(Atlantic, IA) – The Atlantic School District’s Board of Education, Wednesday, approved several personnel matters, including (the previously mentioned) retirements or resignations of:

• Ashley Mosier, Boys Track Assistant Coach (effective 1/14/26); Matt Best, Asst. Football Coach; Gentri Meier, Mental Health Professional (effect 2/6/26); Elizabeth Herrick-Williams, HS Art Teacher (effective at the end the school year, 2026); Tracy Daugherty, Elementary Title 1 Math Teacher (effective at the end the school year, 2026); and Steve Andersen, Transportation Director (effective June 5, 2026)

The Board also approved the following Recommendations to Hire:

• Ashley Mosier, Girls Track Asst. Coach (effective 1/15/26); Hunter Khongmaly, Vocal Music Activity Sponsor; Jordan Zarbano, Boys Wrestling Volunteer Coach (effective 1/15/26); and Lexie Trotter, Special Education Paraprofessional.

In other business, the Board received a Special Presentation with regard to the Home School Assistance Program, which currently has 95 enrolled students, and serves 55 families. Home School Director Tina Olson and Cara Andersen spoke to the Board. Olson said the program has been very successful, and while they enjoy their space at the Achievement Center, they would love to have a permanent classroom.

In her report, Superintendent Dr. Beth Johnsen gave an update on the District Facilities building project.

The District’s attorney’s have reviewed a multitude of documents related to the project, so Johnsen said she feels good about their thoroughness efforts. The Board then acted on approving an “Agreement between Owner and Architect, and Proposal for Design Services from SVPA,” and a “Snyder and Associates Topographic Survey Services Agreement.”

Resigning Atlantic School Board member Laura McLean.

Their final order of regular business was to approve the retirement of Board Director Laura McLean, effective Jan. 15, 2026. McLean explained she is moving out of the area along with her husband.

The Board accepted her resignation and thanked McLean for her enthusiasm and diligence in serving the District. Board Chair Josh McLaren said moving forward, the IASB (Iowa Association of School Boards) recommends is to publicize the vacancy and accept applications to fill the position, followed by interviews and Board action to act on McLean’s replacement to fill-in until the term expires. There is always the possibility a petition could be filed to call for a Special Election.

CRESTON, Iowa [WHO-TV] — A Creston Community School District teacher who sued the district over alleged First Amendment rights violations after she was reprimanded for comments made on social media about the assassination of Charlie Kirk got a win in court on Tuesday.

Melisa Crook, a high school teacher, was placed on administrative leave in September after school officials said her post about Kirk’s assassination caused a significant disruption to the school, including hundreds of phone calls and emails. According to court records, Crook made a post on Facebook saying, “He is a terrible human being … terrible. I do not wish death on anyone, but he [sic] him not being here is a blessing.”

Court records go on to say that Crook was later contacted by Superintendent Deron Stender who said she had been placed on administrative leave. An investigation was conducted by the district into the incident, which reportedly found that the district had received over 100 emails and over 140 calls about Crook’s comment. Court records say the investigative report also claimed that Crook’s comment resulted in the need for more law enforcement presence.

Several days after the post was made the district was made aware of a rumor among students that one of the schools was the target of a potential threat of violence and requested additional law enforcement presence out of an abundance of caution. The threat was deemed not credible. According to court records, Crook was given a Notice Recommendation to Terminate her contract on September 23; however, Crook sued the district, claiming that they had violated her right to free speech, and requested a temporary restraining order that would block the district from terminating her, which the court granted.

On Tuesday, a federal judge partially sided with Crooks in her motion for a preliminary injunction. The ruling found that the district likely violated Crook’s rights to freedom of speech, as the judge found that “Crook posted her Facebook comments on her personal time, at home, from her personal Facebook account. She did not purport to speak as an employee of the Creston Community School District.”

The judge also found that the defense failed to establish that Crook’s comments had disrupted operations at the school. According to the ruling, the defense failed to establish whether all the calls and emails they received actually came from members of the district, like parents or students, or if they came from members of the general Creston community. The ruling also states that of the 104 voicemail messages left only one appeared to be from a parent or a student. “At this stage of proceedings, Defendants’ evidence regarding the volume of calls, emails, and social media posts Defendants identify as responding to Crook’s Facebook post is not sufficient to raise a question of disruption,” the ruling says.

In regard to the additional law enforcement requested, the ruling said that no students testified to the threat of violence or submitted affidavits, the only testimony came from administrators. The ruling also stated that additional law enforcement personnel were requested after the threat was deemed not credible and was requested at the elementary school, not the high school where Crooks worked. Thus, the court ruled that the “Defendants’ evidence of law enforcement personnel on campus is not probative of disruption when Defendants caused the law enforcement personnel to be on campus.”

As part of the preliminary injunction, Crook requested to be reinstated to her position; however, the judge ruled against that request. The ruling does state that the district can’t take any further adverse actions against Crook’s employment.

You can read the full ruling below:

DALLAS COUNTY, Iowa (WHO-TV) — An Earlham man is facing charges after law enforcement says he was responsible for a crash that seriously injured his 8-month-old son. On December 20, the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of a head-on crash at the intersection of Maple Street and Guthrie Street in De Soto. According to court records, witnesses reported that a Chevrolet Suburban was traveling northbound in the southbound lanes at a high rate of speed before colliding with a Chevrolet Silverado.

Court records say that the driver of the Suburban, 24-year-old Dakota Pratt, and his 8-month-old son were transported to a hospital for treatment. The 8-month-old suffered a subdural hemorrhage from the crash.

According to a criminal complaint, deputies found a Budweiser can on the floor of the front, passenger side of Pratt’s vehicle. Deputies also noted that when they spoke to Pratt at the hospital, they detected an odor of alcohol from him and that his eyes were bloodshot and watery.

A search warrant was obtained to take a blood sample from Pratt, which a criminal complaint says showed a blood alcohol level of .065. The legal limit in Iowa is .08. The blood also tested positive for marijuana metabolites.

On Tuesday, Pratt was booked into the Dallas County Jail on a $15,000 cash/surety bond for the charges of serious injury by vehicle and child endangerment – serious injury. A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for January 23.

(Radio Iowa) – Five of the six states that border Iowa have a significantly higher minimum wage and Democrats in the Iowa House say Iowa’s minimum wage should be raised to 15-dollars an hour. That would equal the minimum wage rates in Nebraska and Missouri. House Democrats are also calling for a five-year freeze on electric and natural gas rates for Iowa homes and for more state help for first-time home buyers.

Representative Dan Gosa, a Democrat from Davenport, is a member of the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and president of the Quad City Federation of Labor. “Our plan is built on a simple belief: if you work hard in Iowa, you should be able to afford a good life,” Gosa said. House Democrats are also proposing that Iowa become the 14th state to require that private sector employers offer paid family leave.

Representative Larry McBurney, a Democrat from Urbandale, notes Governor Reynolds approved four weeks of paid parental leave for state employees.  “Now it’s time to go a step further and ensure that every Iowan has the opportunity to take time from work and spend time building their family,” McBurney said.

Republicans occupy 67 of the 100 seats in the Iowa House and are unlikely to advance any of these ideas

CORALVILLE, Iowa – The Iowa Department of Corrections reports a man serving a sentence for crimes out of Pottawattamie County has died. 81-year-old Robert Kenneth Hammond was pronounced dead at 9:25 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026 in a hospice room of the Iowa Medical and Classification Center.

Hammond’s sentence began on April 16, 1963.

(Radio Iowa) – The Linn County Board of Supervisors has given the go-ahead for NextEra Energy to restart the Duane Arnold nuclear power plant by rezoning nearly 400 acres in Palo for nuclear power production and storage. Board chair Kirsten Running-Marquardt says the rezoning gives Linn County residents a seat at the table

“This has been a lot of work for many people here at the county for Duane Arnold, for different communities, Palo included. I think this is a good reflection of us working as a good partner and a good community member moving forward,” she says. Running-Marquardt says there are still state and federal approvals needed.

“Linn County does not have the authority to make the final approval or disapproval, nor do we have authority over nuclear waste. But through this rezoning, this gives Linn County residents a seat at the table,” she says. NextEra has agreed to supply Google with a majority of the power generated by the plant if it reopens.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has the final say on the plant. NextEra hopes to have it open by late 2028. The board approved an agreement last week requiring NextEra to pay the county for costs related to hosting the nuclear plant. The first payment will be for one-point-nine million dollars with a five percent increase each year the plant operates.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa governors deliver the annual “Condition of the State” address on the first Tuesday after the Iowa General Assembly convenes on the second Monday of January. The next governor of Iowa will — as is tradition — be sworn into office on the first Friday during the legislature’s first week.

For example, in January of 1999, Governor Terry Branstad delivered his final “Condition of the State” address on a Tuesday and Tom Vilsack took the oath of office and became Iowa’s governor the following Friday.

The explanation for this is the speech is considered to be a report on the condition of the state, which means it’s a review of the previous year. However, it has also given past governors and the current governor a chance to reveal their forward-looking priorities for the legislature.

Iowa governors have the authority to deliver a “budget address” in late January around the deadline for presenting a budget to the legislature, but Branstad abandoned that practice in the late 1980s and it has not been revived. Branstad, Vilsack, Culver and Reynolds have all presented their proposed budgets to legislators at the same time as their “Condition of the State” message.

(Radio Iowa) – A small town in Mills County has a new mayor, and she’s now one of the youngest mayors in the country. Twenty-year-old Eva Fipps was elected mayor of Henderson by a 30-to-19 vote over Scott Schondelmeyer in November. Fipps graduated from Treynor High School in 2024 and was dual enrolled at Iowa Western Community College. She also attended Iowa Girls State and served as a page in the Iowa Legislature. Fipps explains why she decided to run for mayor.

“Every morning I’d go for runs or walks with my dogs,” said Fipps, “and I would stop in at City Hall to see our city clerk, Candace (Knop), and we’d get to chatting. We’ve done this for years, probably since around COVID time, and she recommended that I run for mayor. I never actually thought about because of how young I was, but she said I could. I said, ‘Why not?’ Even if I lost, I’d still be learning something.”

Fipps is part of the youth movement in Mills County government, which includes 19-year-old Mills County Supervisor Jack Sayers and 21-year-old Joseph Jaworkski, recently elected mayor of Silver City. Fipps says there’s a learning curve involved with becoming mayor of a small town and she’s taking a class on open meetings next week.

“It will really help me understand my role and how to properly do it,” she says. “I also have been in communication with a lot of different people, from other mayors to other city clerks, our board members. It’s a lot of communication and a lot of learning, and I’m trying every step of the way to get as much of the information in as I can.” As mayor, Fipps hopes to spark more community involvement and more activities.

“We’re working on a couple of different events that we’re going to be doing come this summer,” said Fipps. “I would love to see more than just townspeople in Henderson. I would love to see those who used to live in Henderson, those who live around us, come together to build up the community — not just Henderson, but in Mills County in general.”

Fipps also hopes to fill some of the community’s empty store fronts, and renovate the city’s playground. She was sworn into office December 29th.

(Red Oak, IA) – Police in Red Oak arrested a man on a Montgomery County warrant for Parole Violation, this (Wednesday) morning. 47-year-old Ronnie Eugene Reynolds, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 9:20-a.m. in the 1700 block of 206th Street.

Reynolds was being held without bond in the Montgomery County Jail.