Jim Field speaks with the Narcanon Arrowhead Agency about drug abuse help resources and prevention.
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Jim Field speaks with the Narcanon Arrowhead Agency about drug abuse help resources and prevention.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (6.6MB)
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SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – A 24-year-old Texas man who wanted to release minks from Sioux City farm has been given five years in prison. Victor Vanorden had pleaded guilty to trying to release the minks and to attempted burglary. Court records say Vanorden’s two-year term on the burglary charge are to be served at the same time as the five years on the other charge. Vanorden also was ordered to pay nearly $8,800 in restitution to the farm’s owner.
Vanorden and a companion, 21-year-old Kellie Marshall, were found in a soybean field in October before they could release the animals. Officers found fences nearby that had been cut. Marshall has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled for trial on March 6th. Vanorden and Marshall are from Austin, Texas.
MINNETONKA, Minn. (AP) – Michael Foods, of Minnetonka, Minn., is recalling hard-cooked eggs in brine sold in 10- and 25-pound pails to food distributors and manufacturers for institutional use in 34 states, including: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Jersey, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin and West Virginia.
Jim Field and Chris Parks have the call of the games played Thursday, February 2nd at Griswold High School.
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An update on flood recovery efforts in western Iowa is on the agenda as the State Interagency Missouri River Authority meets today (Friday) in Des Moines. Chuck Gipp, deputy director of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, says the process of cleaning up all of the damage and rebuilding after last year’s summer-long flood is far from over. Gipp says, “It’s how you help people recover from that event is the biggest struggle that we have and also to see if there’s anything we can do to avoid a repeat of that in the future.” The authority makes recommendations on policies affecting the Missouri River.
Besides the DNR, groups involved include the state departments of Homeland Security and Agriculture as well as federal agencies, like FEMA and the U-S Army Corps of Engineers. Gipp says making repairs to the damaged floodwalls all along the river is a high priority. “The levees are an important part of that because people were accustomed to going behind the levees,” Gipp says. “They were told, initially, that what’s going to occur after the six major dam and reservoirs were built upstream. I guess that Mother Nature told us that you can maybe delay it but you can’t get rid of the flooding aspect.”
Gipp says much of the DNR’s role is to help state and federal agencies coordinate during the recovery process. “A lot of what we do, especially when it comes to levee issues, flood plain issues, is depending on the Corps and FEMA and the reimbursement for that,” Gipp says. “I think there’s a good coordination. Some of that was learned simply because of the experiences on the east side of the state in 2008.” He says the panel will also discuss current and potential hydrologist roles and responsibilities in the state.
(Matt Kelley/Radio Iowa)
Officials with the Cass County Conservation Board say the annual Great Backyard Bird Count will get underway in about two weeks.
The event is hosted by The National Audubon Society, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and Canadian partner Bird Studies Canada. The results provide a snapshot of the whereabouts of more than 600 bird species.
Anyone can participate in the free event and no registration is needed. All you need to do is watch and count birds for at least 15 minutes on any day of the count, from February 17th through the 20th, 2012. Enter your results at www.birdcount.org, where you can watch as the tallies grow across the continent. The four-day count typically records more than 10 million observations.
Acting Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services (FFAS) Michael Scuse says that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will conduct a four-week Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) general signup, beginning on March 12 and ending on April 6. CRP has a 25-year legacy of successfully protecting the nation’s natural resources through voluntary participation, while providing significant economic and environmental benefits to rural communities across the United States.
“It is USDA’s goal to ensure that we use CRP to address our most critical resource issues,” said Scuse. “CRP is an important program for protecting our most environmentally sensitive lands from erosion and sedimentation, and for ensuring the sustainability of our groundwater, lakes, rivers, ponds and streams. As always, we expect strong competition to enroll acres into CRP, and we urge interested producers to maximize their environmental benefits and to make cost-effective offers.”
CRP is a voluntary program available to agricultural producers to help them use environmentally sensitive land for conservation benefits. Producers enrolled in CRP plant long-term, resource-conserving covers to improve the quality of water, control soil erosion and develop wildlife habitat. In return, USDA provides participants with rental payments and cost-share assistance. Contract duration is between 10 and 15 years. Producers with expiring contracts and producers with environmentally sensitive land are encouraged to evaluate their options under CRP. Producers also are encouraged to look into CRP’s other enrollment opportunities offered on a continuous, non-competitive, signup basis.
Currently, about 30 million acres are enrolled in CRP; and contracts on an estimated 6.5 million acres will expire on Sept. 30, 2012. Offers for CRP contracts are ranked according to the Environmental Benefits Index (EBI). USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) collects data for each of the EBI factors based on the relative environmental benefits for the land offered. Each eligible offer is ranked in comparison
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