DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Gov. Kim Reynolds proposed a $8 billion state budget plan today that seeks to boost spending by 4.4 percent, or $342 million, in the 2021 fiscal year. The governor’s spending plan would provide a 2.5 percent boost in state aid to K-12 schools, as well as increasing funding for Medicaid, workforce and rural development initiatives, child care and other priority areas. It leaves a projected $386 million surplus.

WESTGATE, IA (IRN) – A former nursing home worker will serve two to five years probation for abusing a resident at the home. Michael Kane, 61, from the Fayette County town of Westgate, pinched and punched a resident there. He then attempted to suffocate the patient and threatened to shoot him.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Six out of the 12 Democratic presidential candidates will take the stage tonight in the last debate before the Iowa caucuses. The most recent Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom poll shows Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the lead at 20 percent. Three candidates: former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former Vice President Joe Biden follow Sanders separated by just one percentage point each.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – President Donald Trump will hold a rally in Des Moines just days before the Iowa Caucus. The event will be held Thursday, January 30 on the Drake University campus.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Iowa lawmakers convened the 2020 legislative session Monday. With his family, including his grandparents U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley and Barbara Grassley looking on, Republican Rep. Pat Grassley was elected speaker of the house. The wooden gavel he will use was given to him by his father, and was made from a walnut tree on the family’s farm near New Hartford.