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Morning rundown: Damar Hamlin on the mend, Jan. 6 anniversary

January 6, 2023

Damar Hamlin continues his remarkable recovery; the U.S. House is still voting on a speaker; and President Joe Biden is set to speak on the Jan. 6 anniversary. These stories and more highlight the morning rundown for Friday, Jan. 6, 2023.

Bills-Bengals game won’t resume after Damar Hamlin injury

Damar Hamlin gave the nation a scare at the beginning of this week. He collapsed on the field during Monday night’s football game.

Whether he would survive remained unknown for days. Yesterday took a dramatic turn for the better.

Now that the league knows Hamlin is on the mend, a decision to cancel the Bills and Bengals match came down Thursday evening.

The match-up will not be resumed. Both teams have already clinched play-off berths.

The greatest difference this makes is where postseason play will take place. The AFC championship game could be played at a neutral site. Or home field advantage could be decided by a coin toss. It depends on the different scenarios in seeding.

House continues vote for speaker

After a third day of voting and 11 rounds of votes cast, the U.S. House has again failed to elect a speaker. This is something unseen in the chamber since before the Civil War.

On Friday, House members will come to the floor once again. Concessions have been made within the GOP. But whether or not it will be enough still remains unknown, as 20 Republicans continue to vote against congressman Kevin McCarthy.

Biden to speak on Jan. 6 anniversary

Today marks the second anniversary since the Capitol was breached on Jan. 6, 2021.

The events that followed the last presidential election resulted in the largest investigation ever conducted by the U.S. Justice Department.

So far, 900 arrests have been made with the potential of hundreds more.

Today President Biden will speak from the White House, hold a moment of silence, and present a “citizens medal” to 12 people involved in defending the Capitol.

At the center of the stage, two years ago, was President Donald Trump. Since then he has been met with legal recourse.

Trump sued in police officer’s death

The partner of officer Brian Sicknick filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Trump. He died at the Capitol.

Although the officer died of natural causes according to the medical examiner, the lawsuit states his death was a direct consequence of Trump’s rhetoric that day.

A spokesperson for Trump has already refuted the lawsuit.

High-profile arrest leads to unrest

Mexican authorities made a high-profile arrest Thursday. They captured Ovidio Guzman, a son of infamous drug lord El Chapo.

Retaliation from cartels created chaos in the streets. Vehicles were stolen, fires were set to cars and buses, and shots were fired at airplanes. This prompted a local airport to shut down along with schools.

“We advise Americans not to travel to Sinaloa as a result. For those Americans who are in Sinaloa, we strongly encourage them to monitor local news, to follow emergency instructions provided by local authorities,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said.

Ovidio Guzman was wanted by the United States. He is an alleged fentanyl drug-trafficker who was captured once before in 2019, but was released because of similar cartel retaliation.

The arrest comes just days before President Biden is set to visit the border on Sunday. He will meet with Mexico’s president to discuss drug trafficking and immigration.

Oldest person in U.S. dies at 115

The oldest person in the United States was Bessie Hendricks at 115 years old. But this week she passed away at her Iowa nursing home.

She celebrated her 115th birthday in November. She was the oldest person in the country and the fourth oldest person in the world.

The teacher and mother of five said her secret to a long life was “hard work.”

Bessie is survived by three of her children. One of her sons said he also has a theory about his mother’s long life, saying she loved to eat sweets.
Congress giving $1.1 billion to fix 46,000 broken bridges

December 21, 2022

Congress is on track to provide an additional $1.14 billion in 2023 to reduce the backlog of structurally deficient bridges. But that’s not even close to what’s needed to fix the problem.

A 2021 report from the American Society of Civil Engineers said 46,154 structurally deficient bridges in the United States are in “poor condition”. Fixing them all would cost an estimated $125 billion.

The ASCE said America would need to spend $22.7 billion on repairs every year, and the country has spent around $14.4 billion annually. The $1 billion for 2023 is being included in the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending package Congress is currently negotiating.

D.C. isn’t alone in trying to address the backlog. 37 states have increased or reformed their gas taxes since 2010 to invest in bridge repairs.

The worst state in the country is Rhode Island, where 22 percent of bridges are in poor condition, while just 1.3 percent of Texas bridges are in poor condition. The nationwide average is 7.5 percent. These bridges are used 178 million times per day.

Straight Arrow News produced a four-part report on crumbling bridges in Iowa, which has the third-worst ranking in the country. The director of the Bridges and Structures Bureau for Iowa’s Department of Transportation, James Nelson, said a bridge in poor condition is not dangerous.

“It’s important to note, that a poor bridge is not an unsafe bridge. A poor bridge just means there’s something on it that we would like to repair, rehabilitate or even potentially replace,” Nelson said.

Iowa has 23,799 bridges aging faster than they can be repaired.
15 state attorneys general want TikTok reclassified, Rubio wants it banned

December 14, 2022

It seems with each passing week, the troubles for TikTok just keeping piling up. In just the last few days, 15 state attorneys general demanded the app’s content rating be raised, three more states banned the app from government-owned devices, and there’s a bipartisan effort in Congress to ban TikTok altogether.

TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company with ties to the communist government. Attorneys general from 15 states think at the very least, the Apple and Google app stores should reclassify TikTok as inappropriate for teens.

The Wall Street Journal reported the Republican attorney general sent letters to the heads of the tech companies. The attorneys general said TikTok videos frequently contain references to sex, drug use and other mature content. The attorneys general warned there could be legal consequences if the tech companies don’t comply.

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen is leading the state coalition against TikTok. Other attorneys general in the coalition represent Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Virginia.

TikTok is now banned on government-owned devices in eight states. Alabama, Utah and Iowa are the latest members of that list. In a press release, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds said, “It is clear TikTok represents a national security risk to our country, and I refuse to subject the citizens of Iowa to that risk.”

In Congress, Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio announced bipartisan legislation to ban TikTok outright from the U.S. marketplace. The legislation calls for a block of all transactions from any social media company under the influence of the Chinese or Russian governments. Senator Rubio said a companion piece of legislation will be introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives as well.

Spokespeople for TikTok have said repeatedly that the Chinese government doesn’t have access to data from users in the U.S., and said the push for bans are politically motivated.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Student loan forgiveness still on hold following latest court ruling

November 15, 2022

President Joe Biden’s plan to provide student loan forgiveness for millions of Americans remained on hold following a federal appeals panel ruling. Monday’s ruling allowed for a stay on the student loan forgiveness program to continue while the court considered an effort to block the plan.

That effort is led by six states: Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Arkansas and South Carolina. Part of the states’ argument centered around the financial harm the debt cancellation would cause the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority.

This unanticipated financial downturn will prevent or delay Missouri from funding higher education at its public colleges and universities,” the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis stated. In a statement on the ruling, Attorney General Doug Peterson, R-Neb., added the ruling “recognizes that this attempt to forgive over $400 billion in student loans threatens serious harm to the economy that cannot be undone.”

“It is important to stop the Biden administration from such unlawful abuse of power,” Peterson said.

The effort from the six states initially failed, after U.S. District Judge Henry Autrey ruled the states failed to establish standing. This case is different than the recent Texas case, in which U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman ruled last week that President Biden had overstepped his authority in creating the debt relief program without congressional approval.

Following the Texas ruling, the White House stopped accepting applications for student loan forgiveness. About 26 million people had applied, and 16 million applications have been approved. However, because of court rulings, none of the relief has actually gone out.

“Courts have issued orders blocking our student debt relief program,” the Education Department said on its federal student aid website. “As a result, at this time, we are not accepting applications. We are seeking to overturn those orders. If you’ve already applied, we’ll hold your application.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Iowa voters approve Second Amendment ballot measure

November 8, 2022

Iowa voters approved an amendment to the state constitution that confirms a citizen’s right to bear arms. The measure was approved by the legislature to appear on the ballot this year.

The amendment states: “The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. The sovereign state of Iowa affirms and recognizes this right to be a fundamental individual right. Any and all restrictions of this right shall be subject to strict scrutiny.”

The “strict scrutiny” became a big concern for opponents of the measure.

“‘Strict scrutiny’ would be a truly extreme, far-reaching change to our constitution and, unfortunately, is much more than an affirmation of our Second Amendment rights — which we value greatly here in Iowa,” Moms Demand Action Iowa Chapter volunteer Katie Albrecht said in a statement.

Supporters said it was necessary to pass the measure because there is a political movement to “reinterpret” or “repeal” the Second Amendment.

“U.S. courts have long recognized that the right to keep and bear arms is a fundamental right that preexisted the Constitution and which is protected — not granted — by the Second Amendment,” the Iowa Firearms Coalition said in a statement.
Engineers pioneering quick fixes for Iowa’s crumbling rural bridges

October 28, 2022

Iowa has the worst bridges in the country and the majority of them are in rural counties. Of Iowa’s 23,799 bridges, only about 1,200 of them reside in larger cities like Des Moines and Cedar Rapids. And of all the bridges, more than half fall into the fair or “poor” category.

Despite local bridges often getting the short end of the stick, officials have said the worst ones are still kept in check for safety.

“They still get inspected, just like every other bridge, and are maintained to the best of their ability at the local level,” said Scott Neubauer, the bridge maintenance and inspection engineer at Iowa’s Department of Transportation.

“If a bridge is determined to be unsafe, all traffic is shut down. The counties take action on those right away and so does the state,” Neubauer said.

“There’s far more need than dollars out there,” said Brian Keierleber, the Buchanan County engineer for 29 years who manages 260 bridges. He’s pioneered some new ways to strengthen smaller structures without the big bucks.

“I currently have 32 county bridges built out of retired railroad flat cars. I’m constructing them at a fraction of the cost of what standard construction is,” Keierleber said.

As bridges continue to age and fall apart, Keierleber said they eventually get to the point where crews can’t put patches on patches.

“Looking at ways to reduce the damage the road salts are doing is really what we should be looking at,” Keierleber said.
Iowa’s rural bridges crumbling faster than can be repaired

October 27, 2022

Iowa has the worst bridges in the country, with more than half of them rated in either “fair” or “poor” condition. A bridge rated “poor” doesn’t mean it’s unsafe. It means that there is work to be done.

State and federal governments are spending money to address the problem.

“There’s not too many counties in the state of Iowa with bridges over $100 million,” said Brian Keierleber. “A lot of these programs are not geared towards the small local projects.”

Keierleber has been the Buchanan County engineer for 29 years. He said the big bucks go only so far.

“There’s far more need than dollars out there,” Keierleber said.

County bridges make up more than 75% of all of the bridges in Iowa. But city officials have said there’s a reason the bulk of money isn’t trickling down to them.

“Half of those bridges that are considered poor on the local agencies’ roadways only see about 35 vehicles a day or less. So it’s very low traffic. So, the cost to benefit there to replace a bridge with that low volume of traffic is very high,” said Scott Neubauer, the bridge maintenance and inspection engineer for Iowa’s Department of Transportation.

“The counties definitely have more bridges than the cities, but they definitely have the higher traffic volumes in the city,” Neubauer said.

While some funding does go toward the repair of the most expensive county bridges, the bulk goes to Iowa’s most populated cities. Counties are then left to decide which bridges make the most sense to spend local tax dollars on.
The struggle to rebuild Iowa’s crumbling bridges

October 26, 2022

Iowa’s 23,799 bridges are aging faster than they can be repaired. Replacing them can be costly and time consuming.

“We have bridge inspectors going around the state continuously inspecting the bridges and we classify them as good, fair and poor,” said James Nelson, director of the Bridges and Structures Bureau for Iowa’s Department of Transportation.

Nelson said of the 4,195 bridges on the state’s primary system, 30 of them are classified as “poor”.

“It’s important to note, that a poor bridge is not an unsafe bridge. A poor bridge just means there’s something on it that we would like to repair, rehabilitate or even potentially replace,” Nelson said.

Officials say the state has a three-prong-approach to the problem: stewardship, preservation, and investment. While each of those help keep Iowa’s existing bridges functioning, it’s the funding that allows the state to invest in materials that can last a lifetime.

“Iowa is a challenging situation…our weathering cycles, hot summers and cold winters, and our use of de-icing chemicals can really deteriorate bridges. We really do have a high need for maintenance and repair of bridges, and so we’re working on that,” Nelson said.

New state and federal dollars have been allocated for some of Iowa’s latest infrastructure projects.

“Our new five-year transportation improvement program is a $4.2 billion program. That’s the largest program we’ve had in the history of Iowa DOT. And so we’re using that money to fix our highways and bridges”, Nelson said.

But how much of these spending plans are going to rural counties, where the majority of the state’s bridges are crumbling? Find out in Straight Arrow News’ next report on Thursday, October 27.
What’s behind Iowa’s crumbling bridges?

October 25, 2022

Iowa’s bridges are bad – and many are crumbling. The Hawkeye state has the seventh most bridges in the nation but has more structurally deficient bridges than any other state. The bridges rated in “poor” condition sit at more than 2.5 times the national average.

James Nelson, the Bridges and Structures Bureau director at Iowa’s Department of Transportation says it’s not as bad as it sounds.

“…a ‘poor’ bridge is not an unsafe bridge. A poor bridge just means there’s something on it that we would like to repair.” Nelson said.

Of Iowa’s 23,799 bridges, 4,599 are rated “poor” and 1,800 are deemed “intolerable.” Another 300 bridges in the state are shut down due to safety concerns. The numbers are grim but are they clear signs of mismanagement or is there more to the story?

Iowa DOT Bridge Maintenance and Inspection Engineer Scott Neubauer says the numbers aren’t lying, they are just being read incorrectly.

“One thing you have to know about these bridges out there on the local roads is we have over 100,000 miles of roadway out there and the traffic on those roads is very low,” he said.

In this multi-part series, Straight Arrow News is going to talk to state experts about the challenges they’re facing with Iowa’s broken bridges, and if the new $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill passed by Congress will have a big enough impact.