DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Hundreds of students and activists from throughout central Iowa gathered on the steps of the Capitol to demand action in response to climate change. Students in 150 countries were expected to skip school Friday to send a message to world leaders to act more aggressively in their response. Most of the protesters were high school or college students. Some wore yellow and black pins or T-shirts bearing the logo of the Sunrise Movement, a youth-led political action committee that focuses on climate change.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – After the Capitol protest, hundreds of students and parents marched to U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne’s office to urge her to vote for the Green New Deal. KCCI-TV reports no one was arrested.

BLAIRSTOWN, IA (IRN) – Seventy-seven years after an Iowa soldier went out on patrol, he is now home and laid to rest in the rural Benton County town of Blairstown. On November 26th, 1942, 27-year-old Laurel W. Ebert was on patrol in what is now present-day Papua New Guinea. He was with a team of eight soldiers looking to silence enemy machine gun fire. Ebert and five others on that patrol did not return. The U.S. Army was able to finally identify Ebert’s remains through a DNA match from his nephew.

WEST BRANCH, IA (IRN) – 72 people from more than 20 countries became the newest United States citizens Friday afternoon. KCRG-TV reports it was part of a naturalization ceremony at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch. With family members and friends supporting those in the front rows of the auditorium, the new Iowans and Americans took the Oath of Allegiance becoming officially citizens.