(Radio Iowa) – A coalition of nearly 20 area shelters and housing organizations in northern Iowa recently completed the biannual Point-in-Time homeless census. Numbers were generally up across the region, but at the Northern Lights Alliance of Shelters in Mason City, individuals counted outside shelters were down. Shelter executive director Jesse Germundson (JER-men-sen) attributes that to the work of his outreach network, and to more leniency during the wintertime.

During the cold months, Germundson says they lift some rules on sobriety, and as long as someone who’s under the influence of substances is stable, they’ll be let in. He says he counted nearly 50 individuals indoors during the six-hour census. The numbers are used by the U-S Department of Housing and Urban Development to help determine how to distribute housing resources.

(Radio Iowa) A program called Read Across Iowa offers the state’s elementary school teachers free books, lesson plans and activities for their classrooms during March, with a focus on food and agriculture. Professor Constance Beecher, in Iowa State University’s School of Education, organizes the annual effort, which has reached some 72-thousand young Iowans in all 99 counties just in the few years it’s been around. “It’s really a month-long celebration, kind of a public service campaign, about the importance of reading,” Beecher says, “and especially thinking about the links between reading and agriculture in our state.”

In the next few weeks, volunteers will pack up one-thousand book kits to ship out to hundreds of teachers statewide. Teachers were able to sign up for the give-a ways online starting in mid-January and already, all one-thousand kits have been snapped up. “We don’t have a budget for this,” Beecher says. “It’s all sort of goodwill. We go out and try to get grants and so we landed on 1,000 books just as a nice round number of what we thought we could raise some money for, so it’s basically a first come-first serve basis.”

While the free books are gone, she says teachers can still get the lesson plans and other elements of the program on the website. Beecher, who’s the family literacy state specialist through Human Sciences Extension and Outreach, says it’s vital to read to young children for language and literacy development, and the program is helping students to reach new heights. “We’ve changed the theme each year to make it fun and interesting,” Beecher says. “So, last year we had a farm-to-table theme. This year, our theme is food science, so we’re really looking at the science of different kinds of food.”

Continuing with this year’s food science theme, several of the books focus on topics like bread baking, making ice cream and turning grapes into jelly. They’re accompanied by links to simple recipes and video recordings with the authors. “One of our books is called ‘Bread Lab’ and it was written by people who actually work in the bread lab at Washington State University,” Beecher says. “Kids might not realize that there’s so much science behind recipes and developing food and food safety and that there’s all these really great careers.”

The I-S-U Extension is also partnering with Iowa 4-H and the Iowa Agriculture Literacy Foundation on the program.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak have arrested a woman on Animal Neglect charges. 64-year-old Linda Sue Schomburg, of Red Oak, was arrested Thursday night in the 300 block of E. Oak Street, in Red Oak. She faces three counts of Animal Abuse causing serious injury or death – an Aggravated Misdemeanor. Schomburg was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $2,000 bond.

Additional details concerning her case were not released by Red Oak Police.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – At their meeting on Thursday, the Enhance Iowa Board awarded $370,000 in Community Attraction and Tourism (CAT) grants to a museum project in Grinnell and horse stable and warmup arena in Mason City.

Details for the projects receiving CAT grants follow:

Project Name: Grinnell Historical Museum Society, Grinnell
Total Project Cost: $1,507,472
Amount Awarded: $200,000
Project Description: This project includes the conversion of a former retail space into a handicap-accessible museum with temporary exhibits and permanent displays of Grinnell’s history, a collections care space, restrooms and catering kitchen.

Project Name: North Iowa Events Center – Horse Stable and Warmup Arena, Mason City
Total Project Cost: $1,090,960
Amount Awarded: $170,000
Project Description: This project includes the construction of a new 16,000-square-foot stable and warmup
arena with storage space.

The Enhance Iowa Program provides financial incentives to communities for the construction of recreational, cultural, educational or entertainment facilities that enhance the quality of life in Iowa. To date, 138 CAT grants have been awarded by the board, totaling $46,805,023. The next Enhance Iowa Board meeting is scheduled for March 7, 2024.

DES MOINES, Iowa — The governors from three Midwestern states have announced they will be traveling to the southern border. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, and Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen are joining Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and 12 other governors* from across the U.S. in Eagle Pass, Texas for a press conference. In a release, Reynolds’ office said the conference is in response to President Biden’s “reckless open border policies.”

The press conference will be held Sunday, Feb. 4 at 2:30 p.m. Gov. Reynolds will then hold a press briefing at the Iowa State Capitol on Monday, Feb. 5 at 10:30 a.m.

Reynolds, Noem and Pillen have all sent troops from their respective state national guards to the border.

*The list of governors in addition to those mentioned above includes: Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders; Georgia Governor Brian Kemp; Idaho Governor Brad Little; Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb; Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry; Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves; Missouri Governor Mike Parson; Montana Governor Greg Gianforte; New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu; Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, and Utah Governor Spencer Cox.  

OMAHA, Neb. [KETV] —  Eppley Airfield will be offering a new direct flight this spring. Frontier Airlines will launch a nonstop service from Omaha to Dallas/Fort Worth starting May 17. Fares will start at $19 for the flight, which will be available three times per week.

Frontier Airlines vice president of network and operations design Josh Flyr says “This is a massive expansion of our operation from coast to coast and internationally as part of our focus on growing in underserved and overpriced routes. More destinations and greater frequency means a larger number of consumers will soon be able to enjoy Frontier’s convenient, affordable ‘Low Fares Done Right.’”

Eppley has 26 nonstop destinations available, including four from Frontier Airlines.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Joni Ernst is joining other Republicans in the U-S Senate who’re calling for an investigation of how the Biden Administration has handled changes in the Free Application for Federal Student Aid — called FAFSA. “The Department of Education wasted time on a lot of socialist schemes and taxpayer funded handouts,” Ernst says. “What we need is transparency for Iowa families and that’s why I’m demanding an investigation.”

An estimated 17 million college-bound students who filled out FAFSA forms will have to wait for financial aid offers from schools. That’s because the data in those forms is normally delivered to colleges and universities in the late fall or early winter, but this year’s delivery is now expected in March. It means students likely won’t find out until April how much federal financial aid they qualify for and how much their college of choice might offer in scholarships.  “The Biden Department of Education’s botched roll out forced uncertainty this school year,” Ernst says.

A federal law passed in late 2020 called for simplifying the FAFSA form. Ernst says it has led to an unfair calculation of a farm family’s ability to come up with the money to pay for a child’s college education.  “Their folks have farm ground, they have equipment, so they’re asset rich, but they are cash poor,” Ernst said, “and these ag families should not be forced to sell their farm so that their children can go to college.”

Ernst says the Biden Administration should have taken action to change the income, asset and debt calculator in the FAFSA for farm families. Last March,, Ernst sent the U-S Education Secretary a letter, saying the Iowa College Aid Commission had calculated that students from some farm families will see a significant drop in the amount of federal aid they may receive. Last April, Ernst co-sponsored a bill that would have addressed the issue.