(Radio Iowa) — Farmers who are being financially hurt by international trade disputes will be able to apply for a second round of payments from the federal government starting Monday. Unlike last year, row-crop farmers will get payments based on their county, not the specific crop they planted. Former Iowa ag secretary, now an undersecretary with the U-S-D-A, Bill Northey says checks will start going out next month. “Payments we expect to start mid- to late-August and will be made to three groups of folks,” Northey says. “We have the non-specialty crops, that county payment rate, specialty crops, and then to our dairy and hog producers.”

County rates reflect how much money the U-S-D-A calculated an area lost due to reduced exports and range from 15 to 150 dollars per acre. U-S Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue says the payments are meant to help, but won’t make anyone whole.  Perdue says, “President Trump understands that these are the people who are producing and they are the disproportionate bearers of the trade disruption.”

Pork and dairy farmers, and producers of specialty crops like fruits and nuts, will be paid separately. The U-S-D-A raised the amount a farmer can get from the payouts to 500-thousand dollars, if they’re eligible for payments in two or three categories. Perdue says it’s all in keeping with President Trump’s promise.”His administration’s not going to stand by while our productive farmers are treated unfairly by countries acting in bad faith,” Perdue says. “These are the men and women, year after year, who put their equity on the line, assume the financial risk, and every time, they plant a new crop and keep going.”

Iowa State University ag economist Chad Hart says the change from the 2018 payment program will eliminate complaints that soybeans got a much bigger payout than corn. “It’s still targeted by crop even though the crop does not directly factor into the mix of how big your payment is,” Hart says. Overall, the government plans to distribute more than 14-billion dollars in aid to farmers and ranchers through the Market Facilitation Program, or M-F-P. Sign-ups will be taken through December 6th.

More at farmers.gov/mfp
(Thanks to Amy Mayer at Iowa Public Radio, and Gina Cerrentano, KICD, Spencer)

A 19-year old woman who was struck by a pickup truck Friday night while crossing a street, has died. The Iowa State Patrol reports the woman was crossing Hubble Avenue at Tallgrass Parkway in Altoona, when she was struck by a 2002 Chevy pickup driven by 31-year old Andrew W. Reed, of Altoona. The accident happened at around 9:40-p.m., Friday.

Authorities say Reed had a green light at the intersection. The accident victim’s name was being withheld pending notification of family.

Three people were injured during a collision Friday afternoon on Interstate 80 in eastern Iowa, including two from western Iowa. The Iowa State Patrol reports a 2019 Kenworth semi tractor was traveling east on I-80 in Johnson County, and had slowed for traffic ahead that had stopped due to a previous accident. A 2000 Ford Windstar van also traveling eastbound on I-80, rear-ended the semi’s trailer. The crash occurred at around 2:35-p.m., Friday.

Following the collision, both vehicles came to rest in the lane of traffic. The Patrol said two of the crash victims, a 52-year old and a 16-year old in the van, were from Carroll. They were transported by ambulance to the University of Iowa Hospitals/Clinics in Iowa City, with the 52-year old flown by helicopter to the facility. The third victim was the 46-year old truck driver, from Baltimore, Maryland. He was transported by an Iowa DOT Enforcement Officer to the hospital. All three crash victims were wearing their seat belts.

Their names were being withheld, pending completion of the accident investigation.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CDT

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — An agricultural economist says the Trump administration’s decision to base new handouts to farmers hit by the trade war with China on how many acres they’ve planted might be a fairer way to distribute the cash. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced Thursday that the government will pay another $16 billion in aid to farmers affected by the president’s trade war with China. Scott Irwin, a University of Illinois agricultural economist says per acre payments are fairer than per bushel.

HAMBURG, Iowa (AP) — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Omaha, Nebraska, says repair work on a levee breach near Hamburg, Iowa, has been completed. The agency said in a news release Friday that the breach was one of four priority breaches to be closed in the wake of historic flooding along the Missouri River in March. The Corps says the work was completed Thursday after work began in early May.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The execution date for a notorious Iowa drug kingpin who killed witnesses and children in 1993 has been scheduled for Jan. 15. Dustin Honken is among five federal death row inmates whose execution dates were announced Thursday by the Justice Department. The announcement came as Attorney General Bill Barr directed federal capital punishment to resume for the first time in nearly two decades.

CLINTON, Iowa (AP) — Authorities in eastern Iowa say a kayaker has been rescued from the Mississippi River at a dam at Clinton. Television station KWQC reports that the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office was called Friday to Lock and Dam 13 for a water rescue. Officials with the Clinton Fire Department reported sometime before 3 p.m. Friday that a male kayaker had been safely rescued.

Officials with the Iowa Department of Public Health said Friday, preliminary data for 2019 indicate a continued increase in two of the most commonly reported conditions in Iowa, chlamydia and gonorrhea. For the period of January 1, 2019 through June 30, 2019, there were 7,730 cases of chlamydia reported to IDPH.

This represents a 9.6 percent increase from the same time period in 2018. Gonorrhea cases for this time period in 2019 are at 2,572. This represents a 14.6 percent increase compared to the same period in 2018.

IDPH encourages adherence to CDC screening and treatment guidelines to ensure that individuals who are infected are diagnosed and properly treated. https://www.cdc.gov/std/treatment/default.htm

(Radio Iowa) — New Jersey Senator Cory Booker says President Trump is “engaging in moral vandalism” — but Booker continues to warn Democrats to choose a 2020 presidential candidate who will do more than just beat Trump.  “We need a healer,” Booker said. “We need a coalition builder.” Booker told a crowd in Greenfield this (Friday) afternoon that tribalism is endangering the American experiment. “There is a civic gospel in this country that we need to start talking from,” Booker said, “because it’s what unites us.”

Booker made no mention of the signals he’s been sending that he’ll challenge former Vice President Joe Biden’s record in next week’s debate. Booker instead directed all his rhetorical hits at President Trump. “It bothers me that we have more animosity for each other in this country than we do for the Russians who are trying to undermine our democracy,” Booker said, to applause.”

Mary Williamson of Panora supported Bernie Sanders in 2016 and is looking for a new candidate for 2020. She has one criteria. “Any of them would be better than Trump, but we just have to look at whoever can win,” she said.

HAMBURG, Iowa (AP) — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Omaha, Nebraska, says repair work on a levee breach near Hamburg, Iowa, has been completed. The agency said in a news release Friday that the breach was one of four priority breaches to be closed in the wake of historic flooding along the Missouri River in March. The Corps says the work, which began in early May, was completed Thursday.

Newt Marine Service of Dubuque, Iowa, was awarded the $12 million contract for the repair work. The Corps says more than 500 miles of levees on the Missouri, Platte and Elkhorn rivers, as well as other tributaries, experienced significant flood damage this year.

The Atlantic Parks and Recreation Department reports an expert with the company providing playground equipment for the Schildberg Recreation Area is scheduled to be on the site next week. Volunteers are needed to help put the equipment together. Crews will be working on the west side of the park from 8-a.m. to 5-p.m., July 31st and August 1st. Lunch will be provided. You can work for any length of time you have available during those hours, on those two days. Just show up with your gloves and any tools you think might be helpful (wrenches, etc.).

Two arrests took place Thursday, in Mills County. The Sheriff’s Office reports 28-year old Erik Jeffrey White, of Papillion, NE., was arrested at around 11-p.m. on Highway 34. White was charged with OWI/ 1st offense, with bond set at $1,000.

And, at around 8:20-p.m. Thursday, Mills County Deputies arrested 35-year old Bradley Kenneth Porter, of Braddyville, on a Page County warrant for Harassment in the 1st Degree. Porter was being held without bond, in the Mills County Jail.

Page County Sheriff Lyle Palmer, today (Friday), advises it’s that time of the year where residents find door to door out-of-the-area sales / contractors knocking on their doors. Palmer says also, “This is a reminder that you should ALWAYS check with the better business bureau or similar agencies PRIOR to agreeing to or signing any contracts with these people.”

He adds, “Make sure the work is EXACTLY what you believe it will be. Every year residents have work done by these traveling persons / companies and don’t get the work, or quality of work that they think they will get. Once these people / companies have completed the work and are gone,” he says “it is almost impossible to recoup any losses for services performed or not performed. In the past false identifications / company names have been used.”

The Sheriff stresses once again, to “ask for references and check them out. Do not fall for pressure sales because they are usually too good to be true.”