(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Poison Control Center is seeing an uptick in calls about carbon monoxide poisoning as many of us are indoors most of the time, with our homes and offices sealed up from the cold. Poison Center spokeswoman Janna Day, a licensed practical nurse, says she hasn’t heard of any carbon monoxide deaths in the state this winter, but there -have- been plenty of poisoning cases. “Carbon monoxide is actually known as the silent killer because it is invisible, and it’s odorless, and it’s tasteless,” Day says, “and you don’t know that it exists in your home unless you have a carbon monoxide detector.” Day says several home appliances are the most common causes of carbon monoxide poisonings.

“That could be something like your water heater, your furnace, your fireplace, stoves,” Day says. “When fuels like gasoline or natural gas are burned, we get carbon monoxide as a byproduct. If those appliances in your home aren’t well maintained, you might get a carbon monoxide leak.” Some appliances should never be used inside, like generators. If your house loses power, position the generator at least 20 feet away from your home. Day says another big risk for carbon monoxide poisoning comes from something many Iowans do frequently during the winter.

“If you want to start your car to warm it up in the morning — or any time of the day — when it’s cold, make sure that you’re not doing that inside your garage, even if your garage door is up,” Day says. “You would want to make sure that your car is outside of your garage because that carbon monoxide can come into your home.” Warming up a snow blower in the garage could create the same risk. Day recommends getting annual check-ups on your furnace and having at least one carbon monoxide detector in your home, and better yet, at least one on each level.

The Sioux City-based Iowa Poison Control Center responds to more than 23,000 cases each year and makes more than 50,000 follow-up calls to ensure patients remain safe. More than half of all cases involve children under the age of 19. The round-the-clock number is 800-222-1222.

(Coralville, IA) – A vehicle driven by a man suspected of being impaired by alcohol, collided head-on with a Linn County Sheriff’s Deputy Thursday night, near Coralville. According to the Iowa State Patrol, a 2003 Dodge Dakota pickup driven by 69-year-old Scott Reohwedder, of Coralville, was traveling westbound in the eastbound lanes of Highway 100 at around 7:45-p.m.

A Linn County Deputy (whose name was not immediately released driving a 2025 Ford Explorer (SUV) attempted to stop the pickup, when the vehicles collided head-on at the Cedar River on Highway 100.

Rohwedder and the Deputy were both injured in the crash. Rohwedder was transported by ambulance to Mercy Hospital/Cedar Rapids. The Patrol was assisted at the scene by the Linn County Sheriff’s Office, Cedar Rapids and Hiawatha Police, along with the Palo Fire Dept.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa House Education Committee has approved a bill that would eliminate all vaccination requirements for students in Iowa’s public K-through-12 schools. Under current law, parents must provide the school nurse with proof their child has been vaccinated against polio, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, measles, Hepatitus B and chicken pox. A vaccination against meningitis is required for students in 7th through 12th grade.

Republican Representative Brooke Boden, of Indianola, says while parents may seek a medical or religious exemption from those requirements, that falls short of full autonomy. “You either really have to have a medical concern or you have to claim that you’re religious,” she said, “and I think that’s coercing parents into a situation in which they’re not able to utilize their parental right to find the right vaccination schedule for their child.”

Representative Heather Matson, a Democrat from Ankeny, opposes the bill. “Childhood vaccines are one of the most thoroughly studied inventions in history. They have saved so many lives,” Matson says. “Public health matters. It matters for our kids. It matters for all of us.” Matson says the requirements are important to reach herd immunity and protect kids who cannot be vaccinated.

“This bill is dangerous for our kids,” Matson said, “and I don’t know why we would be telling families in Iowa that we do not value public health or making sure that their kids are healthy.” Boden says the bill lets parents make the decision about their child’s vaccinations. “This is a bill that says that you don’t have to be vaccinated to attend school,” Boden said. “(It) leaves the medical decisions between you and your medical provider instead of putting it back on the educational system…to make that part of their purview.”

Iowa medical groups say schools are places where illnesses spread quickly and ending the vaccination requirements will lead to more Iowans getting sick with preventable diseases. All 50 states currently require children to be vaccinated against certain diseases in order to attend public schools, but most allow medical and religious exemptions.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s secretary of state is proposing that candidates in Iowa school board and city elections file the petitions to get their names printed on ballots with their county auditor. School board secretaries and city clerks have been handling that paperwork for years. However, at least 34 local candidates were left off ballots this past November after city clerks and school board secretaries in seven counties missed the deadline for submitting the petitions to county auditors.

The bill also clarifies when recounts are permitted in bond elections that require 60 percent approval. Cerro Gordo County Auditor Adam Wedmore is president of the Iowa State Association of County Auditors, which backs the bill. “It’s making some timely tweaks to current election law,” Wedmore said. “It does clean up some of the things that we have found over the last few elections.”

The bill would give county auditors authority to decide when to convene the boards that count absentee ballots on election day. Under current law, those boards are required to begin at 9 a.m. That would continue for statewide and federal elections, but officials say in low-turn-out elections for bonding issues or city and school board elections, it doesn’t take that much time to count absentee ballots.

(Radio Iowa) – A House subcommittee has advanced the governor’s proposal to require annual reports from Iowa’s public school districts, community colleges and state-supported universities about how each complaint or incident of antisemitism was handled at the schools. David Adelman is president of the Jewish Federation Foundation of Greater Des Moines. He says there’s been a nearly 900 percent increase in antisemitic incidents over the past decade.

“There’s been an 84% increase in anti-Semitic incidents on college campuses from 2023 to 2024,” Adelman said. Adelman says there have been very few incidents of antisemitism in Iowa educational settings and the bill is an attempt to get in front of the problems reported in other states. David Soffer, director of state engagement for the “Combat Antisemitism Movement,” drove from Kansas City to speak to legislators in Des Moines.

“No Jewish person in the state of Iowa should feel targeted based on their religion,” he said. “No Jewish person should feel targeted just because of what’s going on in the Middle East.” University of Iowa history professor Lisa Heineman told lawmakers she’s a direct descendant of Holocaust survivors and she opposes the bill. She says it has a faulty definition of antisemitism that would suppress legitimate political discussions.

“It would require schools and universities to report speech critical of Israel as antisemitic incidents and follow by explaining what action they’re going to take to prevent re-occurrence,” Heineman said. “…It would also stifle discussion of global affairs in history and political science classes.” Ezra Wright of Iowa City says the bill does not address the root cause of the problem. “Antisemitism is a function of white supremacy,” she said. “…This is nothing more than a cynical attempt to use Jews as a shield against criticism, to paint the Star of David on a battering ram that they intend to use to demolish free speech in this state.”

Wright was among a group of Jewish people from eastern Iowa who’d driven to Des Moines and wanted to testify against the bill, but the subcommittee was scheduled to last just 15 minutes and concluded after five people spoke to lawmakers.

(Atlantic, IA) – The City Council in Atlantic, this (Wednesday) evening, passed resolutions for two separate appointments. The first was the appointment of Jackie Carl as the Atlantic City Clerk. Councilman Shawn Sarsfield, Chair of the City’s Personnel and Finance Committee, said the Committee had received over 40 applications, and from those held interviews with six candidates before making their recommendation to nominate Carl.

The Committee’s choice boiled-down to Jackie Carl, who has 21-years of City Clerk experience, having served Moville from 2005-to 2016, and Carter Lake from 2016-to 2026.

Carl has accepted a conditional offer of employment, with a FY 2026 salary of $80,000. She will also be credited with 40-hours of vacation time upon hire. Jackie Carl will succeed Laura McLane, who resigned to move with her husband to eastern Iowa. Currently, Rich Tupper is serving as the Acting City Clerk, in Atlantic.

Atlantic CC mtg. 2-4-26

The Council also passed a resolution appointing Cyndi Hartwig to the Library Board of Trustees, whose nine members serve six-year, staggered terms. She was issued the Oath of Office by Mayor Rob Clausen, Jr.

Atlantic Police Officer Joe Weaver (left) is issued the Oath of Office by Mayor Claussen, Feb. 4, 2026 (A-PD Facebook page photo)

The Mayor also presided over the swearing-in of Atlantic Police Officer Joe Weaver, who was hired full-time, in January, 2026. Weaver grew up just outside of Atlantic and is a graduate of the Atlantic High School. He attended Simpson College in Indianola, where he graduated in Dec., 2024, with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) Degree in Criminal Justice.

It was noted in the Council’s agenda that Joe Weaver assists with refereeing little kids’ wrestling, enjoys riding dirt bikes, working out, and hanging out with his friends during his down time. In other business, the Atlantic City Council passed a resolution adopting the City’s Comprehensive Plan. They also passed Orders approving payments to various contractors, with the regard to the City’s Street Improvement program.

(Radio Iowa)- Heart disease is the number-one killer in Iowa, claiming more than seven-thousand lives each year. Cara Whipple, spokeswoman for the Iowa chapter of the American Heart Association, is urging Iowans to learn C-P-R because they need to do more than just call for help, they need to -be- the help.

“Rates of cardiac arrest outside of the hospital, it’s around 70%, and when that happens, nine out of ten times when they don’t have cardiac arrest in a hospital, they do not survive,” Whipple says, “and the largest reason for that is lack of bystander response.” The organization says more than 417-thousand Americans die from cardiac arrest every year, and Whipple says it’s vital that anyone can step in as a first responder — until the real first responders arrive.

“We really need folks to understand that cardiac arrest can happen anywhere. It could be the grocery store or a school event or perhaps while you’re at the gym,” Whipple says. “Our EMS providers in this state are fantastic, but we have a lot of volunteer responders and response times can be long.” The organization routinely offers free C-P-R courses, both in the classroom and virtually. As part of American Heart Month, Whipple urges people to take part in Friday’s “Wear Red Day.”

“We encourage everyone to get their red on, wear their heart pins if they’ve got them, and just anything we can do to elevate people thinking about their heart health,” she says, “and it’s never too young to start thinking about your heart health.” Friday is also Go Red For Women Day, to raise awareness of heart attacks and strokes in women.

For more heart health tips, visit heart.org.

(Radio Iowa) – A bill that would tax the liquid carbon dioxide flowing through a proposed pipeline has cleared an Iowa Senate committee, although lawmakers who advanced the bill say they’ll work on the mechanics of how the state tax would be assessed. Senator Dan Dawson, a Republican from Council Bluffs, says he’s interested in having the state collect taxes from the project.  “The State of Iowa has invested substantially in the ethanol industry,” Dawson said. “…We’ve can’t just exempt things up front, let a bunch of revenue generate and then all the monies that we spent on these things, nothing is ever returned back to the taxpayer.” Jake Ketzner, a lobbyist for Summit Carbon Solutions — the pipeline developer, says the company opposes the bill.

“Just like any other tax, it increases the cost of doing business and it increases the cost of the service we would provide our customers, which in our case is the ethanol plant producers,” Ketzner said. “We’re rather see ethanol producers paying farmers more for their corn instead of paying for a new tax to the government.” Dawson, the chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, questions why Summit should get a special “carve out” after telling the Iowa Utilities Commission its project is a benefit to the public. “You can’t just say it’s a public benefit and then have a declaration made by the IUC for eminent domain and then the public doesn’t benefit,” Dawson said. Pipeline critics urged legislators to focus instead on a different bill focused on eminent domain, to protect the property rights of landowners who don’t want the pipeline on their farms.

Kathy Carter owns land in Floyd County that’s along the proposed pipeline route. “It’s a pat ’em on the head, make ’em feel good gesture,” Carter said. “Throw Iowans a bone and they’ll shut up.” Julie Glade, a Wright County landowner, also testified during the Senate subcommittee hearing. “I guess unless you in the senate know something we don’t, there is no pipeline yet. Why are you looking at a revenue stream from a pipeline project to nowhere right now? It seems like Senate leadership and the governor for some reason want this project to happen so badly, they have to manufacture reasons to push ahead.”

The bill is sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Mike Klimesh. It would set two tax rates, one for carbon that’s eventually used to extract oil from underground reserves and a higher rate for liquid carbon directed to other uses.

(Radio Iowa) – Sioux City is looking to add to the license plate reading cameras police are already using. The city council approved allowing Police chief Rex Meuller to seek a grant to fund 21 more cameras.
“This is something that we value as an intelligence tool and for apprehension of the criminals, nothing more. So we’re just trying to be more effective. And when somebody presents a technology that can make us more effective, we want to try to utilize it for the benefit of the citizens,” he says.

It will cost around 77-thousand dollars to purchase the new cameras, and Sioux City would then have a total of 33 cameras. Mayor Bob Scott oppose adding the additional cameras, citing privacy concerns and the ongoing cost of running them.

“This is another one of these deals where we get a grant and then we got to come up with the money. I found out Sergeant Bluff, the businesses pay for it. They get sponsors for it. We’ll never do that, it’ll be on the taxpayers,” Scott says. “I’m just not into putting any more taxpayer dollars into technology right now.”

Chief Mueller says they are seeking private sponsor to pay for the ongoing future cost of using the cameras. The annual recurring cost would be 63-thousand dollars. The A-C-L-U of Iowa has raised concerns recently after Clear Lake and Corallville each added the license plate reading cameras. The A-C-L-U says their concern is the cameras would be used to let local government “track and spy on the very people they are supposed to represent.”