COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – June 16, 2017 – The southbound Interstate 29 on-ramp at 25th Street (exit 55) will be closed after the morning rush hour Monday, June 19th, until approximately late July 2017, weather permitting, according to the Iowa Department of Transportation’s District 4 office, in Atlantic. The southbound I-29 traffic will be shifted to the northbound lanes (one lane in each direction)

Construction during the 2017 season is part of the Iowa DOT’s Council Bluffs Interstate System Improvement Program. The Iowa DOT reminds motorists to drive with caution, obey the posted speed limit and other signs in the work area, and be aware that traffic fines for moving violations are at least double in work zones. As in all work zones, drivers should stay alert, allow ample space between vehicles, and wear seat belts.

The latest traveler information is available anytime through the 511 system. Visit 511ia.org; call 511 (within Iowa) or 800-288-1047 (nationwide); stay connected with 511 on Facebook or Twitter (find links at https://iowadot.gov/511/511-social-media-sites); or download the free app to your mobile device.

Des Moines (Radio Iowa) — The new leader of the largest agency in state government vows to “improve morale” among “front-line” social workers and conduct a “bottom-to-the-top” review of Iowa’s child welfare system. Yesterday (Thursday) was Jerry Foxhoven’s first day as director of the Iowa Department of Human Services.  “Part of my challenge will be to work with the people in that system right now and for all of us to step back and say: ‘What are we doing that’s working? What we doing that’s not working?’ And if it’s not working, we need to change it.”

An outside consultant has already begun a review of cases involving two teenage girls who died after being adopted by their foster families. After just a few hours as the agency’s director, Foxhoven says what he knows about the cases is what he’s learned from media reports. “These are terrible tragedies. They’re awful. It sickens me and shocks me,” Foxhoven says, “but I certainly know if kids have come to our attention and they end up the way these kids ended up, that we need to look and say: ‘How did this happen and what do we need to change it so that it doesn’t happen again?'”

Foxhoven is a 64-year-old attorney and Drake Law School professor who has spent his career as a child advocate. He led several groups that advised the department on the foster care system and juvenile detention. Foxhoven says after a conversation with Governor Kim Reynolds, he got “fired him up” about taking the reins at D-H-S. “I felt like going to the Kentucky Derby and being one of the horses behind that gate, saying: ‘Open that gate. I want to run!'” Foxhoven says. “And so I’m excited about it.”

Reynolds told reporters earlier this month she was looking for a D-H-S director who wasn’t “afraid…to do things differently.” Foxhoven says he’s a “mission-driven” person and the governor gave him a pretty simple mission. “What she didn’t say was: ‘Keep me out of the newspaper. We’re looking bad. Help me look good.” She never said that,” Foxhoven says. “What she did say to me is: ‘Tell us whatever it is we need to do to make it safer for kids in Iowa,’ and so that made it really easy to say: ‘I want to do this.'”

Foxhoven grew up in Yankton, South Dakota, in what he describes as a “working-class family.” Foxhoven got a degree from Morningside College in Sioux City, majoring in history and political science. After earning a law degree from Drake University, he stayed to work in central Iowa.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Kim Reynolds has made it semiofficial: She intends to run for governor of Iowa next year. Reynolds ascended to the governor’s chair from her post as lieutenant governor last month, replacing Terry Branstad after his confirmation as U.S. ambassador to China. She’d been widely expected to run but had yet to make a formal announcement.

A news release from her campaign organization said this Thursday:

“The Governor and Lt. Governor intend to be candidates for Governor and Lt. Governor in 2018. A final decision and formal announcement will be made in the coming months.”

Her running mate would be the state’s acting lieutenant governor, Adam Gregg. She named him to replace her but only in an “acting” capacity in order to avoid any legal fight over her power.

Gas prices are continuing to drop as crude oil prices fall. Radio Iowa’s Dar Danielson says the report from the state ag department shows the average price for regular unleaded gas in Iowa as of Tuesday was two-dollars, 25 cents a gallon. That’s down four cents from last week. It’s also seven cents lower than last year. A look at the Gasbuddy website shows the lowest price of one-dollar, 99 cents a gallon is in Storm Lake. It also shows many other areas of the state with prices just above two-dollars a gallon. The national average retail gasoline price was two-dollars, 32 cents a gallon.

(Radio Iowa)