Daily Archives: February 11, 2024

The Iowa State Capitol in Des Moines on Jan. 31, 2024. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)

Tina Eick will lead Iowas Racing and Gaming Commission after holding the interim role since December, the commission announced Friday.

The commission named Eick the permanent administrator in a meeting on Friday, saying she stood out through a long and competitive interview process.

Nine candidates were interviewed for the position, board member Amy Burkhart said.

Throughout the feedback received and throughout that process it became very evident that we already have the person in place who is the best candidate to lead our commission forward, she said.

The Racing and Gaming Commission is tasked with regulating and overseeing casinos, horse racing and sports betting in Iowa.

Eick has worked for the commission since 2017 as director of operations. She became interim administrator in December when the previous administrator, Brian Ohorilko, left the commission to take an executive position with Prairie Meadows Casino.

Eick was paid $143,408 in 2023, according to state records. Ohorilko was paid $217,427.

Board members who spoke at the meeting Friday heaped praises onto Eick, saying she had high qualifications, a deep knowledge of the states gambling rules and regulations, and a strong work ethic.

Im honored and Im humbled by all of those comments and those kind words, and your confidence in me, Eick told the commission on Friday. And I really look forward to the challenges to come.

Gambling regulations in Iowa have come under some scrutiny with questions over an investigation into illegal sports betting against a number of Iowa college athletes. The investigation was conducted by the Division of Criminal Investigation, and not the Racing and Gaming Commission.

Ohorilko previously said his decision to leave the post was not related to the investigation, but told a parent of one student-athlete a lot of people dont agree with how the investigation was handled, according to court documents.

A leader of Teamsters Local 238 in a video posted to YouTube told union members to prepare for protest activity, including rolling strikes, over legislation introduced in the Iowa Legislature.

A bill in the Iowa Senate would require public employers to submit a list of union-eligible workers, and if the list is not submitted to the state on time, the bargaining unit would be automatically dissolved. Such an action could only be stopped by the bargaining unit filing a lawsuit to compel the employer to act.

Supporters say the bill is needed to close a loophole in state law, under which many unions have not performed required recertification laws. Critics call it a union-busting bill.

Jesse Case, principal officer for Teamsters Local 238, in the video told members to watch for information about protests and strikes.

(The bill) would effectively end all public sector unions in the state of Iowa, Case said. Well guess what were fighting back. Were not taking it. Were not going to let dark money from out of state roll into Iowa and harm hard working families across the state.

Senate Study Bill 3158 has been advanced out of subcommittee and is eligible for consideration by the full Senate Workforce Committee.

The Iowa Insurance Division announced it has joined a $1.5 million multistate settlement with TradeStation Crypto, Inc.

The agreement resolves allegations the Florida-based company violated state and federal securities regulation by offering and selling an unregistered interest-bearing crypto-lending product without the proper registration or disclosure to investors.

The settlement comes as the result of an investigation led by state securities regulators in Alabama, California, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Washington and Wisconsin.

Under the program, investors passively earned interest on digital assets by loaning them to TradeStation, according to a news release from the Iowa Insurance Division. The crypto platform had total discretion over the revenue-generating activities used to earn returns for investors, the release states.

Regulators also lacked access of critical information necessary to understand the potential risks of TradeStation's program.

TradeStation agreed to pay $1.5 million to 51 U.S. jurisdictions and $1.5 million to the SEC.

The company also agreed to stop offering, selling, or renewing its digital asset interest-earning program until it complies with applicable state and federal securities laws.

Whatever Iowans may be looking to invest in, its always important for them to be vigilant and protect their assets, Iowa Insurance Commissioner Doug Ommen said in a statement. Iowans can always double-check before investing to make sure an investment is properly registered with the Iowa Insurance Division by calling 877-955-1212.

Iowa's Renewable Fuels Infrastructure Program Board approved more than $3.4 million in cost-sharing projects that allow Iowa fuel retailers to install E15 and other high-ethanol blend pumps.

The 73 approved projects, across 38 counties, marks a record for a single quarter, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship said in a release.

More than $5.48 million has been awarded to similar cost-sharing projects so far this year, the department said.

"Iowans are fueling their vehicles with lower cost E15 at record levels, Iowa plants are producing record volumes of ethanol, and Iowa is setting records for ethanol infrastructure investment, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig said in the release.

Gazette-Lee Des Moines Bureau

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Capitol Notebook: Iowa gambling commission names new administrator - The Gazette

Goodell also discussed continued efforts to improve health and safety. The NFL prioritized adjusting kickoff rules to make the play safer as it went into the 2023 season. The league saw a significant drop in the number of regular-season games missed to injury this season, but concussion numbers essentially remained stable (219 total, compared to 213 in 2022), which is below the recent high of 281 a few seasons ago. Goodell hopes to find ways to improve those numbers while also keeping the kickoff in the game.

"For me, I thought this rule was necessary for the one year because we need to innovate," Goodell said. "We need to work with our coaches and our competition committee and those across the league to find a way to keep the kickoff in the game. It's an exciting play. It's important for us. The same for punts. But when you see a higher injury rate for that play, you can't ignore that. And we haven't yet found that solution. I think we've proven over the last several years, you can make the game safer and more exciting at the same time. And that's our objective here. I'm confident we'll get to that. It's going to take a little work. This is a one-year rule, so I hope that will be a major focus this spring."

NFL playing surfaces, specifically the differences between grass and artificial-turf fields, have also become a hotly debated topic when it comes to player safety. Goodell hopes to explore a new innovation as a potential option, while asserting that finding consistency for players on a week-to-week basis is a crucial element of keeping them safe.

"This has been a major focus with the Players Association, and we have jointly worked with experts to try to study this question," Goodell said. "It's not always just grass or synthetic. We think hybrid is something to really explore. That's actually what they use in international soccer, is a hybrid type of format. Additionally, I think we've got to look at different circumstances, right? You play in a dome for four and half months, that's pretty hard to grow grass. You can sometimes take it in and out. You can find a way of trying to replace that. But we want to try to get the best possible field surfaces, and that is something that varies from market to market, climate to climate. One of the the things that we think is very important and the studies that we're doing, is consistency. And when I say consistency, it's not just on the entire playing surface, but it's consistency of what players are playing on during the week leading up to the game. What they're practicing on and what they play on. That consistency is really important, according to our engineers and our experts. So we're looking at that with the Players Association and hope we can find better solutions and continue that focus."

When asked about reports of the 49ers being displeased with their practice field for this week in Las Vegas, Goodell said that the UNLV practice facility was approved unanimously.

"That work is being done every single day," he said. "We had 23 experts out there. We had the union out there. All of them think that's a very playable surface. It's softer than what they have practiced on, but that happens. It's well within all of our testing standards. It's something that we think all our experts, as well as neutral field inspectors, have all said unanimously that it's a playable field."

Lastly, Goodell made an exciting announcement for the 2024 season: The Philadelphia Eagles are the designated team for the league's first-ever game in South America. Philly's contest in So Paulo, Brazil, will take place on Friday of Week 1, with the Eagles playing an opponent that will be revealed before the full 2024 regular-season schedule is released in the spring.

Originally posted here:

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell addresses legalized gambling, officiating, player safety ahead of Super Bowl LVIII - NFL.com