GRINNELL, Iowa — Two men were arrested November 15rh in Jasper County in connection with a burglary at a construction site. According to a press release from the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office, 57-year-old Charles Loudermilk and 53-year-old Michael Pearson are facing multiple charges, including second-degree burglary and theft.

The Jasper County Sheriff’s Office said they found a bulldozer and pickup on the side of Highway 6 East in Grinnell. Investigators said the bulldozer had been driven from near Newton, causing damage to county roads and the highway. Investigators also found several items in the pickup that were taken from a construction site near Kellogg.

The Jasper County Sheriff’s Office said traffic and criminal mischief charges are pending against Loudermilk for the damage done by the bulldozer. A third man was charged with several driving-related misdemeanors.

The full press release is shown below:

DES MOINES, Iowa — The Animal Rescue League of Iowa said it rescued over 30 animals from an unsanitary southern Iowa home.

On Wednesday, the ARL said it recently helped law enforcement remove a total of 37 dogs and cats from a single-wide mobile home in southern Iowa. According to the ARL, the floors of the home were covered in animal waste, with the floorboards so saturated with urine that they were soft. The ARL also said that roaches were found in the home.

ARL photo

Many of the animals were sick, the ARL said. Some of the dogs had skin issues and hair loss and many of the cats were suffering from upper respiratory infections. The ARL said some cats also had untreated ulcers that were eating away at their lips.

All the animals are now in the care of the ARL and are receiving treatment.

Anyone who would like to donate to help in the care of the animals can do so on the ARL’s website.

No additional information has been released.

DES MOINES, Iowa (IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH) – The Iowa Board of Education is taking public feedback as it crafts rules for implementing several state education laws signed in 2025 — including one addressing fetal development education.

The board took several actions during its meeting Wednesday on rulemaking as directed by the Legislature earlier this year. This included beginning a period of public comments for rules on two laws signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds, Senate File 175 on fetal development education, and House File 295 on community college accreditation.

Democrats had opposed both measures during the legislative session. The law on fetal development instruction was modeled after laws in other states that directly reference the “Meet Baby Olivia” video made by the anti-abortion group Live Action. Iowa’s law requires human growth and development classes for students in grades 5-12 include visuals, such as ultrasound video or computer-generated renderings or animations that depict “the humanity of the unborn child by showing prenatal human development, starting at fertilization.”

The measure also includes a ban on showing materials about fetal development from entities that perform or “promote” abortions, or which contracts, affiliates, or makes referrals to providers that perform or promote abortions.

Democrats and reproductive health care advocates say the law is a means to promote anti-abortion material in public schools, and could lead to the distribution of medically inaccurate information. These concerns were heightened by the ban on materials from institutions that perform or refer patients for abortion care, as the law does not exclude information from organizations that provide abortions when medically necessary or allowed under the state’s six-week abortion ban.

Thomas Mayes, general counsel for the Iowa Department of Education, introduced the proposal to amend parts of Iowa Code to implement these requirements — as well as making a clarification that the state’s ban on materials with descriptions or depictions of sex acts in K-12 schools does not conflict with the fetal development instruction requirements. Mayes said in its current form, the rulemaking proposal is “strictly in line with the statute,” and does not contain any “elaboration” on parts of the law that could be in question.

The other law posted for intended rulemaking action was on state universities and community colleges, and accrediting bodies’ ability to take action against community colleges for following certain state laws. The measure states accreditors cannot take adverse actions against Iowa higher education institutions for following or refusing to break state law — and states that if a public higher education institute is “negatively affected by adverse action” for such a violation, the state attorney general can authorize bringing a civil action against the accrediting agency in question.

The rulemaking change would allow more accrediting agencies to sanction public higher education institutes. Under previous Iowa law and rules, the Higher Learning Commission was the only named agency able to perform this duty. The proposed change “broadens the menu of accreditors to any federally recognized accreditor that (the board) in the future may have approved,” Mayes said.

Both of the rulemaking proposals are open for public feedback before implementation. Public hearings will be held Dec. 30 at the Grimes State Office Building, in addition to having video conferences available. Public comments can also be emailed to Mayes.

DES MOINES, Iowa (KCCI) – Des Moines Public Schools chief academic officer has resigned weeks after being put on administrative leave, KCCI reports. Robert Lundin, the district’s chief academic officer, was placed on paid leave October 6. The district said it was for a personnel matter.A spokesperson for the district told KCCI that the decision was mutual. Lundin’s resignation will take effect on June 30, 2026.

Robert Lundin(Des Moines Public Schools)

Lundin was hired for the position in June, 2024. “His work will include developing short- and long-range goals for district programs, advising the superintendent on educational issues, coordinating support for principals and teachers, and implementing a systemic approach to curriculum development and evaluation,” according to the district’s news release.

(Radio Iowa) – Christina Bohannan — a Democrat who hopes to challenge Republican Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks bid for reelection — says it’s time for a wide-ranging government ethics reform plan that would include term limits, age limits and a ban on members of congress, their immediate families and congressional staff from being lobbyists. Bohannan says an independent, bipartisan agency should be established to review potential ethics violations.

“Confidence in congress is at an all time low,” Bohannan said, “and people see that there are all kinds of abuses of the privileges and perks of being in office and no accountability.” Bohannan points to recent posts on social media showing Miller-Meeks flying first class. Bohannan proposes that members of congress be prohibited from using money from leadership PACs to finance their travel and Bohannan says taxpayer dollars should not be used to buy first class or business class plane seats for members of congress.

“That’s just unseemly,” Bohannan says. “It’s just wrong.” A spokesman for Miller-Meeks says the congresswoman’s flights back and forth to D.C. for official business are all booked at a government rate and the congresswoman uses her own money or frequent flier miles to cover any upgrade to a first class seat. Both Bohannan and Miller-Meeks support banning members of congress from buying and selling stocks. “We just need to bring some accountability back to congress and restore faith in our government,” Bohannan says.

Christina Bohannan. (Bohannan campaign photo.)

A spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee says Bohannan needs to divest of the individual stocks she and her husband own before throwing stones at others. Bohannan’s husband is a doctor who’s an associate dean in the University of Iowa Medical School. Bohannan says many of the items on her ethics reform list for congress can be accomplished with legislation, but some — like establishing term limits and age limits for politicians — might require passage of a constitutional amendment.

“There are obviously people who stay in congress for way too long and this happens on both sides, both parties,” Bohannan says. “It happened with our president, arguably, last cycle.” Bohannan publicly called on President Biden to end his bid for another term after his performance in a June 2024 debate. Bohannan says when members of congress aren’t capable of fulfilling the duties of their office, unelected people are the ones making decisions. “The other issue here, though, is when people have been in congress for so long, they really lose touch with everyday people,” Bohannan says.

“They spend so much time over the years with lobbyists, with corporate donors, with CEOs, with other politicians they kind of lose sight of what everyday life is like for people.” Bohannan has run against Miller-Meeks twice before and in 2024 finished less than 800 votes behind Miller-Meeks. Bohannan says voters this time around are angry congress hasn’t stopped Trump’s tariff policies or extended health care subsidies for up to 135-thousand Iowans that are set to expire December 31st.

“All of these things have ripple effects in the economy,” Bohannan says. “I mean the tariffs are causing John Deere to have to lay off workers because when farmers are struggling, they are not going to buy farm equipment.” Two other Democrats are running in the second congressional district. Travis Terrell is a patient access specialist at University of Iowa Health Care and Taylor Wettach is a lawyer from Muscatine.

Atlantic, IA— As part of National Rural Health Day, officials with Cass Health today (Thursday) announced CCHS has earned a 2025 Performance Leadership Award for Excellence in both Patient Outcomes and Quality. Compiled by The Chartis Center for Rural Health, the Performance Leadership Awards recognize top quartile performance (i.e., 75th percentile or above) among rural hospitals in Quality, Outcomes, and/or Patient Perspective.

“The areas of quality, outcomes, and patient perspective are cornerstones of healthcare delivery across rural America, and this year’s Performance Leadership Award recipients are establishing a standard of excellence for their rural peers to follow,” said Michael Topchik, Executive Director, Chartis Center for Rural Health. “We are delighted to shine a spotlight on such strong performance and honor the achievement of these hospitals on National Rural Health Day.”

The Performance Leadership Awards program is based on the results of the Chartis Rural Hospital Performance INDEX®, a comprehensive and objective framework for assessing how rural hospitals are performing. INDEX benchmarks are relied upon by rural hospitals, health systems with rural footprints, hospital associations, and state offices of rural health to measure performance across multiple areas impacting hospital operations and finance.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The City Council in Atlantic met this (Wednesday) evening during a regularly scheduled session, during which they passed the following resolutions:

• “Setting the date for a Public Hearing and Additional Action on Proposals to Enter into General Obligation Loan Agreements and to Borrow Money Thereunder.” City Administrator John Lund explained…

In his agenda notes prior to the Council’s meeting, John Lund said for many years, the City’s annual budget and 10-Year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) projected funding for upcoming capital improvement projects through various revenue sources. These plans, along with the Debt Management Plan, outlined the need for two debt issuances to cover the City’s needs for 2026-2036. The first issuance was scheduled for FY 2026, and the second around FY 2028, with the amounts borrowed adjusted for inflation and changes in project needs. The first debt issuance was always expected to be the smaller of the two. Earlier this year, the City issued the first debt of $4,255,000 to fund EMS ambulances and equipment, police vehicles and equipment, and street improvement projects.

Lund says the second debt issuance, which was the larger of the two, was moved up to FY 2027 in the FY 2026 Budget to prevent delays in the street project schedule. Earlier this year, the total estimated debt needs over the next 10 years were projected at $9,730,000. This estimate did not account for refinancing, the potential benefit of a bond premium, or any issuance costs.

“In reviewing these needs—and with the upcoming legislative session in mind—the idea of beginning the debt-issuance process for long-term requirements was presented to the City Council during its October 29, 2025, Budget Work Session,” said Lund. “The goal was to ensure completion of essential street projects, fulfill landfill obligations, and address capital equipment, vehicle, and building needs. Following that discussion, the needs were refined and sent to the City’s bond broker and finance attorneys.”

“In the end,” Lund says, “here is the bottom line for the 2026 General Obligation Bond Series.

. • The City has 258 capital projects scheduled over the next ten years totaling $10,170,000, we will need $4,220,000 in additional funding to refinance callable debt and extend the terms on those debts. We will need $273,084 for issuance costs. Totaling $14,663,084 in needs.

• Uses of the funds include police vehicles and equipment, fire trucks, vehicles, and equipment, an ambulance, civil defense sirens, street projects, required landfill payments, airport projects, city hall improvements, and library equipment and improvements.

• The City will issue debt for only $13,300,000.00.

• $1,213,472.50 in a bond premium (free funding) will be given to the City from investors, making the difference between needs and debts issued.

• Instead of a flat debt service levy, that increases property tax dollar collections as assessments increase, the City is switching things up by refunding $4,220,000 in principal debt outstanding and extending the terms on those bonds and restructured the payments to align with our non-callable debts for a consistent need of $1,140,028 property tax dollars between July 1, 2026 and June 30, 2047. This will result in a declining debt service levy. 3

• 2038 is the next period where debt requirements will fall low enough to allow for another debt to be issued without increasing property taxes. Any other debts not financed with different cash flows will result in a property tax increase, but this debt will not.”

The Atlantic City Council also passed:

• A resolution “Obligating Funds from the Southeast Urban Renewal Area Revenue Fund for Appropriation to the Payment of Annual Appropriation Tax Increment Financed [TIF] Obligations, which shall come due in the next succeeding Fiscal Year.” John Lund spoke with regard to that resolution, as well…

The Council passed an “Order to Approve [the] Annual Urban Renewal Report.” And an “Order to approve the 2024 Road Use Tax Report.”

(Atlantic, IA) – An attorney for former director Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce Director Bailey Smith, today (Wednesday), entered a written plea of Not Guilty on her behalf to multiple felony charges associated with her arrest that took place on October 8th, after she turned herself-in on a warrant. Smith also waived a speedy trial. As previously mentioned, Smith is set to be arraigned on December 8th. Trial in her case was set for January 12th in Cass County District Court.

The 33-year-old Smith faces a Class-B  Felony charge of Ongoing criminal conduct – unlawful activity, and Class-C Felony charges that include: Theft in the 1st Degree; Fraudulent Practice in the 1st Degree, and Unauthorized use of a Credit Card (for a loss of more than $10,000). Smith remains free on bond pending her court proceedings, which includes a Pre-trial conference on January 12th.

Bailey Smith booking photo, 10/8/25

Previously reported:

• Court documents state that between January 2020 and August 2025, while serving as the Executive Director of the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce, Smith made approximately 761 personal transactions with chamber funds. These transactions reportedly totaled $26,913 of losses to the chamber. Smith allegedly admitted to $6,632 of theft to the chamber board in a letter, court records show.
• Between the dates of November 2022 and August 2025, Smith began knowingly making entries into the record of the chamber that she knew were false to make the chamber general account appear solvent and to pay bills that should have been paid with funds that were misappropriated, to allegedly cover her theft of chamber funds, court documents state.
• According to court records during this time period Bailey made approximately 47 bank transfers between the chamber’s four bank accounts which totaled approximately $76,215.
• Smith reportedly admitted in a letter to the chamber board that she had transferred money from the chamber RAGBRAI account and that it had not been “moved back to where it belonged” and that the money “should have never been moved in the first place,” court documents state.

The Atlantic Chamber of Commerce said Smith had been placed on unpaid administrative leave August 29, 2025, due to concerns over financial matters. An internal review that was conducted resulted in her termination, and subsequent charges.

(Radio Iowa) – The holiday shopping season ahead will be expensive for consumers and lackluster for retailers, according to a professor in the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business who spent more than 20 years in brand management and market research. Professor Peggy Stover, director of the U-I’s Marketing Institute, says there are so many factors weighing down the economy as we head into December, there’s little optimism for the crucial economic month ahead.

“Last year, there was about a four-percent increase as a result of the holiday spending,” Stover says. “This year, because of all these factors, inflation, the tariffs, the government shutdown, mass layoffs in the private and the government sector, the industry as a whole, I’m predicting about a two-percent increase.” While some might view any increase in sales over last year as a plus, Stover says merchants should brace for essentially a stagnant season.

“It’s a significant decline to what the economy enjoyed last year,” Stover says. “A lot of it is going to be because consumers are going to be pulling back on their expenses because of the uncertainty that, right now, everybody’s facing.” A national survey estimates the average consumer plans to spend just under 16-hundred dollars on gifts during the holidays, that’s a ten-percent drop from last year. Stover says there’s just too much uncertainty, including over whether the federal government will be shutting down again in a matter of weeks.

Many merchants may struggle to get by for the first 11 months of the year, Stover says, then they’ll make up for it with the busy December. “With retailers, the end of the year, Black Friday and then all the other things that are going on in the marketplace,” Stover says, “this is the time of the year where a lot of retailers are making that big push to be able to make their sales.”

It’s been a difficult year for a lot of families in Iowa and nationwide, Stover says, noting about one-point-one million private sector workers lost their jobs between January and October, while DOGE eliminated perhaps as many as 300-thousand federal positions.