(Radio Iowa) – Cattle producers see hope in a new beef processing plant coming to southwest Iowa in 2023, as ranchers often complain about limited choices when it’s time to sell their beef cattle. A new company, Cattlemen’s Heritage, will build a facility on the Mills-Pottawattamie county line to process 15-hundred head of cattle per day. Iowa State University livestock economist Lee Schulz says another player in the packing industry means “tremendous opportunity” for Iowa producers. “Locally, that should really help competition for the cattle that are available,” Schulz says. “Cattle can only travel so far and so the largest impact is going to be to producers in that area.”

Four big meatpackers control most of the beef slaughter and farm groups say less market competition means lower prices for cattle. The new plant should help to change those dynamics and Schulz says it’ll have ripple effects across the region. He says, “If that’s the new demand there, the other plants are going to have to bid higher prices or go out further distances to find cattle to supply their plants.”

Schulz says it’s hard to say how much the new plant will affect prices because markets and production costs are constantly changing.

(by Katie Peikes, Iowa Public Radio)

(Atlantic, Iowa – 8:a.m.) – This past fourth of July weekend, there were numerous displays of fireworks across the City of Atlantic, some of them quite spectacular. Others were not so impressive, such as the City’s paid fireworks display July 4th near the Little League Complex across from KJAN. By most accounts, the display lasted less than 15-minutes. Mayor Dave Jones addressed the matter, and complaints about citizen displays infringing on the rights of their neighbors, during Wednesday’s meeting of the Atlantic City Council.

Jones said the Atlantic Volunteer Fire Department is NOT responsible for fireworks. J&M Displays is responsible. Fire Department personnel were simply on-hand in case something went wrong. With all the displays taking place around town, Councilman Dick Casady was a bit confused as to which display he saw had been sponsored by the City.

Councilperson Grace Garrett was among those who thought the City sponsored display was “pretty short.” Councilman Gerald Brink asked why the display the City paid for was so short. City Clerk Barb Barrick said they were expecting more than what they got. Fire Chief Tom Cappel, she said, concurred.

Brink said, “If it’s not adequate, we should do something to at least make the show decent.” Mayor Jones said the City should draft a letter to the company who was hired to shoot-off the fireworks expressing our disappointment, and have the Fire Chief send it to J&M Displays. Councilman Jim Behrens suggested there may have been an issue with the computer-controlled display. In years past, fireworks were set-off manually, he said, making the show seem longer. Computer controls can last as long as needed, but if there was an issue with the programming, it could have set them off in rapid fire, instead of a more normal pattern.

Behrens said at the Fire Department meeting Tuesday night, they discussed other issues that popped up the Sunday night at the Little League Complex, as well as matters pertaining to the Wild Willy’s Fireworks Demonstration event on June 12th. The issues boiled down to a lack of communication.

He said “Next year we need to take a deeper look into allowing somebody to shoot fireworks off on City property.” With regard to Parks and Rec Department personnel being on-hand Sunday night, Behrens said they apparently were not asked to be there.

The 8:05-a.m. broadcast News.

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Clarinda Police Chief Keith Brothers reports on Friday, July 2nd, at 11:00 p.m. officers of the Clarinda Police Department served a search warrant on the occupants at 515 S. 10th St., lot #11 at the Maplewood Trailer Court. Police confiscated approximately 60 grams of a substance believed to be methamphetamine, cash, packaging material, assorted drug paraphernalia and a 2013 Chevrolet Impala

Officers arrested Lonny Ray Brown, age 43, Terry Mark Brown, age 64, and Hannah Madeline McCormick, age 23, all of Clarinda. Each faces charges that include conspiracy to deliver methamphetamine, possession of methamphetamine, fail to have required drug tax stamps and unlawful gathering for the purpose of distributing and/or using controlled substances. The trio was transported to the Page County Jail and held without bond pending an initial appearance before a Page County Magistrate.

Reports have been forwarded to Page County Attorney’s Office for formal charging decisions.

The 7:07-a.m. broadcast News.

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The Atlantic Police Department says the Cass County Sheriff’s Office received reports at around 2-a.m. Monday (July 5), of a large number of cattle out in the area of Littlefield Road and 350th Street. While at the scene, a member of the Cass County Drone Team utilized the Sheriff’s Office equipment and assisted with the call. Over the course of two hours, a Cass County Drone with thermal imagining capabilities was used to locate and bring over 40 head of cattle back to the pasture where they belonged.

During the event, the pilot launched and landed multiple times and eventually found several groups of cattle that had broken off to different areas. The ability to use thermal imaging during the call, authorities say, proved to be invaluable in locating all of the cattle while working in the dark. The availability of the equipment also saved time and resources by speeding up the process of recovery.

The Drone Team consist of members of the Police Department, Sheriffs Office, and Atlantic Fire Department.

(Radio Iowa) – For the second time in a week, a teacher in the Marshalltown Community School District has been arrested on charges of sexual exploitation by a school employee. Adam Edgington turned himself in to Marshalltown Police on the charge yesterday. The 42-year-old English teacher at Miller Middle School is accused of starting a relationship with a 13-year-old student. Edgington was released pending a court appearance on Monday. A statement from the school district says Edgington has been placed on administrative leave. ]

This is the second arrest of a district employee on the charge of sexual exploitation in recent days. Marshalltown High School instructor Mark Esquivel was arrested on June 30th on the same class D felony.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is asking for your help in counting wild turkeys. Wildlife biologist, Jim Coffey coordinates the turkey tracking. “During the month of July and August, we look for the general public to report any turkey sightings that they see. What we are really looking for is a way to count this year’s production — so this year’s poults that are produced,” Coffey says. He says the wild turkey population changes dramatically after nesting. “They’ll have about ten to 12 eggs. Of that, about 95 percent of those eggs will hatch. So on day one, they could have ten poults — but as quickly as four weeks later they could be down to zero or five poults,” according to Coffey. “So half of those poults are expected to die in the first four weeks.”

He says the young birds must survive the weather and predators. Coffey says wild turkeys can be spotted across the state. He says they mainly live in the forest, but spend a lot of time in pastures and hayfields this time of year. “One of the main diets of the poults is bugs — so any place there is lots of bugs they are going to be moving around and feeding — eating that high-quality protein that makes them grow quickly. So you can expect to see turkeys all across the state of Iowa in all 99 counties,” he says.  If you do see wild turkeys, you are encouraged to visit the D-N-R website and report the sighting. He says you can go to the hunting tab and click on “turkeys.” There will be another tab where you can report the number of turkeys and the number of poults that you saw.

Coffey says wild turkey populations have seen a recent rebound. “We had pretty poor production two years ago, and then good production last year,” Coffey says. “We are kind of concerned about southeast Iowa — it tends to be the part of the state that has had the least production over the last ten years. But turkey numbers can fluctuate quite dramatically from year to year.”

Hunters annually take more than 14-thousand wild turkeys each year.

(Radio Iowa) – New vehicle registrations in Iowa are up 28 percent in the first six months of this year compared to the first half of last year when the pandemic hit. Bruce Anderson is president of the Iowa Automobile Dealers Association. “We’ve caught up and surpassed last year’s sales,” Anderson says. The number of vehicles sold in Iowa so far THIS year is 17 percent ABOVE the pre-pandemic level of vehicle sales in the first half of 2019. There are about 300 auto dealerships in Iowa and Anderson says showrooms have turned into empty dance floors and there’s no longer a sea of cars out in the lots. Anderson says it’s not entirely due to supply chain issues. “Manufacturing hasn’t stopped, but it has significantly slowed and, interestingly, demand hasn’t,” Anderson says.

Dealers are getting up to 70 percent of the vehicles they normally receive, according to Anderson. “Dealers are still getting inventory, but more and more of it is pre-sold,” Anderson says. “You can get a car. You can get a truck. There’s just not a lot to look at on the lot.” Because of supply and demand issues, there’s been a double-digit increase in the price of USED cars and trucks, too.  “Your trade has literally never been worth more and might be worth more than when you bought it,” Anderson says.

The pandemic has accelerated the move to online sales and customer service for Iowa car dealerships, according to Anderson. “Expectations have changed,” Anderson says. “Everyone of the 300 franchised new car dealerships in Iowa have got a website with a more robust virtual experience than ever before. We’re talking multiple photographs, detailed reports, even videos of the inventory before you ever take that test drive.”

About 86-hundred cars and more than 64-thousand pickups and S-U-Vs were sold in Iowa in the first six months of the year. Vehicles that Iowa dealers sold to out-of-state residents are not included in the data.

ALGONA, Iowa —  Officials with the Division of Criminal Investigation, Wednesday night, confirmed that a man and his two sons Monday, died in an apparent murder-suicide that took place in Algona.

Authorities received a 9-1-1 call at around 7:51-p.m. Monday, to the 400 block of South Harlan Street in Algona. When they arrived police found brothers, 6-year-old Logan Phelon, 3-year-old Seth Phelon and their father, 32-year-old Christopher Phelon. Following an investigation, the DCI said that Logan and Seth died as a result of gunshot wounds. Their deaths have been declared homicides.

Authorities said Phelon died from a gunshot wound and is considered a suicide. The Algona Police received assistance from the Kossuth County Sheriff’s Office, the Iowa State Patrol, Algona EMS, the Kossuth County Medical Examiner’s Office, the Kossuth County Attorney’s Office and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.

Christopher Phelon

Logan Phelon

Seth Phelon