(Radio Iowa) – An Iowa lawmaker is working on a bill that would give the owners or tenants on agricultural properties permission to capture or kill raccoons that are a nuisance. Representative Dean Fisher of Montour says raccoons have become a big problem. “The raccoon population has just expanded dramatically over the past few years,” Fisher says, “DNR’s got some data that indicates by 268%.” The hunting season for raccoons had been limited from November 5th through the end of January, but in December the Iowa Conservation Commission approved allowing raccoons to be trapped year round.

Fisher says trapping alone won’t fix the overpopulation problem because the market for raccoon pelts has collapsed. “And we can’t sell them to China and Russia anymore very easily,” Fisher says. “That market has kind of gone away due to the global issues, so nobody’s hunting them and they’re just an absolute nuisance to farmers and landowners out in the country.” Under current law, Iowans may only kill a raccoon that’s a direct threat to humans or livestock. Otherwise, Iowans must contact a licensed wildlife control business to trap raccoons that are a nuisance. Fisher says that’s just not workable.

“You cannot follow the DNR rules no matter what they say. You cannot call somebody at 10 o’clock at night. You’re just going to go shoot the sucker,” Fisher says. “There’s just practical realities here.” Fisher, who lives on a farm in Tama County, has some experience with raccoons. A few years ago, Fisher had a sweet corn patch that was attacked by marauding raccoons.  “The field was entirely stripped by raccoons,” Fisher says. “I mean I got one ear out of a 50-by-100 foot patch.” Fisher says he’s heard horror stories from farmers who’ve had raccoons destroy combines or eat all the feed for cattle and other livestock.

Raccoons will eat just about anything and can sometimes weigh up to 50 pounds. Raccoon are found in most every part of the United States, except for deserts. Raccoon fans say the animals are valuable to the ecosystem and control the population of wasps, which is beneficial to bees.

(Radio Iowa) – The Democratic National Committee has voted to eliminate Iowa from the list of states that will start the party’s 2024 presidential campaign. South Carolina is replacing Iowa as the lead-off state, followed by New Hampshire and Nevada, then Georgia and finally Michigan — a sequence President Biden recommended in December. Democratic National Committee chairman Jaime Harrison of South Carolina says these changes are long overdue.

“It expands the number of voices in the early window and it elevates diverse communities that are at the core of the Democratic Party,” Harrison said. Michigan Congresswoman Debbie Dingel drew cheers as she addressed national party leaders this weekend. “Here’s the reality: no one state should have the lock on going first,” Dingel said, to applause. The delay in announcing the results of the 2020 Iowa Caucuses due to a faulty smart phone app intensified criticism of the caucuses, after decades of being first in the nation. Leah Daughtry of New York, the former chief of staff of the Democratic Party, says Iowa law doesn’t give Iowa Democrats the divine right to defy party rules.

“We decided we wanted a calendar that will reflect who our party is now and not who our party was back then,” Daughtry said. Scott Brennan, a former Iowa Democratic Party chairman, is a member of the Democratic National Committee. He warned the committee that two of the states selected to be in the early group cannot hold their primaries on the dates national party leaders have set.

“We are creating a situation of continued uncertainty that will drag on throughout 2023,” Brennan said. “…We can approve this calendar, but we will leave here with absolutely nothing settled.” Iowa Democratic Party chairwoman Rita Hart says the party will move ahead with its new vote-by-mail plan for the 2024 Iowa Caucuses. “Iowa has been put in a position that makes it impossible to comply with both DNC rules and our own state law,” Hart said, “which has exactly zero chance of being changed by the Republican legislature.”

Hart emphasizes that Iowa Republicans will host Caucuses in 2024 that will kick off the G-O-P’s presidential campaign. “They feed the narrative that Democrats have turned their backs on Iowa and on rural America,” Hart said. “In the coming weeks, our state will be flooded with Republican hopefuls, spreading this damaging message to every corner of our state.”

This weekend, prominent Iowa Republicans began blasting that message via Twitter. Governor Kim Reynolds said President Biden was too afraid to face Iowa voters. The chairman of the Iowa Republican Party said Biden upended the 2024 campaign schedule for Democrats because of his poor showing in the Caucuses in 2008 and 2020.

(Rural Sumner, Iowa) – One person is dead and another was injured, during a collision Sunday afternoon in northeast Iowa’s Bremer County. The State Patrol reports the crash happened at around 3:10-p.m, in rural Sumner. Officials say a 2007 Lexus ES350 driven by 22-year-old Carter John Harris, of St. Cloud, FL., failed to yield at the stop sign for County Highway C-33 and County Highway V-56.

The car struck the driver’s side of a 2023 Hyundai Elantra, driven by 22-year-old Derrius Grey Taylor-Ly, of Altoona (IA). Both vehicles came to rest in a ditch northeast of the intersection. Both drivers were wearing seat belts, but Taylor-Ly died at the scene.

Harris was transported by Sumner EMS to a local hospital, for treatment of minor injuries. The crash remains under investigation,