(Radio Iowa) – Democrat Christina Bohannan has announced she intends to run again in Iowa’s first congressional district after losing to Republican Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks by 798 votes in 2024. Bohannan also ran against Miller-Meeks in 2022, losing by about 20-thousand votes. The first congressional district covers much of the southeast corner of Iowa, including Davenport, Iowa City, Newton and Indianola. The district is considered one of the most competitive in the U.S. House.

Bohannan, a University of Iowa law professor, said in a written statement that she’s running because Miller-Meeks has put partisan politics over Iowans again and again. Late last month, Miller-Meeks announced on social media that her campaign is going strong and she will seek reelection to a fourth term in the U-S-House.

Democratic congressional candidate Christina Bohannan campaigning at 2024 Iowa State Fair. (RI file photo)

Miller-Meeks is likely to face a Republican challenger in next year’s Primary election. Republican David Pautsch, of Davenport, came within 11 points of Miller-Meeks in the 2024 G-O-P Primary and he’s filed the paperwork for another race in 2026. The 2026 Primary Election is on June 2nd. The 2026 General Election is 504 days away.

(Fort Dodge, Iowa) – A search for a 16-year-old male from Fort Dodge reported missing/runaway by his family on Monday, June 16th, has ended with the recovery of his body. Officials with the Fort Dodge Police Department, today (Tuesday), said the body of Oliver J. Brockbank was found deceased in a body of water located southeast of 200th Street and Quail Avenue, in the Fort Dodge/Webster County area. His body was recovered with the assistance of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the Story County Dive Team.

Investigators say at this time, there is no indication of foul play in connection with the death. Authorities extend their condolences to the family of the young man, and their thanks to multiple agencies who assisted in the search and investigation.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is joining with other lawmakers from Iowa and Illinois in seeking answers from the Secretary of the Army about future plans for the Rock Island Arsenal. Grassley says he’s hearing reports that several hundred jobs may soon be eliminated from the second largest employer in the Quad Cities, behind only John Deere. “I do not have an answer yet,” Grassley says. “In fact, since we have been slow at getting answers, we resubmitted almost the same letter again, making clear that they didn’t answer our questions and we need answers.” Grassley’s latest letter to Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll was dated Monday, while the original letter was sent April 4th.

The Arsenal, located on a large Mississippi River island between Davenport, Iowa and Rock Island, Illinois, is the only active U-S Army foundry. It makes everything from artillery and aircraft weapons systems to grenade launchers and howitzer canons.”We’ve been hearing rumors that government facilities for manufacturing some war material may be shut down,” Grassley says, “and I want to make clear that this Rock Island Arsenal and there’s other facilities, other places in the country that we need as backup.”

Rock Island Arsenal (Army Corps of Engineers photo)

The Arsenal employs some 250 military personnel and about six-thousand civilians.  “We depend so much on the private sector,” Grassley says, “and we should depend on the private sector, but just in case the private sector can’t meet our needs for war material, we’ve got government-run facilities that can fill in the void.”

An initial report indicated about 100 personnel would be let get with the shutdown of a data center, but Grassley say new reports indicate another 150 positions would be eliminated at the Arsenal’s headquarters along with 400 more positions across the facility.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Firefighters from Atlantic were paged-out to a hay bale fire at around 5:14-a.m. Today (Tuesday), at 56393 Highland Road, west of Atlantic. Atlantic Fire Chief Tom Cappel says when they arrived on the scene, there were numerous bales on hay on fire.

There were no structures damaged and no injuries reported. The cause of the fire remains undetermined.

Crews were back in the fire station by around 7-a.m.

(Creston, Iowa) – Two people were arrested on separate charges Monday afternoon, in Creston. According to the Creston Police Department, at around 2:40-p.m., Officers arrested 26-year-old Mauricio Andres Trejos Casteneda, of Creston. He was taken into custody in the 200 block of W. Taylor Street on two counts of Harassment in the 1st Degree/4th or subsequent offense. Castenada was being held in the Union County Jail on a $4,000 bond.

And, at around 3:45-p.m., Monday, Creston Police arrested 20-year-old Nathan Lee Novotny, of Creston, on charges of Driving While Barred, and Possession of a Controlled Substance/1st offense. Novotny was transported to the Union County Jail and later released on a $3,000 bond.

(Submitted to KJAN; Lewis, IA) – Naomi Masker, Jr. Beef Princess Eden Ohms, Princess Addie Masker, Queen Jacquelyn Freund, Jr. Beef Queen Macy Freund, and Ambassador Hayden Kleen, served samples of beef taco salad, meat sticks and fruit snacks at the Quirky Parade during the Lewis Days Celebration in Lewis, Sat., June 14th.  Passerby’s  were given coloring books and recipe cards. (Photos submitted)

(Radio Iowa) – Iowans were on the list of alleged targets by the man accused in the shootings Saturday of two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses. Fifty-seven-year-old Vance Boelter — was arrested near his home in Green Isle, Minnesota Sunday after a massive search.

The superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Drew Evans, was asked about the list during a news conference following the arrest and says it had targets in Wisconsin, Illinois, Nebraska and Iowa. Evans says they are not releasing any of the other names on the list.

(Radio Iowa) – A cattle disease carried by ticks is now confirmed in Iowa for the first time in a herd of cows in southeast Iowa. Iowa State University Extension veterinarian Grant Dewell says the Theileria parasite has slowly moved from the eastern U-S. “It’s a protozoa that infects the blood cells and causes the destruction of blood cells, so it can cause some pretty severe signs of anemia and things like that in susceptible cattle,” Dewell says. It is spread by the Asian Longhorned Tick.  “This tick doesn’t act like our other ticks we’re used to. You know, typically we may see four or five ticks on an animal and with this Asian Longhorn tick, we can see a thousand ticks and it’s obvious that they’re they’re infested with the ticks. You don’t have to look very hard, you just see all these ticks on them,” he says. “So it’s a tick that reproduces rapidly.”

He says the main prevention is tick control and getting rid of them. “We don’t have any antiprotozoal drugs that we can use in cattle, so we’re we’re pretty much, if the cattle get sick, we’re going to provide some supportive care,” he says. Dr. Dewell says the cattle are not going to want to move, so you have to keep food and water in front of them. He says for a valuable cow, like a prized bull, they might do some blood transfusions. Dewell says this tick doesn’t have a taste for human blood, and sticks to certain animals. “Like cattle, deer, sheep. And so our white tailed deer are going to be moving it around,” Dewell says. “But we don’t typically see white tailed deer go from southern Iowa to northern Iowa, so you know, they’ll spread it from farm to farm and county to county, but it’s going to be kind of a slow progression that it’s gonna occur.”

Dewell says the disease has been in Missouri for a couple of years and took that long to get to Iowa.

(Radio Iowa) – What’s billed as the world’s largest academic competition is underway this week in central Iowa as Des Moines hosts the National Speech & Debate Tournament. Organizers say it’s drawing 11-thousand middle and high school students, coaches, teachers, and judges, with an economic impact of 22-million dollars. Scott Wunn, executive director of the National Speech & Debate Association, says depending on the topic, student have had months to prepare, or perhaps just minutes. “Most of the debate events they found out on May 1st that they’d be debating those,” Wunn says. “There is one debate about policy debate where they’ve been debating patent rights and copyright law, things like that, all year long. And then there are some debate events where they receive the topic one hour before they debate it.” The student competitors range in age from 12 to 18 and Wunn says they need to be well-rounded, well-versed, and very aware of current events to tackle a dizzying array of debate topics.

“It is anything you could possibly think of, really, stripped from the headlines,” Wunn says. “One of our events, we’ll be debating whether or not the benefits of executive orders outweigh the harms. They’ll be talking about environmental issues. They’ll be talking about K-12 education. There’s so many different areas that they will cover throughout the course of the week.” It’s a common thought that many of these young debaters will eventually pursue legal careers, and while that’s sometimes the case, Wunn says this event is preparing students for any profession they seek out. “There’s no greater activity in the world than speech and debate to prepare students for life skills, college readiness skills,” Wunn says. “We have over 2,000,000 alumni that have participated in the National Speech and Debate Association. Certainly, we’ve had our fair share of lawyers. We have four members of the Supreme Court that are sitting right now.”

Wunn says this extracurricular activity is the place where students — for decades — have found their voices and opened their minds to alternative perspectives.  “Every facet that you can imagine professionally, we have alumni that go into that,” Wunn says, “because this activity truly does prepare them with the creative skills, the critical thinking skills, those collaboration skills that are necessary to really thrive after middle school and high school.”

The seven-thousand students are from 13-hundred schools across the U-S. They’re competing at 11 venues in the Des Moines metro, while 42 champions will be named on the final stage at the Iowa Events Center on Friday.

On the web: www.speechanddebate.org/nationals

(Elk Horn, Iowa) – Officials with the City of Elk Horn (IA), Monday night, said on social media, that Shelby County Emergency Management officials flew a drone equipped with a thermal imaging device near the City’s water tower, and confirmed fears city officials had, that the supply of water in the tower was extremely low. The imager showed about six- to eight-feet of water remained in the bottom of the tower bowl. The sensor at the city’s water plant was giving the City a different reading, causing them to believe the tower was almost full.

Drone thermal image of the Elk Horn water tower (6-16-25).

City officials say a company was on the scene Monday, following the drone image, to fix the tower sensor. The City also reached out to IRWA (Iowa Rural Water Association) for a leak detection device, to further assess the situation, and the City of Elk Horn is back to actively searching for the water leak. Officials in the mean time are asking everyone to please conserve water until the leak is found and fixed.

A Boil Advisory remains in effect until further notice for the City of Elk Horn.