Week in Iowa

TRANSPORTATION PLAN OK’D: The Iowa Transportation Commission on Wednesday approved the draft of a five-year, $4.2 billion transportation plan that accelerates work on Wright Brothers Boulevard in Cedar Rapids.

The plan also will reconfigure the Interstate 380 and Wright Brothers Boulevard SW interchange, giving a major boost to a fast-growing part of city that has become host to massive industrial developments.

“We are extremely pleased that this particular interchange really is going to be built in record time,” City Manager Jeff Pomeranz said. “This is a very important strategic area as far as job creation in Cedar Rapids.”

Overall, the Iowa DOT’s entire I-380 widening project, including the Wright Brothers Boulevard SW interchange, will cost $99.5 million.

The DOT will hold a public information meeting on the project from 5 to 6 p.m. June 21 at the its District 6 Office, 5455 Kirkwood Blvd. SW.

FEDERAL FUNDING FOR SAFER SCHOOLS: Iowa school districts will have access to more resources designed to help prevent school violence, thanks to $100 million in federal pandemic relief funding that Gov. Kim Reynolds is putting into the state’s school safety bureau.

Reynolds created the school safety bureau in January 2020, but the Republican-majority Iowa Legislature has not funded the bureau in the three legislative sessions since.

The money will go for personnel, training and emergency communication systems to help schools prevent school violence or react to emergency events like school shootings.

TUITION HEADED UP: Tuition likely will go up 4.25 percent for Iowans attending one of the state’s three public universities this fall.

The Board of Regents will first consider the increase Wednesday before taking a final vote in July.

A $355 bump at the University of Iowa would increase total base tuition for the year from $8,356 to $8,711.

A $345 increase at Iowa State University would bring the total $8,678. And a $331 increase at the University of Northern Iowa would put the total at $8,111.

JOBLESS BENEFITS CUT: Unemployed workers in Iowa will be eligible to receive state unemployment benefits for 10 fewer weeks under legislation signed into law Thursday by Gov. Kim Reynolds.

The new law reduces the length of state unemployment benefits from 26 weeks to 16. Iowa becomes the fourth state with 16 weeks or fewer of state unemployment benefits.

Reynolds on Thursday also signed into law legislation that allows 16- and 17-year-olds to work unsupervised at child care centers.

They said …

“I do go to school wondering it if will be my last day or if I should’ve said I love you to my dad or my mom.”

— Peter Brozene, 14, Iowa City High freshman who helped organized a Monday protest in Iowa City against gun violence

“Every family should be able to confidently send their children to school knowing that they will be safe.”

— Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds in announcing she’ll direct $100 million in federal pandemic relief funds to the state’s school safety bureau

Odds and ends

COSTUMES FOR SALE: About 6,000 costumes, many of them handmade, are for sale at the Balloons Etc. and the Costume Emporium, 420 Second Ave. SE in Cedar Rapids.

Owners Jacob and Kimberly Cowger said they were downsizing after being unable to find enough staff to repair the costumes.

All of the costumes — except the Christmas and Easter-themed ones — are for sale.

NO VAX RULE AT SCHOOL: Iowa colleges, K-12 school districts and day care centers cannot require students and children to be immunized from COVID-19 under legislation signed into law Tuesday by Gov. Kim Reynolds.

The water cooler

GATENS BACK: Matt Gatens says it’s “pretty special and cool” to rejoin the Iowa Hawkeyes as an assistant basketball coach under Fran McCafferty.

Gatens, an Iowa City native, was a terrific player at Iowa (1,635 points) from 2009-2012 and was a member of McCaffery’s first two Iowa teams.

LOVE STORY: Duane Mann, a sailor, was stationed in Japan in 1953 during the Korean War. He fell in love with Peggy Yamaguchi. He was ordered to return to Iowa by the Navy, where he expected to send for Peggy.

But it was not to be, for a variety of reasons. Both Mann and Peggy married other people and had children. But it bothered Mann, for almost seven decades, that Peggy might think he’d abandoned her.

Thanks to some internet sleuthing, Mann, now 91 and living in Woodbine in western Iowa, recently was able to visit Peggy in Michigan, where she’d settled with her Air Force husband. Mann was able to explain how they’d lost contact, and they talked a lot about what a good dancer Peggy had been.

MAKING SCRATCH: An Eldridge man won $100,000 on an Iowa lottery "Supreme" scratch ticket. He bought the ticket at a convenience store in Nevada, Iowa, while traveling across the state.

More in the news

BLOCKFI BLOCKED: BlockFi Lending must pay $943,396 and stop making untrue statements regarding securities, according to an agreement reached with Iowa insurance regulators.

Regulators said the lending company was selling securities not permitted for sale in Iowa without being registered as an agent in the state.

BRINGING HOME THE BACON: Wisconsin-based meat processing company Fair Oaks Foods plans to build a $134 million facility in Davenport to make bacon.

The 150,000 square-foot facility will be near Interstate 80. It's expected to create about 247 new full-time jobs with an average hourly wage of $23.95.

EX-COP PLEADS GUILTY: A former Davenport and Eldridge police officer pleaded guilty to sex abuse charges involving a 14-year-old girl during a hearing Tuesday in Scott County District Court. Andrew Patrick DeNoyer, 24, pleaded guilty to three counts of third-degree sexual abuse.