(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa National Guard’s adjutant general says this is a pivotal moment of evolution for the organization, with construction on new facilities and more soldiers joining its ranks. Major General Steve Osborn says the Iowa Guard has had recruiting success and is authorized to add dozens of new positions in 2025. “I am proud to say that the Iowa National Guard ended Fiscal Year 2024 with 99.5% assigned strength and an 83% retention rate, one of the highest in the nation.” The 137 new positions are for combat engineers as well as soldiers who’ll work in cyber security and field artillery. Osborn delivered the annual “Condition of the Guard” address at the Iowa Capitol today (Thursday). Afterwards, he met with reporters and discussed plans to rebuild a runway at Sioux City’s airport. It’s where Air Guard planes carrying massive amounts of fuel take off to resupply military aircraft in mid-flight.

“In 2003, the Air Force made a determination to go from F-16 fighters at that airbase to KC-135 tankers, so they knew at that point…we’re going to need a new runway in the future,” Osborn said. “Because of the size of those aircraft, it needs a bigger, thicker, heavier allowing runway.” The F-A-A has notified officials the runway has about two more years of unrestricted use in its current condition and after that it will be too dangerous for the aircraft and crews to use it. He says the F-A-A is likely to supply some of the funds for rebuilding the runway. The total project cost — 95 MILLION dollars. “We’ve been working with the National Guard Bureau, we’ve been working with the Air Force and we’ve been working with our elected officials to get the money for this. We received $13 million last year for design, which we think is positive step,” Osborn says. “It’s all been approved, we’re just working now on getting the actual funding.”

Osborn says commercial traffic will not be disrupted at the Sioux Gateway Airport as the Air Guard’s runway is rebuilt. The Air Guard’s refueling wing will operate at a nearby air base in Omaha or Topeka, Kansas during the project. Osborn presented state legislators with two key policy proposals today as well. He’s asking legislators to adjust Iowa’s new law on chronic absenteeism. About four-hundred 17- and 18-year-old high schoolers who’ve enlisted in the Iowa Guard are being counted as absent from school when they travel for required screening. “We’re speaking for the military as a whole in Iowa. Any young person — young man or young women who wants to join the military is going to have to take a day off of school to come to Des Moines to take the test and the physical — not just the Iowa Guard, but everybody,” Osborn says.

“We’re just trying to add that into the exemption of that law.” Osborn is also seeking changes in Iowa National Guard Service Scholarships. He proposes that soldiers seeking a professional certificate or credential as well as those getting a college degree be eligible for the state-funded scholarships. “We’re really focused on the STEM related fields and the trades related fields for short credentially and certificate programs that allow our people to use that source,” Osborn says.

In May, a 24 MILLION dollar training facility will open in West Des Moines that will be used by the Guard as well as the West Des Moines Fire Department. Later this year, there will be a groundbreaking in Sioux City for a new 14-million-dollar, federally-funded, Army National Guard maintenance facility. Nearly nine-thousand men and women serve in the Iowa Army National Guard and the Iowa National Air Guard. Seven hundred soldiers and airmen were deployed in 2024 to a variety of missions, including responding to Iowa natural disasters and assisting authorities at the U-S/Mexico border.

(Guthrie Center, Iowa) – The Adair-Casey and Guthrie Center School District Boards of Education met Wednesday evening during a joint session in Guthrie Center. Shared District Superintendent Josh Rasmussen tells KJAN News the Boards discussed their 1^st Semester Whole Grade Sharing (WGS) invoice.

The Board also discussed reorganization of the two districts.

A reorganization would not mean students will be combined into one big building. Since the districts have been working closely together since 2016, Rasmussen says essentially, everything would remain the same if they are consolidated.

He says the districts share a lot dollars between them, when it comes to declining enrollment.

In other business, Mr. Rasmussen said the Boards Wednesday, approved their Fall 2025 Coaching positions.

The Boards also approved their respective, separate contract recommendations, and Property/Casualty Insurance contracts. Adair-Casey renewed their agreement with the Insurance Store in Casey, and the Guthrie Center Board approved an agreement with State Street Insurance in Guthrie Center.

Johnston, IA — During his annual Condition of the Guard address, Adjutant General, Major General Stephen Osborn, announced the upcoming deployment of the Iowa National Guard’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team (BCT), 34th Infantry Division. This deployment represents the culmination of the unit’s five-year readiness cycle and their unwavering commitment to supporting global operations.

The Iowa National Guard’s readiness cycle requires units to continuously prepare for operational missions, gradually increasing the intensity of training to build and sustain combat readiness. Over the past year, the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, which includes over 3,300 Soldiers, participated in the Army National Guard’s Exportable Combat Training Capability (XCTC) program—a highly resourced capstone training event that integrates collective training at all levels.

This summer, 2nd Brigade will complete its readiness cycle with a 21-day, force-on-force training rotation at the Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) at Fort Johnson, Louisiana. JRTC rotations are among the most rigorous training events in the Army, preparing units for the complexities of large-scale operational environments.

Upon completion of their JRTC training, more than 1,800 Soldiers from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team are scheduled to deploy to the Middle East in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. During this mission, they will join coalition forces to provide security, support partner nations, and contribute to efforts to maintain stability in the region.

The Iowa National Guard remains steadfast in its mission to provide ready and capable forces in support of state and federal operations. As we prepare for this deployment, we thank the Soldiers, their families, employers and their communities for their unwavering support.

(Atlantic, Iowa) [updated] – This week, Cass County Schools came together to reinforce the importance of online safety to their students in Atlantic, CAM and Griswold districts. In Atlantic, Schuler Elementary Principal James Northwick says “There’s not many days that go by that a teacher or parent doesn’t mention how much the kids are using their phones. We have to help students understand the responsibility they have when it comes to being safe online, so we don’t find ourselves down the road with scary outcomes because we didn’t teach them how to navigate this.”

Public health partners connected the three school districts with Hope for Justice, an anti-trafficking project leader, and Iowa Law Enforcement specialists to present age-appropriate content in each of the participating schools. Elementary students focused on online safety, recognizing safe relationships, managing peer pressure and understanding social media. Older students added how to recognize and report suspicious online activities and what human trafficking looks like in Iowa. CAM Principal Barry Bower said  “Staff members met before the presentations with the Hope for Justice team, and it was clear that each of us have seen scenarios in our schools that hit too close to home. “These preventative conversations we can have with students are the beginning, and we hope parents continue the conversation at home with boundaries around technology use.” (These photos are courtesy Cheri Chester, CAM Administrative Asst.)

In support of the programming, local representatives from Atlantic Police Department, Cass County Sheriff’s Office and Cass Health attended the presentations.  Atlantic Police Chief Devin Hogue said “We want students, parents and teachers to know they can call us anytime with suspicious behaviors, concerns or situations they don’t know how to navigate, and we will make sure they are connected to the right resources to help kids with the physical and mental side of handling these situations.”

Each School District is offering a parent resource list as well as follow up links to podcasts, tips and other helpful tools. Other resources are available via contacting the Healthy Cass County Coalition at 712-250-8170 or emailing Community Wellness Coordinator Grace McAfee at hcc@casshealth.info. James Northwick says “With more research all the time telling us the impact technology has on mental health and social behaviors. We are all treading on common ground. This is one small action we can take to start setting the tone for how we will help our students through it.”

Here are some photos from Atlantic CSD Communications Specialist Emma Langer:

And, these photos were submitted by Griswold K-12 Art Teacher/Yearbook Sponsor Tara Littler-Scholl:

(Radio Iowa) – The City of Marshalltown has dropped its lawsuit against the owner of the Marshalltown Mall — and it appears the mall is under new ownership. Some tenants began exiting the property a year ago and setting up their businesses in other locations after electricity to the mall was cut off due to unpaid bills. Tenants that stayed have paid the utility directly for their electric use. Marshalltown Mayor Joel Greer says the city went to small claims court, seeking payment of a 65-hundred dollar fine from the mall’s owner for code violations, but that’s been withdrawn to pave the way for the mall’s sale to a Texas based investment firm.

“I found out last Friday there had been a closing scheduled a couple of times before and it kept getting postponed,” he says, “and the title opinion had one glitch in it and the glitch was that we had a pending lawsuit against the current owner.” Greer says he’s not optimistic the city will be able to collect the fines from the New York based investment group that has owned the mall. “The real choice boiled down to do we care enough as a city to get a judgement against them, have go to court, have an appeal, have a process of probably $6500 in legal fees and court costs,” Greer says, “and then try to collect a judgement, which given this company’s history in other states, good luck getting a judgement against some LLC or corporation that is out of state.”

According to social media posts, the new owners of the Marshalltown Mall have begun communicating with current tenets.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa hospitals and emergency rooms are seeing an increase in respiratory virus cases in recent weeks, according to the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services. Aneesa Afroze is an infectious disease consultant with MercyOne in Des Moines. She says they’re seeing more patients with the flu, COVID-19, and R-S-V, but she anticipates case numbers will drop as we move further away from the holidays.

Afroze says, “I am hoping, based on incubation periods and stuff like that of respiratory viruses, this is probably our highest or maybe for another few days or a week or so.” She recommends Iowans take precautions to prevent spreading any illness they may be carrying.  “Stay home when you’re sick, stay away from other immunocompromised people in your family, elderly people,” Afroze says, “I mean, respiratory viruses definitely affect them a lot.”

Afroze says Iowans should also get vaccinated if they qualify.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – The Iowa Division of Banking and 47 state financial regulatory agencies have taken coordinated action against Block, Inc., for violations of Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and anti-money laundering (AML) laws that safeguard the financial system from illicit use.  More than 50 million consumers in the United States use Cash App, Block’s mobile payment service, to spend, send, store, and invest money. In the multistate settlement signed this week, Block agreed to pay an $80 million penalty to the state agencies, hire an independent consultant to review the comprehensiveness and effectiveness of its BSA/AML program, and submit a report to the states within nine months. Block then will have 12 months to correct any deficiencies found in the review after the report is filed.

Iowa Banking Superintendent James Johnson says “The Iowa Division of Banking is committed to working with our state partners to ensure that companies operating in Iowa follow our rules and regulations. The Iowa Division of Banking appreciates the ongoing cooperation of Block throughout this investigation and settlement process.”

Under BSA/AML rules, financial services firms are required to perform due diligence on customers, including verifying customer identities, reporting suspicious activity, and applying appropriate controls for high-risk accounts. State regulators found Block was not in compliance with certain requirements, creating the potential that its services could be used to support money laundering, terrorism financing, or other illegal activities.

Through a strong, nationwide regulatory framework, state financial regulators license and serve as the primary supervisor of money transmitters. States license more than 700 money transmitters, and 99% of transmission activity through those firms is governed by the state-developed Money Transmission Modernization Act (MTMA). To protect consumers and enforce safety and soundness requirements, state regulators regularly coordinate supervision of multi-state firms and, when necessary, initiate enforcement actions. This coordination – Networked Supervision – supports consistency and collaboration, while preserving the authority of individual states to take direct action. Additional information on the state regulatory framework for money transmission can be found here.

Iowans who have questions about the enforcement action should contact Zak Hingst at 515-242-0332 or via email at zak.hingst@idob.state.ia.us. Residents can also visit NMLS Consumer Access to verify that a company is licensed to do business in Iowa, and they may also view past enforcement actions.

State financial regulators license and supervise more than 34,000 nonbank financial services companies through the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System, including mortgage companies, money services businesses, consumer finance providers, and debt collectors.

DES MOINES, Iowa (By Jennifer Bamberg, Investigate Midwest ) — For nearly 200 John Deere workers in Iowa, the first few days of 2025 marked the end of their employment. On Jan. 3, 112 employees were laid off at the Waterloo facility and 80 were laid off at John Deere Davenport Works. Next month, 75 additional employees will be laid off at a plant in Ottumwa, Iowa, according to a review of WARN layoff data. The Moline, Illinois-based agricultural giant laid off 2,167 workers in 2024 at facilities in Waterloo, Davenport, Dubuque, Ankeny, Johnston, Urbandale, Ottumwa in Iowa and in Moline and East Moline in Illinois, according to layoff data.

In a statement issued Monday, Deere attributed the cuts to “challenging market conditions” and subsequent lower demand from farmers. Deere’s profits peaked at record highs in 2022 at $10.16 billion, partly due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that sent crop prices soaring in the U.S., allowing farmers to spend more on equipment, according to Bloomberg. Since then, sales have declined 20% and Deere’s stock price is down 16%, according to the company. Profits in 2023 fell to $7.1 billion. CEO John May received $26.7 million in compensation in 2023 and $20.3 million in 2022, according to the company’s public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In a statement from Oct. 16 regarding last year’s layoffs, Deere noted that the U.S. Department of Agriculture had projected row-crop cash receipts to fall considerably for 2024 following a 5% drop in 2023. The statement also noted that the average price for corn being harvested at the time was down 37% from 2022. Soybean prices were down 24% and wheat prices had declined 35%. In June, Deere & Co announced plans to move manufacturing of skid steer loaders and compact track loaders from a facility in Dubuque, Iowa to Mexico by the end of 2026. A Deere representative told Industrial Equipment News that the move is “unrelated to the layoffs.”

In September, then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump threatened to impose a 200% tariff on John Deere products built in Mexico, and erroneously claimed in October that the company called off the move in response. A spokesperson for Deere & Co. told Bloomberg that no changes have been made to shift some production from Iowa to Mexico.

Investigate Midwest is an independent, nonprofit newsroom. Its mission is to serve the public interest by exposing dangerous and costly practices of influential agricultural corporations and institutions through in-depth and data-driven investigative journalism. Visit them online at investigatemidwest.org.

(Radio Iowa) – Forecasters say bitterly cold temperatures will return to Iowa this weekend and Jesse Germundson — executive director of the Northern Lights Alliance for the Homeless in Mason City — says they will not turn someone seeking shelter away. “When it gets this cold, we feel as a group and as a board and as staff and volunteers that we have a moral duty to the community that we serve to take these individuals off the streets because it gets very dangerous very quickly,” Germundson says.

“People encountering homeless or becoming homeless themselves, they need to connect with us in downtown Mason City and we will do our best to house you and give you a place to stay for a short period of time.” The group serves homeless individuals in a nine county region. During November and December, 72 people stayed at least one night in one of the group’s shelters. “We generally have 300 to 350 people stay in our shelters on any given year and the average is 15 to 30 days each,” he says.

“We see people coming from all over. With the interstate in our community and the highway system that we have as well as Mercy Medical Center, we get people from Des Moines, Minneapolis, Chicago, Detroit.” The organization operates a shelter for women and children and another shelter for men. Over the past two months Germundson says they’ve been over capacity. He says they’re stretched trying to help low income people passing through Mason City as well as residents who need help after finding a longer-term place to stay or completing one of the group’s sober living programs.

“We helped over 100 individuals with food, clothing, hygience, bus tokens (and) other diversions like bus tickets and gas money, toothbrushes and toothpaste,” he says. “We serve our clients the best we can.” The Northern Lights Alliance applied to a state agency distributing federal pandemic relief money and is now using a 137-thousand dollar grant to do things like provide rental assistance, help cover utility bills and hire another staff member.

The organization operates two sober living homes for men in the early days of recovery from an addiction.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – The Iowa Board of Regents gave Iowa State University the go-ahead Wednesday to move forward with its CyTown plans, approving a 30-year development agreement and lease agreement. ISU General Counsel and Chief Risk Officer Michael Norton told board members the agreements were “fundamental” to seeing the project progress. The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports, in a press release, ISU President Wendy Wintersteen said “The CyTown project would not be possible without the tremendous collaboration from many partners, including the Board of Regents, the City of Ames and McFarland Clinic.” She said “We look forward to the ongoing partnerships as the CyTown development begins to take shape.”

With the approval, the university will enter into a 30-year CyTown Management Agreement with Goldenrod Companies and Iowa State University Research Park, Norton said, in which Goldenrod will handle financing and construction of the development. Through the Master Ground Lease agreement, Iowa State University Research Park will oversee Goldenrod’s work in the construction and operation of the development.

The agreement also creates the CyTown Management Committee, made up of members from ISU and Research Park leadership and the board of regents, to direct the university’s partners in the development. Plans for the project include 72,000 square feet of retail and food and drink space, 90,000 square feet of office space, a 215-key hotel and an outdoor music venue with a capacity of 2,800 people, all with an estimated cost of between $175 million and $225 million.

(Photo by Brooklyn Draisey/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

That includes the McFarland Clinic, which was approved for development in June. The research park will be a “flow through entity” for revenue attributed to the university through the two agreements, meaning that it has no financial obligation to the project. In addition to overseeing Goldenrod and holding it accountable for its work and responsibilities, the research park will also have the “first right of rental” to office space in CyTown.

Regent Christine Hensley said in the meeting that she would like for the board to have regular updates on the project and its progress, so members can answer questions they receive from the public with confidence.