The U-S Agriculture Department’s Farm to School Census finds Iowa’s school districts spent six percent of their food budgets buying from local farms in the 2011-2012 school year. Across the Midwest, most states report 25 to 50 percent of their school districts are buying from local farms, growing edible gardens or teaching nutrition –all parts of U-S-D-A’s Farm to School effort. Corry Bregendahl, of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University, says increasingly she hears from districts that want to get more local foods on the table.

“They’re eager to be a part of this, but there’s still some significant challenges associated with their participation,” Bregendahl says. The challenges include regulations, such as the competitive bidding process, and school kitchen logistics. “The food service needs a lot of support because a lot of them don’t even have slicing equipment,” Bregendahl explains. “They’ve evolved to be warmers, not food preparers.” Bregendahl says the survey confirms some of the things farmers have been telling them about the use of local foods.

“We’ve been hearing anecdotal evidence for years that farmers were expanding their operations because they were getting access to new markets and they were ramping up their production,” according to Bregendahl. Bregendahl says, when local food sourcing does succeed it can have ripple effects on the local economy.

(Radio Iowa)

Fewer than 12 dozen Iowans acquired private health insurance through the federal healthcare-dot-gov website during its first troubled month of operation. A report from the Obama Administration indicates that during October applications were submitted through the federal website for coverage of nearly 11-thousand individual Iowans. Almost 45-hundred of those Iowans have incomes low enough that they qualify for coverage through Medicaid.

Another two-thousand of them qualified for government subsidies to buy private insurance. However, only 136 were able to complete the application process and buy a private insurance policy during the month of October.

Government subsidies for buying private insurance are only available to those who use the website to buy insurance. According to the Obama Administration report, over 255-thousand Iowans are either eligible for the subsidy to buy private insurance or are eligible for Medicaid. Almost 200-thousand of those are either working full-time, or someone in their household has a full-time job. The application deadline through health-care-dot-gov is December 15th, but the policies do not take effect until January 1st.

(Radio Iowa)

The Shelby County Emergency Management Agency reports the bridge over Mosquito Creek, just east of the intersection of 1800th Street and Highway 191, is now permanently closed. The bridge is located between Washington Township Sections 1 and 12. And, 2000th Street, just west of Hazel Road will be closed three weeks for a culvert pipe replacement project, beginning Mon., Nov. 18th. The culvert is located between Union Township Sections 29 & 32.

Residents and emergency responders should plan to take alternate routes. If you have any questions, call the Shelby County Engineer’s Office at 712-755-5954.

Authorities in Nebraska say a man who faces sexual abuse charges in Iowa now faces additional charges in Nebraska. The Daily NonPareil reports 64-year old John Robert Schondelmeyer is being charge with two counts of incest in Sarpy County, Neb.  Schondelmeyer was charged in Iowa with two counts of second-degree sexual abuse and two counts of lascivious acts with a child. He was arrested Oct. 17th at his Bellevue, Neb. residence by Bellevue Police.

An arrest warrant says the alleged incidents involving two girls, ages 7 and 8, occurred on Sept. 19, 20, 21 and 22 at Schondelmeyer’s home in Bellevue, the victims’ residence and Mills County. Schondelmeyer pleaded not guilt to the charges in Mills County on Nov. 5th. An arraignment is scheduled 9:30 am. Monday at the Mills County Courthouse. If convicted on the Iowa charges, Schondelmeyer faces up to 50 years in prison for the two counts of second-degree sexual abuse and up to 10 years for each count of lascivious acts with a child. He is being held in the Mills County Jail on a $70,000 bond.

Authorities in Sarpy County say they are waiting for Schondelmeyer’s court proceedings in Mills County to conclude before transferring him to Nebraska, where he is being charged with two felony counts of sexual assault of a child under 12 years of age and two felony counts of incest. He faces up to two life sentences in prison for the sexual assault charges and up to 40 years in prison and a $50,000 fine for each of the incest charges.

Officials in Mills County says when he was arrested in October,  Schondelmeyer was in the process of moving to Fayetteville, N.C.