With classes starting next week for hundreds of thousands of Iowa students, many school districts statewide are facing a common problem — a lack of school bus drivers. In northwest Iowa, Le Mars Community Schools Superintendent Steven Webner says they’ve tried to prepare for the inevitable.

Webner says this bus driver shortage was anticipated so they’ve tried to get ahead of the problem.

Bigger buses carrying more kids means longer rides both in the morning and the afternoon, and more time behind the wheel for the scarce number of drivers.

An online report shows a wide range of school bus driver salaries in Iowa, with some making as little as 16-thousand-500 dollars a year, while others may be bringing in up to 41-thousand.

The Iowa Barn Foundation will hold their annual All-State Barn Tour on September 16th and 17th with 72 historic barns across the state open for touring inside and out. Many of the owners and family members will be on hand to share the stories behind their barns, which served as the central hub of activity on the farm. The Iowa countryside will be one expansive museum with barns located across the state. The self-guided tour is free and open to the public.

The Iowa Barn Foundation is especially excited to have a record eight round barns on the tour this year, which are the most unique and rare type of barns built in the state. Out of the approximately 200,000 barns built in Iowa, only 250 were round (including octagonal and multi-sided) representing just 0.13% of all barns built. Only 74 of Iowa’s round barns remain standing today, and many in various states of disrepair. Each of the 8 restored round barns on the tour are unique works of art, and visitors will leave with a great appreciation of the craftsmanship that went into their construction.

Why were round barns built? The largest surge in Iowa round barn construction came in 1910-1920 after they were promoted by universities, including Iowa State, for dairy operations. The circular interior layout was pitched as more efficient for the farmer to work in a circular pattern, accentuated by a central silo. Material efficiency in construction and greater structural stability were also key advantages cited. The enthusiasm for these barns was short-lived. Many of the efficiency claims were largely overstated and offset by more complicated and expensive construction methods. Construction largely ended as the 1920s came to a close.

The 1883 Secrest Octagonal Barn in Johnson County received an Award of Distinction in 2023, and it is joining the fall tour for the first time. The three-story bank barn is like no other barn in the world featuring an 8-sided bell-shaped roof topped with a cupola 72 feet above the ground. All eight of the round barns offer a glimpse into a unique period of agriculture history in our state. Don’t forget about the 64 other historic barns to visit as well, each with their own story to tell.

Full tour details can be found online at https://iowabarnfoundation.org/barn-tour/2023-fall

The Union County Sheriff’s Office reports no injuries occurred during a single vehicle accident on Thursday evening. At 8:02 p.m. Deputies responded to an accident on High and Dry Road. It was determined that a 2011 Chevy Equinox driven by 19-year-old Ella Jean Hoffman of Creston was traveling southbound on High & Dry Road when she swerved to miss a deer standing in the roadway and went into the ditch on the west side. All airbags deployed but Hoffman reported no injuries. The vehicle was disabled and privately arranged to be towed from the scene.

The state unemployment rate held steady at two-point-seven percent for the third straight month in July. Iowa Workforce Development spokesperson Jess Dougherty says the number of people entering the workforce continues to increase.

He says the workforce participation has steadily worked its way back since the pandemic.

Some economists say they see concern among businesses about ongoing inflation and the state of the national economy. Dougherty says that is an issue in Iowa as well.

The service industries saw some losses in July.

The demand for employees continues to be strong, so when something like the recent closing of a trucking company happens, those 180 workers can often be absorbed into other companies.

Total non-farm employment has gained 14-thousand-400 jobs since last year. Education and health care gained the bulk of those jobs.

A southwest Iowa man is facing dozens of child sex abuse charges for allegedly abusing a child for the past decade.

Forty-two-year-old Ryan Kissell had been employed as a coach by Creston schools, but was hired in May to teach and coach in the Nodaway Valley School District in Greenfield. Court records indicate the alleged abuse was not connected to school activities in Creston and did not happen on school property. The Creston News Advertiser was first to report that Kissell was arrested yesterday (Wednesday) and, according to a Creston Police report, the alleged abuse of a child has been going on since 2013. Kissell has been charged with one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child, 24 counts of lascivious acts with a child and 21 counts of second degree child sex abuse.

According to statement from the Nodaway Valley School District, Kissell has been placed on administrative leave. He had been hired to be a special education teacher at the high school in Greenfield and as head football coach for the Nodaway Valley/Orient-Macksburg football team. School is scheduled to start next Wednesday in the district.

A group of lawmakers is recommending that new guidelines be developed for grants from the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund. The grants are for things like car or home repairs or medical expenses. Republican Senator Mike Klemish of Spillville says there could be different metrics than just income and asset tests, so the grants can address true emergencies.

Republican Representative Megan Jones of Sioux Rapids says the bright line tests of a veteran’s income and assets are causing problems.

The Iowa Veterans Commission ran out of money when it raised income and asset tests for the grants and the governor used pandemic relief funds to address the deficit. Fund managers are recommending grants again be limited to veterans with an income at not more than 200 percent of the federal poverty level who have no more than 15-thousand dollars in assets that could be quickly converted into cash. Todd Jacobus (juh-KOH-bus) is commandant of the Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs.

Jacobus says veterans are keenly aware of the grants are limited to low income veterans and removing these restrictions would likely prompt a flood of applications.

Senator Nate Boulton, a Democrat from Des Moines, says the Education Savings Accounts Republicans established to cover parents’ private school expenses will soon have no income or asset limits and this program for veterans should abandon its plan to limit who qualifies.

According to the Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs, there are 185-thousand veterans living in Iowa and six percent of them are at or below the federal poverty line.

Each of Iowa’s 99 county sheriffs is being asked to report on what local crimes they’re seeing that may be tied to international cartels, from illegal drugs to human trafficking. U-S Senator Chuck Grassley says he’s sending letters to every Iowa sheriff, asking for their input.

Cartel-driven crimes are “soaring” in the U-S, according to Grassley, but he says the local impact often remains unclear because there isn’t comprehensive data.

With Interstates 35 and 80, Grassley says Iowa is at an intersection of major smuggling routes, and Iowa law enforcement officers monitor those routes every day. Grassley, a Republican, blames Democrats for the situation.

Grassley also blames the U-S Drug Enforcement Administration for repeatedly stonewalling requests for records and hampering congressional oversight.

A Texas pastor who’s running for president says it’s time to end the country’s political divide and deal with some the crises America faces. Ryan Binkley spoke at the Des Moines Register’s Political Soapbox at the Iowa State Fair.

Binkley emphasized his unity message during his “Fair Side Chat” with Governor Kim Reynolds, too.

Binkley says doing things like balancing the federal budget, securing the border and fixing the health care system all require the two parties to work together to resolve. Binkley is the lead pastor of a church in a suburb of Dallas. Binkley is also a businssman and co-founder of a mergers and acquisitions firm based in Texas.

The final days of the Iowa State Fair promise to be sweltering, as Iowans are being warned about a late summer heat wave that’s approaching for the weekend. The past few evenings have felt almost like fall with lows in the 50s and 60s, but National Weather Service meteorologist Cory Martin says daytime high temperatures will be climbing again very soon.

Many of Iowa’s crops are at critical growth stages and Martin says there’s very little chance for rain, well into next week.

With high temps likely climbing into triple digits this weekend, Martin says it’s certainly possible the weather service will issue heat advisories, or even extreme heat warnings.

The long-range forecast indicates those high temperatures will last at least as far as next Tuesday, with the prediction of 95 degrees that day in Des Moines.

At their meeting on Wednesday night the Atlantic City Council set September 6th as a public hearing date for the sale of land at 1014 3rd Street Place to the Atlantic School District. The building trades program at the school would build a home on the property valued at $100,000 or greater in exchange for a reduced sale price of $1 from the city.

The Atlantic Community School Foundation had voted unanimously on May 11th to fund a request from Atlantic High School Industrial Technology teacher Dexter Dodson for $150,000 to allow the construction trades program students to build a home from start to finish in the community.

The construction trades program has previously built a garage and helped erect the greenhouse at the Atlantic High School. Dodson and Noah Widrowicz, Middle and High School Industrial Tech teacher lead the program which has prerequisite classes to the building trades class. Construction is expected to begin in the 2023-2024 school year when approved.