(Radio Iowa) – The recent heat wave is apparently keeping some Iowa blood donors from giving the gift of life. Danielle West, with LifeServe Blood Center, says while they normally have a three-to-five-day supply of all blood types on the shelves, the supply has dwindled to less than a one-day supply. “Truly right now, we are low in every blood type and we’re lower than we have been in quite some time,” West says. “The first part of the year has been really tough for us we haven’t seen a lot of blood donors come out and our inventory is really, really low — dangerously low at this point.”

Donors are needed immediately as the demand for blood products is continuing to rise. “Everybody is needed. If you’ve never donated before, you don’t even know your blood type, we would still love you to come in and give it a try,” West says. “If you haven’t donated in a while, we have our Steady Eddies that come in so frequently, which is great, but even if we have one or two new people, that makes a big difference.”

There is a constant need for donations as blood products have a short shelf life and the blood supply needs to be continuously replenished. On average, West says someone needs blood every two seconds. “We are encouraging people to make appointments. We have donor centers all over the area, mobile blood drives, so hopefully it’s super-convenient for people,” West says. “From start to finish, you’re in and out within within an hour. You can actually do your questionnaire ahead of time now, which will save you time, and really the donation part is only five to 10 minutes in the chair.”

A blood drive is underway today (Thursday) at Valley West Mall in West Des Moines, with more drives in the coming days in: Ankeny, Pella and Urbandale. Appointments are also available in Ames, Fort Dodge, Mason City and Marshalltown. LifeServe is the only provider of blood and blood products to more than 120 hospitals in Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota.

www.lifeservebloodcenter.org

DES MOINES – Coming off a highly successful 3-year run across all 99 Iowa counties, the State Historical Society of Iowa’s mobile museum is back on the road with a brand new exhibit. Housed in a custom-built Winnebago, the 300-square-foot museum on wheels launched in 2017 and completed its first 99-county tour in 2019, making 175 stops along the way and attracting nearly 65,000 visitors, including 11,400 students. The current exhibition, “Iowa History 101: Iowa’s People & Places” debuted last year and will continue its new 99-county journey through 2023. It will offer free self-guided tours at 405 5th Street in Adair during the Adair Sesquicentennial at the following dates and times:

• Friday, June 17, 4-6 p.m.
• Saturday, June 18, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

The new exhibition shares stories from Iowa’s past with an eclectic array of artifacts from the State Historical Museum of Iowa’s permanent collection, plus a video narrated by WOI-TV host Jackie Schmillen. Guests will see iconic artifacts that reflect the role of Iowans in state, national and international events, including a Meskwaki cradleboard representing the past and continued presence of Native nations in Iowa. They’ll also see women’s suffrage materials from the early 1900s and the pen used by Iowa Governor William Harding to sign Iowa’s resolution in support of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Other artifacts include a menu from a dinner held in Des Moines for Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, in 1959, as well as photos of a southeast Asian refugee and Sudanese women in central Iowa, and a flight suit that southern Iowa native and accomplished astronaut Peggy Whitson wore during one of multiple expeditions (totaling 665 days) aboard the International Space Station. The idea for the mobile museum emerged in 2014 from a series of community conversations organized by the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, which oversees the State Historical Society of Iowa. Iowans care deeply about history and made it clear they wanted new ways to access the State Historical Museum’s resources.

Iowans may request a visit from the mobile museum for their local schools, libraries, museums, community festivals, county fairs and other places where people gather. Visits are complimentary and the tours are self-guided. More details are available at iowaculture.gov. Iowans can also follow the mobile museum’s statewide journey on Facebook at facebook.com/IowaHistory.

The traveling exhibition presenting sponsor is EMC Insurance Companies and fuel sponsor is Casey’s. Additional partner support is provided by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, Winnebago Industries, Atlantic Coca-Cola Bottling Company and Mike Wolfe

(Radio Iowa) – Researchers at Iowa State University using satellite data have found an impact from city lights on trees and plants. Yuyu Zhou, says the impact is significant. “The artificial nighttime lights can advance the start of the (growing) season of the trees, and also delay the end of the, of the trees or plants,” he says. They concluded the lights advanced the date of breaking leaf buds in the spring by nearly nine days and delayed the coloring of leaves by about six days in the fall. He says it’s the first large-scale look at the impact. Those who suffer from allergies could be feeling the impact on the growing season for what it produces.

“Early pollen season and also longer pollen season,” he says. Zhou says the urban heat island effect — where urban areas heat up faster than rural areas also contributes to the growing season changes. He says the change in the growing season can mismatch different trees and mess with the natural cycle. “It will cause the problem of the pollination service. And also another issue is because of the early start up — it can have high vulnerability to the spring frost damage.” Zhou explains.

Zhou is an associate professor of geological and atmospheric sciences at Iowa State. He says there is a positive to extending the season for some plants. “Because we can have a longer growing season in an urban area for an urban farm,” he says. The study compared seasonal changes in plants at around three thousand urban sites.

(Radio Iowa) -The Iowa Court of Appeals has upheld the firing of a Cedar Rapids Police Officer following his arrest for a second O-W-I. Austin Mensen was hired with the knowledge he had previously been convicted of O-W-I. He was with the Cedar Rapids department three years before being convicted of second offense O-W-I. The Civil Service Commission fired him and he appealed –saying there were not sufficient facts to support the decision and that it was arbitrary because it did not consider mitigating factors.

The Court of Appeals ruled Mensen’s conduct was detrimental to the public interest — as the loss of his driver’s license limited his ability to do his job. It also says police officers represent the department and city and are held to a high standard of conduct, and the existence of mitigating factors does not automatically render a decision arbitrary.

[Updated] (Omaha, NE)- National Weather Service survey teams out of Valley, NE., have finished assessing the damage from Tuesday nights’ storms. Officials say two tornadoes were reported. One occurred near Murdock, NE. The other near Treynor, IA.

The Intermittent tornado began at about 12:18-a.m. Wednesday approximately 3 miles south of Treynor and ended 3 miles southeast of Treynor. The tornado traveled mainly across crop and pastureland. It packed winds of up to 102 mph, and was 75 yards wide. The twister struck the Prairie Crossing Winery, destroying the event center. Peripheral damage occurred to trees and vines. The community of Treynor, including the Treynor Football Team, quickly organized, and within an hour, helped to clear the trees and debris from the property. Owner Doug Gray was appreciated of their efforts.

A cluster of supercell thunderstorms moved through the region Tuesday evening, June 14 2022 into the early morning hours of Wednesday, June 15th 2022. The storms produced widespread wind gusts of 75 to 115 mph, hail from 1 to 3 inches in diameter, and two EF1 tornadoes. Minor flooding was also reported in Omaha. The storms caused widespread tree damage, and some structural damage to homes and businesses.

See the details below…

SIDNEY, Iowa – Iowa State Patrol Technical Accident Investigators are conducting the investigation into the collision that resulted in the death of Fremont County Deputy Austin “Melvin” Richardson.

Deputy Richardson started his law enforcement career with the Auburn Police Department (Nebraska) in 2007 and then came to the Sidney Police Department in 2011. In 2015, he became a deputy with the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office where he remained employed until his end of watch on June 14, 2022.

Fremont County Deputy Austin “Melvin” Richardson

Deputy Richardson also served many years with the Sidney and Percival Fire Departments. A procession of law enforcement vehicles escorted Deputy Richardson’s body from the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Ankeny, to the Rash-Gude Funeral Home, in Hamburg, Wednesday afternoon.

Funeral arrangements are being arranged and the location and date are yet to be determined. The Hilltop Animal Hospital has set up a donation site with the Malvern State Bank. Please send any donations in the name of the Jennifer Richardson Support Fund.

Malvern Bank

Jennifer Richardson Support Fund

404 Main Street

Malvern, IA 51551

Deputy Richardson, his wife Jennifer, and family

(Radio Iowa) – Out of state visitors at two western Iowa parks will have to keep paying an entrance fee for at least two and a half more years. Lake Manawa State Park in Council Bluffs had three million visitors last year and Representative Brent Siegrist, of Council Bluffs, says the fee may be a way to thin the crowds.

“Lake Manawa is the most heavily used park in the state park system, particularly because it’s next to Omaha and there are tons of Nebraskans that come over,” Siegrist says. “…Waubonsie State Park also is down near the Missouri border in Fremont County and they have a lot of traffic and visitors there.” In 2019, the legislature authorized an entrance fee of five dollars per out-of-state vehicle at both parks. It was a pilot project, to see if visitor traffic would change.

“The COVID years dramatically affected those parks at that time,” Siegrist says, “so they didn’t have a particularly good read about whether this is something they wanted to extend into the future.” This week Governor Reynolds approved the bill that keeps the fee in place until the end of 2025. Senator Dan Dawson of Council Bluffs says the fee can be a tool for keeping the peace in the park that’s just 10 miles from Omaha.

“When they have a crowd coming over to our parks to use it for purposes that you and I or anyone else here might not enjoy to take our families there and just enjoy the day — whether they want to drink or tear up the park or go off-road or so something like that, this is one more tool to try to maybe redirect some of our non-residents back to their state,” Dawson says.

There’s a daily fee for every vehicle entering a NEBRASKA state park. It’s six dollars for Nebraskans and eight dollars for everyone else. The State of Iowa began charging a 10-dollar yearly park user fee in 1987, but it was repealed two years later. During debate of the continued entrance fees for Lake Manawa and Waubonsie State Parks, legislators said they were not interested in imposing entrance fees at the other 81 state parks and recreation areas in Iowa.

(Radio Iowa) – Elder abuse will be defined as a crime in Iowa when a new law takes effect July 1st. Governor Reynolds has approved a bill that creates new criminal  penalties for emotional abuse and neglect of Iowans who are 60 or older.  “The safety and well being of older Iowans is so very important,” Reynolds said, “and this bill ensures that there will be consequences for those who target and harm them.” The bill establishes a new criminal charge of financial exploitation of an older individual.

“Abuse doesn’t always mean physical. It can also mean financial crimes,” Reynolds said, “and this bill also establishes criminal penalties for those that target individuals for that purpose.” The governor held a bill signing ceremony at a senior living center in Williamsburg.

These changes have been a top priority for A-A-R-P for several years and the bill passed the House and Senate this year unanimously. According to the National Center on Elder Abuse, as many as two million Americans above the age of 65 have been abused and about 60 percent of elder abuse is committed by a relative of the victim.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The City Council in Atlantic met Wednesday evening. The session began with action on a Resolution approving the Final Plat for the Redwood Subdivision in the City of Atlantic, and the swearing-in/Promotion of Atlantic Police Officer Jimmy James to Sergeant. As we’ve mentioned, James has 16-years of law enforcement experience.

Mayor Grace Garrett congratulates Sgt. Jimmy James

The Council also recognized Mike Henningsen and Dr. Carol Trewet, for their 20-years of service on the Atlantic Airport Commission. Lori Reid, who, along with her husband Barry, manage the airport, thanked them for all they have done for the airport, the local pilots, and the

Lori Reid and Mike Henngingsen

Lori Reid and Dr. Carol Trewett

“transient pilots,” who have made brief stays in the community.  Henningsen said “When the FAA gives you 80-to 90-percent [the cost] of a project that’s been approved, you’re crazy not to go through with it, and you’ve all done that without any backlash over the years, so thank you.” He was referring the the runway and apron expansion, hanger and other essential functions at the airport the Council has backed over the years.

The Atlantic City Council approved a day long street closure for 4th Street, between Walnut and Chestnut, for SHIFT ATL’s Summer Soiree Summer fundraising event/dinner, set to take place July 16th. And, the approved a Wastewater Management Services Agreement with the City of Anita. Atlantic already has similar agreements in-place with Massena and Fontanelle.

In other business, the Atlantic City Council officially set the dates and hours for Fireworks, which are unchanged from last year. Fireworks are permitted in Atlantic on July 2nd, 3rd and 4th, from Noon until 11-p.m. each day. The law bans the discharge of fireworks within 300 feet of a hospital or long-term care facility. The ordinance also states no person under the age of 18 shall discharge DOT 1.4 class fireworks without adult supervision. Consumers must follow the directions on the package, and sky lanterns without a tether rope are strictly prohibited.

And Mayor Garrett put the community on-notice that a big event next week in Atlantic, will draw a large number of people from out of town to the area, beginning this weekend, and some slow moving equipment.

The tractors will depart the Cass County Fairgrounds in Atlantic early Monday-Tues-and Wednesday mornings, June 20-22, and have stops the first day at: the Cumberland Fire Department; Griswold High School; Muller Livestock, and then back to the Fairgrounds, that evening, for a total of 73.77 miles.
Tuesday’s schedule takes the tractors and their riders to: the Exira-EHK High School; Van Wall Implement in Avoca; and Dave’s Country Repair in Walnut before heading back to the Fairgrounds. Total mileage for day-two, is 69.5.
And, on the third and final day of the tractor ride, participants will depart the Fairgrounds in Atlantic and head to the CAM High School in Anita.

[COUNCIL BLUFFS] – Pottawattamie County Emergency Management Coordinator Doug Reed said Wednesday, “Emergency Management personnel began local preliminary damage assessments today, focusing on the areas with initial publicly reported damages from the overnight severe storm system. Currently there are no significant public infrastructure damages reported and only limited reports of residential & business damages. The heaviest damages observed today were in south central Pottawattamie County which resulted in a total loss of a business.

Additional damages were observed in eastern Pottawattamie County, including Carson, Macedonia, and rural areas eastward toward Cass County. Those damages primarily consisted of residential properties that were affected by falling limbs, trees, or high winds. Currently, (63) structures have been impacted by the severe weather event along with a few parks & recreation areas receiving some form of tree damage, debris, or other related minor damages.”

“The important numbers right now,” Reed said, “are that there have been zero injuries or fatalities related to this storm event and nearly all utility outages have been restored. This nighttime tornado scenario is one of the ones that scares me the most; nearly everyone is home, and nearly everyone is asleep.” Reed reminds everyone that you need to have multiple ways to receive warning alerts. “Have a weather radio, sign up for our free emergency and weather alerts, and leave those device’s volumes turned on during the night – there’s simply no other solution.”

Damage reports from the public will be accepted over the next couple of days as officials continue to assess the overall impact and potential need for assistance. To report your damages and receive updates related to this severe weather event go to the Emergency Management Agency website at https://pcema-ia.org. Your reports and pictures will be essential in assessing the overall impact to the  county.