(Radio Iowa) – A gathering will take place in front of the Mason City T-V station where Jodi Huisentruit worked when she disappeared 30 years ago today (Friday, June 27). Former Minneapolis crime reporter Caroline Lowe is with the group Find-Jodi, which helped organize the event. “So, striking to me preparing for this anniversary is how raw and traumatized the feelings are of the people who are affected most directly that day,” she says, “her co-workers, her close friends, they, her family, you know, it doesn’t go away.” Omaha news anchor Brian Mastre worked with Huisentruit at K-I-M-T in Mason City. “She was focused and driven. And then it all ended,” he says.

Jodi Huisentruit (image via findjodi.com)

Mastre was one of the first to read the reports on the air about his 27-year-old colleague’s disappearance. “It’s hard to believe that not a lot has changed from what I said that day to today,” Mastre says. So far, there have been no arrests. However, authorities say one of Huisentruit’s neighbors, a person of interest, died last year. “Some people out there think the case ended there, too, but in the same breath. I mean, you’d think that if that individual had something to do with it, that he would have slipped up and investigators would have been on to it,” Mastre says.

Mason’s City Police Chief says officers continue to work on the case in the hope that they can provide answers to the family and the community. The Find-Jodi group has put up billboards and posters to ask anyone who may have information to come forward in hopes of finding a clue that could lead to finding out what happened. You can see more about the case at findjodi.com.

(Radio Iowa) – Many space scientists in Iowa are thrilled after seeing the first high-resolution images being released this week from the mountaintop Rubin Observatory in Chile, taken by the largest digital camera ever built. University of Iowa astronomy professor David Nataf says the large, detailed photos may deepen our understanding of the cosmos, helping us to comprehend things like how fast the universe is expanding. “Maybe our understanding of the universe, and by extension our understanding of physics, has small errors in it or potentially large errors in it,” Nataf says. “What the Rubin Observatory can allow us to do, it can allow us to probe several of these questions to much greater accuracy and precision.”

The observatory’s telescope is enormous, with a mirror more than 26 feet in diameter. Scientists are using it to launch a ten-year project to image 20 billion galaxies, 17 billion stars, and many millions of asteroids. Nataf says the observatory is already yielding impressive results. “It’s located at a very good site in Chile, which is probably one of the best sites in the world. The skies are very clear, rain is very rare,” Nataf says. “The telescope can move from one location to the next really, really quickly. And finally, it has a very, very big camera. I think it’s 3,000 megapixels.”

The Trifid nebula (top right) and the Lagoon nebula (Image from NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory)

Nataf compares the observatory’s camera to the one onboard the celebrated Webb Space Telescope, which was placed in orbit in 2021.”Webb’s primary camera is about 8 megapixels,” he says, “so you would have to spend a very long time making a mosaic of all the individual images to match the wide field of view of the 3,000-megapixel camera from the Rubin Observatory.” It’s expected the Rubin facility will capture more data about the universe than has been gathered by all optical telescopes throughout history combined.

The observatory venture in Chile is being funded by the National Science Foundation and the U-S Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

DELOIT, Iowa (KCRG) – A medical examiner’s office collaborated with a DNA lab in Texas to identify a missing western Iowa man. Shirlee Lewis Henkel, a 1987 John Doe, was identified by Othram, a DNA lab in Texas, along with the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office. He was entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons system in 2008 after investigators were unable to figure out his identity.

Henkel was a veteran of the U.S. Air Force who was born in Deloit, Iowa, in 1942. In 1994, his family held a funeral for him with a gravestone in Saint Clair Cemetery in Ute, Iowa.

Shirlee Lewis Henkel

Othram received forensic evidence and an extensive DNA profile was created for him, leading to a follow-up investigation. Potential relatives of the man were found by investigators.

Kristin Mittelman, Chief Development Officer for Othram, tells KCRG-TV that the family did everything possible to find the missing man and resolve the case. Now, nearly 40-years later, through advanced DNA technology and law enforcement diligence, they are finally able to do that.

DES MOINES, Iowa [KCCI-TV] — Iowa Falls native Cpl. Melvin Huff was escorted home Thursday night after his remains were returned by an airplane that landed at Des Moines International Airport. Huff was just 19 when the Army lost contact with his plane in Papua New Guinea in January 1945.

The wreckage was not discovered until 2011. His remains were confirmed to be his just last year. His remains were brought home on a flight from Dallas Thursday evening that landed around 7:30 p.m. Waiting at the airport for him were family members, including Barbara and Larry Walters.

CPL. Melvin Huff

Leading the motorcade on the one-and-a-half-hour journey to Huff’s final resting place is the Patriot Guard Riders, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring dignity and respect at memorial services.

Huff will be laid to rest at 1 p.m. on Saturday at Union Cemetery in Iowa Falls. Gov. Kim Reynolds has ordered all flags be flown at half-staff from sunrise to sunset on Saturday to honor Huff.

(Radio Iowa) – Starting Tuesday, July 1st, it will be illegal for Iowa motorists to hold a cell phone, scroll through it or watch videos on it while driving. Sergeant Alex Dinkla is the spokesman for the Iowa State Patrol. “This new ‘hands free’ law says exactly that. Get that phone out of that hand. Find another place for it,” Dinkla says. “From July 1 to December 31 the Iowa State Patrol and many other law enforcement folks throughout the state of Iowa will be using that as a six-month educational period to educate both drivers and the public of what this new law means.”

A 2017 Iowa law has banned texting while driving, but Dinkla says it’s been hard to enforce because drivers were allowed to handle their phones to make calls or fiddle with digital maps for navigation. That changes July 1st.  “We know that there’s a rising trend with people using technology and these devices going down the road rather than paying attention and focusing,” Dinkla says. “We need to all remember we’ve got to get back to the basics. We need to retrain our mind to put that phone down and eliminate those distractions.” If a vehicle doesn’t have “hands-free” techology, Dinkla says there are ways to adapt.

“We don’t need people to run out and buy the latest, greatest, most expensive vehicle just so that they can comply with this law,” Dinkla says. “There are simple low cost or even no cost ways to comply with this.” There are small Bluetooth transmitters that can be installed in vehicles that don’t have the technology. The law allows for one-touch activation, so Dinkla says you could buy a cell phone holder and answer calls in speaker mode. However, Dinkla says the best option is having the phone in “do not disturb” mode while driving.

“Take away that distraction, take away that temptation,” Dinkla says, “so that when you get to your safe location and you’re able to pull over, out of the way of traffic, check those notifications and respond at that time.” Starting January 1st, the fine for handling a cell phone while driving will be 100 dollars.

Fines escalate if there’s an accident causing serious injury or death. There are some exemptions in the bill for people like bus drivers, emergency responders and people driving farm machinery.

Atlantic, IA – Cass Health is paying the tab for all admissions to Sunnyside Pool every Friday in July.

Free swim days will be held on July 4, 11, 18, and 25. The pool is located at 1000 Sunnyside Lane in Atlantic. Open swimming is from 11 am to 6 pm Monday through Saturday, and 1 to 6 pm on Sundays. Free sunscreen will be available during free swim days as well, while supplies last.

The sunscreen is made possible by the Iowa Cancer Consortium, the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, and the Melanoma Program at the University of Iowa Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The number of lifeguards available each day may impact the pool capacity. Make sure to follow Sunnyside Pool to stay up to date on pool hours or closures.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – An Iowa lawmaker who pushed for the passage of a bill to create a state program allowing the medicinal use of psilocybin said Gov. Kim Reynolds’ decision to veto a bill pertaining to the psychoactive compound in magic mushrooms was a “great decision.” The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports Rep. Jeff Shipley, R-Fairfield, said rather than focus on rescheduling a synthetic version of the drug, the state should instead prioritize creating a state program legalizing the psychiatric use of naturally occurring psilocybin.

House File 383 would have allowed for the prescription and distribution of synthetic psilocybin immediately following federal approval of the drug, and mirrored a similar bill, which was signed into law, in Colorado. The bill dealt with crystalline polymorph psilocybin, a compound commonly known as COMP360, which is a treatment developed by the biotechnology company Compass Pathways to help patients with treatment of resistant depression, post traumatic stress disorder and anorexia nervosa.

State Rep. Jeff Shipley is a Republican from Birmingham. (Photo courtesy of the Iowa Legislature)

Shipley said he “condemns Compass Pathways” for its approach at creating, and patenting, a synthetic version of the “natural psilocybin that God has given us that everyone knows and loves.” Compass Pathways declined to comment on the veto of the bill, which it lobbied in support of, and on Shipley’s comment.

Shipley’s emailed statement also apologized for his vote in favor of the bill, which passed unanimously in both the House and Senate.  “The proper legal framework is to reschedule psilocybin to schedule IV or III, and allow the relevant state regulatory boards to make it available as medicine,” Shipley said. Reynolds, in her explanation of the veto, similarly said the state should have time to review any federal action on the synthetic version of the drug before it legalizes it at the state level.

Shipley was a vocal supporter of House File 978, which would have legalized the use of psilocybin for psychiatric treatment through a state program. The proposed program would have operated similarly to the state’s medical cannabis program.

The bill passed the House with an overwhelming majority in late April, but was not taken up by the Senate.  “It’s my hope and prayer that the Governor’s office and the Iowa Senate will agree to take up … HF978 as an immediate priority next January,” Shipley said.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – A Monroe County woman is suing a drug-testing company that she alleges falsely reported she tested positive for cocaine when giving birth at a Des Moines hospital. According to the Iowa Capital Dispatch, Emily Donlin is suing United States Drug Testing Laboratories, a private, for-profit Illinois company, in U.S, District Court for the Southern District of Iowa.

Donlin alleges she that in 2023, she and her husband Michael Donlin were “happily expecting” their second child and that on the evening of March 29, 2023, she delivered a son at a hospital identified in other court records as Des Moines’ Broadlawns Medical Center.

According to the lawsuit, a hospital nurse then collected part of the umbilical cord and sent it to USDTL for testing. The documentation that accompanied the cord included “errors and omissions,” the lawsuit claims, and did not provide any reason or justification for the testing.

USDTL allegedly “returned a false positive result for cocaine,” the lawsuit claims, and no additional testing was performed to confirm the results. USDTL then reported the results to the hospital, but “never contacted Emily to inform her of the positive result.”

Broadlawns Medical Center of Des Moines. (Photo via Google Earth)

The lawsuit claims Donlin “did not learn of the false positive until a social worker with the Department of Health and Human Services came knocking on her door” and later issued a founded report of child abuse based solely on the false positive test.

As a result, the lawsuit alleges, Donlin was incorrectly placed on the state’s Central Abuse Registry. The Donlins were then “dragged into expensive and stressful Child in Need of Assistance proceedings based on the single positive test,” the lawsuit claims. When the umbilical cord was later retested by another laboratory, the results confirmed the first test had resulted in a false positive, the lawsuit claims.The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for alleged negligence, defamation and false light invasion of privacy.

In its response to the allegations, USDTL admits testing the umbilical cord, but denies its results were a “false positive” for cocaine. The company admits that it did not inform Donlin of the test results, but says the results were relayed to Broadlawns Medical Center, “its customer who requested the testing.”

(Radio Iowa) – Red Haw State Park is reopening its campground next week, more than three years after a powerful tornado tore through the southern Iowa park near Chariton.

Chad Kelchen, a district supervisor with the Iowa DNR’s Parks, Forests, and Preserves Bureau, says it’s been a challenging process to make repairs, and clean up and haul away the many hundreds of downed trees. Kelchen says campers and picnickers will notice some changes at the park.

“With the tornado coming through the campground like that, we were forced to rearrange the campground,” Kelchen says. “We’ve actually subtracted sites, making the sites a little larger and a little easier to get into. We have a few pull-through sites that overlook the lake now, and we have 52 sites in total, with the majority being electric sites.”

Red Haw State Park in 2025 (DNR photo)

The tornado struck on March 5th of 2022 and it was a whopper, rating as an EF-3 — with winds approaching 165 miles an hour — reducing wide sections of dense forest to an absolute mess.

“The tree damage was so severe that some of those trees were not safe to take down. We had to bring in specialized equipment, specialized labor forces to do that,” Kelchen says. “Then things like underground cables were ripped up by tree roots being pulled out of the ground by the winds. There was a lot of unforeseen damage that we found. The further we got into cleaning it up, the more that we found.”

Over the past three years, several events at the park have rallied dozens of volunteers to help remove debris and restore order.

“They were crucial,” he says. “That’s a small park with a single staff person in it, so bringing in those extra hands really helped us bring the debris out of the timbers and plant the new trees and all that we’ve done to bring the park back up and ready to go.”

While an untold number of trees were lost in the twister, Kelchen says they’ve planted many hundreds more since 2022, and they’ll continue doing so.

“I think we planted 1,000 trees in the timber, and then 50 or 60 in the campground to get us started,” Kelchen says. “Tree planting will be something that will occur each year in a smaller scale, just so we get a diverse year class and a diverse species we expect in the campground and in the area surrounding.”

The park features a 70-acre lake and more than four miles of grassy trails. The campground is slated to reopen July 1st.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Lottery is increasing its budget projection slightly for the next fiscal as it is on pace to finish this fiscal year around four percent above its projection. Lottery C-E-O Matt Strawn says they saw the a slight increase in sales this year despite a lack of large lotto jackpots.

“We’re projecting to largely be in line with where we’ve been with this year’s current budget. So we’re not banking on those big billion dollar jackpots. So we’re going to take a conservative approach,” Strawn says. The next fiscal year budget of around 418 million dollars includes a small increase in projected sales. Strawn says with the uncertainty of the large jackpots, they have to look at historical averages.

Iowa Lottery Headquarters. (RI photo)

“Because when we put a budget projection out there to the legislature and the governor and to the state, we want to make sure that’s a projection that we’re fairly confident we can hit.” While some business have been concerned about the impact of tariffs on costs, he says the impact on the Lottery is not big. “Nominal cost as it relates to the cost of printing, just like any manufacturer product, when it comes to the printing of scratch tickets, we’ve seen a slight increase,” he says. “Of course, those are contracts that that are bided out. And one thing that we are actually currently in a request for proposal process for the future of printing the Iowa Lottery Scratch ticket. So we’ve got to let that process unfold and then we’ll have a better idea as to what the economics are going to be of those products going forward.”

The new fiscal year begins on July 1st.