Authorities are warning Iowans to closely check ATMs and gas pumps before using them. FBI investigators said a group of criminals based in Des Moines have been attaching skimmer devices to drive-up ATMs throughout Iowa. The skimmers are used to steal your credit or debit card information. KMEG-TV (Sioux City) reports that FBI officials said a group of Eastern Europeans working out of Des Moines are attaching the fake card readers to ATMs and at gas stations. The Spencer Chamber of Commerce is warning residents ahead of the start of the Clay County Fair in Spencer this weekend about the skimmers, KMEG said. More info on skimming. |
Each year the Des Moines Register takes nominations from employees around Iowa to compile its Top Workplaces list, and Iowa community banks once again made the cut. CBI member banks considered to be among the best-of-the-best in Iowa employers:
Two CBI Member banks have made Bank Director magazine's list of the 300 top performing public banks with assets of $1 billion to $5 billion. Hills Bancorp. in HIlls ranked #17, and West Bancorporation Inc. in West Des Moines, #19. The scorecard used five key metrics that measure profitability, capitalization and asset quality.
See the full list. ATM card skimming is on the rise in the nation, and hit home in Iowa last week. Two men have been charged with using skimmer devices to capture bank account information at three locations around Des Moines. A skimmer device fits over the ATM's card reader slot and has its own memory chip to record the information on the card as it is swiped. Skimmers secretly record bank account data when a user inserts an ATM card into the machine. Criminals then can encode the stolen data onto a blank card and use it to access the customer's bank account. Skimmers also come in different colors like the green one used in Des Moines, or in a grayish color that would look similar to an ATM, making it hard to tell it's fake. Original card readers are usually concave in shape (curving inward), while skimmers are more convex (curving outward). The use of keypad overlays placed directly on top of the factory-installed keypad is a relatively new technique that takes the place of a concealed camera. Instead of visually recording users punching in PINs, circuitry inside the phony keypad stores the actual keystrokes. View the gallery below for examples of skimmers and keypads being used to steal account info from ATMs: by CBI Lobbyist Jeff Boeyink - Senior Vice President, LS2 Group Overview / Major Events
The 2015 Session of the Iowa General Assembly ended late afternoon on Friday, June 5 (it was the 145th day of the session) when the Iowa Senate voted to concur with the House in passage of HCR 9, a concurrent resolution to provide for adjournment sine die. At 145 days, this session ran 35 days beyond the soft closing date of 110 days and, in recent memory, was eclipsed only by the June 30 end date in 2011 (the very last day of the fiscal year). Decisions Key to Adjournment - Two key decisions paved the way for final action in 2015: 1. School finance: the House and Senate agreed on a total spending amount for K-12 school spending. This had been at a stalemate since late January with Majority Republicans in the House standing firm for an increase of 1.25% and Majority Democrats in the Senate at 4.0% (though, they did offer to split the difference with the House and settle on 2.62%). The final decision was an increase in base spending on K-12 schools at 1.25% (the House-preferred number) with an additional $55 million in one-time spending on K-12 schools that brought the overall increase for the upcoming fiscal year to 2.62% (the Senate had offered a compromise of a 2.62% increase in the base, but settled on this combination of base and one-time money). by CBI Lobbyist Jeff Boeyink - Senior Vice President, LS2 Group Overview / Major Events
Week 19 of the Session: Week 3 of Overtime. This week the Iowa Senate did not act on any legislation, as Senate Democrats lacked a member of their caucus and did not possess the 26 votes necessary to pass any bill that would result on a party line vote (and all budget bills in the Senate this year have been adopted on party line votes). The House did convene on Wednesday for a full day of floor work – passing their version of the final piece of the budget (called the Standings bill) and also passing legislation that would legalize the sale and use of fireworks in Iowa, beginning December 1, 2015 (similar, but slightly more limited, to a bill that sits on the Senate calendar). It appears both the House and Senate will return to work on the Tuesday following Memorial Day. However, lacking an overall agreement on key budget issues, it is unlikely either Chamber will be working the entire week (there simply isn’t enough other work to do until the budget targets are successfully negotiated). As described previously there will be no run for adjournment until two key decisions are made. by CBI Lobbyist Jeff Boeyink - Senior Vice President, LS2 Group Week 18 of the Session: Week 2 of Overtime. The second week of overtime is now complete and most of the “progress” that was accomplished this week was procedural, rather than substantive.
The House and Senate continued work on major budget bills and moved virtually every budget to a conference committee status (meaning both sides are at impasse and each Chamber appoints five members to attempt resolution). Lacking an overall agreement on the total budget number, it is impossible to set the joint target numbers for each individual budget bill. Decisions Key to Adjournment Two key decisions must be made before the House and Senate can make a true run for adjournment: by CBI Lobbyist Jeff Boeyink - Senior Vice President, LS2 Group Overview/Major Events
Week 17 of the Session: Week 1 of Overtime. The 2015 Session of the Iowa General Assembly officially entered overtime this week, as today (May 7) is the 116th day of what was scheduled to be a 110-day regular session. What this means is the per-diem stipend legislators are paid to cover their expenses for being in Des Moines have ended and they are technically on their own to cover the cost of hotels and meals from here forward. While this is a soft approach to closing the session, it is nonetheless effective. View the Iowa Legislative Bill Tracker. Decisions Key to Adjournment Two key decisions must be made before the House and Senate can make a true run for adjournment: 1. School finance: the House and Senate must agree on a total spending amount for K-12 school spending. This has been at a stalemate since late January with Majority Republicans in the House standing firm for an increase of 1.25% and Majority Democrats in the Senate at 4.0% (though, they did offer to split the difference with the House and settle on 2.62%). There may have been some progress on the issue this week. It appears House Republicans may accept some additional spending on K-12, as long as it is one time expenditures, funded by one time money in the state’s ending balance. by CBI Lobbyist Jeff Boeyink - Senior Vice President, LS2 Group Overview / Major Events
Week 16 marks the unofficial end of session as the per diem paid to legislators runs out on the 110th day since it began back in January. When legislators return to Des Moines on Monday they will be doing so on their own dime. This will be the 4th of the last five years that legislators have worked overtime to conclude their business (perhaps it is a product of split control during that entire time period, with the House controlled by Republicans and the Senate by Democrats). While no budget accords were reached this week, each Chamber did begin the process of producing budget bills based on their wildly different budget targets (see last week’s update to review). At the very least this moves the process forward whereby many of the budget bills will find their way to a conference committee and be positioned for quick action once a negotiated budget settlement is produced. With the various players in the budget debate any where from $166 million to $188 million apart, this process likely has at least a few weeks to go until we see a possible end for the 2015 Session of the Iowa General Assembly. View the Iowa Legislative Bill Tracker. |
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