(Atlantic, Iowa) – Sustained high wind Tuesday evening, in Atlantic, caused damage to trees, property and infrastructure. According to the National Weather Service’ wind gauge at the airport, winds at around at around 6:15-p.m. went from 15-to as high as 59-miles per hour by 6:35-p.m. The winds caused multiple tree limbs to come crashing down, in one case, falling on a parked van. The wind storm also resulted in downed power and cable-TV lines. Crews from the Atlantic Street Department were working diligently Tuesday, to remove the trees from the roads.

Other storm damage was reported in Oakland, where shingles were torn-off of a roof. The Weather Service had issued a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for parts of northeastern Cass, northwestern Adair, parts of Audubon and Guthrie County, after the storm passed through Atlantic. In Greenfield, there were reports of tree branches snapped and on the ground.

There were no reports of injuries. In the storm’s aftermath, many in the area noticed a full rainbow. Miranda Olson sent us this photo:

MINDEN, Iowa [KETV] — The mayor of Minden, Iowa, says funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, also known as FEMA, can’t come fast enough. Last Thursday, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds requested an expedited Presidential Disaster Declaration for nine counties, including Pottawattamie, where Minden is. Mayor Kevin Zimmerman said the state and county can only do so much.

KETV in Omaha reports FEMA Region 7 external affairs director Michael Cappannari said damage assessments in Mills County are complete. On Tuesday, FEMA looked at damage in Shelby and Pottawattamie counties. Cappannari said the assessments should be done by Wednesday. That’s when communities like Minden will be one step closer to getting federal funds.

(Omaha/Valley, NE.) – Officials with the National Weather Service in Omaha, Tuesday, reported that on Monday, May 6, three Tornadoes swept through a portion of southwest Iowa. Tornado number 1 (rated an EF-2) touched down near Glenwood at approximately 8:48 p.m. It was 250 yards wide and carried wind speeds as high as 110 miles per hour. It traveled northeast for 5.66 miles before lifting at 8:55 pm.

The second tornado (an EF-1) touched down at around 9:07-p.m.near Carson and Macedonia. It was approximately 200 yards wide and carried with it 93 mile per hour winds. It was on the ground for 1.53 miles.

The third and final tornado (Also an EF-1) touched down at around 9:13-p.m. Tuesday, east of Minden and Shelby. The Weather Service says it was 450 yards wide and had winds of up to 110 miles per hour. The twister traveled northeast for 4.05 miles, and lifted at 9:19 pm.

(Radio Iowa) – There have already been 14 motorcyclists killed in accidents this year and the Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau and the Iowa D-O-T are trying to raise awareness of the problem. G-T-S-B spokesperson, Colleen Powell, says some people are not following basic safety rules.

“We know speed has been a factor even in our passenger cars, that people are just driving way too, fast excessive speeding. We may also be seeing that on motorcycles people being distracted,” she says. Powell says being distracted in a car or on a motorcycle can lead to bad results as you need to have all your attention focused on driving. She says there’s also another trend in the motorcycle deaths.

“Seventy-four percent of our motorcycle fatalities are unhelmeted, and that’s compared to the national average which sits closer to 38 percent,” She says. “So we’re almost double here in our state.”Powell says motorcyclists can give themselves more protection with a helmet. “We’re one of three states without a helmet law — right now people’s choice but we always encourage people to be protected, the same way we encourage people to wear seatbelts when they’re in a vehicle,” Powell says.

Motorcycles make up three tenths of one percent of all registered vehicles in the state, and point-33 percent of all vehicle miles traveled. But last year motorcycle deaths accounted for 16 percent of total traffic fatalities.

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds says a focus on what’s called “the science of reading” will improve the reading skills of students. The governor went to Adel Tuesday afternoon and sat among a group of first graders as their teacher led them through a reading lesson. The Adel-DeSoto-Minburn district adopted the science of reading three years ago in all grades and Travis Welker, the administrator in charge of the project — says they’ve had amazing results. Four years ago, tests showed a quarter of the district’s students were not skilled readers. This year’s results show 95 percent are proficient at reading and writing.

“Our teachers have taken this on at all levels. We’ve asked our high school teachers to engage in this, not just our lowest grade levels, ” he said, “and the results speak for themselves.” Reynolds chose an A-D-M board room as the site for signing a bill into law that requires Iowa schools to develop a plan for each student in first, second or third grade who is not reading at grade level. The law also requires testing of Iowa college students who want to be teachers to gauge their knowledge of the science of reading. Reynolds says the most recent data shows 35 percent of Iowa third graders aren’t reading at grade level.

Governor Kim Reynolds sat in the back row as ADM teacher Erin Koelker led her first graders through reading exercises.

“That’s why we’ve made it a priority to empower all teachers and school districts with the tools they need to implement the science of reading in their classrooms by providing critical training at no cost to 6000 teachers and 600 administrators,” Reynolds said. Nine-million dollars is set aside in the state budget for that training. “Stay tuned because I think this is something we’re going to be able to show progress year after year and really have some good wins to talk about,” Reynolds said.

The governor spoke with reporters at the end of a hallway the school had named “Literacy Way.”

(Radio Iowa) – Nearly 27-million dollars in state funding that could have been used for prevention and treatment of opioid use won’t be spent. States are getting money from legal settlements with pharmaceutical companies and distributors accused of fueling the opioid crisis, but Republicans in the Iowa House and Senate can’t agree on how money in the Iowa’s Opioid Settlement Fund should be spent. Republicans in the Senate favored letting Iowa’s attorney general and the Department of Health and Human Services distribute the money. House Speaker Pat Grassley says Republicans in the House had a different idea.

“Where we wanted to get is assign some of those dollars to specific projects, but at the same time not just blanket hand those dollars over to the department,” Grassley says. “…We wanted to at least set up an advisory board that the legislature would have some input on.” The state’s Opioid Settlement Fund will eventually receive 144 million dollars over the next several years. That is to be split evenly between state and local governments in Iowa. House Republicans proposed that new council made up of opioid experts in state government and the private sector review grant applications and make recommendations to the legislature for approval.

“To get those kind of dollars that you’re talking about out the door, I think the legislature should be involved in that conversation and ultimately that’s where the differences boiled down to,” Grassley says, “turn it over to the department or have a little bit more control by the legislature.”

Grassley made his comments during a recent appearance on “Iowa Press” on Iowa P-B-S.

(Radio Iowa) – The U.S. Labor Department says a Tennesse-based cleaning company will pay $649,000 in penalties for employing children at facilities that included the Sioux City Seaboard-Triumph pork plant.

An investigation earlier this year found that children, some as young as 13, were put on overnight sanitation shifts at the Sioux City plant and Perdue farms facility in Virginia. At the Seaboard Triumph facility, federal investigators witnessed children concealing their faces carrying glittered school backpacks before starting their overnight shift.

They learned children were assigned to use corrosive cleaners to clean dangerous kill floor equipment. Seaboard Triumph has since fired the company.

AMES, Iowa – May 7, 2024 – Join the Iowa Department of Transportation for a virtual presentation to share your input on U.S. 30 in Missouri Valley in Harrison County. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2027.

Virtual presentation:

When: Anytime between Tuesday, May 7, 2024 –  Monday, May 20, 2024

How to Attend: Navigate to https://pima.iowadotpi.com/public/event-registration/search?project_id=13099&pe_guid=2e180c4c-9c8f-4a4e-8645-5d35499bc272

Description: The website will help you get information about the project plans and allow you to give us feedback.  If you would like to receive future emails about this project or submit a comment or question for this project, you can go directly to: https://pima.iowadotpi.com/public/comment/project-comment?project_id=13099&pe_id=5928

Comments are due by Monday, May 20, 2023

For general information regarding the project, contact Scott Suhr, Field Services Coordinator, Iowa DOT District 4 Office, 2210 E 7^th St., Atlantic, Iowa 50022, phone 712-388-6883 or 800-289-4368, email Scott.Suhr@iowadot.us

Please contact the person listed above if you need information in another language or if you need an interpreter. We will provide these at no cost to you.

Find information on any DOT project at www.iowadot.gov/pim. There are several ways to keep informed about projects in your area. Iowa DOT ensures nondiscrimination and equal employment in all programs and activities in accordance with Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other nondiscrimination statutes. If you need more information or special assistance for persons with disabilities or limited English proficiency, contact Iowa DOT Civil Rights at 515-239-1111 or by email at civil.rights@iowadot.us.

(Radio Iowa) – Environmental groups and experts say a new study shows serious health issues surrounding two coal-fired plants operated by MidAmerican Energy in northwest Iowa just south of Sioux City. Josh Mandelbaum of the Environmental Law and Policy Center says “We know that these plants are massive carbon polluters. They’re impacting the climate, but on a local level, they are having an immediate and significant impact on the health of the communities surrounding these plants,” Mandelbaum says.

The study released by the Iowa Environmental Council says from 1999 to 2020, pollution from the plants caused 165 premature deaths in the region and 14-hundred overall. And it shows higher rates of asthma, C-O-P-D, and heart disease. Environmental Council Senior Policy Advocate Cody Smith. “We hope that our report is a wake-up call for the leadership of Mid-American Energy and that they act swiftly to become the responsible corporate neighbor they claim to be,” Smith says.

Smith and others who took part in a virtual news conference (Tuesday morning) say the public deserves better. They say lower-income and people of color are at the highest risk of health issues. A spokesperson for MidAmerican Energy says the company plans to phase out coal-fired plants by the year 2050.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa is joining 20 other states in a lawsuit over the Biden Administration’s move to expand Title Nine protections for women to ban discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation. Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird says the new rule violates the U-S Constitution as well as a federal law that requires agencies to fully consider the costs of complying with new regulations. “And that’s something I get to do as attorney general is to enforce our laws and constitution on the federal government when it gets out of control,” Bird says.

The new restriction would apply to all schools — from preschool through college — and schools that fail to comply could lose federal funding. Bird says the mandate tears down more than 50 years of landmark protections for girls and women who will now be forced to share private facilities with males. Governor Kim Reynolds says there are important biological differences between males and females and she asked the attorney general to join the lawsuit. The governor made an indirect reference to the rule during a speech at the Iowa Republican Party’s state convention.

“And by God, we will protect girl’s sports. Bring it on, bring it on,” Reynolds said, to cheers. “Bring it on!” Title Nine is the landmark civil rights law passed in 1972 that prohibits discrimination in any school or education program that receives federal funding and it led to an expansion of girls’ and women’s sports across the country. The attorneys general from Missouri and Arkansas are leading the lawsuit to try to stop the Biden Administration’s changes in Title Nine from going into effect August 1st.