(Radio Iowa) – Current Iowa law says children under 12, drivers and front seat occupants of vehicles must be belted in, but an Iowa House committee may soon consider requiring that ALL occupants in a vehicle wear a seat belt. Chaney Yeast  — a lobbyist for Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines — spoke during a House subcommittee hearing on the bill.

“Motor vehicle safety has improved over time. We know those belts are standard in all the vehicles, so we think now is the time to move forward with this.” Yeast says research shows back seat passengers who aren’t wearing a seat belt can be critically injured or killed in a traffic accident.

“Hit something with the front of your car and the projectile that the passenger becomes, they can hit the back of the front seat,” Yeast said, “or over the back of the front seat through the windshield.”

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Association, 30 other states have mandatory seat belt laws for back seat passengers.

(Radio Iowa) – The governor’s bill to require screening of all future state employees, to ensure they are legally able to work in the U.S., has cleared a House subcommittee. Reynolds issued an executive order requiring checks of citizenship and immigration status in the federal government’s E-Verify and SAVE systems before people may be hired by state agencies or get a professional license from the state. The bill would make that policy state law. The bill also would deny pre-trial release to anyone arrested in Iowa who is not in the country legally.

Molly Severn is the legislative liaison for Governor Reynolds. “With millions of Biden-era illegal immigrants in our country, public safety threats are a reality in every state,” Severn said. “The governor intends to codify executive action she has already taken and build on it so that all Iowans can continue to build a life in safety and security.” The Iowa Catholic Conference and trial lawyers are raising concerns about limiting bail for illegal immigrants.

Lisa Davis-Cook with the Iowa Association for Justice says under the state constitution, all people – not just all citizens – should be eligible for bail in cases that do not involve serious crimes. “When someone is arrested that’s only an accusation,” Davis-Cook said. “They have not been convicted, so keeping them in jail before a conviction has serious consequences.”

The bill would also add more language to voter registration forms, making it clear a person who falsely claims to be a U.S. citizen on the form can be charged with election fraud and deported.

(Radio Iowa) – Seven Republicans in the Iowa Senate say they have a game plan that could lure the Chicago Bears to move the historic N-F-L franchise to Iowa. Senator Scott Webster of Bettendorf says the Quad Cities would be the most logical spot to build a new stadium.

The Bears’ ownership has talked for years about building a new stadium, with the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights the preferred location, but a bill moving through Indiana’s legislature would pave the way for a publicly financed stadium for the Bears in Gary, Indiana. The bill introduced in the Iowa Senate would make an N-F-L stadium eligible for Iowa’s Major Economic Growth Attraction or MAGA Program — with property tax breaks and refundable tax credits for the initial investment and the new jobs created, along with refunds of sales taxes paid during construction.

Webster, who was born in 1980, was alive when the Bears won the Super Bowl 40 years ago and is serving as a spokesman for the group pushing this plan.

Webster, though, closes his pitch with the title of the Bears’ Fight Song.

(Radio Iowa) – A report from the Iowa Attorney General’s Office finds a Dubuque police officer was justified in a shooting that killed a man outside a bar. The report says Officer Austin Manders was on routine patrol January 4th when he spotted a group of men fighting in the street outside the Odd Fellows Bar. All but two of the men fled as the officer stopped, and then he saw one of the men shoot the other.

Officer Manders fired at the man who than fled into the bar. Officers found Jai Lovely inside the bar unconscious with a gunshot wound to his stomach. Lovely and the victim, Cory Michael Wilson, were taken to the hospital where both later died.

Police recovered the gun used by Lovely, and the bullet recovered from Wilson’s body during the autopsy matched the gun.

(Red Oak, IA) – The Red Oak Police Department reports the arrest at around 10-a.m. today (Tuesday), of 40-year-old Aaron Lucas Allen, from Red Oak. Allen was taken into custody on a Red Oak Police warrant for Driving While Suspended. He was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on bond amounting to $491.25.

(Atlantic, IA) – A regular meeting of the Atlantic School District’s Board of Education will take place beginning at 6-p.m. on Wed., Feb. 11th (2026), in the Atlantic High School Media Center. Action items on the Board’s Agenda include:

• Consideration of Superintendent Dr. Beth Johnsen’s recommendation to terminate district employee Jesse McCann. As you may recall, McCann was place on administrative leave. The Board was set to act on his resignation on Feb. 4th, but that meeting was cancelled the night before, and announced as a large crowd gathered the morning of the 4th in the Middle School Conference Room. Those in attendance at the meeting wanted McCann fired, based on allegations of inappropriate conduct with students. The Atlantic Police Department investigated the allegations, but to date, no charges have been filed.
• Setting the date for a Public Hearing on the 2026-2027 School Master Calendar, and
• Setting the date for the first Public Hearing for the FY27 Budget.

PUBLIC AGENDA 02112026

The Board will also act on the following resignations:

• Melanie McDermott (Food Service), effective 1/30/2026
• Brenden Casey (9th Grade Football Coach), effective in the Fall of 2026, and
• Allison Widrowicz (Special Education Teacher), effective at the end of the current school year.

The Atlantic School Board will also act on recommendations to hire the following:

• Spring Sport Contracts
• Summer Sport Contracts
• Heath Kelly, HS Asst. Football Coach (Fall 2026)
• Kenna McGurren (9-12th Grade Visual Arts Teacher (Fall 2026).

(Radio Iowa) – Temperatures are going to be above normal again today (Tuesday) but not near the 60’s we saw across parts of Iowa Monday. National Weather Service meteorologist Kristy Carter says its around a 20 degree drop. “We’ll have highs that are back in the 40s across much of the state, 50s kind of towards the Iowa-Nebraska border. And then we’re going to stay kind of in the highs in the 40s through the middle part of the week,” she says. Carter says we won’t likely see 60’s again this week, but it’s still warm for this time of year.

“That’s still a little bit above normal. Early February, kind of normal temperatures are going to be in like the low to mid 30s, kind of in the central and southern portions of the state and kind of like mid to upper 20s in the northern part of the state,” Carter says. Carter says there doesn’t appear to be a big drop in temperatures coming in the near future. “for what we can at least look at, we’re looking at these highs in the 40s all the way through kind of mid-week and then even into early to late next weekend, potentially another bit of a warm up back towards the 50s,” she says.

Des Moines saw a record high of 67 Monday, breaking the record set in 1976. Atlantic’s High of 70 broke the record of 59 set in 1954, 2000 & 2009.

(Radio Iowa) – A bill that aims to expand access to intensive mental health services outside of a hospital setting has advanced through a House subcommittee. So-called “subacute” facilities help stabilize people in crisis and begin treatment until providers decide on a longer-term plan for the patient. Mary Neubauer is a mental health advocate who lost her son to suicide several years ago. She says the bill would remove limits on the duration of subacute care and require more insurance coverage.

“It was the level of care we so desperately needed for our son but could not find when he was in crisis,” Neubauer said, “so I’m incredibly grateful that the bill we’re discussing here today, House File 2220, makes numerous comprehensive changes that can help subacute mental health care programs be established and expanded in our state.”

Many insurance companies are opposed to the bill. A lobbyist for a Medicaid managed care organization says it would require them to cover subacute care for much longer than is typical or even useful for patients.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa public schools would have to adopt student dress codes that promote personal hygiene, neatness and modesty under a bill that’s cleared a House subcommittee. Republican Representative Samantha Fett of Carlisle says the bill sets minimum standards. “Making sure that all school districts are implementing those consistently,” Fett said, “and setting those guardrails for students and administration.” Representative Angel Ramirez, a Democrat from Cedar Rapids, works in a middle school.

Ramirez says she’s concerned about a section of the bill requiring students to wear clothes that are clean and in good repair, as she sees a lot of kids wearing clothes that would violate that standard. “It’s because their parents, you know, couldn’t either afford electricity that month, water that month,” Ramirez said, “so I’m a little concerned that paired with the consequences might become too punitive for some of our poorer students.”

The bill calls for clear consequences for violating the dress code, which would not only apply during the school day, but during extracurricular activities. The bill would ban any gang-related attire and it says a student’s clothes must adequately cover the body. Exposing undergarments or midriffs would be prohibited.

As we’ve mentioned previously: Smith resigned from the Chamber on September 15th. She turned herself in to the Cass County Sheriff’s Office on October 8th and was released on bond. According to a criminal complaint, between January 2020 and August 2025, Smith allegedly made 761 personal transactions with Chamber funds totaling $26,913.22, of which $6,632.38 was admitted by Smith. She was charged with Theft in the First Degree for allegedly misappropriating over $10,000.

Smith also allegedly orchestrated a scheme from November 2022 to August 2025, making 47 fraudulent transfers between Chamber bank accounts to cover up her theft. The loss amounted to $76,215, and resulted in the charges of Fraudulent Practice in the First Degree and Ongoing Criminal Conduct.

Additionally, Smith allegedly used Chamber-issued credit cards for approximately $25,065.71 in personal expenses, with $6,632.38 acknowledged by her in a letter to the Chamber Board. She was charged with Unauthorized Use of a Credit Card over $10,000.