Des Moines, December 6, 2012? The Iowa Supreme Court has appointed District Judge Mary Ann Brown, Burlington, as Chief Judge of the Eighth Judicial District. Judge Brown succeeds Chief Judge James Q. Blomgren who will retire December 6, 2012.

"Judge Brown is an excellent judge with experience as an attorney and on the bench," Chief Justice Mark Cady said. "The supreme court is confident she has the skills needed to be a fine chief judge and a strong leader in the Eighth Judicial District."

Judge Brown was appointed district judge in September 2001. She received her bachelor's degree from Drake University in 1981 and her law degree from the Drake University School of Law in 1984. Judge Brown worked as a prosecutor for the Des Moines County Attorney's Office from 1985 to 1990. She was in private practice with Bauer, Schulte, Hahn, Swanson & Brown from 1990 to 2001. Judge Brown is a member of the Iowa Judicial Qualifications Commission, The Eighth Judicial District Department of Correctional Services Board of Directors, the Iowa Judges Association, the Iowa State Bar Association, the Des Moines County Bar Association, and served as past chair of the Iowa Board of Examiners of Shorthand Reporters. She is also a member of the Girl Scouts of Eastern Iowa/Western Illinois Board of Directors and, in 2000, she received a Bar Association Community Service award.

"I am honored and humbled to have been selected a Chief Judge for the Eighth Judicial District," Judge Brown said. "As Iowans we can all be proud of the outstanding court system in this state. It will be a privilege to have this opportunity to work with all the outstanding, hardworking judges and other court staff in this judicial district. Working together we will successfully meet the ever changing challenges to efficiently and effectively serve the legal needs of our citizens."

As chief judge, Judge Brown will supervise all judicial officers and court employees in the district, supervise the performance of administrative and judicial business in the district, set the times and places of holding court, designate presiding judges, and serve on the judicial council, which advises the supreme court on administrative matters affecting the trial courts. In addition, she will continue to preside over cases.

The Eighth Judicial District is located in southeast Iowa and comprises 14 counties: Appanoose, Davis, Des Moines, Henry, Jefferson, Keokuk, Lee (with two county seats?Fort Madison and Keokuk), Louisa, Mahaska, Monroe, Poweshiek, Van Buren, Wapello, and Washington. The district has 11 district judges, seven district associate judges, one associate juvenile judge, four senior judges, 13 part-time magistrates, and 156 employees, with an operating budget for the current fiscal year of approximately $14.2 million. A total of 73,056 cases were filed in the Eighth Judicial District last year.

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WASHINGTON - Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, today released the second installment of their final report on Operation Fast and Furious. This report chronicles the U.S. Department of Justice's management failures, specifically finding fault with five senior Justice Department officials for failing to identify red flags indicating reckless tactics.

"The report discloses widespread management failures within the hierarchy of the Justice Department," said Issa.  "The Justice Department has yet to evaluate these management issues and implement structural changes to prevent another disaster like Operation Fast and Furious from occurring. Furthermore, the Justice Department has taken limited action against these negligent managers."

"Officials in the Justice Department saw any number of warnings and some even had the gunwalking information right in front of them, yet nothing was done to stop it.  Countless people may be murdered with these weapons, yet the Attorney General appears to be letting his employees slide by with little to no accountability.  The Attorney General needs to make changes to ensure that department leadership provides oversight of the agencies they are tasked with supervising, instead of pointing fingers at somebody else," Grassley said.

Operation Fast and Furious contributed to the deaths of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and an unknown number of Mexican citizens.  It also created an ongoing public safety hazard on both sides of the border.  The failures happened because of conscious decisions to encourage gun dealers to sell to known traffickers and avoid interdicting those weapons or even questioning suspects, all in the hope that would lead law enforcement to cartel connections and a larger case.

The report can be found here and exhibits here.

The first installment of the final report focusing on ATF failures can be found here.

Report highlights:

• A detailed account of the interview with former ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson.
• The Obama Administration's new focus on trafficking and targeting of drug cartels, which led to the strategy behind Operation Fast and Furious.
• Testimony from senior Justice Department officials about Operation Fast and Furious and the management problems it entailed. The report finds fault with five senior DOJ Officials for failing to supervise and for missing basic red flags.  Those officials are Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein and Associate Deputy Attorney General Ed Siskel. Attorney General Holder's Deputy Chief of Staff Robert "Monty" Wilkinson also bears some responsibility for the poor management that lead to Operation Fast and Furious.
• Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler, Associate Deputy Attorney General Ed Siskel, and other officials from the Office of the Deputy Attorney General attended a detailed briefing on Operation Fast and Furious in March 2010.  Despite the evidence presented at the briefing of illegally-purchased firearms being recovered in Mexico and in the U.S., Grindler and Siskel failed to ask probing questions or take any significant follow-up action to monitor and supervise the conduct of the case.
• ATF officials asked both the Justice Department's Criminal Division and ODAG for assistance in speeding up the indictments in Fast and Furious.  The Justice Department, however, took no action to intervene.  Instead, officials at Department headquarters only showed concern about preparing for the press impact of the indictments.
• Deputy Chief of Staff to the Attorney General Monty Wilkinson discussed Attorney General Holder participating in the press conference announcing the take-down of Operation Fast and Furious prior to the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
• Both Monty Wilkinson and Gary Grindler were informed about the connection between Operation Fast and Furious and U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry's murder.  Grindler received detailed information about the connection.  He took no additional action, however, to properly supervise the operation.
• No one at Justice Department headquarters have provided complete and accurate answers to the Terry family.  During their respective transcribed interviews, Monty Wilkinson stated 38 times that he "did not recall" or "did not know."  In a similar fashion, Gary Grindler did so 29 times, and Ed Siskel 21 times.  In two different transcribed interviews, Dennis Burke said he "did not recall" or "did not know" a combined total of 161 times.
• Recommendations for future management of DOJ.

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