(Decorah, Iowa) – Following Luther College President Jenifer Ward’s announcement of her plans to retire at the conclusion of the current academic year, the Decorah private college has named its provost as president-elect. According to a news release, Brad Chamberlain, who has served in both academic and administrative roles at the university since 2001, was chosen by the Luther College Board of Regents to become Luther’s 12th president after a national search.

Chamberlain, as well as members of the board of regents, spoke to the campus community Friday, where he said he is “humbled” to have the faith and support of the board and college to name him as its new leader. In the news release, he said “When people think about a college that is drawing excellence out of students, I want them to  think about Luther College. Students arrive at Luther with a set of dreams, and we help them achieve those dreams. But we also want to plant within them dreams that are bigger than the ones they brought with them to college.”

According to the release, Chamberlain is the first internal candidate in more than 100 years to be chosen as president. Shannon Duval, vice chair of the Board of Regents and co-chair of the Presidential Selection Committee, said in the release that during the search, consultants shared that Chamberlain “brings a national-caliber set of experience and skills” to Luther, and the university is lucky that he chose Decorah to make his home.

Bradley Chamberlain – President-Elect
Provost
Professor of Chemistry (Luther College photo)

Before taking on the provost role on an interim basis in August 2022 then permanently in December 2022, Chamberlain served as the college’s vice president for mission and communication, according to the release, where he led efforts to put in place an integrated brand strategy, created a strategic internal communications plan and helped lead a response team to the COVID-19 pandemic. He started at Luther as a visiting professor before joining the chemistry department full-time.

In his speech to students, staff, faculty and alumni, Chamberlain said Luther and its community has shaped the last 20 years of his life, and while the university is facing challenges seen across higher education today, he has hope and confidence for the future. He said in the release he wants to use Luther’s identity as an institution that “inspires and equips students to courageously serve the common good” to ensure the university, and the students it prepares to lead meaningful and purposeful lives after graduation, thrive in the years to come.

“At liberal arts colleges, we talk about the power of ideas, and we teach our students how to evaluate ideas and connect ideas, how to activate ideas,” Chamberlain said in the release. “This is what I think the world needs right now. As we look at the challenges that society is facing, these are not necessarily technical challenges — they are adaptive challenges. This is what a place like Luther College prepares students to do. They are prepared to lead and to serve, but above all, through their leadership and service to others, to make everyone around them better.”

DES MOINES, Iowa [KCCI] — The Iowa Secretary of State’s office is determining whether a spelling error in the wording of a proposed constitutional amendment on Polk County ballots would create any problems in counting those votes. As early voting began Wednesday, some ballots in Polk County contained a typo in its section on the constitutional amendment related to the gubernatorial line of succession. The constitutional amendment reads:

Lieutenant governor or lieutenant governor-elect to become or act as governor or governor-elect.

If there is a temporary disability of the governor, the lieutenant governor shall act as governor until the disability is removed, or the governor dies, resigns, or is removed from office. In case of the death, resignation, or removal from office of the governor, the lieutenant governor shall become governor for the remainder of the term, which shall create a vacancy in the office of lieutenant governor. This section shall also apply, as appropriate, to the governor-elect and the lieutenant governor-elect.

On at least some Polk County ballots cast in early voting, the word “until” was misspelled as “unitl.”

The vote in this year’s 2024 general election is the final step in the state’s process of amending the constitution. The gubernatorial succession measure, as well as another proposed amendment dealing with age and citizenship requirements for voting, must be approved by a simple majority of voters to make it into the Iowa Constitution. Before these measures appeared on Iowans’ ballots, they were passed through two consecutive general assemblies as required by state law.

(WASHINGTON, D-C) – After the Small Business Administration (SBA) claimed it had run out of funds for disaster relief, U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), the top Republican on the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, alongside her fellow committee members Senators Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Todd Young (R-Ind.), and James Risch (R-Idaho), demanded answers over the agency’s mismanagement of disaster resources. In the letter, the senators highlighted that the SBA failed to notify Congress of the need for supplemental funding ahead of time, as required by law. They also stressed how bureaucratic inefficiency was to blame for the SBA coming up short for Americans in need.

The senators wrote, “Under existing law, the SBA already has several reporting requirements to provide Congress with sufficient notification and information before any shortfall occurs in its disaster account. Unfortunately, the SBA failed to comply, or only partially complied, with several of these provisions and is now, at the eleventh-hour, sounding alarm bells. We must consider whether SBA’s internal decisions were the catalyst for this unfortunate situation. For example, SBA currently has more than $550 million in its disaster administrative expenses account to pay for salaries, but did not request any reprogramming to their disaster loan fund.”

They said also, “Further, during a disaster, on-the-ground staff and training is essential. Congress has long recognized the need for agencies to scale up and down during times of disaster. In light of this, the SBA has a statutorily authorized disaster cadre, which is not meant to fall below 1,000 employees. Based on information recently provided by the SBA in response to questions as it sought supplemental funds, it appears that this cadre may have vanished, but no one was notified. This raises stark concerns about the SBA’s ability to provide for disaster victims during the immediate aftermath of these storms and its ability to inform Congress in accordance with the law,” the senators concluded.

Click here to view the full letter.

Des Moines, IA – State Auditor Rob Sand, Friday, issued a response to the Iowa Judicial Branch’s statement explaining how errors in the collection and distribution of court debt occurred and the steps being taken to rectify the problem.

“The Judicial Branch should be commended for its transparency and bringing forward plans to resolve problems with the coding used to distribute court debt.  They have clearly stated how this process has unfolded this far – something the Auditor’s Office is statutorily prohibited from doing,” Sand said. He added, “This problem is not entirely of the Judiciary’s own making but partially due to legislators demanding very quick changes, and rather than mischaracterize facts, legislators should work to reallocate the money as only legislators can do.”

State Auditor Rob Sand

Chapter 11.42 of the Code of Iowa requires the Auditor’s Office to maintain confidential all information received during the course of an audit or examination, including allegations of misconduct or noncompliance, until a report is issued.

(DES MOINES, Iowa WHO-TV/Iowa Dept. of Ed)— Iowa will soon have a new education license plate and it will be designed by a student. The Department of Education is hosting a statewide contest where all kindergarten through 12th graders can take part in designing the state’s next education license plate.

Student have until December 1st to submit their designs to their art teachers. Teachers can submit up to 10 to the Department of Education. A panel will pick out the semi-finalists and all of these designs will be on display at the Iowa Department of Education. Iowans will then get to vote on their favorite.

The winner will be notified in late May, and production of the new license plate will start next summer.

Any Iowan can choose to have an education license plate on their vehicle. There is a $35 registration fee and a $10 annual recurring fee. All proceeds will go towards student transportation costs.

For more information on the license plate challenge, click this link.

**10/21: Corrects story to show the pedestrian was a woman**

(Webster County, Iowa) – A 72-year-old woman was injured this (Friday) morning, when she was struck by an SUV while he was crossing a road in Fort Dodge. The Iowa State Patrol says Wen Hsing Drew, of Fort Dodge, was crossing N. 29th Street from the west side walk at around 7:53-a.m., when she was hit by a 2023 Ford Bronco. The SUV – driven by 36-year-old Amanda Lawler, of Ft. Dodge – was turning south onto N. 29th Street after stopping at the E. 6th Avenue stop sign.

Her vehicle struck Drew in the middle of N. 29th Street. The Patrol said there are NO painted crosswalk lines between the sidewalks crossing 29th.

Wen Drew was transported by ambulance to Unity Point Hospital and then flown by Life Flight to Iowa Methodist in Des Moines. There was no report on her condition. The accident remains under investigation.

(Radio Iowa) – The director of the Iowa Department of Public Safety talked in detail for the first time today (Friday) about the investigation into the January shootings at Perry High School that left the principal, one student and the 17-year-old student shooter dead. Director Stephan Bayens talked about the potential motive, and says they found was no theme from a belief system standpoint, no evidence to substantiate any claim of bullying or the existence of a grievance. “There is significant evidence of this shooter’s fascination with prior school shootings. There is evidence of copycat behavior from the school shooter regarding prior school shootings where significant details reside in the public domain,” Bayens says.

He says the victims were not targeted and appeared to have been a product of immediate availability, there was evidence of meticulous week long planning, rather than an unprepared emotional response. Bayens says they recovered writings from the shooter that indicated he was suicidal.  “He desired to be famous, he desired to commit suicide, he desired to take others with him,” he says. Bayens says the primary weapon used in the shooting was a 20 gage Remington 870 shotgun. ” There was significant investigative efforts made to identify the source of the shotgun. I can say that agents were able to trace the original purchaser of that shotgun, and it happened roughly 20 years before the shooting,” he says. “We traced it through successive purchasers where we could but eventually that shotgun was sold in a private sale, and at that point in time, the trail went cold. The last time we could put that shotgun in a particular person’s hand was roughly 10 to 15 years prior to the shooting.”

Steven Bayens, Iowa Public Safety Commissioner

Bayens says they can say that the shotgun did not come from the parents home, and though not confirmed, is likely that the shotgun came from a large gun collection within the extended family, and that the shotgun was likely taken without the owner’s knowledge. The shooter also had Ruger 22 caliber revolver that was not used and had been legally purchased by the shooter’s father in 2020. It was unsecured in the family home. There was also an improvised explosive device, that investigators found was not particularly complex. He says there were some red flags surrounding the shooter.  ” I can say that there was no evidence that any other person knew of the shooter’s specific intentions on January 4th,” Bayens says. “That being said, I can say that others were aware of the shooter’s general interest in school shootings. Others were aware with of his fascination for violence.”

Bayens says there had been concerns in school before the shooting. “We can say that the shooter in this case, did have broad behavioral issues, had broad mental health concerns, and that many of these concerns were present years in advance of the shooting on January 4th,” he says. Bayens says the Iowa D-C-I’s investigation was purely criminal in nature and not an audit or a review of the processes, and it was turned over the county attorney to determine charges.

The Dallas County Attorney announced Thursday there would be no charges in the shooting.