(Radio Iowa) — Changing the way a state tax credit is awarded to home builders is one of the recommendations in this week’s “Empower Rural Iowa” report. Lieutenant Governor-elect Adam Gregg says the “workforce housing tax credit” is currently awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. “It doesn’t really matter if it’s the best project. It doesn’t matter if it’s shovel-ready. If you’re in line, that’s good enough,” Gregg says. “What we’re recommending is let’s turn that into a competitive program which will encourage communities, encourage developers to sharpen their pencil, make sure they’ve got a project ready to go and we can fund the projects that are ready sooner than others.”

Five million dollars’ worth of tax credits are available each year for developers who build homes in Iowa. Small — but the credits have already been claimed for the next five years. Changing the distribution of the “workforce housing tax credit” is a top recommendation from the “Empower Rural Iowa” working groups Governor Reynolds assembled this summer. The governor asked Gregg to lead the initiative. “We had a short timeline and a focus on finding some concrete solutions that could be implemented quickly,” Gregg says, “some recommendations the governor could consider ahead of this next legislative session.”

The Empower Rural Iowa task forces are calling on the governor to create an “Office of Rural Affairs’ in state government. The group also highlighted the need for state subsidies to expand broadband service in rural Iowa.

(Radio Iowa) — The definition of “snow day” is changing for middle school and high school students in one northwest Iowa school district. Tara Paul, superintendent at Estherville Lincoln Central Schools, says there will be “online learning days” in her district when winter weather is too treacherous for students and staff to get to school. “It’s not going to be where they are sitting behind the computer or at their device for eight hours,” Paul says. “It will be: ‘We have a five to 10 minute assignment,’ maybe ‘A 10 to 15 minute assignment’ depending on their age level and on the course.”

There could be longer assignments for high school courses. “Our teachers will be available to the students throughout the day and that could be through email, it could be through a phone call, it could be through Google Hangout, any other video chat that the teachers choose to use,” Paul says. “The kids will be either practicing or learning material and then having an opportunity to ask questions on that material from their teachers throughout the day.”

Teachers are encouraged to collaborate on course work. “So they won’t have any social studies the first snow day, but the second snow day social studies will have a longer activity and they won’t have any English or literacy that day,” Paul says. The school has plotted out a schedule for up to nine snow days. The first three days classes in the classroom are cancelled will be “online learning days” for students. The next three snow days will be professional development days for staff. Snow days number seven, eight and nine — if there are that many snow days in the Estherville Lincoln Central District this season — would be more “virtual days’ for students. The school is making arrangements for students who do not have online access outside of school, so all students can be involved in the learning process during a snow day. If the weather is truly frightful, with power being knocked out in the area, the school will opt for the traditional snow day — and kids in the Estherville Lincoln Central district will not have to check in online.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Government investigators say the board created to enforce Iowa’s open meetings law violated its requirements last year by twice refusing to explain its votes in a high-profile case. The Iowa Public Information Board has set a goal of being the most transparent government body in Iowa and setting the standard for those it regulates. Yet a report released Thursday by the state ombudsman’s office says the board went into closed session on shaky legal footing during two meetings last year to discuss a case.

The report says the board then took votes in open meetings that were so vague that the public had no idea what actions were taken. The Open Meetings Law requires that decisions be “easily accessible to the people.” The report says the board refused to provide minutes and audio recordings from its closed sessions despite a state law that grants the ombudsman access. The board denies any wrongdoing.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Police are investigating a man’s death in central Des Moines as a homicide. Officers sent Wednesday afternoon to check on a resident found the man’s body. His name hasn’t been released, and police have not said what led officers to suspect a crime had been committed. No arrests have been reported. Police say the slaying is Des Moines’ 11th homicide of the year.