DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa public schools have a new database to report and track bullying incidents in detail as they happen throughout the year.  The Iowa Department of Education launched the database on Friday.  The state has relied on one annual set of reports, logged under four labels, each spring to track bullying in schools. That was prompted in 2007 by a state anti-bullying and anti-harassment law. The new database will have schools report bullying based on one or more of 17 student traits explicitly named in state law – including sexual orientation, gender identity, physical or mental disability or political belief.

Here are just some of the images from the Sat., Sept. 12 2012 “Fly Iowa – Heritage and Homecoming” airshow, in Atlantic, IA. (Photo’s by KJAN News Director Ric Hanson)…

More military vehicles on display at the airshow

The Iowa State Patrol’s aircraft, based in the Atlantic Airport hangar.

An Iowa man who brought the world to thousands of Iowa students over three decades will be remembered in Stuart this weekend. Al Bell traveled all over the planet and filmed his adventures, then visited schools across Iowa and made grand presentations. His daughter, Becky Bell-Greenstreet, says the film festival of her father’s work is the second one they’ve held in the past few years. Bell-Greenstreet says Sunday’s event will feature films that were not shown two years ago as there’s now a complete film library of her dad’s movies. Bell made his appearances in schools across Iowa between 1949 and 1979, highlighting his trips to Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.

She says her father was always well-received whenever he visited a rural Iowa school. “Those gyms and auditoriums were just packed to the rafters,” with kids from kindergarten through high school in one assembly, she says, “and my dad’s job was to teach them about a particular country. She says her dad would go all out for the films and for the assemblies. He would come out in costume and taught the students words in foreign tongues while the movies were well-produced and funny, artistic and sometimes bringing screams of surprise from students. T

he Al Bell Film Festival will be held at the Saints Center in Stuart, opening at noon, with artifacts, costumes, photos, foreign dolls, original posters and films on display. Films will be shown at 1 and 3 PM. Learn more at: “www.albellremembered.com”

(Radio Iowa)