funding for this program was provided by friends the Iowa PBS Foundation as well as generations of families and friends who feel passionate about the programs they watch on Iowa PBS as elected officials Gather in Iowa's capital city of Des Moines Susan Christensen Chief Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court speaks to a joint session of the Iowa legislature this is the 2023 state of the Judiciary address I am just kidding [Music] foreign recognizes the senator from Polk Senator Whitford you've heard the motion of the senator from Polk Senator Whitford all those in favor say aye those opposed say no the motion prevails and the chair announces the appointment of the senator from Polk Senator Zahn the senator from Marion Senator Rosenbaum and the senator from Johnson Senator weiner on the part of the Senate and the oops I'm so sorry a little ahead thanks guys uh the chair recognizes the senator from Polk Senator Whitford now you have heard the motion from the senator from Polk Senator all those in favor say aye those opposed no the motion prevails and the chair announces the appointment of the senator from Polk Senators on the senator from Marion Senator rosenboom and the senator from Johnson Senator weiner on the part of the Senate and the representative from Crawford representative Holt the representative from Wapello representative wills and the representative from Johnson representative zabner on the part of the house will the committee retire in performance Duty the chair recognizes the senator from Polk Senator Whitford three members from the house be appointed to notify chief justice Christensen that the joint convention is ready to receive her you've heard the motion from the senator from Polk Senator Whit ver all those in favor say aye those opposed say no the motion prevails and the chair announces the appointment of the senator from Warren Senator Garrett the senator from Potawatomi Senator Dawson and the senator from Polk Senator Bolton on the part of the Senate and the representative from Apple news representative Harris the representative from Polk representative Losi and the representative from Lynn representative Wilson on the part of the house will the committee retire and perform its Duty thank you you said so I'm going to shut this off yeah I don't want to be the reason foreign like last night I was okay because I was rereading my favorite brother let me read to be like guys don't pause don't oh they're Applause wait wait oh there it is but yeah foreign District is my second session goodbye foreign recognizes the sergeant-at-arms we've arrived in the house chamber please escort the executive Council to their seats [Applause] the chair recognizes the sergeant-at-arms Madam president the justices of the Supreme Court the chief judge and judges of the court of appeals and the chief district court judges have arrived in the house chamber please escort the justices of the Supreme Court the chief judge and judges of the court of appeals and the chief district court judges to their seats [Applause] yeah the chair recognizes the sergeant-at-arms the family of the Chief Justice have arrived in the house chamber please escort the chief Justice's family to their seats [Applause] the chair recognizes the sergeant-at-arms Madam president lieutenant governor Adam Gregg has arrived in the house chamber please escort lieutenant governor Greg to his seat [Applause] the chair recognizes The sergeant-at-arms Madam president your committee to escort Governor Kim Reynolds has arrived the committee will escort The Honorable Kim Reynolds to the Rostrum [Applause] the chair recognizes the sergeant in arms Madam president your committee to denotify and escort chief justice Christensen has arrived Chief Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court to the Rostrum [Applause] it is my pleasure to introduce to you the Chief Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court Susan Christensen to deliver the state of the Judiciary message thank you thank you thank you getting everything situated up here Madam president Speaker of the House members of the general assembly Governor Reynolds third time in a row behind me lieutenant governor Greg State officials my colleagues lots of them in black today family just plain lots of them friends and all Iowans thank you for this opportunity to address this joint Convention of the 90th general assembly on the condition of the Judiciary as introduced I am Susie Christensen I continue to live in Harlan where I was born with and I'm with my husband Jay of 41 years he's here with me today as well as with all five of our kids Nick Adam Reese Sadie Cass that just rolls off my tongue and also I am so honored to have six of my eight grandkids and they are sitting here actually five or here with us in this room one is in hiding back behind because he's seven days old but I need to Rattle their names off because they are that's all they're here for Logan Emily Carson Jack Connor Levi Grayson and seven-day-old Hunter and I am so lucky to have my mom here sitting in the front row just like she always has for my band concerts and high school plays you can't shake a parent I may be the face that you see or the name that you hear when there's a discussion about the Supreme Court but as I've said before I am one of seven and at this time I'd like to introduce my colleagues that make up the Iowa Supreme Court Tom Waterman Ed Mansfield Christopher McDonald Dana Oxley Matt McDermott and our newest the Newbie David May [Applause] I am so fortunate to have these six brilliant jurists sit with me around a table on a regular basis and I am honored that they have selected me as their chief thank you to my colleagues for entrusting me with this awesome responsibility of my first state of the Judiciary was hope at that point we were just starting to be about one year into a pandemic and we were learning how to adjust what we normally did in our normal lives we had to do things differently the intent of my theme of Hope was to just send a positive message to the people of Iowa and to our judicial branch and other governmental entities that kova 19 we did not succumb to it and instead we remained strong we remained open so that we could provide continued access to Justice last year's theme was peace while leading the Judiciary during a pandemic that was entering its third year I wanted to make sure that Iowans knew that amongst all that noise the trouble and hard work it takes to get through a pandemic that the judicial branch was blocking out all the chaos and we were staying laser focused on our commitment to provide meaningful access to Justice this year my theme is listening no doubt that's been a part of everyone's vocabulary since childhood when I was growing up my parents would usually proceed it with my first and middle name Susan K listen just ask mom she's right there and in a school setting how many times did we hear that word usually accompanied with a slap of an eraser on a chalkboard for some reason telling a child to listen just rolls off our tongues and I'm going to go off script here it's going to make some people nervous that that help to make sure that I'm not saying anything that I would regret but I was practicing my speech a couple nights ago with a newborn in the house I was trying to help my daughter and and the two-year-old was not being like he should I could hear it from upstairs so I came down I said Levi what's going on because he was in the timeout chair and he says leave I know listen and apparently uh so I said you know what Levi why don't you come upstairs and listen to Grammy's speech I'm going to talk about listening and he said I want to watch Bluey so sorry folks I don't think you have access to Bluey you're stuck listening to my speech but as we mature those reminders to listen dwindle but the importance of listening never leaves us in the legal profession it's been said that Justice cannot exist without listening that makes perfect sense how can we provide litigants an opportunity to be heard if we are not listening to what is being said according to an old proverb to speak is to sow and to listen is to reap I may not have been born on a farm but for the past three years as Chief I've done a lot of sewing I have done my best to share the judicial message with the Executive Branch the legislative branch and I've spent even more time interacting with judges and lawyers and employees of the judicial branch but for the past few months in an effort to strengthen the Judiciary I decided it was time for me to reap I traveled across the state to hear firsthand about Iowans who crossed paths with the judicial branch and it's been a Bountiful Harvest I'd like to summarize just a few of the listening opportunities that I had in 2022 one of the best ways for me to learn what's going on across the state is to reach out to lawyers and judges from all the different districts that we have on short notice I'll just pick up the phone and call somebody in one of the 99 counties but learning is maximized if I can travel and go there and be there and so I think each of our Chief Judges across the state will remember that I spent time with them at some of their local meetings with lawyers and judges I loved being a mouse in the corner I loved listening to him talk about very specific issues for their own District like maybe scheduling Courthouse security or parking but I also was listing and came up with some pretty firm ideas that we also have some Statewide issues that I heard loud and clear in all eight districts rural and urban those issues demand our attention and I'd like to share with you some of the most compelling issues that I heard about over and over the first Statewide issue that I'd like to talk about is court reporters for those of you who may not have had an opportunity to watch a court reporter in action you're missing out it is truly an amazing skill with a really small machine the end and they use just very soft movements with their hands they will take down every single word that is said in a trial or hearing if one of the parties appeals that decision or that jury's outcome Witnesses don't come back to testify again and lawyers do not repeat their oral arguments instead the court reporter transcribes those really weird looking symbols and letters into the English language and then they certify that it is an accurate record I I think it's like the court reporter has been watching the movie and while she watches the movie she is putting each and every word into a book and and it's for the appellate courts to review without this book I cannot do my job as an appellate judge because I no longer have a front row seat to the movie like I did as a trial court judge and my own court reporter is here today somewhere and I want I want everyone to know that the relationship between a court a judge and the court system and a court reporter is crucial I honestly believe I would not be standing here today if I didn't have someone like my court reporter Jody helping me be a good judge make a good record and keep things going for the past few years the judicial branch has become increasingly concerned about the growing imbalance between the number of court reporters retiring and the even fewer number of people becoming interested in the profession awareness of this imbalance is creeping beyond our courtroom walls into the general public as shown by a recent news article a quote in that article by judge Ian Thornhill from Eastern Iowa was spot on quote this is beyond crisis mode he said he also said that every week cases must be bumped because there's no court reporter available judge Thornhill you are right bumping cases whether they are civil criminal or juvenile is unacceptable on a regular basis I want to make a statement to judges lawyers court reporter court reporters judicial branch staff and all Iowans who rely on the judicial branch to resolve disputes the Iowa Supreme Court is listening we know how the court reporter's shortage and crisis affects every legal proceeding and we are committed to making it better I hope to come back to you next year with proposed solutions from this crisis based on a newly formed committee called the court reporter utilization committee made up of Judges court reporters and judicial staff Ed the second Statewide issue that I would like to talk about is the contract attorney shortage Iowa has two options to fulfill our constitutional duty to provide criminal defense to those who cannot afford counsel attorneys who are employed full-time with the state public defender's office or private attorneys who enter into a contract with the state public defender we call those contract attorneys while the court reporter crisis is having a profound impact on our ability to move cases along and to consistently provide certified records the Statewide contract attorney shortage is threatening to bring criminal proceedings to a screeching halt according to the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article 1 Section 10 of our constitution criminal defendants have a right to counsel this is constitutionally Crystal Clear in one of the best known and most important cases from 60 years ago Gideon versus Wainwright the United States Supreme Court observed that lawyers in criminal courts are Necessities not luxuries Iowa has nearly 10 000 licensed attorneys in active status almost half of those attorneys are practicing law full-time and how many of those five thousand active full-time attorneys are representing Indigent criminal defendants less than 600. that means about 12 percent of the available 5 000 full-time active attorneys are representing Indigent criminal defendants I'd like to use Shelby County where I was born and continue to live to illustrate how the legal profession has changed so dramatically during my lifetime the population of Shelby County has waffled between eleven thousand and fifteen thousand in 1974 my dad and my grandpa were two of 19 full-time attorneys just in Shelby County when I passed the bar in 1991 I was one of 22 full-time attorneys in Shelby County today that number is cut in half and of those 11 active status attorneys only four are eligible to be contract attorneys because two are Judges one is a magistrate and four are in the county attorney's office that's just not enough attorneys to fulfill the Constitutional responsibility of providing legal counsel to Indigent criminal defendants how can it be when the five-year average for criminal filings in Shelby County alone is 225 per year and my county is by no means unique I just use it as an example this is a crisis in nearly every rural and urban county in the state of Iowa so how can we cover our constitutional basis when there are more criminal filings than there are available attorneys historically we have relied on local contract attorneys as well as those from other counties who were willing to make the trip but recently due to the shortage of attorneys Chief Judges across the state have been leaning on private law firms to make some of their attorneys available for appointment how is that working out let me give you just a few examples of real life situations unfolding in Iowa's courts every day a judge from Western Iowa said as the appointment list gets shorter and shorter judges have less and less ability to force criminal cases to move we cannot afford to offend the few remaining court appointed lawyers by pushing their cases because they can simply quit taking appointments and they do he went on to say sadly this results in our pending docket growing larger and larger over time turning our motion days into marathons this is a significant waste of judicial resources you are correct judge dainey and we must do better another District Court Judge reported that in a three-month period the public defender and several contract attorneys asked to be removed from the list of available attorneys due to either case overload or changes in the public defender's office no longer taking certain levels of offenses losing six contract attorneys and the public defender delayed Justice for the defendants the victims and the community the judge also noticed noted that in one case one defendant had five attorneys cycle in and out in just a three-month period as bad as it is for criminal proceedings many judges report that the contract attorney crisis is even worse in juvenile court in those cases lack of attorneys results in delayed hearings delayed hearings means delayed determinations on very important issues such as placement of a child maybe it's time for a kiddo to go home it'll have to wait maybe it's time to remove a child from a dangerous situation that too may have to wait either way this crisis has a profound impact on Iowa's Youth and families when we cannot hold timely hearings due to the unavailability of lawyers another District Court Judge reported that just last week she had a contract attorney who traveled 100 miles to her courthouse for a nine o'clock hearing which required the attorney to be in person for a case involving attempted murder first degree arson and competency when the hearing concluded at 10 o'clock that judge called the next judge in another courthouse and said hey the lawyer is on his way so he and she told him he should be there about 11 30 for his 9 30 hearing he had to be in person for that hearing as well that was a class C felony sentencing when that hearing concluded at 12 45 which tells you people are working through the lunch hour the same contract attorney drove 90 minutes back to a third County for an in-person termination of parental rights hearing starting at 2 30 pm two very serious criminal matters one termination of parental rights case in Three Counties on the same day all handled by one lawyer I want you to know that judges are being proactive in their attempts to recruit more contract attorneys but this has proven to be a daunting task for example in Sioux City many of our attorneys are choosing to enter into contracts with South Dakota or Nebraska they pay more as you can see our federal and state constitutional obligation to provide Indigent council is on the verge of snapping attorneys judges and Court Administration are scrambling to cover their bases something has to give I want to make another statement to judges attorneys and most importantly Iowans who are entitled to court appointed Council the Iowa Supreme Court is listening we are keenly aware of how the contract attorney shortage delays Justice and jeopardizes the constitutional rights of indigent Iowans while not part of our budget the judicial branch supports efforts to increase funding for Indigent defense this bold statement is based upon what attorneys and judges are consistently reporting across the state over and over one the hourly rate should be raised if we expect attorneys to forego other work when they have significant student loans and other obligations to pay for household and two if we want attorneys to bounce around from County to County and help us out they should be reimbursed for their travel time we are committed to working with other stakeholders to grow the number of contract attorneys from our base of active status attorneys until that day comes we are taking immediate steps to make it easier for existing contract attorneys to make themselves available in more than one County for example districts are looking into shaking up Court service days that may sound simple but court service days are something in each district that are hard and fast everybody's used to them to say you're thinking about changing those is a big deal but that allows us to accommodate the schedules of traveling lawyers in addition if contract attorneys are willing to take cases in several counties with similar motion days it would save them a lot of driving time if some of those hearings or trials mostly hearings were held remotely this is something I heard loud and clear when I visited the different districts in fact it was discussed so much that we lined up a dynamic speaker for an all-judge training to talk just on that topic remote proceedings it was outstanding and well received if covet has taught us anything it is we can and we should be using remote technology more than we have in the past to conduct routine uncontested matters we decided to put action into words in an effort to promote judicial uniformity and provide Assurance to attorneys the way we did that was we entered a supervisory order on November 4th reminding judges that unless otherwise provided by law they should use their discretion on a case-by-case basis in determining whether a Judicial proceeding should be held remotely as opposed to in person we do not want any judges with hard and fast rules about whether repeating proceedings must be in person or proceedings must be remote likewise it should not be up to one party to declare a hearing will be remote if it's unfair to the other party or the type of hearing is deemed to be serious in nature that determination should be left up to the discretion of a judge I have confidence in our judges that they will not abuse this discretion and that they will make a good faith effort to hold remote hearings when it makes sense another listening opportunity from 2022 was previewed last year you may remember that I ended my speech by announcing the formation of the Juvenile Justice task force to review the Continuum of Care in our Juvenile Justice System this year I'm excited to update you on the progress of the task force which I co-chaired with Chad Jensen Iowa's director of juvenile court services our Juvenile justice system is decentralized with Services governance funding and data collection divided among three different entities the judicial branch the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Human Rights individuals from those three entities were included in the task force along with representatives from the following groups service providers law enforcement County attorneys public defenders private attorneys Youth and family members Iowa Drake and Creighton law schools and some of you in the general assembly I'd like to personally thank Senators Chris cornoyer and Amanda Reagan as well as Representatives Gary Moore and Beth Wessel creschel for their service on our task force and also we invited the entire task force and I know lots of them are here today thank you for showing up together the working groups came up with about 60 recommendations to improve various areas within the Juvenile Justice System these range from making sure kids who have been removed from their homes and gone to a school and earned some credit when they go somewhere else that credit should go with them they shouldn't have to earn it twice another thing that was important is addressing the gender disparities in placement options for female juvenile offenders the task force members recently approved their final recommendations which will be submitted to the Supreme Court and made available to the public the end of this month in the best interest of Iowa's children we hope you our legislators and policy makers will listen to the many voices that comprise that task force and consider implementation of their recommendations third listening opportunity from 2022 is actually what helped me formulate this year's theme of listening Kelly Garcia is the director of the Department of Health and Human Services I know she's here not sure where um she became the director and I became the chief right before covid so our first interactions in 2020 were of course by zoom and we had a lot of them we needed to talk about the profound impact a pandemic was having on the child welfare and Juvenile Justice systems fast forward a year from those initial zooms and we were dealing with how do we Implement these significant legislative changes that just came down in chapter 232 which houses all of our child welfare and juvenile delinquency statutes from the judiciary's perspective that involved a lot of moving parts for our juvenile judges Court staff and lawyers who practice in juvenile court I am sure HHS was experiencing similar angst after we worked through the Lion's Share of those new legislative changes I remarked to director Garcia on how much progress she and I had made in understanding each other's roles in Iowa's child welfare and Juvenile Justice systems at one point I said something like can we agree my kids are your kids she paused and she said yes that is the conversation that sparked an idea at that moment in that room to spend a summer touring the state together we came up with a schedule where we would meet in 11 different cities in an effort to encourage our individual teams to approach things from that perspective my kids are your kids your kids are my kids we wanted to listen to what people are thinking is working well across the state and where do we have opportunities to improve from my home in Harlan I drove over 3 700 miles for those listening sessions in the following cities Council Bluffs Davenport Sioux City Des Moines Dubuque Waterloo Cedar Rapids Webster City Storm Lake Burlington and Osceola director Garcia and I listened to approximately 700 people from various backgrounds in the Child Welfare or welfare or delinquency Arenas including parents grandparents Foster families parent Partners Casas which stands for court appointed special advocates staff from the HHS juvenile court officers attorneys and juvenile court judges I walked away from each meeting with a lot of notes and a little bit wiser about what Iowa's children need from us the director and I met again after we finished our 11 11 listening sessions to discuss common themes and share information about what we're doing to address some of the issues or develop a plan on how to move forward here are a few of those common issues juvenile court services and the department need to regularly meet about the particular cases with kids who have one foot in the Child Welfare world and one foot in the delinquency world the department needs to timely file its reports judges need to timely file orders and make a record of the hearings regarding delinquent girls we have a lack of services and placement options we are short on attorneys like I talked about especially those who will represent parents there is a Workforce crisis in the in the department with high turnover as well as provider staff kids need to be attending Court proceedings and we need more parent partners director Garcia and I are courage encouraging open and honest communication between all the stakeholders in the child welfare and Juvenile Justice systems because those kids are our kids our hope is that a version of what we did this last summer this tour this listening session will continue under a local leadership of Chief Judges the department and juvenile court services I want to go back just a moment to the topic of parent Partners which I mentioned as being a common theme in our listening session as a former juvenile judge in uh for eight years I dealt with hundreds and hundreds I'm sure thousands I just didn't want to take the time to go prove it of parents dealing with substance abuse and or mental health issues no matter how many cases were on my Docket in that eight year period no matter how many orders I signed requiring people to go to treatment my impact on effectuating change paled in comparison to the words and wisdom of a parent partner you may wonder what is a parent partner Once Upon a Time they too were involved in the system the child welfare system they faced similar barriers and challenges such as drug addiction or domestic abuse that led to removal of their very own children I'd like to tell you about two women I met at our listening session in Burlington teshell is an amazing woman who has a story to tell to anyone who will listen after a 20-year history of substance abuse she was faced head-on with her own addiction when DHS removed her kids from her care at that moment she was highly motivated to turn her life around after she achieved sobriety and the return of her children she started training to become a parent partner and for the past five years that's exactly what she's done partnered with struggling parents and encouraged them to do the same one of those parents to Shell helped is Jody Jody is another amazing woman with a story to tell after a 20-year history of substance abuse she was at risk of Court involvement and having her kids removed from her care due to substance abuse as a parent partner tichelle visited Jody in jail and keep in mind in a prior life these two girls knew each other very well and in particular in the world that led them to where they were at that moment so for Jody to see to Shell in this role had a profound impact on Jody she knew at that moment I want what you've got and after achieving her own sobriety and then training Jody also became a parent partner for nearly two years she has been partnering with struggling parents and helped guiding them through down the road of recovery achieving sobriety and learning to safely parent is already a huge challenge when you have substance abuse in your history but it's an even bigger challenge to take it another level and become a parent partner they are perfectly situated to help others because they can say With all sincerity been there done that no matter how many years of experience I had as a juvenile court judge I could never say that and that's why parent partners are so incredibly valuable to the juvenile court system I want to thank dichelle and Jody they're both here today raise your hands there they are way up there I want to thank both of you for letting me share your stories of course I couldn't help myself anybody who's ever heard me talk before I like to know how many days of sobriety and some of you may wonder when the numbers get really big and they turn into years why don't you just talk about years because every day is a struggle and they keep track not everybody but many keep track of every single day so for teshell that number today is 2127 which is over five years and for Jody it is 890 over two years congratulations the shared experiences that parent Partners bring to the table are something neither HHS nor the court system can provide if you are a parent struggling and you think something like a parent partner would be pretty great for you please reach out to your worker your caseworker and find out if there's someone available for you or if you have a story similar to Shell and Jody and you have achieved that sobriety and you want to become a parent partner please reach out to the department and find out how you can receive the training to become a parent partner while I am on the topic of addiction I think we can all agree that the past three years have been really difficult and stressful according to the governor's office of drug control policy Iowa ranks second in the country for excessive drinking I don't know about you but that shocked me I want to be the best in the country in many levels but not that and deaths due to drug overdose hit a record high in 2021 attorneys are not exempt from experiencing substance abuse or mental health issues and according to the Iowa lawyer assistance program I hate to say this out loud it's my people it's my profession lawyers abuse alcohol at a 50 to 80 percent higher rate than the general population and many disciplinary actions that we have to handle as a supreme court involve impaired lawyers in the most extreme cases the Supreme Court May revoke the law license of an impaired lawyer but what happens when those lawyers successfully address their addiction is there a path for them to return to the practice of law up until a few years ago the answer was no but for the dogged Persistence of a lawyer named Mike Riley there would be no path forward for revoked lawyers to return to the practice of law once they receive once they achieved rehabilitation just last month our Court held a reinstatement hearing for Luke Guthrie after his law license was revoked for five years due to misconduct that stemmed in large part from substance abuse in the five years since his ticket was punched Luke moved back to Waterloo met his wife while he was working as a paralegal found a great AAA support group became an elder in his church and recommitted to the love of running today he has the support of his wife three children and his parents it was a moving experience to have Luke come before our court just last month to explain all that he has done to achieve and maintain sobriety to better himself and to ask for reinstatement to practice law he wanted to be back in the fold I am happy to report that the court reinstated Luke's law license and he immediately started practicing law again and drumroll he renewed his contract with the state public defender woo do we need you Luke when I talked to Luke a few weeks ago he told me he had spent the day visiting clients that were incarcerated and he also shared with me that he shared with them his personal struggles I asked him how do you think it went he said I think it went really well I think it made me connect with them when I asked about his days of recovery immediate response 2617 which is more than seven years Luke is here today with his wife Don and his parents Bob and Ann Where Are You Luke stand up would you thank you Luke for giving me permission to share your story with all of Iowa and it actually provided me with a springboard to stand up here and encourage any Iowan and especially our lawyers to seek help for substance abuse or mental health treatment like last year I would like to add a PS to my speech remember Sean and his journey from methamphetamine addiction to sobriety when I recently checked in with him I learned that he's engaged to be married and his day is a sobriety he just knows you better have it ready 1759 which is four years and eight months Sean is here with his son Rylan and his fiancee Brenda are you up there Sean wave your hand where are you oh there you are and Rylan thank you once again Sean thank you for letting me continue to share your story and it's not just because I want to anybody who knows me or it comes to some of these speeches your name gets brought up a lot how's Sean doing so I thought I would let you know thank you for letting me continue to tell your story about how the judicial branch helped provide a path for you to get your enduring sobriety you are an inspiration to many and especially me thank you in closing I want to thank my colleagues for their commitment to our work I want to thank you the legislature for your support of our work and for giving me this opportunity to speak as Chief I promise to continue listening to attorneys judges other branches of government and most importantly the people of this great state I want to do this in an effort to improve the judicial branch in its steadfast commitment to ensure that each and every Iowan has meaningful access to Justice the way I think I'm going to hold myself to that Promise This Moment what I can see I'm taking a picture of so get ready I gotta get one with the governor and with you guys wait a minute when I told someone I need to have my phone up there they're like no you don't yes I do thank you for this opportunity done [Applause] will the committee to escort the Chief Justice please come forward and escort chief justice Christensen from the house Chambers red lights funding for this program was provided by friends of the Iowa PBS Foundation as well as generations of families and friends who feel passionate about the programs they watch on Iowa PBS [Music]