Snow made for some challenging driving for people in Siouxland again on Wednesday.
The winter season from December to now had resulted in much less than normal snow, but now two snow systems have pelted Siouxland.
Many areas got from 1.5 to 3 inches of snow on Monday, then a second snowstorm, which began Tuesday evening and lasted into late Wednesday, delivered a second brunt.
Parts of Northeast Nebraska received at least a combined four inches of snow. The city of Storm Lake declared a snow emergency that will run from Wednesday evening through Friday morning. North Sioux City also issued a snow emergency, among other Siouxland towns.
*Additionally, the leader of one of Iowa’s most diverse school districts says the families she serves are scared after President Donald Trump promised mass deportations of immigrants.
Shortly after taking office, Trump changed federal policy to allow immigration officers to make arrests at schools, as well as churches and hospitals.
Stacey Cole is the superintendent of Storm Lake Community Schools, where minority students make up more than 80 percent of enrollment.
“That's what's hard, there's so much fear that there are just rumors going on all the time. We have no reason to believe that, you know, that's going to happen. That being said, I can't tell anyone that it will never happen,” Cole said.
Cole says she would like to focus on education instead of helping to calm the anxiety of parents and students.
Cole says ICE agents would need a warrant or legal documentation to enter any school building.
*In other news, after nearly 20 years in the post, Bishop Walker Nickless is retiring from being Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sioux City.
The retirement request of Nickless, who is 77, has been approved by Pope Francis, and the new bishop will be the Reverend John Keehner, according to a Wednesday diocese press release.
Keehner, 59, was first ordained as a priest in 1993. He currently serves in the Diocese of Youngstown, Ohio.
Keehner will be ordained as bishop on May 1 at the Cathedral of Epiphany in Sioux City.
The Diocese of Sioux City covers 24 counties in Northwest Iowa. There are 36 priests serving 37 parishes that have about 84,000 Catholics.
*Additionally, a few bills that would create Educational Savings Accounts to be used by students attending private schools have stalled in the South Dakota Legislature.
But a new approach has passed in a committee, which would allow the use public dollars to fund private and alternative education,
The bill that passed in a state Senate committee on Tuesday would enable the use of tax credits to fund alternative education.
SB 190 would allow residents a property tax credit relating to education expenses, up to 80 percent of what would otherwise be going towards their local school district.
The bill’s sponsor, Republican state Senator John Carley, acknowledged this plan would directly take dollars from local school districts for use in nonpublic schooling. Several advocates for public schooling spoke against the bill.
*Iowa House Republicans are considering a proposal that would remove a phrase from the state’s definition of bullying.
Currently, “bullying” and “harassment” include any act toward a student based on any actual or perceived trait that creates a hostile environment. The bill would remove the reference to actual or perceived traits.
The Iowa Code says traits include, but are not limited to, race, creed, political party, gender identity and others. If passed, the bill would strike the section with examples of traits or characteristics.
Amber Williams, a parent from Urbandale who is in the Moms For Liberty group, supports the bill.
*In one other bill advancing in the Iowa House on Wednesday, instruction about LGBTQ topics would be banned in middle and high school.
That bill would expand the current law that applies to elementary school.
Republican legislators passed a law in 2023 that bans instruction about gender identity and sexual orientation before seventh grade. The bill advanced by Republicans on a House panel would extend that prohibition through high school.
Jemma Bullock is executive director of the Iowa Queer Student Alliance and is a student at Iowa State. They say lawmakers are supposed to be protecting all students, and bills like this do the opposite.
“And it does not stop LGBTQ+ students from being queer. What it does do is harm students. It causes mental health to decline and endangers more students’ lives,” Bullock said.
