Morningside University in Sioux City has received a $1 million gift that will be used to create a new program.
College officials on Thursday announced that the pledge from Joan and Larry Arnold will be used to found the Arnold Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Development within the Morningside University School of Business.
Morningside President Albert Mosley said it a great new piece that will foster innovation, support business start-ups and boost economic growth.
The Arnolds graduated from Morningside in the mid-1960s.
In other Morningside news, the university on Wednesday announced a new program that will give full tuition to 100 Siouxland students.
The Siouxland Proud, Mside Bound Initiative will begin in the fall 2025 semester. It will provide full tuition coverage for up to 100 new first-time, Pell-eligible full-time undergraduate students who come from select counties in the tri-state region.
Additionally, the other four-year private college in Sioux City, Briar Cliff University, is having its homecoming activities this week. E’mond Pittman and Sarah Glover were selected as Homecoming King and Queen.
*Additionally, another Iowan is facing federal charges for storming the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
50 -year-old Earl Jordan, of Dickens, was arrested by the FBI. He is accused of fighting with police officers who were trying to stop the mob from breaching the capitol building.
Jordan and his brother Christopher who lives in Utah were identified from police body camera footage. Earl Jordan was allegedly seen grabbing an officer by the throat and throwing metal fencing.
He faces felony charges of assaulting officers and obstructing law enforcement during a civil disorder.
Jordan is the tenth Iowan charged with crimes in connection with the capitol riot. More than 1,500 people have been charged nationwide.
*Three Northwest Iowa towns are getting grants that will help with efforts to look into possible child care and housing projects.
The Iowa Economic Development Authority announced $190,000 in grants were awarded Wednesday to 10 rural Iowa communities through Empower Rural Iowa Grant programs. The grant awards will support rural initiatives including housing, child care and business/community growth.
Five cities each received $20,000 Rural Housing Readiness Assessment Grants to study housing needs,through a partnership with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. The city of Denison, for example, is working to address overcrowding in affordable housing units.
The towns of Spencer and Rock Rapids will get $20,000 grants to look into child care options that could be added.
*In other news, a dockworkers’ strike that includes ports in the Gulf of Mexico could directly affect fresh produce in grocery stores. The impact on grain prices may come later.
Chad Hart is an economist with Iowa State University Extension.
With harvest underway, Hart said farmers are nervous. Around 60 percent of U.S. grain exports travel by barge on the Mississippi River and exit through the Gulf.
“The big lesson we learned from covid is any disruption in supply chain sort of ripples through the economy,” Hart said.
The union that’s striking handles container goods – like cars and perishable fruits and vegetables.
Hart says corn and most soybeans move through bulk shipments – not containers. But traffic jams on the Mississippi could make it harder to move grain, which tends to depress prices for farmers.
Hart says the effects likely depend on how long the strike lasts.
*Governor Kim Reynolds says her recent trade mission strengthened Iowa’s relationship with India and could lead to major economic opportunities for the state.
Reynolds says India is an attractive market for Iowa’s crops, livestock, biotechnology and manufactured goods.
She says India will have to modernize its agriculture sector to boost production and may someday accept genetically modified foods. Therefore, Reynolds said she and other Iowa government and business leaders are working to be a part of those changes.
“We’re going to go back next year, because it can’t be a one-and-done. This is something that we believe is the right thing to do for our state and for our farmers and manufacturers and biotechnology,” the governor said.
The head of the Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce says they already hosted a business from India they met on the trip about a potential investment in the Quad Cities.
And because of the trip, a biotech company called PowerPollen signed a letter of intent to bring its technology to India for the first time.
