DES MOINES, Iowa (KCRG) – Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird joined 20 other attorneys general in filing a brief opposing a federal judge’s order that restrained ICE agents’ tactics.

The brief opposed an order that found ICE likely violated Minnesotans’ constitutional rights. That order stopped agents from using tactics like pepper-spraying non-violent observers.

The brief was filed prior to the January 24 shooting of Alex Pretti, a VA nurse, by a border patrol agent. This incident marks the second shooting by a federal officer this month.

A federal court has since paused that order without an explanation, allowing ICE to continue its operation.

Bird’s brief criticized what she called “not-mostly peaceful protesting” and argued protesters are taking aggressive tactics to interfere with law enforcement.

(Radio Iowa) – President Donald Trump says the top G-O-P leaders in congress are working on a deal that would ensure year-round sales of E-15 — the fuel that contains 15 percent ethanol. “I am trusting Speaker Mike Johnson, who’s great, and Leader John Thune, who’s great — that’s House and Senate — to find a deal that works,” Trump said. “We’ve got it for farmers, consumers and refiners — including small and mid-sized refiners.”

The issue was removed from a government spending bill last week after push back from critics in the House. During a speech in Iowa yesterday (Tuesday), Trump pushed the issue back into the spotlight with a question of the crowd. “Do you want me to do something with ethanol? Maybe,” Trump said, to cheers. Trump also cited a statement he made on the Iowa campaign trail in 2023.”In the campaign I promised to support E15 all year round,” Trump said.

E-10, which is 90 percent unleaded gas and 10 percent ethanol, is the most common blended fuel in the market today. While E-15 is available in many markets, the E-P-A has cited smog concerns and banned selling E-15 during the summer months. Iowa Renewable Fuels Association Executive Director Monte Shaw says Trump’s remarks are an important signal. “He publicly was telling congress to get this to his desk,” Shaw said, “and I think that’s going to be very helpful in getting the last few votes we need to get a deal through congress.”

Shaw is among a small group of ethanol advocates that met with Trump at a restaurant yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon to talk about E-15. “I think E15 could be President Trump’s singular achievement for farmers if he can actually push this through congress. I mean after all, we’ve been trying to do that for 10 years,” Shaw said. “…This would be brand new market demand and he would be the godfather of E15.” Trump spoke for nearly an hour to a crowd at an events center in Clive, reviewing his first year back in the White House and focusing on this year’s mid-term elections.

“If we lose the midterms, you’ll lose so many of the things we’re talking about, so many of the assets that we’re talking about, so many of the tax cuts that we’re talking about,” Trump said. “…I mean, I’m here because I love Iowa, but I’m here because we’re starting the campaign to win the midterms. You’ve got to win the midterms.” Second District Congresswoman Ashley Hinson, who’s running for the U-S Senate, and Third District Congressman Zach Nunn of Ankeny spoke to the crowd before Trump arrived.

“I’m asking for your help,” Nunn said. “The third district alone is one of the most competitive districts in the country and if we don’t have this, I’m going to tell you what’s going to happen: we’re going to lose our majority.” A few hours before Trump’s remarks, Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart told reporters Iowans are literally paying more because of his disastrous policies — like tariffs.

Tracy Chew, a U-A-W member recently laid off from the soon-to-close C-N-H plant in Burlington — joined the online news conference. “As far as Donald Trump…the tariffs and his policies, unfortunately those are not protecting the Americans that built these products,” Chew said. Outside the Trump rally, protesters lined the street. They carried signs demanding the removal of immigration and border patrol agents from Minneapolis.

Shirley Keenan of Des Moines says immigration officers are treating people inhumanely. “He needs to have a heart and follow the Constitution, quite frankly,” she said. “And Congress needs to act as they are supposed to, as a third equal branch of government and a check on the executive branch.”

A protester inside for Trump’s speech yelled “Release the files!” — a reference to the files related to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein — and was escorted out by police.

(Radio Iowa) – A state senator announced Monday she has uterine cancer and is undergoing surgery today (Tuesday). While there’s no known prevention for uterine cancer, a women’s health expert urges young Iowa women to get the H-P-V vaccine to greatly increase their odds of preventing a similar disease — cervical cancer. Dr. Alexa Lowry, an obstetrician gynecologist at Emplify Health by Gundersen, says the vaccine can be given as young as age nine and she notes, cervical cancer is highly treatable, depending on when it’s found.

“Like any cancer, it depends on what stage it’s at when it’s identified,” Lowry says. “So, of course, if it is caught early, the survival rates can be a lot higher and sometimes can be quoted in the 90s percents, versus if it’s caught much later or more progressed, then the survival rates can be a lot lower.” Lowry says two types of tests can be done in a doctor’s office or clinic that can spot this type of cancer, the H-P-V test or a pap test.

“It is very rare for young women to get cervical cancer,” Lowry says. “I think the peak age is around 50, but somewhere in the reproductive years to 50s is most common. It’s very rare for women in their 20s and younger.” State health officials say about 110 new cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed every year in Iowa, or about 14-thousand cases per year nationwide. Lowry says cervical cancer is considered a preventable cancer.

“Getting the HPV vaccination and maintaining your screening with pap smears or HPV testing through your wellness visits with your provider,” Lowry says, “those are the ways that we can prevent abnormalities of the cervix, catch them if they’re there, and then prevent cancer altogether.”

Emplify Healthy by Gundersen has clinics in Calmar, Decorah, Fayette, Lansing, Postville and Waukon, and a hospital in West Union. State Senator Catelin Drey of Sioux City says she’s been diagnosed with stage one uterine cancer. Drey was elected to the Iowa Senate last year in a special election held to fill the vacancy created when Senator Rocky De Witt died of pancreatic cancer.

(Atlantic, IA) – Officials with Vision Atlantic, a non-profit 501(c) organization, said Tuesday (Today), J & R Tax Service, owned by Cody Newman, Jan and Becky, has made a generous donation of $20,000 in support of Vision Atlantic’s transformative community development project, which includes a new housing development, child development center, and YMCA expansion.

“Our success has always been rooted in the support of this community,” expressed J & R Tax Service owner, Becky. “We believe every successful project takes a village, and this one will play a vital role in strengthening our local economy. Proper housing and expanded childcare are essential for a community to truly thrive.”

Vision Atlantic, through extensive research and surveying of the community and surrounding region, identified three areas that will help increase Atlantic’s population: expanded childcare, quality housing and quality of life amenities. Infrastructure for the 142 mixed unit Camblin Hills housing development and 300 capacity child development center is almost complete, with construction of 48 homes currently underway. Construction of the child development center and YMCA expansion is slated to begin in 2026.

Vision Atlantic has a fundraising goal of $39 million, which will be used to construct the YMCA expansion and child development center. To date, they have raised $34.1 million of that goal, thanks to an $8.6 million lead grant from the Charles E. Lakin Foundation and significant support from local donors. In addition to their grant support, the Lakin Foundation has created a separate investment fund of $23 million that will be used to construct homes in the Camblin Hills housing development. The capital will be used as a line of credit, and as the dollars are paid back, the Foundation will donate up to 5% of the interest paid back to Vision Atlantic, who will use those dollars to operate the child development center.

Vision Atlantic’s Project Committee is actively working to secure the remaining $4.9 million needed to meet their fundraising goal. If you are interested in helping transform Atlantic, whether it’s through monetary donations or acts of volunteerism, please contact Vision Atlantic at visionatlanticiowa@gmail.com. Visit www.visionatlantic.org and follow on Facebook for behind-the-scenes access to project updates and in-depth information of the project scope.

Vision Atlantic is a 501(c)(3) non-profit whose mission is to empower growth, enhance lives, and build a thriving community together through the economic development of Atlantic, Iowa.

(Radio Iowa) – Senate Republican Leader Mike Klimesh says it’s time to find a solution to the five-year-long debate over a proposed carbon pipeline and Klimesh says his alternative will fix a flaw in state regulations. Klimesh led a subcommittee hearing this (Tuesday) morning on the House-passed bill that would ban the use of eminent domain for the project. It concluded with Klimesh discussing his own plan to widen the proposed route so Summit Carbon could go around landowners who don’t want the pipeline on their property.

“We are all concerned about their property rights. Everybody in the Senate is. Everybody in both chambers is and it’s time for us to find a solution, but find a solution that allows us to get ourselves and dig ourselves out of the box we have currently put ourselves in by over-regulating the noticed corridor.” Klimesh says current regulations forbid Summit from approaching other property owners who might sign easements. Landowners who’ve refused to sign contracts with Summit back the House bill that bans the use of eminent domain and they say under Klimesh’s bill, Summit could still seize some land. Marjorie Swan and her sister own two farms in Wright County that are in the pipeline’s current path.

“Landowners cannot enter into the negotiation process when the heavy hand of big government is tipping the scale in favor of multi-million dollar CO2 pipeline companies via threats of eminent domain,” Swan said. The ethanol industry and the Iowa Corn Growers Association back Klimesh’s plan and say without the pipeline in Iowa, they’ll lose money shipping corn to Nebraska ethanol plants because a carbon pipeline is now operating there. Union representatives say the pipeline will create thousands of valuable construction jobs and the House bill would endanger the project. Dylan Gramlich is a lobbyist for the Laborers’ International Union of North America which has members who specialize in key aspects of pipeline construction and hope to work on Summit’s project.

“For our trade alone, that breaks down to over 2 million man-and-woman hours on this project,” Gramlich said, “and that’s roughly the same amount that our members accrue in a full construction season.” Cynthia Hanson owns a farm in Shelby County that’s in the pipeline route and backs the House bill. “Labor jobs are important and I understand that and I don’t want you guys losing jobs, but farmers are businesses, too, and we have jobs,” she said. “…We want our land safe to do our jobs on.”

Once the Senate Commerce Committee meets to consider the House plan that would ban eminent domain for the pipeline, Klimesh intends to switch it out for his own proposal.

DES MOINES, Iowa – An Ankeny man was sentenced Monday (January 26, 2026), to a six-month term of probation for violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. According to public court documents and evidence presented at sentencing, 82-year-old Joseph Thomas Lamb drove his vehicle into a flock of Canada Geese on State Street in Ankeny around 6:30 am on June 10, 2025. Lamb stopped to let a flock of nine Canada Geese cross in front of his vehicle. When the geese were in the middle of his lane, he accelerated into the geese, killing one of the geese. In addition to a six-month term of probation, Lamb was ordered to pay a $2000 fine.

The Canada Goose is a migratory bird protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service maintains a list of birds protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Violations of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act are punishable by up to six months in prison, a fine of up to $15,000, and a term of supervised release of not more than one year.

United States Attorney David C. Waterman of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. The Ankeny Police Department investigated the case.

If you believe you have information related to a wildlife crime that violates federal law, please reach out to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

You may also submit a wildlife crime report to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) using the Turn in Poachers (TIP) online form or call the TIP Hotline at 1-800-532-2020.

(Red Oak, IA) – The Board of Supervisors in Montgomery County met this (Tuesday) morning, during their regular weekly session at the courthouse, in Red Oak. During the meeting, they heard a Quarterly report from Richard Mullen of Resilient Recovery Counseling, a Villisca-based recovery treatment approach.

Here’s a bit of what he said to say, with regard to their Integrated Resource Recovery Teams (IRRT) services.

Mullen said the team approach is designed to help anyone whose life has been impacted by a substance abuse or opioid disorder.

The services often feature clinical therapy, vocational training, peer support, and family involvement to help individuals gain stability and purpose. In her report to the Board, Montgomery County Engineer Karen Albert presented a resolution for the board to approve, awarding the construction of a Low Water Crossing on 210th Street, to Nelson & Rock Contracting.

Supervisor Mark Peterson reads from a portion of the resolution that was approved by the Board….

Karen Albert said the late start date for the project is April 1st. Albert also gave the Board a very brief, weekly report on Secondary Roads Department maintenance and activities.

Under New Business on their agenda, the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors discussed and them approved changes to the County Personnel Handbook. County Auditor Jill Ozuna…

 

(Creston, IA) – A Union County man was arrested Monday evening on an assault charge. The Creston Police Department reports 38-year-old Wesley Gene Keeler, Jr., of Creston, was arrested at around 5:25-p.m. in the vicinity of Adams and Elm Streets, in Creston. Keeler was charged with Domestic Abuse Assault – Strangulation with Bodily Injury.

He was taken to Union County Jail. Keeler was being held without bond until making an appearance before a magistrate.

(Guthrie Center, IA) – The Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office, Monday, said no injuries were reported to drivers whose vehicles collided with deer last week. Both collisions occurred on Thursday. The first happened at around 12:35-p.m., as a van driven by 73-year-old Denis R. James, of Guthrie Center, was traveling east on Highway 44. The impact caused an estimated $4,000 damage to the 2019 Chrysler Pacifica James was driving.

The second accident happened at around 6-p.m. Thursday, when an SUV driven by 33-year-old Katelyn Olive, of Guthrie Center, struck a deer as the vehicle was westbound on Highway 44. The Sheriff’s Department estimated the 2017 Nissan Rogue sustained $1,800 damage.