(Red Oak, Iowa) – A search warrant executed at around 1:50-a.m. today (Wednesday), in Red Oak, resulted in a woman’s arrest on drug and child endangerment charges. Red Oak Police conducted the search warrant on a residence in the 100 block of E. Nuckols Street, and arrested 40-year-old Jodie Michele Vanhouten, of Red Oak, on charges that include:

• Possession of Drug Paraphernalia (Simple Misdemeanor).
• Possession of a Controlled Substance – Methamphetamine (Serious Misdemeanor).
• 2 counts of Using a Juvenile to commit certain offenses – a Class C Felony.
• 2 counts of Child Endangerment – a Class D Felony.
• Unlawful Possession of Prescription Pills (Serious Misdemeanor), and
• 4 counts of Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor (Simple Misdemeanor).

Vanhouten was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $10,000 bond. Red Oak Police were assisted by the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office and Montgomery County Communications Center.

(Iowa Capital Dispatch) – The Iowa Senate passed a bill Tuesday requiring Iowa schools to adopt new social studies and civics education standards to include a more focused coverage of events and subjects in U.S. history.

House File 2545 passed on a 33-14 vote and was sent to the Senate. It calls for the Iowa Department of Education director to conduct a review of Iowa school curriculum, education standards and high school graduation rates and give recommendations to the governor and General Assembly by July 1, 2025. The bill still includes this goal, but was amended on the floor to include another subject: history and social studies education.

Some of language in the amendment came from House File 2330, a bill passed by the Iowa House in February but not taken up by the Senate. The original House bill would have mandated that history curriculum included subjects like the “history and meaning of the United States flag and national anthem,” “exemplary figures in western civilization, the United States, and the state of Iowa” including Benjamin Franklin, Frederick Douglass and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, as well as documents like the Declaration of Independence and Articles of Confederation.

The Senate amendment includes similar provisions, requiring that “exemplary figures and important events” from western civilization, U.S. and Iowa history are covered, as well as the model of the U.S. state and federal government “in comparison to alternative forms of government, and the crimes against humanity that have occurred under communist regimes since 1917.”

The bill directs the Iowa Board of Education to conduct a review and revision of the state’s social studies standards to include these subjects for students in grades 1 through 12 in a relevant and age-appropriate manner. These standards would be adopted by Dec. 31, 2025.

Democrats in the Senate argued that the bill was overly prescriptive of schools. The bill goes back to the House for consideration.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa State Fair and the Iowa Lottery have teamed up for a State Fair themed scratch ticket. Iowa Lottery C-E-O Matt Strawn says it’s the first ticket specifically targeting the annual event. “A five dollar ticket where you can win a 50-thousand dollar top prize up to 50-thousand dollars on the ticket alone,” he says. “I suspect that’ll buy a corn-dog or two out here come August.” There’s a second chance as those with losing scratch tickets will be able to enter them to be part of a “Fair Fever” promotion on August 8th. “Twenty people will be out there on a live game show on the Grand Concourse on opening day of the fair and those 20 Iowans, those 20 Iowa Lottery players, are going to have the opportunity to compete for a guaranteed one million dollars in prizes,” Strawn says.

The final contestant in the game show will have a chance to the grand prize. “We’ll also — right out there in a live lottery game show — will have the opportunity to compete for a five million dollar prize,” he says. And that last contestant will go away with a minimum prize of 500-thousand dollars. Iowa State Fair C-E-O, Jeremy Parsons, says the pairing with the Lottery’s statewide reach may bring more people to the fairgrounds. “That’s our hope. You know one of the great things that the Iowa Lottery does really is they blanket the entire state in terms of their media coverage they get to all corners of the state,” he says.

Iowa State Fair CEO Jeremy Parsons talks about the new ticket as Lottery CEO Matt Strawn watches. (Radio Iowa photo)

Parsons says it could make those who’ve never visited the State Fair to give it a look. “We really think we’ll probably get the Iowa State Fair top of mind maybe more than ever this summer,” Parsons says.

The Iowa Lottery and the Iowa State Fair do have a vast history, as the first every scratch tickets began selling on August 22nd, 1985 on the fairgrounds. Proceeds from the Iowa Lottery have been used through the years to fund upgrades to the various facilities at the Fair, including the 1997 grandstand renovation.