Boys
Shenandoah 9, Red Oak 0
Boys
Shenandoah 9, Red Oak 0
Boys
Glenwood 10, Red Oak 0
Tri-Center 5, AHSTW 1
Riverside 4, Missouri Valley 3 – 2 OT/PK
Girls
Treynor 2, Harlan 0
Skutt Catholic 2, Lewis Central 1
Tri-Center 10, AHSTW 3
Missouri Valley 2, Riverside 0
(Red Oak, Iowa) – A search warrant executed at around 1:50-a.m. today (Wednesday), in Red Oak, resulted in a woman’s arrest on drug and child endangerment charges. Red Oak Police conducted the search warrant on a residence in the 100 block of E. Nuckols Street, and arrested 40-year-old Jodie Michele Vanhouten, of Red Oak, on charges that include:
Vanhouten was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $10,000 bond. Red Oak Police were assisted by the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office and Montgomery County Communications Center.
(Iowa Capital Dispatch) – The Iowa Senate passed a bill Tuesday requiring Iowa schools to adopt new social studies and civics education standards to include a more focused coverage of events and subjects in U.S. history.
House File 2545 passed on a 33-14 vote and was sent to the Senate. It calls for the Iowa Department of Education director to conduct a review of Iowa school curriculum, education standards and high school graduation rates and give recommendations to the governor and General Assembly by July 1, 2025. The bill still includes this goal, but was amended on the floor to include another subject: history and social studies education.
Some of language in the amendment came from House File 2330, a bill passed by the Iowa House in February but not taken up by the Senate. The original House bill would have mandated that history curriculum included subjects like the “history and meaning of the United States flag and national anthem,” “exemplary figures in western civilization, the United States, and the state of Iowa” including Benjamin Franklin, Frederick Douglass and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, as well as documents like the Declaration of Independence and Articles of Confederation.
The Senate amendment includes similar provisions, requiring that “exemplary figures and important events” from western civilization, U.S. and Iowa history are covered, as well as the model of the U.S. state and federal government “in comparison to alternative forms of government, and the crimes against humanity that have occurred under communist regimes since 1917.”
The bill directs the Iowa Board of Education to conduct a review and revision of the state’s social studies standards to include these subjects for students in grades 1 through 12 in a relevant and age-appropriate manner. These standards would be adopted by Dec. 31, 2025.
Democrats in the Senate argued that the bill was overly prescriptive of schools. The bill goes back to the House for consideration.
(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa State Fair and the Iowa Lottery have teamed up for a State Fair themed scratch ticket. Iowa Lottery C-E-O Matt Strawn says it’s the first ticket specifically targeting the annual event. “A five dollar ticket where you can win a 50-thousand dollar top prize up to 50-thousand dollars on the ticket alone,” he says. “I suspect that’ll buy a corn-dog or two out here come August.” There’s a second chance as those with losing scratch tickets will be able to enter them to be part of a “Fair Fever” promotion on August 8th. “Twenty people will be out there on a live game show on the Grand Concourse on opening day of the fair and those 20 Iowans, those 20 Iowa Lottery players, are going to have the opportunity to compete for a guaranteed one million dollars in prizes,” Strawn says.
The final contestant in the game show will have a chance to the grand prize. “We’ll also — right out there in a live lottery game show — will have the opportunity to compete for a five million dollar prize,” he says. And that last contestant will go away with a minimum prize of 500-thousand dollars. Iowa State Fair C-E-O, Jeremy Parsons, says the pairing with the Lottery’s statewide reach may bring more people to the fairgrounds. “That’s our hope. You know one of the great things that the Iowa Lottery does really is they blanket the entire state in terms of their media coverage they get to all corners of the state,” he says.
Iowa State Fair CEO Jeremy Parsons talks about the new ticket as Lottery CEO Matt Strawn watches. (Radio Iowa photo)
Parsons says it could make those who’ve never visited the State Fair to give it a look. “We really think we’ll probably get the Iowa State Fair top of mind maybe more than ever this summer,” Parsons says.
The Iowa Lottery and the Iowa State Fair do have a vast history, as the first every scratch tickets began selling on August 22nd, 1985 on the fairgrounds. Proceeds from the Iowa Lottery have been used through the years to fund upgrades to the various facilities at the Fair, including the 1997 grandstand renovation.
(Iowa News Service) – The chair of the Federal Trade Commission will be in rural Iowa this weekend to hear from farmers and other residents about the proposed sale of Iowa Fertilizer to Koch Industries. The sale is pending FTC approval. Iowa spent $500 million to build an Iowa Fertilizer factory in Waverly to create competition in an already consolidated industry. Aaron Lehman, president of the Iowa Farmers Union, said he plans to tell FTC Chair Linda Khan a sale to Koch Industries would backtrack on any competitive progress the state has made.
“Our concern is that an industry that already lacks competition and has all sorts of monopoly problems would only get worse if this sale is allowed to go through,” Lehman explained.
Koch and other corporate ag conglomerates have said consolidating allows them to provide better products to farmers more efficiently. The hearing is set for Saturday on Main Street in Nevada. In addition to reducing competition for fertilizer, Lehman argued the sale would increase prices for farmers, and ultimately mean higher food prices for Iowans. He wants Khan to hear stories firsthand, from the people on the ground in Nevada. “We know that we might not be able to have a dialogue with the people who are investigating this situation, because they need to be impartial,” Lehman acknowledged. “But our farmers need to tell their story about how the industry is already in a monopoly state.”
Some 18 other ag organizations have joined the Iowa Farmers Union calling on the FTC and the Justice Department to investigate the proposed sale.
(Red Oak, Iowa) – Two women from Villisca were arrested last Saturday night, on Theft charges. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports 23-year-old Hannah Marie Leigh and 19-year-old Hallie Nevaeh Straw, were each charged with Theft in the 5th Degree. The women were transported to the Montgomery County Jail and held on $300 bond, each.
(Radio Iowa) – The National Weather Service says a minimum of four tornadoes touched down in Iowa on Tuesday, including one each in Calhoun, Dallas, Lee and Pocahontas counties. Among the damage, a barn was leveled near Dallas Center and there’s major damage to a house near Salem. National Weather Service meteorologist Kristy Carter says survey teams are fanning out this (Wednesday) morning to look over the damage at the various sites.
Photo taken around 10-a.m. Tuesday, North of Carbon, in Adams County. (Photo courtesy McCade Morrison)
“Those numbers can change as we continue to get more data throughout the day today,” Carter says. “We don’t have any ratings on any of those tornadoes yet. We’ll continue to be collecting data and trying to look at satellite imagery to figure out paths and surveys.” It was initially thought that just one twister set down in north-central Iowa around 2:30 P-M, but she says there were at least two, perhaps more, that emerged from that single storm cell.
“There were a couple of tornadoes that happened in Calhoun and Pocahontas. They weren’t necessarily all continuous, so at least at the moment, we’re thinking there are multiple tornadoes,” Carter says. “That’ll just be part of the data that we continue to collect here today and as we get some information about damage in the path and the survey.” There are multiple reports of large hail all over central and eastern Iowa, while winds were clocked up to 72 miles an hour in Cedar County near Stanwood. All across the state, there were reports of fallen trees and tree limbs which caused dozens of power outages.
“There were some reports of hail. We had one-to-two inches in diameter. We had plenty of wind gusts, 50-to-60 miles an hour,” Carter says. “It was really the winds that most people probably experienced, with all of our environmental wind, so outside of thunderstorms.” Funnel clouds were reported over Le Claire and near Cedar Rapids, but neither reached the ground to become tornadoes. No injuries are reported.
(Iowa Capital Dispatch– Des Moines, Iowa) – The Iowa House voted Tuesday to diminish the role and authority of the Iowa Civil Rights Commission and combine individual commissions on the status of underrepresented populations into a single board.
The legislation would turn the commission, created in 1965, into an advisory panel. Commission powers, such as the ability to investigate and address complaints on issues such as workplace violations of the Civil Rights Act, would instead go to the Iowa Office of Civil Rights and the Civil Rights Commission director.
The bill would do away with panels such as the commissions on Latino affairs, Native American Affairs, the commissions on the status of women, African Americans, Asian and Pacific Islanders, persons with disabilities and women. One person representing each group would be appointed to a consolidated Human Rights Board.
The measures were part of a sprawling bill that would eliminate 74 of Iowa’s 256 boards and commissions and merge nine current boards into three new bodies. Two new boards would also be created. Ten boards would have their membership reduced. Tthe board includes a panel that will review the performance of 25% of the boards and commissions every year and can recommend that panels be restored if needed.
The Iowa House voted 54-42 on Senate File 2385 and will return it to the Senate for consideration of one amendment.
The bill as originally approved by the House makes relatively modest changes to the legislation originally proposed by Gov. Kim Reynolds, based on the recommendations of a task force created by last year’s massive government reorganization legislation. Reynolds originally proposed to eliminate 111 boards or commissions. The House initially approved a bill that would have cut or merged only 49 panels – fewer than half of those proposed for change.
Seven Republicans joined Democrats in voting against the bill: Reps. Zach Dieen of Granville, Charley Thomson of Charles City, Steven Bradley of Cascade, Mark Cisneros of Muscatine, Brad Sherman of Williamsburg, Eddie Andrews of Johnston and Thomas Jeneary of LeMars.
Thomson was the only Republican to speak against the bill.
Today: Cloudy through mid morning, then gradual clearing, with a high near 67. Windy, with W/NW winds 15-30 mph.
Tonight: A chance of showers and thunderstorms, then showers and possibly a thunderstorm after midnight. Low around 45. NW-E/NE @ 15-20 mph. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
Tomorrow: Showers and possibly a thunderstorm. High near 56. N @ 15-25 mph. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
Friday: Partly sunny & breezy, with a high near 55.
Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 51.
Tuesday’s High in Atlantic was 75. Our Low was 50. We received .46″ rain at KJAN. Last year on this date, the High in Atlantic was 64, and the Low was 33. The All-Time Record High on April 17th in Atlantic, was 85, in 2004. The Record Low was 11, in 1907. Sunrise: 6:37. Sunset: 8:02.
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