The “Live Healthy Iowa” Kids Governor’s Challenge finished their 100-day activity and nutrition challenge on April 25th, with just over 31,000 kindergarten through 12th-grade students participating on 1,322 teams. The Governor’s Challenge encourages youth to be more active and make better nutrition choices, and is a way for Iowa schools to win monetary awards to purchase new physical education or playground equipment. In order to be eligible for cash prizes, teams must report each week of the challenge. Four schools won a $500 cash prize each, while the top cash prize of $1,000, went to the Creston Elementary School, in Creston.

Teams recorded their minutes of activity, servings of fruit, vegetables, milk/water and screen time. The totals from the challenge included:  more than 62.8-million minutes of activity; 759,000 servings of fruit; 447,000 servings of vegetables; 490,000 servings of milk and/or water; and more than 1.7-million hours of screen time. Live Healthy Iowa Kids is a free statewide 100-day challenge for youth inspiring them to be more active and make better food choices. During the program, participants aim to be active for 60 minutes a day, at least five days a week. Youth will also be challenged to track their nutrition habits. In 2011, the Live Healthy Iowa Kids/Governor’s Challenge had nearly 11,000 participants on 549 teams registered for the challenge.

For more information about Live Healthy Iowa Kids, visit www.livehealthyiowakids.org.  Live Healthy Iowa Kids was created in 2004 as a program of the Iowa Sports Foundation and is endorsed by the Iowa Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness & Nutrition. Live Healthy Iowa Kids’ youth initiatives are free programs encouraging Iowa’s youth to be more active and learn about healthy food choices in a positive, fun way. Since they began, more than 500,000 youth have participated in Live Healthy Iowa Kids/Governor’s Challenge, Go the Distance Day and Fall Fitness Day.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

A Massena woman was arrested Saturday on a warrant out of Missouri associated with a 2006 Driving While Intoxicated charge. The Cass County Sheriff’s Office says 61-year old Jeannette T. Schroeder was being held at the jail in Atlantic until she’s extradited to Nodaway County, MO., where her bond was set at $5,000.

The Sheriff’s Office says also, the 54-year old Anne Allen Toombs,  of Atlantic,  turned herself in to the Cass County Jail last week, to be fingerprinted on a District Court charge of Theft 2^nd Degree. Toombs was booked into the jail and then released.

 And, the Atlantic Police Department on Monday, reported 37-year old Christopher Claussen, of Atlantic, was arrested Sunday, on a charge of Public Intoxication. Claussen was booked into the Cass County Jail.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Gov. Terry Branstad says six Iowa universities and colleges will be home to centers that will promote teaching science, technology, engineering and math to students no matter where they live. Branstad says lack of equal opportunity for such programs to all students is hurting the state’s ability to retain and attract businesses needing highly skilled workers. He says test scores show Iowa students have fallen behind in math and science education.
 
The centers called STEM hubs will be located at Iowa Lakes Community College in Estherville, University of Northern Iowa, Iowa State University, Southwestern Community College in Creston, and Drake University. The University of Iowa and Kirkwood Community College work together to form the sixth. Funding for the offices is included in an education budget bill pending in the Legislature.