CLIVE – President Donald Trump is visiting Clive today to rally support for the Third U.S. Congressional District. KCCI-TV reports Trump is beginning a push of campaign stops for the upcoming 2026 Midterm elections. Representative Zach Nunn is expected to be in attendance. Several national election forecasters see both his seat and the one held by Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks as vulnerable to be flipped by the next congress in January.

IOWA – Iowa’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 3.5 percent in December, level with November and up slightly from 3.3 percent one year ago. The labor force participation rate increased to 67.7 percent in December, as Iowa gained 4,600 workers in comparison to the previous month. Meanwhile, the U.S. unemployment rate decreased to 4.4 percent.

CLINTON – A Clinton man was sentenced last week to three years in federal prison for falsely using a social security number, aggravated identity theft, and firearms offenses. According to public court records, 46-year-old Rusty Todd Johnston was convicted of a felony drug offense in Texas in 2005 and violated that probation. By 2008, Johnston stopped using his real name, date of birth, and social security number and assumed the identity of Adam Preston Duriga of the state of Nevada, who died in 2013. In early 2020, Johnston moved to Clinton and obtained an Iowa Commercial Driver’s License using Duriga’s identifiers. In December 2024, law enforcement officers searched Johnston’s residence and found a handgun that Johnston had illegally purchased.