(Radio Iowa)  – A major road upgrade in the Iowa Great Lakes region is ahead of schedule. Iowa D-O-T engineer Darwin Bishop says the goal is for out-of-town motorists on Highway 71 to think everything looks normal during tourism season. “We’re on schedule to be completed with our roadway paving May 24. We might be out there for a couple of weeks after that working on driveways and sprinkler systems and sod,” Bishop says. “We’re going to go through and repaint everything through town so it looks nice for vacation season and hopefully there’s very little interruption for anybody.”

The project began LAST spring, replacing Highway 71 pavement and some sidewalks in Okoboji and Arnolds Park. “The rain has slowed us down a little bit, but we had a great start and the contractor has been doing a real good job of moving his crew around to the work that the weather conditions allow,” Bishop says, “so if it’s a little muddy and dirty, they’ll work in an area where they’re not in the dirt and then when the weather’s good, they can pave away.”

Iowa DOT map of Highway 71 in Iowa Great Lakes region

All of the road construction in the area should be done by Labor Day. Bishop says they’ll replace the adjacent sod in the spring of 2025. Highway 71 is the main thoroughfare through the Great Lakes. According to Vacation Okoboji, cell phone data indicates over 180-thousand tourists visited the area last July – about a quarter of them stayed more than six days.

DES MOINES, Iowa [KCCI] — Iowa is joining a lawsuit challenging a new rule that would stop some private firearm sales. A new rule from the Bureau of Tobacco and Firearms, known as ATF, would require a federal firearms dealer license for every person who sells a gun for a profit.

The change would force some private sellers to conduct background checks on potential gun buyers. The rule is set to go into effect on May 20. The filed lawsuit says the rule is unconstitutional because it is vague and circumvents Congress.

Attorneys General in 21 states are part of the lawsuit against the new ATF rule.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) — A Cedar Rapids man was arrested after police said he flashed a handgun at a driver in a road rage incident on Interstate 380 in Johnson County on Wednesday. According to KCRG-TV, a criminal complaint says 36-year-old Shawn Pettit is charged with assault while displaying a dangerous weapon. Law enforcement said they were called by a driver heading south on I-380 near mile marker 4, saying a heavy-set, bald man driving a Chevy Silverado had flashed a handgun at them after brake-checking in front of them.

The caller told police the driver of the truck was driving “extremely fast,” well over the posted speed limit and weaving in and out of traffic. Police said they later found the truck with the same license plate number and description near the 87-mile marker on Highway 218.

According to the complaint, Pettit admitted to having a handgun in the vehicle and admitted to having the confrontation with the victim while driving fast and weaving in and out of traffic on I-380 through Johnson County.

(Radio Iowa) – The annual Pella Tulip Festival gets underway today (Thursday) as the community celebrates its Dutch heritage. Pella Historical Museum executive director, Jessi Galligan  says they’ve survived the recent warmer and wetter. “It’s been wonderful weather mixed with some not so wonderful weather but the weather can’t stop the fun,” she says. Some of the tulips did mature and bloom earlier than normal, but there’s still plenty of color for the event. “We plant early mid and late blooming varieties to extend that,” she says. “of course Mother Nature has the last word on how things actually end up. So we had tulips blooming already in February, but we still have tulips blooming today, so it was an extraordinarily long blooming season,” Galligan says. You’ll see a lot of different tulips around the town.

“Our early bloomers are for sure done. Our mid bloomers are looking a little rough, they’re on their way out, but our late bloomers are still just perfect,” she says. The recent storms and rains haven’t dampened the enthusiasm of organizers. “Yeah, tulips are a hearty flower so the rain obviously is good for them and their growth period. If the rain is too heavy and the tulips are on their way out then perhaps that will hasten their to their their petals falling,” she says. “But you know, we’ve gotten a decent mount of rain, nowhere near what some other communities in Iowa have gotten. But it really hasn’t hurt him too bad the ones that are still looking good or are still looking good.” The Tulip Festival will also have the old favorite foods, parades and other events, along with some new things.

“We are excited to have a brand new mural set up between the Vermeer Windmill and the entrance to the gift shop. Welcome to Tulip Time, so make sure you get your picture there. And I know a couple other new murals have popped up around the community sponsored by other organizations in town so make sure you check out all the murals in town. And I believe with this new one there will be for around the community to check out,” Galligan says.

The events run through Saturday. You can find the complete schedule at pellahistorical.org.

WASHINGTON – Following reports that the Biden administration is planning to welcome Gazan refugees into the United States, Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) led 34 of her colleagues in demanding the president stop his plan, citing concerns of potential terrorist ties, and instead focus his efforts on returning Americans held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.

“Your administration’s reported plan to accept Gazan refugees poses a national security risk to the United States. With more than a third of Gazans supporting the Hamas militants, we are not confident that your administration can adequately vet this high-risk population for terrorist ties and sympathies before admitting them into the United States…We are also frustrated that your administration is pushing ahead with a plan to evacuate Gazans from the Strip when there are still American citizens held hostage by Hamas. We demand that your administration cease planning for accepting Gazan refugees until you adequately answer our concerns and focus your attention instead on securing the release of U.S. hostages held by Hamas,” the senators wrote.

Ernst’s office says a recent poll found that over 70% of Gazans viewed Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel as the “correct” decision.

 They pointed out that, “We must ensure Gazans with terrorist ties or sympathies are denied admission into the United States—no easy feat, given the fact that the Gazans were the ones who voted Hamas into power in 2006. Without thorough vetting, your administration may inadvertently accept terrorists posing as refugees into the interior. This is especially the case as Hamas terrorists have a long track record of co-mingling with civilian populations in Gaza.”

The lawmakers added,  “Unfortunately, the risk of terrorists entering our homeland is no hypothetical matter. Border officials have arrested 169 people on the FBI terror watch lists in Fiscal Year 2023, a record-setting number that exceeds the total of the last six fiscal years combined. Apprehended terrorists include a Hezbollah fighter who intended “to make a bomb” and was headed for New York. Given your administration’s abject failure at countering the flow of potential terrorists at our border, how can Congress trust your administration to adequately vet the refugees crossing the Egypt-Gaza border, located nearly 6,000 miles away from Washington, D.C.?”

To prevent bringing a national security threat into our homeland at the taxpayer’s expense, the senators requested President Biden answer how many refugees his administration is planning to accept, what screening will be in place to prevent terrorist sympathizers from reaching our homeland, the cost to the taxpayer, whether the administration has consulted with partners in the region, and the locations for refugee housing.

Read the full letter here.