(Radio Iowa)  – Hundreds of Iowa hunters will hit the fields this holiday weekend for the start of the rabbit and squirrel seasons. Nate Carr, an Iowa D-N-R conservation officer for Hamilton and Hardin counties, says the weather should be ideal.
“Rabbit and squirrel season are going to open up this Saturday,” Carr says. “The two things you’re going to need for that is pretty basic, your typical hunting license, and habitat fee are what’s required for those. For rabbit, shooting hours are sunrise to sunset, you can take up to 10 per day, and then for squirrel, your daily bag limit is six.”

Iowa’s rabbit season runs through February 28th, while the squirrel season will end on January 25th. Carr says this Sunday will also kick off the hunting season for mourning doves.”That’ll run from September 1st all the way through November 29th. Your daily limit for doves is going to be 15 birds,” Carr says. “Just like rabbit and squirrel, make sure you have your hunting license and habitat fee, but also, like any migratory bird, you’re going to need to be registered through HIP or have your HIP registration.”

HIP is the Harvest Information Program, for which you can sign up at IowaDNR-dot-gov. Sunday also marks the start of the teal hunting season, which runs through September 16th.

(Glenwood, Iowa) – The Glenwood Police Department reports the arrest today (Friday), of 41-year-old Ralph Cleveland, from Council Bluffs. Cleveland was arrested on an Omaha, NE, warrant. He was being held without bond in the Mills County Jail.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird is working on a constitutional amendment that would make clear children do not have to testify in person — in a courtroom — against their alleged abuser. In June, the Iowa Supreme Court overturned the conviction of a man who argued it was unconstitutional for two children to testify against him via a live video link that was shown in the courtroom. “Iowa is the only state that has found that and so I am working in my office to draft a constitutional amendment to solve this problem,” Bird says, “because we have to protect children.”

Four Iowa Supreme Court justices joined the majority opinion that says remote testimony from children in abuse cases violates a defendant’s right to confront their accuser in court. Bird says while she respects the opinion as an officer of the court, the attorney general’s office argued the confrontation clause in the constitution does not require an in-court appearance by a child abuse victim. “They’re kids. It would be hard for them to testify in court about something good that had happened,” Bird says, “much less something really bad and awful that has happened.” Bird, a former county attorney, prosecuted cases involving child sex abuse victims. “I would advise child victims and also adult victims of crime that they did not have to look at the defendant. They are there as a witness,” Bird says, “…but these kids and other victims are often really scared to be there.”

The process of proposing amendments to Iowa’s constitution is long and 2027 is the earliest an amendment on this topic could be presented to voters for ratification. The Iowa Supreme Court’s ruling requiring in-the-courtroom testimony from children is likely to spark appeals from adults who’ve been convicted of child abuse or assault. An Illinois LAW passed in 2023 gives Illinois judges the discretion to let children under 13 testify outside the courtroom when warranted. Last year Colorado’s Supreme Court ruled prosecutors may use outside-the-courtroom testimony from older children.

(Des Moines, IA) – The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), today (Friday) said “Through the Safe Haven Law, a baby girl, born July 30 is now in the care and custody of the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, and will be placed with foster families until permanent placement is determined.”

Officials say that brings the overall total to 71 infants since the law went into effect more than two decades ago.  This is the fifth case so far in 2024. In 2023, ten infants were relinquished to HHS custody under the Safe Haven Act.

Iowa’s Safe Haven Act is an option for parents in crisis who determine they cannot care for an infant up to 90 days old. Designated safe havens are locations like hospitals, police and fire stations, etc. Iowa HHS then works to place infants in in approved foster homes while awaiting permanent adoption.

If you are interested in becoming a foster parent or adopting a child, visit https://iowafosterandadoption.org/ to learn more about becoming an approved foster or adoptive family. For more information on Iowa’s Safe Haven, visit https://hhs.iowa.gov/programs/CPS/safe-haven.

ALTOONA, Iowa — [KCCI] – Friday (Today) is the last day of production at the Smithfield meat processing facility in Altoona. The company announced this summer that the ham boning facility at 612 Adventureland Drive NE, would close and 314 workers would be laid off. According to Iowa WARN, a state-run log of notices of layoffs, 319 employees will be affected.

Smithfield’s Altoona production is expected to be consolidated at locations in Monmouth, Illinois; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; and Crete, Nebraska. The company said the move will help improve the efficiency of manufacturing. A news release from Smithfield said the company would provide transition assistance to the Altoona employees, “including severance, financial incentives to assure business continuity and potential employment opportunities with Smithfield.”

UFCW photo

Iowa Workforce also provided help to the workers, including a job fair in July.

(Radio Iowa) – A school district in northern Iowa is finding success in recruiting mental health professionals to practice within its school buildings. Darwin Lehmann, Ssuperintendent of the  Forest City Community Schools, says they’ve made adjustments and discovered if students can’t get to the counselors, they’ll bring the counselors to the students.  “We partner with a number of local organizations to bring mental health into our building,” Lehmann says. “We found this out in the recession, that families had to make decisions. If they’re unable to take off work and get kids over to appointments, we allow entities to have space in our schools to provide appointments for kids.”

Lehmann says he encourages teacher involvement, and offers training in how to recognize potential mental health issues.  “We’ve got more guidance counselors than most schools of our size,” Lehmann says. “We have pre-K-2, 3-5, 6-9, and 10-12 guidance counselors, and a couple of them have some specific training in mental health.”

Recent studies find 90-percent Iowa’s counties have a shortage of mental health care professionals, and the state ranks 46th in the nation for psychologists per capita.

Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack isn’t ruling out another stint as U-S Agriculture Secretary if Kamala Harris wins and asks him to continue in the role. “I’ve dedicated my life to try to figure out ways in which I can help farmers and small towns because of the important role they play in the country,” Vilsack said. “Regardless of where I might be or what I might be doing, I hope that I’m able to continue to contribute in that vein because that’s what I’ve done for the last 40 years and that’s what I hope to be able to continue to do until I take my last breath.”

Vilsack served eight years as U-S Ag Secretary during the Obama Administration and has been President Biden’s Secretary of Agriculture since 2021. The nation’s longest serving Ag Secretary was from Iowa. “Tama Jim” Wilson, a farmer from Traer who served in the Iowa legislature and the U-S congress, was ag secretary for 16 years, during the administrations of Presidents McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt and Taft. Vilsack, who is 74, was elected mayor of Mount Pleasant in 1987, then served in the state senate before he was elected to two terms as Iowa’s governor.

Vilsack spoke with reporters yesterday (Thursday) at the Farm Progress Show in Boone. Vilsack indicated he would not comment on Governor Reynolds’ request for a waiver from a U-S-D-A program, so she can provide state-purchased food to needy families with kids next summer. The U-S-D-A program provides electronic benefits cards to families during the summer months if a child in the household qualifies for a free or reduced price lunch during the school year. “I want the state to have the opportunity to have their waiver request examined,” Vilsack said, “so I don’t want to make a comment about it while it’s being considered.”

The governors of 43 states have signed up for the U-S-D-A program for the summer of 2025. He says research shows it’s the most successful way to make sure youngsters have appropriate nutrition in the summer months. “It was not something that we just cooked up in the back room. It was something that is based on 10 years of research and that research basically indicated when you provide the resources to the families, those resources will be used by the families in the most appropriate way,” Vilsack said, “and that they will be used to actually purchase nutritious offerings to their children.”

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds says the state will be able to provide more food, by making bulk purchases of nutritious food.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Atlantic School Board, during their work session, Wednesday, discussed the size of educational and extracurricular activity classrooms and programs. Superintendent Dr. Beth Johnsen said the district’s Kindergarten classrooms have one-or two that are at 25 students per class. Another has 22, and a few more are coming in, meaning those are large classes. Second-grade has a full class with 25 students. Dr. Johnsen said they are hoping to find someone to fill one of the Kindergarten classroom teaching positions.

Johnsen said Middle School Principal Casey Pelzer has some classes that have anywhere from 25-to nearly 30 students, “which are large class sizes, again,” she said. School Board member Laura McLean said not all of the district’s classes and grades are “massively overcrowded.”

Board President Kristy Pellett said it’s not an anomaly to have spikes in classroom sizes, and they’ve come up with ways to handle it in years past. Dr. Johnsen said when more bodies are packed into a classroom, the “style of learning changes.”

While no action was taken on class size during the Atlantic School Board’s work session, Board Policy says the Board is granted “Exclusive authority to decide the size of classes and determine the necessity of class grouping.” It is the superintendent’s responsibility to recommend class sizes to the Board, taking into account the district’s financial status, the qualifications and number of licensed employees, and other, relevant factors for the Board’s consideration.

With regard to extracurricular/advanced (elective) activities, Dr. Johnsen said asked the Board if a minimum number should be set for class-size, or to sustain a sports program, or should the program be put on hold until the numbers are up? Kristy Pellett responded to Board member Gini Jordan’s question “Doesn’t the sport kind of dictate the number that you need?”

She said “It’s really hard to have a student committed to start a sports season, have other kids drop out, and especially if the have the opportunity for individual competition, to tell that student you’re taking that opportunity away.” Board member Josh McLaren said that scenario a tough pill for him to swallow.

The Board agreed with Superintendent Johnsen, that there needs to be more discussion and a larger assessment and policy review, of academic and athletic programs, to determine what level of participation is best for student learning and enrichment.