Police in Glenwood report a man from Council Bluffs was arrested Tuesday. 24-year-old Dominic Durrett was arrested for possession of a controlled substance, and possession of drug paraphernalia. His bond was set at $1,300.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa D-N-R says treated wastewater is being dumped into the Iowa River due to a pipeline leak at the Eldora wastewater treatment plant. Recreational enthusiasts are being advised to avoid contact with the river below the 14th Avenue bridge on the east side of town due to suspected high e-coli bacteria levels. The wastewater was rerouted on Tuesday with the process expected to be ongoing for the next several days.

The DNR is monitoring the situation and will determine any future action along the way, as needed.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Joni Ernst says gun violence will be addressed in the Senate, following last week’s shootings at a Texas elementary school that left 19 children and two adults dead. Ernst, a Republican from Red Oak, calls the slayings in Uvalde “a horrible, evil act.” Ernst says, “We do have a number of members in the Senate that have been assigned by leadership to really take a hard look at this particular incident, what happened, background behind the shooter, and how this could have happened in such a lovely community.”

A bipartisan group of senators is working on a compromise plan that would bridge the gap between making schools safer while not infringing on people’s constitutional rights. “Just trying to get to the root cause of some of these mass shootings and how we can prevent in the future while maintaining people’s Second Amendment rights, which is extremely important, but understanding evil individuals,” Ernst says. “How do we prevent them from doing this type of activity?”

Ernst’s counterpart, Senator Chuck Grassley told Radio Iowa on Tuesday he’s hopeful common ground can be reached on bipartisan gun control legislation.

(Radio Iowa) – A new program at the University of Northern Iowa could help ease the state’s teacher shortage by allowing paraeducators to become certified teachers without leaving their current jobs. All classes for the two-year program, called the Purple Pathway for Paraeducators, will be offered online outside of normal work hours. Colleen Mulholland, dean of the U-N-I College of Education, says more schools are looking within their own classrooms to develop new teachers. “Paraeducators come to the profession in many, many different ways and many of them are very interested in continuing their career growth in education,” Mulholland says, “so the Purple Pathway is our attempt to fill that need.”

Mulholland says paras have experience in the classroom that makes them good candidates to become new teachers. “Paraeducators are committed to the community. They’re committed to the school,” she says. “They’re, in some cases, the constant or the continuity for students in their school.” Applications for the program will be accepted starting this week. Earlier this year, the state Department of Education announced a grant program to support schools that create apprenticeships for paraeducators to finish their teaching degrees.

(reporting by Grant Gerlock, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – Health experts are encouraging Iowans to make sure their children are up to date on their COVID-19 vaccinations before summer vacation starts. In May, the Centers for Disease Control expanded its recommendations for booster doses to include children who are five to eleven years old. Mike Brownlee, chief pharmacy officer at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, says kids should be fully vaccinated — and boosted — before heading off to summer activities. “So as we think about where people are traveling to, they may be traveling into areas that are higher risk,” Brownlee says. “We’ve seen that changing throughout the country where, with this new sub variant, it’s still spreading, the virus is still here, the pandemic is still a real thing.”

Brownlee says state data show just about a quarter of the state’s five-to-eleven-year-olds are fully vaccinated, and COVID cases are rising across the country. “We know that millions of kids have been infected,” he says. “Last I remember, about 30% of those that don’t really have other conditions still end up being hospitalized. Federal health officials recommend children get the booster shot five months after their last dose, or three months after if they are immunocompromised.

(reporting by Natalie Krebs, Iowa Public Radio)