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Keep up-to-date with Fox News Radio, Radio Iowa, Brownfield & the Iowa Agribusiness Networks!
The change has been adopted by the following facilities:(Radio Iowa) – Wednesday’s storm that hit Sibley and other areas of northwest Iowa caused damage to crops, trees, buildings and power lines, but Peter Rodgers, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Sioux Falls, says videos of the storm posted online do not show it was a tornado. “What those videos are showing are little swirls and curls on the leading edge of those strong downburst winds and so they certainly have a circulation with them and they appear to be a tornado, but the rotation is at the ground and not connected to an actual nearby thunderstorm,” he says. “We call them gustinadoes.”
Rodgers says wind speeds were between 60 to 80 miles per hour in the storm. Osceola County Emergency Management Director Corey Shearer has surveyed damage in Sibley, Ocheyedan and Allendorf. “Very big diameter branches down, trees down,” he says. “Some hitting houses where siding, roofs, windows damaged.” Kossuth County Emergency Management Coordinator Charissa Mueller was tracking the storm as it passed through Fenton. “They received a quite a bit of marble-sized, pea-sized hail in a quick amount of time resulting in some crop damage there with the corn,” she says. “Looking at Whittemore and Algona, we had a lot of trees down.”
Photo of crop damage by Kossuth County Emergency Management Coordinator Charissa Mueller
In Lyon County, some roofs in Rock Rapids were damaged, in Clay County trees were toppled near Fostoria and in Emmet County the Veterans Memorial in Emmetsburg was damaged as the storm rolled through.
(Radio Iowa) – Fundraising efforts in eastern Iowa will allow some AmeriCorps members to continue working through the summer, after the federal money for the program was eliminated by DOGE earlier this year. Eight AmeriCorps members in Davenport will be able to finish their service, after donors chipped in to help reach the 78-thousand dollar goal. Matt Mendenhall, president of the Davenport-based Regional Development Authority, says the locals acted quickly to save the program.
“We have a pretty tight-knit group of community funders,” Mendenhall says, “and so we often will come together on different things when it needs a group resource.” Mendenhall says the eight members will serve at local nonprofits and agencies like Big Brothers Big Sisters and Davenport Parks and Recreation until their contracts end in August. “It was well over two to three-thousand kids that would be affected in terms of their summer programming,” he says, “so I think it was just pretty easy, because I think AmeriCorps is pretty well known, so I think there’s a lot of credibility already built in to what that would look like.”
The team will officially serve through the Iowa National Service Corps, instead of AmeriCorps.
(Radio Iowa) – The Board of Regents approved a tuition increase Thursday of three percent for the University of Iowa and Iowa State University, and two-point-seven percent at U-N-I. Board of Regents representative Brad Berg says a plan to charge in-state tuition at U-N-I for students from states surrounding Iowa will be delayed. “Those proposed rates were based on funding that was included in the education appropriations bill and with the Governor’s recent veto of the funding for that initiative. Would like to take action on those three rates at a subsequent meeting,” Berg says.
The Board also approved an increase in mandatory fees by three percent at the U-I, two-point-seven percent at U-N-I, and one-point-seven percent at I-S-U. The Board then voted to give the leaders of the three universities and executive director of the Board raises. Regent David Barker made motions for the salary increases. “For executive director (Mark) Braun, increase his base salary to 176-thousand- 384 dollars effective July 1st, 2025. Establish a new deferred compensation plan commencing July 1st, 2025 and terminating June 30th 2027 with annual contributions of 230-thousand dollars,” he says. That’s a nearly 20-thousand dollar salary increase for Braun. Barker then made a motion on increasing the salaries of U-I president Barbara Wilson and Wendy Wintersteen.
“President Wilson, increase her base salary to 825-thousand dollars effective July 1st, 2025. For President Wintersteen increase her base salary to 735-thousand dollars effective July 1st, 2025,” Barker says
U-N-I President Rod Nook is also getting a raise. “For President Nook, increase his base salary to 410-thousand dollars effective July 1st, 2025,” he says.
Wilson’s salary increased 65-thousand dollars, Wintersteen’s 25-thousand, and Nook’s nearly 13-thousand dollars. The Regents approved the salary increases with no discussion. A spokesman for the Board says they made their decisions based on two close meeting evaluations this year. The spokesman did not answer when asked why the Board voted to increase the salary of I-S-U president Wendy Wintersteen even though she is retiring in January.
(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak arrested a man early this (Friday) morning for Public Intoxication (A Simple Misdemeanor). Authorities say 50-year-old Dennis Michael Smith was arrested in the 2400 block of N. 4th Street. He was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $300 bond.
(Iowa Capital Dispatch) – Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird is continuing to pursue a lawsuit against Winneshiek County and its sheriff, Dan Marx, for allegedly violating Iowa law by discouraging law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration officials. In her latest court filings, Bird has criticized Marx, alleging the sheriff has, in essence, asserted that “federal immigration officials should not be trusted.” Bird has also signaled that even if Marx were to comply with her demand that he disavow his past statements, the state is still obligated to strip Winneshiek County of funding, at least temporarily, based on those previous statements.
The lawsuit, filed in March in Polk County District Court, claims that Iowa law “requires stripping Winneshiek County of state funding until the sheriff follows the procedure to reinstate the funds” by disavowing his previous public statements on immigration enforcement.
The lawsuit stems from a Feb. 4, 2025, Facebook post in which, Marx, a Republican, stated that if his office received “detainer” requests to hold immigrants suspected of lacking legal status, and those requests were not vetted and approved by the courts, they would be rejected by his office.
In his post, Marx distinguished between detainer requests of that kind and what he called “valid” judicial warrants and court orders. He wrote that “the only reason detainers are issued is because the federal agency does not have enough information or has not taken the time to obtain a valid judicial warrant.”
In recent court filings, Bird claims that assertion by Marx is false, but that even if it were true, that’s not a defense since Iowa Code Chapter 27A clearly prohibits Iowa law enforcement officers from discouraging cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Before filing the lawsuit, Bird provided Marx with specific language to include in a public statement disavowing his Facebook post, written in the first-person to appear over Marx’s signature. Although Marx’s office deleted the Facebook post, Marx did not publish the statement authored by Bird, who then sued, seeking a court order declaring Winneshiek County to be ineligible to receive any state funds.
Bird is now contesting Marx’s request that the court dismiss the case.Bird also argues that even if Marx were to fully comply now with her request to disavow his previous statements, Iowa law still requires the state to temporarily strip Winneshiek County of state funding. In response to the lawsuit, Marx and Winneshiek County have each asked to be removed from the case, prompting the attorney general to characterize the county’s request as “odd” given the amount of money that’s at stake.
A hearing date on all of the motions now before the court has yet to be scheduled. A status conference on the case is scheduled for Friday, June 13.
(Cedar Rapids, Iowa; by an FFA Reporter) – The Atlantic FFA Chapter competed in the annual Iowa FFA Horse Judging Career Development Event held at Kirkwood Community College on June 10, 2025. Atlantic FFA had a team and individual that participated in this year’s Career Development Event. Team members Kayedance Sturm, Clara Kennedy, Callie Rudy and Paislee Klever earned a silver medal.
The Horse Judging CDE is designed to provide the student an opportunity to display their agricultural knowledge and skills in the area of Equine Science. Each team member evaluated halter and performance classes. They also answered questions over the classes and gave oral reasons to explain their placings. A written examination was included along with a team problem solving competition.
In the Halter division, Kayedance placed second overall while the team placed 3rd overall. Sturm said, “Every year horse judging at Kirkwood College has been an amazing team building experience the night before going to eat, to going to the contest. I can’t wait to see what next year’s results hold for us.”
(From left-to-right): Kayedance Sturm, Clara Kennedy, Paislee Klever, Callie Rudy. (photo submitted)
Team member Clara Kennedy said “Aside from our pre judging nerves we have become more confident and grown as a team. We always make the most of our trip, from the night before, the drive there and back, to the actual reason we are there, for the contest. It will be exciting to see how our team continues to progress in the upcoming year.”
Callie Rudy said, “With the team being very young, it was a lot of fun. You can tell throughout the team that we have improved and that we genuinely love to do it. Always having fun the night before whether we go shopping or are hanging out in each other’s rooms it is always a blast with the team. The contest may be challenging, but it is a good experience for everyone.”
Paislee Klever said, Horse judging is a very fun experience I think everyone should try. The pre contest nerves are always the worst but not only the contest but being with your teammates, going shopping, having supper and just bonding was so fun. The contest might come across hard to others and it can be but that’s why we work for it, and we will get better as the years go on.”
The Iowa FFA Horse Career Development Event was made possible with support through the Iowa FFA Foundation Gold Standard Partners. The Horse Career Development Event was coordinated and held at the Iowa Equestrian Center in Cedar Rapids. Kirkwood Community College also provided lunch to all participants.
(Radio Iowa) – The city of Dubuque is reporting higher-than-recommended levels of pollutants called PFAS (PEE-fah’s) in its drinking water. Dubuque Water Department operations supervisor Nick Connolly says the numbers are subject to change throughout the year. “Our minimum was two-point-four (2.4) and our maximum was four-point-two ( 4.2), so, it will fluctuate a little bit through the year, and we are right on the cusp of the proposed action level,” he says.
Connolly says they have made adjustments. “We have changed some of the processes and kind of how we do things. We are trying to use more of our deep aquifer water that at this time has not tested positive for any of the PFAS chemicals, and we blend in the shallow wells as needed,” Connolly says. Connolly says the Environmental Protection Agency has heightened its regulation on PFAS as testing has become more accurate.
The city intends to spend nearly 15 million dollars over the next five years to build a new well for access to deep aquifer water and filter rehabilitation. Sometimes called “forever chemicals,” PFAS have been used in a variety of products since the 1940s and can bring adverse health effects.
(Atlantic, Iowa) – Officials with the Atlantic Police Department today (Thursday) released a report on persons cited or arrested over the nearly past 10 weeks (April 18-June 10). Those arrested in June include:
Atlantic Police arrested or cited the following, during the month of May:
And, the following were cited or arrested in late April:
June 12, 2025 (DES MOINES, IA) — The Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) today announced five recipients of the Iowa Rural Certified Site Initiative (IRCSI), a competitive grant program supporting the development of project-ready industrial locations in Iowa’s smaller communities.
A total of $133,528 in matching funds was awarded to assist with due diligence activities required for site certification — a key step in attracting new business investment and quality jobs. The funding reimburses costs for required reports and studies such as environmental assessments, geotechnical investigations and cultural resources surveys.
“Rural communities are thinking strategically about long-term growth,” said Debi Durham, director of the IEDA and Iowa Finance Authority. “This support helps them take important strides toward welcoming new employers and creating opportunities close to home.”
The following applicants received funding:
Created during the 2024 legislative session, the IRCSI provides matching grants of up to $37,500 to eligible applicants, including local governments, economic development organizations and utility providers in counties with populations fewer than 50,000.
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