(Corning, Iowa) – Officials with the Southwest Valley Community School District today (Tuesday), announced their selection for the next Superintendent to lead the district. In their statement on social media, district officials said:

“The Southwest Valley School Board has selected Mr. Joe Erickson as their next Superintendent of Schools. Mr. Erickson will come to Southwest Valley from North Iowa Community Schools, where he serves as Superintendent of Schools. Board President Staci Venteicher stated, “The Southwest Valley Board Members, along with our students, staff, parents, and community, are excited to welcome Mr. Joe Erickson as our new Superintendent. We believe Mr. Erickson is an excellent choice because of his passion for education and his knowledge of school finance.”

According to the press release, the SWV School Board reviewed and discussed valuable feedback from 48 Focus Group members, who interviewed each of the top three Candidates as they worked to reach their decision. Board President Jason Poston commented, “The Board greatly appreciated the time, effort, and dedication of the 48 Focus Group members, who provided valuable insights into our selection process and interviews. We look forward to their continuing support of our students.”

Mr. Erickson will begin his Southwest Valley Community Schools duties on July 1, 2025.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – During a joint public hearing via Zoom, involving the Cass and Adair County Boards of Supervisors, both Board briefly discussed vacating of that portion of 780th Lane (AKA Union Ave; AKA Adair-Cass Ave.), originally established in January, 1882, with improvement made in 1957. The road the crosses the Cass-Adair County line is about 66-feet wide and stretches approximately 2,034 feet. Having heard no comments from the public, the Boards separately, passed their respective resolutions to vacate the road as described in the legal definition. Cass County Board Chair Steve Baier…

Following the joint meeting, the Cass County Supervisors held a separate public hearing on the vacating and closing of a section of Quebec Lane near Massena. Once again having received no public comments, the Supervisors voted to pass a resolution vacating the road as described by Chairman Baier.

The Board discussed with Cass County Community Services/Mental Health Director Debbie Schuler, and some local funeral home representatives, revisions to the County Indigent Remains disposition. Schuler further explained how the cremains are handled.

The discussion lasted about 45-minutes. The current proposal would reduce the amount the County pays to funeral homes from $1,500 to $1,000. It would still include Medical Examiner’s fees and cremation, but no requirement to pay for viewing, services or ceremonies, and burial. No action was taken to approve the updated policy as presented, as it was only on the agenda for discussion.

In other business, the Cass County Supervisors approved an Iowa Department of Transportation Federal-aid agreement for the replacement of a 100-foot slab bridge on Keystone Road, over a Creek. The project is 100-percent funded by the Feds. They also approved a 50-cent per hour wage increase for Secondary Roads employee Tucker Sager, since he has completed the required new-hire probationary period in accordance with his employment agreement.

The Cass County Supervisors passed a resolution amending the County Secondary Roads 5-year Construction Program, by moving a bridge project (#73 – A Pony Truss bride near Lyman, on 620th Street) from 2027 to 2025, due to NEPA (National Environmental Protection Agency) changes received sooner than expected, and, they approved the plans and specifications for bridge #73. They also approved a Hot Melt Asphalt (HMA) resurfacing/CIP recycling project on County Road N-28, south of Highway 92, to the Cass-Adams County line. Cass County Secondary Roads Department Maintenance Superintendent Mark Knudsen said weather permitting, work will begin next week on the N-28 project.

Other projects include:

(Radio Iowa) – Forecasters say travel could be difficult if not impossible across Iowa’s northwestern third tomorrow (Wednesday). Blizzard conditions are in the forecast for some 30 counties with winds gusting up to 65 miles an hour and heavy snow of up to twelve inches in some areas. National Weather Service meteorologist Alexis Jimenez says the storm front will start moving into Iowa late tonight and early tomorrow.

“We’re expecting that precipitation to come in after about one o’clock in the morning,” Jimenez says. “That’s going to be primarily rain and thunderstorms in the southeastern half of the state, and maybe some thunderstorms mixing in more on the north side, where there’s going to be snow, so that means ‘thunder-snow’ for those that like that.” A major temperature shift is coming to the region, as highs today are forecast mostly in the 60s and 70s across Iowa, but the approaching storm system will bring in very cold air.

“Rain will gradually transition to all snow as we get into Wednesday morning especially,” Jimenez says, “and with those winds up to about 65 miles per hour, especially up there in northern Iowa, you can have some blizzard conditions pretty likely up there and white-out conditions are likely with that.”

Some areas may see snowfall at the rate of two inches per hour. Coincidentally, tomorrow’s the last full day of winter.

(Creston, Iowa) – Police in Creston, early this (Tuesday) morning, arrested a man on a Union County warrant. Authorities say 40-year-old Santos Olivera Martinez, of Creston, was taken into custody at around 12:36-a.m., on a warrant for Failure to Appear on original charges that include Possession of Methamphetamine/1st Offense, and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. Martinez was taken to the Union County Jail and held without bond.

(Bedford, Iowa) – A Jury in Taylor County found a Bedford man guilty of Murder, Monday, in connection with the shooting death in July, 2024, of a man from Lenox. According to reports, 37-year-old Alan Schultz was found guilty of Felony Murder in the 1st Degree, in the shooting on July 4th, 2024, in Clearfield, of 19-year-old Colby Nelson.

Schultz’ trial began March 12th and ended early Monday afternoon. The jury reportedly deliberated for roughly 40 minutes before reaching a verdict in the case. Schultz is set to be sentenced on April 8th.

(Radio Iowa) – Turns out, there’s a lot more floating around the planet Saturn than those famous rings. Space scientists announced last week they’ve discovered Saturn has 128 -more- moons, for a total of 274, far more than its larger neighbor Jupiter, with just 95 moons. University of Iowa physics and astronomy professor Allison Jaynes says she’s betting Saturn has still more moons that we haven’t spotted yet. “I think there are more. This is one of the cases of — the closer you look, the more you see, which is often the case in science,” Jaynes says. “We just didn’t notice these smaller moons, because they’re very hard to track, and they’re very hard to prove that they’re orbiting Saturn, which is one of the conditions upon which we’ll designate an object a moon.”

Prof. Allison Jaynes (UI photo)

The closest the Earth ever comes to Saturn is about 746-million miles, so it’s giant leap to even pick out a few of its moons from this distance, let alone tracking 274 separate moons in orbit.  “It’s a huge logistical problem, which is why we haven’t noted them before,” Jaynes says. “The way that this was done was using a telescope to take very precise measurements of extremely faint objects, these tiny fragments that are now considered moons around Saturn, and track them over time to prove that they have an orbital period that is centered around the planet Saturn.” Why does Earth only have one moon and Saturn has nearly 300? First of all, Saturn is nine times wider than Earth, meaning, if Earth were the size of a nickel, Saturn would be about as big as a volleyball, so it’s gravitational pull is much stronger.

“We are very small, and we’re also farther in towards the Sun, where there isn’t a lot of debris, and hasn’t been a lot of debris,” Jaynes says. “If you think about the asteroid belt, that’s out closer to Jupiter, and so there is a question about why doesn’t Jupiter actually attract more moons than it has?” So where did all of these moons around Saturn come from? One popular theory, Jaynes says, it that they were created by the collisions of objects that were already captured by Saturn’s gravity well. “So, unstable objects that smashed into each other became clouds of debris and then continued to orbit Saturn,” Jaynes says. “But again, we need more information, and we don’t really know for sure. We’ve only had a few spacecraft actually fly to Saturn to discover and look at things up close.”

NASA photo of Saturn using the James Webb Space Telescope

Much of what we know about Saturn came from a NASA probe called Cassini, which spent 20 years in deep space. Some of Cassini’s instruments were built at the University of Iowa, including one that measured radioactive emissions and waves in the ionized gas, called plasma, which surrounds the ringed planet. Its fuel nearly spent, Cassini was intentionally sent to burn up in Saturn’s atmosphere in 2017.

(Guthrie Center, Iowa) – Weather permitting, the Adair-Casey & Guthrie Center School District Boards of Education will take place 7-p.m. Wednesday, in the AC/GC High School Media Center. During the joint meeting, a public hearing will take place with regard to the 2025-26 School Master Calendar.

Both Boards will act on approving the 2025-26 Master Calendar, along with an AEA Purchasing Agreement as presented, and they’ll set the date for a Public Hearing on the 2025-26 Certified Budget as April 16^th at 7-p.m.

Separately, the A-C Board will act on passing a resolution authorizing bid letting and setting a public hearing for the Adair-Casey Roof Project. The Guthrie Center Board will act on approving 2025-26 General Fund Budget Reductions and an Out-of-State Student Trip-DECA.

The GC Board will also act on approving the resignation of Barb South – HS Volleyball Coach, and, a Contract Recommendation for Savana Fuller – Asst. Softball Coach.,

(Des Moines, Iowa/Iowa Capital Dispatch) – Iowa local governments would not be able to have citizen police review boards under legislation passed by the Iowa Senate 37-9 Monday. Senate File 311 prohibits cities with a civil service commission — any city with a population over 8,000 — from adopting or establishing citizens’ boards that review the conduct of law enforcement officers. Currently, five cities in Iowa have citizens’ police review boards: Cedar Rapids, Coralville, Dubuque, Iowa City and University Heights. The legislation was amended to have an enactment day of Aug. 16, 2025, if signed into law, which lawmakers said would give localities more time to comply with the measure.

Sen. Scott Webster, R-Bettendorf, said cities already have bodies in charge of reviewing police actions through civil service commissions. These panels are in charge of hiring, disciplining, and firing city employees including police officers. Webster said when there are issues where a police officer’s actions are under question, there is duplication happening with citizens’ boards, as the larger civil service commission will also be reviewing the case. He also said in many situations, police officers cannot legally present their argument to this board. “These review boards have the ability to talk about officers, worry about what happened on a particular case,” Webster said. “That officer, because of his legal requirements, can’t come in there and defend himself in any way, shape or form. That’s not what the state’s about. That’s not what this country is about. … When they’re going to have to go up against another trial, to an extent, inside of civil service, there is no reason for them to spill all of their defense in front of a civilian review board.”

But Democrats, including Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, said the measure was “yet another in a seemingly unending stream of intrusions on local control” in allowing local governments to decide the best approach to police oversight in their communities. He said as a former city council member in Ames, he understood the importance of these local government entities in building trust between a community and law enforcement — and that these city boards were a way to bridge the gap between people with problems or differing views on law enforcement decisions. “If you believe in continuous improvement, if you believe in quality control at all, you know that (the solution is) communication about these problems, building … understanding between members of the community, as well as understanding and appreciation for, and trust of, the police department,” he said. Webster said he also supported a return to “community policing,” and that removing police review boards was necessary to do that and allow police officers to more fully participate, pointing to events like an officer going to an ice cream social. He also said concerns about opinions and voices of community members not being heard with the removal of police review boards could be addressed by adding these members to a city’s civil service commission.

The legislation also makes some changes to city civil service commissions, including raising the number of people on these commissions from a minimum of three members to having between five to seven members. It would require cities to hire outside counsel or attorneys when disputes between the city council and civil service commission involve a conflict of interest, and states that attorneys who have represented the commission, including a city attorney or assistant city attorney, cannot represent the city or its employees in appeals before the civil service board. While current law already allows for civil service commissions’ decisions to be appealed in court, the bill would allow for a trial de novo — meaning a case that would create a fresh determination of evidence and law without reference to previous cases — at the district court level.

Senate Minority Leader Janice Weiner said the bill “overly complicates a process that’s already taking place in in most communities,” saying this provision would functionally duplicate the attorney fees, discovery and presentation of evidence for issues that have already had substantial time and resources put into the case in court. Webster said ensuring police are given due process in these instances is necessary to protect law enforcement officers. He said citizens’ review boards in particular are a concern because they are used as a political cudgel against police, linking these city government bodies to the “defund the police” movement that grew in popularity during the 2020 protests after the killing of George Floyd by a Minnesota police officer.

The measure moves to the House for further consideration. The Senate bill’s companion, House File 641, is available for floor debate.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – A man from Nebraska was arrested late Monday evening in Red Oak. According to the Red Oak Police Department, 27-year-old Gage Michael Dixon, of Plattsmouth, NE, was arrested at around 7:20-p.m. in the 800 block of N. 4th Street, on an active Montgomery County warrant for Theft in the 5th Degree. Gage was being held in the Montgomery County Jail, on a $300 bond.