(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds says after providing state funded accounts to cover private school expenses, raising the pay of PUBLIC school teachers will be on her 2024 legislative agenda. Reynolds says she’ll also focus on improving reading scores among public school students in the early grades. “So that we’re making sure that every student has an opportunity to succeed and be successful, so stay tuned,” Reynolds says. “There’ll be more to come next year. I’m really excited to work on that over the interim.”

The average salary for a public school teacher in Iowa is about 10 percent below the national average. Reynolds says lawmakers are giving public schools authority to divert some already approved state funding to pay teachers more, but as she campaigned around the state for her plan to state help to parents who send their kids to private school, it was clear that pay for public school teachers is an issue.  “As I talked to rural administrators and worked with rural legislators, the two concerns were the…flexibility as well as being able to be competitive for teacher salaries,” Reynolds says. “They weren’t able to pay a lot of times as much as some of the more urban school districts were able to pay.”

At the end of the month, low income parents who enroll a child in a private school this fall will be able to apply for 76-hundred dollars in state money to cover tuition and other private school expenses. Some private schools have announced fall tuition increases, as high as 10 percent in some Catholic schools in the Diocese of Des Moines. Reynolds says that shouldn’t dilute the impact of the program.

“All schools are experiencing increased costs,” Reynolds says. “We’ve had our public schools talk about it, too, and that’s why every year we look at a State Supplemental Aid Payment because we recognize that there are increased costs…The other component of it is that private school teachers were paid considerably less than public school teachers and maybe this will make them be a little bit more competitive.”

Reynolds made her comments today (Thursday) during taping of Iowa Press, which airs Friday night at Iowa P-B-S. Earlier this year, Reynolds approved a three percent increase in general state aid for public schools.

(Groton, CT) – A Christening Ceremony for the nuclear submarine SSN Iowa has been announced. The ceremony will be held June 17, 2023, beginning at 9-a.m., at the Electric Boat Shipyard in Groton, Connecticut. This vessel will be the fourth U.S. NAVY ship named after the State of Iowa, however with the 3 prior being battleships, the first submarine to bear the state’s name. When commissioned, SSN 797 will also be the first attack class submarine built specifically to accommodate both male and female service members onboard.

The Iowa is a Virginia-class submarine, also known as the VA-class or 774-class, a class of nuclear-powered fast attack submarines in service with the U.S. Navy. The submarines are designed for a broad spectrum of open-ocean and littoral missions. They were conceived as a less expensive alternative to the Seawolf-class attack submarines, designed during the Cold War era, and are replacing older Los Angeles-class submarines, 29 of which have already been decommissioned.

USS Iowa SSN797 awaits christening in a Groton, CT dry dock (click to enlarge the image)

UPDATE—- male has been apprehended. Authority Mills County Sheriff’s Office.

(Glenwood, Iowa) – Officials with the Mills County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday (Today), that they are currently looking for a man allegedly connected to a a stolen vehicle. The last known location of Anthony Adams was on Kidd Road, south of Glenwood, but Adams claims residency in Council Bluffs. Anthony Adams is a convicted sex offender and out on Parole. If you see him or have any information on his whereabouts please call 911, do not approach.

Anthony Adams

Iowa • May 11, 2023— Four Iowa craft breweries were awarded five category medals at the 2023 World Beer Cup® competition, presented by the Brewers Association®.   The best beers in categories covering 103 different styles were awarded gold, silver, and bronze medals at a ceremony in Nashville, TN, on Wednesday, May 10, during the Craft Brewers Conference. Iowa breweries brought home four gold and one silver medal.

The 2023 World Beer Cup included 10,213 entries from 2,376 breweries representing 51 countries. The following Iowa craft breweries received industry-wide medal recognition during this year’s event:

• Backpocket Brewing, Coralville: Pumpkin Ale, Pumpkin Beer Category, Gold Medal
• Confluence Brewing Company, Des Moines: ChewBOCKa, German-Style Bock or Maibock Category, Gold Medal
• Confluence Brewing Company, Des Moines: Old Chungus, Wood- and Barrel-Aged Strong Beer Category, Gold Medal
• PIVO Brewery, Calmar: Decorah Nordic Gruit, Historical Beer, Gold Medal
• Lionbridge Brewing, Cedar Rapids: Old 17 Irish Stout, Classic Irish Style Dry Stout Category, Silver Medal

“The success of these four Iowa breweries on the world stage shows the quality of brewing happening all across the state,” said Iowa Brewers Guild Executive Director, Noreen Otto. “Our whole Iowa brewing community is celebrating.”

The Iowa Brewers Guild exists to unify craft brewing professionals, promote Iowa beer, and advocate for the industry’s growth.  More than 100 members are located in communities across Iowa. For additional information on the Iowa Brewers Guild, including a members list, visit IowaBeer.org.  For more information on the WBC competition, including a complete 2023 winners list, visit WorldBeerCup.org

(Radio Iowa) – A count performed earlier this year in 96 Iowa counties found 308 homeless people, a slight uptick compared to last year. The Iowa Balance of State Continuum of Care connects people to resources and funds statewide programs. The group’s director Courtney Guntly says homelessness in rural areas can be very different than in urban areas, as it can be harder to find people and direct them to resources because there’s less population density and fewer service providers.  “That makes it challenging when we really want to serve people where they are and where they may want to get rehoused, because they have those same family or friends or there’s other the community surrounding them,” Guntly says. “So if people have the community and want to stay in their rural community, that we want to make sure we respect that.”

Guntly says the group recently received five-million dollars in grants for three years to address homelessness in Iowa’s rural communities. The count excludes Polk, Pottawattamie and Woodbury counties. A separate survey was done in January in Polk County alone that found 644 homeless people, an upturn of six-percent from last year. Angie Arthur is the executive director of Homeward, a regional planning organization focusing on homelessness. Among those counted, Arthur says there was a significant increase in people who reported they were fleeing domestic violence.

“From a larger perspective, a lot of the funding that we see within our state focuses on correctional aspects,” Arthur says, “as opposed to prevention of domestic violence and supporting the victims and the choices that they make for how they want to flee or address domestic violence within their life.”  The Polk County survey showed a decrease in youth and veteran homelessness, which Arthur attributes to the success of special programs targeting those groups.

(Catherine Wheeler, Iowa Public Radio)