Tuesday, January 20th, 2026

It's Tuesday, January 20th. I'm Megan McKinney. This is here first from IPR. Iowa attorney General Brenna Bird says she wants to see the legislature increase the penalties for threats against judges and their loved ones. Currently, it's an aggravated misdemeanor to harass a judicial officer and court employees as well as their family members. The maximum jail sentence for that in Iowa is two years. Bird says she wants the legislature to change that charge to a felony. I have language I'm suggesting to the legislature that would make threatening a judge of their family member a 10-year felony. I want to... treat it very seriously because we don't want to tolerate that. Byrd says judges and prosecutors should also be allowed to seek a professional permit to carry a gun in a courtroom. County attorneys can have a professional permit to carry a firearm in court. The Iowa State Board of Education has approved a batch of three new charter schools. IPR's Grant-Gurlock reports, they include a charter operator expanding to another part of the state and two public schools making plans to open charter high schools. Horizon Science Academy is an independent charter school organization that operates schools in Des Moines and Davenport. The state board approved plans to open a charter in Cedar Rapids next fall that would start with kindergarten through fifth grade and add grades over time. Chris Murphy oversees Horizon schools in Iowa and says classwork focuses on science and technology. To start with our elementary model, we really do focus on developing the love for science, the love for inquiry and really developing that interest in thinking and asking questions. and being very collaborative with one another. The other approved charter schools are based within public school districts. Sumner Fredericksburg in Northeast Iowa plans to begin a work-based learning high school next fall. Council Bluffs is developing a STEM-focused charter high school that would offer extracurriculars in robotics, coding, and entrepreneurship. I'm Grant Gerlock, IPR News. Iowa Renewable Fuels Association Executive Director Monty Shaw says the state's biodiesel producers are idle as they weigh on federal guidance for tax credits. 45Z clean fuel production credit is for low carbon fuels that could be worth up to $1 per gallon. Shaw says producers are also waiting on the Environmental Protection Agency to release mandated biofuel blending levels for this year. They were supposed to be out in October. They're not out yet. We're told they might be out by the end of February. That might be in the nick of time to get, because once those levels are set, then people kind of know what the market's going to be, and you can start having transactions. Another organization that Clean Fuels Alliance says the delay in releasing the 26 renewable fuel standard obligations has created uncertainty for biodiesel producers and soybean processors who are negotiating contracts and making investment decisions for 2026. In farm country, dense tree cover can be hard to come by, but researchers from the University of Illinois have found that when more trees surround rivers and streams, there's a link to higher biodiversity. Harvest Public Media's Jess Savage has more. The researchers found evidence of an additional land species for every 10% increase in forest cover. Eric Larson leads the lab that conducted the study. We detected.