WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — Waterloo officials will vote whether to spend $84,500 to study the feasibility of a city-owned broadband utility. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports the City Council will be asked Monday whether to approve the study by Denver-based Magellan Advisors. The council voted earlier this month to set aside money from unspent general obligation bonds for the costs. The vote Monday would engage the company for the study.

Business groups and others have encouraged officials to consider the municipal utility because of dissatisfaction about current internet services offered by private companies. A study by the Waterloo Industrial Development Association estimated the cost of a fiber-to-home system at $39.2 million to $65.3 million. The study would be completed this spring.

The Creston Police Department reports six recent arrests. At around 3-a.m. today (Monday), 41-year old Regina Torres, of Creston, was arrested on a Union County warrant for Failure to Appear, on an original charge of Assault. Torres was being held in the Adams County Jail on a $300 bond. Sunday night, 25-year old Brittany Kuhn, of Creston, was arrested at the Union County Law Enforcement Center (LEC) on charges of Harassment, and two counts of Assault. Kuhn was later released on a $2,600 bond.

At around 2-a.m. Sunday 41-year old Mauri Graciani, of San Perilta, TX., was arrested in Creston for Public Intoxication, Assault on a Police Officer (without injury), and Interference with Official Acts. Graciani was later released on a $1,600 bond. At around 12:45-a.m., Sunday, Creston Police arrested 37-year old Mitchell Killion, of Creston, for Public Intoxication. He was later released on $300 bond. And, at around 12:30-a.m. Saturday, 33-year old Jacob Holbrook, of Creston, was arrested for OWI/1st offense. He was later released on a $1,000 bond.

Saturday afternoon, 31-year old Jennifer Bronkla, of Creston, was arrested for Theft in the 5th Degree. She was subsequently released on a promise to appear in court. And, a Creston woman residing in the 300 block of Livingston Avenue, reported Saturday, that sometime over the previous few days, someone broke into her vehicle parked in front of her residence. A purse containing several makeup items was missing. The loss was estimate at $500.

(Radio Iowa) — Two weekend events in Iowa clearly illustrated the divide between the two major political parties in America. On Saturday morning at Drake University, hundreds of Democrats greeted Nancy Pelosi with a standing ovation. “Thank God we do have the right leader at the right time in our speaker of the House,” Polk County Democrats’ chairman Sean Bagniewski said in his introduction. On Saturday night on the Iowa State Fairgrounds, Republicans praised President Trump. “This is Trump Country and a place where we don’t really care what Mitt Romney thinks,” Iowa G-O-P chairman Jeff Kaufmann said, to cheers as he criticized a fellow Republican who has questioned some of Trump’s actions.

Pelosi — a few hours earlier — was asked by a moderator to describe a recent tense meeting in the White House. “I don’t really like to start a Saturday morning talking about you know who,” Pelosi said. In discussing the impeachment inquiry, Pelosi quoted one of the country’s Founding Fathers. “We do believe the times have found each and every one of us, right now,” Pelosi said. The keynote speaker at Saturday night’s Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition banquet — Georgia Congressman Doug Collins — vowed to follow Pelosi around the country to call for a vote on the House floor to open impeachment hearings. “Don’t let the Democrats fool you and especially the two new ones from Iowa…You either stand with the president or you’re going to stand behind this president, because he will win again,” Collins said, to cheers.

Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition president Steve Scheffler praised Trump’s nominees to the federal courts. “Trump in my view is the greatest president in my lifetime,” Scheffler said, to applause, “even greater than Ronald Reagan.” Pelosi told the crowd of Democrats Trump has failed to live up to his oath of office. “Has anybody every said: ‘This is the most important election of our time?’, sadly, they just keep getting more urgent,” Pelosi asked, prompting laughter and applause from the audience. “…This one is. One term. It’s essential.”

The 2020 General Election is 371 days away.

(Radio Iowa) — Many Iowa farmers have been dealing with excessive moisture this year along with harvest delays due to wet weather and, in many areas, flooding. Iowa State University Extension field agronomist Paul Kassel, who covers ten counties in northwest Iowa, says corn will have to be dried to prevent it from spoiling while in storage and drying expenses will be way up this year. “The question is, what’s it going to cost to dry,” Kassel says. “It’s still in the upper 20s for grain moisture. You could spend, for 200 bushels of corn at commercial drying costs, you’re looking at $7 or $8 per point per acre to dry it. If you’ve gotta’ remove ten points, that’s the profit plus a little.”

For many growers, the harvest for corn and soybeans is at least two weeks late. Kassel says the majority of the corn that was planted in late spring through the first week of June is in great condition. “A lot of folks in this area did stick with their plans on planting corn,” Kassel says. “The grain price went up during that time frame and it does look good. It did develop well and it pollinated around the first of August which is obviously late but not real late. We’re optimistic on that crop it’s just, can we make any money on it will be the next question.”

Soybean growers had cooperative harvest weather in the past week or so, but about half the soybean crop still needs to be brought in.  “The grain moisture on that has been around 12 or 13 and it took a while to get it down there,” Kassel says. “Now, with the recent rain and cool weather predicted, the real question is will that soybean crop get back down to 13% or less so we can store it safely.”

Kassel says producers are hoping for conditions to be like in 2009 when they had a lot of rain in October but then November brought good weather that allowed harvest to be completed in late November and early December.

(Radio Iowa) — The governor and the leader of the state Education Department say the program that allows veteran teachers to become mentors to their less-experienced colleagues is showing benefits. Department of Education director Ryan Wise says schools have been working on their teacher leadership plans in the last four to six years. “What we know is– that the longer schools emphasize teacher leadership and giving teachers a role and a voice in improving the quality of instruction — the greater impact that has on student learning,” Wise says.

He says the data shows it has helped schools keep teachers. “Eighty-nine percent of school districts mostly or fully met the goals that they set related to teacher attraction…and retention,” according to Wise. He says the program has done a lot to help share information among teachers. “We also see great results related to the frequency and quality of collaboration that teachers have with one another. I think that teacher leadership has really changed the nature of the teaching profession in Iowa for the better,” Wise says. “Teachers are much more likely to work together than they were before we had this system in place.”

Wise says it has also made an important difference for students. “The percentage of districts that are mostly or fully meeting the achievement goals they have set have gone up now for three years in a row. So, across a number of measures, teacher leadership in Iowa is having a positive impact,” Wise explains.  Last school year was the third with all districts participating, and 58 percent reported mostly or fully meeting local achievement goals, up from 56 percent in 2017-18 and 50 percent in 2016-17. The program comes with additional state money to pay more to the teacher leaders — and Wise says that is key. “Very important,” he says, “you know the state invests about 163 million dollars annually in teacher leadership. And that really gives schools the ability to create roles that have a clearly defined mission to them. And additional compensation as well.”

“That compensation really recognizes a teacher’s ability and impact and allows schools to do some creative things,” Wise says. The system is the centerpiece of an education reform package adopted by legislators in 2013 and was phased in over three years. The Department of Education says more than 10-thousand teachers in Iowa’s 327 school districts are in leadership roles through the program. The end-of-year report is available on the Iowa Department of Education’s website.

Four people were said to have been seriously injured during a collision between an SUV and a pickup, Sunday afternoon, near De Soto. The Iowa State Patrol reports a 2012 Chevy Silverado was traveling south on Highway 169 at around 3-p.m., as a 2019 Toyota 4Runner was exiting I-80 and turning south.

The vehicles collided, causing the pickup to roll over and come to rest in the west ditch, on its top. The SUV came to rest on the southbound lane of Highway 169. Both drivers, 60-year old Scott E. Toland, of Winterset, and 70-year old Constantino A. Alverez, of Estherville, along with the passengers in his pickup: 63-year old Michael M. Bradshaw, and 41-year old Michael W. Mathine, both of Estherville, were injured in the crash.

Toland and Bradshaw were flown by helicopter to Mercy and Methodist Hospitals in Des Moines. Alvarez and Mathine were transported to those same hospitals, by Dallas County EMS. The Patrol was assisted at the scene by the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office, DeSoto PD, DeSoto Fire, Van Meter Fire, the IA DOT, Mercy 1 and LifeFlight.