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FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 2019 | IN THIS ISSUE
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 Wahls-Kinney bill would protect mobile home owners
State Sens. Zach Wahls, D-Coralville, and Kevin Kinney, D-Oxford, plan to introduce legislation to give mobile home owners greater protection against sudden rent hikes and evictions, reports the Press-Citizen. The senators announced their bill Wednesday at a meeting with residents of the Midwest Country Estates in Waukee and Golfview Mobile Home Court in North Liberty, both recently purchased by Utah-based Havenpark Capital. Residents of the Waukee park were notified of the sale by letters taped to the doors of their trailers announcing that rental rates would increase from $295 to $500, starting June 1. Havenpark Regional Manager David Piziali told the Register in an email the company is "sensitive to the impact" of the rate increases on residents and has decided to delay them by another month.
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Corps critics sound off at Missouri River hearing
At a hearing on Army Corps of Engineers management of the Missouri River, Hamburg area farmer, Michael Stenzel said
he and his family may never recover, reports Radio Iowa. Mr. Stenzel, who with his father lost 50,000 bushels of beans, 140,000 bushels of corn and 11 grain bins, said he believed the Corps needs to speed the flow of the river to deepen the channel and communicate better with farmers about water releases. Iowa Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, who scheduled the hearing in Glenwood, have asked the Corps to
make flood protection a top priority, reports KWWL. Meanwhile, Democratic senators and presidential hopefuls Amy Klobuchar and Cory Booker, campaigning in Iowa, accused the Trump administration of
politicizing disaster relief, reports the Quad-City Times.
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Sears Holdings is suing former chairman and CEO Ed Lampert and his hedge fund, claiming they
wrongly siphoned $2 billion in assets from the company as it headed for bankruptcy, reports the Chicago Tribune. Defendants in the suit also include a string of high-profile past board members, including Mr. Lampert's former Yale roommate, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, reports CNBC. The suit also claims that, "In an effort to create a false record to cover up their asset stripping, at Mr. Lampert's personal direction, Sears employees repeatedly produced financial plans reflecting
fanciful, bad-faith predictions" that selling it to him would produce an immediate, dramatic turnaround.
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U.S. Bank will close more than 300 branches over the next two years as it adapts to the
changing ways that people get financial services, reports the Star-Tribune. The nation's fifth-largest bank emerged late last year from regulatory constraints that had prevented it from making changes to its 3,000 branches. CEO Andy Cecere told analysts the Minneapolis-based bank would also open some new branches and remodel many others. U.S. Bank reported more than
30 percent of its loan sales were from digital tools for the three months ending in February, showing less reliance on brick-and-mortar locations, reports 9News.com. The increase in digital sales is up more than 25 percent from the same period a year ago.
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With scads of presidential hopefuls traipsing about Iowa, the Ladora Bank Bistro has made a
strategic name-change to position itself as a candidate for great dining experiences, the Register reports. The historic building is being transformed into an Iowa caucus-themed restaurant called - you guessed it - Caucus Bistro. "This beautiful building and setting in Iowa farm country is the perfect venue for folks wanting to engage, have a nice glass of wine, enjoy good food and appreciate what it means to be 'first in the nation,'" said owner Dmitri Madedonsky. The Caucus Bistro's Facebook page goes on to say that customers will "have the opportunity to taste, sip and converse with people from all walks of life in
a setting that lends itself to respectful, open engagement." It's a safe bet that candidates seeking Iowans' support in next February's caucuses will also be stopping by.
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Your Morning Commute
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Roads are looking clear this morning, drive safely. See the DOT's interactive road conditions map here.
Links as of 7 a.m.
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