Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:35 a.m. CST

JOHNSTON, Iowa (AP) — Gov. Kim Reynolds has received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine during her weekly news conference to encourage Iowans to get vaccinated as soon as they can. The governor, her husband Iowa Department of Public Health Administrator Kelly Garcia were vaccinated Wednesday during the televised event. Reynolds says she wanted to wait to get vaccinated until after nursing home residents and staff, essential workers and other priority groups had the chance to do so. Iowa is one of several Republican-led states that have lifted most mask and distancing requirements against the advice of top health experts. President Joe Biden said Wednesday that lifting mask mandates now would be a mistake and urged state leaders to follow the science.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A decision by the superintendent of Iowa’s largest school district to stick with remote learning in the midst of a pandemic could end up costing him his job. Television station WOI reports that the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners is seeking to strip Des Moines Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Thomas Ahart of his administrator license. The board says it found probable cause that Ahart failed to submit or implement a lawful plan to return students to the classroom for the 2020-21 school year as required by Gov. Kim Reynolds. The license is a state requirement to hold the position of schools superintendent in Iowa.

ANKENY, Iowa (AP) — Police say the discovery of a live pipe bomb at a central Iowa polling place forced an evacuation of the building. Police responded Tuesday morning after a device that looked like a pipe bomb was found outside the Lakeside Center in Ankeny, where residents were voting on an Ankeny school district special election. No one was injured. The building was evacuated, and the State Fire Marshal and agents with the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were called in. Technicians safely detonated the device, and the center was reopened around 12:30 p.m. Police later confirmed that the device was a pipe bomb. Officials don’t know whether the pipe bomb was related to the election and police say an investigation into who left the device is continuing.

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Cities along the Mississippi River will take part in a global system to determine where plastic pollution comes from and how it ends up in waterways. Officials said Wednesday the project is a first step toward solving one of the top environmental crises for the world’s oceans. The project enables “citizen scientists” using a mobile application to log types and locations of litter found along the river. The Mississippi drains 40% of the continental U.S. and sends huge volumes of plastics into the Gulf of Mexico.