(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s cancer rate is the second worst in the nation for three years running, and a comprehensive study being released today (Friday) offers little optimism. The 2026 Cancer in Iowa Report predicts some 21-thousand-700 Iowans will be diagnosed with invasive cancers this year, and 64-hundred Iowans will die from cancer. Both figures are up from last year’s report. Mary Charlton is an epidemiology professor at the University of Iowa and director of the Iowa Cancer Registry. While many states are seeing cancer rates fall, Charlton couldn’t pinpoint why Iowa’s numbers are rising. “It’s hard to say because the risk factors that are causing the cancers now are things that could have happened 10, 15, 20 years ago,” Charlton says. “So it’s going to take a while to really turn things around and it’ll probably take some really strong new policies and new approaches in Iowa to turn things around.”

A symposium on cancer prevention and treatment this week at Drake University, featured an expert on nitrate poisoning in waterways, which has been a years-long battle in Iowa. Charlton says nitrates may be one cancer culprit. “It certainly could be a contributing factor. I think there’s a lot of things at play. Cancer is really complicated. It’s just a complex interplay of genetic, lifestyle, and environmental risk factors working all together,” Charlton says. “There’s not one thing causing it, but there’s probably lots of things contributing to it. Nitrate could certainly be one of those things.” One bright spot in the report deals with farm families. Iowa farmers in a recent study had 13-percent fewer cancers overall than expected compared to Iowa’s general population, and their spouses had ten-percent fewer.

“The farmers in the Agricultural Health Study had lower smoking and drinking rates compared to the rest of the general population in Iowa,” Charlton says. “They also talk about something called the healthy worker effect. So to be in their study, to be a farmer that was enrolled in the Agricultural Health Study, you have to be healthy enough to be a farmer — so those are a couple of things.” The report found the rate of new cancers in young adults in Iowa for 2018-2022 is higher than the rate for 2008-2012, and is the second highest in the nation. Also, compared to the 2025 edition of the report, Charlton says Iowa’s most common types of cancer haven’t changed.

“Same story, different year,” she says. “We still have breast, prostate, lung and colorectal cancers, followed by melanoma. They make up over half of our cancer cases in Iowa. Unfortunately, lung cancer continues to be the most common cause of cancer deaths, accounting for nearly one out of every four cancer deaths in Iowa, followed by colorectal and pancreatic cancers.” The report says the state’s number of cancer survivors is increasing, with an estimated 175,290 survivors now living in Iowa.

https://shri.public-health.uiowa.edu/cancer-data/iowa-cancer-reports/

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa G-O-P has hosted the first of six party fundraisers billed as a “Legacy Tour” for outgoing Governor Kim Reynolds. Reynolds — Iowa’s first female governor — was interviewed onstage in Cedar Rapids last (Thursday) night by Iowa Republican Party chairman Jeff Kaufmann.  “I’m not trying to create a legacy, Jeff. That’s just not what I’m doing, so I never think of it from that perspective,” Reynolds said. “I mean I am project driven.” One of her projects has been tax policy — eliminating the state tax on retirement income, cutting Iowa’s corporate tax rate and reducing the individual income tax to a flat rate of three-point-eight percent.

“When we took office we had the sixth highest individual income tax rate in the country and now we have the sixth lowest and we did it in six years,” Reynolds said, as the crowd applauded, The G-O-P hosted similar events in 2017 when then-Governor Terry Branstad was appointed U.S. Ambassador to China. The party’s other “Legacy Tour” events with Reynolds will be in Davenport, Dubuque, Clear Lake, Des Moines and Sioux Center. Reynolds took over as governor in May of 2017 and announced last spring that she would not seek re-election.

Last (Thursday) night, about three dozen protesters gathered in Cedar Rapids to criticize the governor’s record on water quality and for diverting state tax dollars into accounts that cover tuition costs for nearly all the students in Iowa’s private K-through-12 schools.

(Red Oak, IA) – Firefighters in southwest Iowa and elsewhere battled field and ditch fires, Thursday. According to Red Oak Fire Chief John Bruce, multiple southwest Iowa fire departments were called to the 1300 block of Lumber Ave, in rural Essex, for a field fire. The blaze was reported just before 4-p.m. Upon arrival, firefighters had two separate brush piles on fire, with fire extension into a nearby grass/harvested corn field. Crews were able to make a quick knock down and bring the fire under control.Two separate farmers assisted with their tractors and disks to diminish the spread of the flames.

Photos from the Red Oak Fire Department’s Facebook page (3-12-26)

About a half-hour later, as the firefighters were wrapping-up fire control efforts, they were notified by Montgomery County Communications about a ditch fire at 270th/O Ave (Montgomery County). Fire crews arrived on scene just south of Montgomery-Page Street on O Avenue, to find several acres of CRP ground on fire with a large wall of fire moving very quickly, (crossing a rural road) and proceeding north into harvested corn and additional pasture ground.

One residence to the east was advised that evacuation may be imminent if fire crews weren’t able to contain/stop the spread of the fire. Fire crews were able to finally contain/stop the spread of the fire with approximately 60 acres burned. Chief Bruce said, thankfully mutual aid departments were still close on Lumber Ave, as well as several farmers assisting with various agriculture implements to assist stopping the progression of the fire.

No injuries reported. Fire-ground operations were eventually terminated at around 6:25-p.m.

Assisting/Responding Agencies to the incidents included:

Essex Fire Rescue

Clarinda Fire Department

Stanton Fire and Rescue Department

Montgomery County Emergency Management Agency

Montgomery County 911

Stanton Fire and Rescue Department

Villlisca FD

Grant FD

Clarinda Fire Department

Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office – Red Oak, Iowa

Montgomery County Emergency Management Agency

Montgomery County 911

Page Co 911

(Dike, IA) – A pursuit early this (Friday) morning in northeast Iowa’s Grundy County, resulted in injuries to the driver of a pickup truck that had been reported stolen. According to the Iowa State Patrol, authorities received a complaint about a stolen vehicle traveling east on Highway 20 near Exit 187. Law enforcement attempted a traffic stop on the vehicle.

The pursuit ended when the 2012 Dodge R-150 driven by 18-year-old Landon Shivers, of Moorland (IA), took Exit 215 too fast, resulting in a crash.

Shivers suffered minor injuries and was transported by ambulance to MercyOne Hospital in Waterloo. The Patrol was assisted during the incident by the Grundy County Sheriff’s Office, along with Dike Fire and Ambulance.

(Lewis, IA) – The Cass County Conservation Board is set to hold two Camping 101 programs. The first program will be held at the Outdoor Educational Classroom near Massena**, on March 28th at 2-p.m. The session will focus on fire building and supplies, Leave No Trace principles, and trip planning. The second session will be held at the Campground Shelter at Cold Springs Park, on Saturday April 18th beginning at 6-p.m. That session will be all about supplies and gear. Bring your gear and stay with an optional camping night at Cold Springs park.

Both programs are FREE, and all ages welcome!

**To reach the Outdoor Educational Classroom, take Highway 148 south of Massena, turn Left on Tucson Road and follow it East for about two miles, and then turn right into the parking lot.

(Radio Iowa) – More Iowa National Guard soldiers returned home from a deployment in the Middle East Thursday. Around 100 soldiers from the Second Brigade Combat Team of the 34th Infantry Division got a rousing welcome home in Sioux City. Sergeant Ben Morehead of Sioux City had several people on hand to welcome him back. “My friends, my family, and then work, the Sioux City Fire Department, it’s been outstanding. This whole time, I’ve had a lot of people send packages, check in with phone calls, text messages, supporting us, making sure we’re doing all right, and it just means a lot, and it just goes to show how strong that, you know, the camaraderie is,” he says. Morehead was deployed as a combat medic in Syria with the First Squadron 113th Calvary Regiment, which lost two members in an ISIS attack.

“We were in Syria and just to counter ISIS was kind of the main mission. It changed a lot over the course of that whole deployment,” he says. “There’s a lot going on in the Middle East right now. And so it seemed that something was changing every day, but really proud of this unit, this group. They really leaned on each other through the goods and the bads, ups and downs, and that’s what got us through it.” Morehead’s wife Amie said it was his second deployment, but the first in the two-and-a-half years they’ve been married. “I’m very thankful that he’s home and he’s safe and I definitely relied a lot on my family and friends and neighbors this year,” she says.

Major Dexter Melhaf is the squadron officer in charge and says the support from Iowa and the families back home helped everyone in the unit. “There are so many organizations from the Siouxland community as well as the state of Iowa as a whole that sent us care packages and you take it for granted back home. But a piece of mail brightens a soldier’s day tremendously when they get a package with one of their favorite snacks in there. So to the communities and the families, thank you for that,” Melhaf says.

Other welcome home ceremonies were held in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids.

(Rural Clarke County, IA) — A southern Iowa man has changed his plea to guilty on two charges related to a November 2025 hit-and-run crash between a car and a horse-drawn buggy, that killed a teenager from Murray. On March 12, the date of 41-year-old Jacob Wright’s pretrial hearing, he appeared in court and changed his plea to guilty. Court records state he pleaded to Knowingly Leaving the Scene of an Accident Resulting in Death/Serious Injury and Failure to Assist.

Wright’s car hit the buggy from behind on November 12, 2025, resulting in the death of 16-year-old Elmer Borntrager. Authorities had reported the car fled from the scene following the crash, leaving behind parts that were identified as belonging to a Chevy Cavalier. Wright was arrested following an investigation that lasted for nearly a month.

Wright was initially charged with Involuntary Manslaughter and Knowingly Leaving the Scene of an Accident Resulting in Death/Serious Injury. An additional charge of Failure to Assist Resulting in Death was later filed. In late January 28, Wright entered a plea of not guilty to all three charges. His jury trial had been set to take place March 30^th.

On hearing on his case is now set to occur March 26^th. Wright remains in the Clarke County Jail, pending sentencing.

(Taylor County, IA) – A collision between an SUV and a semi tractor-trailer resulted in at least three people being transported to the hospital. Officials with the Lenox Fire Department report rescue crews were dispatched at 3:31-p.m. Thursday to the intersection of Highway 148 and 130th Street, west of Lenox and north of Gravity, for a two vehicle accident with injuries. Dispatch reports at the time indicated an adult female and two children were injured when the SUV rear-ended the semi. (Photos are from the Lenox Fire Department’s Facebook page)

Photos from the scene provided by Lenox Fire on their social media page, showed an SUV with a crushed front and a semi, along with images of grain/corn and debris being cleared from the road. Officials say Highway 148 had to be shut down for a while as investigators worked and clean-up crews cleared the roads.

Authorities said agencies assisting at the scene included: The Taylor County Ambulance, and Sheriff’s Office; Corning Fire Department; the Iowa State Patrol and Shepherd’s Towing.

(Radio Iowa) – A political operative who’s worked on presidential and U.S. senate campaigns in the past has submitted the paperwork to put her own name on ballots for the Iowa’s Democratic Primary for governor. Julie Stauch of West Des Moines says she submitted about four-thousand signatures on her nominating petitions.  “I didn’t go out and collect all of those, but in several situations I was the one who could go get the and so I did,” Stauch said. “Yesterday was my last stop and one of the ladies said: ‘You know what? I’ve never had a candidate ask me to sign their petition before. I like this.'”

Iowa law requires statewide candidates to submit at least 35-hundred signatures and they must have collected at least 100 signatures in 19 different counties. “It’s probably a little more overwrought than it needs to be in terms of people participating in democracy. When I ran Mazie Hirono’s campaign in Hawaii…25 signatures was all you needed to get on the ballot, so we had 10 people in that primary,” Stauch said, laughing. “It was an adventure.”

Stauch says changing Iowa’s ballot access rules isn’t among her priority issues. “Water, public schools and those health care fights,” Stauch said. “That’s a lot to get done and a lot to move the needle on.” Stauch says Iowa’s cancer rate, nursing home care and access to O-B G-Y-Ns are all concerns voters raise about Iowa’s health care system as she has campaigned around the state.  “I don’t have my own agenda,” Stauch said. “I’m just finding out what they want done and I’m going to go to work on it.”

Stauch is running against State Auditor Rob Sand, who announced his campaign for governor last spring and submitted nearly 28-thousand signatures on his nominating petitions earlier this week.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa House has passed a bill that supporters say attacks the number one cause of lung cancer among non-smokers. The bill would require radon mitigation systems in newly constructed homes in Iowa. Representative Hans Wilz of Ottumwa says many home builders already install the systems.

“Radon is estimated to cause nearly 400 deaths annually in the State of Iowa,” Wilz said. “And all 99 counties in the State of Iowa have been identified as a Zone One — the highest risk category by the EPA.” Radon is a colorless, odorless gas that seeps into homes through cracks in the foundation.

Representative Austin Baeth of Des Moines — a doctor of internal medicine — says it’s not everyday that legislators pass bills that will directly save lives. “I’ve too many times diagnosed people with cancer who were not smokers,” Baeth said, “and it was because of their exposure to radon.”

The House unanimously passed the same bill two years ago, but it stalled in the senate.