Republican Blaine Watkins defeated Democrat Nannette Griffin in a close race for a House seat in southeastern Iowa this week.

House District 100 includes Keokuk and Fort Madison and encompasses much of Lee County. The area is a pivot county, meaning it voted for Barack Obama in consecutive elections and then Donald Trump.

Watkins previously clerked in the Iowa Senate and graduated last spring from Grand View University with a bachelor’s degree in political science. He is a fifth-generation farmer who grew up in Donnellson. He says he will bring southeastern Iowa values to Des Moines.

“The biggest thing is hard work. People are working harder, like they have never done before. The prices are through the roof. As much as we sit and talk about inflation and these things… sitting down and complaining about isn’t going to change anything.”

Watkins says he will focus on property tax reform and making sure southeastern Iowa is affordable.

Watkins will take over the seat vacated by Republican Rep. Martin Graber, who died in January. He will serve for the remainder of Graber’s term, which ends in 2026.

Locations in Iowa are on a nationwide list of federal offices where the General Services Administration plans to terminate leases.

The moves are part of cost-cutting efforts led by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

The Associated Press acquired a list of dates when the leases would end.

Leases for the Federal Highway Administration in Ames and U.S. Attorney’s office in Sioux City would end in August. A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office listed in Indianola would end its lease in September.

An IRS location in Sioux City is also on a DOGE list of offices that would close, but the date its lease would end was not reported by the AP.

The African American Historical and Cultural Museum in Waterloo has officially opened to the public. It’s a big milestone for the organization.

The opening marks the first time in the museum’s 29-year history that it will be open to the public without appointments. The regular hours are thanks to a nationwide fundraising effort. About 98% of the funding came from outside the city of Waterloo.

Jack Bauman, a volunteer researcher with the museum, says those regular hours will go a long way toward educating the community about its history.

“Except for here, it’s not really being told. It’s very overshadowed by the Eurocentric history that gets taught a lot. A lot of it is kind of buried I’d say, and I believe this museum specifically just really uplifts telling those stories and bringing that history together.”

Museum chair Ryan Madison says it shows that people everywhere believe in preserving history.

“The biggest thing is people see the importance of heritage. Not just African American heritage, but all different heritage, and they felt it was important to invest in a community that’s much deserving of it.”

It currently displays a stamp collection of Black leaders, African artifacts and pieces from the Great Migration.

The museum has expansion plans, which include moving an historic schoolhouse onto the property.

Several outlets are reporting the University of Iowa has fired men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery. McCaffery was ejected from Thursday night’s 106-94 loss to Illinois in the second round of the Big Ten tournament. Iowa finished the season 17-16 and will miss the NCAA tournament for a second straight year. McCaffery has coached Iowa for 15 seasons. His contract runs through 2028 and includes a $4.2 million buyout.

The Iowa Supreme Court has upheld district court rulings that dismissed lawsuits in cases against a former University of Iowa gynecologist who used his own sperm to get at least 10 patients pregnant in the 1950s.

Two couples who are siblings and another woman, all in their 60s, sued the state after genetic testing revealed their biological father was the late Dr. John Randall.

Randall was head of UI’s OBGYN department from 1952 to 1959. He died in 1959. The parties asserted their claim under Iowa’s Fraud in Assisted Reproduction Act, or FARA, which was enacted in 2022.

In decisions released Friday, justices ruled the law cannot be applied retroactively.

The Iowa Supreme Court ruled Friday that police use-of-force reports are open to the public.

The decision comes in a lawsuit against the Des Moines Police Department. The department refused to turn over use-of-force reports to racial justice activist Harvey Harrison of the nonprofit Just Voices.

Harrison wants to use those reports to see if certain incidents of racial bias went unreported.

A city attorney argued the reports are protected as personnel records, but the justices said they record basic facts of what happened.

The justices’ decision confirms a lower court’s order to release the reports.

The Polk County Attorney’s Office is asking county leaders for more funding to conduct what are called restorative dialogues.

A dialogue is when a mediator helps guide a conversation between a victim and an offender. A volunteer can also stand in for the victim as a community representative.

Only a third of restorative dialogues ordered by judges in Polk County are taking place. The county attorney’s office is asking the board of supervisors for more money to better meet that need.

Lynn Hicks, a spokesperson for the county attorney’s office, says offenders are less likely to commit another crime after going through the process.

“They say things like, ‘No one has ever told me that that they're proud of me or that I've never had, I never had a conversation like this in court.’”

He said one offender wanted to follow up in six months to show the progress he made. Hicks also said victims are more satisfied with the justice system after being part of a dialogue.

A top state official says all state agencies have put a pause on creating new positions until further notice while new hiring protocols are put in place.

Iowa Department of Health and Human Services employees received an email this week from director Kelly Garcia stating that requests for new positions going forward must be submitted to her and the finance department for review and include a “robust and in-depth justification for consideration.”

Officials say the change does not affect hiring to fill existing positions or new positions that have already been posted.

A spokesperson for Gov. Kim Reynolds says there is not a hiring freeze on new state government jobs but says instead that Reynolds is implementing new protocols to “better monitor and control the creation of new positions in state government.”

Democrats say they’re concerned this change could lead to feelings of uncertainty for state employees.

Michael Leland

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Iowa Public Radio

A new population report on monarch butterflies finds conservation efforts in Iowa and elsewhere are starting to show promising results.

Mykayla Hagaman, a program specialist at the Iowa Monarch Conservation Consortium, says researchers track the progress of the vital orange-and-black insect by measuring how much land the pollinators take up when overwintering in Mexico.

“They occupied 4.4 acres, which is nearly double last year’s size of about 2.2 acres. So, this is really encouraging to see this increase.”

The annual survey from the World Wildlife Fund-Telcel Foundation Alliance demonstrates a sizeable boost in monarch numbers, but it’s still a long way from where the experts say the population needs to be.

“Scientists recommend, to maintain a sustainable population of monarchs, we need on average about 15 acres of overwintering habitat, but we haven’t really seen those numbers since about 2018.”

How to help establish monarch habitat

About 40% of all monarchs that overwinter in Mexico are estimated to come from Iowa and neighboring Midwestern states. In recent years, many thousands of Iowans have carved out portions of their properties to offer a haven for the butterflies, but Hagaman says additional help is needed.

“Monarch butterflies really rely on people planting native milkweed, such as common milkweed or butterfly milkweed, and there’s other species that are native to Iowa as well.”

She says plantings should include a variety of native species that bloom from early spring to late fall to help provide nectar resources for monarchs during their migration.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing the monarch as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in December of 2024.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who entered the national spotlight in 2024 as the Democratic Party’s vice-presidential nominee, announced he’s headed to Iowa for a town hall Friday.

Walz said he’s visiting red states to “lend a megaphone to the people.” His first stop will be Des Moines, a spot he says was chosen deliberately because it’s in Iowa’s 3^rd Congressional District.

Walz said he intends to let people know how 3^rd District Republican Rep. Zach Nunn has voted this year. Nunn was reelected to a second term in the U.S. House last November by a four-point margin.

Walz is the second high-profile politician to visit Iowa in 2025. Last month, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders held events in Iowa City and urged Iowa Democrats to contact Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks to oppose GOP spending plans.

The 1^st District, where Miller-Meeks won reelection by fewer than 1,000 votes, and the 3^rd District, have been labeled as targeted races for Democrats in the 2026 election.

The town hall event Friday is currently past capacity, according to the Iowa Democratic Party’s website.

Summit Carbon Solutions is asking regulators in South Dakota to hit pause and extend the deadline for its application to build and operate a carbon dioxide pipeline in the state.

The Iowa-based company said in a motion filed Wednesday that a new South Dakota law that bans eminent domain for carbon dioxide pipelines is a significant barrier to completing land surveys.

According to Summit’s filing, South Dakota requires a company to have a permit application and the legal authority to use eminent domain to access private property for land surveys.

Iowa regulators granted Summit a permit and the right to use eminent domain last year for its first phase of the project in the state. But construction cannot begin until it receives the greenlight from South Dakota.

Five years after the COVID-19 pandemic first gripped Iowa, many people still struggle with long-term, debilitating health issues caused by the illness.

The CDC reports about 7% of adults in the U.S. reported experiencing long COVID, with 1 in 4 experiencing significant problems. Iowa comedian Garie Lewis is one of those people.

Lewis suffers from extreme fatigue, brain fog, pain and sometimes his body moves uncontrollably. He says the long-term effects of COVID have even caused him to develop stuttered speech.

“It has messed up every aspect of my life, just the way I’m communicating now. That’s not how I talk. The loss of energy has made it impossible to be any kind of dependable for anybody because I never know when it’s going to hit.”

Johns Hopkins reported more than 900,000 confirmed cases of COVID in Iowa when reporting stopped in September 2022. Nearly a quarter of Iowans testing positive that year said they experienced long-haul symptoms that stretched on for three or more months.

Read the full story.

The Iowa Department of Transportation says it has seen some federal programs put on pause. Iowa DOT Director Scott Marler says that includes the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program.

“They put a hold on the NEVI [National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure] funding, pending some additional guidance that we expect to come out later this year. And these are the electric chargers, so they have paused that program pending some further guidance.”

Last fall, the Iowa DOT announced that $16 million from the federal government would go towards 28 projects to install electric vehicle charges across the state. Stuart Anderson with the Iowa DOT says that money has not gone out yet. He says federal officials say they will announce new NEVI guidelines this spring.

Marler says there are other federal programs that are on hold right now, too.

“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.”

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

Radio Iowa

The Iowa Senate voted to move ahead with selling the 48-year-old Wallace State Office Building that sits across from the Capitol. The building has a series of structural issues, including window and roof leaks, and Gov. Kim Reynolds recommended it be torn down.

Some Democrats, like Sen. Cindy Winckler of Davenport, spoke out against selling the property and its adjacent parking structure. She said the move “makes no sense at all” and urged the Senate to spend more time figuring out a better use for the “prime real estate” near the Capitol.

Sen. Ken Rozenboom, R-Pella, responded to concerns raised by Winckler and other Democratic senators, and acknowledged that selling the property means anyone could buy it.

“As far as ownership of the land, perhaps you make a valid point with that. On one hand, the State of Iowa doesn’t have any business being [in] the real estate business. That’s not what we do.”

Rozenboom also noted that the parking ramp was designated for employees who work in the Wallace Building, so getting rid of it would not have a broader impact. All of the state employees who had worked in the building have moved out.

Lucia Cheng

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Iowa Public Radio

Every student at Harding Middle School in Des Moines will receive money to invest in a 529 savings account run by an education nonprofit.

The Mid-Iowa Health Foundation donated $140,000 to By Degrees Foundation, which will manage the accounts. The money is meant to help students think about life after high school.

Mid-Iowa Health Foundation President and CEO Nalo Johnson says the program is the first of its kind in Iowa. She says she’s investing in success because of her own upbringing as an east side high schooler.

“It was through the thoughtful care and investment of my DMPS teachers that planted the seed for my future attainment of a PhD. They challenged me — and those teachers encouraged my curiosity and my drive.”

Students can use the funds to pay for any post-secondary education.

Republicans held on to a state House seat in eastern Iowa Tuesday in a special election. Blaine Watkins will take the seat that was vacated by Rep. Martin Graber, who died in January.

Watkins defeated Democrat Nannette Griffin by 175 votes, according to unofficial results. District 100 includes Keokuk and Fort Madison, and was expected to elect a Republican to fill the seat. The district voted for President Donald Trump in the last three elections.

Watkins’ website says he wants to fight against what he calls “radical gender ideologies” and focus on property tax reform. He has worked as a clerk in Sen. Jeff Reichman’s office and graduated in 2024 from Grand View University with a bachelor’s degree in political science.

With Watkins’ victory, the Republican Party will be able to keep its two-thirds supermajority, with 67 seats in the House.

A couple hundred people rallied in the Iowa Capitol rotunda Tuesday in support of Iowa’s LGBTQ community. This comes less than two weeks after Iowa repealed protections for transgender Iowans in the state civil rights code.

People waved LGBTQ rainbow flags and held signs reading “equality matters,” “stand up, fight back” and “hate has no home here.”

One Iowa, an LGBTQ advocacy group, organized the event. Executive Director Max Mowitz encouraged attendees to keep hope, stay disciplined and to draw inspiration from the persistence of past LGBTQ activists.

“We will fight for our ancestors. We will fight for those that cannot leave the state. We will fight for future generations — because there are a hell of a lot of Iowans that deserve to be fought for. And I want every one of them, and anyone of you, to know that we’re here, we’ve got your back and you are worth fighting for.”

Mowitz also encouraged attendees to keep lobbying their legislators.

A western Iowa man has been arrested and charged with first degree murder for the death of his girlfriend more than 35 years ago.

Barbara Lenz disappeared in 1989 and her body has never been found. Her boyfriend at the time, Robert Davis, said he dropped Lenz off at her apartment in Woodbine.

Davis, who is now 62 years old, was arrested in Council Bluffs Monday. A criminal complaint says Davis admitted to abusing Lenz, who feared he would kill her if she ever left.

Davis is being held without bond at the Harrison County Jail. This is the first arrest for the Iowa Cold Case unit that was formed last year by Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird.

Madeleine Charis King

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Iowa Public Radio

The 80/35 Music Festival has been canceled for 2025.

The Des Moines Music Coalition has put on the annual, two-day festival for nearly 20 years, but dissolved last fall. A former member of the organization remains optimistic that another operator will step forward to take its place and bring the festival back.

80/35 experienced lower turnout after moving away from downtown Des Moines this past summer.

A federal judge ruled two Des Moines police officers do not have qualified immunity in a case involving a 2018 traffic stop. This means the officers can be sued for inappropriate behavior.

Officers Ryan Steinkamp and Brian Minnehan arrested Domeco Fugenschuh after an alleged turn violation. The court found the officers’ actions were motivated by Fugenschuh’s rude, but protected, speech.

A new federal report shows scams cost Iowans more than $50 million last year. The Federal Trade Commission says it got nearly 14,000 fraud reports from Iowa consumers during 2024.

The median loss was around $400, while the total lost was nearly $52 million.

The FTC says the top categories of scams reported by Iowans were business and government imposter scams, online shopping scams and scams involving prizes, sweepstakes and lotteries.

While the category of Iowa victims age 80 and older was one of the smallest, it was the largest for losses, averaging about $2,000 each. Phony investment schemes took Iowans for nearly $20 million, while the second-most expensive were romance scams, adding up to nearly $8 million.

Iowans can report fraud, scams or bad business practices to the FTC online or call the Consumer Protection Division of the Iowa Attorney General’s Office at 888-777-4590.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture cancelled contracts worth more than $11 million that are meant to help Iowa food banks, schools and child care centers purchase local food over the next three years.

The Iowa Food System Coalition says the USDA has not explained why it cancelled the three-year contracts that were set to go to over 300 farmers in the state. But Chris Schwartz, the coalition’s executive director, says it could not come at a worse time.

Schwartz says farmers already have seedlings sprouting in greenhouses, booked processing times at meat lockers and planned out the year based on this funding.

“This is the kind of stuff that sends farms into foreclosure. This is the kind of stuff that people lose their homes over. And so, here these are people that have been good faith partners with the effort to provide nutritious food to Iowa’s children, and we’re just going to be hanging them out to dry.”

Schwartz and the coalition are calling on Iowans to boost local food purchases to support farmers.

A clerical error by the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development has halted grant money for addressing youth homelessness across the state. Iowa was the only grant recipient affected by the error, according to a HUD employee.

The Iowa Balance of State Continuum of Care was awarded nearly $7 million last year for addressing youth homelessness. The group was supposed to initially receive around $200,000 of that money to hire extra staff and develop a plan for how the rest of the money would be used. But the money hasn’t come yet.

Iowa Balance of State Continuum of Care Director Courtney Guntly says the group already hired extra staff and are working with the expectation the money will come through.

“We have to continue to do the work, but we don't know what's going on or what the future of this funding looks like.”

Guntly said HUD also hasn’t signed the contract for their annual grant funding, which starts April 1. Last year, HUD signed the contract on Feb. 1.

Kendall Crawford

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Iowa Public Radio

The suspect in a cold case dating back more than 40 years is back in Iowa to face charges.

Thomas Duane Popp, 62, is accused of first-degree murder for the death of 18-year-old Terri McCauley of Sioux City. She disappeared in 1983, and her body was found several days later.

Popp was extradited from Washington state over the weekend and is currently in the Woodbury County Jail in Sioux City on a bond of $3 million.

McCauley was a mother of two and a member of the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska.

Family members credit growing publicity around the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives (MMIWR) movement for movement in the case.

National Weather Service

Much of southern and central Iowa is under a red flag warning Monday afternoon and evening, as there’s a critical risk of fire danger.

National Weather Service meteorologist Kristy Carter says there’s a hazardous combination of conditions in the forecast, starting with wind gusts up to 35 mph.

“Combine those with the dry conditions, we’ll get some minimum relative humidity values of 20-25%, and high temperatures certainly above normal in the low to mid 70s… That could certainly lead to fires spreading rapidly, if they were to start.”

Open burning and campfires are strongly discouraged, as well as the use of any equipment that might start a fire.

“The red flag warning is going to cover areas that had little to no remaining snow cover, because those fuels are the ones that have been able to dry out pretty fast over the weekend.”

The state fire marshal’s office says only five counties are under burn bans: Clinton, Decatur, Linn, Mills, Montgomery and Page.

State and federal officials have confirmed the first case of bird flu in Dallas County in central Iowa since 2022.

A spokesperson with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship said the H5N1 virus was detected in a backyard flock with chickens and domestic ducks. This marks Iowa’s fifth case of bird flu in domestic birds this year.

State officials say poultry producers who suspect signs of H5N1 should contact their veterinarian immediately. Possible cases must also be reported to IDALS.

Symptoms in birds include difficulty breathing, diarrhea and swollen heads and eyelids.

National Drought Mitigation Center

Moderate drought conditions in February expanded slightly in central and eastern Iowa. It was the second consecutive month with below-normal precipitation.

Iowa’s preliminary statewide precipitation in February was 0.75 inches below normal, while total snowfall was 4.8 inches, nearly 2 inches below normal, according to the state’s latest Water Summary Update.

Jessica Reese McIntyre, an environmental specialist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, says she’ll be watching closely for worsening drought conditions, but added that winter is typically the driest time of the year in Iowa.

“While this could raise concerns about potential drought conditions worsening, it’s still winter, and winter is when we receive the least amount of precipitation across the state. And also, the ground is still frozen.”

The National Weather Service’s forecast for March indicates a slight chance for above-average precipitation in the eastern half of Iowa and average precipitation in the western half.

One year after one of the worst fish kills in Iowa history, no charges or fines have been issued.

On March 8, 2024, a worker at NEW Co-op in Red Oak left a valve on a tank open. For two days, around 265,000 gallons of liquid nitrogen fertilizer flowed through a stormwater ditch into the East Nishnabotna River. It killed almost all fish and other aquatic life about 60 miles downstream in southwest Iowa and northwest Missouri.

Because the Iowa DNR can only levy a fine of up to $10,000, the agency sent the case to the Iowa Environmental Protection Commission, which referred it to Attorney General Brenna Bird’s office. Since then, there has been no word on the investigation or possible sanctions against NEW Co-op.

A group of area residents and others concerned about the spill met recently at a church in Red Oak. Among them was Neil Hamilton, former director of the Drake Agricultural Law Center.

“You have a manure spill in some dairy farm somewhere that kills a few thousand fish. The DNR's on it, you hear a story about the enforcement. But yet this, the scale of it, it's just, it's hard to understand what's going on, and I think then that leads you to suspicions of whatever is going on probably isn't necessarily good for the citizens or the river.”

Maggie McQuown’s family has owned a farm outside Red Oak for four generations. McQuown says immediately after the spill, she tried to find out who was in charge at the Co-Op.

“We didn't receive any notices as members who was the manager. There was nothing in any of the NEW Co-Op newsletters, and I haven't, I haven't been able to figure out who's the manager. I now see online advertising an open position for manager of the Red Oak Co-Op.”

NEW Co-op paid for soil remediation at the site of the spill. Last September, the DNR conducted a survey of fish and mussels in the East Nishnabotna, but hasn’t published a report. The attorney general’s office did not respond to IPR’s request for an update on the investigation.

Civil rights groups across Iowa are asking a federal appeals court to reconsider a decision to dismiss their case against the Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office.

The suit alleges that the sheriff’s office was wrongly extracting money from people before releasing them from jail. It further claims the office used that money to fund a shooting range for the enjoyment of their employees and their families. A judge dismissed the suit in November.

Veronica Lorson Fowler, the communications director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, says the group wants an appeal because the sheriff’s office is taking money without judicial oversight.

“The way the sheriff’s office is doing it, is that they basically get a rubber stamp from the district court without a judge ever reviewing it.”

Fowler says the practice is still ongoing, and they’re committed to finding ways to move the case forward.

“We’re deeply concerned about this practice. We feel that it’s so clearly wrong that we’d like to continue down every legal avenue to stop it.”

Fowler adds that the ACLU believes the judge’s reasoning for dismissing the case was flawed.

People gathered at the University of Iowa Friday to protest recent federal cuts to scientific research programs.

The protest in Iowa City is one of several across the country that are part of the Stand Up for Science movement. They were organized in response to the Trump administration’s recent cuts to agencies like the National Institutes of Health, which are having ripple effects across the scientific community.

Maurine Neiman, whose son died of influenza despite being vaccinated, spoke at the event.

“I think a huge way to bridge these gaps between science and the people who don’t understand why science is important is to try to impress upon them what happens when the science isn’t there and what we can do to use science to make the world a better place.”

Krislen Tison is a graduate student at the University of Iowa.

“To say that funding is being cut for something that’s so important and affects everybody—that's unfair and unjust, and therefore, I feel like taking a stand for something that affects me personally and affects the people around me is important.”

Other researchers say they’ve had to reframe the language in their research to fit within new federal regulations, like no longer referring to gender identities outside of male and female.

Protesters held signs saying, “Science Will Not Go Silently” and “Cap Elon, not the NIH,” referring to the 15% cap on indirect funds for NIH-funded research.

Wood’s Supermarket and Deli sits in front of a grain elevator in Pocahontas, a town of about 1,800 people in northwest Iowa. While a few dollar stores sell food, this is the only grocery store in town.

Kent’s wife and store co-owner—Kim Wood—says the closest alternatives are outside the county lines, about 20-30 minutes away.

“The elderly population, especially in the winter time, they don't want to drive out of town to get groceries, and I think that would be a hardship.”

Rural policy experts say grocery stores are vital for communities to thrive. But the number of rural, independent grocery stores in the U.S. has steadily declined in recent decades. Food deserts have grown across the rural Midwest, largely due to the disappearance of independent grocery stores.

To help reverse this trend, half a dozen states, including Illinois, Minnesota, North Dakota and Oklahoma, have passed legislation in recent years to develop grant programs for grocers. Now lawmakers in Iowa and Nebraska are pushing to create their own versions.

Jillian Linster is the senior director of policy at the Center for Rural Affairs. The organization is advocating for both bills.

“Our staff live and work in the communities that we serve, and so we were seeing in our everyday lives that more and more stores were closing or struggling to stay open.”

Competition with dollar stores and supercenters in the region is one of the biggest challenges for independent grocers.

An investigation is underway after the shooting death of an armed man by law enforcement in western Iowa.

David Plagmann, 36, was killed after the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office arrived for a welfare check Thursday morning in Harlan.

During a standoff, investigators say Plagmann made aggressive movements. The deputy involved with the shooting was placed on administrative leave, which is standard in such a case.

After going inside the home, deputies found the body of 31-year-old Alexis Martin. No information was provided about her death.

President Donald Trump imposed new tariffs this week on Canada and Mexico, but then largely paused them until next month.

At the annual All-Day Ag Outlook held on the Indiana-Illinois border, central Illinois farmer Steve Warters said he’s worried about how Canada and Mexico’s retaliatory tariffs could cut into sales of his corn and soybeans. But he supports President Trump’s stated goal of getting those countries to do more to block fentanyl from coming across the border.

“We’re talking about going to Mexico, our largest corn buyer. But I see what Trump’s trying to do, trying to slow down this drug traffic.”

Commodities analyst Mike Zuzolo says the farmers he talks to are waiting to see if the tariffs will be effective quickly.

The American Farm Bureau Federation says farmers will suffer under retaliatory tariffs from the three countries.

That includes higher prices for fertilizer --- which Farm Bureau president Zippy Duvall explained during a Senate Ag Committee hearing last month.

“Over 80% of the potash comes out of Canada, and it goes on our cropland. And that would be devastating to our farmers.”

Meanwhile, National Farmers Union president Rob Larew said in a statement that the damage the tariffs do to farmers will eventually spread to consumers.

Polk County still aims to build a $3.7 million immigrant welcome center. Axios reports the project will continue despite refugee resettlement agencies struggling with a lack of funding.

The deputy county administrator says the center was always intended to help people after their initial 90-day service ended at resettlement agencies.

The Global Neighbors center will be a one-stop-shop for immigrants to access all kinds of resources.

The center is expected to open late this year.

Family and friends plan to gather in Sioux City Saturday to highlight the unsolved murder of a Native American woman more than 30 years ago.

Lori Ann DeCora was beaten and stabbed outside of a Sioux City apartment building during a house party in 1992. She died five weeks later. No one served time for her death.

Danielle LaPointe, the niece of DeCora, said her aunt still has loved ones who care about and want to see justice for her.

“She was just missed. I feel like on all fronts, and so we were just trying to bring that awareness and bring that back, like, hey, here, she's a cold case, she's right there from Sioux City, Iowa. She's not forgotten, she is somebody's family member.”

DeCora was a member of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. There was a break in another Sioux City cold case earlier this year. Police arrested Thomas Duane Popp for the murder of Terri McCauley in 1983. McCauley was a young mother of two and a member of the Omaha Tribe.

Family members credit awareness through social media for keeping the McCauley investigation alive. That gives the DeCora family hope for justice in their case.

A study by the National Institute of Justice found that more than four in five Indigenous women have experienced violence in their lifetime.

A spokesperson from the Sioux City Police Department says the case isn’t closed and anyone with new evidence should contact authorities.

The U.S. Department of State canceled its funding of the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program, marking the end of a nearly 60-year-old partnership.

The International Writing Program has hosted just 1,625 writers from 160 countries throughout its lifetime — three of which have received the Nobel Prize in Literature. Due to the funding cuts, the number of writers will shrink by half this coming fall.

It also had to cancel its summer youth program, distance learning courses and its Emerging Voices Mentorship Program that serves displaced writers.

Christopher Merrill is the director of the program.

“The fact is, we had a 58-year-long relationship with the state department — continuous relationship — very productive partnership that with one stroke of the pen, has ended.”

Merrill says the state department said the program does not align with the Trump administration’s priorities but gave no other reasons for the funding cuts.

Madeleine Charis King

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Iowa Public Radio

President Donald Trump appointed former state Sen. Brad Zaun to be regional director of the Small Business Administration.

Zaun, the former mayor of Urbandale, was the first elected official in Iowa to endorse Trump before the 2016 Iowa caucuses. Zaun served in the Iowa Senate for 20 years and lost his bid for reelection last year.

As regional administrator of the Small Business Administration, Zaun said he will spend most of his time traveling Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri and Iowa. The agency provides loans, as well as counseling and contracting advice, to small businesses.

South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden signed a bill that bans eminent domain for carbon dioxide pipelines.

The new law is in response to Summit Carbon Solutions’ proposed 2,500-mile pipeline. The Ames-based company plans to capture CO2 from ethanol plants across five states and store it deep underground in North Dakota.

After Iowa, South Dakota has the highest number of ethanol plant partners on the project.

Emma Schmit, director of Pipeline Fighters with Bold Alliance, says she’s pleased with the new law, and hopes other state legislatures do the same.

“I think it’s just an amazing victory for the folks of South Dakota, and I hope we can see states across the Midwest, including Iowa, follow suit and enact similar legislation.”

An Iowa bill banning eminent domain on agricultural land passed out of the House Judiciary Committee Thursday, making it through before Friday’s “funnel week” deadline.

A Summit Carbon Solutions spokesperson said in a statement that it’s unfortunate South Dakota “changed the rules in the middle of the game” and that ethanol plants there will face a competitive disadvantage compared to plants in neighboring states.

CO2 pipeline supporters say the project will unlock low-carbon fuel markets and tax credits for biofuel producers.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture sharply cut its workforce in mid-February. Employees and researchers across states — including Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas — lost their jobs.

On Wednesday, an independent federal board ordered the USDA to reinstate more than 5,000 employees — temporarily.

Among the impacted facilities is a research center in Peoria, Ill., commonly called the Ag Lab. As Harvest Public Media reports, current and former employees say the layoffs will cripple research efforts that help farmers.

Read the full story.

Official photo as Senate President

Jack Kibbie, a farmer from Emmetsburg who previously served as president of the Iowa Senate, died at the age of 95.

Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack served alongside Kibbie in the state Senate in the late 1980s. He says Kibbie was a man who appreciated his roots and understood the importance of being a farmer.

“He was a powerful voice in the Iowa Legislature. Jack was the kind of senator who didn’t speak often, but when he did, the entire Senate paused and listened because usually he had something significant and important to say.”

Kibbie was a tank commander during the Korean War, an experience he spoke about during an appearance on Iowa PBS.

“We were within a thousand feet of the enemy, and they were watching us constantly — and we were watching them… Right across from us was Manchurians… It was stressful.”

Kibbie was elected chairman of his county’s Democratic Party shortly after he returned home. He served in the Iowa House and Senate in the 1960s, and in 1965 he led the debate of the bill that created Iowa’s community college system. Decades later, in 1988, he was reelected to the state Senate. Kibbie won all nine of his races for a seat in the Iowa Legislature.

During the Iraq War, he was instrumental in creating veterans’ committees in the Iowa Senate and House and ensured the Iowa National Guard Adjutant General delivered an annual address to the state Legislature.

Kibbie’s wife, Kay, died in 2022.

Gov. Kim Reynolds ordered all flags in Iowa to be lowered to half-staff until sunset March 7 in honor and remembrance of Kibbie.

A new analysis indicates Iowa had a population spurt in 2024.

The Pew Charitable Trusts report found 42 states saw population growth in 2024 that was the highest it’s been in 15 years. Iowa’s population increased 0.72% in 2024, putting Iowa among seven states that had their strongest annual population growth since the turn of the century.

The analysis suggests Iowa’s population will grow during the rest of this decade.

Six employees at the Quad Cities branch of the National Weather Service have been dismissed as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to overhaul the agency. The president's Department of Government Efficiency dismissed hundreds of employees with the NWS and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Ray Wolf, a retired meteorologist with the Quad Cities branch of the NWS, says staffing shortages have been a chronic issue. He says the dismissals will impact day-to-day operations, as well as their ability to respond to severe weather events.

“As the office starts to lose the number of forecasters they have, their ability to staff up during events like the derecho a couple of years ago becomes harder and harder.”

U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen, D-Illinois, who represents the Quad Cities, said in a statement that the decision was reckless and will do irreparable harm.

NOAA says it is not discussing internal personnel and management matters.

Natalie Dunlap

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Iowa Public Radio

Gender-affirming care isn’t a political issue for health providers, said Des Moines-based doctor Kaaren Olesen, but it has become debated and legislated by politicians across the country.

Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill into law restricting transgender minors from using puberty blockers, hormone therapy or surgery for gender transition in March 2023. Olesen, an OB-GYN at Broadlawns Medical Center, said for many people, their family and support systems might be in Iowa, but making moves to other states with less restrictive laws — or even to Canada — has been part of her conversations with patients.

During the current 2025 legislative session, lawmakers passed a bill that will take away protection for transgender people by removing gender identify from the Iowa Civil Rights Act. The bill was signed into law by Reynolds and goes into effect July 1.

Olesen said this law could have devastating impacts on the medical landscape for transgender patients, who could now face discrimination.

Max Mowitz, executive director of One Iowa, said the removal of transgender people from civil rights protection could compromise Medicaid’s coverage of gender-affirming care. Mowitz added that the talking point that these laws restricting transgender Iowans protect cisgender women is not based in fact.

“We know that by and large, the folks that are causing harm to women are not trans women,” Mowitz said. “In fact, when we look at statistics on violence, from sexual assault, to domestic violence, to harassment, we actually see that trans women are more likely to experience violence than to cause it.”

Read more.

Strong winds, blowing snow and poor road conditions are expected across Iowa for the rest of Wednesday.

Meteorologist Alexis Jimenez at the National Weather Service Des Moines office says the snow has mostly moved out of the western half of the state.

“Most of the snow at this point is going to be along and east of I-35. West of there, the wind continues and we’re still seeing some blowing snow, which is leading to white-out conditions through much of the western half of the state.”

Winds gusting from 50-60 mph are expected through the early evening.

The Iowa Department of Transportation urged people not to travel in much of the western half of the state. Interstate 80 west of the Des Moines metro is considered impassible at this time. Numerous wrecks between Ankeny and Ames have slowed or blocked traffic on I-35.

Natalie Krebs

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Iowa Public Radio

The COVID-19 pandemic was hard on Iowa’s health care workers. Many doctors, nurses and support staff endured long hours, which led to a lot of people leaving the workforce.

This month, IPR News is looking at some of the ways COVID-19's impact is still being felt five years after the state’s first infections.

“Iowa is absolutely in the middle of a physician shortage,” Christi Taylor, the president of the Iowa Medical Society, said. “It's a true crisis for us. We're actually 44th in the country in terms of patient-to-physician ratio.”

The problem, which stretches nationwide, has been building for a while, Taylor said. But the pandemic accelerated it by pushing many doctors over the edge into early retirement or other fields.

Iowa lawmakers have made addressing the shortage a priority in the legislative session. They’ve introduced bills aimed at student loan forgiveness and increasing the number of residency slots for medical students in the state.

Read more from IPR’s Health Reporter Natalie Krebs.

Grant Leo Winterer

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Iowa Public Radio

An after-school literacy program in Waterloo will be independently hosting the annual African American read-in after the city’s school district withdrew from the event last month.

The 1619 Freedom School helps Waterloo’s African American elementary and middle schoolers with reading skills. It made the decision to host the read-in after Waterloo Community Schools said it wouldn’t participate, citing a fear of losing federal funding amid diversity, equity and inclusion rollbacks.

Speaking on IPR’s Talk of Iowa Wednesday, 1619 Freedom School Co-founder Nikole Hannah-Jones said the read-in is important for everyone in Waterloo’s diverse community.

“Black stories are valid and worthy in and of themselves, and we don’t have to defend that. All people in a community are better when we learn about different cultures and we have empathy with people who have different experiences.”

This will be the 19^th read-in for the city’s students. It is scheduled for March 15.

Iowa City residents returned to the ballot box Tuesday to choose a new city council member. Voters elected Oliver Weilein, a punk rock musician who works for Systems Unlimited, a nonprofit that provides in-home care to people with intellectual disabilities.

Weilein says a priority of his is to expand the city’s “housing first” policies. He says he wants Iowa City to strive for financial independence from the state and federal government.

Weilein won by over 1,400 votes, defeating real estate developer Ross Nusser in a contentious race. The special election was scheduled after former city councilor Andrew Dunn announced his resignation in October 2024.

The unfolding trade war between the U.S. and its three biggest trading partners could have widespread impacts on farmers in Iowa.

After the U.S. doubled its tariffs on Chinese products, China quickly responded with higher import taxes on U.S. soybeans.

Iowa State University Extension economist Chad Hart says roughly half of soybeans grown in the U.S. are exported, which makes the crop more vulnerable to a trade war than other commodities like corn.

Hart says the economic damage will depend largely on whether the tariffs are long term or a temporary negotiating tool.

“The speed at which these tariffs go in means that they can also be taken away just as quickly.”

The American Soybean Association is urging the Trump administration to reconsider its tariffs and continue negotiations with trade partners. Along with choked off export markets, the association says a trade war will make it harder to get potash for fertilizer since more than 80% of it comes from Canada.

The association’s president said in a news release that American soybean farmers have still not recovered from the 2018 trade war.

Refugee resettlement agencies in Iowa are running out of funding after the Trump administration stopped providing federal funds to support new arrivals.

Lutheran Services of Iowa has not been reimbursed for any of its federal expenses since December 2024. This includes services it says are not affected by a U.S. Department of State order in January to stop resettlement work.

Director of Refugee Services Nicholas Wuertz says LSI is waiting for $1.5 million in reimbursements.

“Homelessness and a lack of resources for these new families will be a reality in a few weeks if the federal government does not fulfill its commitment to supporting the programs. It’s sad because that does not have to be the outcome.”

Wuertz says Congress has already approved these funds. Without the money, LSI will continue to lay off employees.

Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart says President Donald Trump’s new import tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico and China will have a negative impact on Iowa’s economy.

“It’s already hit the corn and soybean market, and we can see what’s happening to the stock market,” Hart said late Tuesday morning

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the tariffs were being imposed on “external product” and “the great farmers of the United States” should get ready to start making a lot of products “to be sold INSIDE the United States.” Trump closed the message by writing: “Have fun!”

Hart notes the price for a bushel of corn fell by 22 cents by midday. “That doesn’t seem like fun to me,” Hart said.

Hart said after Trump imposed tariffs in 2018 and 2019, other countries, which had been buying American farm commodities, started buying elsewhere. Trump authorized $61 billion in tariff relief payments to American farmers during his first term.

“Farmers are a proud bunch. We want trade, not aid. This president got by with it last time. I don’t know why, but if he thinks he’s going to have the taxpayers bail us out again, that’s just poor leadership.”

Hart and her husband farm in Clinton County near Wheatland.

Most of Iowa is in for a blast of winter weather Tuesday and Wednesday.

Craig Cogil, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Des Moines, says northwest winds will pick up, driving temperatures down Tuesday evening.

“It’s going to be very strong, 30-40 mph sustained with gusts of 55-65. These will spread from northwest Iowa across the state overnight, and with it, the rain will transition to snow with blizzard conditions expected for much of western into central and northern Iowa overnight into Wednesday morning.”

The National Weather Service issued a high wind warning for nearly the entire state that runs through Wednesday afternoon. A blizzard warning goes into effect at midnight for western, central and northern Iowa and runs until 3 p.m. Wednesday.

State Auditor Rob Sand released the results of his investigation Tuesday into Johnson County's conservation department, which revealed numerous improper payments.

The report identified over $88,000 in unauthorized disbursements from January 2019 to June 2024. This includes over $38,000 in unauthorized pay to the department’s operations superintendent. The audit found thousands of dollars in unauthorized credit card purchases and over $14,000 for what anonymous letters described as “gifts and bribery” to the Ioway Tribe.

The investigation was announced after Sand received complaints about the department’s management. At the time, it was run by Larry Gullett, who died in September 2024. His successor, Brad Freidhof, took over in February.

The department board said it is cooperating with the sheriff’s office and the county auditor and will make the changes recommended in Sand’s report.

This story has been corrected to note that Brad Freidhof is Larry Gullet's successor, not his predecessor.

Blizzard warnings and high wind warnings have been posted for much of western and central Iowa for Tuesday night through Wednesday afternoon. Forecasters say Iowans should anticipate a significant impact on roads.

National Weather Service Meteorologist Jim Lee says the large and powerful storm system is approaching Iowa from the southwest.

“It’s already spread some thunderstorms into the state early this morning, and we’re going to see more widespread rain filling in this afternoon and evening. Then tonight, very strong winds are going to surge in from the northwest and change the rain to snow. Then we’ll have blowing snow and blizzard conditions by Wednesday morning.”

Lee predicts wide sections of Iowa could get 3-6 inches of snow from this system. He says winds may gust up to 65 mph, and with the blowing snow, white-out conditions may be possible.

Forecasters are also watching another storm system develop, which could bring more snow to the state Thursday night and into Friday.

An LGBTQ rights nonprofit is encouraging Iowans who want to change their sex on their Iowa birth certificate to do it as soon as possible.

The new state law removing civil rights protections for gender identity will also require new birth certificates to reflect a person’s sex at birth. The state will no longer allow sex designation changes on Iowa birth certificates.

Max Mowitz leads OneIowa and says transgender Iowans should prepare now, even though the law does not take effect until July 1.

“[What] we are recommending is that folks get connected with an affirming lawyer. But we know that for right now, people should still be able to change their sex designation.”

That process typically takes several weeks. Currently, a notarized affidavit from a physician is required to change the sex on an Iowa-issued birth certificate. It must state the person has gone through treatment to change their sex.

The wide-ranging law also bans transgender women from women’s bathrooms, shelters and prisons.

Mowitz says some LGBTQ people and families, especially ones with transgender members, will probably move out of Iowa because of this legislation.

“If you are a person leaving the state, you know, just know that there are a lot of folks fighting behind you to try to make the state better, but for folks that cannot leave the state, we're going to be right here alongside you, and we're not going to give up on Iowa.”

Mowitz says anyone impacted by this legislation should contact OneIowa for resources.

The new state law removing gender identity from the Iowa Civil Rights Act leaves few protections in place for transgender Iowans, according to a Drake University law professor.

The Iowa Civil Rights Act prevents discrimination in housing, employment, public accommodations and more.

Some federal laws protect transgender people, but Professor Mark Kende says the Trump administration may render those laws ineffective.

“There were some federal protections. They didn't cover everything in the first place, so state law filled in the gaps. And secondly, I'm not sure those protections exist anymore because of the executive orders, and I suspect more orders that will be coming from the Trump administration.”

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on his first day of office stating there are only two biological sexes. Kende was a guest on IPR’s River to River.

The Iowa Farmers Union asked Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley about frozen federal funding during a virtual town hall Monday.

Iowa Farmers Union President Aaron Lehman says it’s a dramatic time for farmers.

On top of low commodity prices, delayed funding for conservation practices and new market development projects are cutting into their bottom line, right as they’re planning for the next growing season.

Lehman asked Grassley how farmers can get their message across to the new administration.

“There’s a lot of frustration and a lot of anger that they’re not being heard by the administration about how important USDA investments are to rural America and to our farms on the ground,” Lehman said.

Grassley said more will be known after the USDA’s 90-day review process but that farmers should continue reaching out to him and Iowa’s other congressional delegates.

Grassley said eliminating funds for conservation would be “catastrophic” for family farmers.

Lehman also asked about the Trump administration’s plans to implement tariffs on Canada and Mexico tomorrow, as well as doubling the import taxes on China.

Grassley says he’s "disconcerted."

“For most of my life in the United State Senate, I’ve been a free trader and a fair trader, and I’ve always been a majority of both Republicans and Democrats that tended to be for free trade. And now, I’m in a minority.”

Grassley says he will continue speaking about the importance of free trade for agriculture.

Last year, the U.S. exported corn valued at nearly $14 billion. Mexico was the top importer.

University officials say three of its Living Learning Communities will no longer be offered starting next school year. Those are All-In, Unidos and Young, Black and Gifted, which are the only three Living Learning Communities organized by identity.

This comes after the Department of Education ordered institutions to cut DEI programs or risk losing federal funding.

Daniela Pintor-Mendoza is president of the university’s Latino Student Union.

“We love to be Hawkeyes. We love to be from Iowa. You know, I’m hecho in Iowa. Born and raised in Des Moines, Iowa. Like, it’s their job to protect us and we feel like they failed us in that.”

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.

Iowa Ag Secretary Mike Naig is back from a trade trip to Costa Rica and Guatemala. Naig says both countries present a lot of trade opportunities.

“We can help Costa Rica and Guatemala on two fronts. One is, you know, to help supply their livestock industries with feed. And so we do that through exporting soybean meal, dry distillers grains and corn. But also the consumer — you know, their rising incomes, they are looking for more protein.”

He says representatives of Iowa’s beef industry were on the trip. Naig says the accessibility of the two countries is a positive.

“There’s a tremendous logistic advantage, logistical advantage for us to go down the Mississippi, across the Gulf and into ports in Central America,” Naig says. “So we have a logistical advantage, and then you match that up with the quality and the consistency that we can supply. We’ve got some very, very good customers in those two countries.”

The Iowa Economic Development Authority was on the trip with ag department as they worked to connect Iowa companies with markets for their products and services.

Last week, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill into law that removes gender identity from the Iowa Civil Rights Act. Her signature capped off a fast-paced week for the Iowa Legislature, which also advanced bills that would limit which foods are eligible for SNAP benefits and require schools to offer firearms safety courses to certain grade levels.

This week, a "funnel" deadline will narrow what bills lawmakers will move forward with this session.

IPR State Government Reporter Katarina Sostaric and Morning Edition host Meghan McKinney look behind the scenes and discuss what happened last week in Iowa's legislative session in the latest legislative Monday segment. Take a listen.

Biodiesel plants across Iowa have either shut down or drastically cut production due to volatile market conditions and uncertainty over federal policy.

Tom Brooks, general manager of Western Dubuque Biodiesel in Farley, says the biofuels industry has been waiting for finalized rules governing a new comprehensive federal tax credit. Brooks adds that other rules favor biodiesel made from products like imported used cooking oil and animal fats over domestic soybean oil. Under current conditions, Brooks says they’d lose 30 to 50 cents on every gallon of biodiesel produced. Western Dubuque has idled the plant, but Brooks says they’re doing everything they can to keep their 22 employees.

“We went through this in 2010 and we laid off almost everybody. And then when we had to come back up, there was about a two-year gap before you're running efficient. And so that's why we want to keep what we have right now. We've got quality employees. We set them all down and said we value you, can you ride this out with us?”

Brooks says the plant’s 22 employees are currently training, performing maintenance and painting the facility. He says if market conditions improve, it would take 20 to 30 days to get production back up and running.

“We chose to idle the plant and said instead of losing millions of dollars trying to produce in an uncertain environment, it's just best to our employees, to our community, and our shareholders to, to be a good steward of the funds that they've given us.”

Brooks says they’re having workers paint the plant and perform scheduled training. He says idling plants also affects farmers who raise the soybeans used in production.

As spring approaches, farmers and landowners in Great Plains states are gearing up for potential wildfires.

Wildfires have become more frequent, burning bigger areas during longer seasons thanks to conditions teed up by climate change.

Eric Hunt, agricultural meteorologist with the University of Nebraska extension, says wildfires have become a concern in areas of the Midwest and Great Plains where they have not historically been an issue.

“Until the recent years, we've had some severe drought conditions, particularly in the fall and particularly right around harvest time, where we have had combines catch fire, and then sometimes those fires has spread through fields and have done significant damage.”

That includes parts of Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois. Last year, blazes started earlier in the year in parts of the Plains. As wildfire threat increases, more people are doing prescribed burns to lower the risk and to manage land.

Landowners intentionally burn millions of acres each year to lower wildfire risk, increase biodiversity and remove harmful plants.

Although prescribed burning has been a practice for centuries, John Weir, a fire ecology expert at Oklahoma State University, says more people are interested in burning their land.

“You’ve got landowners that have 1,000s of acres that haven't burned before or have and people are seeing the need and the importance of it as well as having all these fire departments here realizing that, ‘Hey, we've got, we've got to start helping the landowners.”

Marshalltown High School will be the first in central Iowa to launch Three Dimensional Education, or 3DE this fall, becoming the fourth school in the state to incorporate the innovative program.

It’s being implemented through Junior Achievement of Central Iowa, where Ryan Osborn is president. He says 3DE authentically connects high school education to the complexities of the real world while working with corporate partners.

“First and foremost, it was an instructional model developed to answer high school engagement. There are a lot of studies out there that find less than half of high schoolers are engaged in their learning. The second reason is really out of this need to align high school graduates with the type of skills they’re going to need once they get out to the workforce.”

Osborn says the competency-based approach helps students unlock and develop skills like creativity, critical thinking and problem-solving. The platform includes case studies for ninth through eleventh graders that culminates in a capstone experience senior year, where students work as business consultants to real clients.

The program is taught throughout the day, not as an after-school elective, and of the 375 students who will start 9th grade in Marshalltown next year, as many as 150 are now being recruited for the program.

The program was founded by Junior Achievement in 2015 and has been implemented across 60 high schools nationally. Three other high schools in Iowa are already using the 3DE program: Alburnett High, and Prairie and Washington in Cedar Rapids.

The man charged in the death of Sarah Root — the Council Bluffs woman who is the namesake of what’s known as “Sarah’s Law” — is in custody in Honduras.

In 2016, Eswin Mejia was accused of drunk driving while street racing in Omaha and crashing into Root’s vehicle as it was stopped at a red light. Root, who was 21 years old, died at the scene.

Mejia, who was in the U.S. without legal status, posted a $5,000 bond, was released and disappeared. Iowa’s congressional delegation soon introduced “Sarah’s Law” to require that immigrants in the U.S. without legal status accused of violent crimes must be detained. “Sarah’s Law” was paired with another bill earlier this year and President Donald Trump signed it into law.

Rep. Randy Feenstra and Sen. Joni Ernst say accountability is coming for Sarah Root’s killer. Sen. Chuck Grassley and Gov. Kim Reynolds say this is justice for the Root family.

The Honduran National Police notified U.S. officials Mejia was taken into custody on Feb. 27. Negotiations are underway to have him extradited to Nebraska to stand trial.

Madeleine Charis King

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Iowa Public Radio

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill into law Friday removing gender identity from the Iowa Civil Rights Act.

The law takes effect July 1 and will end state anti-discrimination protections for transgender people in housing, employment, public accommodations and more.

Reynolds says in a video that the new law is needed to prevent courts from overturning Iowa’s other laws that restrict transgender rights in school bathrooms and sports teams.

“These common-sense protections were at risk because before I signed this bill, the civil rights code blurred the biological line between the sexes. It has also forced Iowa taxpayers to pay for gender reassignment surgeries. And that’s unacceptable to me, and it’s unacceptable to most Iowans.”

Iowa Safe Schools, which advocates for LGBTQ youth, says this makes Iowa the first state to actively roll back civil rights.

The group says it’s “a shameful display of power used to crush the most vulnerable Iowans.”

Read more.

Early last year an announcement sent waves through the botany community — Duke University planned to get rid of its herbarium, a collection of more than 800,000 specimens.

The Duke news was a warning shot heard throughout the herbaria community, said Barbara Thiers, director emerita of the New York Botanical Garden Herbarium and a research associate at the Denver Botanic Garden. She was shocked to learn that an herbarium as big as Duke’s is on the chopping block.

“It felt like a slap in the face at a time when we are all trying so hard to document biodiversity and to understand it as we face the environmental challenges that we're facing,” Thiers said.

Scientists say amid climate change and biodiversity loss, the world’s herbaria could hold the keys to overcoming the crisis in their folders of dried plant specimens. But their future is in question amid cuts to research and education funding.

Read more.

The U.S. Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE is looking at closing two federal offices in northwest Iowa.

One is the IRS office in Sioux City. Newsweek reports a savings of $17,000 if the yearly lease is cancelled.

More than 100 taxpayer assistance centers across the country have been targeted by DOGE to try and balance the budget. Last week, the Associated Press reported the federal government planned to lay off about 7,000 IRS workers.

DOGE’s website, which documents money saved by cuts to jobs and contracts, also includes the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sioux City. It says ending the yearly lease would save almost $127,000. Officials with the U.S. Attorney’s Office are not commenting on the potential closure.

Farmers across the Midwest rely on potash, a key mineral compound used to produce fertilizer. America imports over 80% of its potash from Canada.

The White House threat to place tariffs on Canadian imports is currently on a 30-day freeze set to expire in March.

Bill Knudsen, an agricultural economist at Michigan State University, says a tariff would hurt U.S. farmers.

"Just about any crop, you're using potash in some ways, so that's gonna reduce your profitability. We're already looking at kind of a decline in farm income, especially for field crop producers in the upcoming year."

Bob Thompson, the Michigan Farmers Union president, says many of his members are concerned because the tariff costs will be passed down to farmers.

"We have no way of recouping that cost, typically, because crops generally are sold at the whim of whatever the market is, rather than allowing us to set our own price."

A potash mine in Michigan is waiting to see if the Department of Energy will move forward with an over $1 billion loan conditionally approved by President Joe Biden.

Read more.

Most of Iowa is under a Red Flag Warning from noon today through 6 p.m. Friday night, as open burning is strongly discouraged.

National Weather Service meteorologist Brooke Hagenhoff says there’s a critical risk as any fires that develop will likely spread rapidly.

“For today, we’ve got warm conditions in the upper 50s to low 60s. We’ve got really dry fuels out there, because it’s so early in the season that nothing’s growing, so all the grasses and things are dry,” Hagenhoff says, “and then on top of that, we’ve got really strong winds gusting 45 to 50-plus miles per hour.”

The warning covers 91 of Iowa’s 99 counties, all but the far northeastern corner of the state. Hagenhoff says the warm temperatures, strong winds and dry vegetation will create a serious hazard.

“That combination is going to make it really dangerous for any kind of burning that goes on,” she says, “so we definitely want to take care and delay any burning until later this weekend or next week.”

The state Fire Marshal’s office shows active burn bans in only five counties, Mills County in the southwest and four in eastern Iowa: Clinton, Linn, Muscatine and Scott.

John Deere shareholders have overwhelmingly rejected a proposal targeting the company’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives. The proposal would have required the company to “report on statistical differences in hiring across race and gender to prove it does not practice discrimination.”

Last summer, the company rolled back some of its DEI programs after it faced similar pressure. This time, though, only 1.3% of shareholders voted in favor of the resolution.

This comes after shareholders of Apple and Costco also rejected anti-DEI measures. Other Fortune 500 companies are stating their commitments to DEI initiatives while facing pressure from the White House.

A Des Moines nonprofit that works with high schoolers hopes to open 18 studio apartments for young adults by fall 2026.

Starts Right Here received $750,000 this week from Polk County for the housing. This is one of several grants the nonprofit has received over the past couple months from the State of Iowa, City of Des Moines and the county, totaling just over $5.4 million.

Will Keeps leads Starts Right Here and says the housing will help young adults complete post-high school goals, especially people without housing or who are aging out of foster care.

“They can come home to their place and not somebody else’s place, under their roof, and they can feel good about themselves and really focus on them, instead of focusing on ‘how am I gonna eat today?’”

The housing is for adults under 24 years old. Residents will also have access to mental health, mentoring and other supportive services.

Frozen federal funds, suspended grants and budget uncertainty are impacting nonprofit organizations across Iowa, including some focused on air and water quality.

Sarah Green is executive director of the Iowa Environmental Council. She says the coalition budgeted for half a million dollars from federal grants for 2025.

One of these has been suspended. It was part of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency program to help underserved communities navigate federal resources, develop strong grant proposals and manage funding to address environmental pollution.

Green says the grant suspension puts IEC in limbo.

“It puts the communities that we’re supporting in jeopardy, too. The state does not have a comprehensive effort to identify environmental pollution challenges and to connect communities with resources to overcome those challenges.”

Green says the Iowa Environmental Council is developing contingency plans to continue the work they started last year. She emphasizes that local foundations and other funding sources cannot fill in all the gaps left behind by the federal government.

Practical Farmers of Iowa is a 9,000 plus member organization focused on farmer-to-farmer learning, on-farm research and technical assistance.

Sally Worley, the executive director of Practical Farmers of Iowa, says nearly a quarter of PFI’s budget this year comes from federal grants.

“22% of our budget is a big deal to us. And I completely agree that we need to reduce waste in the government, but right now what they’re doing is freezing contracts that are legally bound, and that we have signed and planned for in our budget.”

Worley says one of the biggest impacts is the freeze on the USDA’s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, which supported more than 800,000 acres planted with cover crops through PFI’s cost share program.

The Iowa Board of Regents has voted Thursday to end the University of Iowa’s American Studies and Social Justice majors. They said it was partially due to a lack of enrollment.

The number of students majoring in either social justice or American studies has dropped by half since 2021. Originally, the university’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences proposed terminating the programs with the goal of creating a new “School of Social and Cultural Analysis.”

But the Board of Regents decided to instead just focus on the elimination of the two majors.

Regent Christine Hensley voted to approve the terminations.

“I'm sure we’ve all gotten quite a few emails from students, and I would just like to make sure that students understand that this has gone through a specific process as outlined. That’s not something that is taken lightly.”

The university also cited staffing shortages in its request to end the two majors.

Students enrolled in either major will be able to finish their programs, and since many of the classes are cross-listed with other majors, those will continue as usual.

The head of Sioux City’s Human Rights Commission says some of the most vulnerable people in the community will suffer after city leaders decided to significantly cut funding.

This week, the city council slashed the budget by over a third, or $140,000.

Executive Director Karen Mackey oversees the commission that enforces anti-discrimination laws.

“Someone with power is rarely discriminated against. It's the powerless that have that issue. The reason having a fully-functional human rights commission with staff is important — it's really vital — because we are a free and neutral factfinder.”

Mackey says it’s too early to tell where cuts will take place, but staffing will likely be reduced. There are three full-time employees and two part-time employees.

City officials say property tax cuts passed by the Iowa Legislature have led to a tighter financial outlook.

Madeleine Charis King

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Iowa Public Radio

Republicans in the Iowa House and Senate passed a bill to remove anti-discrimination protections for transgender Iowans from state law. The bill is headed to Gov. Kim Reynolds’ desk for her signature.

The bill removes gender identity from the Iowa Civil Rights Act, which is meant to prevent discrimination in housing, employment, public accommodations and more.

Sen. Liz Bennett, D-Cedar Rapids, says this makes Iowa the first state to strip citizens of civil rights.

“The fact that this bill is so expansive to remove an entire group of people from civil rights protections speaks to the real agenda, which is policing gender expression and creating a world so hostile to those that don’t fit your mold that trans or non-gender-conforming people can’t exist.”

Sen. Jason Schultz, R-Schleswig, says the bill is needed to prevent other state laws targeting transgender Iowans from being struck down by the courts.

Rep. Ashley Hinson voted this week to pass the House Budget Plan despite some concerns over its effect on a new Farm Bill.

The plan calls for a roughly $230 billion cut to agriculture spending over 10 years, which includes a substantial reduction in SNAP benefits.

Speaking at her weekly media call on Thursday, Hinson said she voted for the budget resolution because she believes in the benefits it will bring to Iowa and its farmers.

“My whole point in supporting the budget resolution this week is to make sure we’re providing savings for taxpayers and protecting tax cuts for taxpayers, which also supports our agricultural producers and our farmers.”

Iowans also expressed concerns about potential cuts to Medicaid.

Hinson said the aim of the plan was not to cut Medicaid funding, but to make it more financially efficient.

“We’re not going to be cutting people’s benefits, but we do have hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud in many of these programs. So, we’re not going to be touching benefits, but we are going to be addressing ways where we can protect the traditional Medicaid population and make sure that these programs can continue to exist.”

Madeleine Charis King

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Iowa Public Radio

Three out of four clinician-provided abortions in Iowa were done through medication in 2023. That’s according to new data released from the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights.

The data also shows 29% of Iowa abortions were provided through online clinics that year, which was when the procedure was still legal up to 20 weeks of pregnancy. Iowa started enforcing a law banning abortion at about six weeks with exceptions in 2024.

Isabel DoCampo, a senior research associate at the Guttmacher Institute, says this change could affect these numbers.

“It could be that we see further changes in clinic counts in Iowa, which could place greater importance on telemedicine provision throughout the state as a result of this ban.”

Iowa only has two brick-and-mortar clinics that provide abortions in the state — a Planned Parenthood clinic in Ames and the Emma Goldman Clinic in Iowa City. Iowa’s telemedicine and medication abortion numbers were significantly above the national average among states without total abortion bans.

Read more.

The federal government has unfrozen some funding that the Trump administration tried to block, but many environmental projects around the Midwest still can’t access their promised funds.

Jason Grimm runs a family poultry farm in Williamsburg. He was awarded a $50,000 grant to buy a refrigerated truck to sell his chicken and turkey further from his farm. But that grant is funded with federal dollars. Grimm is not making any purchases because he’s worried he won’t be reimbursed.

Grimm says the Trump administration’s policies are hurting common farmers.

“Unless you are a wealthy, well-connected person in rural America, you are going to be very negatively impacted by these policies.”

The USDA says it will be releasing more money soon as it continues to review federal grants.

Brian Depew, the executive director of the Center for Rural Affairs in Nebraska, says the freeze on Inflation Reduction Act funds is disproportionately affecting rural America.

“A large portion of the funding in the IRA for clean energy is going to projects that are in rural communities. Conservation projects, solar projects, projects of that nature tend to be located in rural areas.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it is reviewing IRA funds and will release more soon.

Attorney General Brenna Bird announced Wednesday that she is ready to sue two companies as part of an investigation into cryptocurrency fraud. She says the cryptocurrency ATM companies Bitcoin Depot and Coin Flip have scammed Iowans out of $20 million in three years.

These kinds of ATMs take cash and convert it into cryptocurrency. Bird says some companies take a cut of the money sent.

“Once the money is sent through one of these machines, it's almost impossible to get back. That's why scammers use them and the crypto ATM companies should know this, and in fact, their entire business model depends on it.”

Bird says these lawsuits will disarm the “crypto crooks.”

Police in Perry say a sixth-grade student at the city’s elementary school has been charged with threatening terrorism.

The police say a parent reported that their sixth grader overheard the student allegedly make a threat to “shoot up the school.”

Police went to the student’s home Tuesday night, interviewed the parents and student, and searched the home for firearms. None were found, and police say the student told officers they were “joking” about the threat.

Officers learned the same student made a similar threat last December and it was found to not be credible. Police say the student has been referred to Dallas County Juvenile Court Services.

On Jan. 4, 2024, a 17-year-old student opened fire on students and staff at Perry High School, fatally shooting a sixth-grade student and the school’s principal before taking his own life.

Tim Looney

A full-size barn finished its 20-mile journey Wednesday to the Kalona Historical Village in southeastern Iowa. It was built in the early 20^th century and donated to the Kalona Historical Society by the Greiner family.

The barn was in Ainsworth for over 100 years. Other than the fact that it's quite possibly the largest intact structure to ever make that journey, there’s nothing that special about the barn. But as historian Mike Zahs says, that’s the point.

“Many times, in history, we save the unusual —the round barns, we save the mansion houses. Well, what are people going to think in 100 years? That all of us lived in a mansion?”

Last summer, the Washington County Riverboat Foundation granted the historical society $300,000 to relocate and preserve the barn.

Madeleine Charis King

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Iowa Public Radio

Iowa House and Senate lawmakers are likely to vote Thursday on a bill to remove gender identity from the Iowa law that protects against discrimination in areas including housing and employment.

The plan drew hundreds of protesters, who packed the Capitol rotunda Thursday morning during a public hearing held by the House Judiciary Committee. In that hearing, Ed Cranston of North Liberty told lawmakers that he opposes the bill because it would affect his grandson, who is transgender.

“He lives Iowa values. How in heaven’s name am I going to justify telling him your rights are being taken away? The rights of other students, the rights of the entire community.”

Supporters of the bill say they want to keep women and girls from encountering transgender women in spaces, such as bathrooms or changing rooms.

Republican lawmakers have also said removing gender identity from Iowa’s civil rights code is necessary to uphold laws passed in recent years, which include a ban on gender-affirming health care for minors.

This week, a rare astrological phenomenon is happening in our night sky. All seven other planets in our solar system will be visible from North America, in a display known as the planet parade.

Allison Jaynes, associate professor in the department of physics and astronomy at the University of Iowa, explained that most planets are close to the ecliptic plane.

“[It’s] sort of just like a flat sheet of paper that intersects through the middle of the sun and the Earth, and all the other planets are just kind of moving around the sun on that flat sheet of paper,” Jaynes explained on River to River. “So they're often in an alignment of some kind.”

What is special about this week is that the planets happen to be on the same side of the sun at the same time, so stargazers in Iowa will be able to see the planets simultaneously.

“It doesn't happen very often, and in fact, it won't happen again until 2040,” Jaynes said.

Most of these planets can be seen with the naked eye on a clear night, with the exception of Uranus and Neptune, the planets furthest away from the sun. However, they'll be visible with an at-home telescope or high-powered binoculars.

Friday, Feb. 28 is the day the planets will be most closely clustered together, but it will be possible to see them a few days before and after Friday.

Read more.

Rachel Cramer

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Iowa Public Radio

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig is applauding the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s updated response to bird flu, emphasizing in a news release that poultry producers in the state have been hit hard by the virus.

Over 11 million chickens and turkeys in Iowa were killed by the virus or culled to prevent its spread in 2024.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins laid out her five-part plan to curb the outbreak and lower egg prices in an Op-Ed to the Wall Street Journal. Rollins says USDA inspectors will provide free consultations to chicken producers to identify biosecurity risks, and that the agency will pay up to 75% of the costs for upgrades.

Additionally, more money will go into a program to reimburse producers with flocks hit by bird flu.

Deregulation, short-term egg imports and research for vaccines and therapeutics are also part of the plan, which Rollins said could cost up to $1 billion. She said it will be partially funded by cuts to other federal programs.

Read more.

Waterloo Community Schools confirmed that it will lay off some of its staff over the next two years. The layoffs are a result of the district’s diminishing budget in the wake of limited state funding increases and the possibility of a federal funding freeze.

Just how many staff and faculty will be let go is uncertain, but Superintendent Jared Smith said in a statement that “all employee groups will be affected to some extent.”

The superintendent also cited the exhaustion of COVID funds and inflation rates as reasons for the layoffs and warned that property taxes in the county could increase to make up some of that money.

The district’s general fund has dropped from $31 million to just over $8 million between 2023 and 2024. Smith said that the district will be implementing a two-year plan, so most layoffs will happen during the 2026-2027 school year.

Adam Gonshorowski

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Sioux City Arts Center

A nearly century-old Grant Wood painting at the Sioux City Arts Center has been sent to Minneapolis for a year-long conservation process. The mural, titled Corn Room, was originally painted in 1926 and has been part of the art center’s collection since 2007.

Christopher Atkins, a curator at the art center, says a conservator from the Midwest Art Conservation Center found that sections of the original paint were lifting off and flaking in a process called delamination.

“We want to make sure that it's looking its best for the next 40 years, the next 50 years, so that future generations of art appreciators can look at it and enjoy it and get a glimpse of what Grant Wood was trying to accomplish with these really beautiful panels.”

The painting will return to the center in 2026 — just in time for its 100^th birthday.

Iowa’s four Republican members of Congress all voted Tuesday night in favor of a federal budget resolution that narrowly passed the U.S. House of Representatives.

The outline of a budget plan makes way for trillions in tax and spending cuts while providing funds for President Donald Trump’s policy priorities.

Iowa’s 4^th District Rep. Randy Feenstra said he voted for the resolution to deliver on the president’s plans for border security and to increase American energy production.

Democrats have attacked the budget plan over possible cuts to programs such as Medicaid, which provides health care to low-income Americans and people with disabilities. The details of how cuts would be made are not yet developed.

Sheila Brummer

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Iowa Public Radio

Mechanical issues continue to plague the new Woodbury County Law Enforcement Center in Sioux City. Officials say that some offices could have functioned as refrigerators during last week's cold snap, with temperatures falling into the 40s — with the use of space heaters.

They sent a letter to the builder, architect and consultant, stating they were “bewildered” how a $70 million state-of-the-art facility doesn’t hold heat. They wanted repairs made immediately and say the issues go beyond wasting taxpayer money – it’s now disrupting operations and prosecutions.

The city of Cedar Rapids is pausing its diversity, equity and inclusion program. A statement from the city manager’s office says it's in light of President Donald Trump’s executive order threatening to withhold federal funds from recipients with DEI initiatives.

The city says it relies on over $306 million in active federal grant money for services like transportation, law enforcement and flood control.

Anthony Arrington, with the nonprofit organization Advocates for Social Justice, questions whether the city really supported the program’s goals.

“Do you care about Black and brown and biracial and LGBTQ and low income and the poor and disabled and military veterans? Do you care about them like you say? Or does the money matter? And what money? Because you haven’t lost anything yet. So, what are you afraid of?”

Arrington wishes the city had expressed more opposition to the executive orders and says the city pausing the program for fear of losing federal funding was premature.

The city of Davenport says a program aimed at providing a more compassionate response during crisis intervention has helped more than 800 people.

Roughly a year ago, the city’s police department partnered with the Vera French Mental Health Center. Crisis-intervention-trained police officers are paired with a mental health professional, and together they co-respond to crisis calls to ensure that individuals experiencing a mental health crisis are assisted through both a public safety lens and a mental health lens.

The city says the program is also focused on connecting individuals with follow-up care and resources.

Only 3% of the interactions this past year resulted in an arrest.

The program is funded by the Eastern Iowa Mental Health and Disabilities Service Region.

Grant Leo Winterer

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Iowa Public Radio

Around 50 protestors gathered outside Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson’s Waterloo office Tuesday morning. They assembled to voice their concerns with how the 2^nd District congresswoman was representing them at the national level.

The protestors’ complaints ranged from how Hinson has backed some of President Donald Trump’s current policies to the way Congress has handled cuts ordered by Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency.

Like many of the protestors, Lauren Holst said she’s upset in part because she feels like Hinson is ignoring the Iowans in her district.

“I would love for her to give the Iowans in her district as much attention as she’s given the billionaires, Elon Musk and the filthy rich.”

A representative present in Hinson’s office declined to comment on the protest.

Sen. Chuck Grassley reiterated his support for Ukraine in a speech on the Senate floor Monday, which marked the third anniversary of the Russian invasion.

“Ukrainians will never concede their sovereignty, and they will never give up on their countrymen, who are currently under brutal occupation.”

During his weekly media call Tuesday, Grassley was asked whether he thought the Trump administration is on the wrong path by refusing to blame Russia for the invasion and negotiating with the President Vladimir Putin’s government without including Ukraine. Grassley says President Donald Trump has more than one way of negotiating and solving problems.

“I don't have any reason to believe that he's abandoning Ukraine, but he's a little more favorable towards Putin than I would be.”

Grassley says his remarks are based on his own feelings toward Russia and Ukraine, and he will wait to see what comes out of peace negotiations before speaking publicly about the matter again.

Iowa continues to have the second highest rate of new cancer diagnoses in the country, according to this year’s report by the Iowa Cancer Registry.

The report estimates that more than 21,000 Iowans will be diagnosed with cancer this year. Around 6,300 Iowans are estimated to die from the disease. However, researchers say survivorship rates continue to go up due to increasing treatment options.

Mark Burkard, director of Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Iowa, says proposed cuts to federal research funding by the Trump administration, which are temporarily on hold due to a court order, could significantly affect research and survivorship rates.

“If the cancer funding is cut substantially, as has been proposed, then how are we going to do the research? How are we going to provide the resources?”

According to the report, more than 171,000 Iowans are living with or have previously had cancer.

Two-thirds of Iowans say they think food insecurity is a problem in their local community, according to a recent survey by Civiqs, an online polling company. The results also showed that 35% of respondents said food and groceries were their biggest monthly expenses, and more than half said the state is not doing enough to support people facing food insecurity.

Chris Ackman is with the Hawkeye Area Community Action Program, a food bank in eastern Iowa.

“We've been talking about food insecurity for a long time, and we’ve obviously known that it’s been an issue for Iowans, and we’ve been saying all these things, but to have numbers and to have data associated with it, it just confirms what we’ve been talking about.”

The survey data comes as food bank leaders and volunteers are meeting with lawmakers to talk about food insecurity for the IFBA’s Hunger-Free Day on the Hill Feb. 25.

Iowa political leaders are condemning the activities of a white nationalist group called the Patriot Front that marched around the Iowa Capitol Saturday.

Videos posted online showed a group of people wearing hats, white masks, dark jackets and khaki pants marching down Grand Ave. in Des Moines’ East Village. Many were carrying the U.S. flag that represents the original 13 colonies. The group chanted slogans like "reclaim America."

The group's website claims “democracy has failed America” and the government “must be altered or abolished.”

Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart says the group's scare tactics and hate have no place in Iowa. Iowa Republican Party Chair Jeff Kaufmann told KCCI TV that he's never heard of the group and said "they sound like morons."

Michael Rolands/Getty Images/iStockphoto

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iStockphoto

Some Midwestern farmers are concerned about consistent monitoring of the bird flu outbreak with the recent layoffs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

There have been about 70 recorded cases of humans contracting bird flu in the U.S., mostly from dairy cows. The USDA began testing dairy cattle and their milk last year.

Lee Maasen is a dairy farmer in northwest Iowa, where 13 herds tested positive last year. He credits the testing program for halting the spread of the virus.

“I’m satisfied so far with what they’ve done through the last year and where they’re at now, that they’re not overdoing surveillance and overdoing regulation.”

On Feb. 14, the USDA laid off several employees supporting the bird flu response, then attempted to rehire them a few days later.

Read the full story from the Midwest Newsroom’s Nick Loomis.

A University of Iowa professor says the campus will feel the ripple effects of National Science Foundation funding cuts for years to come. Last week, about 10% of NSF staff was cut as part of President Donald Trump’s federal workforce reductions.

Allison Jaynes, a space physicist at UI, says it seems like there’s a war on science and academia. She says the less funding that comes in, the fewer research opportunities there will be. And the fewer research opportunities, the less the university can attract top talent from around the world.

“I’m frankly terrified [of] where this is going to take us, because if we lose some of our institutional knowledge and our expertise — and we will lose it to other countries — it will take far longer to build it back than we expect.”

She says her own students are talking about leaving the country because they can’t see a future in the U.S.

Jaynes made her comments Monday on IPR’s River to River.

Madeleine Charis King

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Iowa Public Radio

The Des Moines Arts Center began removing a deteriorating art installation in Greenwood Park after settling with its artist for nearly $1 million last month. 

In January, the arts center ended a nearly year-long legal battle with New York-based artist Mary Miss, who accused the organization of breaching her contract when it moved to remove the installation last year.

The removal process will include temporarily draining the pond where some of the structure was built. The center says it is working to restore the surrounding landscape, as well as water and wildlife levels, once the project is completed later this year.

The City of Des Moines says most of the park will remain open to the public during the process.

Johnson County is accepting management proposals for an affordable housing property it purchased last summer. The property includes 15 newly renovated two-bedroom, one-bathroom townhomes in Iowa City that the county spent $2.25 million renovating.

It’s looking for proposals from nonprofit organizations or government agencies that can run the property over the next 20 years. Rachel Carr, with Johnson County Social Services, says the county will do annual monitoring to make sure the property stays affordable for its renters over that period.

“We have a lot of nonprofits in the community and a potential government entity that have the expertise and the knowledge on how to manage rent in accordance with local, state and federal law, in terms of charging of rents.”

The county is accepting proposals through the application portal on its website until April 4.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders spoke in Iowa City Saturday as part of his Fighting Oligarchy tour.

Sanders said a handful of multibillionaires have unprecedented economic, media and political power under the Trump administration. He warned against the dangers of oligarchy, using President Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day as a metaphor.

He said the image of multibillionaires Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos sitting behind Trump should serve as an indication of who is running the U.S. government.

“That is what we are fighting for — a government of the people, by the people, for the people — not a government of the billionaires, by the billionaires or for the billionaires.”

The tour began in areas that voted for Joe Biden in 2020 and elected a Republican House member in 2024. Sanders said he wants to pressure Republican members of Congress to vote against a bill that would cut Medicaid, education or housing and provide tax cuts for the wealthy.

Black Hawk County has some of the highest tooth decay numbers in the state, especially among kids.

The county’s public health department is looking to turn the situation around with an annual clinic Feb. 28 in Waterloo. It will help nearly 100 kids whose families may lack insurance, or face language or transportation barriers to dental care.

Brenda Rieken, a dental hygienist with Black Hawk County’s Public Health Department and coordinator of the clinic, says the quality of children’s lives is vastly improved when they have healthy teeth.

“Healthy teeth can really contribute to their overall health. For those children to be able to concentrate in school, eat and speak properly, it all correlates together. It’s a big part of it.”

Over 40 dentists will volunteer their time to staff the clinic Friday.

A new historical marker in Des Moines will honor Black officers who fought in World War I.

About a thousand Black soldiers relocated to the military base Fort Des Moines during the war. Historian Don North says it's a significant figure, as it's the first and only time so many Black officers were trained at once. He says the influx of soldiers made Des Moines the "cradle of birthing army officers."

North says these officers were instrumental in proving that Black officers were not only American citizens, but also capable of leadership. He asked for the marker to be put up at Fort Des Moines to commemorate them.

Researcher Keith King says the soldiers laid the foundation for the Civil Rights Movement.

"This was the first and only class of that many Black officers that were brought to one place to get commissioned. So it happened once, and it's never happened again.

King says Fort Des Moines’ history draws a parallel to today. Black people, he says, still have to perform above standard, or else be seen as a diversity hire.

The marker will be unveiled at a ceremony in June.

The Trump administration’s proposed cut to federal research could have significant effects on work done at the University of Iowa.

The current proposal would cap indirect funding costs from National Institutes of Health grants at just 15%. A federal judge put a temporary hold on the cuts following a lawsuit from 22 state attorneys general.

Dr. Stanley Perlman is a professor at the University of Iowa who has done extensive research in microbiology and immunology. He says indirect costs fund general lab equipment and personnel who are critical to research projects.

"We are dependent on the university for the large equipment, for kinds of tools that we can't really afford by ourselves, but they're critical for our research."

So far this fiscal year, which began October 2024, NIH has awarded the University of Iowa 73 grants totaling $31 million. Last federal fiscal year, NIH funded 402 university projects for a total of $190 million.

Perlman made his comments on Friday's IPR’s River to River.

This news entry has been updated to note that the $31 million received by the university is the amount awarded so far this fiscal year. The update also includes the total funding received by the NIH in the previous fiscal year.