(Radio Iowa) – Webster City will be invaded by the friends and fans of Doodlebugs for the annual celebration of the two-wheeled scooters that begins Wednesday at the Hamilton County Fairgrounds. Gerald Huisman of the Doodlebug Committee says they rumbled onto the scene in the 1940s. “Well, a doodlebug is a scooter that was designed and built in Webster City, a former Beam Manufacturing. Some people confuse that. Beam became Franklin manufacturing,” he says. “The Beam Manufacturing that made vacuum sweepers was another facility. They were made from 1946 to 1948.”

More than 40-thousand Doodlebugs were built in Webster City and approximately one-thousand are still running.  “It was originally built with a one-and-a-half horsepower Briggs and Stratton engine, and at the post-war time that Briggs and Stratton couldn’t supply enough engines, and so there were a series of them that were made with Clinton one-and-a-half horsepower engines as well,” Huisman says. 

This is the 38th annual Doodlebug Reunion in Webster City, and Huisman says one of the highlights of the celebration of the Doodlebug this year will be the dedication of a sculpture in the shape of a Doodlebug in downtown Webster City. “They’ve asked us to be part of the ribbon cutting, and it’s on Friday at three o’clock. I talked to our police chief here in town, and he is going to give us a police escort from the fairgrounds to the event. And that’ll become an honor…I’m only guessing we’ll have 40 to 50 doodlebugs riding down to see that sculpture,” Huisman says.

The Doodlebug Reunion runs through Saturday. There is more information about the reunion on the Doodlebug Facebook page or at www.wcdoodlebug.com.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate, a Republican, says Democrats have a long way to go to be competitive in Iowa when it comes to voter registrations. “Republicans are up almost 100,000 more Republicans since 2016,” Pate said. Pate discussed voter data during an appearance this weekend at a fundraiser for Republican Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks.

“For the first time in my adult life, Republicans outnumber the no-party as well as the Democrats,” Pate said. At the beginning of September, there were nearly 462-thousand “no party” or independent voters in Iowa compared to over 634-thousand active registered Republicans — that’s a difference of over 170-thousand. Pate, who has been Iowa’s top election official for the past seven years, says the number of active Democratic voters in Iowa is down about 85-thousand since 2016. “So when you hear their party chairman claiming they’re on a rebound, they’ve got a long ways to rebound,” Pate said.

Iowa Democratic Party chairwoman Rita Hart has said party registrations in the Democratic column has grown since Kamala Harris became the party’s presidential nominee. According to data on the secretary of state’s website, the number of active Democrats in Iowa grew by about 19-hundred from August 1st to the beginning of September. The number of registered independent or “no party” voters grew the most during the past month — by nearly 85-hundred.

(Radio Iowa) – A northwest Iowa police chief says there is no threat to the public, but a suspect has been identified in connection to the lockdowns in Sioux County schools late last week. Schools in the Sioux Center, Rock Valley, and Boyden-Hull school districts were placed on lockdown Thursday after a threat was found written on a bathroom wall at the Sioux Center High School.

In a phone interview, Sioux Center Police Chief Josh Koedam says that during the investigation, a juvenile was identified and detained. Koedam declined to give further details except to say the juvenile court system has been notified.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Economic Development Authority is awarding Habitat for Humanity more than 700-thousand dollars in tax credits to build an affordable housing project in the central Iowa town of Waukee.

Walnut Crossing will be the organization’s first townhome development in the Des Moines metro area. Lance Henning, C-E-O of Greater Des Moines Habitat for Humanity, says the new units will help fill a big gap in the suburban housing market. Henning says, “There just aren’t very many opportunities that are in a price point for a large portion of the population that works there and a large portion actually of folks that are trying to stay there and live there but are paying way too much for their housing right now.” The 48 units are still in the design phase, but will contain three to four bedrooms each.

And, like Habitat’s other homeownership plans, buyers must earn 80-percent or less of the area median income in order to qualify. Henning says there’s a high demand for affordable units in the Waukee area.  “We’re excited about the way this partnership is between the community and Habitat for Humanity,” Henning says. “It doesn’t answer all the housing challenges on there but it’s a great step in the right direction.”

Habitat For Humanity Townhome at Baldwin Court in Council Bluffs (Conceptual drawing)

Part of the incentives will come as tax benefits through a state program that supports housing projects on empty or dilapidated land. Construction is expected to start near the end of next year with the first set of units completed in early 2026.

(Dickinson County, Iowa/[KTIV]) – One person was injured during a weekend motorcycle accident in northern Iowa. Police in Milford were called to the scene of the crash at 28^th Street and Highway 71, at around 6:20-p.m., Saturday.

Authorities report an on-scene investigation determined 49-year-old Chad Banks of Milford, was driving south on a 2013 Harley Davidson when the bike left the road and rolled. Arriving officers performed CPR on Banks after he was found unresponsive. Banks was transported to the local hospital for initial treatment before being taken to a hospital in Sioux Falls for additional treatment of what were described as debilitating injuries.

The accident remained under investigation.

DES MOINES, Iowa — Congressman Zach Nunn, last week, introduced a bill that looks to beef up law enforcement resources around financial fraud scams. “Pig butchering” is a term that refers to a scam where bad actors target individuals, specifically older generations, to convince them to partake in an investment opportunity which does not exist. Just last year, the Iowa Attorney General’s Office received 13,000 financial fraud reports resulting in around $42.6 million in financial loss for Iowans. In 2023, authorities around the country seized $300 million in stolen funds stemming from these online scams.

The bill looks to help local and state law enforcement agencies utilize federal grant funding to alleviate some unsolved cases at the state level, as a lot of these crimes do not call for federal intervention. Nunn, a Republican who represents Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, said “I feel very confident, not only with bipartisan support, we are going to be bringing this up this month in committee. That gives us a clear shot to get this moved forward and start protecting seniors immediately, something we need and our law enforcement is desperately asking for.”

The bill is cosponsored by U.S. Representatives Josh Gottheimer (D) NJ-05 and Scott Fitzgerald (R) WI-05.

(Iowa News Service) – Iowa is getting federal help to eliminate lead water pipes in the state. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is working with local water agencies, planning where to prioritize funds. As part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, cities and towns in Iowa are reducing the number of dangerous lead water lines. The Iowa Environmental Council’s Director of Climate Initiatives Cody Smith said even homes built as recently as 1988 are connected to the local water utility with lead lines – which leaves people at risk, even in Iowa’s big cities like Des Moines and Council Bluffs.

“Particularly with the most vulnerable groups, such as unborn babies or young children, they have extreme and outsize risk related to exposure to lead through lead service lines,” said Smith. “That can cause higher levels of lead in the blood and lead to developmental issues for children.” The State’s Revolving Fund, which is the primary source for water infrastructure updates, has received more than $620 million as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The IEC says more than 700 communities have benefited so far.

Beyond replacing lead pipes and updating water system infrastructure, Smith said Iowa could also benefit from help with what are known as non-point source projects. “Which is runoff from agricultural fields and from livestock operations that lead to nutrient pollution in source water,” said Smith. “And source water is water that’s used for drinking water somewhere in the state.” Smith said those strategies can help farmers and local utilities reduce nitrates and other pollutants in the soil.

Inside a pipe, rusty with water (AI created Image)

The Biden administration has a goal of replacing all lead water service lines in the U.S. by 2031.