Iowa teachers who haven’t done so for THIS school year may have to incorporate Iowa history in their classroom lessons soon. New state standards requiring Iowa history be taught at every grade level were approved by the Iowa Board of Education this spring. “This will ensure that students across Iowa get wide exposure to Iowa history. School districts must implement these standards by 2020.”

That’s Stephanie Wager, the social studies consultant in the Iowa Department of Education. According to the new standards, “active, informed citizenship” and “civic competence” is based on an understanding of history. “I can tell you that we are working hard to make sure Iowa students understand our state’s past and why it matters,” she says.

Iowa is among the last states to require state-specific historical information to be taught in its schools. “The topic of Iowa history is not just one for those who care passionately about the subject. It should be important to all Iowans,” Wager says.

Wager says “Knowing about your community and state provides incentive for Iowans to stay here in the state and improve their own communities.” The State Historical Society has posted a new collection of more than 170 photos, recordings, letters and other documents online. Teachers are being encouraged to use the items in their history lessons. “It’s so important to expose students to a wide variety of media and images and artifacts,” Wager says, “and to see how historians kind of use all of those things to put together the big picture of history.”

The script Iowa native Herbert Hoover used to deliver his inaugural address in 1929 is part of the collection. President Hoover’s handwritten notes are on the documents, along with water marks from the rain that fell the day he took the presidential oath of office. A 100-thousand dollar federal grant helped pay for posting these historical materials online. The items come from the Library of Congress and the State Historical Museum.

(Radio Iowa)

The Creston Police Department reports two men were arrested early Monday morning on drug charges. Between 2:30-a.m. and 3-a.m., 24-year old Michael Cox, and 22-year old Cody Reighard, both of Creston, were arrested at the the Union County Law Enforcement Center (LEC),on four counts each of Burglary in the 3rd degree.

Reighard was also charged with Possession of a Controlled Substance, while Cox was charged with Possession of a Controlled Substance/2nd offense. Both men were being held at the Union County Jail, where Cox’ bond was set at $22,000, and Reighard’s bond was set at $21,000.

NEW YORK (AP) – United Technologies is acquiring Rockwell Collins for $22.75 billion in order to expand its aerospace capabilities. United Tech, which makes Otis elevators and Pratt & Whitney engines, said Monday it’s paying $140 per share in cash and stock for Rockwell Collins, a 9.4 premium over Tuesday’s closing price, when reports of a deal surfaced. Including debt, the acquisition is worth $30 billion.

Rockwell Collins, based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, makes flight deck avionics, cabin electronics and cabin interiors for commercial and military customers. Farmington, Connecticut-based United Technologies called the businesses complementary and expects $500 million in pretax savings related to the deal. It reaffirmed its 2017 profit estimates.

The companies expect the deal to close by the third quarter of 2018, subject to approval from Rockwell Collins shareowners and regulators.

Iowa school kids are back in class and one of the biggest challenges some districts are facing now is finding enough people to keep wheels on the buses going round and round. Max Christensen, the executive officer for school transportation at the Iowa Department of Education, says many other states have the same issue. “From coast-to-coast and border-to-border, there’s concern with trying to fill that seat behind the steering wheel on those school buses,” Christensen says.

He says Iowa schools are doing all they can to get out the word. “A lot of school districts are parking buses in parking lots at malls or grocery stores and that sort of and putting banners on advertising that school bus drivers are wanted,” Christensen says. “One school district in northeast Iowa is using a new tactic that I’ve never seen before…its’s kind of low tech. They are actually using yard signs to advertise for school bus drivers.”

He says they have around nine-thousand school bus drivers in the state and around one-thousand leave each year. Christensen admits the challenges involved in driving a school bus may deter some people. “Being a school bus driver is not an easy task. You are driving down the road with a big vehicle and you’ve quite a number of students behind you — upwards of 40 or 50 students sitting behind you,” Christensen explains. Trying to drive the bus and control the kids at the same time is sometimes somewhat challenging.”

But he says you don’t just hop on the bus and drive away. He says there’s training for you and there’s licensing through the D-O-T along with drug, background and alcohol tests before you can take the wheel. Bus driving generally requires a split shift in the morning and afternoon, which rules out a lot of people who have other jobs. “They work very well for stay-at-home mothers or retired people, somebody like that,” Christensen explains. “It’s also very good income for a lot of college students. I know in a lot of college towns, college students drive a lot of school buses. It just depends on your personal schedule whether it will fit. For those it works well for — it’s really a pretty good income.”

He says the driver shortage has caused some districts to offer more pay. “I’ve seen upwards of anywhere from 18 or 19 upwards to 25 dollars an hour — which is really pretty good money to drive a school bus,” according to Christensen. ” If it works for you, that’s certainly good extra income,” Christensen says.  He suggests you check with your local school district if you might have the interest and time to drive a school bus. “Regardless or where you are at in Iowa, I think just about every district will take a look at you if you want to come in and drive a school bus. The shortage is just that severe,” Christensen says.

“School Bus Fleet” magazine recently reported that a school district in Muncie, Indiana canceled the first two days of school because they had a shortage of bus drivers. The state of Hawaii had to consolidate and eliminate some of its bus routes due to a lack of drivers, as did a school district in Oklahoma.

(Radio Iowa)

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say two groups of people have traded gunshots in a Sioux City neighborhood.  Investigators are trying to determine whether two people with bullet wounds who were taken to a Sioux City hospital were involved in the gunbattle Monday evening. At least one house was struck by bullets, but police say no one inside was injured.

Police were uncertain how many people were involved and how many of them fired guns. No arrests have been reported.