowa Office of Ombudsmen (IOO) and the Iowa Department of Corrections (DOC). In February of last year, we reported the findings of the IOO report “Sitting In Place: A Re-Examination of Restraint Device Use and Regulations for Iowa’s County Jails.”
In the report, it stated that two county jails, Boone and Webster, misused restraint chairs against inmates, some of whom were in the midst of a mental health crisis. At the conclusion of the report, the IOO listed recommendations to implement, including less restrictive alternatives, training, and documentation, among others. We reached out to the IOO to see if any of the jails had implemented or made meaningful progress toward the recommendations.
Senior Deputy Ombudsmen Bert Dalmer responded that the IOO had followed up with the DOC in the months following the release of the report, but the DOC had not made them aware of any changes to date. He directed us to ask the DOC, which would be able to provide us with more substantive developments.
We reached out to the email, potentially Zach Carlyle, the DOC official spokesperson, despite the email account lacking his name or signature, posing the same question, and received this response:
“After looking at the report, it appears that it is focused more on jails, not the prisons. The Iowa DOC does not oversee the jails in the state of Iowa. We oversee the nine prisons.”
Playing our game of telephone, we told this to Dalmer, whose initial response was, “Can I ask who gave you that quote?”
After responding that the email had no name attached, Dalmer added, “Well, the answer surprises me, as it’s not exactly true. The Iowa Administrative Code clearly establishes a regimen of jail inspections to be performed by DOC at least annually. The recommendations on pages 56-57 of our report are clearly directed at DOC and sharpening/clarifying their jail rules. Of course, the jails operate with a lot of autonomy and you could follow up with them directly (Boone and Webster) since DOC is not obligated to ensure they are following up on our recommendations… But, again, we did make recommendations to DOC in this report.”
Back to the DOC we went, continuing the game of telephone, saying what Dalmer had told us, to the mysterious DOC email account. We asked who we were speaking to, and did not receive a response. …
Whereyouworkmatters.org is a website with an assessment of more than 12 million workers at 1,750 employers. They collected data points on how those workers report their career progression and compensation on sites like LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor and other similar websites.
We looked at an employer list from the Des Moines Partnership of the largest non-government employers in the Des Moines metro. Companies are given plaques such as platinum, gold or silver in areas such as early career, growth, stability and overall. To keep it simple, we looked for companies that received overall employer honors, and those were.
John Deere and Nationwide were the only two that earned an overall platinum employer.
Companies that earned overall gold employers were Hy-Vee, Mercy Health, Principal Financial Group, Corteva, Mercer, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Wells Fargo, which might have been platinum before they found out about their quarterly layoffs. …
FishingBooker.com helps people book fishing trips. The website released its America’s Best Fishing States Index of 2026. The national analysis of recreation fishing across the entire country shows that Iowa had the nation’s biggest leap, climbing 23 spots from 46th to 23rd. According to FishingBooker, it is the largest jump not only this year but in the entire four years of the index.
What drove the salmon-like leap in Iowa’s ranking came down to four factors. Financial accessibility, where Iowa was one of the most cost-effective states for fishing. Infrastructure and facilities, with Iowa allegedly adding 100 new fishing ponds to urban centers. Quality of access, with Iowa activating 105 natural infrastructure projects. And, modernization, through the GoOutdoorsIowa app. Local demand is soaring with more than 262,000 licenses sold. ♦
