AMES, Iowa (AP) — Concerns about student-to-student bullying have led the Ames school district to suspend its middle school principal. District spokesman Eric Smidt says the decision to move out principal Dan Fox wasn’t based off just one incident but rather was an effort to improve Ames Middle School. The district said in an email to parents and staffers last week that district administrators “will be working on various measures to ensure there is a safe and orderly environment for teaching and learning.”

Concerns were raised by parents and students, and an online petition appeared that sought improved safety for LGBTQ students at the school. Officials say Fox still works for district and is being paid while on suspension.

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson

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(Radio Iowa) — New York billionaire Michael Bloomberg spent Tuesday in Iowa, touting a film about climate change that he financed and promising he’ll make a decision “early next year” about whether he’ll run for president and — maybe — sell his business. Bloomberg stopped at a Cedar Rapids solar panel company, talked with students in learning to maintain wind turbines, met with activists seeking gun restrictions. Last night, Bloomberg spoke at the showing of the film highlighting people, including a few Iowans, who are embracing renewable energy alternatives. A past skeptic of ethanol subsidies, Bloomberg embraced the corn-based fuel. “I think that ethanol and biofuels are part of the mix. There’s a place for it. I think eventually you’d like to get to a world where we don’t burn anything. That’s the way that you really clean the air the most, but we’re a long ways from that…E10 or E15 is part of the mix and it’s going to be part of the mix for a long time.”

Bloomberg spoke with Radio Iowa for nearly 20 minutes, sketching out the purpose of his possible presidential bid. “You work hard. If it works, it works and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t,” Bloomberg said, “but my main objective would be to try to focus everybody on the main issues facing this country.” Bloomberg, who is 76, served a dozen years as New York City’s mayor. He founded the Bloomberg media company focused on news and market information. Bloomberg says Tuesday’s downturn in the stock market was caused by uncertainty about President Trump’s negotiations with China. “I think that Trump is right in saying that the relationship we have with China is not fair. We haven’t fought that battle in a long, long time…We should stand up to China,” Bloomberg says. “…Having said that, the ways you do it is as important as the fact that you’re doing it.”

Bloomberg suggests Trump has mistakenly approached negotiations like a “real estate promoter.” “In his view, there’s a winner and a loser in every transaction and I think that’s a very simplistic approach to the world. You always want to have the other person to think they didn’t get everything they wanted, but they got something and they want to think you didn’t because you’re going to have to go back and do another deal at another time,” Bloomberg said. “…You don’t want to win each time. You want to move up.”

Bloomberg told Radio Iowa if he does run for president, he will either place his company in a blind trust or sell it. “But I think at my age, if selling it is possible, I would do that,” Bloomberg said. “At some point, you’re going to die anyway, so you want to do it before then.”

(Radio Iowa) — The official start of winter is still a couple of weeks off but Iowans are already slipping and sliding on ice and snow-covered sidewalks, steps and roadways. Julie Richter, with the Wright County Department of Public Health, suggests Iowans stock-up on ice melting products and — chicken grit. “Some of the local coops have what’s called chicken grit that you can put down, too, that gives you a little bit more prepared surface so it’s not so slick,” Richter says. “A lot of elderly folks can’t get out and spread it themselves, so if they’ve got a local neighbor or friend that can come over and spread it.”

Chicken grit is sharp, crushed stone, typically used by birds to help grind up seeds. To help keep your footing, ice and snow grips that go over boots and shoes are available at stores statewide, as well. Richter says we all need to remember to take our time when headed out into the slick elements on foot. “Slow down and don’t hurry and don’t try to carry a whole bunch of things with you,” she says. “Maybe make a couple of trips because the faster you go, the easier it is to slip and fall.”

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports 42-thousand-480 workplace injuries involving ice, sleet or snow occurred in 2014.

(Radio Iowa) — Florida voters chose last month to close all of that state’s dog tracks in 2020 — but the head of Iowa’s only greyhound racing track says he expects to be in business for at least a few more years. Iowa saw the number of dog tracks cut in half after the Iowa Legislature passed a bill in 2014 that shut down the Council Bluffs Greyhound track and turned over management of the Iowa Greyhound Park in Dubuque to the Iowa Greyhound Association. Track general manager, Brian Carpenter, says the closing of Florida’s 11 tracks by the end of 2020 could mean fewer dogs being bred to run at other tracks, including Iowa’s. “You know, I’ve heard over the years for many years how we were coming to an end, and we’re still hanging in there 34 years later. Hopefully we’ll have many more, but we’ll see what happens,” Carpenter says.

Iowa’s greyhound season runs from May through October, and many of the dogs at the Dubuque track have run in Florida during the winter. Jason Hess owns Xtrem Hess Racing kennel in Dubuque, one of nine that breed dogs that race at the Iowa facility. He says he’ll breed fewer greyhounds right away. “Because with less tracks coming — it takes about 18 months when puppies start racing, so almost two years after breeding them — and that’s when Florida is going to be ending. But we do have some tracks left, so we’re still going to be operational,” Hess says.

He says says it could become difficult to get enough dogs to race a full season. The Dubuque track will be one of just six greyhound tracks left in the U-S once Florida shuts down its track.

(Radio Iowa) — Another retailer is downsizing in Iowa. Officials with Shopko Stores Operating Company LLC in Green Bay, Wisconsin have announced that three Shopko Hometown stores in Iowa will be closing their doors in February. The stores are located in Cherokee, Eldora and Webster City. Company officials said the closing is based on long-term profitability, sales trends and potential growth not coming in. Shopko operates approximately 360 stores in 25 states. The liquidation sale at the three stores will begin later this week.

In an update to their earlier report about a shooting incident at the Mason City Railroad Yard, officials with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) said Tuesday, the event began with a case of trespassing. An investigation has determined that on November 29th, Union Pacific Special Agent Louis Miner stopped 30-year old Nathan Lee Olson, of Mason City, for trespassing across Union Pacific property at the intersection of 9th Street NW and Monroe Street. An altercation ensued, during which Olson was shot by the U-P Special Agent. The press release didn’t say whether Olson was armed.

The Union Pacific Railroad employs certified police officers to patrol rail properties across the Midwest. The incident remains under investigation. Olson remains in the care of the Mercy Medical Center of North Iowa. Miner was treated at a hospital Thursday, and then released.

Upon completion, the DCI will forward the results of the investigation to the Cerro Gordo County Attorney’s Office for review. Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact the Mason City Police Department at (641) 421-3636.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CST

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A prominent Republican attorney is seeking to remove three members from the judicial nominating commission that will recommend finalists for vacancies on the Iowa Supreme Court and Court of Appeals. If successful, the challenge by lawyer Bill Gustoff would sideline three experienced attorneys from the process to recommend replacements for Justice Daryl Hecht and Court of Appeals Chief Judge David Danilson. The impact could tip the balance of power to the eight Republicans appointed to the panel.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Two deep-pocketed Democrats are visiting early presidential primary states, stoking speculation about whether they will run for president in 2020. Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire former New York City mayor, was in Iowa on Tuesday talking about climate change. Billionaire investor Tom Steyer held a roundtable discussion focused on voting rights in South Carolina, the nation’s first Southern primary state.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Gov. Kim Reynolds says the Federal Emergency Management Agency has again rejected a disaster assistance request for victims of tornadoes that hit Marshall and Polk counties last summer. Reynolds’ office announced Tuesday that FEMA had denied her appeal of the agency’s earlier rejection of individual disaster assistance stemming from the July 19 tornadoes. The assistance would have helped homeowners, renters and businesses in the two counties. The counties are eligible for other kinds of help.

NEW HAMPTON, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa man has been sentenced to life in prison for the death of his infant son who was found in a maggot-infested baby swing. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports Zachary Paul Koehn was sentenced Tuesday to the life sentence without parole. Koehn was convicted earlier of first-degree murder in the 2017 death of 4-month-old Sterling Koehn. An autopsy showed he’d died of malnutrition, dehydration and an E. coli infection caused by being left in a maggot-infested diaper.

The Red Oak Police Department reports the arrest Tuesday afternoon of an Omaha man. At 3:28pm Officers arrested 30-year-old Nicholas Clay Williams of Omaha, NE for Public Intoxication. He was arrested at the intersection of Senate Avenue and Highway 34 in Red Oak. Williams was taken to the Montgomery County Jail and held on $300 bond.

NEW HAMPTON, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa man has been sentenced to life in prison for the death of his infant son who was found in a maggot-infested baby swing. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports Judge Richard Stochl on Tuesday sentenced 29-year-old Zachary Paul Koehn to the life sentence without parole, as was mandatory under state law. Koehn was earlier convicted of first-degree murder in the death of 4-month-old Sterling Koehn.

Medics called to an Alta Vista apartment in August 2017 found the infant dead in the swing in a dark, sweltering bedroom. An autopsy showed he’d died of malnutrition, dehydration and an E. coli infection caused by being left in a maggot-infested diaper for up to two weeks.

A trial for the baby’s mother, 21-year-old Cheyanne Harris, is set for January.