Iowa State University is joining a consortium of institutions that will do research and create training programs focused on diseases like Zika and West Nile virus. Ryan Smith, a professor of entomology and head of the I-S-U Medical Entomology Laboratory, says the new alliance is being funded by a ten-million-dollar grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “It’s really meant to address a glaring need that was brought to our attention with the threat of Zika coming to the United States,” Smith says. “The CDC recognized this need for training and having public health professionals train in entomology, so that’s the main focus behind this.”

Smith says researchers on the Ames campus will zero in on enhanced surveillance of West Nile virus transmission and the presence of the invasive Aedes mosquito species in Iowa. “We’ve been engaged in a surveillance program here in Iowa for almost 50 years now and West Nile has been in the state for about the last 15 years,” Smith says. “I think we’ve got a pretty good understanding of how the disease is being transmitted and by which mosquitoes.”

The new consortium is called The Upper Midwestern Center of Excellence in Vector-Borne Diseases. Other collaborators include: the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Illinois, Michigan State University and the Minnesota Department of Health.

(Radio Iowa)

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – Marathon dancers have raised nearly $2.6 million for the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital. The Iowa City Press-Citizen reports the record topped the previous record of more than $2.4 million raised last year. More than 2,300 dancers packed into the main lobby of the Iowa Memorial Union at the university campus in Iowa City. From 7 p.m. Friday until 7 p.m. Saturday, they gave up sleep, caffeine and the luxury of sitting down for 24 hours straight.

A Dance Marathon news release says each dancer raised at least $500 to participate. The money supports pediatric cancer patients at the hospital.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:35 a.m. CST

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — A train derailment shook several homes in rural eastern Iowa Sunday but the toppled cars avoided the buildings and no injuries were reported. Kerry Rogers told the Dubuque Telegraph Herald it was scary when his house shook and a tree was uprooted during the derailment Sunday morning. Canadian Pacific spokesman Andy Cummings says 26 of the 99 empty cars in the train derailed around 6 a.m. Sunday. The incident happened several miles southeast of Dubuque.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — As lawmakers rush to pass a bill to remove funding for Planned Parenthood, some health clinics that could see an increase in patients say they haven’t heard anything about a state-run family planning program that could take effect within months. The GOP-backed legislation flew through the Senate on Thursday and now moves to the House. The bill hinges on rejecting millions in federal Medicaid dollars in order to eliminate state funding for Planned Parenthood.

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — Authorities are trying to find the owner of a dog that two fishermen pulled from the icy Cedar River in Waterloo. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports that fishermen Chad and Jason Conkling played a key role in the rescue because they were getting ready to launch their boat nearby when the dog was spotted struggling in the current. The brothers pulled the dog from the water before firefighters could launch a boat.

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — Black Hawk County officials may try to save a defective Cedar Valley Nature Trail bridge in La Porte City that they were planning to tear down. The Courier reports that Board of Supervisors members have agreed to include $77,000 in next year’s conservation board budget for engineering work on long-term repairs to the span over Wolf Creek. About a dozen cyclists asked the board to save the bridge.

Authorities in western Iowa are searching for a man who escaped from a work release facility, Sunday (Feb 5th). 26-year old Colton Benson-Blaine,  was placed on escape status after failing to return to the Council Bluffs Work Release Facility from his place of employment. He’s described as a Caucasian with blonde hair and blue eyes. The inmate is also 6 feet 3 inches tall and weighs 261 pounds.

According to the Iowa Department of Corrections, Benson-Blaine was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2011 after being found guilty in Shelby County of voluntary manslaughter, and in Pottawattamie County for operating a vehicle without consent, voluntary absence (escape) and Escape of Misdemeanant. Benson-Blaine was transferred to work release on January 24th, 2017. He previously failed to return from Work Release in 2016 but was captured in Shelby County a few days later.

Anyone with Information as to Benson-Blaine’s whereabouts is asked to contact the Council Bluffs Police Department or Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Department.

Colton Benson-Blaine