(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Arboretum and Gardens in Boone County celebrated the opening of its two-million dollar Treehouse Village with a ribbon cutting this week. The executive director of the Boone County Convention & Visitors Bureau, Kris Blocker, says it’s another attraction to bring people to the county. “If you know anything about tourism in Boone County, we are extremely blessed. But this just makes it even better,” she says. The arboretum’s executive director Mark Schneider says Treehouse Village is part of a larger effort by the organization to engage young families and improve access to the outdoors.

“We wanted to get families outdoors; we wanted to get families to the arboretum; we wanted something that was accessible, and we also wanted something that was architecturally interesting,” Schneider says, “and it kind of grew out of the woods where it’s located.” The main play area includes several wooden treehouses connected by ramps, rope nets and climbing walls, along with adaptive equipment, like wheelchair swings and a ground-level zipline.

A portion of the Treehouse Village (Iowa Arboretum photo)

Paved trails lead to overlook gazebos and a large wooden suspension bridge across a ravine.

DES MOINES— Gov. Kim Reynolds and the Iowa Department of Education (DOE) today (Friday) announced that 11 charter schools will receive a total of nearly $4 million in grant funding through the Iowa Charter Start-Up and Expansion Grant program. The grants will support new charter schools as they prepare for future operation as well as existing high-performing charter schools to improve or expand their classroom and course offerings. Charter schools are tuition-free, independently operated public schools that operate separately from their local school district. Public charter schools have their own board of directors and have the ability to design their curriculum and classrooms to meet specific educational objectives. Some specialize in areas such as career pathways, STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and providing at-risk youth with resources and opportunities to succeed in the classroom.

The Governor said in a press release, “Public charter schools provide yet another school choice for parents and guardians looking for the education that’s best suited for their children’s abilities and needs,” said Governor Kim Reynolds. “I applaud these industrious charter school administrators, board members and community leaders for expanding educational opportunities for students and families in their local communities.”

Iowa DOE Director McKenzie Snow said “Education opportunity is an important part of a world-class education system that sees every child, meets them where they are, and provides them what they need to realize their incredible potential. We commend the awardees for their commitment to serving students, families, and communities alongside educators across Iowa.”

The following newly authorized charter schools will receive awards of up to $500,000 that can be used to secure school facilities and transportation options, evidence-based curriculum, technology needs for the classroom and equipment for career and technical education classrooms:

• CIVICA Elementary Charter School, Cedar Rapids
• CIVICA Elementary Charter School, Des Moines
• Empowering Excellence Charter School, Cedar Rapids
• Great Oaks High School and Career Center, Des Moines
• Quest Forward Charter School, Cedar Rapids
• Quest Forward Charter School, Des Moines

The following high-performing, existing charter schools will receive awards of $200,000 that can be used to expand career and technical education programming, increase career pathway opportunities and equip classrooms due growing enrollment or expansion into additional grades:

• Choice Charter School, Union
• Hamburg Charter School, Hamburg
• Horizon Science Academy, Des Moines
• West Central Charter High School, Maynard
• Storm Lake Charter School, Storm Lake

All charter schools authorized by the Iowa State Board of Education were eligible to apply for Iowa Charter Start-Up and Expansion Grant funds. Charter schools intending to open on or after August 2024 were eligible to apply for up to $500,000 in start-up funds. All charter schools that were open before August 2024 were eligible to apply for up to $200,000 in expansion grants. Funds for the Iowa Charter Start-Up and Expansion Grant program are provided through State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds provided through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

Additional information on the Iowa Charter Start-Up and Expansion Grant program can be found on the Iowa Department of Education’s Charter School page.

(Remsen, Iowa) – A western Iowa man charged with kidnapping his son during recess has pleaded guilty in district court. KTIV-TV in Sioux City reports, that on Tuesday, Sept. 3rd, 35-year-old Brandon Duong, of Jefferson, Iowa, entered a guilty plea to one of two charges filed against him in Iowa district court. Duong submitted a guilty plea to one count of violating a custodial order which is a class D felony. His second-degree kidnapping charge was dropped. Duong was arrested January 30th and booked into the Greene County Jail, after an AMBER Alert led to a high-speed chase and a three-hour standoff near Remsen, Iowa.

Duong was accused of kidnapping his 7-year-old son, Bryson Duong, from Greene County Elementary School. A court order filed in December 2023, had restricted Duong from having custody of his son. The Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office says authorities learned Duong was possibly armed with a firearm during the January pursuit. Duong allegedly had his son over his shoulder while law enforcement had their guns drawn. After the three-hour standoff, Duong surrendered, and his son, uninjured, was taken into the custody of the Department of Human Services.

Brandon Duong

In February of 2024, Duong pleaded not guilty to second-degree kidnapping and in March of that year, a judge ruled that Duong was competent to stand trial, after a psychiatric evaluation. A sentencing hearing for Brandon Duong has yet to be set.

DUBUQUE, Iowa (KCRG) – A hiring fair in Dubuque connected hundreds of people who recently lost their jobs with potential employers Thursday. KCRG-TV reports Access Dubuque Jobs, Greater Dubuque Development Corporation, and IowaWORKS pooled resources for the event after Deere & Company and Duluth Trading Company recently laid off more than 200 employees in the tri-state area. Ashley Hakanson, a part-time student at Northeast Iowa Community College, works full-time at Duluth Trading and will be without a job by the end of October. She attended the fair in hopes of finding the right role to continue her passion. Hakanson and the other job seekers in attendance grow hopeful after meeting with around 50 regional employers from varying industries. Job fair organizers also encourage people to visit accessdubuquejobs.com to check out more than 1,000 job openings.

Another company, meanwhile, announced the lay-off of workers in Iowa City, and the closing of its doors at the end of this year. Knutson Construction Services will lay off dozens of people in Iowa City, effective next month. A Knutson spokesperson told KCRG that the company decided to close its office in Iowa City by the end of 2024 because of a shift in the company’s strategic approach to providing construction services in Iowa.

Knutson’s offices in Minnesota will now work directly with clients and partners in Iowa. Knutson Construction is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota but has been involved in several projects in the Iowa City area.

(Ames, Iowa) – Iowa State University and former Vice President for Finance and Operations Shawn Norman are facing a lawsuit from a former employee who alleges she faced discrimination on the basis of her age and sex. The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports former ISU Director of Facilities Services Christine Maduro filed suit July 31, claiming that she has “suffered immense mental, physical, and emotional distress” as a result of actions taken by Norman during her employment and when she was let go without justification or evidence of wrongdoing, according to the lawsuit.

Norman left ISU in December after less than one year in the position, signing a separation agreement with the university that had him receive $124,000 in a “separation payment” and affirm that he wouldn’t sue the university. Caitlynn Miller, another ISU employee who served under Norman, will also receive $124,000 through a settlement agreement after alleging she experienced harassment and retaliation.

(Photo by Perry Beeman/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

“Ms. Maduro was discriminated against because she was an older woman when Mr. Norman refused to work with Ms. Maduro, when Mr. Norman promoted someone else to a position who was less qualified than Ms. Maduro, and subsequently terminated from her position without just cause and with no evidence of wrongdoing,” the lawsuit alleged.

ISU spokesperson Angie Hunt said in an email that the university has no comment on the lawsuit.

(Creston, Iowa) – Police in Creston report two, recent arrests. A little after 3-p.m. Thursday, 22-year-old Zoe Paulette Marie Hull, of Creston, was arrested at her residence and charged with Domestic Abuse Assault/1st Offense. Hull was taken to Adams County Jail and held without bond until seen by a judge. And, at around 12:45-a.m. today (Friday), 64-year-old Cathryn Ann Woods, of Creston, was arrested on Lake Shore Drive, and charged with Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. Woods was cited and released from the scene, on a Promise to Appear in court.

(Radio Iowa) – The Ankeny-based Casey’s convenience store chain is upping its projection for expansion in this fiscal year. Casey’s Vice President for Investor Relations Brian Johnson talked about the change in a conference call on their first quarter results. “We now expect store growth to be approximately 270 units for the fiscal year, and that’s up from our previously disclosed 100 units,” Johnson says. The increase comes as Casey’s moves toward completing the acquisition of a group of 148 stores in Texas and 50 in Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi.
The large scale acquisition of those stores from the FIKES Wholesale company push them ahead of their timeline for expansion.

Casey’s C-E-O Darin Rebelez says he’s not sure if they would buy another large group because of the cost. “We probably have to think really hard about going down that path just to just from a balance sheet perspective, we have a capacity to do it,” he says, “it is whether we want to take on that amount of leverage?” Rebelez says the acquisition team will be looking at options for smaller groups of stores. “We’ll also continue our organic growth, our new to industry stores. We’ll pull back a little bit, just to help us manage the balance sheet a little bit,” he says. He says they will check out opportunities for growth as they become available.

“Deals take time, and you have to be in the market to be in the market, so so to speak. So we will continue to be looking and see what’s out there,” Rebelez says. Casey’s will have 29-hundred stores once the FIKES acquisition is completed by the end of the year. The company reported an increase in net income compared to the same quarter last year with an increase in same store sales and a more than 31-percent increase in gross fuel profit.