(Radio Iowa) – The application process is underway for millions in federal dollars to fund new electrical vehicle charging stations along Iowa’s interstate highways. The D-O-T’s Stuart Anderson says Iowa is getting 50 million dollars to fund the new E-V chargers, and there will be 20-30 million available in this first round. “The cost of each individual application or site could vary significantly based on for example, the amount of electrical power at that location already,” Anderson says. He says some of the sites could require some upgrades from the electrical utilities to provide the necessary power levels to serve the chargers. The chargers will go along Interstates 35, 80, 29, and 380. Those applying for the money have to be within one mile of the interstate and provide a certain number of amenities.

“Of course, we want safe and well-lit locations, we want to have access to restroom facilities, and access to services like food and beverages,” Anderson says. “So we anticipate the most likely locations and applicants will be from convenience stores or truck stops those types of facilities.” Anderson says there are specifications that require a certain level of chargers be available. He says they could charge a vehicle in around 20 minutes, depending on the model. Anderson says Iowa had three-point-75 million registered vehicles at th end of 2023, and a little more than 15-thousand of them are two types electric vehicles.

“The full battery electric vehicles, we have eight-thousand-772 of those electric vehicles. And then we also have plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. And we have six-thousand-387 of those registered in Iowa,” he says. The deadline for applications to get the federal funds to build an electric vehicle charger is March 13th.

(Radio Iowa) – A central Iowa farmer is appealing to members of Iowa’s congressional delegation to develop and pass a new Farm Bill before this fall, focusing on legislation that he says is climate-smart. Scott Henry, the owner of Longview Farms in Nevada, says farmers, consumers and the environment would all benefit from legislation that lead the transition to more sustainable food production. Henry says, “A climate-smart Farm Bill is one that allows farmers on a voluntary basis to adopt practices such as cover crops, no-till, prescriptive farming, split applications of nitrogen and other fertilizer sources that help reduce reliance upon synthetics, whether that be through livestock integration or biologicals.”

Henry grew up on the multi-generational family farm in Story County, where he grows corn and soybeans, and raises cattle. He was in Washington D-C last week, meeting with Iowa’s senators and members of congress, along with House and Senate Ag Committee staff. “For us, it’s really working towards making sure that farmers have knowledge about these tools and that those tools are available to them,” Henry says, “and to a certain extent, if there’s any incentive to help get a farmer started down that path, that would be good.”

Much of his farm’s corn crop was knocked flat by the powerful winds of the derecho in 2020 and Henry says they could’ve plowed it under and collected the insurance, but didn’t. Instead, they chose to use the combine, even moving forward at one-mile-an-hour, to harvest the corn off the ground.  “That was the most revealing thing to me in my farming career,” Henry says, “that these production practices that we had implemented really were making the crop resilient in a volatile weather pattern, but it still means we’ve still got to work hard and roll our sleeves up to get the work done.”

A new Farm Bill didn’t materialize last year, and Henry is urging our elected leaders to ensure passage of a progressive measure by this fall. “We’re on a one-year extension right now, that does come up I believe in September,” Henry says. “And the question right now is if we’ll have a new bill by that time, or still pass another extension, or if they’ll do nothing, which is a scenario I don’t think anybody wants. I truly hope that both sides can come together and we can get a Farm Bill that’s passed.”

Farmers and consumers shouldn’t be at odds, Henry says, and he calls this a rallying cry where everyone can have a seat at the same table with the common goal of a sustainable future.

(Radio Iowa) – A former Iowa Democratic Party spokesman who worked on congressional and presidential campaigns in Iowa has written a book about his experience as a foster parent. Mark Daley will be at a Des Moines bookstore tonight (Thursday) to discus his memoir. “Initially I had this idea that I was going to write a policy book on how we were going to solve this and I quickly learned I don’t have the answers,” Daley says, “so what I decided to do was share our story and drive more conversations and bring more people to the table to discuss this.”

The book’s title is “Safe: A Memoir of Fatherhood, Foster Care and the Risks We Take for Family.” Daley and his husband are now the parents of three adopted children, but they first became foster parents for two young brothers they hoped to adopt. In the book, Daley describes their worry and angst as the boys’ biological parents who were dealing with addiction and mental health issues went to court and eventually regained custody of the children. Later, Daley learned the two boys and another sibling were back in the foster care system.

“I wrote this book with the hope that it would really inspire some sort of change and greater awareness of the children and families that are struggling, living on the margins in this country,” Daley says. Daley’s target audience, though, isn’t just policymakers. “It really is something that’s on all of us to be aware of what’s going on in our own families and own communities and our own neighborhoods,” Daley says. “Where can we help? How do we get involved to help families before they reach this ultimate tragedy of losing their child to foster care.”

Every day in America, over 700 children enter foster care. The latest data from the State of Iowa is for the fall of 2021, when there were 41-hundred children in Iowa’s foster care system. Daley, who lives in California, is an investor and business consultant who’s founded and sold two marketing agencies. Daley was the chief spokesman for Hillary Clinton during the 2008 Iowa Caucus campaign, then he served as communications director for Iowa Congressman Leonard Boswell’s campaign for reelection in 2008.

(Radio Iowa) – A public hearing at the statehouse gave over two dozen parents and educators an opportunity to share their opinions on proposed changes in how Iowa’s nine Area Education Agencies operate. The governor released her proposed overhaul in January. Republican senators have made some adjustments to the governor’s bill. Republicans in the House have their own alternative. Spirit Lake Superintendent David Smith called the House plan a watered down bill and he urged lawmakers to make most of the changes Reynolds has proposed.

“The system has been in place for a long time and where we live the system doesn’t work,” Smith said. “..Allow us in Spirit Lake the ability to pick and choose what we want to do…Put the funds toward the school district and let the AEAs earn our business.” David Tully of Adel, a former deputy director of the Iowa Department of Education, says his local A-E-A has been a safety net for his daughter who has a disability.

“It feels like these AEA bills are playing fee-for-service politics with our childrens’ futures,” Tully says. “Changes are being proposed to the AEA structures without appropriate study, nor sufficient stakeholder input and it terrifies us whose children depend on the future of the AEAs.” Ottumwa superintendent Mike McGrory says he supports the House Republicans’ plan to improve outcomes for students with disabilities.

“My support for this bill includes no wish to devastate our AEAs and the good staff that work there,” McGrory said. “However, the world has changed…It’s time for reform.” Doug Glackin, the superintendent of Woodbury Central Community School District, supports some of the changes that have been proposed, including a reduction in the salaries for top A-E-A managers, but he’s urging lawmakers to slow down the timeline. “I want you to consider that reform doesn’t have to be in the form of demolition,” Glackin said. “I am for an independent study of the system, taking the time to look at what is working and what needs to be addressed.”

Jacob Bolsom, a member of the Hubbard-Radcliff Board of Education, says if the plans as proposed are adopted, A-E-A services will be degraded and the state will be sued. “This rushed policy will harm students the most in small schools in rural areas such as mine,” Bolsom says. Megan Brink runs the A-E-A’s bulk purchasing program for school lunches and she told lawmakers if large districts opt out of this service, the food bills for small schools will rise.

“We rely on those big school districts to be able to look attractive to our distributor partners and our vendor partners,” she says. The chairman of the House Education Committee says last (Wednesday) night’s testimony was similar to previous input lawmakers have received about A-E-As and House Republicans will continue their conversations about the bill.

The following is a press release from the Marion (IA) Police Department:

(Radio Iowa) – A University of Iowa study suggests breast milk donations are helpful and can even provide potentially life-saving benefits, for extremely premature infants. U-I professor and lead researcher, Tara Colaizy tells K-C-R-G T-V that premature infants fed donated breast milk were found to acquire less than half of the life-threatening diseases than those who were fed formula. “It’s an intervention that can be easily provided to every very tiny preterm infant in the United States,” Colaizy says.

Doctor Colaizy says researchers found that extremely preterm infants are at a higher risk for neurodevelopmental impairment that could affect their memory, speech and motor abilities later in life. They are also more vulnerable to life-threatening diseases like necrotizing enterocolitis.

Dr. Colaizy says there are things in breast milk that help infants overcome those issues. ”Antibodies, special sugars that are part of our immune system, little pieces of R-N-A, special fat globules that have particular proteins in them that encourage the gut to grow and develop,” Colaizy says.

The team considers extremely preterm infants to be those born before 29 weeks. Doctor Colaizy says the infants only eat a teaspoon at a time and a breast milk donation as small as three ounces can feed five or six tiny babies. The research project has been going on for more than a decade and has involved data from hospitals around the country.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The SplashPad Project in Atlantic is another step closer to becoming a reality. The Atlantic City Council, this (Wednesday) evening unanimously passed a Resolution authorizing the bid letting and setting the date for public hearing, as March 20, 2024. Dave Sturm,with Snyder and Associates Engineers in Atlantic, spoke on behalf of Project Manager Mike Jorgensen, with regard to the final plans and specifications for the project.

Sturm said the tentative completion date for the project is just before Labor Day, 2024, but some contractors feel that may be too soon, and it might reflect poorly on the bids.

SplashPad Fundraising Committee Chair Jeremy Butler said the project can be started sooner, but it would affect the CAT grant application that’s been applied for.

Butler said the original estimated project cost was $673,000, but they Committee is working to par down some features to try and make the estimate come-in closer to $600,000. Dave Sturm said one of the cost saving measures is through generous, in-kind donations.

Snyders will send out the plans and specs to prospective bidders. Their bids will be due-in by March 15th.

(Lewis, Iowa) – Cass County Conservation officials, today (Wednesday) acknowledged a scholarship was awarded to Naturalist, Lora Kanning, by the Resource Enhancement and Protection Conservation Education Program (REAP-CEP), ICCS and Iowa Association of Naturalists.

The scholarship will assist Kanning in attending the 2024 National Association of Interpretation, Heartland Region workshop in Council Bluffs, Iowa this April. The scholarship was funded by REAP-CEP. The Resource Enhancement and Protection Program (REAP): Invest in Iowa, our outdoors, our heritage, our people.

REAP is supported by the state of Iowa, providing funding to public and private partners for natural and cultural resources projects, including water quality, wildlife habitat, soil conservation, parks, trails, historic preservation and more.

(Radio Iowa) – A fourteen year old boy has died in a north Iowa farm accident. Howard County Sheriff Tim Beckman says the incident occurred at about 5 p-m Tuesday about 10 miles west of Elma.

Initial reports indicated that a juvenile boy had been pinned underneath a tractor, but Beckman says it appears the family was taking a large steel wheel off the tractor when the steel wheel tipped over on the teen.

The Howard County medical examiner determined his death was accidental.

DES MOINES, Iowa – A Des Moines man was arrested on Wednesday, February 21, 2024, and made his initial appearance before a United States Magistrate Judge in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa. Jeffrey Walter Gray, 61, is charged in a criminal complaint filed in the Southern District of Iowa with Sexual Exploitation of a Child (and Attempted Sexual Exploitation of a Child) and Possession of Child Pornography.

According to the allegations in the unsealed complaint, Gray, from as early as approximately 2005 to at least approximately 2016, used minors to produce child sexual abuse material. Some of this material was allegedly created at the photography business Gray owned and operated in the Des Moines area—Wicked Imagery. The material included images from hidden cameras placed in the changing rooms at Wicked Imagery to capture videos and/or images of minor children undressing. In November 2023, investigators recovered from Gray’s residence a hard drive which was later determined to contain child sexual abuse material.

To date, investigators have identified approximately fifteen minor victims depicted in child sexual abuse material seized from Gray’s residence. Investigators request the public’s assistance in identifying other minors. If you believe that you or your minor children may have been victimized by Gray, or if you have information relevant to this investigation, please  visit www.fbi.gov/JeffreyGray.WickedImagery or email WickedImagery@fbi.gov.

This case is being prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa. United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating the case with the assistance of the Des Moines Police Department.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc. For information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the resources tab.

A complaint is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.