If you don’t like the weather in Iowa, it’s said wait five minutes and it’ll change, but we’re years into a drought that shows little sign of changing for the better. State climatologist Justin Glisan says Iowa is consistently short on rainfall. “You would need several months, if not more than a year, of above-average precipitation to really extinguish the intense and longer-term drought conditions that we’ve seen across the state,” Glisan says. For much of the year, much of the state had been in some form of drought, from moderate to severe to extreme. Some communities are switching to buying bottled water for drinking water.
A six-story apartment building in downtown Davenport partly collapsed in May, trapping residents in the rubble. Police Chief Jeff Bladel said the recovery was very slow, as complete collapse was feared. “We have five that are unaccounted for and two that we have a firm belief that are potentially still in that building,” Bladel says. Three residents were killed in the collapse, several were critically hurt. Multiple lawsuits loom.
Also in May, it was announced a host of student-athletes at Iowa and Iowa State were being investigated for online sports betting. Hawkeye head football coach Kirk Ferentz called for the NCAA to adjust its penalties. “Certainly, we want to educate our players and I’d compare it to maybe marijuana policies and those types of things,” Ferentz says. “What you don’t want is somebody to develop a problem or an issue.” More than three-dozen athletes at the two schools were implicated in the investigation and several pleaded guilty.
In September, Algona police officer Kevin Cram was shot and killed while trying to arrest a suspect on an outstanding warrant. The 33-year-old Cram was remembered at his funeral by Algona Police Chief Bo Miller as the perfect officer. “When he received a call, none ever had to worry about it,” Miller says. “You knew he was going to handle that with compassion, and he was going to handle it with professionalism, every time.” The suspect, Kyle Ricke was captured in Minnesota after a four-hour manhunt and is awaiting trail for first-degree murder.
Dozens of Iowa landowners spoke out during weeks of hearings in Fort Dodge, calling for the Iowa Utilities Board to block a proposed carbon pipeline. Marcia Langner of Ayrshire aired concerns about the environment and land values. “I can’t imagine that the land wouldn’t be of a lower value by having a hazardous CO2 pipeline placed on it,” Langner says. Summit Carbon Solutions said its pipeline would help keep Iowa ethanol plants in business. The hearings started in August and concluded in November.
Also in November, the wife of a Woodbury County supervisor was convicted of 52 counts of voter fraud linked to the 2020 elections when her husband’s name was on the ballot. Board chairman Matthew Ung said: “This is a political Hindenburg of a case hurdling towards the state of Iowa and has a lot of repercussions, especially for Republicans.” Supervisor Jeremy Taylor refused to resign from the board, saying he was elected to do a job, he’s doing the absolute best he can, and the voters will hold him accountable every four years.