Des Moines Register: The Polk County Board of Supervisors has hired, at public expense, a public relations firm to promote the board’s “thoughtful leadership and commitment” in handing out grants funded with gambling revenue. The hiring comes several weeks after the Des Moines Register began asking supervisors about $844,000 in grants the board routed to church-affiliated schools in 2012 and 2013. State law prohibits counties from using public money to benefit schools that are under ecclesiastical or sectarian control. County policy also prohibits giving grants to those entities.