Capitol Notebook: Iowa government systems hit by widespread outage Friday

Some Iowa government services and employee devices were affected by a global IT outage affecting Microsoft systems on Friday, but critical systems had been restored by Friday afternoon.

Airlines, medical offices, banks and other services were all affected on Friday by the tech outage that caused some Microsoft systems to crash, the result of a software update from CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity company.

The outage briefly disrupted access to some state government services. Gov. Kim Reynolds' office said around 2:30 p.m. Friday that the state's critical IT systems had been restored, and services to Iowans were back to normal.

“I want to thank the Department of Management’s Division of Information Technology and its security operations center for their near immediate response when the outage occurred in the middle of the night,” Reynolds said in a news release. “Iowa is fortunate to have robust cybersecurity capabilities. Today is a great example of the importance of investing in services that protect state infrastructure and improve service to Iowans.”

State IT staff identified the error early Friday morning and began addressing the outage. It affected 1,400 state government servers and 3,300 workstations — fewer than 20 percent of executive branch devices — as of Friday morning, Reynolds' office said.

The state's IT staff was still working to restore state employees' devices as of Friday afternoon, which is likely to be completed over the weekend, Reynolds' office said.

Iowa business group president retires

Mike Ralston, the president of the Iowa Association of Business and Industry, is retiring after nearly 20 years leading the organization.

The Iowa Association of Business and Industry, or ABI, is a lobbying group that represents more than 1,500 companies that employ 330,000 Iowans.

The organization lobbies for legislation that is favorable to Iowa businesses and economic development, and leads networking and education events for the state's businesses.

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"I feel incredibly fortunate to have been able to join an organization that is dedicated to giving a unified voice to the businesses of Iowa," Ralston said in a statement. "It has been the honor and pleasure of my career to work with the board of directors and the very talented team at ABI, who make everything we do happen seamlessly."

Before leading ABI, Ralston was the Iowa Director of Revenue under Democratic Gov. Tom Vilsack. He was also previously president of the Iowa Taxpayers Association and a policy director for Qwest Communications

ABI has begun a search for a new president, the organization said.

Iowa Economic Development Authority funds projects

Two Iowa businesses received funding to expand facilities and create new jobs with grants from the Iowa Economic Development Authority. The grants will result in a combined $28.5 million in capital investments, the agency said.

C&A Scales in Minden received tax benefits to rebuild a manufacturing facility in Minden that was destroyed by a tornado that caused severe damage in the western Iowa town in April. The $2.5 million project is expected create four jobs at $25.26 an hour. The company manufactures bulk weigh grain systems and sells and installs truck scales.

Cargill received tax benefits to expand a soybean processing facility in Sioux City. The $26 million project will involve the construction of a new building and improvements to the existing facilities. Cargill's project is expected to create four jobs at $27.07 an hour.

The agency also awarded $1.58 million in loans to five Iowa-based startups located in Ames, Brighton, Cedar Rapids, Urbandale and West Des Moines.

The startups include The Agenda. Period, which offers an app to track and navigate a person's menstrual cycles; Stratafolio, which provides a service for companies that own and manage commercial real estate; and Coviance, which offers lending software for community banks and credit unions.

Seven more counties approved for federal public disaster assistance

Seven Iowa counties were approved for public assistance under the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Friday.

The new round of approvals is under a federal disaster declaration for tornadoes and severe weather that occurred in April, the first of three federal disaster declarations for which Iowa has been approved.

Clarke, Crawford, Harrison, Pottawattamie, Ringgold, Shelby and Union counties were approved for the federal Public Assistance Program, which provides funding to governments and nonprofits to aid in recovery.

The seven counties, plus Polk County, were already eligible for federal individual assistance under the declaration.

Across the three disaster declarations, covering severe weather in April, May and June, 42 of Iowa's 99 counties are eligible for some form of federal assistance. Residents of affected counties can go to disasterrecovery.iowa.gov to access assistance.

Several Iowa counties are also eligible for housing assistance under the Disaster Recovery Temporary Housing Program.

Three more counties eligible for Disaster Unemployment Assistance

Three Iowa counties were approved for a federally-funded disaster unemployment assistance program Friday.

Iowa Workforce Development announced it was accepting applications for disaster unemployment assistance for residents of Dickinson, Humboldt, and Palo Alto Counties who lost wages due to severe storms and flooding in June.

Buena Vista, Cherokee, Clay, Emmet, Lyon, O'Brien, Plymouth, Sioux and Woodbury counties had previously been approved for disaster unemployment assistance.

Individuals eligible for assistance must file an unemployment claim with Iowa Workforce Development. More information can be found at workforce.iowa.gov/unemployment/dua.