DES MOINES, IOWA (January 27, 2020) — Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate presented a National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) Medallion Award to Ambassador Kenneth Quinn during a ceremony at the State Capitol on Monday. The award recognizes Quinn’s many years of service to Iowa and the nation, both as a US State Department official and as President of the World Food Prize Foundation.

MONMOUTH, ILLINOIS (January 27, 2020) — It only takes three paragraphs for The Guardian's obituary of Terry Jones to mention the British comedian's passion for medieval history. One of the six creators of the popular British television show Monty Python's Flying Circus, Jones died January 21. He was 77.

WEST DES MOINES, IOWA (January 27, 2020) — Hy-Vee Inc announced today that it has agreed to acquire six former Shopko locations in Iowa that will re-open under the Dollar Fresh brand by late summer.

In the upcoming weeks, several former Shopko locations will begin renovations to open as Dollar Fresh stores by late summer. The former Shopko buildings in Hampton, Cresco, Oelwein, Waukon, Dyersville and Vinton are all part of the purchase agreements.

DES MOINES, IOWA (January 27, 2020) — For the second year in a row, auto-related problems topped all categories of complaints reported to the Iowa Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division in 2019.

Other top categories were impostor scams and complaints over media services, home improvement projects and home goods and services.

Overall complaints totaled 3,225, a 7.7% decrease from 2018. That’s the first decrease since at least 2014.