Erin Jordan

A December explosion and fire that injured a dozen people and caused a small-scale evacuation in Marengo was caused when an “unknown mechanical failure” ignited flammable air vapor, the State Fire Marshal reported.

The Wonderful Westside Neighborhood Association will unite a community with many immigrants. “Our goal was to have neighborhood safety, celebrate diversity, and support new people coming to Iowa,” said Mohamed Joreya, the new group’s president.

Iowa-based grocery store chain Hy-Vee has agreed to pay a $5,374 civil penalty for continuing to sell a prohibited pesticide product that could have been dangerous to consumers.

Iowa now is considering selling more than 4,000 acres of farmland surrounding Iowa prisons and other residential treatment facilities for an estimated $32.7 million. About one-third of the land a consultant recommended Iowa sell is near the Anamosa prison, and likely includes a farm on the National Register of Historic Places.

Iowa has a new drought plan — the first since the 1980s, when droughts were less frequent and less intense than what Iowa has seen in recent years because of climate change.

Wolf Carbon Solutions will not use eminent domain to build a 280-mile carbon dioxide pipeline through eastern Iowa, according to the company’s permit application filed Thursday with the Iowa Utilities Board.

The county’s Zoning Adjustment Board on Jan. 24 signed two conditional use permits allowing the MiningStore, headquartered in North Carolina, to install mining sites next to two electrical substations owned by Midland Power Cooperative.

Under Senate Study Bill 1123, Department of Correctional Services directors would report to Corrections Director Beth Skinner. not regional boards. Skinner told lawmakers earlier this month the changes would save the state millions of dollars, but her office has not made public a consultant report they say provides information about the cost savings.

Kathleen Kooiker, of Osceola, who served on the Board of Parole from 2018 to 2021, said she was wrongfully discharged from the paid position when she complained to the governor about former chair Helen Miller’s decision to let alternate board members make parole decisions.

A majority of the Winneshiek County Board of Supervisors voted earlier this month to freeze funding for the roadside vegetation management program, started in 2016, because they say that money would be better spent updating snow plows and other Secondary Roads equipment.

Iowa Homeland Security will pay more than $600,000 to replace firefighting clothing and equipment damaged in a Dec. 8 explosion and fire in Marengo after the company whose plant exploded refused to pay.

Iowa could lose 75 percent of its 42 ethanol plants — with cascading harm to the corn industry — without carbon dioxide pipelines proposed for the state, according to a study commissioned by the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association.

The Iowa Bandmasters Association chose the Northwest Junior High 8th grade band to play at the association’s annual conference in May in Des Moines. Other Corridor schools picked to play at the conference are the 6th grade band at Boulder Peak Intermediate School in Marion and the Independence High School band.

Iowa will pay a contractor up to $834,000 to remove toxic “forever chemicals” from water in a 12-million-gallon basin holding runoff from a December explosion and fire in Marengo.

Donations to Iowa's Fish/Wildlife fund, informally called the Chickadee Checkoff, fell nearly 15 percent last year, but have been gradually shrinking since the fund was created in the early 1980s.