The Iowa Hawkeyes might be a step closer to bringing another arm into their quarterback room. A source confirmed to HawkeyeReport.com early on Monday evening that Brendan Sullivan will begin a visit to Iowa City on Tuesday morning.

The former Northwestern signal caller entered the NCAA transfer portal last month, which surprised many close to the Wildcat program. The 6-foot-3 and 225 pound quarterback will be entering his fourth year at the college level.

Sullivan redshirted in his first year in Evanston and then he appeared in five games and made four starts (0-4) as a redshirt freshman for the Wildcats. That season, he finished 71/96 passing (74.0%) for 589 yards with four touchdowns and three interceptions and had 97 yards rushing and one touchdown on the ground as well.

In 2023, Sullivan began the season as the backup to starter Ben Bryant, but was called into action in late September when Bryant went down with an injury. Sullivan ended up appearing in seven games with four starts (2-2) and was 63/99 passing (63.6%) for 714 yards with six touchdowns and two interceptions. He also had 160 yards rushing and two touchdowns on the ground.

When he was coming out of high school in Michigan, new Iowa offensive coordinator Tim Lester offered Sullivan a scholarship at Western Michigan. He was a three star prospect at the time and turned down offers from Lester, but also Indiana and nearly every school in the Mid-American Conference.

He also had made a pair of starts against the Hawkeyes, including last year in Iowa’s win over Northwestern at Wrigley Field. His first start was in the 2022 season in Iowa City. The Hawkeyes won the game 33-13 and Sullivan was 23-30 for 159 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Last year was an ugly passing game, completing 12-19 for 81 yards and one score in a 10-7 loss to the Hawkeyes.

If Sullivan were to commit to Iowa, he would have two years of eligibility remaining. Iowa currently has two quarterbacks on campus in Cade McNamara and Marco Lainez. They will also be adding incoming freshman James Resar in June.

Bambi has found a friend outside the forest.

On May 1, the Tipton Iowa Police Department shared a humorous sighting from town on Facebook. According to the post, police officers observed a large, fluffy dog walking side-by-side with a deer down the sidewalks of Tipton. The pair stayed close like two friends on a leisurely stroll.

“Sometimes a dog just wants to take his deer for a walk!” the police department shared on Facebook alongside several photos of the animal duo.

The animals walk on a sidewalk past a blue building in two shots. In one of the photos, a police officer watches the two furry friends from a few feet away. In the final image shared in the post, the dog and deer are on a lawn, with the canine lying on the grass and the deer standing nearby.

The police department shared an update about the walking buddies on Facebook, noting that officers eventually had to separate the pair because their jaunt through Tipton had become dangerous.

“But all good walks must come to an end. The pair was too close to traffic.” the police wrote in the Facebook update.

A photo of each animal sitting in a police vehicle looking out the window accompanied the update post.

“The dog is clearly remorseful, but the deer was muttering something about breaking free and doing it all again tomorrow!” the Tipton Iowa Police Department concluded their post.

The police department did not share any information on where the animals came from and if the pair had a pre-existing relationship before starting their walk.

The deer and dog duo are the latest animal friends to win headlines. In March, two canines got attention online for their odd couple appearance.

Stanley, a small 7-year-old dog, and Arthur, a large 4-year-old canine, arrived together at Bradshaw Animal Shelter in Sacramento County, California, on March 10. According to the shelter, rescuers found the dogs wandering together as strays.

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“They are so funny together because they couldn’t look less alike, and yet, they’re so familiar with one another that it’s like they communicate telepathically — they always seem to know what the other one is thinking,” Luna Anona, the public information officer for Sacramento County Animal Care Services and Bradshaw Animal Shelter, told PEOPLE in March.

Sensing the close bond between the dogs, shelter employees set Stanley and Arthur up as roommates and made their adoption a package deal. A dog lover adopted pup buddies together shortly after their story appeared in the news, so now Stanley and Arthur will be “roommates for life.”

More than 43% of Iowa nursing homes do not meet upcoming federal mandates on staffing levels, a new national report shows.

The report also indicates 21 Iowa care facilities each cycled through three to five nursing home administrators during 2023.

Using newly published data collected by the federal government, a nonprofit advocacy group called the Long-Term Care Community Coalition has issued a detailed report outlining the staffing levels at every Medicare-certified nursing home in the nation during the fourth quarter of 2023.

The report compares actual staffing levels with the Biden administration’s new rule mandating specific staffing levels in Medicare-certified nursing homes. That rule requires the presence of a registered nurse 24 hours per day, seven days a week in all facilities, as well as 3.48 hours per day, per resident of total nursing-staff time.

The rule will be phased in over the next five years and includes exemptions and waivers for facilities in rural areas that are making a good-faith effort to meet the new mandates.

The coalition’s report shows that 6 in every 10 U.S. nursing homes would have met the new nurse-staffing standard in the fourth quarter of 2023. Iowa homes fell below the national average, with 56.5% of them meeting the new standard.

The fact that a majority of facilities already meet the new minimum standard while still facing quality-of-care deficiencies has been an issue with many advocates, who say the standards don’t go far enough. They point to a federal study that shows each resident needs at least 4.1 hours of nursing care each day ― a standard met by only 26% of all nursing homes nationally and 24% of all homes in Iowa, according to the coalition’s report.

The report indicates the Iowa homes with the lowest nurse staffing levels in the fourth quarter of 2023 were Arbor Springs of West Des Moines, Midlands Living Center of Council Bluffs, Linn Haven Rehab & Health Care of New Hampton, Pleasant Acres Care Center of Hull, Northbrook Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center of Cedar Rapids, Crest Haven Care Centre of Creston and Aspire of Perry. All reported less than 2.5 hours of total nursing care per resident, per day, according to the report.

A separate set of data published by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services indicates that 14% of Iowa’s 422 nursing facilities were cited for insufficient staffing in fiscal year 2023. That’s more than double the national average, which was 5.9%.

Only five other states ― Hawaii, Michigan, Montana, New Mexico and Oregon ― had a worse record of compliance with the sufficient-staffing requirement. Iowa neighbors Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Missouri had no more than 2% to 6.8% of their facilities cited for insufficient staffing in 2023.

Report pinpoints high turnover in some Iowa homes

The report also highlights a problem in many nursing homes nationwide: high staff turnover, which disrupts continuity of care and leads to errors by workers who aren’t familiar with residents’ needs.

According to the data, several Iowa homes had annual nurse staffing turnover rates of more than 85%, indicating that, on average, almost every nursing position in the facilities had been vacated and refilled in 2023.

The Iowa homes with the highest rate of nursing-staff turnover, ranging from 85% to 100%, were Risen Son Christian Village of Council Bluffs, Sunrise Retirement Community of Sioux City, Wesley Acres of Des Moines, Arbor Springs of West Des Moines, Dunlap Specialty Care, Azria Health Park Place of Des Moines, Sunny Knoll Care Centre of Rockwell City and Montezuma Specialty Care.

The report also identifies the Iowa nursing homes that had the highest number of administrators who left employment with the facility during 2023.

The Elmwood Care Centre of Onawa and Heritage Specialty Care of Cedar Rapids are each reported to have had five administrators who left the facility in 2023. Azria Health Park Place of Des Moines, Sunny Knoll Care Centre of Rockwell City, Crest Haven Care Centre of Creston, Cedar Falls Health Care Center, Premier Estates of Muscatine, Westwood Specialty Care of Sioux City, Casa De Paz Health Care Center of Sioux City, Wesley Park Centre of Newton and Garden View Care Center of Shenandoah each are reported to have had four administrators leave during the year. Ten other Iowa nursing homes had three administrators leave during the year.

The coalition’s report shows that nationally, 4 of 5 nursing home residents live in facilities that are providing less than the federally recommended, but not mandated, 4.1 hours of total nursing-staff time per resident, per day. In addition, more than half a million nursing home residents live in facilities that don’t meet the new federal staffing requirement of 3.48 hours.

The report suggests one positive trend in nursing homes: a decreased reliance on temp-agency workers who often cost more but are less familiar with individual residents’ needs. After years of increased use of temp-agency workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of such workers nationwide accounted for 8% of all nursing staff hours, which is down from 8.7% the previous quarter.

In Iowa, the average percentage of temp-agency workers was 7.3% in the last quarter of 2023, which was down slightly from 7.6% the previous quarter, and down significantly from 10.2% the previous year.

Find this storyat Iowa Capital Dispatch, which is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kathie Obradovich for questions:kobradovich@iowacapitaldispatch.com.