(Western Iowa) – Crews in western and southwest Iowa kept busy Thursday afternoon, battling the wind and flames that spurred two separate large field fires. The fires occurred within a couple of hours of one another. One of the incidents involved a soybean field in northwestern Audubon County. Firefighters from Manning, Manilla, Irwin, Defiance, Kirkman, and Audubon responded to the scene. Shelby County Emergency Management noted on their social media page, that “It was fast moving,” and that crews “did a GREAT job stopping it from getting to the next field of standing corn!!!!”

Click on the images to enlarge

Photos via Shelby County EMA Facebook page

Henderson, Emerson, Hastings, Stanton firefighters were paged out Thursday, to the area of Highway 34 and A Avenue in Montgomery County, where a large corn field fire was occurring. Some equipment was burning in that incident as well. Crews battled the flames for at least three hours before they were brought under control. 

No injuries were reported from either incident.

(Radio Iowa) – New bird flu cases have been reported this fall in Minnesota, South Dakota and Nebraska. The virus hasn’t resurfaced in Iowa since May, but experts are cautioning it could come back as wild birds migrate.  “We can expect that as birds, you know, pass through Iowa and head south, that they may still be harboring the virus.” That’s State wildlife veterinarian Rachel Ruden. She says while bird flu hadn’t been making wild bird sick, a more severe form of the virus has been circulating and that strain has hung around. Iowa State University Extension wildlife specialist Adam Janke says another reason for heightened risk is that birds migrate a lot slower this time of year.

“They’re just trying to survive through the fall and winter,” he says, “and then come spring, they start to focus narrowly on reproduction and that means they need to get north really fast.”Janke says November is the peak time for water fowl, like ducks and geese, to migrate through Iowa. State and federal officials have been surveying healthy birds being harvested by hunters. In September, the bird flu virus was detected in three small ducks that were shot in western Iowa.

The hunting season for blue-wing, green-wing and cinnamon-wing teal ducks was in the first half of September.

(Reporting by Iowa Public Radio’s Katie Peikes)

(Des Moines, Iowa) – The latest U-S Drought Monitor report shows conditions worsening across Iowa. The report, issued Thursday, said 100% of Iowa is experiencing abnormally dry conditions, marking the first time since August 2013 that all of the state has had some sort of drought designation. 57% of Iowa is experiencing moderate drought, an increase from 52% just a week ago, while 27% of Iowa is dealing with severe drought. 7% of Iowa has extreme drought. Plymouth, Cherokee, Buena Vista and Pocahontas Counties, along with parts of seven other counties in northwest Iowa, are included in the Extreme Drought conditions.

Cass and Adair Counties are in a moderate drought, as is much of Madison County and most of Pottawattamie County. Half of the counties to our south are Moderately or Abnormally Dry. Most of the counties adjacent to Cass and to the north of I-80 are also Abnormally Dry.  There were two separate, large field fires Thursday afternoon in southwest/western Iowa.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Supreme Court heard oral arguments Thursday in a case where a woman sued the state for negligence after a multi-state fugitive being chased by a State Trooper ran into her car in central Iowa. The Polk County district court judge ruled Amber Martinez’s lawsuit involving the chase by Trooper Brett Tjepkes could go forward. Attorney David Ranscht, argued for the state that there is no case. “No reasonable jury could conclude on this record which you have in front of you in video format and including audio as well that Sergeant Tjepkes acted recklessly so you should reverse and remand with instructions to enter summary judgment for the state,” he says.

The fugitive, Scott Grimes, had sped away at speeds of 90 miles an hour in Urbandale and was running through stoplights, when Trooper Tjepkes cut off the pursuit just before the crash. “That’s when you see Sergeant Tjepkes say ‘okay it’s going too far I’m going to shut this down’,” Ranscht says. Ranscht says that’s an indication there was no negligence in the case. Martinez’s lawyer, Molly Hamilton, says the district court ruling correctly said the issue should go to a jury. “There was a threshold finding of recklessness and there are facts to support that threshold finding to leave the question of recklessness to a jury,” Hamilton says. She says the radio transmissions the trooper had with other officers prior to trying to stop Grimes are an indication he started the pursuit despite the risk.

“Officer Tjepkes says three times, ‘If we don’t get him in the right place, if he runs, if there’s a pursuit there’s going to be disaster, there’s going to be a problem three times.’ And so, that is to me, that is the not just probable injury. He is consciously aware of that risk,” Hamilton says. Hamilton says Trooper Tjepkes had the duty to avoid that risk and the eventual injury to her client and her kids from the crash. The Supreme Court will consider the arguments and rule at a later date.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Sheriff’s Deputies in Montgomery County responded at around 10:50-p.m. Thursday, to a reported assault in progress. The incident occurred in the 1900 block of 203rd Street, in Red Oak. Upon investigation and a brief search, Deputies – assisted by Red Oak Police – arrested Michael Josephson for Domestic Assault/1st offense. He was booked into and held at the Montgomery County Jail. Red Oak Rescue also assisted at the scene.

(Radio Iowa) – The long-awaited renovation of the docks at the Storm Lake Marina is moving forward. D-N-R Conservation and Recreation Division Administrator, Pete Hildreth, told the Natural Resources Commission members Thursday, they’ve taken the first step in the process. “The Department has ordered new docks to replace the old ones. Utilizing marine fuel tax ,the Department is allocating just over a half a million dollars to get new docks,” Hildreth says.

Hildreth says the N-R-C will need to take action in November to get the docks installed. “That was a purchase for goods. And so there’s no requirements to bring a purchase of goods to the Commission,” he says. “But we still have to install those docks — and so next month you will be seeing an agenda item for your review and approval for the installation of those new docks at Storm Lake Marina.”

Hildreth did not indicate how much it might cost to install the docks. Hildreth says they continue working with Buena Vista County on the future of the marina.

(Radio Iowa) – A state panel is predicting state tax collections for this budgeting year will fall two-point-seven percent below the last one. Iowa Department of Revenue director Kraig Paulsen says tax cuts for retirees, corporations and individuals in the top state tax bracket are what’s driving that negative number.

“Definitely not pessimistic. I’m not pessimistic about what’s coming at all,” Paulsen says, “but it is somewhat conservative.” David Underwood, a C-P-A from Clear Lake, is another member of the Revenue Estimating Conference. Underwood says he’s heard from employers who have just about given up on trying to find employees — and that is limiting business growth in Iowa.

“The other thing with it is that the wage increases are just about to the levels of where we’re not going to see (that) wage growth going forward,” Underwood says. “I mean I’ve talked to a number of people who say: ‘I just can’t pay anymore. You know the profits aren’t there to support that.'” Holly Lyons of the Legislative Services Agency says while there are national economic headwinds, major indicators offer conflicting data.

“Suggesting that the economy’s not in a recession, but merely in a period of slower growth as it transitions from the rapid recovery from the brief, but harsh pandemic-induced recession,” Lyons says. Underwood says the state recovered quite rapidly from the economic freefall COVID caused in 2020. “But nobody has figured out how to continue that growth level,” Underwood says, “and that’s what worries me about the growth levels that we’re going to see in employment and profitability in Iowa.” Underwood says he wishes he had a more optimistic view of the state’s economy.

“It’s good in Iowa, but how long is it going to be good?” Underwood says. “And I know our leading indicators in Iowa don’t show the recession eminent in Iowa, but there’s a difference between a recession and just a slowness or a halt to our growth.” The last state fiscal year ended June 30th and state tax collections grew nearly 11-and-a-half percent during the 12 month period — far beyond officials’ predictions.

Iowa’s gross domestic product declined slightly in March, April and May. The governor’s top tax and budget advisor says that and other economic measures indicate the economy’s boom cycle has slowed, but is still in positive territory.

MAQUOKETA, Iowa – The Iowa Department of Public Safety today (Thursday), said 56-year-old Christopher Eugene Prichard, of Bellevue, Iowa, has been charged with First Degree Murder for the October 8, 2022, shooting death of Angela Prichard.

On October 8, Jackson County Sheriff’s Office responded to a 911 call at the Mississippi Ridge Kennels located at 31821 Highway 52 in Bellevue, Iowa. Upon arrival, law enforcement found Angela Prichard, age 55, dead from an apparent gunshot wound.  Prichard was later arrested during the early morning hours of October 9, 2022 on warrants for Violation of Protective Order.

Christopher Prichard remains in the Jackson County Sheriff’s jail and is scheduled for an initial appearance on the afternoon of October 13, 2022.  If convicted, First Degree Murder carries a lifetime imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

*A criminal charge is only an accusation, and criminal defendants are innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.

(Radio Iowa) – Officials in a northwest Iowa city have adopted changes to an ordinance that now gives the city authority to essentially evict a vicious animal. Okoboji Police Chief Jason Peterson says under the old ordinance, his only option was to write a ticket if a dog was off its owner’s property and attacked a person or another dog. “The change would be that we have recourse if there is multiple times that a dog has bitten other animals or attacked other animals unprovoked,” he says, “and if somebody’s hurt in a dog attack — or any domestic animal attack — the animal can be made to leave town.”

Okoboji City Administration Michael Meyers says the city council tightened up the language in the ordinance before approving it this week. “Under the previous language, it could have been argued that: ‘He only did that — he only killed the other dog once, so I’ve got one more,'” Meyers said. The Okoboji ordinance now addresses attacks that happen without provocation and cause serious injury.

Earlier this year, a two-year-old was bitten by a pit bull in the eastern Iowa town of Hopkinton and there’s been a long-running dispute over enforcement of Hopkinton’s ordinance which bans pit bulls from city limits. At least 20 other states have laws which ban cities and counties from having breed-specific ordinances. Okoboji’s refers simply to “vicious animals.”