(Red Oak, Iowa) – A man from Red Oak was arrested Monday afternoon on a harassment charge. According to Red Oak Police, 18-year-old Ayden Jose Olivas was arrested at around 2:15-p.m., for Harassment in the 3rd Degree, a Simple Misdemeanor. Olivas was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $300 bond.

IOWA FALLS, Iowa [KCCI] — A U.S. Army airman from Iowa Falls killed during World War II will soon be brought back to his hometown. Cpl. Melvin Huff was reported missing in January 1945 after friendly forces lost contact with his bomber. He was 19 at the time.

CPL. Melvin Huff

Huff’s remains were discovered in Papua New Guinea in 2011. They were retrieved by an underwater recovery team a few years later. Last year, his family learned he had been identified. Huff’s remains will be brought back to Iowa Falls later this month, on June 24, by military escort. A burial is planned for June 28.

The full story:

(Iowa DNR News, June 9, 2025) – Happy Wild Turtle Week! Wild Turtle Week is a week-long celebration of turtles led by the Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation, the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. For more information visit the Wild Turtle Week website.

Iowa is home to 13 turtle species; western painted turtle, snapping turtle, midland smooth softshell turtle, eastern spiny softshell turtle, red-eared slider, northern map turtle, Ouachita map turtle, northern false map turtle, ornate box turtle, Blanding’s turtle, wood turtle, eastern musk turtle, and yellow mud turtle.

Many of Iowa’s turtle species are aquatic or semi-aquatic, living in lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, marshes, and wetlands while ornate box turtles are primarily terrestrial, meaning they spend nearly all of their life on land, often in prairie areas.

Iowa’s Most Familiar Turtles

Western painted turtles, snapping turtles, and eastern spiny softshell turtles are widespread across the state and are turtles you may be likely to encounter.

Western painted turtles get their name from their bright coloration and can be identified by their yellow/orange plastron (meaning the bottom of their shell) that has a yellow/orange design outlined in black.

Snapping turtle adults are typically large with a large head in comparison to their body with a large, sharp, beak. Snapping turtles have a very distinctive appearance with a dark brown to black carapace (meaning the top of their shell) that has spikes at the back, a long tail with bumps along the top, and a reduced plastron with a tan or yellow color.

Eastern spiny softshell turtles get their name from their soft and flexible shell which has short spines along the upper portion near their head. This is one way they can be distinguished from the similar-looking smooth softshell turtle. They have a very long neck with a long, narrow, snout and large webbed feet. Eastern spiny softshell turtles often have circular markings on their carapace.

Turtle Conservation Challenges

Many of Iowa’s turtle species are in decline due to threats such as habitat loss and road mortalities. Since most of Iowa’s turtles spend part or much of their lives in or near water, they depend on healthy streams, rivers, ponds, wetlands, and lakes. Turtles are long-lived animals and take a long time to reach reproductive age, with few young turtles reaching that age. Therefore, the loss of even a few adult turtles from an area can be very detrimental to a local population. All of Iowa’s turtles besides painted turtles and red-eared sliders are identified in Iowa’s State Wildlife Action Plan as species of greatest conservation need. Blanding’s turtles, ornate box turtles, and eastern musk turtles are listed as state threatened and wood turtles and yellow mud turtles are listed as state endangered, meaning it is illegal to kill or collect these species.

What can you do to help Iowa’s turtles?

Contribute to non-game wildlife conservation through the Chickadee Checkoff, buy a Natural Resources License Plate, or donate directly to the Wildlife Diversity Program.

Avoid hitting turtles in the roadway and move them out of the roadway if it is safe for you to help them. Make sure to never pick up a turtle by the tail as this can damage their spine and only handle snapping turtles if you know how to safely and properly handle them. Make sure to always move the turtle across the road in the direction they were headed and never take a turtle with you to a different location. For more information on helpful tips for moving turtles out of the road check out this article from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Plant and create more habitat! You can take steps to make your property or yard more wildlife friendly and even if it doesn’t benefit turtles directly there are also many indirect benefits. Follow along this year with our Wildlife Where You Live series to learn more about how you can take steps to benefit wildlife on your property. Iowa DNR’s private lands program has staff that help advise private landowners about possible conservation practices that could be implemented on their lands. This includes wetland restoration, restoring and establishing grasslands, and forestry practices.
Want to learn more about turtles in Iowa?

Check out iowaherps.com or herpnet.net to learn more about Iowa’s turtle species!

(Radio Iowa) – An 18-year-old has been charged with shooting a man to death in Davenport early Sunday morning. At about 3 a.m. Sunday, Davenport Police responding to a 9-1-1 call about gunshots in a residential neighborhood found a man who’d been shot. Twenty-eight-year-old Douglas Meier was taken to a hospital, where he died.

Police say their investigation determined Alyx Hinton of Minnesota fired into a group of people. He’s been charged with first degree murder, two counts of attempted murder and two counts of intimidation with a dangerous weapon.

(Warren County, Iowa) – A man from Madison County was injured Monday afternoon during a collision between an ATV and a subcompact SUV, south of Bevington, in central Iowa. The Iowa State Patrol reports  2015 Chevy Trax driven by 18-year-old Mikaylee Nairn, of St. Charles, was westbound on Larabee Street, east of 10th Avenue, at the same time a 2000 Honda TRX ATV operated by 38-year-old Joseph Lawyer, of St. Charles, was eastbound on the gravel road that had no road markings.

The SUV and ATV met at the crest of a hill and struck in an offset manner, causing Lawyer to be thrown from the ATV. He came to rest in the south ditch. The SUV continued to the west and came to rest on the west side of the road.

Joseph Lawyer was transported by Mercy Air Med to Mercy Hospital in Des Moines. A report on his condition was not included in the Patrol’s accident report. Multiple agencies assisted at the accident scene.

(Radio Iowa) – A majority of the Iowa corn and soybeans planted have already emerged. The U-S-D-A weekly report shows corn planting is virtually done, and just three percent of the soybeans remain to be planted. That report shows 92 percent of the corn has popped out of the ground, which is two days behind normal.

Southwest Iowa lags is the only district under 90 percent emerged at 81 percent. Eighty-eight percent of the soybeans have emerged statewide, which is four days ahead of average.

North-central Iowa leads with 96 percent of the beans already poking out of the ground.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – A regular meeting of the Atlantic School District’s Board of Education is set to take place Wednesday evening at the High School Media Center. The meeting begins at 6:30-p.m., and includes a review and discussion with regard to the District’s Master Facilities Plan. Representatives of SVPA Architects will be on-hand to facilitate the discussion.

In other business, the Board will act on the resignations of:

• Alex Wilson – Special Ed Paraprofessional (retroactive to May 23, 2025)
• Gary Miller – Bus Driver (Retroactive to 5/30/25)
• Dexter Dobson, CTE Teacher (retroactive to 5/30/25)
• Audrey Farrington – Special Ed Paraprofessional (retroactive to 6/2/25)

The Board will also act on the following Recommendations to Hire:

• Kay Schmidt – Summer Para for Voc. Rehab (20 hrs)
• Oran Perkins – Summer School Teacher (60 hrs)
• James Keller – KG Teacher, 25-26 School Year
• Summer Nutrition Hires
• Mark Andersen – HS Musical Director
• 25-26 Club Sponsors
• Elle Bryant – Transfer from WA Elem Custodian to MS Custodian.

The Atlantic School Board will hold a Closed Session for an evaluation of Superintendent Dr. Beth Johnsen, followed by action on approving her contract. And, they will act on approving bids for: Paint; Carpet; The HS roof; Fuel; and a 12-passenger van.  The Board will then act on approving 25-26 Student Fees and Rates.

View the full agenda here:

PUBLIC AGENDA 06112025

(Radio Iowa) – The state has fined a Coralville care facility three-thousand dollars after a brain-injured woman wandered away in January and was later found at a truck stop in suburban Omaha. The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports the woman had previously been diagnosed with dementia and psychological issues as well as a traumatic brain injury.

A state report indicates the woman walked over two miles through the snow and then hitched a ride with a semi-driver who drove her to Nebraska.

A worker at the home allegedly admitted she failed to check to make sure each resident was present at the beginning of her shift the day the woman went missing.

(Radio Iowa) – The State of Iowa ranks ninth in the annual assessment from a national non-profit focused on child well being. Today’s KIDS Count report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation mainly compares data from 2022 and 2023. It found no change in the number of Iowa children covered by health insurance. Anne Discher is executive director of Common Good Iowa, the group that releases the KIDS Count report card for Iowa.

“Iowa, over many years, has made many policy choices to really maximize coverage for kids, that’s within our Medicaid program, it’s within our (Children’s Health Insurance Program),” Discher says, “and that’s a reason why we see such a high ranking.” However, there was a significant increase in the number of 4th graders who weren’t proficient readers and among 8th graders who could not do math at a junior high level. Discher says of all the assessments in the report, the education ratings really stick out.

“Every year this report reminds me that in, like, 2004 it was Iowa’s turn to choose an image to put on the back of the state quarter and Iowa chose, of all the things it could have chosen, to put a one room schoolhouse with the words, ‘Foundation in Education,’ on the back of the quarter,” Discher says, “so when I see a 20th rank overall in education, I do wonder about how well we’re living up to that ideal.” The report found a one percent increase in the number of Iowa children living in poverty.

Graphic courtesy of Annie E. Casey Foundation

“It is up in Iowa,” Discher says. “It has decreased a little bit in the U.S. as a whole.” There was a surprising health measure in the report — a slight drop in the number of Iowa kids between the ages of 10 and 17 who are considered obese. Discher notes it was a one percent decline. “What we’ll want to be watching is to see: Does that trend continue,” Discher says. “One of the indicators actually where Iowa tends to definitely not be a leader….so it’s definitely an indicator that it would be great to see some improvement on.”

And Discher is concerned the state’s history of having a large share of children covered by health insurance may dip in the future. “Not to borrow trouble from the future,” Discher says, “but it is one of those that I worry given the conversations at the federal level right now that would make big cuts to Medicaid in particular, but also to the ACA marketplace.”

Tax credits that reduce monthly premiums for people who buy health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace are set to expire on December 31st. The “big beautiful bill” that passed the House does not extend those tax credits.