Here is a look at some of Radio Iowa’s top news stories for 20204:
Just four days into the year, a student at Perry High School opened fire at the school, shooting five students and three staff members before killing himself.
Kevin Shelley was at his job, working on a garbage truck, when he got a text from his son Zander, a sophomore at Perry High, saying he’d heard shots and was hiding — and hurt: “I told the guy that was with me, you’ve got me back to my truck now, I’ve gotta’ get to Perry,” Shelley says. “I’m the most scared I’ve ever been in my whole life.”
Shelley’s son was only grazed by a bullet, though 11-year-old Ahmir Jolliff died, and ten days later, so did Principal Dan Marburger.
The year was terrible for tornadoes. A twister cut through Minden in April, flattening around 50 homes and businesses. In May, an E-F-4 slammed into several towns, including Greenfield, killing four and injuring 35.
Iowa State Patrol Communications Officer Alex Dinkla said the hospital was badly damaged and 150 homes were lost. “The Greenfield community has a long road ahead of them,” Dinkla said, “but if their actions today are any indicator of what lies ahead, they will emerge stronger and more united than ever.”
The hospital fully reopened in November, six months later. Iowa set a record for tornadoes in 2024 recording 125 twisters, more than any other year on record.
Repeated heavy downpours brought summer flooding, which reached historic levels in northwest Iowa, for towns like Rock Valley, Rock Rapids and Spencer.
Cherokee Emergency Management Director Justin Pritts said destruction caused by the swollen Little Sioux River was unprecedented. “We have dealt with flooding in the past, but this thing is by far the worst one we’ve ever had,” Pritts says. “We were five feet over our record.”
Many hundreds of more homes were lost to the water. Dozens of Iowa’s counties were declared state and federal disaster areas — between the flooding and tornadoes.
Four faculty members from Cornell College in Mount Vernon were attacked in a park in China in June. Professor David Zabner says he didn’t see it coming: “I turned around to see a man brandishing a knife at me,” Zabner says, “and I looked down at my shoulder and realized, ‘Oh, no, I’m bleeding, I’ve been stabbed.” A Chinese national was arrested.
In an effort to keep both universities viable, St. Ambrose in Davenport and Mount Mercy in Cedar Rapids merged in August.
One of the original stars of the TV show “American Pickers” died in September. Davenport native Frank Fritz was 58.
The Iowa Utilities Board unanimously approved a permit for Summit Carbon Solutions to build its carbon pipeline across Iowa.
State Representative Bobby Kaufmann of Wilton said the ruling sets a dangerous precedent. “The utilities board is dead wrong,” Kaufmann said, “and they have failed miserably at their job.”
Summit officials say the pipeline will transform the ag industry by lowering or eliminating ethanol’s carbon footprint, though there’s still no final decision on if it’ll be built.
In December, Iowa native and UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot to death outside a hotel in New York.
Todd Coy is principal of South Hamilton High School in Jewell, where Thompson graduated in 1993: “He was class president. He was their homecoming king. He was our valedictorian. He was an all-state trombone player. He strived in golf,” Coy says. “Pretty much seemed like whatever Brian set his mind to, he was going to excel.”
Days after the assassination, the suspect was arrested who police say bore “ill will toward corporate America.”