ATLANTIC – U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins made her first official stops in Iowa on Monday. She was joined by Governor Kim Reynolds, Senator Joni Ernst, Representative Zach Nunn, Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks, and Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig at a biofuels production facility in Atlantic, a crop and hog farm in Waukee, and a soybean producer in Colfax. Rollins was the keynote speaker at the Iowa Ag Leaders Dinner in the evening.

DES MOINES – The Iowa Attorney General’s Office announced that two Des Moines police officers who shot and killed a man earlier this year were justified. WHO-13 reports Officers Neal Shaffer and Titus Deford responded to an incident involving a suspicious person. The report indicated that 43-year-old David Leroy Kintz had lunged at officers with a screwdriver when they stopped him for questioning.

DES MOINES – Iowa’s high school graduation rate climbed nearly a full percentage point, reaching 88.3% for the graduating class of 2024, according to figures released by the Iowa Department of Education. A total of 34,158 Iowa students earned their high school diplomas in the class of 2024. Iowa’s four-year graduation rate experienced by students with disabilities is 70.3%, representing an increase of 2.4 percentage points. The graduation rate for students from low-income backgrounds as determined by eligibility for free or reduced-price school meals is 80.2% which is a 1.5 percentage point increase from the previous year.

DES MOINES – The newly-hired Men’s Basketball coach at the University of Iowa was recognized for his efforts at Drake University this past season. Ben McCollum was selected as the Joe B. Hall National Coach of the Year, according to KCCI-Tv, given to the best Division I first-year head coach in the country. McCollum guided the Bulldogs in his first and only season the NCAA Round of 32.