(Radio Iowa) – The president of the Board of Regents made reference during his general remarks today (Thursday) about a bill in the Iowa House that would freeze tuition at the three state universities. President Robert Cramer says a tuition freeze is one of the options available. “When our legislative friends say ‘tuition freeze’, I say sure if we can,” Cramer says. Cramer says any talk of a tuition freeze should come after they complete their efficiency study.

“Instead of freeze first and see what happens, I believe it is more responsible to save first and then reduce or freeze tuition, he says, “while ensuring we have the resources necessary to maintain the value of a degree from Iowa’s public institutions.”

The bill to freeze tuition at Iowa State, the University of Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa for five years passed the House on an 86-5 vote.

(Radio Iowa) – An ethanol industry leader says he doubts congress will pass a bill anytime soon that would allow the year-round sale of fuel blended with 15 percent ethanol. Yesterday (Wednesday) was the deadline for a vote in the U-S House on a bill to end the E-P-A’s anti-smog rule that bars E-15 from being sold in the summer months. Geoff Cooper is president of the Renewable Fuels Association. “I am not terribly optimistic that we’re going to see legislation before summer on year-round E15,” Cooper says. “I hope I’m wrong about that. I hope this council produces legislative text that has a path to passage out of both the House and Senate.”

The House Rural Domestic Energy Council, led by Iowa Congressman Randy Feenstra, has been negotiating with lawmakers who represent states with oil refineries to try to find a compromise on E-15 after House G-O-P leaders removed a mandate for year-round E-15 sales from a budget bill that passed in January. Cooper spoke with reporters during the National Ethanol Conference that’s underway in Orlando, Florida. “The trick with E-15 is obviously we have to find a path,” Cooper says. “We have to find a way to thread the needle and get legislation through congress and to the president’s desk…That is not an easy thing to do.”

Cooper is skeptical of Feenstra’s effort to craft a bill on E-15 that includes new guidelines for the E-P-A waivers oil refineries may seek to avoid the ethanol-blending mandate.) “We need to see the path to get that done,” Cooper said, “because I’m not sure I see it from where I sit today.” On Tuesday, Feenstra told the Des Moines Register the snowstorm that hit Washington, D.C., delayed the arrival of lawmakers who were part of E-15 negotiations and a deal may be introduced in the House next week. Iowa advocates for ethanol are expressing frustration.

This (Thursday) morning, the Iowa Corn Growers posted a message on social media saying corn prices are falling, rural economies feel the pressure and it’s time for congress to finish the job on E-15.

(Red Oak, IA) – Officers with the Red Oak Police Department, Tuesday evening, arrested a man for Public Intoxication. Authorities says 28-year-old Robert Michael Daugherty was taken into custody at around 5-p.m. at the intersection of 4th and Coolbaugh Streets. He was taken to the Montgomery County Jail and held on a $300 cash bond.

(IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH) – The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship has detected two cases of the highly pathogenic avian influenza in flocks in Keokuk and Van Buren counties. IDALS and the U.S. Department of Agriculture categorize these flocks as multi-species backyard flocks. A spokesperson with IDALS said the Keokuk County flock had about 85 birds and the Van Buren County flock had about 45 birds. These are the third and fourth HPAI outbreaks in Iowa in 2026. The previous two outbreaks were both in Kossuth County, one in a flock of chickens and game bird pheasants and the other at a mixed species game bird hatchery.

Iowa has not seen an outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu in a commercial bird flock since the beginning of December 2025, when it was detected in a Hamilton County commercial turkey flock of nearly 18,000 birds.  According to the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, or APHIS, the ongoing outbreak of the virus has impacted more than 195 million birds since the outbreak began in February 2022.

IDALS, in a news release about the recent detections, urged producers to continue practicing heightened biosecurity measures like reducing exposure to wild animals and limiting the number of people visiting a facility, to help prevent the spread of the virus.  Producers should also seek veterinarian care if they notice sudden bird deaths, lethargy, swollen heads, decreased or thin-shelled egg production or any other symptoms of highly pathogenic avian influenza.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to rate the public health risk of HPAI as low as there is no known person-to-person spread.

(IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH) – The Iowa House passed a bill Wednesday to create and implement a statewide, 30-year resilience plan to protect state life, property and other assets in the event of a flood or other water-related disaster. Rep. John Wills, R-Spirit Lake, said the legislation was a “visionary bill” that “redefines” how the state protects itself from “floods, droughts and shifting water supplies.” “This bill is something that should have been done 30 years ago, but it wasn’t,” Wills said. “The next best time to do it is today.” House File 2511 would require the Iowa Flood Center to draft the plan and provide periodic updates.

The goal of the state resiliency plan – per the bill text – is to protect Iowa’s “critical” and “regionally significant” assets. These include transportation assets, evacuation routes, critical facilities, natural, cultural and historic resources in an area.  The state resiliency plan would also require a statewide risk assessment and prioritized lists of ongoing and planned resiliency projects in the state.   Wills said the bill mandates a “proactive” approach to resiliency and breaks the cycle of the state reacting to disasters after the fact. He emphasized that the bill would prioritize voluntary conservation and compliance strategies and that the resiliency plan was focused on flooding and not water quality.

In a Feb. 4 subcommittee hearing, the bill, then numbered as House File 2158, was supported by environmental groups in the state, some of which noted that flooding events seem to have increased in frequency in the state.  Nick Laning, speaking on behalf of the Iowa Emergency Management Association in the subcommittee hearing, suggested the plan might be better completed by the Iowa Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, where similar plans are developed and the department is already adept at interactions with federal agencies.  Amber Markham, speaking on behalf of The Nature Conservancy, said the group supported the legislation and specifically was in favor of implementing “natural infrastructure” like wetlands to help curb flooding.

No group registered against the bill. A companion version of the bill was introduced in the Senate and advanced from a subcommittee, but was not heard in a committee meeting prior to the legislative “funnel” deadline. On the floor, the bill was amended to change the due date of the report from 2027 to 2028 and to move the final destination of the plan to the state homeland security department. The amendment also specified that risk reduction strategies would be voluntary to protect property rights.

The bill passed unanimously and was sent to the Senate.

(Radio Iowa) – A national chicken franchise is coming to the Iowa State University Student Union in Ames. I-S-U’s vice president Sean Reeder presented a proposal for a lease with Chick-fil-A to the Board of Regents.”They would occupy just over two-thousand square feet in the food court area that’s adjacent to our bookstore and the Soultz Family Visitor Center,” Reeder says. He says the chicken chain space was formerly occupied by the Memorial Union Market and Cafe. “This is particularly attractive for our students. In polling by the dining and the Memorial Union staff, students frequently ask for more national brands within our product offerings,” he says. Chick-fil-A is immensely popular with our student population as well as faculty and staff.”

Reeder says the Memorial Union isn’t the only place you could get a hot chicken sandwich under the lease. )”We would also be giving Chick-fil-A the rights to operate portable, temporary kiosks intermittently at different times of the year across campus,” he says. The lease would be for ten years with a mutually agreed upon five-year renewal for a total of 15 years. The I-S-U would receive rent in the form of commission on net sales, starting at four percent in years one through five and escalating to ten percent in years six through ten. Reeder was asked if that would be an increase in what the Memorial Union has made from what had been in the space. “We expect it to not only be greater for the store specifically, but Chick-fil-A also nationally is known for increasing general foot traffic to your student unions,” he says.

Reeder’s presentation came to the Facilities Committee, which approved the lease Wednesday.

(Radio Iowa) – University of Iowa Provost Kevin Kregel says his office will recommend closing seven programs at the Board of Regents next meeting in April. The programs include undergraduate majors in African American Studies and Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies, and a master’s in African American World Studies. Kregel says his office reviewed enrollment data for programs in a workforce alignment report ordered by the Board of Regents. “As we’ve gone through this process, we’ve made sure we’re looking strategically at how we are going about this, looking at the resources that are being utilized, where the workforce realignment efforts are going to be falling, and how we are going to align with student interests,” he says.

Kregel says enrollment was not the only factor considered. “For example: licensure and accreditation requirements for these programs, the program’s role in specific areas of study that are important, available faculty resources, and then recency of the program in terms of its establishment,” Kregel says. Kregel says the university also plans to close the Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies and African American Studies programs entirely at the end of the academic year. Kregel told the Regents Wednesday that there will still be courses and minors offered in some of the programs where there is strong student interest. Several University of Iowa alumni say they feel “profound alarm” about the university ending majors in Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies as well as African American Studies. In a letter, they accuse the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the university president, Iowa’s governor and the Board of Regents of attacking intellectual and professional freedom.

Alum Cristina Ortiz helped write the letter. “A really important component of the major is, in part, just knowing that you’re not alone,” Ortiz says, “that you are part of this, not just intellectual community, but actual, real people in the community who are approaching things in the same way that you are and asking the same kinds of questions that you are.” Many alumni say closing the programs would undermine the tradition of public universities offering classes in a wide range of disciplines. Ortiz says the Regents should not eliminate the programs, especially Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies or GWSS. “How do you explain and put vocabulary to the power dynamics going on with the Epstein files, if you don’t have a theoretical grounding in GWSS,” Ortiz says. “It’s just not possible. It’s so essential to understanding our world, our life right now.”

The letter comes after a statement from the university saying it’s conducting a review of over a dozen undergraduate majors with low enrollment. Twenty-three U-I students have declared a major in GWSS. Of the other majors being reviewed, African American Studies has 11 students, and Science Studies has nine students.

(Red Oak, IA) – A traffic stop in Montgomery County early this (Thursday) morning, resulted in an arrest. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports a vehicle driven by 34-year-old Aaron Gar Nelson, of Red Oak, was pulled-over at around 1:25-a.m. in the 2400 block of J Avenue. Upon further investigation, Nelson was arrested for Driving While Suspended. He was transported to the Montgomery County Jail and held on bond amounting to $491.25.

JOHNSTON, Iowa (KCCI) – A Guthrie County woman is facing several charges after 34 cats suffering from severe health conditions were rescued from a home in Johnston. 35-year-old Claire Faalk was charged with four counts of animal neglect causing serious injury or death and two counts of animal neglect causing injury.

On December 17, 2025, police responded to an animal welfare check at a home on Hyperion Point Drive in Johnston and rescued 34 cats from the residence. The cats were found suffering from severe ear mites, fleas, dental disease, and upper respiratory infections, according to officials.

Working with Polk County Animal Control, the Animal Rescue League of Iowa removed the cats and transported them to its facility for treatment. Faalk was taken to Polk County Jail.