(Radio Iowa) – A relief fund has been set up for members of the Iowa Lakes Community College Baseball team and their families. One player was killed and a dozen other players were hospitalized when a bus carrying the team and coaches crashed February 11th. Estherville Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Lexie Ruter says the chamber has set up an account for donations and will send the money to the college to distribute.

Ruter says it may be used to help cover families’ travel costs to get to the 12 players who were hospitalized or to attend the funeral for Carter Johnson, the 19-year-old outfielder who was killed in the crash.

Johnson’s funeral was held Wednesday in Rapid City, South Dakota. There’s a link on the Iowa Lakes Community College website to make donations.

(Clarinda, IA) – Two people were injured when an SUV hit the rear of an Iowa DOT snowplow Friday morning, in Page County. According to the Page County Sheriff’s Office,the accident happened at around 5:55-a.m. on Highway 2 at F Avenue,

Authorities say an investigation into the crash determined that an Iowa Dot snowplow, a 2011 International truck, driven by 37-year-old Daniel Meie,r of rural Clarinda, was clearing roadways on Highway 2 and F ave. The snowplow was traveling west bound on the Highway with its emergency lights activated. When the driver of the snowplow slowed down to turn onto F Ave., the plow was hit from behind by a 2004 Hyundai SUV driven Zavier Jay Huntley. The Sheriff’s Office said Huntley attempted to slow down, but lost control of his vehicle on the icy roadway before collided with the snowplow.

Both drivers were transported to the Shenandoah Medical Center following the collision.

The SUV sustained heavy damage in the crash, while the Iowa DOT snowplow sustained only minor damage.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa, reports a Powell, Tennessee man was sentenced Thursday, February 19, 2026, to 10 years in federal prison for attempted enticement of a minor. According to public court documents, 52-year-old Shawn Christopher Powell, communicated with a person he believed was a 13-year-old female between May and August 2025. Powell sent messages about wanting to engage in sex acts with the minor. In August 2025, Powell traveled from Tennessee to Iowa with the intent to meet up with the minor to engage in sex acts, and had condoms, sex toys, prescription pills, and children’s clothing in his possession at the time of his arrest.

After completing his term of imprisonment, Powell will be required to serve a five-year term of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system. United States Attorney David C. Waterman of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. The Cass County Sheriff’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation-Child Exploitation Task Force investigated the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the resources tab.

(Atlantic, IA) – Officials with Cass Health in Atlantic have announced the facility was recently recognized as a 2026 Top 100 Critical Access Hospital by The Chartis Center for Rural Health. The award marks the tenth year in a row that Cass Health has achieved national recognition. The Top 100 awards program celebrates outstanding performance annually among the nation’s rural hospitals based on the results of the Chartis Rural Hospital Performance INDEX®.

Brett Altman, Cass Health CEO, noted, “For the past 10 consecutive years, this honor has served as a powerful vote of confidence from our neighbors. We are deeply grateful to the communities we serve for trusting us with their personal health care needs. While we strive for perfection every day, we are never complacent; we remain committed to challenging the status quo and delivering the meaningful improvements our patients deserve.”

“The delivery of care within rural communities is perhaps more complex today than at any point in recent memory. This year’s Top 100 Critical Access Hospitals have emerged as true leaders – committed to their mission through a powerful combination of resilience, dedication and innovation,” said Michael Topchik, Executive Director of The Chartis Center for Rural Health. “We’re delighted to recognize this year’s winners and celebrate their Top 100 status.”

Now in its 16th year, the INDEX is the industry’s most comprehensive and objective assessment of rural hospital performance. Leveraging publicly available data, the INDEX is utilized nationwide by rural hospitals, health systems with rural affiliates, hospital associations, and state offices of rural health to measure and monitor performance across a variety of areas impacting hospital operations, quality, patient perspective and finance.

(Radio Iowa) – Three bills that would limit the power of Iowa governors have advanced ahead of today’s (Friday’s) deadline for committee approval of policy bills — and all three bills involve actions Governor Reynolds took during the pandemic. One bill would prohibit governors from closing a place of worship, even during a disaster. Another bill would restrict a governor’s authority to decide how long a state of emergency or public health disaster may last — and Iowa governors wouldn’t be allowed to order businesses to close, change election procedures or stop in-person visits at health care facilities. Republican Representative Samantha Fett of Carlisle led debate on that bill in a House committee.

“House Study Bill 726 is a bill that strengthens constitutional liberties, preserves essential public health tools, and clarifies the proper roles of the executive and legislative branches.” A third bill would make it harder for the executive branch to move forward with certain administrative rules. Representative Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, a Democrat from Ames, voted against the bills. “I don’t love the idea of closing down places of worship and certainly that needs to be a last resort,” she said, “but in the case of an emergency I do believe that we need that flexibility in the state.”

Republican legislators are considering the bills now that Governor Kim Reynolds is not seeking re-election and voters will choose Iowa’s next governor in the November 3rd election.

(Creston, IA) – Police in Creston arrested a man on a drug charge, Thursday evening. Authorities say 44-year-old Timothy Robert Hudek, of Creston, was arrested at around 5-p.m. in the area of Montgomery and Walnut Streets. Hudek was taken into custody for Possession of a Controlled Substance-Marijuana/1st offense. He was transported to the Union County Jail and posted a $1,000 cash or surety bond, before being released.

(Audubon, IA) – The Audubon School District’s Board of Education held their regular monthly meeting Wednesday evening. Superintendent Trevor Miller, in his recap of their short session, said because there was short notice, the Board will host a public hearing and approval of district calendar, when they convene their meeting in March. Miller said also, their March Board Meeting will be on March 23rd, so they can have their 1st Public Hearing on Budget/Tax rate.

Superintendent Miller said the Board approved the following Action Items:

A) Policy Primer 34 #2 Second Reading. Miller says he went through each of these last month and explained the blanks.
B) Policy Review: This is part of the 5-year cycle. Trevor Miller said there are not any changes to these documents, and they only have to do a single reading since review.
C) Storm Protection Fund FY27. That’s that deductible protection, if they District should have storm or damage instead of 1%. The number listed is the max they can charge, but it could be less.
D) ICAN Scholarship Grant Agreement: Miller said “This will allow us to utilize grant funds to help Counselors with providing student support.”
E) The Audubon School Board approved an update to the Handbook: The update includes an addition that Jill, the School Nurse, would like to add after talking with other nurses, about getting signatures, emergencies etc.

F) Personnel:

1) Hires
a) Taylor Hackbarth – English
b) Nichole Olsen – Elementary Principal

2) Resignations:
a) Tracy Mulford – Kitchen

Personnel were approved as presented by the board

(Radio Iowa) – This week’s unseasonably warm weather in the 60s and 70s caused many trees across Iowa to start budding, and February is way too early for that, according to Tivon Feeley, the Iowa D-N-R’s forest health program leader. “The trees that we’re seeing leaf out a little bit right now are the red maples or the red maple hybrids that are pretty common, that you’d buy in the nursery,” Feeley says, “and those buds are just beginning to swell and kind of break open. There’s no leaf tissue hanging out.” The return to winter weather and temperatures in the 20s will spell trouble for those tiny, tender leaves.

“We know that leaf tissue that’s very fragile can freeze, and when that happens, it’ll cause damage to those leaves when they emerge,” Feeley says. “They may emerge green and look healthy, but as we get warmer in June, early July, that tissue will turn brown and fall out.” This condition is sometimes mistaken for insect feeding or disease, but Feeley says it’s simply a delayed response to cold injury that occurred earlier in the season. The leaf buds that are appearing now aren’t the only buds the trees will generate during spring, but leaves are vital to tree health and photosynthesis. Feeley was asked if the freezing of these early buds could cause us to lose any trees.

“We shouldn’t. The new growth that the trees put on won’t have this damage,” Feeley says. “Some of those will look kind of aesthetically unpleasing, but overall, there’s nothing we need to do about it. It’s just something to be aware of at the moment.” He says there should be -no- long-term threat to tree health. Homeowners are encouraged to monitor their trees, but there should not be a need for extra pruning, fertilization, or pesticides. Oh, and sorry, but he says it won’t likely mean any fewer leaves to rake in the fall.

(Radio Iowa) – The governor’s call to raise state taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products AND impose a new tax on vaping products and consumable hemp products has narrowly failed in a Senate Committee. Republican Senator Kara Warme of Ames is chair of the Health and Human Services Committee.

“I don’t like raising taxes on anyone,” she said. “I also don’t like that Iowa has more of our people dying of lung cancer than very many of our other states across the nation.” But Warme’s bill would have diverted the new sales taxes on vapes and consumable hemp products into a state fund that would be used next year to assist victims of human trafficking and plug a million dollars into Iowa’s Double Up Food Bucks program that helps low income Iowans buy more fresh fruits and vegetables.

Senator Janet Petersen and other Democrats called those surprising additions. “I have always been a proponent of doing what we can to promote cancer,” Petersen said. “…I find it frustrating that a one-time fund was stuck in this bill.” Warme’s bill wound up getting nine votes — one short of the 10 necessary to win committee approval.

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Reynolds and her fellow Republicans in the House and Senate have agreed to raise general state support of public schools by 160 dollars per student. Republican Representative Dan Gelbach of Urbandale says it will amount to nearly 82-hundred dollars per student. “The state is now going to allocate…almost $4 billion in funding to our public schools,” Gelbach said. “…Factor in local property taxes…and you add on all federal funds and the SAVE penny, which is the Local Option Sales Tax for school infrastructure, our schools are operating with total resources exceeding $11 billion annually.”

The plan is slightly more than Senate Republicans originally suggested and slightly less than House Republicans proposed. It will provide the two percent per pupil spending increase Governor Reynolds called for in January. House Democrats say this is the 9th year out of 10 that state funding for public schools fails to keep pace with inflation. Representative Heather Matson of Ankeny says a two percent increase won’t provide enough to cover schools’ operating costs — including the state-required minimum salaries for teachers.

“This bill is survival mode funding. In some cases, it’s not even that,” Matson said. “…Iowans should no longer accept this irresponsibility.” Representative Mary Lee Madison, a Democrat from Des Moines, says this level of funding won’t lead to world class results in classrooms. “Underfunding our schools is not fiscal responsibility. It is civic neglect,” Madison said. “We must invest in schools as if the future depended on it, because it does.”

Gehlbach was the only Republican to speak during Thursday’s House debate. He says the demographic reality is there’s been a more than five percent decline in public school enrollment in the past decade, while the number of school staff has grown by 11 percent. “With schools losing students in their buildings and adding so much to administrative costs, I would suggest they do what Iowa has done and take a hard look at spending and budgeting,” Gehlbach said.

Gehlbach and 57 other House Republicans approved the plan, while five other Republicans joined Democrats in voting against it. The two percent per pupil spending increase will apply to state-funded Education Savings Accounts for private school students, too.