(Guthrie County, Iowa) – A tire on the road was struck by a 2019 Chevy Equinox Friday night on Interstate 80 in Guthrie County, causing $10,000 damage, but no one was injured. The Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office reports the accident happened as 25-year-old Garrett Charles Groves, of Lapeer, MI., was traveling east on I-80, at around 10-p.m., Friday. His vehicle sustained heavy front end damage, but was able to make to Exit 93 off-ramp, and get off the road.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – A regular meeting of the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors will be held 8:30-a.m. Tuesday, in their meeting room at the courthouse in Red Oak. Here’s a look at the agenda:

Call meeting to order

Pledge of Allegiance

Roll call of members

Approval of Agenda – Order at discretion of Chairman

Read minutes as presented. Chairman to call for any additions/corrections to said minutes

Board chairman will ask the audience for any comments, limited to two minutes per person.

Supervisors: Weekly committee/assignment updates

Secondary Roads Update

New Business

• Summit Carbon Solutions presentation
• Action for Safety Coordinator
• Claims payable 8/10/2022
• Sheriff’s report of fees for July, 2022 in the amount of $21,797.88
• Recorder’s Report of Fees for July 2022, in the amount of $22,955.68
• Elliott Library Contract for Services for FY22-23 in the amount of $6,020

Discuss and start agenda items for next meeting

Announcements – The next regular meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, August 16, 2022

Adjournment

*Please note, this is a public meeting; however, it will be conducted via ZOOM

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Meeting ID: 861 8514 1628

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(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Cass County Board of Supervisors will hold a regular, weekly meeting beginning at 9-a.m. Tuesday, August 9th, in their Boardroom at the Courthouse in Atlantic. Here’s the agenda for their session (WTA= When Time Allows):

9:00 Call meeting to order
Approve Agenda
Approve Prior Meeting Minutes
PUBLIC COMMENT:
WTA DISCUSSION/ACTION: Discussion about Partial Self Fund Plan Tristar – Katie Schmit, with Assured Partners
WTA ACTION: Approve Secondary Roads Employee Probationary Wage Adjustment
WTA DISCUSSION/ACTION: Resolution 2022-039, 2023 County Five Year Program Resolution
WTA DISUSSION: Cass County Engineer – Secondary Roads Update
WTA DISCUSSION/ACTION: Resolution 2022-040, Authorization for Sheriff’s Office to Conduct Investment Transactions
WA/WTA ACTION: Appoint Massena Township Trustee*
WA/WTA ACTION: Appoint Washington Township Trustee*
WA/WTA Committee Meeting Reports
WA/WTA Reports Filed: Recorder, Sheriff, Clerk of Court
WA/WTA ACTION: Approve claims
WTA Adjournment

*If there is an applicant for the position.

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(Radio Iowa) – Iowa ranks ninth in the country on the annual Kids Count report, which ranks states on 12 factors divided into four categories: economic well-being, education, health, and family and community. Iowa’s high ranking can be misleading, according to Anne Discher, executive director of Common Good Iowa, which partners with the Annie E. Casey Foundation on the report. Discher says Iowa ranks first for high school kids graduating on time, but falls behind in other areas. “We’re 21st on the share of young children attending preschool,” Discher says. “We’re ranked 22nd on the share of fourth graders not reading proficiently, and we’re ranked 25th on the share of eighth graders not proficient in math.”

Discher says Iowa ranked 17th overall in the health category and it did well on some measures such as kids covered by health insurance, where it was ranked fourth best in the U-S. “On others, we ranked 25th on child and teen death rate, and 33rd on the percentage of kids who are overweight or obese,” she says.

Discher says these rankings should alert state lawmakers to better fund education and other initiatives aimed at kids.
https://www.aecf.org/

(reporting by Natalie Krebs, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – Both of Iowa’s U.S. Senators joined their Republican colleagues in voting against the Democrats’ package of climate and health proposals. Senator Joni Ernst is among the Republicans who unsuccessfully offered amendments to the bill. She offered an additional restriction on the 75-hundred dollar subsidies for electric vehicle purchases. “Currently this bill already prevents vehicles containing any parts sources or assembled in foreign entities of concern like China or Russia from being eligible for the tax credit and my amendment doesn’t change that,” Ernst says. “My amendment simply ensures that our tax dollars don’t subsidize EVs from any countries using child or slave labor.”

Ernst says the critical minerals needed for electric vehicle batteries are mined in areas of Africa where some companies have a history of using child labor.  “The purchase of a luxury vehicle for wealthy coastal elites that utilizes child or slave labor is a direct contradiction of our American values,” Ernst said. Her proposal failed on a party-line vote. Senator Chuck Grassley offered an amendment to modify the federal tax deduction Americans in high-tax states may claim. Grassley unsuccessfully proposed increasing the deduction for student loan interest and the child and dependent care tax credits.  “When you have in this tax code things that benefit the rich that can afford Teslas for $80,000,” Grassley said, “you can surely do something for middle class America.”

Grassley says Democrats staged a reckless, 28-hour voting marathon.  “It’s 4:50 a.m.,” Grassley said on the Senate floor Sunday, “and I want all the people that thought that inflation was going to be transitory to understand that it’s persistent.” Grassley also blasted the Senate’s Democratic leader for scheduling votes this weekend after indicating months ago that the Senate would be on recess, forcing Grassley to miss a family reunion he had scheduled.

Grassley’s opponent, Democrat Mike Franken, says Grassley should try deploying for a year, as Franken did in the Navy. Franken also criticized Grassley for voting against capping the price of insulin at 35 dollars a month for Americans with private insurance. Franken says Grassley voted to protect drug industry profits, while Iowans will continue to pay sky high prices for insulin.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – AtlanticFest, presented by First Whitney Bank & Trust, will be held this Saturday, August 13th rain or shine and the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce is asking for the public’s cooperation with street closures. Chamber Programs Director Kelsey Beschorner says Chestnut Street, along with several side streets and city parking lots, will be closed for parking beginning at 5 AM this Saturday, Aug. 13, 2022 for AtlanticFest activities. The Chamber asks residents to have their vehicles removed from the following areas or the vehicle will be towed at the owners’ expense.

Below is a list of street closures approved by the City of Atlantic.

Chestnut Street (both lanes) from 2nd Street to 7th Street until 6:00 PM
6th Street (both lanes) from Walnut to Chestnut until 6:00 PM
6th Street (both lanes) from Chestnut to Poplar until 6:00 PM
5th Street from Chestnut to ½ block east of the alley before the Post Office until 6:00 PM
5th Street from Chestnut to Poplar Street until 6:00 PM
4th Street from Chestnut to ½ block east right before the alley until 6:00 PM
4th Street from Chestnut to Poplar Street until 6:00 PM
3rd Street from Walnut to Poplar until 6:00 PM
Walnut will remain open

Beschorner says “We are thankful for residents and businesses cooperation. It makes the early morning of AtlanticFest go a lot smoother.  AtlanticFest will include free entertainment, Car Show, Motorcycle Show, Road Race, Bags Tournament, food vendors, crafters and family games. To register for any activity, visit www.atlanticiowa.com, email chamber@atlanticiowa.com, or call the Chamber office at 712-243-3017.

The Chamber thanks its Proud Partners: First Whitney Bank & Trust, Atlantic Community Promotion Commission, Atlantic Parks & Recreation, A.M. Cohron & Son, Armour Insurance, Atlantic Business & Professional Women, Atlantic Coca-Cola Bottling Company, Atlantic Home Realty, Atlantic Municipal Utilities, Brocker, Karns & Karns, Brown Electric, Brown’s Shoe Fit, Deter Motor Company, Downtowner Café & Catering, Lindeman Tractor, McAtee Tire, McDermott & Son Roofing, Nishna Valley Family YMCA, R/T Motors, Inc., Roland Funeral Home, Rolling Hills Bank & Trust, Rush, CPA & Associates, Salute Gymnastics, TW Auto Sales and Wiota Steakhouse.

[7:05-a.m. News] (Creston, Iowa) -The Creston Police Department reports numerous recent arrests:

Friday afternoon, Brandon Scott Lawrence, of Diagonal, was arrested on a Union County warrant for the charge of Failure to Appear, on the original charge of Controlled Substance 3rd, a Class D Felony. He is currently being held in the Union County Jail for $5,000 cash only bond.

Just before 1-a.m. Saturday, 53-year-old Darryn Dugan, of Creston, was arrested at a residence in the 500 block of S. Pine Street, in Creston. Dugan was charged with Harassment in the 4th degree and Disorderly Conduct. He was later released on a $2,300 bond. Saturday night, 30-year-old Diego Manzanarez, of Creston, was arrested for OWi 2nd offense. He was released from Union County Jail on a $2,000 bond.

Early Sunday morning, 30-year-old Casey Ray Welcher, of Afton, was arrested in Creston for Possession of a Controlled Substance 2nd, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, Driving while Barred, and Intent to Deliver/Manufacture Meth. He is being held in the Union County Jail on a $29,000 bond. Sunday night, 23-year-old Noah Alexander Young, of Creston, was arrested for Possession of Drug Paraphernalia and Possession of a Controlled Substance 2nd. He is being held at Union County Jail on a $1,300 bond.

A woman from Creston reported to Police Friday night, that sometime between 7pm-7:30pm someone had broken the driver’s side window out of her car parked in the 700 block of W. Jefferson Street. Estimated loss under $300.

(Radio Iowa) – After a near-decade long world tour, the Jackson Pollock oil painting simply known as “Mural” is back in Iowa City and will return to public display later this month. Lauren Lessing, director of the University of Iowa’s Stanley Museum of Art, says if Mural were a person, its passport would show at least 14 new venues and it would have earned more than 20-thousand frequent flier miles.

“It was in Berlin, London, Venice, Barcelona, and then it came back to the United States. It’s been on the West Coast and the East Coast and several places in between,” Lessing says. “It has certainly made the rounds, but we’re very, very happy to have it home.” The oil painting was produced in 1943 and measures eight feet high by 20 feet long. Pollock was commissioned to create Mural by legendary art collector Peggy Guggenheim, who donated the piece to the University of Iowa in 1951. Lessing first saw Mural in 2004 and says it was breathtaking to see it again more recently after it was painstakingly cleaned and restored at the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles.

“Mural” by Jackson Pollock (Photo via guggenheim.org.)

“It was a revelation to me. It was really like a different painting and so I think a lot of our visitors will have that experience,” Lessing says. “Maybe they grew up with the painting, but they might really be seeing it for the first time with all of the dirt and grime removed. Paintings get dirty when they hang in the atmosphere for a long period of time.” The painting was viewed by more than two-point-seven-million people after leaving Iowa City on a planned world tour immediately after the 2008 flood. During its tour, Mural was insured for 144-million dollars, though Lessing says that figure is abstract because the painting is irreplaceable. She calls Mural a beacon for art lovers everywhere as it marks a pivotal moment in Pollock’s career.

“We want to teach students to take that kind of risk, and to really make that kind of leap, and innovate, which is what that painting is all about,” Lessing says. “Because Pollock did what he did, it really paved the road for a whole school of artists to take that same route and that really led to the Abstract Expressionist movement.” Like food or music, everyone has their own opinion of art and not everyone loves Pollock’s swirls and spatters of paint. Lessing says she’ll enjoy watching visitors see Mural for the first time.

“Some people are going to love it right off the bat. Other people will struggle and then maybe come to a space where they appreciate it. Some people will struggle and never really find that it sings to them,” Lessing says, “but those are all valid ways to engage with works of art.” The Stanley Museum of Art will reopen August 26th. The Pollock is among some 700 works of art in all media by more than 600 artists that will be on display.

https://stanleymuseum.uiowa.edu/

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa D-N-R is in the midst of its annual wild turkey count and is looking for some help. Wildlife Biologist, Jim Coffey, leads the survey, “We asked the general public if they do see wild turkeys to go to the Iowa D-N-R webpage under the turkey tab, and they can report that sightings. And that helps us get a good indication of the productivity for the for the summer,” Coffey says. He says the population has been pretty strong. “The last couple of years we’ve had good production. This year has been a little bit mixed with the with the early hatch — that seems to be down — but the second hatch seems to be up.” Coffey says. “And that’s usually a pretty good indicator in drought year conditions. We usually see pretty good nest success and drought years.”

You could see wild turkeys in a variety of places. “The first nest attempt is usually in some thicker covered has to be in the Woodlands,” he explains. “The last nest attempt will be out basically anywhere. But we tend to think in those areas like shrubs, raspberries, and plum thickets and things like that, it provides good overhead cover.” Coffey says the turkeys like that overhead cover to protect them from predators. You are most likely to see hens, which will gather together in groups to watch over the young birds. “The males do not care about the rest of them until springtime. So, you typically don’t see males with the with the hens this time of the year. But we do still count males in part of the survey — there is a section for that if people see males and male groups,” Coffey says.

Coffey says they typically see 50-thousand wild turkey licenses purchased each year — but most hunters never bag a bird. “That’s usually a surprise to people — we were pretty consistent with about a 22 percent success rate from year to year,” he says, “and I think people have kind of forgotten or we’ve gotten used to the fact that we think that everybody that buys a license should be successful. And that’s far from the truth. It is a hunt. It is challenging, and that’s what makes turkey hunting exciting. ”

Coffey says they consistently see from 11 to 12-thousand wild turkeys harvested in the springtime each year. He says they have a fall season, but it is not as popular among hunters. To learn more about wild turkey hunting or to report your turkey sighting, go to iowadnr.gov. The turkey survey lasts through August.

(Radio Iowa) – The 2022 Iowa State Fair starts Thursday. Gary Slater, the fair’s C-E-O and general manager, says the organization is still recovering financially from the cancellation of the 2020 fair due to the pandemic. “Certainly, we’re still in recovery mode, but we had a great fair last year, which really, really helped,” Slater says. The State Fair lost 13 million dollars when the event was cancelled in 2020, but qualified for an 11 million dollar “shuttered venues” grant from the federal government.

“You still have 450 acres to take care of,” Slater says. “You still have full-time employees.” Events are held at the fairgrounds in every month of the year and the Fair has nearly 60 year-round, full-time staff members. Attendance was down a bit during last year’s Iowa State Fair, but the 11-day run of the 2021 State Fair turned a 36 million dollar profit.

“It wasn’t maybe a record-setter like 2019 was, but it came back,” Slater says, “and so we’re not just in fair mode and we’re really working hard to give you a great State Fair in 2022.” Slater made his comments during an appearance this summer on “Iowa Press” on Iowa P-B-S. Slater has said Grandstand entertainment is key to drawing crowds and more than 10-thousand tickets have been sold for country star Carrie Underwood’s show on the final night of the fair.