(Radio Iowa) – When students return to Gehlen Catholic Middle and High School in Le Mars in a few weeks, they’ll be facing a new “no cell phone” policy. Principal Bryan Paulson says they’ve tried restricting cell phone use in the past, but it just wasn’t working. “Each classroom in grades seven through 12 had a cell phone holder, and the kids were to turn their cell phones in to the holders with the teachers, and then they would get the cell phones back at the end of class,” Paulson says. “Some students were just leaving them in their pockets. They were trying to just leave them in their bags. Cell phones were a big distraction in the hallways in between classes.”

The policy going into effect this fall will force all students to surrender their devices upon entering the building. “When the students get here in the morning, they will come to our center meeting area, and we actually have cell phone lockers. If you talk to the kids, they call them ‘jails,’ but there’s an actual case,” Paulson says. “Each kid will be assigned a slot to put their cell phone and their devices into, and then they’ll go off to class for the day, and we’ll lock those up.”

Under the plan, phones will be passed back out to students in the final five or so minutes of the day. Paulson says cell phone use by students was having a negative impact on their behavior and attitudes toward learning — and some weren’t engaged in the classroom. “Students were rushing through their tests just so they could get on their phone,” Paulson says. “We had a couple of teachers tell us, if they saw one student go on their phone, other students would start to wonder what they were doing on their phone, if they were Snapping, if they were missing something on TikTok. So we kind of saw their anxiety rise.”

There will be exceptions to the policy for students who need their phones during the day to contact a parent or to go to a doctor’s appointment. Paulson says Gehlen Catholic parents are urged to discuss the matter, and the new policy, with their children.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak, late Thursday afternoon, arrested a man on an OWI charge. 30-year-old Dixon Michael Nelson, of Red Oak, was arrested in the 1200 block of E. Cherry Street, for OWI/1st offense (a Serious Misdemeanor). Nelson was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $1,000 bond.

GREENFIELD, Iowa (KCRG) – On May 21st, 2024, an EF 4 tornado spun a trail of destruction through Greenfield. Nearby wind turbines were bent in half and set on fire. Dr. Bill Gallus, a Professor of Meteorology at Iowa State University, told KCRG-TV, that in addition to the hot and humid air, which fueled the storms on that fateful Tuesday, a short distance between the storms may have strengthened the Greenfield tornado.

Dr. Gallus said there was another tornado that was only passing maybe 5 miles to the northwest of the Greenfield tornado, [and while their] instruments [were] not nearly close together enough to understand exactly what happened, he thinks there was probably some type of interaction happening with those two tornadic storms.

Engineers design wind turbines to withstand wind speeds up to 140 miles per hour. Meteorologist and engineer Tim Marshall kept that in mind as he watched video of the Greenfield tornado. Marshall said they would normally anticipate the turbine blades would shred, and that they would come apart in pieces and that’s exactly what happened. The tower which supports the turbine nacelle and blades was stronger.

Now, scientists are using their knowledge of meteorology and wind turbines to upgrade the EF Scale. Engineers such as Dr. Partha Sarkar, a professor of Aerospace Engineering at Iowa State University, are working to better understand how tornado winds impair wind turbines.

WAUKEE, Iowa — The body of a 31-year-old man was pulled from a Waukee pond Thursday evening after hours of searching. According to KCCI, a water rescue was reported to have taken place in the 2500 block of Grand Prairie Parkway near the Holmes Murphy office building and UnityPoint Waukee Medical Park around 3:30 p.m.

According to the Waukee Fire Department, two boys were fishing on the pond and lost their pole. When a man who had been working in the area went into the water to retrieve the pole, he started to struggle and the boys called 911. When Waukee FD personnel arrived, they entered the water and began searching for the victim. Around 5 p.m., Waukee FD said belongings on the shore suggested the man was still in the water.

Shortly after 6 p.m., the Metro STAR team recovered the body of a 31-year-old male. No other information is available at this time.

WINTERSET, Iowa — Movie theaters in Winterset and Greenfield say they are not planning on showing the movie “Twisters” this summer. KCCI in Des Moines reports the Iowa Theater in Winterset made the announcement Tuesday on Facebook. Manager Scott Smith said he watched the trailer and felt uncomfortable with what he saw.

On March 5, 2022, Iowa experienced one of the deadliest and most damaging tornado outbreaks the state had seen in years, including an EF4 tornado that touched down in Winterset. Smith said the images in the movie hit too close to home. He said many of the visuals looked too similar to what happened in Greenfield this spring. A deadly EF4 tornado tore through the town located 25 miles west of Winterset in May, killing four people and injuring dozens more.

Movie poster for “Twisters”

In a statement made to KCCI, the manager of the Grand Theater in Greenfield, Deb Lundy, said: “The Grand Theater had been planning to show the Twisters movie since the beginning of the year. When the tornado hit us, I called my movie broker and between the two of us we decided it was not the right time for us to show that movie.”

(Council Bluffs, Iowa) – Officials with the Council Bluffs Police Department Thursday evening, posted a notice on social media, asking for the public’s help in locating Hope Marie Kalkas, who was last seen in the Omaha/Council Bluffs metro area. 

Authorities said Hope has not contacted her family in several months, and they are concerned for her safety. If you know her whereabouts please contact the Council Bluffs Police Dept. Criminal Investigations Division, at 712-328-4728. (See the bulletin posted below for more information)

(Radio Iowa) – This year’s “Big Boar” at the Iowa State Fair is the biggest — ever. The crowd at the “Big Boar” competition roared as this year’s winner weighed in and Swine Barn Superintendent Ernie Barnes announced the result. “1420 pounds,” Barnes said. “Congratulations!” That’s 120 pounds above the previous record. Bryan Britt of Monticello raised the big pig.

“I won in ’19 and then in ’21 as well and we were close the record, but I really had my goal set for the record…Back home, I’m know as the big boar guy,” Britt said, with a laugh. Britt, who is Irish, called the boar Finnegan, for good luck.”I’m a pork producer and I’ve been raising pigs all my life. I’ve raised this guy since birth,” Britt said. “For me to break that record…it’s really nice. I couldn’t believe that he was that much heavier.”

While some of the bulked up boars in these types of competitions eat things like donuts and drink milk in addition to about 20 pounds of feed a day, Britt says Finnegan is a finicky eater. Britt is keeping the ingredients in Finnegan’s standard ratios a bit of a trade secret. “I picked him out at birth, thinking he had a big skeleton. You’ve got to feed them right to get them to this size,” Britt says. “It just doesn’t happen overnight.” Finnegan is three and has a taste for what’s sometimes called the Irish champagne.

Bryan Britt of Monticello with Finnegan, the Iowa State Fair’s ‘Big Boar’ (RI photo)

“I’ve given him a Guinness and he seems to like that,” Britt says, with a laugh. Britt likes a pint on occasion as well. There were six other contestants in this year’s “big boar” competition at the State Fair. Britt’s boar weighed nearly 400 pounds more than his closest competitor. “This pig, when he was born, had a big frame and you have to feed them to get the skeletal muscle on them early and you have to let them get a frame before you start really letting them eat all they want to eat,” Britt says. “It’s really hard to get a pig to this size.”

Finnegan will spend the next 10 days in the Swine Barn at the Iowa State Fair, then due to biosecurity measures to prevent the spread of disease, Finnegan won’t return to Britt’s operation, but will spent the rest of his days on another farm nearby.

(Radio Iowa) – Many Iowa home owners are seeing their insurance premiums rise and some companies are refusing to insure some properties altogether. Sonya Sellmeyer, a consumer advocacy officer in the Iowa Insurance Division, says there have been a series of rate increases since the derecho that hit Iowa in August of 2020.

“It just seems like ever since then we’ve just continued to get hit by storms. It costs a lot of money to repair that damage, for many different reasons — inflation, material costs have gone up,” Sellmeyer says. “The reinsurance that the companies themselves have has gone up for them.”

Reinsurance is basically insurance for insurance companies. Sellmeyer says Iowans facing a significant hike in homeowners insurance could consider a higher deductible — if it’s an amount they can afford. Sellmeyer is encouraging Iowans to have a discussion with their licensed insurance agent, to ensure their policy would cover the cost of replacing their home and its contents.

“You don’t want to be paying something, espeically as it becomes more expensive, that’s not going to give you what you really need to replace your home in case something would happen,” Sellmeyer says. “…And understand your riders that you have, too, on your policy or that you may need…Sump pump and sewer riders are very important.”

Flooding is the most common and costly natural disaster in the U-S. There’s been a federal flood insurance program since the 1960s for property in a flood plain and a federal rule change in 2019 encouraged private companies to sell flood insurance policies. Sellmeyer says you can buy private flood insurance in Iowa even if your property is not in a flood plain. “I spent a weekend in Spencer, shortly after the flooding happened, with those survivors there and I strongly suggest all Iowans need to sit down with their insurance agent and see if this is something that they need,” Sellmeyer says.

According to the National Association of Realtors, home insurance premiums in the U-S are expected to rise about six percent by the end of the year.

(Radio Iowa) -UPDATED – The first semester of this school year will be well underway before the rules are in effect for a law designed to help Iowa districts get insurance if school staff are armed.

A Department of Public Safety spokesman told Iowa Public Radio it’ll be two months before the review process for those rules is completed.

Two years ago school boards in Cherokee and Spirit Lake voted to have armed staff members, but dropped the policy after their insurance carrier said it would not renew their coverage. The new law spells out the requirements for a professional permit to carry a weapon at school and school boards may vote to allow teachers and staff who get a permit to have a gun on school grounds. The law is written so school employees would be shielded from liability if they use reasonable force, but it’s still not clear if the insurance company that covers most school districts will issue policies to districts if teachers and staff who are armed. An EMC Insurance spokesperson says the company is reviewing the law and analyzing its options.

Next Tuesday is the deadline for public comments on the proposed state rules to implement the law.