(Radio Iowa/Brownfield Network) – U-S Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins says her agency will release over half a billion dollars to expand the number of U-S retail outlets that sell E-15. Grants may be used to upgrade fuel pumps and other infrastructure so gasoline blended with a higher percentage of ethanol may be sold. “This will fund 543 projects in 29 states,” she said. “I know it has an outsized impact here in Iowa.” Rollins made the announcement Monday during a stop at an ethanol plant in Atlantic.

“At USDA, we are aggressively exploring ways to unleash American energy and incentivize homegrown biofuel production,” she said. President Trump signed an executive order on January 20th declaring a National Energy Emergency and he directed the E-P-A to consider issueing emergency waivers so E-15 may be sold year-round nationwide. Rollins spoke with reporters outside the Elite Octane plant which has processed 300 million bushels of corn since it opened in 2018.

U.S. Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins, left, and U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst tour Elite Octane in Atlantic, IA. (Photo provided by Ernst staff)

“Here in the heartland, here in the very heart of America what you all stand for, what this amazing business stands for, what our farmers and ranchers stand for is how we do truly save the future of the country,” Rollins said, “and we do believe that E15 is a part of that.”

Also yesterday (Monday), during a stop in central Iowa, Rollins told reporters she’s planning another round of market disruption payments if Trump’s tariff announcement today (Tuesday) sparks a trade war. The first Trump Administration provided American farmers with 23 BILLION dollars in payments to cover trade-related losses.

(Reporting by Brent Barnett, Brownfield)

(Iowa Capital Dispatch) – Iowa’s education representatives say they are relieved that, at least for now, teachers and librarians don’t have to fear being fired under state law if they make a wrong decision about which books to keep on school shelves.

A judge last week placed a preliminary injunction against part of Senate File 496. The law, which the Iowa Legislature passed in 2023, prohibits school libraries from providing books deemed not age appropriate and primarily focuses on any book that includes “sex acts.”

Christy Hickman, general counsel for the Iowa State Education Association and representing ISEA as a plaintiff, said she was “incredibly relieved for our members.” Those members include educators at all levels. Teachers now “wouldn’t have to be concerned about their employment or their licensure being in jeopardy in the event they didn’t interpret this incredibly vague law incorrectly,” she said.

Some school districts, however, won’t be quick to change internal guidance on the law. “Given the number of injunctions and appeals, Southeast Polk is not taking any additional action with books at this time,” Jeannie Christenson, community relations coordinator at Southeast Polk Community School District, said. “We have not yet returned any of the removed titles to shelves, and we will continue to monitor legal developments.”

Federal District Judge Stephen Locher, in the Southern District of Iowa, had placed an injunction on SF 496 before, but the State of Iowa appealed to the Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit. The appeals court ruled Locher had not performed the correct “analysis” on the case and sent it back to Locher’s court. This time, Locher’s analysis weighed the unconstitutional applications of the law against the constitutional ones, which in his ruling he admitted is “hard to do” for this case.

Still, Locher ruled “the law has been unconstitutionally applied in dozens (if not hundreds) of situations and constitutionally applied in one.” Locher wrote in his ruling that the law “places the burden on local school districts and school officials to determine whether a book is permitted” and that “this is the whole point of the law’s penalty provisions: local officials and districts are subject to punishment if they get it wrong.” The law put educators in a “precarious state … by passing this bill and not giving them a lot of direction about how to carry it out,” Hickman said. “I don’t even know where I would start to explain the heaviness of that.”

A student plaintiff in the lawsuit calls the injunction a “huge step in the right direction.” Grace Van Gundy, a senior at Urbandale High School, and the only student in the lawsuit, said she wants her fellow students “to feel reassured about the injunction and remember that there are still government officials looking out for our best interests—even if it doesn’t always feel like it.” She said the decision “solidifies the importance of education and that proves we will not tolerate attempts at censorship.” Despite the ruling, Van Gundy believes that “there is still work to do. The fight is not over.”

Locher’s preliminary injunction could once again be appealed to the Eighth Circuit based on the new analysis of the law. Hickman said she expects the state will appeal. If that’s the case, she said the appeals court will have “a very, very extensive decision with analysis of multiple different (legal) tests, so the Eighth Circuit will have a very fair record to make a final determination,” Hickman said.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird in a statement alluded to the state taking this case further and wrote in part, “This common sense law makes certain that the books kids have access to in school classrooms and libraries are age-appropriate. I’m going to keep on fighting to uphold our law that protects schoolchildren and parental rights.”

SF 496 also prohibits the instruction of sexual orientation and gender identity in K-6 curriculum. Iowa Safe Schools has filed a lawsuit against that part of the law. Locher is expected to also rule on that case.

Atlantic, Iowa – U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins was in Atlantic, Monday morning, as part of a tour of certain ag-related facilities around the State. In Atlantic, Secretary Rollins toured the Elite Octane ethanol production plant. She was joined by Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, Senator Joni Ernst, 3rd District Representative Zach Nunn, southeast Iowa 1st District Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks, and Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig.

Earlier this month (March), Elite Octane – which employs 53 people – announced they had produced their one-billionth gallon of ethanol. Three-years ago (2022), the company doubled its storage capacity from four million bushels to eight million bushels of corn. The plant uses 50% recycled water from the City of Atlantic’s wastewater treatment plant, as part of the cooling process in the production of ethanol. The plant handles approximately 200 semi-loads of corn daily, operates Monday through Friday, and receives around one million bushels weekly. In addition to ethanol, Elite Octane in Atlantic produces high protein animal feed and corn oil.

Rollins, who resides in Fort Worth, Texas, along with her husband and children, was sworn-in as 33rd U-S Ag Secretary in February, 2025. The U.S. Senate confirmed Rollins by a vote of 72-to-28. Most recently, Rollins served as the Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of the America First Policy Institute (AFPI). During President Trump’s first administration, she was the Director of the Domestic Policy Council and Assistant to the President for Strategic Initiatives in the White House.

During her address, Secretary Rollins announced the USDA is releasing the funding for the higher blends infrastructure incentive program.

From Atlantic, Secretary Rollins and some of the other dignitaries moved-on to Manning Farm in Waukee. She toured Beck’s Hybrid in Colfax, and was set to deliver the keynote address to Iowa Ag leaders at the FFA Enrichment Center, in Ankeny.

(Iowa Capital Dispatch) – The Iowa Senate Education Committee approved legislation Monday to change state law defining bullying in schools, keeping it alive ahead of this week’s committee deadline. The panel also sent five other bills to the Senate floor dealing with topics ranging from national guard scholarships to attendance policies. The anti-bullying legislation was the only bill that did not receive unanimous support during the meeting.

House File 865 would redefine “harassment” and “bullying” as “repeated and targeted” actions. The bill removes from current law a list of 17 traits or characteristics of a targeted student that would fall under bullying, including gender identity, sexuality, race, political belief and familial status. Sen. Sandy Salmon, R-Janesville, said schools have used the current list of possible traits and characteristics to say their hands are tied when instances of bullying have not fallen under what is in Iowa code, leading to confusion and unequal treatment of students.

Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, D-West Des Moines, voiced two concerns over the legislation, the first with changing the definitions of bullying and harassment. Trone Garriott also took issue with removing the list of characteristics for schools to look toward for reporting bullying. She said the list is broad and not limiting for schools, and being able to identify specifically what the bullying is about is helpful for school response and for research into larger trends.

While Sen. Mike Zimmer, D-DeWitt, agreed with Trone Garriott’s point about specified characteristics being a good resource for schools, he said defining bullying as being targeted and repeated would be helpful in allowing school staff to take the direction of their interventions with students that makes the most sense for the situation.

The Iowa Senate Education Committee moved ahead multiple bills Monday without discussion or dissent from its members. (Photo by Cami Koons/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

The bill passed with a vote of 11-5.

This was the committee’s first meeting since the week of the first “funnel” deadline in the Iowa Legislature on March 7, with the second funnel only days away. Most policy bills have to receive approval from one chamber and a committee in the opposite chamber to remain eligible for debate after this week. Budget and tax bills are exempt from the funnel and bills that do not make the deadline could be revived as amendments to other bills.

More education action

Most of the bills passed out of the committee Monday saw no dissent from members. Bills passed unanimously without discussion included House File 117, which would establish a new scholarship program for National Guard members earning certification rather than a degree and House File 392, allowing public and nonpublic schools grades K-12 to apply for a year-round academic calendar. Zimmer expressed his support for House File 393, also passed unanimously, which would change how performance grades for attendance centers are calculated by no longer counting instances where a student has dropped out then came back to school more than once.

Trone Garriott also raised concerns about House File 870, but voted for it alongside the rest of the members. She said she worried the legislation, which would change Iowa’s compulsory attendance law to include exemptions for students attending religious instruction, is duplicative as there are already religious exemptions for teaching in Iowa code.

Several bills deferred

Sen. Lynn Evans, chair of the education committee, said three bills were deferred and would likely be brought up again at the committee’s Thursday meeting. Senate File 269, passed out of subcommittee just hours before, would bar state universities from requiring diversity, equity and inclusion or critical race theory content in academic courses. House File 703 would change information provided to students by state loan programs and financial aid advisors and House File 189 would set requirements for public school districts with nonpublic school students wishing to participate in extracurricular athletics.

(Radio Iowa) – The Department of Education reports that high school graduation rates are back to pre-pandemic levels for the first time since 2020. The Department reports the high school graduation rate was up eight-tenths of a percent in 2024 to 88-point-three percent — the same four-year graduation rate as the class of 2019. The graduation rate for females was three-point-two percent higher than the rate for males at 89-point-nine percent.

Iowa’s graduation rate for 2024 is significantly higher than several neighboring states, with only Missouri and Wisconsin reporting graduation rates above Iowa’s, at 90-point-eight percent and 91-point-one percent.

(Radio Iowa) – The recently REALTORS Land Institute survey shows the south-central district was the only one reporting a farmland price increase. Spokesman Matt Vegter says the state average value didn’t change much. “From September one to March one, the state of Iowa, for tillable land across all nine crop reporting districts, is down one percent, so pretty flat market,” he says. The south-central market was up two tenths of a percent, the north-central was down two-point-one percent, for the largest drop.

Vegter says better commodity prices kept things from moving too much. “You know, we kind of put in a low back in August, right when we did the last survey, as of September one, and since that survey, throughout the winter months, we’ve seen a pretty good rally in the corn and bean corn and bean prices. So, I think that’s kind of the, biggest factor, bringing us back to kind of that even mark,” Vegter says. Vegter says it’s hard to tell right now how tariffs may end up impacting land values

Emotionally, they’re definitely taking a toll. I don’t think we can give any data of what it’s done to the market,” he says. Vegter says he seen some changes that may be an indication of the emotional toll could have an impact. “January, February there was actually a lot more optimism in the land market, commodity prices had rallied and there were a lot of farms that had been sitting there on the market for a while with not a lot of interest, and they all got gobbled up in January and February,” he says. “And we felt like we were starting to build a little bit of steam, and then the tariff conversation started. So I think (it’s) to be determined what that does.”

The REALTORS Land Institute survey finds land value flat in the last 6 months.

He says one area of the survey was a surprise. “Eight out of the nine crop reporting districts were actually up one to two percent on the recreational land side. And that kind of surprised me,” Vegter says. “I didn’t think demand was going to be that healthy for rec ground the last six months, but respondents said it’s there’s all kinds of folks out there still wanting to buy a timber piece or a recreational piece.”

Vegter says that’s probably a holdover from the pandemic when people looked to get out away from the cities more and the rec ground became more popular.

(Radio Iowa) – U-S Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, who’s visiting Iowa today (Monday), says the Trump Administration is planning another round of market disruption payments **IF** the tariffs the president announces on Tuesday lead to a downturn in ag exports. “As soon as we fully understand the consequences, positive and otherwise, of these negotiations/renegotiations, we’ll have more announcements on that,” she said.

Rollins, though, says there’s less money available for the payments than there were in the first Trump Administration when U-S ag exports to China fell due to a trade dispute. “He was elected with the idea of tariffs being one of the top tools in his tool kit to realign the American economy, to put Americans first,” Rollins said, “but I also know that that president was proud last time that then USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue, through some mechanisms through the USDA, was able to ensure that many of our farmers were made whole through those negotiations.”

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins speaks during news conference in Waukee, joined by (from left to right) Iowa Ag Sec. Naig, U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Iowa Gov. Reynolds and U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn. (RI photo)

The trade-related payments to U-S farmers during the first Trump Administration were spread over three years and ultimately surpassed 23 BILLION dollars. Rollins told reporters the president’s next set of tariffs policies are still “to be determined,” but she’s begun planning for payments to farmers should the tariffs impact ag commodities. “Literally as we speak, as we’ve been driving from location to location here in Iowa, I’ve been on the phone non-stop managing a lot of that,” Rollins says, “or working to ensure that our farmers and our ranchers are represented in those negotiations.”

Rollins says Trump has believed for decades that America and its products and goods get a raw deal on the world stage and he needs to change that. “He believes very sincerely that for the long term that this is the right move for the country, that ultimately the economy will thrive and all Americans will be better off,” Rollins says, “…but we have some, you know, maybe a couple of weeks, maybe a few months while we’re working all of that out.”

Rollins was confirmed as U-S Agriculture secretary on February 13th and she says expanding overseas markets for U-S meat and grain is one of her top priorities. “I’m taking calls all day every day, all night every night from Democrats and Republicans as we’re working to realign the government,” she said. Rollins visited an ethanol plant in Atlantic this (Monday) Morning and toured a hog facility near Waukee this (Monday) afternoon before making her way to Newton for a meeting at a hybrid seed company.

She’ll speak tonight (Monday) at the annual Iowa Ag Leaders banquet.

(Radio Iowa) – A Pella woman faces an attempted murder charge for allegedly stabbing her husband with a kitchen knife.
According to a news release from Pella Police, a man called 9-1-1 just before 10 o’clock Sunday night to report his wife had attacked him. Officers found the man in the basement of the house, suffering from stab wounds. He was flown to a Des Moines hospital for treatment. Police say he’s in critical condition.

Pella Police say they recovered a large kitchen knife covered in blood and their investigation determined the stabbing happened during an ongoing argument. Fifty-six-year-old Marci Allen has been charged with attempted murder and domestic abuse assault.

(Guthrie Center, Iowa) – The Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office says there were three accidents last week, only one of which resulted in injuries. On March 24th, 18-year-old Jauclyn Marie Curry, of Panora, was driving a 2019 Dodge Charger eastbound on Highway 44 at around 7:35-a.m.  A 2019 Chevy pickup driven by 33-year-old Clayton David Dean Larson, of Adair, was eastbound on Highway 44 and stopped, waiting for westbound traffic before he could turn left onto Redwood Avenue. Curry failed to notice the pickup’s turn signals and brake lights. She attempted to brake just before her car struck the rear of the pickup. Both drivers complained of pain and possible injury, but were not transported to the hospital. Curry was cited for Failure to Stop in an assured/clear distance. Both vehicles sustained $20,000 damage. The Dodge Charger was declared a total loss.

On March 24th, a vehicle driven by 80-year-old Ruth Heckman, of Bayard, sustained $5,000 damage, and a car driven by 62-year-old Neal Schoon, also of Bayard, sustained $2,500 damage, when Schoon’s vehicle hit the rear of Heckman’s car, as both vehicle were traveling west on Highway 25. Schoon later admitted to being at fault. He said he was traveling at around 62 mph and didn’t see the car in front of him until it was too late. No injuries were reported. Both vehicles were driven from the scene. Deputies cited Schoon for Failure to Stop in an assured clear distance.

And, on March 27th, a 2010 Ford Taurus driven by 29-year-old Richard Hughes, of Manning, sustained $6,000 damage (a total loss), when Hughes came to a T-intersection at Luna Avenue and 130th, and attempted to turn left. His car went out of control and into the north ditch, before it caught on fire. No injuries were reported.