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Rapper Tory Lanez attacked in California prison as he serves time for Megan Thee Stallion shooting

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Rapper Tory Lanez was hospitalized after an attack Monday at a California prison where he’s serving a 10-year sentence for shooting hip-hop star Megan Thee Stallion in the feet, authorities said.

Lanez, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, was attacked at a housing unit at the California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi, at about 7:20 a.m., Pedro Calderon Michel, spokesman for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said in an email.

Michel did not specify how Lanez was attacked, but a message posted on the rapper’s Instagram account Monday evening said Lanez was stabbed 14 times and both his lungs collapsed. The post said Lanez is breathing on his own.

“Despite being in pain, he is talking normally, in good spirits, and deeply thankful to God that he is pulling through,” the post said, adding Lanez was stabbed in his back, torso, head and face.

Staff immediately gave Lanez medical aid and called 911, and he was taken to an outside hospital, Michel said. The prison’s investigative unit and the Kern County District Attorney’s Office are investigating, he said.

The prison is about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of Los Angeles in the mountains of the Mojave Desert and houses about 1,700 medium- and maximum-security inmates.

In December 2022, Lanez was convicted of three felonies: assaul/t with a semiautomatic firearm; having a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle and discharging a firearm with gross negligence.

Megan, whose legal name is Megan Pete, testified during the trial that in July 2020, after they left a party at Kylie Jenner’s Hollywood Hills home, Lanez fired the gun at the back of her feet and shouted for her to dance as she walked away from an SUV in which they had been riding.

She had bullet fragments in both feet that had to be surgically removed. It wasn’t until months after the incident that she publicly identified Lanez as the person who had fired the gun.

A judge rejected a motion for a new trial from Lanez’s lawyers, who are appealing his conviction. They did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Megan recently alleged that Lanez was harassing her from prison through surrogates, and in January a judge issued a protective order through 2030 ordering him to stop any such harassment or any other contact.

The 32-year-old Canadian Lanez began releasing mixtapes in 2009 and saw a steady rise in popularity, moving on to major label albums, two of which reached the top 10 on Billboard’s charts.

The case created a firestorm in the hip-hop community, churning up issues including the reluctance of Black victims to speak to police, gender politics in hip-hop, online toxicity, and the ramifications of misogynoir, a particular brand of misogyny Black women experience.

The often dramatic trial was packed with friends and family members of Lanez who felt he was a victim of both the justice system and the powerful people around Megan, who his managed by Jay-Z’s Roc Nation.

When the verdict was announced, Lanez’s father, Sonstar Peterson, jumped up and angrily denounced prosecutors and the system before he was dragged from the chaotic courtroom where many in the audience were shouting similar things. He later apologized to the judge.

Megan Thee Stallion, 30, was already a major rising star at the time of the shooting, and her music’s popularity has soared since. She won a Grammy for best new artist in 2021, and she had No. 1 singles with “Savage,” featuring Beyoncé, and as a guest on Cardi B’s “WAP.”

Iowa House sends pharmacy benefit manager reform plan to governor

By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)

The Iowa House has sent the governor a bill that supporters say offers rural pharmacies financial relief by reigning in pharmacy benefit managers.

PBMs negotiate drug prices. The bill requires that small pharmacies be paid a dispensing fee and sets up restrictions on PBM strategies that steer patients to fill prescriptions at certain pharmacies.

A group of pharmacists were in the House balcony, watching as the bill passed on a 75-15 vote. Michael Schweitzer, a pharmacist in Bedford, said the bill will be a lifeline for Bedford Drug, the business his dad launched 60 years ago. “I was thinking of the time last year when I told him I was going to have to close the pharmacy and he looked at me and said: ‘If you can’t make it work, nobody can make it work. This has been a painful four years for us getting to this point,” he told Radio Iowa. “…We’ve been ripped off, we’ve been treated poorly, we’ve been basically abused by the PBMs and this was a day I wasn’t sure we were going to see.”

As Schweitzer’s voice broke, other pharmacists standing nearby wiped away their own tears. During House debate, Republican Representative Brent Barker, a pharmacist from Nevada, said over 200 Iowa pharmacies have closed in the last decade.

“For far too long Pharmacy Benefit Managers — powerful middlemen in the pharmaceutical supply chain — have manipulated a system full of perverse incentives,” Barker said, “and have stacked the deck against consumers, pharmacies, employers and taxpayers.”

Representative Shannon Lundgren, a Republican from Peosta, called pharmacies  access points for health care in Iowa. “When we start to lose those access points and people start getting their drugs by mail order, there is nobody in that town to talk to about whether there are interactions or contradictions in that drug,” Lundgren said.

Representative Helena Hayes, a Republican from New Sharon, said Iowans have waited too long for these reforms. “No longer will PBMs be able to exploit the perks and the patients, manipulate the system and walk all over our local pharmacies,” Hayes said.

The bill prohibits PBMs from forcing patients to use mail-order pharmacies.

Literacy Leap in Little Learners

OSKALOOSA, Iowa — At Oskaloosa Elementary School, reallocating an additional educator from pulling students out of the classroom to pushing extra teachers into the classroom has led to extraordinary gains in early literacy in just one year. With 91% of kindergarten students now meeting or exceeding reading benchmarks on assessment tools designed for universal screening, and two classrooms reaching 100% proficiency, teachers and staff are celebrating a transformation that is not only changing academic outcomes but also setting a new standard for early intervention and collaboration.

One of the biggest highlights came in Kindergarten. Winter screening for the 2024-25 school year showed 91% of Kindergarteners meeting the proficiency benchmark compared to only 66% of kindergarten students in the previous school year. That’s a monumental improvement and reflects the school’s power in early literacy work and a new model of teaching and learning.

Steady Growth Across All Grades

OES has a year-end goal of having 80% of students reading at or above grade level. While not there yet, they are making steady progress. On average, OES saw a 6.7 percentage point increase per grade in the number of students who were proficient from fall to winter.

Fourth grade led the way, jumping 18 points from 55% in the fall to 73% in the winter. That kind of growth is exciting, and it’s about a team approach that teachers led the implementation of over the summer.

When a team of educators visited Storm Lake to observe a new instructional model, the takeaway was immediate. “This is what we’ve needed,” said Katie Fox, a Kindergarten teacher at Oskaloosa Elementary School for the last 10 years. “It felt like a big, scary jump, but we were unanimous… let’s do it.”

The Shift to Specialist-Driven Support

The new model includes literacy specialists who rotate among the classrooms each day. In short 20-minute blocks,  Amy Blythe, one of the specialists, provides focused, small-group instruction alongside the classroom teacher and another support staff member. “Having three teachers in the room versus one has made a massive difference,” Fox said. “Last year, small group time could fall apart if I had to stop and help with technology or a bathroom need. This year, every child gets seen by a teacher every day.”

That one-on-one attention is paying off. “We have kids reading passages and stories that we just haven’t seen in the last couple of years,” said Fox. “It’s an hour and 20 minutes a day, and the growth is amazing.”

For Blythe, the focused scope of her work has also changed the game. Previously, as a Title I education teacher who pulled students out of the classroom, she supported more than 45 students across multiple grade levels. Now, she works solely with kindergarten. “I know all of my students individually much better,” she said. “It’s allowed me to tailor instruction in ways I couldn’t before.”

The gains are more than academic. “When kids struggle, they get frustrated. That can lead to behavioral issues,” Blythe explained. “But when they’re successful, they’re confident. That changes everything.”

A Collaborative Effort Drives Success

Becky Cassens, an Oskaloosa Elementary School paraeducator, believes that student literacy growth success is a result of a collaborative effort between teachers, specialists, and the students. “The small group work we do with consistent repetition really helps reinforce what the kids are learning,” she explained. Cassens works with 27 groups of students every day, providing individualized instruction in seven-minute sessions. The repetition and continuity in these sessions, along with the integrated approach used across the grade level team, ensure that all students receive the same high-quality exposure to foundational skills.

Cassens also highlights the shift in teaching methods that has occurred over the last couple of years. The introduction of specialists working alongside classroom teachers has allowed for more focused, small-group instruction, meeting students where they are in their learning journey. “The kids really took to it and responded positively,” she shared. After piloting the program last year, the team saw impressive results that only grew as the program was fully implemented. Cassens expressed her excitement about the continued success, stating, “I couldn’t be happier with the results we’re seeing, and I hope it continues.”

Kindergarteners at 100%

Kasey Koehler, a kindergarten teacher at Oskaloosa Elementary School, attributes the impressive growth in her students’ literacy proficiency to the collaborative approach that involves specialists co-teaching in the classroom. “Having the specialists come in for literacy and co-teach during both Fundations and small group sessions has been a game-changer,” she explained. By working in tandem with her co-teacher specialist, Koehler is able to provide individualized attention to her students, ensuring they receive consistent, focused support. This approach has proven effective. Two Kindergarten classrooms actually scored 100% proficient.

Koehler emphasized that this level of collaboration is unique and has had a lasting impact on her classroom. “I’ve never worked in a situation where we had specialists come in to co-teach phonics and small group lessons,” she said. “It’s such a huge asset to our program.” She believes the program’s success has given parents in the community strong reasons to feel confident in their children’s education at Oskaloosa Elementary. “Seeing the results, I would encourage parents to be incredibly proud that their kids are part of this program,” Koehler shared, reinforcing the high level of commitment and achievement taking place within the school.

What sets this model apart isn’t just extra staffing; it’s the structured collaboration time embedded in the schedule. Teachers and specialists meet three times a week in small squads, and then again twice a week as a whole team. These sessions allow them to adjust instruction based on student needs. “We’re talking about what we’re seeing in the classroom, whether we need to move students between groups, and how we can make our teaching better,” Fox said. “Just today, we noticed one group struggled with two specific words, so now we know what to target.”

Agility in Instruction for Every Student’s Needs

Thanks to that agility, students who’ve mastered kindergarten standards are moving ahead. “We’re already pre-teaching first-grade skills,” said Fox. “They’re reading passages and working on content we normally wouldn’t get to until much later. Everyone is getting what they need, no matter where they’re at.”

The success has created a ripple effect that teachers believe will carry forward for years to come. “We’ve talked about what this will look like when they’re in fifth grade,” Fox said. “Even next year, we’re excited to hear from the first-grade teachers. We met with them at the start of the year to ask what we could improve on, things like blending and handwriting, and we’ve really focused on those.”

For families, the results are both emotional and affirming. “When the scores came back, we were crying,” Fox recalled. “The kids were excited to see their growth. They track it with graphs and come celebrate with us. You should be excited for what this means for your child.”

That excitement is rooted in a deep understanding of the long-term impact of early literacy. “It’s all about early intervention,” said Blythe. “When we catch them early, we set them up for a lifetime of success.”

In just one school year, a bold staffing change and a commitment to collaboration have reshaped what’s possible in Oskaloosa’s Elementary School classrooms. With data-backed success and joyful momentum, teachers are proving that when you invest early, the payoff for students, families, and the future is immeasurable.

The recovery of superyacht off Sicily is suspended after a diver dies

ROME (AP) — The recovery of a superyacht that sank last year off the Sicilian coast was temporarily halted Saturday following the death of a specialist diver while working underwater, the company overseeing the operation said.

U.K. tech magnate Mike Lynch, his daughter and five others died in August after a powerful storm slammed the Bayesian. The luxury vessel has since been 49 meters (160 feet) underwater.

British-based TMC Marine said in an emailed statement that the suspension of work “is necessary for the investigations to be completed and to allow all salvage and associated teams to mourn the tragic loss of a highly respected salvage diver” on Friday.

The Palermo Port Authority, which is overseeing the investigation, declined to comment on the cause of death when contacted by The Associated Press.

Marcus Cave, head of naval architecture and a TMC Marine director, said the salvage team was providing “full cooperation to the authorities in their investigations.”

The local prosecutor’s office has sealed off the area where the 39-year-old Dutch diver died, local media reported.

Marine salvage experts began work in early May to refloat the ship off the Sicilian port of Porticello, bringing in one of the most powerful maritime cranes in Europe.

The plan was to cut the yacht’s 75-meter (246-foot) aluminum mast — the second tallest in the world — to allow the hull to be brought to the surface more easily. It was thought initially the salvage operation would take 20 to 25 days.

The 56-meter (183-foot)-long, 473-ton yacht sank during what appears to have been a sudden downburst, or localized powerful wind from a thunderstorm that spreads rapidly after hitting the surface. Prosecutors are investigating the captain and two crew members for possible responsibility in the sinking.

In addition to Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, Judy, attorney Chris Morvillo and his wife, Neda, and the ship’s cook, Recaldo Thomas, died.

Investigators are focusing on how a sailing vessel deemed “unsinkable” by its manufacturer, Italian shipyard Perini Navi, sank while a nearby sailboat remained largely unscathed.

Iowa Senate removes private colleges from D.E.I. ban

By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)

Republicans in the Iowa Senate have approved a House bill that bars D.E.I. initiatives at all levels of Iowa government, but senators scaled back some parts of the legislation.

The State of Iowa provides Iowa Tuition Grants to low income students at Iowa private colleges. The House bill would have prohibited students from getting a grant if their school had diversity, equity or inclusion programs. Without debate, the Senate voted to strip that part out of the bill.

The legislation prohibits D.E.I. offices, staff and programs at the state’s community colleges, in state agencies and in city and county governments. However, the senate also tweaked how the bill defines diversity, equity and inclusion.

“The original definition could cause some confusion around some of our functions around the state,” Republican Senator Ken Rozenboom of Pella said, “such as St. Patrick’s Day parades or Tulip Time activities.” Tulip Time, in Pella, is a celebration of the city’s Dutch heritage.

The bill, because of those changes, goes back to the House for review. Rozenboom, wrapping up Senate debate of the bill, called D.E.I. a divisive ideology.

“I would suggest that the opposite of D.E.I. — Diversity, Equity and Inclusion — is M.E.I.,” Rozenboom said. “Merit, Excellence and Intelligence.”

Democrats in the Senate voted against the bill. Senator Sarah Trone Garriott, a Democrat from West Des Moines, said D.E.I. initiatives attract new people to Iowa. “This legislation actually criminalizes those efforts to build our workforce,” Trone Garriott said. “It’s going to hurt our state.”

Last year, Governor Reynolds signed a law that banned D.E.I. offices and programs at the three state universities. Last month, the Trump Administration required every K-12 school to certify all D.E.I. programs had ended.

2025 Beach Ottumwa Summer Season Begins May 24

OTTUMWA — The 2025 Beach Ottumwa summer season kicks off May 24. The Beach Ottumwa will be open daily from noon to 8:00 p.m. Hours are subject to change due to weather, attendance, or scheduled special events. New 2025 admission rates are $7.00 per person for the whole park and $5.00 per person for the indoor portion. Season summer passes can be purchased for $90. Contact The Beach Ottumwa at 641-682-7873 for more information.

Oskaloosa Man Arrested for OWI Following Friday Night Accident that Injured New Sharon Teenager

PELLA – A two-vehicle accident in Pella on Friday night that injured a teenager from New Sharon resulted in the arrest of an Oskaloosa man.

According to traffic records, 18-year-old Jaxy Olson of New Sharon was traveling southbound on a motorcycle on Oskaloosa Street in Pella on Friday night when her motorcycle was struck from behind by a Honda Accord driven by 35-year-old Clinton Nicholas Chipman of Oskaloosa. Olson was transported to Mercy Hospital in Des Moines via medical helicopter for treatment of injuries she sustained in the accident.

Authorities say Chipman was listed as an inmate at the Marion County Jail. Following the accident, he was charged with felony operating while intoxicated – 3rd offense. Court records show that Chipman has had guilty pleas to the same charge in 2017 and 2019.

Pope Leo XIV celebrates first Mass as pope, says his election is a cross and a blessing

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV, history’s first North American pope, said Friday that his election was both a cross and a blessing as he celebrated his first Mass in Sistine Chapel.

Leo spoke off-the-cuff in English to the cardinals who elected him to lead the Catholic Church and follow in Pope Francis’ social justice-minded footsteps. He acknowledged the great responsibility they had placed on him before delivering a brief but dense homily on the need to joyfully spread Christianity in a world that often mocks it.

“You have called me to carry that cross and to be blessed with that mission, and I know I can rely on each and every one of you to walk with me as we continue as a church, as a community, as friends of Jesus, as believers, to announce the good news to announce the Gospel,” he said.

It was in the same frescoed chapel that Leo, the Chicago-born Augustinian missionary Robert Prevost, was elected Thursday afternoon as the 267th pope, overcoming the traditional prohibition against a pope from the United States.

A Mass that may suggest his priorities

Two women delivered the Scripture readings at the start of the Mass, perhaps an indication of Leo’s intention to follow Francis’ priority to expand women’s role in the church. As a cardinal, Leo put into practice one of Francis’ most revolutionary reforms by having three women serve on the board that vets bishop nominations.

Speaking in near-perfect Italian, Leo lamented that the Christian faith in many parts of the world is “considered absurd,” mocked or opposed when there were temptations such as money, success and power. He complained that in many places Jesus is misunderstood, “reduced to a kind of charismatic leader or superman.”

“This is true not only among non-believers but also among many baptized Christians, who thus end up living, at this level, in a state of practical atheism,” he said. “Yet, precisely for this reason, they are the places where our missionary outreach is desperately needed. A lack of faith is often tragically accompanied by the loss of meaning in life, the neglect of mercy, appalling violations of human dignity, the crisis of the family and so many other wounds that afflict our society.”

The cardinals applauded as the Mass concluded. Leo was seen wearing simple black shoes, not the red loafers of the papacy preferred by some traditionalist popes.

Francis had his eye on the new pope

Francis, the first Latin American pope, clearly had his eye on Prevost and in many ways saw him as his heir apparent. He sent Prevost, who had spent years as a missionary in Peru, to take over a complicated diocese there in 2014. Francis then brought Prevost to the Vatican in 2023 to head of the Vatican’s powerful Dicastery for Bishops, which vets bishop nominations around the world and is one of the most important jobs in church governance.

Since arriving in Rome, Prevost had kept a low public profile but was well-known to the men who count, and respected by those who worked with him. Significantly, he presided over one of the most revolutionary reforms Francis made, when he added three women to the voting bloc that decides which bishop nominations to forward to the pope.

In a 2023 interview with Vatican News, the then-cardinal said the women had enriched the process and reaffirmed the need for the laity to have a greater role in the church.

“Even the bishops of Peru called him the saint, the Saint of the North, and he had time for everyone,” said the Rev. Alexander Lam, an Augustinian friar from Peru who knows the new pope.

An Augustinian pope

The last pope to take the name Leo was Leo XIII, an Italian who led the church from 1878 to 1903. That Leo softened the church’s confrontational stance toward modernity, especially science and politics, and laid the foundation for modern Catholic social thought. His most famous encyclical, Rerum Novarum of 1891, addressed workers’ rights and capitalism at the beginning of the industrial revolution and was highlighted by the Vatican in explaining the new pope’s choice of name.

That Leo also had close ties to the Augustinian order: He rebuilt an ancient Augustinian church and convent near his hometown of Carpineto, outside Rome, which is still in use by the new pope’s order today.

Vatican watchers said Prevost’s decision to name himself Leo was particularly significant given the previous Leo’s legacy of social justice and reform, suggesting continuity with some of Francis’ chief concerns. Specifically, Leo cited one of Francis’ key priorities of making the Catholic Church more attentive to lay people and inclusive, a process known as synodality.

“He is continuing a lot of Francis’ ministry,’’ said Natalia Imperatori-Lee, the chair of religious studies at Manhattan University in the Bronx. She added that his election could send a message to the U.S. church, which has been badly divided between conservatives and progressives, with much of the right-wing opposition to Francis coming from there.

“I think it is going to be exciting to see a different kind of American Catholicism in Rome,’’ Imperatori-Lee said.

Leo said in a 2023 interview with Vatican News that the polarization in the church was a wound that needed to be healed.

“Divisions and polemics in the church do not help anything. We bishops especially must accelerate this movement towards unity, towards communion in the church,” he said.

Leo’s brother, John Prevost, was so shocked that his brother had been elected pope that he missed several phone calls from Leo during an interview Thursday with The Associated Press. He called the pope back and Leo told him he wasn’t interested in being part of the interview.

John Prevost described his brother, a fan of Wordle, as being very concerned for the poor and those who don’t have a voice. He said he expects him to be a “second Pope Francis.”

“He’s not going to be real far left and he’s not going to be real far right,” he added. “Kind of right down the middle.”

Looking ahead

In his first hours as pope, Leo went back to his old apartment in the Sant’Uffizio Palace to see colleagues, according to selfies posted to social media. Vatican Media also showed him in the moments after his election praying in the Pauline Chapel before emerging on the loggia.

On Sunday, he is to deliver his first noon blessing from the loggia of St. Peter’s and attend an audience with the media on Monday in the Vatican auditorium, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said.

Beyond that, he has a possible first foreign trip at the end of May: Francis had been invited to travel to Turkey to commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, a landmark event in Christian history and an important moment in Catholic-Orthodox relations.

The new pope was formerly the prior general, or leader, of the Order of St. Augustine, which was formed in the 13th century as a community of “mendicant” friars — dedicated to poverty, service and evangelization. Vatican News said Leo is the first Augustinian pope.

Water Summary Update: Spring rainfall improves drought conditions across Iowa

DES MOINES – Drought conditions have improved across the state despite below-normal rainfall in April, according to the latest Water Summary Update.

After a wetter-than normal March, April saw below-average precipitation across all regions of the state. However, recent spring rains have helped alleviate drought and abnormally dry conditions across Iowa. April’s average statewide precipitation was 3.33 inches, or 0.34 inches below normal. The state also experienced warmer weather, with statewide temperatures averaging 50 degrees, or 1.4 degrees warmer than normal.

At the end of April, Iowa’s Drought Plan dry conditions improved or remained the same in all drought regions except the southeast, which only degraded slightly. A drought watch issued in March for the northeast region has been removed as severe drought has significantly decreased. Conditions remain stable in the other drought regions, with the entire state carrying a normal drought designation.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM), just over half of Iowa continues to experience abnormally dry conditions or drought conditions.

The May precipitation outlook from the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center indicates a chance of below-average precipitation across the northeast and eastern half of the state, and an equal chance for above, below, or near-average precipitation for the rest of the state. Reduced rainfall in May could raise concerns about deteriorating conditions.

“Drought and dry conditions improved across the state due to spring rain in March and April, but most notably in northeast, west, and central Iowa. The drought watch issued in March for northeast Iowa has been removed. The National Weather Service precipitation outlooks predict an equal chance for the entire state for above, below, or normal precipitation for much of the state through July,” said Jessica Reese McIntyre, DNR Environmental Specialist.

For a thorough review of Iowa’s water resource trends, visit

 www.iowadnr.gov/watersummaryupdate.

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