an in depth look at the people and events that shape our community.this is iowa in focus.this week -- 15 years since 9-11 -- we look at how it's shaped politics in the 21st century.then we sit down with one of the men at the center of the battle of benghazi welcome to iowa in focus -- we're giving context to wt on the campaign trail.but today is also the 15th anniversary of the september 11th attacks in new york city -- washington d-c and pennsylvania.a big chunk of the show today will look back at that day -- and how terrorism affects politics around the world. world.for now -- we start with the barnstorm. a full week ago -- arizona senator jeff flake continued to attack donald trump. trump.senator flake has been critical of trump from the

record.senator mccain has said that he'll back donald trump -- flake isn't so quick to forgive.sunday morning -- he was on jake tapper's state of the union. "i would not vote for hillary clinton and as of now, i would still not vote for donald trump.""i would like to vote for donald trump. it's not comfortable to not support your nominee, but given the positions he's taken and the tone and tenor of his campaign, i simply can't." sunday night -- the iowa republican -- iowa -- and trump fired back on twitter... twitter...saying: the republican party needs strong and committed leaders, not weak people such as @jeffflake, if it is going to stop illegal immigration. immigration.and then: the great state of arizona, where i just had a massive rally (amazing people), has a very weak and ineffective senator, jeff flake. sad! this all comes while the republican party is trying to prove that they're united for the general election.

republican party of iowa was hosting -- so i aksed her what she thought of trump's comments. ""well i dont like it. and again i cant speak for donald trump, i say that alot but i cant speak for him and jeff flake has been a good partner in the u-s senate so i think he is very effective for his constiuents and i think he'll do very well." that event was hosted by iowa republican party chair jeff ka was welcoming u-s army ranger kris paranto -- one of the real life soldiers portrayed in the movie "13 hours" about the battle of benghazi.senator ernst says it's important to hear from someone like paranto because he's an example of how hillary clinton's lack of leadership put people in danger. "if they would just say, even just behind closed doors, and we offered this to the cia and state department. doesn't even need to be public, say you're sorry and we'll go away, couldn't do it. here we are.

show -- kris tells us about his experience on 9-11 -- 2001 -- and what eventually led him to being on the ground in benghazi exactly 11 years later. wednesday -- trump and clinton had their first joint event at a forum in new york city. donald trump had been talking during the week about how he would instruct his generals in the first month to get rid of isis completely -- hillary clinton talked about how her plan to fight in the middle east would ?not escalate american inv "remember, when i became secretary of state, we had 200-thousand troops deployed in iraq and afghanistan. and i'm very grateful that we have brought home the vast majority of those. we have a residual force in afghanistan. we have built up several thousands of the folks i ahve talked about who are assisting in the fight against isis. when trump took the stage -- he answered criticism about

putin. "if he says great things about me, i'm going to say great things about him. i've already said he is very much of a leader, he has strong control over the country. it's a different system and i don't like the system but within that system he's been a leader, far more than our president has been a leader. the next day -- that put republican party of iowa chair jeff kaufmann on the defensive when he was asked directly about trump praising putin. putin. "i think talking ab leadership and who is a leader and who isn't a leader, i don't think that isa value judgement on that particular person. kaufmann said he didn't know enough about putin to say what he thought about putin's leadership.in cedar rapids... rapids......iowa democrats said donald trump's statements actually prove that he's ?not right for americans.they drove that point home with former reagan staffer doug elmets who says in 2016 -- he's voting for a democrat for the first time.

republican party and he managed to hookwink a lot of voters in iowa and beyond into believing his phony tales. let's go inside iowa politics -- to talk about the people not trying to move into the white house. congress went back to work tuesday -- but... but...they leave again in just four weeks before the november election.they ?do need to pass spending bills to keep the government open past october first and both major parties haveai funding to fight the zika virus. the linn county board of supervisors approved their plan to increase the minimum wage in the county a second tim. time.it goes into effect if it get's the green light for the third and final time monday.it would raise the minimum wage one dollar every year for the next three years.right now -- it's 7-25 and hour -- if it's passed -- the wage would be 10-25 by 20-19. one linn county supervisor

ray is running for the district four seat... seat...and he says the supervisors should only take 70-thousand dollars for a salary every year -- instead of their current 103-thousand dollars.ray says that would save enough money that the board could keep five supervisors -- instead of shrinking to three -- preserving representation for rural linn county while freeing up money for rural roadways. "i can't see any other reason why you would want less representation but as they slowly raised above100-thousand dollars, that's when the red flags went up and people were concerned. this year -- there could be more eligible voters with disabilities than any other voting group. steffi lee explains the effort to make sure everyone can fulfill their civic duty. duty. "the issues that impact everybody are the issues that impact people with disabilities certainly."and that's why reyma mccoy mcdeid says this new report predicting more eligible

election cycle - proves they're a powerful voice. mcdeid works with iowa disability votes count - educating voters about their rights and ways to overcome any barriers - when voting. "i think candidates this year - more so in any other election year are really getting that if they want to have serious consideration for their positions - they need to reach out to voters with disabilities." and the secretary of state's office has also hired an outreach coordinator to travel the state and listen to any voters with disabilits the polls. "she's reaching out to organizations that deal with people with disabilities - reaching out to veterans groups." the secretary of state's office is also reaching out to iowans online - revamping its website - and breaking down information on voting accessibility with videos.it highlights curbside voting - requesting absentee ballots - and the steps to get help when marking a ballot. "every polling location - all

required to be accessible for people with disabilities." "it's our goal that by 2020, 2024, at the latest, the disability vote is just as sought after as the women's vote or the lgbt vote." after the break...we sit down with university of iowa middle eastern expert nicholas grossman to talk about how 9-11 has shaped politics

september 11th brought conflict that had been happening around the world -- for centuries -- to american soil.soon after -- american bombs were dropped in countries many americans hadn't heard of before -- and american soldiers followed soon after.15 years later -- we sit down with university of iowa political science professor nicholas grossman to see how the world has changed. changed.

studying abroad. i was in a cafe and someone heard me speaking english and said the planes just hit the whte house. at this point, i and the other americans watched the news all day. my father worked in manhattan and the cell tower was on top of the wtc so i couldnt' get in touch with him and spent much of the day wondering if he was dead or not. he was taken out by rescue workers in a gas mask.

anyone personally but i know a lot of people who lost relatives or friends. friends.how did it change the world landscape? landscape? many americans were focused on the response and collective other. there was a sense of wanting vengange that was absent from places that weren't attacked. as a new yorker, it was direct or personal. they were the buildings you always saw. for

symbolicwhat other aspect are there from what people look for from their gove. government.there are two big reactions. using force in the world. the u-s, had been been bloodied. in prison movies, when you jsut arive, punch the biggest guy in the nose. that happened on a global scale. a small group hurt the us more than anyone

there was a sense that the us needed to show it could produce a lot of force abroad. domestically, there were changes in the populas. if you see something making them more vigalent. vigalent.how is someone more informed today. today. that change has been dramatic. people are desentitzed to it. it's a part of life. there were far more terrorist

before 9/11. in the 1970's, activist groups didn't kill nearly as many people but they had more incidents. some palenstinian groups and communsits would use hijacking before. now it's more of a war-footing. thought of as a law enforcement issue. now it's something for the army and intelligence services. it's more expected and that might also contribute to why trans

different countries. it's a bigger impact if it's the first attack on a country or using a particular technique. an attack on the us like the boston marathon bombing would ahve an imapct, but not as big as britian or france because for those countries this was a first experience of something on a larger scale. after the break...we're back with kris paranto -- one of the heros of the battle of

u-s army ranger kris paronto has a view of benghazi very few people do.he was there the night -- four years ago today -- u-s ambassador chris stevens and three other

u-s embassy was attacked. paronto and his fellow soldiers were told to stand down when they heard about the attack -- until 20 minutes later when they disobeyed orders -- and went to help anyway.we spoke to him about that -- but first -- i asked him about his experience a decade before that night -- during the september 11th terrorist attacks.he was already a ranger then -- but was back in r-o-t-c in college -- and working to become an off. officer. i just wanted to see what happened si nearest tv and saw it and went back to my batalian commander and i wanted to go back to ranger battalian and he was a good guy and he looked at me and called me cadet, even though i was a ranger, he said we need more officers than we do rangers. he says if i

the army. he said your place is here. i repsect him so i said roger hat. that. how has that expereince shaped the next 15 years? years? it's obstacles. in the military or in life you deal with setbacks. that night is the perfect examples for 13 hours when we could have quit,

stood down and not helped. helped.at that time it was necessary to break orders ordersthat's what took 25 minutes. that's what we call a training scar because you've for so many years. all of us had been senior enlisted so you're going through all that and that's why we didn't buck orders for so long. it got to a point where we had seen

was in iraw in 2005 and protecting an ambassador and a car bomb hit a military convoy and it hit two little girls and my job was to get the ambassador out. so i did that. two girls died. that. two army guy that was severely injred. a guy i looked up to flew back to help out. i did what i was supposed to do but that stays with me because i didn't break people fof to help. help.at what point did it set in you'd be talking about for

and there's a scene in the movie where he says "i don't think we're gettinga ny gunship." we realized no one was coming. you one was re we realized no one was coming. you know what, we're on our own. own. this is so politically charged, is that good/bad? good/bad? we wanted to stay out of it.

professional all of us kept working. but when you start to dishonor the heroism of the team that worked there, when you lie to cover up your failures, that's an obstacles. when you call us liers, even behind closed doors, it's like when you keep getting picked that bully, you say, alright, that's enough, and now we're coming back at them. after the break...the next two dates where iowans can see presidential candidates up

now -- we look at what politicians are putting on social media. media.former republican presidential nominee mitt romney has been very critical of donald trump -- and romney isn't stopping. stopping.he tweeted out: i

g-o-p governors gary johnson and bill weld debate on stages this fall.johnson is just short of the support he needs -- but he also just admitted he didn't know what aleppo was -- it's the key location in the syrian civil war. you can follow along on twitter and facebook all week long.see our interviews as we do them -- chime in with what you think -- send us your favorite pictures from events you go to. week ahead... ahead...it's a chance to see what's coming up. up.later today -- jill stein is supposed to have a rally in des moines at the state capitol.on tuesday -- donald trump makes his third visit to iowa since winning the gop nomination.our count right now is at 58 days until the election day. thanks for watchingbe sure to tune in next week to get the clear facts on iowa in focus.

the wind brought water to prairie farms. then windmills went away, but the wind remained. chuck grassley thought it was time to bring the windmill back. without the grassley legislation, and his effective leadership, the wind energy industry would not have succeeded. now, more than thirty one percent of all the electricity in iowa comes from wind. six thousand in iowa alone. google, facebook, microsoft and good paying manufacturing jobs have come to iowa for that energy. iowa produces more of its energy from wind than any other state. it started with a simple idea and the renowned work ethic of one senator.

finally week one is here. last season jameis winston was just the third rookie in nfl history to pass for over 4,000 yards. today he faces his rival in atlanta. this is the 15th anniversary of 9/11. our season begins here and will ultimately end in houston, texas, home of super bowl li.