(Des Moines, Iowa) -The National Weather Service, in their Hazardous Weather Outlook, says scattered thunderstorms are expected to develop over western Iowa late this afternoon and spread into parts of central Iowa through the evening hours. A few strong to severe storms are possible with large hail and damaging winds. A low tornado threat does exist.

Another chance for thunderstorms arrives on Saturday. A few strong or even severe storms could occur once again. Sunday and Monday will be cooler with highs in the 60s to low 70s before warmer temperatures return for Tuesday through Thursday. A few showers or isolated storms may linger on Sunday then mostly dry conditions will follow.

Spotters may be needed at times late today through Saturday.

(Creston, Iowa) – Officials with the Creston Police Department report an Adair County man was arrested early this (Friday) morning. 34-year-old Michael D. Crigger, of Greenfield, was arrested at 302 N. Pine Street in Creston, and charged with Operating While Under the Influence/1st Offense. Crigger was taken to Union County Jail and posted a $1,000 bond before being released.

Thursday morning, 37-year-old Tyler Dean Gage, of Kent, was arrested at Cromwell Road and Highway 34. Gage was charged with Harassment 3rd Degree and Assault with Intent to Inflict Serious Injury. He was taken to Union County Jail and later posted a $2,000 bond before being released.

(Grimes, Iowa) – State Auditor Rob Sand reports 15 Iowa school districts have been awarded a combined $11.5-million in funding from the Clean School Bus Program to replace 32 existing school buses with “clean” or zero-emission buses. In this area, the districts include the:

• Audubon Community School District
• Coon Rapids-Bayard School District
• IKM-Manning School District
• Logan-Magnolia, and the
• Sidney Community School Districts

The program was established by the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and provides $5 billion over the next five years to replace existing school buses with clean and zero-emissions models that cost less to operate. Auditor Sand says “The Clean School Bus Program saves Iowa school districts millions of dollars. It also shows that when lawmakers from both parties work together, they are more likely to create real solutions that put our kids and our communities on the right path.”

Auditor Rob Sand tours Sea Electric in Grimes

This is the first round of funding from the Clean School Bus Program. Auditor Sand is encouraging Iowa school districts to apply for the second round of funding which will provide an estimated $400 million in competitive grants for clean and zero-emissions school buses. School district officials interested in learning more about the program may email questions to cleanschoolbus@epa.gov. The deadline to submit an application is Tuesday, August 22, 2023, at 11:59 pm (ET).

Auditor Sand announced the 2022 awardees during a tour of Sea Electric in Grimes. Sea Electric is a global automotive technology company leading the way in the development of electric drive systems for commercial vehicles including school buses. The tour showcased a school bus that will soon be retrofitted with electric vehicle technology.

(Radio Iowa)- The two newest additions to Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines are from the rain forests of Columbia, very rare primates known as cotton-top tamarins. Zoo spokesman Ryan Bickel says most Iowans will never have seen one of these creatures up-close, if they’ve even heard of a tamarin. The species is critically endangered, Bickel says. It’s estimated there are fewer than two-thousand left in natural areas. The tamarins have brown fur across their backs, but they also have distinctive snow-white manes.

Tamarin Photos via Blank Park Zoo’s Facebook page

Bickel says tamarins look like they might have been the inspiration for an ’80s rock band hairstyle. He says the tiny, fast-moving tamarins are curious and playful, they’re excellent climbers, and their habitat at the zoo is set up to recreate their South American forest home. Their names are Kida and Eddie, and the tamarins are a breeding pair within the Species Survival Plan, so zoo officials hope to see babies in the future.

(Radio Iowa) – The Board of Regents held the first reading of a proposed increase in tuition at the three state universities at its meeting Thursday. Brad Berg of the Regents’ office explained the proposal. “The proposed base undergraduate resident tuition increases include a three and a half percent increase at each of the three universities and that amounts to 305 dollars at the University of Iowa, 304 dollars at Iowa State, and 285 dollars at U-N-I,” Berg says.

The proposal would also increase mandatory fees at the U-I by 306 dollars, 60 dollars at I-S-U, and 32 dollars at U-N-I. Regent David Barker pointed out that the proposed tuition increase is well below the recent inflation numbers. “Which are running close to five, below the most recent increase in Iowa personal income per capita, that’s about seven-point-four percent. Below most recent median household income numbers in Iowa which is about five-point-two percent,” Barker says. “So, I mean, we’re we’re continuing to be affordable for middle class Iowans.”

Barker says students are really getting a tuition cut. “In real terms after inflation we’re cutting tuition because our increase is less than the inflation rate,” Barker says.

David Barker (Board of Regents photo)

Barker is an Iowa City native, who is an economist who owns a company that manages and develops apartments and real estate. The Regent’s staff says the increases are needed after the legislature denied a request for an increase of 32 million dollars in state support for the universities. The second and final reading of the proposed increase will be held at the Board’s June 13th meeting. They will also hear from student leaders on the increase at that time as well.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa homeowners, business owners and renters who had damage in the severe storms and tornadoes on March 31st have until the middle of next week to apply for low-interest loans in-person through the U-S Small Business Administration. Cynthia Cowell, spokeswoman for the S-B-A’s Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience, says the agency set up a temporary office in the Coralville Library back in April and it’ll be closing on Wednesday (May 17th).

“We can offer up to $200,000 for homeowners to repair their primary dwelling,” Cowell says, “up to $40,000 for homeowners and renters to replace their personal property, and up to $2 million for businesses both for physical damage to their business and economic injury.” These loans are available to businesses and residents in eight Iowa counties: Benton, Cedar, Iowa, Johnson, Linn, Louisa, Muscatine and Washington. If they have access to the internet, Cowell suggests they start by visiting the website: sba.gov/disaster.

“That’ll give them information about disaster loans and also provide the application,” Cowell says. “They can either download it and mail it in, or if they want to do it before we close at the Coralville Library, they can download it and bring it to us and we’ll look it over.” Homeowners who’d like to apply for a loan in-person do -not- have to bring along receipts detailing repairs or photos showing the damage.

“We’ll ask for that in processing. Mainly what they need to do is come in and complete an application to get the whole thing started,” Cowell says. “We will require tax returns for the last three years for businesses, but if they don’t have them with them right now, I know that tornadoes have a tendency to scatter items, then we’ll work with them.” The application deadline for physical damage assistance is June 26th. For businesses that had no physical damage but suffered economic losses after the storm, the S-B-A also offers Economic Injury Disaster Loans. The application deadline for EIDLs for this event is January 26, 2024.

(Radio Iowa) – Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is proposing that the voting age be raised to 25, with some exceptions. Ramaswamy’s proposed amendment to the constitution would let Americans who volunteer for a six month stint in the military or as first responders vote when they reach the age of 18. Young adults who pass the same civics test administered to applicants for U.S. citizenship would get the right to vote before the age of 25 under his plan, too.

“Some of you will not agree with it and that is OK,” Ramaswamy says, “…but I think if we are going to pass on civic pride to the next generation, we can’t anymore just be a country that you inherit. We have to come a country that we all have a stake in creating, in building together.” Ramaswamy released his proposal yesterday (Thursday) while campaigning in Iowa and drew cheers last (Thursday) night from a crowd in Urbandale.

“We’re going to have to think big,” Ramaswamy says. “We’re going to have to ambitious. This problem is not going to solve itself on its own. I think it is a problem that young people don’t vote enough in this country, but if you make it something that you actually have to earn, you value it any more. It’s human nature. It’s psychology.”

Ramaswamy — the author of a book titled “A Nation of Victims” — says young people are being taught to hate the country. He cites a recent survey from Morning Consult, a firm that specializes in online polling. It found only 16 percent of Generation Z is proud to live in the U.S. “We’re going to have to think big to find our way out of this decline in national pride for the next generation,” Ramaswamy says. “If we let that slide go, that’s a generation lost. We don’t have a generation to lose in this country.”

Ramaswamy’s proposal would affect some, but not all of those in Generation Z, which is generally considered to be people between the ages of 13 and 27. Ramaswamy is 37 and the youngest candidate in the field of G-O-P presidential candidates. He’s a former hedge fund manager and was C-E-O of a biotech company.

(Radio Iowa)  – The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected two major farm groups’ challenge of a California law requiring breeding pigs have more space in livestock confinements.

The American Farm Bureau and the Iowa-based National Pork Producers Council argued it will cost the swine industry up to $360 million to abide by the California requirement and reconfigure the pens for sows. The groups also contend the 2018 California ballot initiative opens the door to having other states pass regulations that affect farm operations outside their borders.

Trish Cook, a pig farmer from Winthrop who’s president of the Iowa Pork Producers Association, said some small and medium-sized producers will go out of business and consumers will pay higher prices for pork because of the Supreme Court’s decision. “To say it’s disappointing is a large understatement,” Cook said.

Cook suggests upholding Proposition 12 — the voter approved California animal welfare standards — may lead to an escalation of farming regulations. “The ruling sets a really bad precedent because it does enable states to regulate commerce outside their boundaries,” Cook said.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that companies must normally comply with the laws in states where their products are sold. Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, in a tweet, said the court is letting extremists in California effectively ban bacon that comes from Iowa hogs. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley also tweeted after the ruling was issued, saying you can expect to pay more for bacon, since California’s the largest consumer market and pork producers nationwide will have to respond to these regulations.

In a written statement, Iowa Ag Secretary Mike Naig said the court’s decision will allow large states to start dictating how other industries and businesses in the rest of America operate.

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds says after providing state funded accounts to cover private school expenses, raising the pay of PUBLIC school teachers will be on her 2024 legislative agenda. Reynolds says she’ll also focus on improving reading scores among public school students in the early grades. “So that we’re making sure that every student has an opportunity to succeed and be successful, so stay tuned,” Reynolds says. “There’ll be more to come next year. I’m really excited to work on that over the interim.”

The average salary for a public school teacher in Iowa is about 10 percent below the national average. Reynolds says lawmakers are giving public schools authority to divert some already approved state funding to pay teachers more, but as she campaigned around the state for her plan to state help to parents who send their kids to private school, it was clear that pay for public school teachers is an issue.  “As I talked to rural administrators and worked with rural legislators, the two concerns were the…flexibility as well as being able to be competitive for teacher salaries,” Reynolds says. “They weren’t able to pay a lot of times as much as some of the more urban school districts were able to pay.”

At the end of the month, low income parents who enroll a child in a private school this fall will be able to apply for 76-hundred dollars in state money to cover tuition and other private school expenses. Some private schools have announced fall tuition increases, as high as 10 percent in some Catholic schools in the Diocese of Des Moines. Reynolds says that shouldn’t dilute the impact of the program.

“All schools are experiencing increased costs,” Reynolds says. “We’ve had our public schools talk about it, too, and that’s why every year we look at a State Supplemental Aid Payment because we recognize that there are increased costs…The other component of it is that private school teachers were paid considerably less than public school teachers and maybe this will make them be a little bit more competitive.”

Reynolds made her comments today (Thursday) during taping of Iowa Press, which airs Friday night at Iowa P-B-S. Earlier this year, Reynolds approved a three percent increase in general state aid for public schools.