Police in Red Oak Police report the arrest early this (Monday) morning, of 45-year-old Raymond Lee Briggs. The Red Oak man was taken into custody on a charge of 2nd degree theft. Additional information on the charges is not available. Briggs was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $10,000 bond.
The number of cows being raised for beef in Iowa is at its lowest level in 60 years, but producers are expecting to add to their herds as the drought eases. Iowa beef producer Steve Rehder, of Hawarden, says Iowa should continue to pursue new markets despite the current situation.
Steve Rehder (Radio Iowa/photo)
Rehder represented the Iowa Beef Industry Council last month as part of an Iowa meat trade mission to Mexico, El Salvador, and Honduras. He says there are some big challenges for Iowa beef in the latter two countries.
“The biggest issue is the price of beef and we informed them, because of low numbers, that’ll be an issue for quite a while,” Rehder said. “Our inventory of cattle is the lowest it’s been since 1952 and coincidentally, Mexico, El Salvador, and Honduras are enduring the same problem.” The six-day trip in April marked the first time a representative of the Iowa Beef Industry Council has visited El Salvador and Honduras. Rehder noted the countries are already importing high quality beef for the people who can afford it.
“As far as increasing the market for the more poverty stricken people, that’s where we need the price of beef to come down a little bit so it can be more competitive,” Rehder said. “The infrastructure is there and I really believe…we have the opportunity to increase exports down to those countries.” During the trade mission, the Iowa delegation toured processing plants and retail supermarkets. Rehder said many of the people he met are hoping to attend the World Beef Expo in Wisconsin in late September.
“I plan on being there and meeting up with a few of them again. Just making contact and having people from Iowa come down to see them…they were really impressed by that,” Rehder said. The Central American Free Trade Agreement allows U.S. Choice and Prime beef to enter both El Salvador and Honduras without a tariff, because it does not compete with their own grass-fed beef. Mexico was the third largest U.S. beef export market in value and the largest in volume in 2012.
(Radio Iowa)
Here’s the Freese-Notis (podcast) weather forecast for Atlantic and the KJAN listening area, and weather stats for Atlantic from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson…
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EVELYN MARIE WOLF, 94, of Yale , died Fri., May 3rd, at the Hospice Kavanagh House in Des Moines. Funeral services for EVELYN WOLF will be held 10-a.m. Tue., May 7th, at the Yale United Methodist Church, in Yale. Twigg Funeral Home in Panora has the arrangements.
Burial will be in the Willow Township Cemetery, in rural Bayard.
Sheriff’s deputies in Fremont County arrested two people Saturday on weapons-related offenses, after authorities investigated the reported shooting of a vehicle early that same day, in the 1100 block of Hamburg. During their investigation, authorities executed a search warrant at a residence in the 2700 block of Bluff Road in Fremont County, which led to the arrest of 20-year old Dalton Shane Haler and 22-year old Joshua Allen Reafling, both of Hamburg.
Both men face Intimidation with a Dangerous Weapon, Reckless Use of a Firearm and Conspiracy, charges. They were brought to the Fremont County Jail, where Raefling posted at $17,000 bond, and Haler was still being held on $17,000 bond.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A state Senate panel will hold a hearing to review the quality of care at the Iowa Veterans Home. The Monday meeting comes after more than 40 former staffers signed a letter that was printed in The Des Moines Register complaining about the current leadership at the home. A news release from Senate Democrats says David Worley, the commandant of the Veterans Home, will testify at the hearing.
The home in Marshalltown is Iowa’s largest nursing home and among the biggest in the nation for veterans and their spouses. The home is made up of two separate facilities. One provides nursing care for about 500 residents. The other is a residential care facility where 100 more people live mostly independently.
411 AM CDT MON MAY 6 2013
EARLY THIS MORNING…MOSTLY CLOUDY. AREAS OF FOG. NORTH WIND AROUND 5 MPH.
TODAY…PARTLY SUNNY. WARMER. AREAS OF FOG THROUGH MID MORNING. HIGH AROUND 70. NORTHEAST WIND NEAR 10 MPH.
TONIGHT…PARTLY CLOUDY. LOW IN THE UPPER 40S. EAST WIND NEAR 5 MPH.
TUESDAY…PARTLY SUNNY. A SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS LATE IN THE AFTERNOON. HIGH IN THE LOWER 70S. SOUTH WIND NEAR 10 MPH. CHANCE OF PRECIPITATION 20 PERCENT.
TUESDAY NIGHT…PARTLY CLOUDY WITH A SLIGHT CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS THROUGH MIDNIGHT…THEN MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH SHOWERS LIKELY AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS AFTER MIDNIGHT. LOW IN THE LOWER 50S. SOUTHEAST WIND 5 TO 10 MPH. CHANCE OF PRECIPITATION 60 PERCENT.
WEDNESDAY…CLOUDY. THUNDERSTORMS LIKELY IN THE MORNING…THEN A CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS IN THE AFTERNOON. HIGH IN THE UPPER 60S. SOUTH WIND 5 TO 10 MPH. CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS 70 PERCENT.
WEDNESDAY NIGHT…THUNDERSTORMS LIKELY. LOW IN THE MID 50S. CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS 60 PERCENT.
THURSDAY…MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A 50 PERCENT CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS. HIGH AROUND 70.
Legislators return to the statehouse today (Monday) with all the major issues they’ve faced since January unresolved. Ten-member negotiating committees have been assigned to find compromises on property tax reform, education reform and a new health care plan for low-income, uninsured Iowans. Senate Democratic Leader Mike Gronstal of Council Bluffs won’t speculate on which deals may be easier to strike. “We’re working on all of them, people of good faith really are and there’s ideas being exchanged,” Gronstal said late last week.
House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, a Republican from Hiawatha, is also striking a positive tone. “We’re very pleased with a lot of the progress that was made,” Paulsen says, “….remain optimistic that the conference committees will be able to work out some of these differences.” The 10-member conference committee assembled to strike a deal on education reform didn’t meet last week, however. Paulsen says he’s “extremely frustrated” about that lack of action, but he’s still unwilling to declare that any of the disagreements have reached the stalemate stage.
“We’re trying to set it up for success and I’m expecting to have success,” Paulsen said late last week. “That’s what Iowans expect.” Gronstal wants to keep all 150 legislators in Des Moines this week rather than sending most home if they’re not involved in behind-the-scenes negotiations over key issues. “We’ll make that judgement as we move along,” Gronstal said late last week. “I’m not a great fan of having people leave because they’re all part of this process. Everybody has a vote. We need to share concepts and things with each other as we’re working though our differences.”
The 2011 legislative session ended on June 30th, but through most of May and June that year it was just legislative leaders who stayed at the statehouse to negotiate. Legislators receive an annual salary, plus daily expense money to cover the cost living in Des Moines during the legislative session. However, those daily expenses in even-numbered years like 2012 last just 110 days — so their daily expense allotments ended last Friday.
(Radio Iowa)
In a little more than a month the Iowa Speedway will host the first of five racing weekends and it will be capped off on June eighth by the Dupont Pioneer 250, the first of two NASCAR Nationwide series events this season. Spokesman Craig Armstrong says Iowa Speedway officials requested the race be move from May to June for this season. The Indy car series returns for the seventh straight year with the running of the Iowa Corn Indy 250 on June 23rd.
The season begins later and will end earlier this year. The final race, a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race is on September eighth. The Nationwide Series will return on August third with the U-S Cellular 250.
(Radio Iowa)
The recent rain and snow have played havoc with outdoor events and activities, but all the moisture has a positive side. Tim Hall of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources says moisture of any type is important after the severe drought that hit the state. “This is exactly what we’d hoped for, is sustained long-term, better then normal precipitation during the months when we typically get a lot of rain anyway. And March and April and May are pretty wet months, and we are getting more than normal right in those months,” Hall says.
April set a new statewide average for rainfall at six-point-five-two inches (6.52), with normal rainfall for April at three-point-five-one (3.51) inches. A new drought map comes out Thursday, and Hall expects to see the areas with severe problems continuing to shrink. “We’re making some real improvement in the drought conditions in the state, and I think we’re gonna continue to see improvement in the near future,” according to Hall. Not only has the amount of rain increased, it is coming at a time where the frost is out of the ground — so the rain that falls or snow that melts — sinks into the soil.
“In fact our groundwater folks who work with a lot of the water utilities in northwest Iowa are starting to see that reflected in the water levels in some of the wells that are used to supply drinking water,” Hall says. “So we’re starting to see some gradual recovery in the levels in wells, which is indicative of the water making it down into the ground where it is going to do some real good.” He says those areas that were not hit as hard by the drought are building up some reserve with the rains that’re falling now. Hall says that makes it less likely they’ll get back into a water shortage.
“I think if the rainfall stopped for a couple of weeks, which it probable will — I mean we go through periods where we don’t get rain for a couple three weeks — the real danger is if that rainfall slows down or stops and we get excessively hot where the demand for water also starts to go up in conjunction with the rain going down,” Hall says. Hall says farmers are probably really hoping the rain will stop for awhile so they can get into the fields — but he says even they will be happy that all the moisture is replenishing the groundwater.
(Radio Iowa)
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