This year marks the 50th anniversary of an eastern Iowa camp that serves thousands of Iowans of all ages with special needs, Camp Courageous in Monticello. To benefit the non-profit camp, executive director Charlie Becker says he’s parting with one of his prized possessions: a bright red 1971 Volkswagen van. “In honor of Camp Courageous’ 50th anniversary, we donated that to the camp,” Becker says. “It’s a 50-year van given to a 50-year camp to be raffled off.”

The van has a long history and was recently trucked back to Iowa from California for a new paint job and a complete overhaul, inside and out. Becker says the V-W has 87-thousand original miles. “It’s in beautiful condition,” Becker says. “The person that had it before me used to drive it every day to work and it is in pretty close to mint condition.” The raffle will be held in December and tickets are 100-dollars each. Becker says when the camp first opened in 1972, it only was able to serve 211 Iowa campers. “Right before the pandemic, we were right up just short of 10,000 campers,” Becker says. “We were breaking all the records and then the pandemic hit so we were still serving campers, but in a whole different way.”

Last year, about 38-hundred Iowa campers were served in various ways, and last month, a group of them visited Walt Disney World in Florida. The V-W will be on display at the camp and at some events this summer. For details on the raffle, visit: www.campcourageous.org.

(Radio Iowa) – Weather experts are still studying the powerful derecho that hit Iowa two months ago and they’ve determined the wind storm spawned a record number of tornadoes in several categories. Rod Donavon, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Johnston, says that single storm spun off more than five-dozen twisters, a startling number, especially in one day. “We have verified 63 tornadoes across Iowa for the December 15th event, which is actually a daily record of tornadoes for Iowa,” Donavon says. “We’ve been doing a lot of work, checking out anywhere anybody’s had damage. We even used high-resolution satellite data to help track down all of these tornadoes.”

One person in eastern Iowa was killed in the December 15th storms, which caused extensive damage in multiple Iowa counties. Donavon says there’s an unusual coincidence with the two previous dates for single-day tornado records in Iowa. “Number-two was actually August 31st of 2014 when we had 35 (tornadoes) and I’ll add into that number-three was April 11th of 2001 when we had 28,” Donavon says. “When you combine the previous top two, that actually equals 63, which is the number we had on December 15th.”

Not only did December 15th set a single day record for tornadoes in Iowa, it set a record for the most tornadoes in a month.”Our previous multi record was 57 from back in May of 2004,” he says. “So it even eclipsed the monthly record.” The December 15th storm set yet another record for the highest number of E-F-2 tornadoes in a single day — at 21. The storm was the second derecho to hit Iowa in recent years. The first tore across the state on August 10th of 2020.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Congressman Randy Feenstra says Congress needs to work towards a balanced budget to get the nation’s economy back on track, but the 4th district Republican says that is proving difficult: “You have to have what we have in Iowa — a 99 percent spending limit — and yet the Democrats, they want to add another three to five Trillion dollars to our debt, even adding more cash to the system,” Feenstra says. “And that’s what boggles my mind. Who are their economists? Who thinks this is right? Even the Federal Reserve…are saying this is not the right way to do this.”

Feenstra says the talk of the federal reserve raising interest rates won’t fix the problem. He says we have traditionally kicked up interest rates when there is inflation — but he says that also kicks up the interest rate on our Trillions of dollars in debt. “So all of a sudden you create a debt spiral — and that’s why we are in such a serious situation right now in our country,” he says. The Republican from Hull says there is no leadership being shown by President Biden or majority democrats to address the nation’s inflation: “Everybody is just asleep at the wheel right now when we’ve got these big issues. And we’ve got to have strong leadership — but that’s not what’s happening right now,” Feenstra says.

He says it’s frustrating being in the minority party in Congress where it’s tough to get any movement on possible solutions to the economic problems facing the country.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – The latest data released by the Iowa Department of Public Health shows COVID-19 numbers are moving in the right direction. The IDPH website, Monday, reported 13,744 positive virus tests in the last 7 days, down from 16,643 on Friday. The state’s 14-day test positivity rate dropped from 18.9% to 17%.

The number of patients hospitalized with the virus continues to drop as well. There are currently 638 patients hospitalized with the virus, down from 741 on Friday. Of those hospitalized, 55% had a primary COVID-19 diagnosis, while the remaining 45% were hospitalized for another reason but tested positive for the virus.

State data shows 54.6% of those hospitalized with COVID-19 are unvaccinated, while 66.7% of those listed in critical condition with the virus are unvaccinated. Long-term care facility outbreaks have decreased for the first time in several weeks. There are currently 112 Iowa care facilities reporting an outbreak, down from 115 on Friday.

(Radio Iowa) – A Spirit Lake man is now facing a murder charge following a shooting last week in Milford. The charge against 25-year-old Christian Goyne-Yarns was upgraded to first-degree murder this morning after Shelby Woizeschke died of her injuries over the weekend at a Sioux Falls hospital.

Goyne-Yarns is accused of shooting Woizeschke multiple times Thursday morning in the parking lot of GrapeTree Medical Staffing in Milford. She called 911 and told police he was the shooter and he was arrested less than an hour later in Spirit Lake. Goyne-Yarns is scheduled for a preliminary hearing next Monday according to online court documents.

Bond was originally set at half a million dollars on Friday, but that was doubled at the request of the Dickinson County Attorney as the charge was upgraded.

(Radio Iowa) – It’s the dead of winter and Iowans are driving much less, especially compared to summertime, but gasoline prices are defying the basic lessons of economic by rising, even though demand is falling. Meredith Mitts, spokeswoman for Triple-A-Iowa, says crude oil prices are setting the bar. “In the last couple of weeks, we’ve seen an increase in total stocks and a decrease in demand which typically puts downward pressure on those pump prices,” Mitts says, “but because we are seeing these rising crude oil prices, the pump prices continue to go up.”

Part of the reason for the higher prices is rising concerns over the potential for war overseas. “This time of year is usually a time that we would see a little bit of those lower prices at the pump but it will depend a little bit on that tension between Russia and Ukraine,” Mitts says. “That’s a major contributor to these oil prices, so it will depend on any sanctions that come out of that and how those conversations go.”

The average price for a gallon of gas in Iowa is three-23, which is up eight cents a gallon in the past week and it’s up 18-cents in the past month. A year ago, gas in Iowa was averaging two-36, almost a dollar less. The national average is now three-44. Across Iowa, the cheapest gas is three-19 a gallon in both Iowa City and Davenport, while the most expensive gas is in Dubuque at three-32.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Atlantic City Council will hold a Special Session beginning at 5:30-p.m. on Wednesday, in the Council’s Chambers at City Hall. According to City Administrator John Lund, the Council will act on an “Order to Enter into Closed Session,” to ” Discuss Strategy with Counsel in Matters that are Presently in Litigation or where Litigation is Imminent where its Disclosure Would be Likely to Prejudice or Disadvantage the Position of the Governmental Body in that Litigation.”

(Radio Iowa) – Democrat State Representative Art Staed of Cedar Rapids is trying again on legislation to establish an immediate moratorium on the expansion of factory farming in the state. He talked about it today (Monday) in an online call with reporters. “My bill will help stymie corporate ag’s predatory growth in our state, confront our water quality crisis, and rectify the unfair treatment of contract growers,” Staed says. This year marks the fifth that Iowa legislators and advocates have collaborated to try and pass the bill.

Staed admits with the House controlled by Republicans, it won’t be easy to get it going. “In the House they’ve ignored this in the past. We’ll see what happens this year,” he says. “We’ve had difficulty getting any Republican signatures to be honest — but we do have quite a few House members who are interested in it.” He would like to just see it get a hearing in the House. “There are legislators in both parties who are very interested in doing something about this, taking action,” according to Staed, “for whatever reason aren’t willing to come forward at this time until they see greater movement or at least a subcommittee hearing where we can have the public involved and others come and speak.”

Staed says there are more than 10-thousand factory farms with anywhere from 300-500 new facilities added to the state each year.

(Lewis, Iowa) – Officials with the Wallace Foundation for Rural Research and Development have announced the 30^th Annual meeting for the Foundation takes place March 3rd, at the Armstrong Research Farm, near Lewis**. The meeting is open to the public, and there is no fee to attend. The event begins with registration at 9-a.m., followed by a Welcome from Foundation President Mark Bentley.

This year’s speakers will include Mark Licht an Iowa State University Assistant Professor and Extension Cropping System Specialist in the Dept of Agronomy, who will be speaking on the Recent Cropping Systems Research in Southwest Iowa. His extension, research and teaching program is focused on how to holistically manage Iowa cropping systems to achieve productivity, profitability and environmental goals. His research is centered around varied aspects of soybean, corn and cover crop management. 

The second speaker is Tim Christensen, ISU Farm Management Specialist. He is currently serving 13 counties in Southwest Iowa working with the public on farm rental agreements, farm transitions, farm bill, grain marketing, and any other farm management issues that arise. Tim will be speaking on Iowa Land Values review and 2022 Cost of Production Increases.

A complimentary lunch at 11:30-a.m.will follow those guest speakers, with the Wallace Foundation’s Membership Annual Business meeting at 12:30-p.m.

**The Armstrong Research Farm is located approximately 12 miles southwest of Atlantic on Highway 6, south on 525th Street, and then east on Hitchcock Avenue.