United Group Insurance

First Whitney Bank & Trust Donates $2.5 Million to Vision Atlantic’s Transformative Project

News

July 11th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Officials with Vision Atlantic report First Whitney Bank & Trust is leading donation efforts for Vision Atlantic’s transformative project, by donating  $2.5 million towards efforts to bring a housing development, new childcare center, and YMCA expansion to Atlantic. Vision Atlantic President Christina Bateman said “We are so grateful to First Whitney Bank & Trust’s incredible support of this project from the beginning. They stepped up before we even knew if this project could happen, and their remarkable donation got this project out of the “idea” stage and into reality. We’re blessed to have them in our community and look forward to seeing their gift being felt for generations to come.” First Whitney Bank & Trust has been a supporter of the project since the beginning and were the first individuals to pledge monetary support to the project.

Paul Gude, President and CEO of First Whitney Bank said “This project changes the conversation on the future of Atlantic from surviving to thriving. Whitney Bank has been a leader in community development, and we see first-hand the needs of our community. We jumped at the chance to be a big part of this life-changing project. It is my hope that we can make Atlantic the jewel of Western Iowa for generations to come.”

Vision Atlantic, through extensive research and surveying of the community and surrounding region, identified three areas that will help increase Atlantic’s population: expanded childcare, quality housing and quality of life amenities. Bid letting for land infrastructure will begin late this summer, with construction of all three projects slated to begin late spring of 2025.

With substantial monetary support from the Charles E. Lakin Foundation and local donors, $16.4 million has been raised in the past six months, over 50% of a $30 million goal. Vision Atlantic’s Project Committee is actively working to secure the remaining $14 million needed to meet the fundraising goal. If you are interested in helping transform Atlantic, whether it’s through monetary donations or acts of volunteerism, please contact Vision Atlantic at visionatlanticiowa@gmail.com. You can also follow Vision Atlantic on Facebook, for behind-the-scenes access to project updates.

Vision Atlantic is a 501(c)(3) non-profit whose mission is to empower growth, enhance lives, and build a thriving community together through the economic development of Atlantic, Iowa.

Audubon fined for excessive wastewater pollution

Ag/Outdoor, News

July 11th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Ames, Iowa)  – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources says the City of Audubon has agreed to pay an $8,000 fine for repeatedly expelling too much ammonia nitrogen in its wastewater that flows to the East Nishnabotna River. The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports, according to a recent DNR order, Audubon violated its ammonia limits in nearly every month of 2021 and 2022 and in several months of 2023.

Elevated levels of ammonia can be toxic to fish and other aquatic life and can deplete oxygen in water. The city has said its pollution woes were the result of large amounts of contaminants from a truck stop that pipes its wastewater to the city’s treatment facility. Waspy’s Truck Stop opened about six years ago and has a truck wash that is used to clean the insides of animal trailers. That debris was believed to be the source of the excessive ammonia levels in Audubon’s treated wastewater. The DNR also fined Waspy’s $8,000 this year and said it had violated its pollutant limits — for ammonia nitrogen, waste solids, oil and grease — more than 500 times.

The truck stop has installed barriers to collect the manure and help prevent it from being discharged to the treatment facility. Audubon’s public works director was not immediately available to comment for this article, but he has said the situation was improving. The DNR order noted that Audubon was warned multiple times that it was exceeding its contaminant limits but that it failed to expeditiously remedy the problem.

Wastewater from Audubon flows into a creek that goes to the East Nishnabotna River. (Photo by Jared Strong/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

Treated wastewater from the city flows through a creek to the East Nishnabotna, which was polluted downstream in March by a large fertilizer spill near Red Oak. The spill killed nearly all the fish and other aquatic life in about 60 miles of the East Nishnabotna and Nishnabotna rivers.

Bird files court brief defending Arkansas ban on school indoctrination

News

July 11th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Des Moines, Iowa -via the Iowa Capital Dispatch) – Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird has filed a brief in federal court on behalf of 14 states defending an Arkansas law that prevents “indoctrination in K-12 schools.” A federal district court ruled the state could not prevent two teachers from discussing the ideas of critical race theory – a primarily collegiate academic theory that asserts racism was embedded in the nation’s institutions upon its founding – in class. The ruling did not outright block the state from enforcing the law.

The teachers, as well as two students who sued alongside the teachers, asserted that the law’s vague definition of critical race theory forced teachers to self-censor over fears of violating state law. The state appealed the district court decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit which is where Bird filed her brief, which is co-signed by the attorneys general for Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and West Virginia. “If allowed to stand, the district court’s decision threatens to wreak havoc on States’ ability to determine what is taught in their schools,” the brief reads.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird speaking to reporters during a news conference in her Des Moines office. (RI file photo)

At the heart of the attorneys general disagreement with the previous ruling is the court’s interpretation of Pratt v. Independent School District where a student successfully challenged a school board banning a film that it religiously and ideologically opposed. Bird and others argue the First Amendment is designed to prevent the government from censoring others and not itself, but that rulings like the one in the Pratt case force the government to self-censor. “If the government is speaking, the public does not have a First Amendment right to control the message. If a private citizen is speaking, the First Amendment prevents the government from controlling the message,” the brief reads. The Pratt decision was also the justification used by a Des Moines judge to block an Iowa book ban as being “staggeringly broad.”

Bird said the Arkansas law prevents schools from indoctrinating students. “As a mom, I know how important it is that we create a healthy culture for our kids to learn and grow,” Bird said in a press release. “And most schools and teachers do an amazing job at that. But when education turns into indoctrination, parents have a right to push back.”

The entire brief can be read here.

Iowa AG Brenna Bird files brief opposing ‘persecution’ of Trump

News

July 11th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Des Moines, Iowa) – The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, Wednesday, filed an amicus brief calling for the U.S. Supreme Court to take up Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s challenge of former President Donald Trump’s prosecution in the New York hush-money trial. Bailey, a Missouri Republican, filed a lawsuit earlier in July against the state of New York, seeking to lift the gag order imposed on Trump during the trial where he was found guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush-money payments during the 2016 presidential campaign season. The lawsuit seeks to delay sentencing for Trump’s conviction in the case until after the November election, where the former president faces a rematch with President Joe Biden.

While Trump was found guilty in the New York criminal trial, the Supreme Court ruled in July that U.S. presidents have full immunity from criminal charges for official “core constitutional” acts while in office, but not for unofficial acts. The decision sent Trump’s election interference case, where he stands accused of scheming to overturn the 2020 presidential results, back to the lower courts. The Missouri lawsuit, filed one day after the ruling on presidential immunity, claims the state of New York violated Missourians’ First Amendment rights by issuing a gag order in Trump’s criminal case and preventing voters from hearing the views of a presidential candidate in the 2024 election.

Bird and Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody filed a brief supporting the Missouri lawsuit on Wednesday. Joined by Alaska and Montana, the state attorneys general argued that Trump is the “target of a prosecution by a New York County district attorney” in the hush-money case. In a news release, Bird claimed New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, has used the trial for political gain, citing a New York Times article on his statements about Trump.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird was in New York for Trump’s trial earlier this year. (file photo/Radio Iowa)

“As a prosecutor, I know that politics has no place in criminal prosecutions,” Bird said. “I am calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case against New York’s political prosecution, gag order, and sentencing of President Trump that interfere with the presidential election. We must protect free and fair elections and the rule of law.”

The sentencing in the New York case has been delayed until Sept. 18 by New York Justice Juan Merchan, who oversaw the case, so the court has time to hear arguments about how the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision impacts state-level convictions.

Former Jasper County official faces felony theft & forgery charges

News

July 11th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

NEWTON, Iowa [KCCI-TV] — A former office coordinator for a Jasper County Community Development Department is facing felony theft and forgery charges for allegedly writing checks worth thousands of dollars to herself over the last year. KCCI says, according to the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office, 31-year-old Shelby Hobbs was arrested Wednesday, after the conclusion of an investigation into misused county funds.

Court documents allege that, since August 2023, Hobbs wrote a total of 42 checks to herself from county accounts, totaling $17,458,41. All of the checks were either cashed or deposited into Hobbs’ personal bank account. Hobbs allegedly admitted the thefts to investigators.

She’s been charged with one count of first-degree theft, a Class C felony; and 11 counts of forgery, a Class D felony. An initial appearance was held Wednesday morning and Hobbs was released from jail on her own recognizance. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 22.

Authorities in Polk County identify child victim of a car crash

News

July 11th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

ANKENY, Iowa [KCCI-TV] — The Polk County Sheriff’s Office has identified a child who died in a head-on crash, Sunday. Authorities previously said a two-vehicle crash was reported at about 1:30 p.m. Sunday on Northwest Fisher Lane, just north of the entrance to Cottonwood Recreation Area near Saylorville Lake. Each vehicle was occupied by two people.

The occupants of the northbound vehicle — the driver and a juvenile passenger — were both transported to an area hospital where the child, identified Wednesday as 10-year-old Maxwell Harry Amenson of Polk City, died. Amenson was going to be a fourth grader this fall at Big Creek Elementary School.

The driver and passenger of the southbound vehicle were treated for minor injuries at the scene and released.

Council Bluffs church affected by sinkhole formation

News

July 11th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — [KETV, Omaha] – A Council Bluffs neighborhood is dealing with a sinkhole. KETV reports the city and church are working together to figure out how it gave way, bringing down a brick wall and shifting foundation by several feet in some spots. A city spokesperson says high groundwater associated with flooding from the Missouri River could be to blame, forcing the church to reorganize.

Pastor Joseph Hall said a drain collapsed last month, forcing a water main to burst, shifting the foundation and compromising half of the building. Prolonged gushing from the water main rupture cost the church one of its five buildings, now believed to be a total loss, and pushing more groups into the four other buildings on campus that was used as a youth building and other purposes.

A city spokesperson said high groundwater associated with flooding from the Missouri River may be to blame, but that there’s still more to figure out as the city and church work together.

Permanent pause on plans for regional airport near Oskaloosa

News

July 11th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – After 14 years of legal wrangling, plans for a 30 MILLION dollar regional airport between Pella and Oskaloosa are officially paused. In 2012, elected officials in Pella, Oskaloosa and Mahaska County signed an agreement creating the South Central Regional Airport Agency to build and operate an airport in rural Mahaska County. Landowners at the site objected and filed a lawsuit. Mahaska County Supervisors who took office in 2017 tried to get the county out of the deal and there was a lawsuit over that.

In June of 2022, the Iowa Supreme Court unanimously ruled the agreement was unconstitutional. Last week, the Regional Airport Agency’s board notified the cities they cannot acquire the remaining property necessary for the airport, but will continue to own and lease the land purchased for the project.

Governor to announce new program related to disaster recovery

News

July 11th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Reynolds is scheduled to hold a news conference at the Iowa Capitol late this (Thursday) morning. According to a media advisory, she will be announcing new state programs available to Iowans. On Wednesday afternoon, Reynolds touring three northwest Iowa cities hit by severe flooding last month. After a stop in Rock Valley, Reynolds told reporters she’s making lists of unmet needs, like housing. Reynolds said public infrastructure is still a major concern. Reynolds also visited Spencer and Sioux Rapids.

Posted County Grain Prices 7/11/2024

Ag/Outdoor

July 11th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

  • Cass County: Corn $3.90 Beans $11.11
  • Adair County: Corn $3.87 Beans $11.14
  • Adams County: Corn $3.87 Beans $11.10
  • Audubon County: Corn $3.89 Beans $11.13
  • East Pottawattamie County: Corn $3.94 Beans $11.11
  • Guthrie County: Corn $3.93 Beans $11.15
  • Montgomery County: Corn $3.93 Beans $11.13
  • Shelby County: Corn $3.94 Beans $11.11

Oats: $2.93 (same in all counties)