(Radio Iowa) – The University of Iowa is launching a new research center to improve flood prediction. Engineering professor Ibrahim Demir says the country has a lot to learn from Iowa, as he says the UI stands out for its emphasis on projects that help residents better understand their flood risk locally. As an example, The Iowa Flood Information System, or IFIS, can be used by homebuyers to better understand a properties potential for flood damage.

“You cannot really find any information easily from FEMA or other websites,” Demir says. “When you go to IFIS in Iowa, you can enable these flood maps at 100-year flood map, 500-year flood map, and you have all this 8 different periods, you can just find out your business or new land or new house you are purchasing will be in the flood zone and its potential for some damages.”

Prior to 2009, there was a flood gauge in Cedar Falls and another in Cedar Rapids. This offered relatively little data for predicting floods like the one in 2008 that rocked the region. Fast-forward to 2023, there’s a network of sensors all along Iowa’s rivers and streams. Larry Weber is a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the UI.

Prof. Larry Weber (U-I photo)

Weber says, “We provide hundreds of forecast points between those two locations so every small community, every homeowner, every farmer or land owner in that space between Cedar Falls and Cedar Rapids in the past was left without information, now has ample information.”

The Center for Hydrologic Development joins a cooperative of other research institutes sharing approaches like this with its peer institutions. Iowa will receive $21 million from the collaborative.

(reporting by Zachary Oren Smith, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – Republicans in the state legislature say they will soon send the governor a bill to increase general state spending on Iowa’s public schools by about $106 million. “A very solid number to be able to show support for our public school systems and try to get that done within the timeline,” House Speaker Pat Grassley told reporters today (Thursday).

He said the House will approve that level of spending early next week — giving school boards about eight weeks to finalize budget plans for the next academic year. Democrats say school districts need more to offer competitive teacher salaries and cover rising costs of fuel to heat buildings and run buses. Senator Herman Quirmbach of Ames said the state would have more to spend if Republicans hadn’t approved state-funded savings accounts for private school parents.

“We’re proposing to support public education for the many and not private school education for the privileged few,” Quirmbach said. Due to declining enrollment and the distribution formula for general state spending on public schools, Senator Sarah Trone Garriott of West Des Moines said dozens of school districts will get less money for the next academic year. “Seventy-one community school districts will absolutely have to cut their budgets, cut teachers, cut programs, increased class sizes,” Trone Garriott said. “Three percent will move more rural schools towards consolidation and closure.”

The 34 Republicans in the Senate approved the 3% increase in general state school aid this afternoon. “I’ll start with the word conservative, with no apology,” Senator Ken Rozenboom, a Republican from Oskaloosa, said. “We have conservative budgeting practices and Iowans, in increasing numbers, sent us back to the House and Senate so yes, this reflects our fiscal policies and our conservatism.”

The bill also includes $900,000 more dollars in state support for geographically large school districts that spend far more on bus routes.

(Glenwood,Iowa) – Glenwood Police report a man was arrested Wednesday, on an OWI charge. 32-year-old Brian Benedict, of Glenwood, faces a charge of OWI/2nd offense. His bond was set at $2,000.

(Radio Iowa) – A special investigation by the state auditor’s office has identified 100-thousand dollars worth of questionable transactions handled by the former clerk of an eastern Iowa town. Amber Bell was the city clerk in Atkins for nearly five and a half years. She resigned in late 2020 after the Atkins City Council raised concerns about city finances and placed her on administrative leave. State Auditor Rob Sand says auditors found Bell paid herself more than authorized and used the city’s credit card to buy personal items and pay for a manicure.

The special investigation identified more than 51-thousand dollars of improper spending and auditors could not find receipts or documents for another 21-thousand dollars worth of transactions. Nearly 28-thousand dollars worth for utility payments were either not collected or not billed according to the state auditor’s special investigation.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Officials with the Atlantic Police Department say nine arrests were conducted between January 20th and the 30th of January. Most recently:

• On Monday, Jan. 30, 44-year-old Orlando Mendez, of Atlantic, was arrested for Child Endangerment and Aggravated Assault.
• On the 29th, 25-year-old Ason Pisalil, of Atlantic, was arrested for Public Intoxication.
• On the 28th, Atlantic Police arrested 42-year-old Laura Stogdill, of Atlantic, for two-counts of Compulsory Education Violation. She was cited and then released with a court date.
• On January 27th, 37-year-old Dale Saylors,of Papillion, NE, was arrested in Atlantic on three-counts of Theft in the 2nd Degree (Shoplifting), on three separate occasions.

Four people were arrested by Officers with the A-PD on January 26th:

• 24-year-old Kaylee Roach, of Atlantic, was arrested for OWI, Possession of a Controlled Substance/Marijuana-2nd offense, and Poss. of Drug Paraphernalia.
• 25-year-old Ason Pisalil, of Atlantic, was arrested on Cass County warrants for Disorderly Conduct and Public Intox.
• 19-year-old Tarzan Kochiro, of Atlantic, was arrested on a warrant for Failure to Appear (in court). And,
• 37-year-old Eric Mark, of Atlantic, was arrested for OWI and Driving While License is Denied or Revoked, Disorderly Conduct, Criminal Mischief in the 5th Degree, and Interference with Official Acts.

On January 20th, 44-year-old Nathaniel Halterman, of Atlantic, was arrested by Atlantic Police, on an Audubon County warrant for Violation of a No Contact Order. He was turned over to Audubon County Sheriff’s Deputies.

Each of the aforementioned subjects were booked into the Cass County Jail, with the exception of Stogdill, and Halterman, who (as mentioned) was turned over to another agency.

(Glenwood, Iowa) – The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports two people wanted on separate warrants, were arrested Wednesday, at the Pottawattamie County Jail. 25-year-old Kaitlyn Louise Anglen, of Council Bluffs, was arrested on a Mills County warrant for Theft in the 1st Degree, Money Laundering-Conduct transaction, and Identity Theft over $10,000. And, 57-year-old Thomas Lee Chalupa, of Omaha, was arrested at the Pott. County Jail, on a warrant for Harassment in the 3rd Degree. Both subjects were being held without bond in the Mills County Jail.

Sheriff’s officials said also, no injuries were reported following a collision Wednesday morning in Malvern. Vehicles driven by 29-year-old Matthew Schneider, of Buffalo, MN, and 20-year-old Kristina Boone, of Glenwood, collided at around 10:25-a.m. Wednesday. The accident happened when Schneider failed to yield upon entering the intersection at West 7th Avenue from northbound 2nd Street. His 2019 Ford struck a Boone’s westbound 2004 Chrysler, broadside.

(Radio Iowa) – Giving Iowa voters a chance to clarify the line of succession at the top of state government is on the legislature’s docket again this year. In 2018 when then-Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds took over as governor, the state’s attorney general said it appeared from his reading of the Iowa Constitution that Reynolds did not have authority to name Adam Gregg lieutenant governor. The House has approved a proposed amendment to Iowa’s Constitution making it clear new governors have the authority to appoint a new lieutenant governor. Critics like Representative Adam Zabner of Iowa City say the proposed amendment should include having at least 34 members of the Iowa Senate vote to confirm a new governor’s choice for the second highest position in state government.

“My concern is the lack of oversight from the legislature on who would be chosen for this position,” Zabner says. “For a position as important as lieutenant governor, I think it’s very important that the legislature have a say in at least confirming the appointment and making sure that it is a reasonable person.” Eighteen Democrats voted against the proposal. Representative Heather Matson, a Democrat from Ankeny, was among the Democrats who joined Republicans to pass it. Matson says the proposed constitutional amendment is written in clear language for voters and other details could be outlined in state law. very understandable

“Personally I’m supporting this amendment because it still provides an option for a future legislation to establish by statute any additional requirements they would like to actually filling that vacancy,” Matson says. It takes a significant amount of time for lawmakers to propose an amendment to the state constitution and the discussion on this topic started in 2019. If the Senate approves the resolution House members approved this week, Iowans will vote on the proposed amendment in the 2024 General Election.

(Radio Iowa) – The Wright County community of Eagle Grove is remembering a tragedy that made worldwide headlines 50 years ago tonight (Thursday). An explosion rocked the downtown business district, leveling the Chatterbox Cafe, a Coast-to-Coast store and a jewelry story. Fourteen people were killed, including a firefighter and the son of former governor Robert Blue. In a 2010 interview, then-Eagle Grove Fire Chief Gary Lalor reflected on the catastrophe. “There was one person in the Coast-to-Coast store living in an upstairs apartment and I do believe there were 12 people in the cafe,” Lalor says. “If memory serves me, we had one firefighter died of a heart attack enroute to the call actually within a few feet of scene, so quite a tragedy.”

Firefighters from several area communities battled the flames through the night. The Iowa National Guard and the Iowa State Patrol assisted in the search and rescue effort for victims in the rubble. Cranes were used in the effort from nearby Fort Dodge. Lalor says it’s still unclear what caused the blast. “I don’t believe they ever came to an absolute set-in-stone reason for this,” he says. “The utility company reconstructed I think every piece of pipe out of all the buildings and I don’t believe they ever came to an absolute conclusion.”

Chief Lalor died in 2016. A plaque honoring the memory of the victims was placed on the outside wall of the Ben Franklin store in Eagle Grove in 1993. No formal ceremony is planned to remember the victims on this anniversary.

(Radio Iowa) – A central Iowa elder care facility is being fined after a resident endured something reminiscent of a horror story from Edgar Allan Poe. Multiple media outlets are reporting that the Glen Oaks Alzheimer’s Special Care Center in Urbandale is being fined $10,000 by the state after a resident was mistaken for dead. Reports say the unidentified woman had been in ill health and was found by a staffer early on January 3rd with open eyes and no detectable pulse or breathing.

The woman was placed in a body bag and taken to a funeral home, where she was found, about an hour later, still alive and gasping for air. She was rushed to the hospital and was eventually returned to the care center, where she died two days later.

ATLANTIC, IOWA – In January, the American Heart Association launched HeartCorps, a new initiative in conjunction with AmeriCorps and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cass Health was selected as a host site for HeartCorps and is pleased to welcome Killy Buliche to this new role.

Buliche is employed by the American Heart Association as a HeartCorps Service Member and works alongside Cass County Public Health to support our local Pacific Islander community in preventing and managing chronic diseases through education and interventions. Over the next year, she will work to strengthen and supplement efforts to drive health equity, including controlling blood pressure, improving nutrition security, reducing tobacco use, and promoting health and wellbeing in our local Pacific Islander community.

Photo cutline: The Atlantic Public Library invited Cass County Public Health to display information for American Heart Month. HeartCorps Service Member Killy Buliche shows off the heart health information that is presented in English, Spanish, and Chuukese.

“I really like to help other people in our community and to make them healthy. I like to help – that’s how I am,” said Buliche. She is originally from the Micronesian island of Lekinoch and has lived in Atlantic for almost 20 years.

According to the American Heart Association, nearly half of all Americans have high blood pressure. People living in rural areas and under-resourced communities face the highest death rates due to hypertension. Heart disease is the number one killer worldwide, with strokes ranking second. The goal of HeartCorps is to help meet public health needs of local communities by providing support to communities who are underserved, as well as providing pathways to good quality public health-related careers.