Two dozen Iowa airports are getting federal grants to improve their safety and operations. Senator Charles Grassley on Monday announced the awards totaling more than $7.4 million from the Federal Aviation Administration’s Airport Improvement Program. He says the money is awarded based on national priorities.

Locally:

The Audubon Airport Authority will receive $429,875 to construct a parking lot and rehabilitate the runway.

The Creston Municipal Airport will receive $218,500 to construct a building in which to store snow removal equipment.

The Greenfield Municipal Airport will receive $66,500 to update the airport’s master plan to help identify the airport’s future needs.

The Shenandoah Municipal Airport will receive $76,000 to construct a taxiway.

The largest award of $1.53 million will go to the Ankeny Regional Airport, which will be used to improve the runway safety area. The Washington Municipal Airport will also get more than $1 million to rehabilitate its runway.

ONAWA, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Department of Transportation will be closing the Onawa rest areas along Interstate 29 in western Iowa so they can be used as staging areas for crews battling Missouri River flooding. The department says the northbound rest area will be closed Wednesday morning, the southbound rest area sometime Thursday.

On Tuesday, crews will begin stockpiling rock in the truck parking area of the northbound rest area. The stockpiling will take place in the southbound rest area on Wednesday. The department says the rest areas will remain closed up to 10 days.

Onawa is 33 miles south of Sioux City.

MODALE, Iowa (AP) – The western Iowa town of Modale has pulled out air conditioners, hauled out refrigerators and made plans to relocate for weeks or months in anticipation of Missouri River flooding. Now, residents are wondering, where’s the water? Many of the town’s 300 residents have cleared out of their homes, prompted by warnings that parts of Modale could receive 2 to 4 feet of water. But so far, nothing has happened.

Residents say they’re frustrated by the uncertainty, and question whether officials overstated the danger. Debbie Horan manages the United Western C-Store. She says residents were worked into a panic when they heard the projections and have now scattered to other communities. She says it’s unclear when or if people will return.

The jury was seated and heard opening arguments Monday in Carroll, during the first of two murder trials for Minnesota teenager Michael Swanson. Swanson is charged in the killing of convenience store clerks in Humboldt County and Kossuth County in November.

Humboldt County Attorney, Jennifer Benson described Swanson as a “sane individual who understood what he was doing and planned it out.” Benson says Swanson told officers he shot Sheila Myers in the face so she wouldn’t be able to identify him, and told them that the two shootings he committed made him feel powerful. Swanson’s defense attorney Charles Kenville told jurors that Swanson did not know what he was doing. He says Swanson was diagnosed with a mental disorder at age three and went on to have problems with his behavior, was in and out of treatment, and later got into drugs. Kenville told jurors they need to listen to all the testimony carefully and at the end of the trial he believes they will find Swanson insane.
Swanson is charged with first-degree murder and first-degree robbery in the deaths of Vicky Bowman Hall of Burt and Myers. The trial involving the death of Hall is scheduled to begin July 26 in Rock Rapids.