(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa D-N-R plans to expand its bat monitoring program across the state with some new contracts. The D-N-R’s Karen Kinkead says the program began around 10 years ago. “And we’ve sort of grown the program over the last several years adding a new county or two each year. And so, this time we’ve gotten more money and we are hoping to expand almost statewide over the next three years,” Kinkead says. Federal officials picked the states where the sound monitoring of bats is done. She says the states and their partners then come up with routes that are driven by cars with boxes on top that records the sounds of the bats as they use echo location to fly and find food. Those recorded sounds then let them know what type of bats they have in each state.

Kinkead says computer software determines what type of bat the recorder heard. She says bat populations have been declining after being hit by disease. “White Nose Syndrome is a fungus that was introduced into the eastern U-S many years ago and it has slowly moved westward and has is know found I believe from coast to coast — we do have it here in Iowa,” she says. “And it’s a fungus that eats through the skin of the bat as it hibernates in the winter. Obviously it makes them uncomfortable it wakes them up and there is no food available, there’s no water available, and it disrupts their metabolism and causes quite a bit of mortality.” Kinkead says there’s some indication that White Nose Syndrome has dropped off in the east.

“Since it’s new in Iowa, we think we are still seeing a decline in our bat numbers, and we want to get a handle on that,” she says. The D-N-R has won some federal money to go along with state money, and will work with Iowa State University and the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation in the bat tracking program. Kinkead says there’s no way to treat the bats — so they are focusing on improving their habitat to make them healthier.

“Invasive species in our forests is a real issue — like honeysuckle and those other invesive shrubs come in. It makes it hard for people to walk in the woods, and it also makes it hard for bats to fly and echo locate and find the insects that they need to eat and to stay healthy in the summer and produce young,” according to Kinkead. She says they are still determining which counties they will add to their bat monitoring. They will also be sending out a call for volunteers to drive the bat listening routes sometime in April or May.

(Radio Iowa) – A disaster recovery fund set up by the Greater Madison County Community Foundation is taking donations to support families impacted by Saturday’s deadly tornado. The E-F-4 twister damaged or destroyed more than 50 Winterset area homes. Foundation manager Tom Leners says with volatile prices for building materials, insurance and government relief may fall short of what people need to repair and rebuild. Leners says, “The future need and probably the bigger over-the-horizon need is for funding to go ahead and fill in the gap of what insurance and disaster payments don’t cover.”

Six people were killed in the Winterset area storm, with multiple injuries. Leners says the fund could also help pay for medical costs, deductibles or clean-up jobs not covered by insurance. The Red Cross is working with New Bridge Church in Winterset to operate a shelter for people whose homes were damaged or destroyed. Madison County Chamber of Commerce director Amara Huffine says the operation is well-stocked with food, supplies and winter clothing. She says what people need now is gift cards to help cover the cost of gas, groceries and other essentials. “Those are the biggest needs we have a lot of outpouring that have provided food, clothing all of that, that’s all taken care of,” Huffine says, “it’s the gift cards and the financial support.”

Huffine says gift cards can be dropped off or sent to New Bridge Church, while cash donations can be sent to the foundation or made online at MadisonCountyFoundation.org.

(by Grant Gerlock, Iowa Public Radio)

(Red Oak, Iowa) – A traffic stop in Red Oak, Tuesday night resulted in the arrest of an Adair County man. Red Oak Police report 34-year-old Kevin James Jungers, of Bridgewater, was taken into custody at around 10-p.m. for Driving Under Suspension – a simple misdemeanor. He was transported to the Montgomery County Jail and held on bond amounting to $491.25.

(Radio Iowa) – An Iowa House subcommittee has endorsed the governor’s plan to provide state-funded accounts for parents, to send up to 10-thousand children to a private school. The panel held a subcommittee hearing as supporters of the bill held a rally in the Capitol rotunda. Samantha Fett of Carlisle told lawmakers greater competition from private schools will make public schools better.  “My daughter is a junior in high school and so I’m almost done and I could easily walk away and look the other way and I can’t because I’m a patriot and I care about the generations to come,” she said, “so please support this bill.”

Dave Daughton of Rural School Advocates of Iowa, the retired superintendent of Wayne Community Schools, responded. “I have coached for years and I’m extremely competitive,” Daughton said. “However, you can’t be competitive if the rules aren’t the same for both teams and so I just want to make sure that everybody understands that.”

Shanda Carstens, a parent from Panora, says the plan gives private schools a competitive advantage. “Our rural communities know our public schools are our heart and soul,” she said. “Rural community leaders know when they are getting the short end of the stick and they know this bill doesn’t improve education in those small communities.”

Pam Molde of Pella, a bill backer, urged legislators to expand the plan and provide funds to parents like her who home school their children. “One of the largest checks that we write each year is to our public schools in the form of our property taxes. This is not public money. This is our money,” Molde said. “…This is the money of 70% of Iowans who call themselves Christians and want a different choice for their kids.”

The bill includes other regulations for public schools. Public school boards would have to publish lesson plans for the entire year before school starts, including the books, articles or films that teachers intend to use during classes. School boards would be given 10 days to respond to parents objecting to books in the school library. The bill also calls for high school students to pass a civics test before they may graduate.

(Radio Iowa) – Democrats in the Iowa House are calling for cancelling the contract for an attorney hired to represent a House committee as it investigates a district court judge. Judge Kurt Stoebe of Humboldt has been accused of improperly trying to influence a commission choosing nominees to be a district court judge. Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee say they were not consulted when Republican Representative Steven Holt, the committee’s chairman, hired attorney Alan Ostergren to work on the investigation of the judge.

Ostergren represented the Republican Party in an election-related lawsuit two years ago. Representative Mary Wolfe, a Democrat from Clinton, says Ostergren’s hiring raises the concern that outside groups are pushing to investigate the judge, as a way to interfere in the courts. Holt says as the committee’s chairman he and the speaker of the House had the authority to hire Ostergren.

Holt describes Ostergren as the only attorney they could find who had the intestinal fortitude to take on the court system to find out what the judge did.

(Audubon County, Iowa) – A head-on crash Tuesday claimed the life of a Cass County woman. According to the Iowa State Patrol, 56-year old Lee Ann Hansen, of Atlantic, died in the crash that occurred west of Brayton at around 12:35-p.m. on 320^th Street, west of Goldfinch Place. Hansen died at the scene. She was not wearing a seat belt. The other driver, 30-year old Gregory Keith Gregerson, of Harlan, suffered minor injuries. The Patrol said he was wearing his seat belt.

According to the report, an eastbound 2017 Chevy Equinox driven by Hansen and a westbound 2017 Ford F-250 driven by Gregerson, collided at the crest of the hill on 320th Street. Both vehicles ended up in the north ditch. The accident remains under investigation.

The Audubon County Sheriff’s Office, Brayton Fire and Rescue, Exira Fire and Rescue, Audubon County Emergency Management, and Life Flight assisted the Iowa State Patrol at the scene.

Lee Ann Hansen is the co-owner, along with her husband Bruce, of Hansen Interstate Repair and Hansen Valley Oil, near Highway 71 and I-80.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Department of Education reports four-year graduations rates for the class of 2021 dropped slightly in the wake of the pandemic. The Department’s Information Bureau Chief, Jeff Pennington, says two factors impacted the numbers. “We saw a higher number of students who dropped out — so they are no longer in school. We also see a larger percentage of kids who are going to take a fifth year,” According to Pennington. He says both factors are related to the pandemic.

He says there were more kids who might not have been engaged with the uncertainty of the school year and more kids likely fell through the cracks — as well as fewer kids who were not ready to complete high school on time due to the pandemic. The data show 90-point-two percent of students in 2021 graduated within four years, down from 91-point-eight percent in 2020. The drop is small and Pennington says it goes against what has been a 10-year trend of increases.

“We see about a two percentage point increase statewide (in 10 years)in overall rates, even with the downturn in this more recent (year). So, there’s been a nice upward trend in terms of percent of kids completing high school within a four-year window,” Pennington says. He expects things to rebound as schools are now back to normal schedules following the height of the pandemic.

“We do expect that this is a one-year blip. Again, when we look long-term we’ve seen that steady increase and even over the last couple of years it keeps ticking up in terms of the percent of students who are graduating,” he says. Pennington says that the four-year graduation rate trend was up in nearly every student demographic subgroup. For example, graduation rates for students from low-socioeconomic status households have increased by four-point-two percentage points between 2011 and 2021.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa House has approved a bill that would require testing for radon gas in Iowa schools. The legislation is named in honor of Gail Orcutt, a retired teacher who worked in Waterloo, Norwalk and Des Moines schools. Representative Ray Sorenson paid tribute to Orcutt during debate of the bill. “She tirelessly advocated for this bill here at the Capitol, getting to know many of you,” Sorenson said. “Gail lost her battle with radon-induced lung cancer in 2020.” Orcutt was not a smoker.

Maria Steele, a nurse practitioner at the Iowa Digestive Disease Clinic in Clive, has become a leading advocate for the bill after being diagnosed with lung cancer. “As much as I enjoy visiting with Maria…my hope is that we don’t get to know her as well as Gail,” Sorenson says, “as my hope is that this passes and we can save the lives of teachers and students of the future and that she can rest easy, knowing she’s carried on and accomplished Gail’s mission.” Gail Orcutt began lobbying legislators a decade ago after discovering her home had dangerous levels of radon gas. Radon is an odorless gas that seeps into homes and buildings through cracks in the foundation.

Sorenson notes every Iowa county is considered to have high levels of radon in the soil. “An estimated 400 Iowans will die this year alone due to radon-induced lung cancer,” Sorenson says. Orcutt had lobbied for radon testing and mitigation to be required in schools, which is what the bill that bears her name would do. It also calls for radon control systems in any new school construction. Previous attempts to accomplish those goals had been met with concerns about the cost.

Orcutt had urged legislators to require that radon control systems be installed in all new construction in Iowa, including homes, but that is not included in the bill that passed the House. The bill has to pass the Senate, too, before it would land on the governor’s desk.

LENEXA, KAN. (MARCH 8, 2022) – At an event Monday with Vice President Kamala Harris, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the winners of two school bus rebate opportunities: 2021 American Rescue Plan (ARP) Electric School Bus Rebates, and 2021 Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) School Bus Rebates. The $7 million in ARP funding is directed toward school districts in underserved communities to replace old diesel buses with new, zero-emission electric models; and the $10 million in DERA rebates will assist with 444 school bus replacements across the country. Among the districts (shown below) receiving funds is the Riverside Community School District, in Carson.

EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan said “This round of school bus grants from the American Rescue Plan is just the beginning. The unprecedented $5 billion investment that’s on the way for clean and zero-emission school buses from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will transform how millions of children get to school and help build a better America for a new generation.”

As part of the announcement, six Iowa school districts will be receiving a total of $185,000 in school bus rebate opportunities to replace nine buses through the 2021 DERA School Bus Rebates. In addition to the $17 million announced today, in the coming weeks, EPA plans to announce a new Clean School Bus rebate program under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which provides an unprecedented $5 billion over five years to replace existing school buses with low- or zero-emission school buses.

The rebate awards are EPA’s latest round of funding for longstanding DERA School Bus Rebates. This year’s program awards approximately $10 million to fund the replacement of old diesel school buses with new electric, diesel, gasoline, propane, or compressed natural gas (CNG) school buses meeting current emission standards.

The two rebate awards total approximately $17 million in combined funding for schools and bus fleet owners to replace older, highly polluting diesel school buses. Replacing these buses will improve air quality in and around schools and communities, reduce greenhouse gas pollution, and better protect children’s health overall. Since 2012, EPA’s school bus rebates have awarded, or are in the process of awarding, over $73 million to replace more than 3,000 old diesel school buses.

This program will also prioritize projects that help achieve the goals of President Biden’s Justice40 initiative, which aims to ensure that federal agencies deliver at least 40% of benefits from certain investments to underserved communities.

Atlantic, Iowa – Cass Health CEO Brett Altman was recently recognized as one of nation’s “67 Rural Hospital CEOs to Know” by Becker’s Hospital Review. According to the Becker’s article, “The executives featured on this list have put their heart and soul into ensuring their communities have access to the best healthcare services possible. While rural hospitals across the country have faced closure in recent years, these leaders have developed a model for not only surviving but thriving.”

Cass Health CEO Brett Altman

Altman said he was grateful to be recognized. “This is a great honor for Cass Health,” Altman said. “While I’m honored to be a part of this list, I must give credit to the entire team at Cass Health that delivers nationally recognized, award-winning health care every day of the year. They have been pushed to their limits – working through a pandemic and a major construction project – and yet we’ve seen them continually rise to the occasion and go above and beyond to exceed patient expectations and our goals.”