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Pro-Palestinian protestors detained, cited & ordered to leave Des Moines Federal Building

News

May 10th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

A pro-Palestinian rally ended Thursday evening, with several protestors being escorted out of the Neal Smith Federal Building by federal law enforcement. KCCI reports the Catholic Peace Ministry and the Des Moines chapter of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom hosted the rally in front of the downtown Des Moines building to urge Iowa’s senators to stop sending aid to Israel. A handful of demonstrators went inside the federal building where Sen. Joni Ernst and Sen. Chuck Grassley’s offices are. Luke Clausen was one of them that made it inside. He told KCCI they met with congressional staffers, delivering a list of names of people killed in Gaza and handing them flowers.

Clausen, along with a few others, then went up to the congressional offices and refused to leave after the building closed at five. He said he was issued an $80 citation. Clausen said he was told that he, along with others, would be arrested for trespassing if they go back without reason to. As demonstrators were inside, people outside were chanting and singing while holding flags and signs. They called out Ernst and Grassley by name several times.

In a statement made to KCCI, a spokesperson for Grassley’s office said: “Sen. Grassley affirms Americans’ right to peacefully protest, while reaffirming his support for Israel’s right to defend itself from the terrorist group Hamas. Israel has taken necessary, targeted measures to respond to Hamas’ attacks while working to minimize civilian casualties. Labeling Israel’s actions as genocide is inappropriate and incorrect.”

IA DNR: Audubon truck stop/wash fined for wastewater discharge issues

Ag/Outdoor, News

May 10th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

DES MOINES – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources says many times, environmental improvement comes as a result of an enforcement action. That takes place when people choose to circumvent the law or do not understand the full impact of their actions on the environment. To that end, the DNR on Thursday (May 9th), said a consent order was issued against Waspy’s Truck Wash, LLC., in Audubon. A consent order is issued as an alternative to issuing an administrative order. A consent order indicates that the DNR has voluntarily entered into a legally enforceable agreement with the other party. The Order was issued to Waspy’s, to address discharges of wastewater to a publicly owned treatment works in volumes or quantities in excess of its treatment agreement. (View the Consent Order here: 6385075121705664052024WW03)

Officials say Waspy’s must “Comply with the treatment agreement effective April 7, 2016 or a new treatment agreement if one is accepted by the DNR; submit a plan of action to the DNR for approval that details a compliance plan to meet the treatment agreement’s limits; and pay a $8,000 administrative penalty.”

The DNR is charged with ensuring compliance with State of Iowa environmental laws and rules. Officials say the compliance portion of the DNR improves the environment through educating citizens and promoting awareness of the environmental impacts of our actions and awareness of applicable law. DNR staff work with individuals, businesses and communities to help them protect our natural resources by complying with state and federal laws.

In the few cases where compliance cannot be achieved, the DNR issues enforcement actions. You can find the entire, original orders on DNR’s website at www.iowadnr.gov/EnforcementActions

Shelby County Auditor’s reminder: In-person absentee voting begins May 15th for the June Primary

News

May 10th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Harlan, Iowa) – Shelby County Auditor Mark Maxwell reminds voters in his county that in-person absentee voting for the June Primary Election in the Shelby County Auditor’s Office, begins May 15th.  Maxwell says you must declare a party the day you vote to receive a Democrat, Libertarian or Republican Ballot. If you change parties when you vote in the primary, you can not change back to your original party until the election is canvassed.

With the 2024 election processes already underway, questions regarding voter registration, polling information, absentee voting and more are sure to pop up. When questions do arise, it’s imperative you get the accurate and prompt answers you need to successfully participate in our democracy. Mark Maxwell says it’s not wise to seek election information from anyone other than your state or local election officials. He says he is “Joining the Iowa Secretary of State’s office in their support #TrustedInfo2024—a nonpartisan public education initiative highlighting the importance of always getting trusted, credible election information directly from election officials.”

Vote Early

For quick access to your voter registration and status, polling locations, voter ID requirements, information on becoming a poll worker, and more, go to VoterReady.Iowa.Gov. If you have friends and family in another state, encourage them to visit CanIVote.org, which is an excellent resource to get them started. This nonpartisan site will take eligible voters directly to the correct information on their state’s election website.

Learn more about voting in Iowa at SOS.Iowa.Gov or call the Shelby County Auditor’s office 755-3831 ext. 6

Audubon County road to close for bridge repairs, Monday

News

May 10th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Audubon, Iowa) – The Audubon County Secondary Roads Department reports Yellowwood Road will be closed to thru traffic, beginning Monday, May 13th. The closure will take place between 190th Street and 210th Streets, due to bridge repairs.

The road will remain closed until the repairs are complete.

Grant man arrested Thursday evening

News

May 10th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Red Oak, Iowa) – The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports a man from Grant was arrested Thursday evening, following a traffic stop in the 1700 block of K Avenue. Authorities say 40-year-old Zachary Morrison, of Grant, was arrested for Driving Under Suspension. Morrison was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $491.25 bond.

Hy-Vee announces plans to close 2 eastern IA stores, citing low financial & sales goals

News

May 10th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – Officials with Hy-Vee have announced the company will close two stores in eastern Iowa next month. The store on First Avenue NE store in Cedar Rapids will close on June 23rd, opening up a large area of the city without easy access to a grocery store.

Hy-Vee managers told KCRG-TV9 the chain is closing two locations, the Cedar Rapids one and a Waterloo Hy-Vee store on Logan Avenue. Both stores are in areas listed as “High Poverty” according to U.S. Census data. In a statement, spokesperson Tina Pothoff said the two locations have not consistently the company’s financial expectations and sales goals over the past several years. She added, that the employees at those stores will be offered a position at another Hy-Vee store in the area, at the same rate of pay and will retain their existing benefits.

Hy-Vee pointed out that despite the closure, it offers its Aisles Online grocery delivery service to the area. Pothoff also said Hy-Vee plans to open up e-WIC payments to allow recipients of the Women, Infant and Children food assistance to buy groceries online.

The City of Cedar Rapids had given Hy-Vee incentives to build the First Avenue store in 2001 and keep a grocery store in the area, including a 20-year tax increment financing. The Gazette reported the head of Hy-Vee at the time made it clear that the store was not financially viable without the city’s tax incentives.

Cedar Rapids Mayor Tiffany O’Donnel said in a statement regarding the closure:

“Hy-Vee’s decision to close their First Avenue store is incredibly disappointing. Generations of customers have relied on this store for their basic needs. It is unfortunate the company is leaving at a time when the nearby neighborhoods are seeing significant improvements and public investment. We anticipate this momentum will continue when combined with efforts like the upcoming First Avenue Micro Area Action Plan community planning process. We know that access to fresh, affordable food is crucial for our community’s wellbeing and we will work with local agencies to meet the needs of those impacted most by this closure.”

Rains wash away Iowa extreme drought for first time in 2 years

Ag/Outdoor, News, Weather

May 10th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – The latest U-S Drought Monitor map of Iowa shows no red areas indicating extreme drought.

DNR Hydrologist Tim Hall says we’ve been seeing red for a long time. “The first time in almost two years that we’ve not had extreme drought somewhere in the state of Iowa,” Hall says. It is a big turnaround, but not all the color has washed out of the drought map. “We still have half the state are so impacted by drought conditions, but that area is shrinking all the time as we get these good rains,” he says.

Hall has continually said we need weekly rains every month to turn things around, and that’s the pattern we’re now in. “We’ve now had five out of the last seven months have had above normal precipitation and that’s exactly the recipe we wanted,” he says, “where you get month over month just above normal precipitation, and that’s what’s really helping us to get out of the drought,” Hall says.

He says depth of the drought is evident in the lack of any major flood issues. “Go back to this winter when we had all that snow in January that melted very quickly and we had no flooding. And we’ve now had a couple of above normal precipitation months, and yes, we got some flooding, but nothing even approaching a widespread or catastrophic flooding,” Hall Says. “So that really points to a couple of things, how dry the soil was, and the fact that the rain we have received has been fairly well spaced out.”

Half of the state’s annual rainfall usually comes in May through August, and Hall says if we are above normal in any of those months, we could go a long way toward pushing all the drought colors off the map.

2024 World Food Prize has 2 winners

Ag/Outdoor, News

May 10th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – Two scientists who played key roles in creating a world seed vault are the winners of the 2024 World Food Prize. World Food Prize Foundation president, Terry Branstad, Thursday, announced Geoffrey Hawtin of Great Britain and Cary Fowler of the United States as the winners.

“They focused their careers on preserving and protecting the world’s heritage of crop diversity and mobilizing this critical resource to defend against threats of global food security,” Branstad says. During the ceremony at the U-S State Department, Branstad says they conserved more than six-thousand varieties of crops and culturally important plants. “Sustaining storehouses of seeds that we need to breed tomorrow’s crops for more nutritious, and climate smart crops,” Branstad says. “They then went on to work to establish the famous Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway.”

World Food Prize Foundation President Terry Branstad. (photo from World Food Prize Foundaiton)

The Norway facility is often referred to as the “Doomsday Vault,” and holds one-point-two-five million seed samples in an underground facility in the Arctic Circle. More than anyone else these laureates have together shaped the global system we now have for protecting, sharing, and utilizing crop diversity for the benefit of humanity,” Branstad says.

Hawtin is the founding director and executive board member at the Global Crop Diversity Trust. Fowler is currently the U-S Special Envoy for Global Food Security. The World Food Prize was created by Cresco, Iowa native Norman Borlaug, who received the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for his work that contributed to increases in agricultural outputs which was termed the Green Revolution.

The two will receive the World Food Prize at an event at the Iowa State Capitol building in October.

New law may speed up new vehicle registration, license plate delivery

News

May 10th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – For decades, Iowa law has required the title and registration for a newly-purchased or leased vehicle to be filed in the county where the owner of the vehicle lives. A new law going into effect July 1st will let Iowa auto dealers file that paperwork in the county where the dealership is located. Bruce Anderson, president of the Iowa Automobile Dealers Association, says it’s an adjustment to the way people buy vehicles today.

“You used to go to your hometown local car dealer and that’s where you would shop, but with the advent of the internet online automotive shopping customers are shopping all over the state,” Anderson says. “With some brands, especially with higher luxury brands, there aren’t dealers in every county, so a single dealer might be working with upwards of 40 or 50 different county treasurers.” Anderson says this gives auto dealers a familiar, local point of entry to file the vehicle’s title, register a lien if the customer took out a loan to buy the vehicle and get license plates ordered.

“It should eliminate a lot of delay and make the titling and registration process quicker. Customers should get their plates quicker, their new registration quicker,” Anderson says. “It’s also a plus for law enforcement because instead of having to put this information in an envelope and sending it across the state, potentially have it come back if there’s a discrepancy on postage amounts or something like that. It’s getting the information into the database quicker.”

Anderson credits county treasurers and the Iowa D-O-T for working with automobile dealers to address bottlenecks and inefficiencies in the system for registering vehicle after they’re purchased or lease. The new law will raise various vehicle registration fees by 10 dollars on January 1st of next year. The fees — one of which is just a dollar — were set decades ago when the average price of a new vehicle was 10-thousand dollars.

Feenstra bill continues Medicare coverage of over-the-phone telehealth appointments

News

May 10th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Congressman Randy Feenstra is sponsoring a bill to require Medicare to cover over-the-phone tele-health services for another year. That coverage was set to expire on December 31st of this year. “Audio only services are a lifeline to rural communities across the country who still contend with severe lack of broadband access,” Feenstra says. During the pandemic, Medicare began covering patient appointments conducted via video link and over the phone.

Feenstra says many rural residents have no way to make a video connection. He cites a Federal Communications Commission report which found 45 million Americans cannot get broadband with high enough speeds capable of streaming video. “I believe this underscores the need for audio-only telehealth coverage to ensure access to health care for Americans in rural areas,” Feenstra says. “This provision is particularly vital to seniors who shouldn’t have to travel hundreds of miles to receive routine care.”

The U-S House Ways and Means Committee unanimously approved the bill yesterday (Wednesday). It allows federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics to bill Medicare for telehealth and delays the in-person visit requirement for mental health services for seniors.