(Radio Iowa) – The director of the Iowa Department of Transportation says they have seen some federal programs put on pause. Scott Marler says that includes the New Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program. “They put a hold on the NEVI funding, pending some additional guidance that we expect to come out later this year. And these are the electric chargers. And so they have paused that program pending some further guidance,” Marler says. The D-O-T had announced 16 million federal dollars would go to 28 projects to install electric vehicle charges across the state. D-O-T planner Stuart Anderson tells Radio Iowa that money has not gone out yet. Anderson says federal officials say they will announce new NEVI guidelines this spring. Director Marler also talked about other federal programs that are on hold right now.

(DOT graphic of proposed EV charge sites)

“These include programs like the Protect program, the low and no emission transit vehicle program, the rail crossing elimination program, commercial driver’s license and motor carrier safety programs,” he says. Marler says the payments for ongoing roadwork are not being held up. “The weekly contractor reimbursement program that we process these reimbursements through the Federal Highway Administration for Iowa’s road construction program, highway construction program. Those have continued and are continuing at this time,” Marler says.

Marler made his comments during an update Tuesday at the Transportation Commission’s meeting.

(Radio Iowa) – The University of Iowa is ending three of its identity-based residential communities, acting on orders from the U-S Department of Education. Three of the U-I’s so-called Living Learning Communities will not be offered starting next school year: All-In, Unidos and Young, Black and Gifted. They’re the only three organized by identity. Daniela Pintor-Mendoza is president of the university’s Latino Student Union. “We love to be Hawkeyes. We love to be from Iowa,” she says. “You know, I’m hecho in Iowa. Born and raised in Des Moines, Iowa. It’s their job to protect us and we feel like they failed us in that.”

Pintor-Mendoza says the U-I’s actions were in response to a letter issued by the federal agency, targeting D-E-I programs and race-based initiatives. “It was the university complying, and at the same time, in complying, they were giving up any type of protection that they gave to us as students,” she says. “It was really disappointing, and it was like the university failed us, failed us students.”

Pintor-Mendoza says the university should focus on allocating funds to existing programs that help underserved students. Many of these programs are also being investigated for compliance with Iowa Board of Regents directives.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak report 25-year-old Jeffrey Allen Arnold,of Red Oak, was arrested at around 7-p.m. Tuesday. Arnold was arrested on a Union County warrant for Violation of Probation, on an original charge of Criminal Mischief in the 4th Degree – A Serious Misdemeanor. He was being held without bond in the Montgomery County Jail, pending extradition to Union County.

(Radio Iowa) – A Republican has won a special election in southeast Iowa for a seat in the Iowa House. State Representative Martin Graber of Fort Madison died on January 31st and Blaine Watkins of Donnelson has been elected to replace him.

Watkins earned a political science degree from Grand View University in December and had worked as a clerk for a state senator from Lee County for the past two years.

Watkins finished a little over three points ahead of Democrat Nannette Watkins, a small business owner from Fort Madison.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds says while things are bumpy right now, Reynolds says she appreciates President Trump’s moves to address the government’s 36 trillion dollars in debt. “You know, this is a different administration from the first go-round,” Reynolds says. “I think they’ve spent the last four years really preparing for this opportunity. They’ve hit the ground running. The pace is incredible.”

Reynolds has asked state agency leaders to come up with plans for moving all or part of a federal agency to Iowa. “We’re not getting the outcomes that we should be getting for the amount of money that we’re investing in these agencies, so I appreciate the mindset and the vision that they bring to the table,” Reynolds said. “I think that it is going to be bumpy for a while.”

Reynolds made her comments Tuesday during a “Free Enterprise Summit” hosted by a think tank called the Common Sense Institute. The organization gave Reynolds its first “Trailblazer” award. Former Arizona Governor Doug Ducey (DOO-see) also spoke at the event, telling the crowd the Trump Administration is off to a fast start on cutting regulations and securing the border. However, Ducey — the former C-E-O of Cold Stone Creamery — addressed dips in the stock market after Trump’s tariff announcements.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey at CSI event on March 11, 2025. (photo courtesy of governor’s staff)

“I know that the president ran on this agenda and he won on this agenda,” Ducey said, “and I think it’s important that he communicates why he’s doing certain parts of the agenda so that the consumer and consumer confidence and small business person business formation isn’t slowed by some of the patch we’ll have to get through to get to the other side.” Ducey served two terms as Arizona’s governor, leaving office in early 2023.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – Amid an uncertain situation surrounding federal funding, representatives from the Iowa Flood Center and Iowa Geological Survey mingled with Iowa lawmakers Tuesday to make their case for increasing state allocations.

According to the Iowa Capital Dispatch, students, staff, researchers and leaders from the Iowa Flood Center and Iowa Geological Survey, both housed at the University of Iowa, displayed charts and screens showing data from the organizations’ projects and initiatives in the first floor rotunda of the Iowa Capitol Tuesday morning for legislators and the public to peruse.

Iowa Flood Center Director Larry Weber said groups from the organization have visited Des Moines every legislative session since the center’s founding 16 years ago, and it is an important part of the work to expose to students hoping to turn their work at the center into a career.

State funding is more important than ever for the center and survey, as both teams have already felt hits from paused and cut federal grants. Weber said the center has had grants rescinded in the areas of climate, renewable energy and impacts of airborne and waterborne pollutants on public health. These funds had already been awarded to the center, he said, but were still in the contracting process to be dispensed. Total lost funding sits between $35 million and $40 million over the next five years.

The Iowa Flood Center, Iowa Geological Survey and other University of Iowa-housed organizations displayed projects and initiatives for lawmakers at the Iowa Capitol March 11, 2025. (Photo by Brooklyn Draisey/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

Unlike some graduate programs at Iowa State University, Weber said the center has not rescinded any offers to graduate students, but fewer acceptances are being sent out. Around 100 graduate students are involved with the center, Weber said, alongside around 80 full-time staff and 30 faculty members.

Keith Schilling, state geologist and director of the Iowa Geological Survey, said funding has paused for a project near Council Bluffs where the survey would explore the area’s subsurface geology for potential carbon sequestration projects.

According to a November news release from the university, the U.S. Department of Energy was contributing $9 million to the two-year, $11.3 million study to determine whether carbon dioxide could be injected deep underground in basalt found a half-mile underneath the Walter Scott, Jr. Energy Center power plant, rather than have it pumped out through pipelines.

When speaking with lawmakers about much-needed funding, Schilling said he framed it less around a lack of federal dollars and more around a need for more state support. The state geologist said he spoke with lawmakers about finding more funding for staff support, a new drill rig to reach underground aquifers and to expand groundwater monitoring across the state.

Contracts from private entities have helped fill gaps left from state and federal funding and allowed the survey to conduct work it wouldn’t have had the money to do otherwise, Schilling said. One drawback of private contracts is that they aren’t for statewide study but for doing specific work, usually at only one location, he said. Schilling said if state lawmakers want to know what’s going on with Iowa’s groundwater and other subjects, they need to make sure the survey has the money it needs to conduct its work and address concerns.

Both the survey and the flood center have been flat-funded for years, Schilling and Weber said, and it’s time for an increase in state allocations so the organizations can expand and better their work.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – A Council Bluffs man and Guatemalan native was sentenced today to 192 months in federal prison for distribution and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

According to public court documents, Wilton Omar Garcia-Castillo, 19, distributed 500 grams of methamphetamine to a confidential informant in June 2024. Two days later, law enforcement executed a search warrant at Garcia-Castillo’s Council Bluffs residence and located 27 pounds of methamphetamine along with a loaded firearm, an extended firearm magazine, digital scales, and more than $4,000.

After completing his term of imprisonment, Garcia-Castillo will be required to serve a five-year term of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system.

United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. This case was investigated by the Iowa Department of Public Safety–Division of Narcotics Enforcement, Council Bluffs Police Department, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigations, and Iowa State Patrol.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa, says a Pottawattamie County man was sentenced today (Tuesday) in Council Bluffs District Court, to 8 years in federal prison for possessing a firearm as a felon. According to public court documents, 40-year-old Jesus Everardo Medina possessed a loaded, stolen pistol in his waistband in July 2024. In 2018, Medina was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa and was discharged from his term of supervised release in December 2022.

After completing his term of imprisonment, Medina will be required to serve a three-year term of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system.

United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) and the Council Bluffs Police Department.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results. For more information about Project Safe Neighborhoods, please visit Justice.gov/PSN.

(Radio Iowa) – One person died in an accident today (Tuesday) at the intersection of Highway 75 and C-80 near the Plymouth County border. Sioux City Police Sergeant Tom Gill says the accident happened when a Jeep truck crossed Highway 75 into the path of another truck. “The Dodge truck pulling the trailer broadsided that Jeep truck, causing that Jeep to go into the ditch, and then causing the Dodge truck to flip on its top,” he says. The trailer of the Dodge truck hit another car. The driver of the Dodge did not survive the accident.

“The 64 year old male who was driving the Dodge pickup truck sadly died at the scene,” he says. The dead driver is from Kansas. The driver of the Jeep was hospitalized with injuries and was cited for failing to yield. The driver of the other car was not injured. No names have been released. The two highways were shut down for a couple of hours after the accident.