(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak, Wednesday evening, arrested a woman on a warrant. 28-year-old Destiny Jill Anderson, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 7:45-p.m. in the 1300 block of Broadway. She was wanted on a Montgomery County felony warrant for Violation of Probation. Anderson was transported to the Montgomery County Jail and held on a $1,000 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – Some of Governor Kim Reynolds’ policy priorities that were bottled up since January won approval in the final hours of the 2025 Legislative session.

After three years of trying, the governor’s plan to provide state employees four weeks of paid maternity leave and one week of paid paternity leave has passed the legislature. It will also provide four weeks of leave to state employees who adopt a child. Senator Dawn Driscoll, a Republican from Williamsburg, is the only senator who spoke before the bill passed yesterday (Wednesday).

“House File 889 is an important step in showing how much we value Iowans,” Driscoll said. “This bill will help significantly in recruitment and retention for young employees.” The House endorsed the policy in March. Governor Kim Reynolds says the policy will provide the crucial time needed for employees to bond with their a newborn or an adopted child.

The federal government and 24 other states have similar parental leave policies for employees.

(Radio Iowa) – A tax break for businesses has cleared the Iowa legislature in what may be the final day of the 2025 Iowa General Assembly. The bill reduces the business tax rate for the state fund for unemployment benefits. Representative David Young, a Republican from Van Meter, says the current tax rate was set in 1987.

“With an Unemployment Trust Fund at almost $2 billion, the sound argument is being made that we’ve been over-collecting, especially compared to other states,” Young said. “The proposal before us saves employers and businesses approximately $975 million over 5 years, injecting that back into the private sector.” The bill has been one of Governor Kim Reynolds’ priorities since last year. It passed the House and Senate today (Wednesday) with G-O-P support. Democrats opposed it.

Representative J.D. Scholten, a Democrat from Sioux City, says the legislature isn’t looking out for working class Iowans. “We’re living in the second gilded age with massive income inequality, record economic concentration and expansive corporate greed,” Scholten said. “It’s bills like this that put a thumb on the scale towards billionaires and towards massive multinational corporations.” Other Democrats said the Unemployment Trust Fund is flush it’s paying out far less after Republican lawmakers cut unemployment benefits from 26 to 16 weeks.

Senator Janet Petersen, a Democrat from Des Moines, says the legislature should focus on helping laid off workers. “You want to pull money out of Iowa’s unemployment insurance system to give another corporate tax break to companies that are laying them off,” Petersen said. Other Democrats said the system could fail if there’s a recession.

Senator Adrian Dickey, a Republican from Packwood, says state law ensures the fund is stable because higher tax rates can be triggered. “If…the fund starts dipping to the point where it looks like it’s in danger, that the claims going out are more than the monies go in,” Dickey says, “…there’s mechanisms put in there to protect that.”

Governor Reynolds says Iowa’s unemployment insurance tax has needlessly punished Iowa businesses and the bill will end the over-collecting.

(Radio Iowa) – After a three years of negotiations, the legislature has approved a plan to distribute nearly 57 MILLION dollars for opioid addiction treatment and prevention programs. Companies that produced, marketed and sold the powerful painkillers are paying billions to states and local governments over two decades to settle a national lawsuit. Iowa’s attorney general and the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services will decide where the money goes — something Senators favored, but those officials must get recommendations from leaders in the state’s seven behavioral health regions. That’s something House members sought.

Representative Gary Mohr, a Republican from Bettendorf, says it’s a good solution. “I look forward to helping spend dollars to help Iowans either stay away from opioid addiction or help get them off opioid addiction,” Mohr said. Representative Timi Brown-Powers, a Democrat from Waterloo, says she’s concerned there’s already a list of programs in the bill that will be getting grants and she says there’s little transparency about how the rest of the money will be distributed.

“It is time, however, to help Iowans,” Brown-Powers said. “It’s time to stop dragging our feet.” Senate Democratic Leader Janice Weiner of Iowa City has a daughter with an addiction disorder. Weiner says over 11-hundred Iowans died of an opioid overdose during the three years it took to get to this point. “For too long the majority party has failed Iowans on this issue,” Weiner said, her voice shaking with emotion. “…Our fatality rate has slowed, yes, but not nearly as much as it has in surrounding states that have put settlement funds to good use.”

Iowa Capitol Rotunda (RI file photo)

Senator Tim Kraayenbrink, a Republican from Fort Dodge, says the bill has been reviewed by more people than any other bill the legislature passed this year. “Just because it’s done on the 11th hour, I don’t know if you’d want the first car off the assembly line or you want the one that’s been on there the longest, that probably has been tested a little bit more.”

The bill passed the Senate unanimously at about 10:30 last (Wednesday) night. It cleared the House half an hour earlier on an 84-to-one vote. A little over half of the 57 million will be used for infrastructure at agencies that serve clients with an opioid addiction and the rest will be used to support counseling and other programming.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Atlantic School District’s Board of Education during their monthly session Wednesday (May 14th) evening, received a Special Presentation from District Nutrition Director Natalie Ritter, who spoke with regard to good news about a recent Nutrition Audit.

According to the Iowa Department of Education, “Each District, school or organization that operates the National School Lunch Program is reviewed every five years (Food Service Management Companies are every three years). The review process is called an Administrative Review (AR) and covers the many aspects of the operation to provide school meals including: access to free or reduced-priced meals, claiming and counting for meal reimbursement, meal pattern and menus, food safety, local wellness policy, competitive foods, civil rights, general program participation, professional standards and continuing education of staff among other details. ”

ACSD Nutrition Director Natalie Ritter (5/14/25)

The bottom line, Ritter said, is that “The District is doing an excellent job feeding our kids,” and the District isn’t on the Department of Education’s “Naughty list.”

On a related note, Director of Finance Lisa Jones said letters will be going out to parents of students who have not made an effort to pay their children’s nutrition (Breakfast/Lunch) debt.

Superintendent Dr. Beth Johnsen said the District celebrated its staff this (Wednesday) afternoon.

In other business, the Atlantic School Board approved the following resignations/personnel transfers and hires:

Resignations

• Lily Renfro, Special education paraprofessional, effective May 23, 2025
• Naela Block, Asst Middle School Volleyball for Fall 2025 season
• Mary McBride, Special Education Teacher, effective end of current school year
• Andy Mitchell & Stacey Schmidt, Robotics Club Sponsors
• Wade Johnson, Middle School Evening Custodian
• Jeff Hetrick, Bus Driver
• Holly Esbeck, Summer School Teacher
• Elizabeth Herrick-Williams, Theatre Sponsor
• Logan Gerdes, High School Choir Director
• Katie Chamberlain, Teacher Leader

Transfers

• Voluntary Transfer Heath Kelley for 25-26 School year
• Voluntary Transfer Vanessa Perkins for 25-26
• Voluntary Transfer Taylor Vargason for 25-26

Recommendation to Hire

• 6th Grade, English Language Arts Teacher Cadee Burnison, 25-26 School year
• 9th Grade Baseball Coach: Andy Mitchell, Summer 2025
• HS Varsity Volleyball Coach: Alyssa Boltz, Fall 2025
• HS JV Volleyball Coach: Lisa Sonntag, Fall 2025
• 9th Grade Volleyball Coach: Anna Pauley, Fall 2025
• 9th Grade Football Coach, Brenden Casey, Fall 2025
• Middle School Football, Harrison Hoegh, Fall 2025

The Atlantic School Board approved also:

1. The 2025-26 School Year Calendar (which begins August 25th. The proposed calendar ends the school year before Memorial Day weekend, with a goal of 177 student days and 190 teacher workdays. There will be a winter break from December 23 through January 2, and spring break will be split into separate periods.)
2. 2025-26 bids for milk, bread, and Nutrition Meal Prices.
3. Sharing agreements for the Boys and Girls Swimming programs, and,
4. An out-of-state trip for the Speech and Debate team.

Wednesday (May 14th) marked the last day of classes for Atlantic High School Seniors. Graduation/Commencement is set to take place this Sunday, May 18th.The last day of school for the remaining students, is May 23rd.

(Radio Iowa) – The annual Orange City Tulip Festival, celebrating the town’s Dutch heritage, is underway today (Wednesday). Spokesperson Avery Kelch says thousands of tulips are blooming in this good weather. “Windmill Park is where a majority of our tulips are found, and then we also have quite a few tulips lining the streets as well,” she says. The Dutch Heritage Society brought in one special tulip this year, which is bred and named after Orange City.

“It’s called the Oranjestad Tulip and it’s the first time this year that it was planted, and it blossomed in Orange City. It was bred in the Netherlands and so we just brought it back and we just had a christening about a week ago for it. It’s kind of like an apricot orange-ish yellow,” she says. Most of the events get underway Thursday.

“A really fun activity that I recommend seeing is the Dutch street scrubbing. It’s a generational volunteer activity and you’ll see generations of Dutch heritage and families coming together and scrubbing the streets to ensure that they’re clean for the Queen in Court,” Kelch says. “And then the Dutch dancing is also a super fun activity to watch. It’s elementary kids and middle school kids that come together and dance. ” Kelch says there’s plenty of food this year too.

“The brats, which are a super popular choice and something I would strongly recommend enjoying at the festival, and then they have Brad Bakery, which has like Dutch puppies and all the traditional Dutch food and desserts. The Orange City Tulip Festival runs through Saturday.

You can find the full schedule at https://www.octulipfestival.com/

(Radio Iowa)  – An Iowa lawmaker is accusing state investigators of testing software on the Iowa Capitol before using it to monitor Iowa and Iowa State athletes to see if they were using smart phone apps to gamble. Republican Representative Megan Jones of Sioux Rapids says it appears the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation spied on people in the Iowa Capitol without a warrant.  “People are furious,” she said. Jones says the state agency involved has refused to answer questions, so Jones brought the situation up during debate on the House floor today (Wednesday).

“Now, they might be a little bit more willing to answer some questions. I think there has been this desire to just kind of sweep this under the rug and forget about it,” Jones said. “…One lawyer pulled me aside and said this is potentially going to be the biggest class action lawsuit that the state has ever seen.”A state investigation using software to monitor sports betting on smart phones resulted in at least 35 athletes and team staff from Iowa and Iowa State being charged with gambling illegally and student athletes lost all or part of their N-C-double-A eligibility.

As for the alleged round of testing at the Iowa Capitol, Jones says everyone who enters the Capitol should have an expectation of data privacy and that would be violated if their phones were being monitored. “There are a lot of people in this building on any given day, depending on what groups were here, what people were here.” Jones says lawmakers have concerns about the culture in the Division of Criminal Investigation. “We need an in-depth analysis of what they’re doing,” Jones said.

According to Representative Jones, information about the D-C-I’s testing at the Capitol was revealed in documents related to a lawsuit that’s challenging the state’s investigation of an athlete charged with illegal gambling. “I am not alone in my rage,” Jones said on the House floor. “…This very building folks, to test software, to test phones for illegal gambling. And what was the probable cause? I see none. This was a fishing expedition.”