(Washington County, Nebraska) – The Washington County Sheriff’s Office identified the body that was recovered from the Missouri River earlier this week. Officials said the body was identified as Cole Boynton, who had been missing since May 24.

Boynton’s body was recovered near marker post 655 on the Missouri River, which is north of Blair, Nebraska, and west of Modale, Iowa, on Monday. KCAU in Sioux City reports Boynton was from Blencoe, Iowa, and that Boynton went missing Memorial Day weekend near the Huff Warner access area.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa D-N-R state wildlife veterinarian Rachel Ruden says they’re monitoring the situation after reports of sick and dead wild birds with the classical signs of avian influenza.

Ruden says they can’t explain why these specific areas are seeing the uptick.

Ruden says there could have been some local factor, like a storm, that forced the infected birds to land in those areas. She says the birds have been mostly Canadian geese and dabbling or surface ducks like teal, mallards and wood ducks that float on the water.

Ruden says first outbreak of avian influenza actually came during the spring migration in 2022, and they are still trying to get a handle on the fall outbreaks.

The disease doesn’t flourish in the warmer weather in the summer. Ruden says the things they are now seeing are warning signals for domestic poultry producers to be ready.

Ruden says they want anyone who see dead birds or bird acting strangely to report it to your local conservation office.

(Radio Iowa) – State officials say recent efforts to help 35 struggling public schools are yielding results. The students at these schools live in high-poverty areas and their test scores have been chronically low. New statewide accountability standards for all schools measure things like graduation rates and chronic absenteeism as well as test scores in language arts, math and science. Governor Reynolds says the overall score for these 35 schools jumped nearly five-and-a-half percent last year — and eight of the 35 schools saw a double-digit increase.

Tina Wahlert is the administrator of the preschool through 12th grade learning division in the Iowa Department of Education. Wahlert says just over two years ago the agency created regional school improvement teams that go into classrooms to observe teachers. A couple of weeks later they offer coaching to those teachers on new techniques to meet students’ needs.

Wahlert says over the past year, the department’s school improvement teams have spent six-thousand hours in the 35 schools designated in need of comprehensive improvement.

Twelve of the 35 schools getting this new level of attention are in the Des Moines Community School District, three are in Waterloo and three are in Cedar Rapids. The other seven schools are Davenport, where T-J Schneckloth is superintendent. He says the Department of Education staff who are coming into those buildings have a whole new approach. He says they aren’t going into classrooms with a clipboard, just checking off items on a list.

And Schneckloth says recent state laws that banned the use of cell phones in classrooms and required better tracking of chronic absenteeism are making a difference in his district.

(Radio Iowa) – A survey of Iowa farmers found 90 percent are aware of the state’s nutrient reduction strategy, which is up ten percent from the survey in 2014. Iowa State University extension sociologist J. Arbuckle wrote the Iowa Farmer Poll report.

The majority of farmers agreed more should be done to reduce nutrient and sediment runoff, that but it dropped from 84 to 74 percent. And the number of farmers concerned about agriculture’s impact on water quality also decreased by six percentage points.

Something that stayed the same in the last decade are perceived barriers to conservation. Arbuckle says this includes economic pressure and feeling like landowners are unwilling to spend money on conservation practices.

(Radio Iowa) – The Plymouth County Sheriff has released more information about conditions at a rural property where 111 dogs were seized two days ago revealing children had been living on the property, too. Woody Gottburg reports.

(Radio Iowa) – A series of events are planned through this weekend to honor the Iowan who’s been elected national commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Carol Whitmore of Des Moines is the first woman to lead the V-F-W.

Whitmore is a 1973 graduate of North Tama High School. She attended the University of Northern Iowa and Hawkeye Community College, then enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps in 1977 — a year before it was disbanded and women became part of the regular Army.

Whitmore, who served in the military for 36 years, was a first sergeant in her unit when it deployed to Iraq. She joined a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Des Moines in 2012.

Whitmore is the first Iowan to lead the V-F-W. Homecoming events to honor Whitmore start today (Thursday) with reception at a hotel in downtown Des Moines and conclude with a banquet on Saturday night.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Economic Development Authority is giving three Iowa communities funding to help them improve key neighborhoods. Radio Iowa’s Dar Danielson reports.

(Radio Iowa) – The state’s top election official says 34 candidates who qualified to be on the ballot for city and school board elections in November won’t be listed because their local school board secretaries or city clerks failed to file paperwork on time. Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson reports.

(Fort Dodge, Iowa) – Makayla McNeeley, of Thor, has pleaded guilty to abuse of a corpse after Dennis Jones was killed in Fort Dodge in 2024. New court documents reveal that McNeeley will be sentenced in November. She is one of four individuals arrested after Jones was found dead from a gunshot wound.

His sons, Alec and Nathan Jones, are already behind bars; Alec is serving a life sentence for murdering their father, while Nathan is serving 22 years for helping his brother. Investigators say both Aidan Pate and McNeeley helped hide the body.