(Iowa Capital Dispatch) – The Iowa Senate passed a bill Tuesday requiring Iowa schools to adopt new social studies and civics education standards to include a more focused coverage of events and subjects in U.S. history.

House File 2545 passed on a 33-14 vote and was sent to the Senate. It calls for the Iowa Department of Education director to conduct a review of Iowa school curriculum, education standards and high school graduation rates and give recommendations to the governor and General Assembly by July 1, 2025. The bill still includes this goal, but was amended on the floor to include another subject: history and social studies education.

Some of language in the amendment came from House File 2330, a bill passed by the Iowa House in February but not taken up by the Senate. The original House bill would have mandated that history curriculum included subjects like the “history and meaning of the United States flag and national anthem,” “exemplary figures in western civilization, the United States, and the state of Iowa” including Benjamin Franklin, Frederick Douglass and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, as well as documents like the Declaration of Independence and Articles of Confederation.

The Senate amendment includes similar provisions, requiring that “exemplary figures and important events” from western civilization, U.S. and Iowa history are covered, as well as the model of the U.S. state and federal government “in comparison to alternative forms of government, and the crimes against humanity that have occurred under communist regimes since 1917.”

The bill directs the Iowa Board of Education to conduct a review and revision of the state’s social studies standards to include these subjects for students in grades 1 through 12 in a relevant and age-appropriate manner. These standards would be adopted by Dec. 31, 2025.

Democrats in the Senate argued that the bill was overly prescriptive of schools. The bill goes back to the House for consideration.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa State Fair and the Iowa Lottery have teamed up for a State Fair themed scratch ticket. Iowa Lottery C-E-O Matt Strawn says it’s the first ticket specifically targeting the annual event. “A five dollar ticket where you can win a 50-thousand dollar top prize up to 50-thousand dollars on the ticket alone,” he says. “I suspect that’ll buy a corn-dog or two out here come August.” There’s a second chance as those with losing scratch tickets will be able to enter them to be part of a “Fair Fever” promotion on August 8th. “Twenty people will be out there on a live game show on the Grand Concourse on opening day of the fair and those 20 Iowans, those 20 Iowa Lottery players, are going to have the opportunity to compete for a guaranteed one million dollars in prizes,” Strawn says.

The final contestant in the game show will have a chance to the grand prize. “We’ll also — right out there in a live lottery game show — will have the opportunity to compete for a five million dollar prize,” he says. And that last contestant will go away with a minimum prize of 500-thousand dollars. Iowa State Fair C-E-O, Jeremy Parsons, says the pairing with the Lottery’s statewide reach may bring more people to the fairgrounds. “That’s our hope. You know one of the great things that the Iowa Lottery does really is they blanket the entire state in terms of their media coverage they get to all corners of the state,” he says.

Iowa State Fair CEO Jeremy Parsons talks about the new ticket as Lottery CEO Matt Strawn watches. (Radio Iowa photo)

Parsons says it could make those who’ve never visited the State Fair to give it a look. “We really think we’ll probably get the Iowa State Fair top of mind maybe more than ever this summer,” Parsons says.

The Iowa Lottery and the Iowa State Fair do have a vast history, as the first every scratch tickets began selling on August 22nd, 1985 on the fairgrounds. Proceeds from the Iowa Lottery have been used through the years to fund upgrades to the various facilities at the Fair, including the 1997 grandstand renovation.

(Iowa News Service) – The chair of the Federal Trade Commission will be in rural Iowa this weekend to hear from farmers and other residents about the proposed sale of Iowa Fertilizer to Koch Industries. The sale is pending FTC approval. Iowa spent $500 million to build an Iowa Fertilizer factory in Waverly to create competition in an already consolidated industry. Aaron Lehman, president of the Iowa Farmers Union, said he plans to tell FTC Chair Linda Khan a sale to Koch Industries would backtrack on any competitive progress the state has made.
“Our concern is that an industry that already lacks competition and has all sorts of monopoly problems would only get worse if this sale is allowed to go through,” Lehman explained.

Koch and other corporate ag conglomerates have said consolidating allows them to provide better products to farmers more efficiently. The hearing is set for Saturday on Main Street in Nevada. In addition to reducing competition for fertilizer, Lehman argued the sale would increase prices for farmers, and ultimately mean higher food prices for Iowans. He wants Khan to hear stories firsthand, from the people on the ground in Nevada. “We know that we might not be able to have a dialogue with the people who are investigating this situation, because they need to be impartial,” Lehman acknowledged. “But our farmers need to tell their story about how the industry is already in a monopoly state.”

Some 18 other ag organizations have joined the Iowa Farmers Union calling on the FTC and the Justice Department to investigate the proposed sale.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Two women from Villisca were arrested last Saturday night, on Theft charges. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports 23-year-old Hannah Marie Leigh and 19-year-old Hallie Nevaeh Straw, were each charged with Theft in the 5th Degree. The women were transported to the Montgomery County Jail and held on $300 bond, each.

(Radio Iowa) – The National Weather Service says a minimum of four tornadoes touched down in Iowa on Tuesday, including one each in Calhoun, Dallas, Lee and Pocahontas counties. Among the damage, a barn was leveled near Dallas Center and there’s major damage to a house near Salem. National Weather Service meteorologist Kristy Carter says survey teams are fanning out this (Wednesday) morning to look over the damage at the various sites.

Photo taken around 10-a.m. Tuesday, North of Carbon, in Adams County. (Photo courtesy McCade Morrison)

“Those numbers can change as we continue to get more data throughout the day today,” Carter says. “We don’t have any ratings on any of those tornadoes yet. We’ll continue to be collecting data and trying to look at satellite imagery to figure out paths and surveys.” It was initially thought that just one twister set down in north-central Iowa around 2:30 P-M, but she says there were at least two, perhaps more, that emerged from that single storm cell.

“There were a couple of tornadoes that happened in Calhoun and Pocahontas. They weren’t necessarily all continuous, so at least at the moment, we’re thinking there are multiple tornadoes,” Carter says. “That’ll just be part of the data that we continue to collect here today and as we get some information about damage in the path and the survey.” There are multiple reports of large hail all over central and eastern Iowa, while winds were clocked up to 72 miles an hour in Cedar County near Stanwood. All across the state, there were reports of fallen trees and tree limbs which caused dozens of power outages.

“There were some reports of hail. We had one-to-two inches in diameter. We had plenty of wind gusts, 50-to-60 miles an hour,” Carter says. “It was really the winds that most people probably experienced, with all of our environmental wind, so outside of thunderstorms.” Funnel clouds were reported over Le Claire and near Cedar Rapids, but neither reached the ground to become tornadoes. No injuries are reported.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa legislature has voted to create a program  that would offer state tax credits and sales tax rebates for businesses that are making a more than one BILLION dollar capital investment in Iowa. Senator Dan Dawson of Council Bluffs says it’s called the “Major Economic Growth Attractions” or “MEGA” program.  “These projects are rare,” Dawson said. “They don’t come around very often,” Dawson says.

Dawson says the local community has to approve the development. “It must be on over 250 acres,” Dawson says. “It must be primarily engaged in the advanced manufacturing, biosciences and research businesses only.” Senator William Dotzler  of Waterloo says these kind of incentives are necessary.  “We’re in competition with other states,” Dotzler said. “…Other states are putting in to these project even greater than what we are.”

The bill also provides some state funding to help 88 Iowa counties that are outside of urban areas improve tracts of land so it’s immediately ready for business development. Representative Brian Lohse of Bondurant says the upgrades required for certified sites can be out of reach for smaller communities.  “It is a very extensive and very expensive thing to do,” Lohse says, “and it’s incredibly productive.”

The far larger MEGA program won approval in the Iowa Senate a year ago, but stalled in the House over concerns about a foreign company owning farmland. The bill’s final version says a foreign business that gets incentives from this MEGA program cannot be located in the six countries considered to be adversaries of the United States.

(Thayer, Iowa) – One person was injured during a rollover accident Monday afternoon, in Union County. According to the Union County Sheriff’s Office, 43-year-old Daniel Gary Goodemote, of Thayer, was driving a 2006 Ford Explorer SUV eastbound on 197th Street, when he lost control of the vehicle, which rolled into the ditch and came to rest on the driver’s side. The accident happened at around4:30-p.m.

Authorities say an investigation revealed several open and unopened alcoholic beverage containers were in the vehicle, along with a black package labeled “marijuana gummies.” Goodmote – who was wearing his seat belt – suffered suspected minor/non-incapacitating injuries, and was transported by EMS ambulance to the hospital in Creston, where an OWI investigation took place with law enforcement.

Goodemote consented to Standard Field Sobriety Tests and a Preliminary Breath Test, that registered over .08%.  A urine sample was also obtained, which will be analyzed at the DCI Crime Lab. As of the latest report, no charges had been filed.

The SUV was a total loss, with damage estimated at $7,000.

(Radio Iowa) – Since Iowa leaders decided to turn down federal aid for summer food assistance programs for low-income households, communities like Le Mars are working to fill the gaps. Le Mars Community School District Superintendent Steven Webner says the northwest Iowa city is creating its own program that will be available to any students.

“The Summer Food Program is one in which all students are able to get food from distribution sites that the district has yet to finalize, during the month of June,” Webner says. “The school district is reimbursed the cost of the meals and the labor to make the meals.”

Late last year, Governor Kim Reynolds announced Iowa would not participate in the federal program because of administrative costs to the state, and because she said it “did nothing to promote nutrition at a time when childhood obesity has become an epidemic.” Other Republican governors in about a dozen states made similar announcements.

Webner describes how the community program will work in Le Mars. “What we’re looking at doing is providing, a couple of times a week potentially, a bag of meals that the students can take home that will last a few days,” Webner says. “We’re looking at breakfast and lunch-type meals and any student can take part in this, if they like.”

The district will initially offer the program just during June, and if there’s a good response, it may be extended into July and August. While it’s aimed at latch-key kids, Webner says all Le Mars district students are eligible for the program.

“The intent is just for students whose parents may be working all day, or parents who qualify for free and reduced lunches, those types of things,” he says. “We’re just trying to help the community out.”

Webner says the director of food services and other employees will prepare and package the meals, and bring them to delivery sites in the district. They are also recruiting students to help distribute the meals.