(Radio Iowa) – Republican state lawmakers have reelected Jack Whitver as Senate majority leader. Whitver, of Grimes, announced in mid-May, he was undergoing treatment for a brain tumor, but would remain in the Iowa Senate and continue in his role as the top Republican in the chamber. Whitver has been a state senator since 2011. He became Senate President in 2017, then Senate Republicans chose him to be their majority leader in March of 2018. This was his opening message.

“It’s easier to get to the top than stay at the top,” Whitver said in 2018, “but I want to challenge this body, the House, this governor, our state to continue to make the tough choices needed to keep us as the number one state in the nation.” Whitver was a walk-on who wound up becoming a starting wide receiver for the Iowa State Cyclones. During an interview with Radio Iowa seven years ago, he compared that experience to being a lawmaker.

“To get anything done at the capitol, you have to be part of a team…so all the lessons that I learned playing football growing up, they apply a lot more than people would think to politics,” Whitver said. Whitver has been a driving force behind the tax cut packages that have cleared the legislature over the past few years. He’s an attorney who also earned an M-B-A. “I consider myself an entrepreneur more than anything. I like to say I’m a businessman with a law degree,” Whitver said, with a laugh. Whitver owns fitness clubs and a “Smoothie King” franchise in central Iowa. Whitver’s former Iowa State teammates and coaches, as well as current coach Matt Campbell have publicly expressed support for Whitver as he’s battled cancer.

“He’s going through a really hard battle right now,” Campbell said. “…It’s going to take all of us to rally around him.” A number of people and a few other teams posted messages of support for Whitver on October 26th, as 26 was Whitver’s jersey number. Whitver was on the Cyclone football team from 1999 to 2003 and finished his college career with five touchdowns and 96 career receptions.

(Radio Iowa) – Plans are on track to completely revamp the eastern Iowa facility which honors the only American president who was born in Iowa. The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch is getting a 20-million dollar make-over, inside and out, according to David Ancelet, an assistant director of the Hoover Presidential Foundation. “There’s going to be a long renovation process,” Ancelet says. “It’s going to start in the first quarter of 2025, we’re not sure when, but it’s not going to wrap up until summer of 2026.” The full remodel and renovation project will essentially take the interior of the facility down to the studs, with an exterior facade update as well.

While hundreds of pieces of Hoover memorabilia have been shown over the decades in the museum, hundreds more are in storage that will finally be shown to the public, many for the first time. “There will be some items that are in the current museum that’ll be, I guess ‘repurpose’ is not quite the right word, but it’s going to be shown in a different way,” Ancelet says. “This is going to really take people through the life of Herbert Hoover, kind of have emotional up and downs throughout his life, and some of these former things that people are used to seeing will be reintegrated into the new museum.”

Hoover lived a fascinating life and the museum’s current exhibits tell the story — from his birth, to his life as an engineer, Secretary of Commerce, the 31st President of the United States, and his continued philanthropic work after leaving the White House. The re-envisioned museum will tell those same stories, but with more artifacts and sophisticated, user-friendly technology.  “It’ll be the entire story of Herbert Hoover, both what people perceive as negative,” he says, “but it’ll also educate the public about a lot of his humanitarian work and charitable work and a lot of the good parts about him.” The museum first opened in 1962 and hasn’t had a full remodel since the early 1990s. When it reopens in 2026, First Lady Lou Hoover will be featured more prominently.

“That is correct. They’re going to expand on Lou quite a bit more,” Ancelet says. “I mean, she has a great story of her own. There’s been a recent book written about her, so it’s really an opportunity to showcase her life as well, alongside Herbert.” The full price tag on the renovation project is 20-point-three million dollars, a large portion of which has already been raised by the foundation. “It’s largely done by individual donations from just everyday people who see the value in this, especially in the state of Iowa, in the community and such,” he says, “but we also have received grants from other organizations that see the value and the benefit of being able to retell the history of Herbert Hoover.”

To learn more or contribute, visit: timelessvaluescampaign.org. The library and museum will be open every day through the end of this year, with the only exceptions being Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day.

(Radio Iowa) – Republican state lawmakers retained control of the House and Senate after a successful election and are keeping the same leadership for the next session. Representative Pat Grassley of New Hartford was re-elected Speaker of the House Tuesday, and Matt Windschitl of Missouri Valley remains House Majority Leader.

Both first gained those positions in 2019. Republicans re-elected Jack Whitver as Senate majority leader, a position he has held since 2018. Whitver has been undergoing treatment for a brain tumor.

But information released from the Senate says recent scans have shown that the tumor is shrinking and many of his symptoms have improved. Senate Republicans also reelected Amy Sinclair as Senate President.

(Radio Iowa) – Rainfall normally drops off as we head into November, but that hasn’t been the case as we approach the midway mark of the month. National Weather Service meteorologist, Dillon Dodson, says we should see more rain this morning (Wednesday), starting on the western side of the state. “And then moving east through the state, through the morning hours and into the afternoon,” he says. “Rainfall amounts probably be the highest over the western portion of the state. As you get further east, you get into a little more dry air and slightly lower rainfall amounts.”

Western Iowa is forecast to see between one quarter to three quarters of an inch of rain, with one tenth to half an inch in the east. Dodson doesn’t anticipate any severe weather with the rain. “You can’t rule out maybe an isolated rumble of thunder, but for the most part, it’s going to be going to be just a soaking rain. You know that typical fall rainfall that we see, no severe weather or anything like that,” Dodson says. Dodson says rainfall amounts vary across the state and many places like Des Moines are running well ahead of normal. “We’re actually at one-point-one inches over normal at the moment (in Des Moines),” he says.

The temperatures are expected to warm up through this week. “This weekend, we might get kind of creeping more above normal. I think our typical high for this time of year is right around, 50 degrees in Des Moines, you know, a little cooler for the North, little warmer for the South. So we’ll be above normal, maybe five to ten degrees above normal through the weekend, and then back to right around normal through next week,” Dodson says. Dodson says the ground isn’t yet frozen, so a lot of that rain we get should soak into what has been dry soil.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Cass County Sheriff’s Office reports a man from Dallas County was arrested last week on sexual offense charges. Authorities say on November 5^th, 2024, Cass County Sheriff’s deputies made contact with a female truck driver who was reporting to have been victim of a sex offense while traveling on Interstate 80.

The woman told Deputies that she was traveling East on I-80 near mile-marker 57 (The Olive Street Exit), when a man driving a black Ford F-150 pickup pulled alongside her, matched the speed of the woman’s vehicle, and began exposing himself and his genitalia to her while traveling.  His alleged activities took place off and on for approximately 30 to 40 minutes.

Shawn Assman

Once the man realized that the reporting party was contacting the police, he sped off.  The male subject, later identified as 38-year-old Shawn Assman, of Waukee, was arrested for continuing his alleged activities into Dallas County.  During the investigation, the Cass County Sheriff’s Office worked with the DeSoto Police Department to find that Assman had admitted to masturbating twice before his arrest.

With the victim’s statements along with corroborating evidence from DeSoto Police Department, Assman was charged with Indecent Exposure and a warrant was signed for his arrest.

Assman turned himself-in on the warrant November 7th. He was released after posting bond.

(Radio Iowa) – A central Iowa man is the first ever in the state to win the highest level of the multi-state “Lucky for Life” lottery game. Sixty-four-year-old Shelby Willis of Des Moines won the one-thousand dollar a day for life top prize. Willis says the clerk was surprised when he went to the Quick Trip Saturday where he bought the ticket as he says her jaw dropped, and then she got a big smile on her face.

Shelby Willis (IA Lottery photo)

Willis is an Air Force veteran, so he wasn’t upset about having to wait until today (Tuesday) to cash in the ticket as the Lottery Headquarters was closed Monday for Veterans Day.

Willis is taking a lump sum payout five-point-75 million dollars.

(Radio Iowa) – Medical researchers at the University of Iowa report promising progress in fighting one of the worst cancer killers. The phase-two clinical trial found that adding high-dose, intravenous vitamin C to chemotherapy doubles the overall survival rate of patients with late-stage pancreatic cancer from eight months to 16. The study’s lead author says the results were so strong in showing the therapy’s benefits for survival that they stopped the trial early.

The five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer is only 13-percent. Some 64,000 people will be diagnosed with it nationwide this year, and more than 50,000 will die from it. UI researchers say the use of vitamin C in an IV also shows a significant boost in survival rates for patients with glioblastoma, a deadly form of brain cancer. It’s also being tested at the UI in lung cancer treatment. The researchers say vitamin C is very inexpensive to use in an IV — and it’s very well tolerated by patients.

All three clinical trials were funded by the National Cancer Institute.

(Radio Iowa) – University of Iowa researchers have landed a $10-million federal grant to develop a new treatment for ovarian cancer. Jill Kolesar, dean of the U-I College of Pharmacy, is working on a drug that will make ovarian tumors more sensitive to immunotherapy by helping the immune system recognize cells around them. Kolesar says this could bring ovarian cancer treatment into the 21st century.

“Treatment paradigm for ovarian cancer has not changed in the last 30, 40 years,” Kolesar says. “We still use a doublet of chemotherapy, which has a lot of adverse effects and is not all that effective. Most people with ovarian cancer still die of their cancers.”

It’s estimated more than 12,000 women nationwide will die from ovarian cancer this year, according to federal data. Kolesar says ovarian cancer is often diagnosed in the late stages. “It kind of grows in your abdomen where there’s plenty of space and before it starts causing symptoms, it’s usually pretty big,” she says, “and the bigger cancers are, the later stage they are, the harder they are to treat.” She says the cancer is also often made of cells that hide from the immune system, making it hard to target and nearly always fatal.

The grant comes from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

(Radio Iowa) – Another long-running Iowa music festival is undergoing changes. The Englert Theatre in Iowa City has produced the Mission Creek Festival since 2014, but Festival Director Brian Johannesen says anew version is planned for next year. “After ten years, I think that we felt like the Mission Creek became such a huge part of our identity and what we do, and we’re so grateful for that, but we’re ready for the next chapter,” he says.

The Greater Des Moines Music Coalition announced in October that the 80/35 Music Festival it has put on since 2005 is ending and its future is not determined. Johannesen says the new festival will be produced by one of the festival’s co-founders.

“I think, on the whole, you know, we’re ready to kind of move on to some different exciting festival ideas that we’re working on, and needed to just kind of clear some space,” Johannesen says.

The Mission Creek Festival’s 20th season before the change will be next April in Iowa City. Organizers of the 80/35 event said there are now many music-related organizations and businesses in central Iowa that are well-positioned to continue the event.

(Glenwood, Iowa) – The Glenwood Police Department reports two arrests. On Sunday, 43-year-old Nathan Styles, of Glenwood, was arrested for Eluding, and Possession of a Controlled Substance. He later posted a $2,000 bond and was release. And, on Saturday, Glenwood Police arrested 44-year-old Barbara Riley, of Glenwood, for Driving While Barred. She also later posted a $2,000 bond and was released.