(Guthrie Center, Iowa) – The Guthrie County Roads Department reports Gus Construction will be closing 180th Trail to replace two culverts, beginning at 8-a.m. on Monday, June 9th. The road will be closed for a couple months (weather permitting), to allow for the project to be completed.

(Radio Iowa) – A western Iowa Republican who ran against U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley in 2022 has formed a campaign to against U.S. Senator Joni Ernst in 2026.

Jim Carlin, an attorney from Sergeant Bluff who’s a former state legislator, finished with 26% support from Republicans in his race against Grassley. Carlin will kick off his campaign against Ernst with a rally in Cedar Rapids next Thursday.

Carlin’s campaign website says he’s running because “Iowans deserve a Senator who will tell them the truth, work to improve their lives and put their interests first.” Carlin, an Army veteran, served one term in the Iowa House of Representatives and was elected to two terms in the Iowa Senate. He holds a degree in economics from the University of Massachusetts and earned his law degree from Marquette University. Carlin’s law practice, located in Sioux City, specializes in personal injury law.

Jim Carlin, a Republican from Sergeant Bluff, is running against U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (Carlin campaign photo)

Joshua Smith of Indianola, who ran as a Libertarian for a state senate seat last year, also has said he intends to run against Ernst in the next year’s Republican Primary election. J.D. Scholten of Sioux City and Nathan Sage of Indianola have launched campaigns for the Iowa Democratic Party’s 2026 nomination for the U.S. Senate.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Goldstar Military Museum is hosting its fourth annual Vietnam living history event this weekend at Camp Dodge in Johnston. Museum curator Mike Vogt says they will have re-enactors wearing the uniforms worn during the war.

Vogt says it’s designed to be a learning experience for everyone.

A tank outside the Goldstar Museum. (RI photo)

Vogt says thousands of Iowans were a part of the war.

Vogt says they will have someone to talk about how the reserve forces were called up to go to Vietnam.

Vogt says there will also be people there who can give the Vietnamese view of the war.

Vogt says they’re going to have a howitzer firing during the morning and in the afternoon, and a veteran from the U-S Marine Corps who served with an artillery unit will talk about their missions. The event is free and is 9:00 a-m to 5:00 p-m on Saturday, and Sunday from 9:00 a-m to 1:00 p-m.

(Glenwood, Iowa) –  The Glenwood Police Department reports the arrest on Friday (June 6), of 18-year-old Cameron Germar, of Glenwood. Germar was arrested on a Mills County warrant for Violation of Probation. He was subsequently released on his Own Recognizance.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services warns that cases of whooping cough are on the rise. Over the past three months health officials in Iowa’s largest county have confirmed 19 cases of pertussis — the scientific name for whooping cough. Addie Olson is a spokesperson for the Polk County Health Department. “I wouldn’t say we’re raising alarms at this point, but we certainly think that folks should be aware that pertussis is present in the community,” she said, “and also there are steps that you can take to prevent it, like ensuring you’re up to date on the pertussis vaccine.”

Whooping cough or pertussis symptoms start out like the common cold, but can develop into fits of coughing — as many as 15 coughs a minute — followed by a whooping sound as the patient inhales. “Pertussis outbreaks tend to occur every three to five years,” Olson says, “and the current trend aligns pretty well with this pattern.”

Whooping cough is most dangerous for infants. In the past six months, two babies in Louisiana and a five-year-old in the state of Washington have died from whooping cough. Federal health officials say twice as many cases of whooping cough have been reported so far this year in the United States.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has issued “swimming not recommended” advisories for five beaches at state parks after testing this week. It’s the third consecutive week that Black Hawk Beach near Lake View is on the list and second for Pine Lake South Beach near Eldora.

New this week are Lake Manawa Beach near Council Bluffs, Nine Eagles Beach near Davis City and Prairie Rose Beach near Harlan.

All five had tests that exceeded the standard for E. coli. This can indicate that other more harmful bacteria or viruses could be present in the water. The Iowa DNR’s latest beach monitoring reports can be found here.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senate President Amy Sinclair says the state is likely to be sued if Governor Kim Reynolds approves a bill that would establish new state regulations for the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline.

“That’s a bill that’s just going to facilitate activists and there were so many problems with that and ultimately it will cost the state of Iowa money both in economic impact as well as potential lawsuits and I think we have to say those words out loud,” Sinclair said during taping of “Iowa Press” on Iowa PBS. “…That’s what’s going to get us into legal trouble for liability issues related to the U.S. Constitution and Article I Section 10 — the contracts clause. With what we did in the ultimate bill that passed, we are violating the U.S. Constitution and that causes me great concern.”

Last year, the Iowa Utilities Commission awarded Summit a permit to build and operate a pipeline to capture carbon from ethanol plants and ship it to underground storage in North Dakota. However, Summit must get a similar permit in South Dakota before construction can begin in Iowa. The bill has provisions that not only apply to Summit’s project, but to other hazardous liquid pipelines and energy infrastructure, like transmission lines. Sinclair, a Republican from Allerton, said she has no idea what the governor will choose to do with the bill.

Senate President Amy Sinclair (R-Allerton) on the “Iowa Press” set on June 5, 2025.. (Iowa PBS photo)

“I have not spoken to the governor at all,” Sinclair said. “I believe in a separation of powers and a separation of duties and that is her job to determine whether or not that bill makes sense for Iowans.”

The bill easily cleared the House with bipartisan support in March. Sinclair is among the 22 Republican senators who voted against it last month, while a coalition of 27 Republicans and Democrats in the Senate voted to send the bill to the governor.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Congresswoman Ashley Hinson says the recent arrest of a Chinese couple accused of smuggling a dangerous fungus into the country should be a wake-up call about the intentions of the Chinese Communist Party — and the danger TikTok poses. “I do think it’s time to ban the app,” Hinson says, “or make sure we’ve come up with a deal that protects Americans’ private information.” Congress passed a law last year to ban TikTok, which is owned by a Chinese company, but President Trump has issued two executive orders to keep the ban from going into effect. Hinson, a Republican from Marion, says the Trump Administration should provide congress with an update on negotiations with potential U-S investors.

“I know they had been working on trying to secure a buyer for TikTok so that we could keep the app up and running in the United States and make sure that it’s an American run app,” Hinson says, “not a CCP propaganda and information spy-gathering app.” Hinson is a member of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. She says the Chinese are trying to exploit their access to America and that includes this week’s case in Michigan. A Chinese man is accused of trying to smuggle a fungus into the U-S that damages crops and sickens people and take it to the University of Michigan lab where he girlfriend, also a Chinese national, worked.

Iowa Congresswoman Ashley Hinson (R-Marion) on the Iowa Press set. (Iowa PBS photo)

“I applaud President Trump and Secretary Rubio for wasting no time in revoking Chinese students’ visas with ties to the CCP or those who are studying in critical fields for Beijing’s benefit,” Hinson said. “We must ensure that no American institution enables China’s technical and miliary modernization ambitions, especially under the guise of academic exchange.” Hinson says this case is an attempt by China to undermine American agriculture and the global food supply. “The dangerous attempts we saw this week by these Chinese nationals should really serve as a wake up call here,” Hinson says. “…It is past time we hold the CCP fully accountable for undermining our safety and security and I am thankful for President Trump’s efforts holding the CCP’s feet to the fire this week.”

The Trump Administration has announced it will aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students to prevent the theft of U-S academic research and technology. The Institute for International Education estimates there were over 120-thousand graduate students from China enrolled at U-S universities last year.