(Radio Iowa) – Six presidential candidates have met the polling and fundraising thresholds to qualify for the first televised debate in August and other candidates are scrambling to get invited. Just five of the 13 presidential candidates on stage at the Iowa G-O-P’s Friday night banquet have gotten donations from 40-thousand different people and had at least one percent support in public opinion polls the Republican National Committee is recognizing.

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has only met that fundraising mark. Suarez sought to build his name recognition among the 12-hundred or so Iowa Republicans at Friday’s event — with a little dig at frontrunners Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump. “I don’t have a fancy bus. I don’t have a private plane, but we do have these amazing towels with my name on them for the Miami heat that I brought up here and the humidity,” Suarez said, to laughter.

Suarez entered the presidential race in June. “I think we have big problems in this country and I think we need a personality of someone who is a solver of problems, of someone who can bring people together,” Suarez said. Suarez touts Miami as a prosperous, flourishing city and a national model for how to get to a balanced FEDERAL budget. Suarez says the next president will have to deal with a global financial meltdown.

Francis Suarez (From his campaign Facebook page)

“We have to do with our federal government what we have to do every single day in America where we balance our checkbooks and where we now if we put something on the credit card, we’re eventually going to have to pay for it,” Suarez says. “It’s not that complicated.”

In 1985, Suarez’s father, Xavier, became the first Cuban-born mayor of Miami. In 2017, Francis Suarez was elected mayor with nearly 86 percent of the vote. He was re-elected in 2021 with 80 percent support.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Department of Transportation is pulling its motor vehicle offices out of malls across the state. Customer Services Bureau director, Darcy Doty, says some of the 18 offices where people get driver’s licenses were unreachable in closed shopping malls during the pandemic.

“We don’t want state government to stop. So we wanted to be able to be operational at all times,” she says, “so we made the strategic decision to say, you know, we need to have a direct door access for our customers to be able to enter so we can continue services at any time whether a mall is open or not.” This year locations in Iowa City and Muscatine are moving.

“We decided that as leases were coming up in those particular areas that we would make the decision to leave those particular areas where we don’t have a direct outside door for the customer to come into,” she says. The offices in Waterloo and Council Bluffs will move once their lease is up. The D-O-T is shifting the Iowa City mall office location to Coralville.

(Ottumwa, Iowa) –  The Iowa Department of Corrections reports 29-year old Jordan Marcus Simon, who was convicted of Intimidation With a Dangerous Weapon and Dominion/Control of a Firearm by Felon in Des Moines County, failed to report back to the Ottumwa Residential Facility as required, Saturday.

Simon is a black male, height 5’10”, and weighs 272 pounds. He was admitted to the work release facility on June 15, 2023.

Jordan Simon (IDOC photo)

Persons with information on Simon’s whereabouts should contact local police.

(Cass County, Iowa) – Atlantic and Massena are hosting mobile food pantries this month on Wednesday afternoon, August 9th. A mobile pantry is a traveling food pantry that delivers food directly to families in need for a one-day distribution. People from surrounding towns and communities are welcome. Mobile food pantries are available free of charge. Anyone in need is welcome, and no documentation is required.

Each car can take food for up to two households at a time. Both Atlantic and Massena will be distributing the same food products. If supplies run low in Massena, families will be directed to Atlantic. Full details about the August 9 Mobile Pantries, as well as dates for upcoming mobile pantries in 2023 are listed below:

August 9 Mobile Food Pantries:

Atlantic: Atlantic High School front parking lot, from 4-6 p.m. Enter from 14th Street and follow signs. For questions, call 712-243-1132.
Massena: Southwest Iowa Egg, 74877 Clark Avenue, Massena, Iowa – Enter from the west and drive across the scale for pick up. Time: 4:30-5:00 p.m. (NOTE: No registration required)

Upcoming Atlantic 2023 Mobile Food Pantries

Please note: Atlantic 2023 Mobile Food Pantries are being held at different locations during the school year (Cass County Community Center) and summer months (Atlantic High School).

Time: 4-6 p.m.

Cass County Community Center (805 W. 10th St., Atlantic, IA 50022): October 11

Upcoming Massena 2023 Mobile Food Pantries

Where: Southwest Iowa Egg Coop (74877 Clarke Ave. Massena, IA 50853)

Remaining 2023 Dates: October 11 (NOTE: No registration required)

Box pick-up time: 4:30-5:00 p.m.

Mobile pantry dates, times, and locations are subject to change. For the latest information on mobile pantries in Anita and Atlantic, visit https://foodbankheartland.org/food-resources/find-food/. For the latest information on Massena pantries, call (712) 779-3447. For information on upcoming events and local food, farmers markets, and food access activities, follow the Cass County Local Food Policy Council’s Facebook page @CassCountyLocalFood.

(Afton, Iowa) – A crash that claimed the lives of two Southwestern Community College students in Union County on July 21st, has now claimed a third SWCC student. The driver of a car that was struck by a pickup, died Sunday, according to the college. 19-year-old Madalynn Mae Stewart, of Maloy, was a member of Southwestern’s Basketball and Dance Teams. A Tweet from SWCC this (Monday) morning, said “It’s with extreme sadness we announce a true angel on earth, Madalynn Mae Stewart, was called home. Maddie was smart, sweet, talented & overall an amazing young lady. She will be missed very deeply. Please keep Maddies family & friends in your prayers. We love you “MadDawg.”

Madalynn Stewart (SWCC Basketball Photo via Twitter)

A passenger in the car, 19-year-old Halsie Lynn Barnes, of Tingley, died in the crash east Afton at around 10:30-p.m. on the 21st. A second passenger, 19-year-old Ella Jo Leonard, of Winterset, was critically injured and died two days later at a hospital in Des Moines. A fourth passenger in the car, 20-year old Abigail Dawn Barnes, of Lamoni, suffered serious injuries and remains hospitalized in Des Moines. A Caring Bridge account has been established for updates on her conditioin.

The driver of the pickup and his passenger were also injured.

(Denison, Iowa) – Officials with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) today (Monday) released additional information with regard to a helicopter crash that occurred Sunday morning, in Crawford County. The report says a Bell 206 helicopter was conducting an “aerial application” (Crop dusting a corn field ) at around 6:18-a.m. CT, Sunday, when the Aircraft struck a power line and crashed into a dry creek bed” near Denison.

The pilot – whose name was not released – was extricated from the helicopter by mechanical means. The individual and sole occupant of the aircraft,  suffered serious injuries and was flown by Life Flight helicopter to an Omaha hospital.

(Radio Iowa) – A new flight school in Sioux City is just weeks away from starting operations. The former commander of the 185th Air National Guard, retired Colonel Brian Miller will serve as director of aviation for Morningside College, which is partnering with Sioux City, Oracle Aviation, The Siouxland Initiative and Western Iowa Tech. A new 40-thousand square foot building will house the flight school at the Sioux City Airport.

“As part of that facility Morningside University will occupy some of that space and that will be the home of the flight school so we’ll have a combination of on campus classes and down at the airport,” he says. Miller says they have around 15 students signed up for the first class even though they haven’t done any promotion of the program yet. He says they plan to get students up in the air in their first semester, and having the facility at the airport is an added advantage for the students.

“These pilots on day one are going to be down at this new facility and learning to fly interacting with corporate pilots. You know, commercial pilots, air ambulance pilots,” Miller says. “So these students literally right when they get to campus are going to be learning in the very environment they’re going to work in.” Miller says they expect to get the students up in the air in the first semester. He says the area has been lacking in a facility to train graduating high school students and college undergrads in aviation careers.

Oracle rendition of new flight-school.

“That’s one of the main things we’re trying to do is to let everyone know here in the upper Midwest that we now have a world class training program to produce commercial pilots right here in Sioux City, Iowa,” Miller says. Private pilots will teach the courses, and students will get 400 or so hours of flying time while in the program.