(Radio Iowa) – Some Iowa schools have only been back in session a few days and there are already multiple reports of vehicles passing stopped school buses. Iowa State Patrol Trooper John Farley says it’s a recurring problem as motorists break the law by passing a stopped bus with its lights flashing and stop arm extended.  Farley says, “I’ve taken two complaints in the last two days and investigated those incidents where somebody has passed a school bus.”

Farley says he’s repeatedly amazed by people who break this law. “The school bus is probably the most recognizable piece of equipment on our roadways,” Farley says. “It’s big. It’s yellow. It’s got lights all over it. We expect a school bus to stop either to let our youngsters off or have them board the buses in the morning. And we know that they’re always going to one place, they’re always going to school.”

Many Iowa schools have modernized the technology on their bus fleets, which is a big help for law enforcement. “School buses are equipped with video cameras not only inside but outside the buses,” Farley says. “When somebody does pass that school bus and the stop arm is out, the red lights are on, it’s clearly visible and we have that video, visual evidence when somebody passes a school bus.”

In recent years, Iowa legislators raised the penalties for breaking Kayden’s Law, named for a youngster who was killed by a motorist who passed a stopped school bus in Northwood. Violators can be fined between $250 and $675, plus, lose their drivers license for 30 days or get 30 days in jail.

More State and area news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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Authorities in Union County report a Creston man was arrested Wednesday evening, for Violation of Parole. Creston Police say 31-year old Terry Ray Hankins-Lund, Jr., was arrested a little before 5-p.m., and transported to the Union County Jail, where he was being held without bond.

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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The Red Oak Police Dept. reports Officers this (Thursday) morning arrested 50-year old James Keith Saufley, Jr., of Villisca. Saufley was taken into custody at around 3:15-a.m. on a valid Page County warrant for Driving While Suspended. He was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $300 bond.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:35 a.m. CDT

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa judge who nullified 50,000 absentee ballot requests in Iowa’s second-largest county seems poised to void thousands more in a neighboring county at the urging of President Trump’s reelection campaign.Judge Ian Thornhill heard arguments Wednesday in Johnson County, the state’s most Democratic-leaning, in a similar lawsuit brought by Trump’s campaign and Republican Party groups. He said he would issue a ruling soon but raised several points that he did in his Linn County ruling last month that gave Trump a sweeping legal victory.Trump’s campaign argues that county elections commissioners in Johnson, Linn and Woodbury acted improperly when they mailed absentee ballot request forms to voters with their personal information already filled in.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Cedar Falls has approved a mask mandate, joining with other Iowa cities that have taken similar moves as the state continues to see high numbers of confirmed coronavirus cases. Cedar Falls on Tuesday joined Ames, Cedar Rapids, Decorah, Des Moines, Dubuque, Iowa City, Mount Vernon, Muscatine and Waterloo in enacting mask requirements. Enforcement of the rules vary but are primarily focused on education, with police in some communities instructed to hand out masks to those not wearing them. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has declined to approve a statewide mask order because she said it would be impossible to enforce. Reynolds has told local jurisdictions that because she hasn’t issued an order, they don’t have the authority to enforce their mask mandates.

UNDATED (AP) — Wildfires are raging in California and Oregon. The Atlantic has seen a record number of tropical storms for this time of year. Phoenix keeps breaking heat records. Death Valley saw 130-degree heat and Iowa got smacked by a derecho. Climate-connected disasters seem everywhere in the crazy year 2020. But scientists Wednesday say it’ll get worse. They say in 20 years or so we’ll look back at 2020 and marvel about how the disasters weren’t so bad. What’s happening is the basic physics of climate change. Scientists know it will only get crazier because what we’re seeing now is what they foresaw 20 years ago would happen.

PHOENIX (AP) — Officials in college towns all over the U.S. are fretting that off-campus students are being counted in places other than the communities where their schools are located. That is leading to an expected major undercount for the 2020 census in college towns where students can make up as much as three-quarters of the population. The situation could result in severe shortfalls in federal dollars these college towns normally would expect and also a dilution of their political power over the next decade. Off-campus students are said to account for 4 million of the 19 million college students in the U.S.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa judge who nullified 50,000 absentee ballot requests in Iowa’s second-largest county seems poised to void thousands more in a neighboring county at the urging of President Trump’s reelection campaign.Judge Ian Thornhill heard arguments Wednesday in Johnson County, the state’s most Democratic-leaning, in a similar lawsuit brought by Trump’s campaign and Republican Party groups.

He said he would issue a ruling soon but raised several points that he did in his Linn County ruling last month that gave Trump a sweeping legal victory.Trump’s campaign argues that county elections commissioners in Johnson, Linn and Woodbury acted improperly when they mailed absentee ballot request forms to voters with their personal information already filled in.

(Radio Iowa) – The Fort Dodge Community School District was hit by a cyber attack on Wednesday. Officials with the Fort Dodge Community School District issued a statement Wednesday afternoon that said the district was hit by a cyber attack. The attack took down servers for the district and disabled internet and phone services.

The district then made the decision in interest of safety for students and staff members to cancel classes on Thursday. Fort Dodge administrators say they are working with authorities to get the systems back up and running and they hope to have the issues resolved by Friday.

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds says if a school district moves to virtual instruction because of fears about Covid spreading through crowded classrooms, then it makes sense to cancel sports and other extracurricular activities in the district. Students from Des Moines and Ames Public School Districts marched to the governor’s mansion Monday to protest the suspension of their extracurriculars, including volleyball and football. Reynolds, who says she played every sport imaginable when she was in high school, calls this an unfortunate situation.

The governor says if social distancing is the main concern from educators seeking to teach classes online, then she says they should be worried about the lack of social distancing in sports.

A judge is letting the Des Moines School Board’s lawsuit proceed that challenges the governor’s authority to determine when schools may shift classes online, but the judge has declined to issue a temporary injunction — so the school district is violating the state’s order to have students in the classroom this week. Reynolds is expressing confidence the impasse between her administration and Des Moines Public Schools can be resolved.

Reynolds made her comments Wednesday in Atlantic, where she met with a non-profit group focused on improving Atlantic’s economic prospects.