(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Joni Ernst says the Biden Administration has reversed course and will not block hunter safety and archery programs in Iowa’s schools. Ernst says Biden made the decision after she pushed back on the idea of ending the popular programs.

(Radio Iowa) –  The Board of Regents has approved a plan for Iowa State University to tear down LeBaron Hall and replace it with a new building. I-S-U’s Shawn Norman says LeBaron Hall was built in 1952 and has had no significant renovation since its original construction. He says replacing the building would address their concerns and offer a contemporary learning environment to encourage independent learning and leadership development.

New LaBaron classroom design (ISU photo)

Students in the apparel, merchandising and design program would use the new production labs and teaching spaces. Construction is expected to start in September 2024 and will be completed by summer of 2026. The estimated project budget is 39 million dollars to be funded by private giving and university funds.

(Radio Iowa) – The labor union representing more than two-thousand graduate assistants at the University of Iowa is demanding higher wages, saying the current minimum 26-thousand dollar salary isn’t enough. Natalie McClellan is a third year P-H-D student and she represents COGS, the graduate student worker union at the U-I.  McClellan says, “Our demand was to keep up with inflation but keeping up with inflation, which can go up and down, it’s not accounting for what it would actually take to have a living wage.”

The union and the Iowa Board of Regents agreed to that 26-thousand minimum last March during negotiations, but McClellan says the reality is, the wages don’t cover costs like housing, transportation and food. The regents are asking the legislature to increase funding for the state’s three public universities, but McClellan says any increased funding needs to benefit the workforce. “Okay, you’re asking for more money for the university system,” she says. “How is that going to benefit us as the people who are making it go.”

During the regents’ Wednesday meeting in Iowa City, protesters organized by the union shut down proceedings. Regents President Pro Tem Sherry Bates had to raise her voice to adjourn the meeting.

The union is using M-I-T’s Living Wage Calculator that accounts for costs like transportation and housing. Assuming a 40-hour work week, it says a single person with no kids in Johnson County needs a pre-tax salary of 35-thousand dollars. The U-I estimates a 25-percent increase in graduate student wages would cost the system nearly 14-million dollars. Just this month, the Regents requested an additional 15-million dollars from the state for the 2025 fiscal year.

(Fontanelle, Iowa) – A property management firm in Nebraska has purchased a former care facility in Adair County. Officials with Zoul Properties, LLC, said they bought the 24,000 square-foot Good Samaritan Society-Fontanelle building. The building was left vacant when the facility closed its doors in November 2022 as the result of operating challenges faced in the aftermath of the pandemic.

Zoul said they intend to redevelop and renovate the building into an apartment community. The property will be converted into 25 apartments consisting of one and two-bedroom apartments and have features like a community room and laundry facility. The investment by Zoul Properties is expected to be $1 million, according to a press release. Renovation work is expected to kick off late this year and continue through the summer of 2024, with residential apartments available for lease and occupancy shortly thereafter.

Zoul Properties manages apartment properties in Iowa and four other Midwestern states. One of their other properties is in Adair. In Iowa, third party property management is provided by Iowa West Realty, a division of Zoul Properties.