March 21, 2024 (Des Moines, Iowa) — The Iowa Tourism Office presented 24 awards recognizing excellence in the tourism industry during the 2024 Iowa Tourism Conference in Des Moines this week. State Tourism Manager Amy Zeigler says “These awards recognize the hard work and dedication of our tourism industry partners and the appeal of Iowa as a destination. We look forward to building on the positive momentum for continued success in 2024.”

Awards, divided into metro and rural distinctions, were made in 13 categories. In addition, conference attendees voted for the People’s Choice Award; nominees were the second-highest scoring nominations.

The complete list of 2024 Iowa Tourism Award recipients (*=area awards):

Outstanding Attraction

• Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center, Sioux City (Metro)*
• Mt. Crescent Ski Area, Honey Creek (Rural)*

Outstanding Community

• Cedar Rapids (Metro)
• Jefferson (Rural)

Outstanding Dining Business

• 7 Hills Brewing Company, Dubuque (Metro)
• The Centennial, Jefferson (Rural)

Outstanding Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Initiative: Catch Des Moines (Metro)

Outstanding Event

• Des Moines Arts Festival (Metro)
• Tri-State Rodeo, Fort Madison (Rural)

Outstanding Individual Leader: Diane Van Wyngarden, Oskaloosa (Metro)

Outstanding Lodging Property

• DoubleTree by Hilton Cedar Rapids Convention Center, Cedar Rapids (Metro)
• Corning Hotel LLC, Corning (Rural)*

Outstanding Marketing Collaboration

• Council Bluffs Convention and Visitors Bureau (Metro)*
• Emerge Marketing Solutions, Manning (Rural)*

Outstanding Niche Market Initiative

• Council Bluffs Convention and Visitors Bureau (Metro)*
• Pocahontas Chamber of Commerce (Rural)

Outstanding Promotional Material

• Cedar Rapids Tourism (Metro)
• Fayette County Economic Development & Tourism (Rural)

Outstanding Retail Experience

• Modern Dress, Boone (Metro)
• Harvestville Farm, Donnellson (Rural)

Outstanding Social Media Execution

• Catch Des Moines (Metro)
• Emerge Marketing Solutions, Manning (Rural)*

Outstanding Website: Visit Pella (Metro)

People’s Choice Award: Grow Cedar Valley

The Iowa Tourism Office, part of the Iowa Economic Development Authority, works closely with community partners, attractions and events, to promote the state’s beautifully vast scenery and unique history. Tourism in Iowa generated $6.9 billion in expenditures in 2022, with more than $1.1 billion supporting state and local governments, while employing a total of 68,607 people statewide. For more information on everything Iowa has to offer tourists, visit traveliowa.com.

(Radio Iowa) — The Iowa House has been in a holding pattern today (Thursday), waiting for the public release of the latest plan to change the operations of Iowa’s nine Area Education Agencies. House Republicans passed their first plan in February. Republicans in the Senate approved their alternative Monday and House Republicans have another proposal in the works. The public normally gets at least 24 hours to review proposed legislation, but House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst says Democrats have been told this latest plan is a lengthy amendment — and it will come up for votes within hours.

“You can’t tell me this is for Iowans,” Konfrst said. “You can’t tell me this is for Iowa kids. This is for the governor, This is for politics and it shows me ho they work for.” In January, Governor Reynolds said test scores among Iowa students with disabilities are behind other states. She’s called for an overhaul of the A-E-As. which have staff that travel to schools to help students with disabilities. “This is Republicans fighting with each other in a way that’s politics pure and simple and Iowa kids are the ones being left behind,” Konfrst said.

Melissa Seitz, a spokesperson for House Republicans, says Democrats know the concepts in this latest plan have been debated on the House and Senate floor and Iowans have been able to weigh in on these pieces of policy for weeks. She says House Republicans have worked hard to take feedback from the AEAs, superintendents and parents to resolve this topic — and move on to the rest of the priorities for the 2024 legislative session.

(Radio Iowa) – Officials with a rural healthcare center in northern Iowa are rethinking their care strategies post-COVID. The Belmond Healthcare Clinic turns increasingly to forms of remote care to better serve its three-thousand patients, whether through video, over the phone, or online, but some insurance providers don’t recognize tele-health as covered care. The clinic’s business development coordinator Robyn Hardman says that leaves the nonprofit clinic fronting the costs.

“There are a lot of times where you’re trying to serve your patients and give them that remote access, and at times we’re having to cover the cost of that because the insurance payers haven’t caught up,” Hardman says. “We’re not getting paid for these services, but it’s patients who critically need it.” Hardman says rural hospitals could struggle to maintain that consistent care if tele-health continues to go uncovered.

“There is definitely technology ahead of what is covered by insurance at this time, for sure,” she says. “Balancing that for other hospitals who don’t have additional funds will be challenging in the future.” Nearly 70 percent of the Belmond clinic’s patients utilize some form of remote healthcare.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Cass County Auditor’s Office reports Phyllis Stakey, of Massena, has filed her nomination papers for the Cass County Board of Supervisors in District 5. Stakey is running on the Democratic ticket in the June Primary.

The filing period for persons wishing to run for County Offices ends at 5-p.m. Friday, March 22nd.

As previously mentioned, the following Republicans have also filed their nomination papers (Name/Office/date filed):

Kathy Somers, of Atlantic – County Auditor (March 4th) – Incumbent

John Westering, of Atlantic – County Sheriff (March 4th)

Bernard Pettinger, of Anita – Supervisor/District 5 (March 6th) – Incumbent

Stephen S. Green, of Atlantic  – Supervisor/District 1 (March 13th) – Incumbent

Steve Baier, of Griswold – Supervisor/District 4 (March 19th) – Incumbent

(Clarinda, Iowa) – The Page County Sheriff’s Office, today (Thursday), issued a report on arrests that took place between March 5th and 15th.

3/5/2024 Mark Duane Harvey (64) of Shenandoah Iowa. Booked into the Page County Jail to serve time
3/5/2024 Derek Jason Ellis (50) of Tarkio Missouri. Booked into the Page County Jail for ongoing criminal conduct, theft and dependant adult abuse.
3/7/2024 Andrew William Berner (53) of Omaha Nebraska. Booked into the Page County Jail for forgery and theft
3/8/2024 Sean Dylan Watson (28) of Clarinda Iowa. Booked into the Page County Jail for theft
3/8/2024 Paige Jamie Ruthe Vincent (34) of Clarinda Iowa. Booked into the Page County Jail to serve time.
3/8/2024 Dustin Eugene Kalkas (42) of Shenandoah Iowa. Booked into the Page County Jail to serve time.
3/8/2024 Jordan Allen Mick (30) of Shenandoah Iowa. Booked into the Page County Jail for public intoxication and interference with official acts.
3/8/2024 Clinton Keith Glasgo (47) of Essex Iowa. Booked into the Page County Jail for probation violation. Arrested by the Page County Sheriff’s Office at the Mills County Jail.
3/8/2024 Andrew Stephen Oneal (35) of Clearmont Missouri. Booked into the Page County Jail for OWI
3/9/2024 Alex Jeremy Hansen (39) of New Market Iowa. Booked into the Page County Jail for criminal mischief, burglary, driving while suspended, eluding, theft and reckless driving.
3/11/2024 Clinton Keith Glasgo (47) of Essex Iowa. Booked into the Page County Jail for an active warrant out of Mills County Iowa for failure to appear. Arrested by the Page County Sheriff’s Office at the Page County Jail.
3/11/2024 Joslyn Renea Dale (25), and 19-year-old Thomas Gabriel Uhl, both of Yorktown, were booked into the Page County Jail for possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.
3/11/2024 Shaun Michael Webber (35) of Shenandoah Iowa. Booked into the Page County Jail for violation of a no contact order.
3/11/2024 George Daniel Ellison (33) of Braddyville Iowa. Booked into the Page County Jail for violation of probation. Arrested by the Page County Sheriff’s Office.
3/12/2024 Jeremy Lynn Martin (46) of Clarinda Iowa. Booked into the Page County Jail for malicious prosecution. Arrested by the Page County Sheriff’s Office.
3/14/2024 Clinton Keith Glasgo (47) of Essex Iowa. Booked into the Page County Jail for violation of probation. Arrested by the Page County Sheriff’s Office at the Page County Jail.
3/15/2024 James Linly Moses (65) of Shambaugh Iowa. Booked into the Page County Jail for driving while suspended. Arrested by the Page County Sheriff’s Office.

A charge is merely an accusation and that the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Senate has passed a bill that would let the leaders of Iowa’s community colleges would meet every fall to decide how state funding will be distributed among the 15 institutions. Senator Tim Kraayenbrink, a Republican of Fort Dodge, says the presidents and chancellors asked to get rid of the distribution formula that’s set in state law. “A hundred percent of the presidents in our community agreed to this change,” Kraayenbrink said. “I think it’s 100% of anyone to agree on anything when it comes to funding for their institutions, so I thought that was fairly impressive.” Kraayenbrink says while the legislature this year approved a general level of funding that equals about 35-hundreds of dollars per student, the money is distributed differently due to the formula.

“That distribution between all of our community colleges come in somewhere between 75% of that $3500 and 170% of that $3500 for some of our schools,” Kraayenbrink says. Senator Claire Celsi, a Democrat from Des Moines, was the only senator to oppose the plan.  “This bill would essentially allow a backroom meeting for community colleges to decide their own funding,” Celsi says.

If the bill becomes law, at least 10 of the 15 community college chief executives would have to agree by October 31st on how state funding in the following academic year would be distributed. If the community college leaders can’t agree, officials in the Iowa Department of Educaion would make the decision. This plan will have to get House approve and be signed into law by the governor before it could take effect.

(Radio Iowa) – The numbers from February show a slight drop in the state’s unemployment rate. Iowa Workforce Development spokesman Jesse Dougherty. “The unemployment rate reached two-point-nine percent (2.9%). So that’s an improvement from the three percent (3%) we saw in the first month of the year,” he says. “And with that, there were fewer Iowans who reported that they were unemployed.  The number of people in the labor force did drop around 39-hundred for February. “In looking at the data, that the vast majority of those who did leave were 16 to 24. And the majority of reason they left was for school or taking classes,” Dougherty says. “And that’s a trend that tends to trickle in, in January and February. ”

He says employers reported 11-thousand new jobs in February.  “There were several main areas accommodation and food services, that’s eating and drinking establishments, led the way with 44-hundred. We saw both education and health care add jobs, just over a thousand jobs each. We also saw construction at 11-hundred jobs as constructions going really strong, as well as a couple of other areas,” Dougherty says.

There have been some recent layoffs announced, including around 13-hundred workers at the Tyson plant in Perry. Dougherty says the impact of the Perry layoffs won’t be know for awhile as they are set for June. He says the Perry layoffs and others are a concern, but he says they are not believe to be a negative overall indicator. “You know, from what we understand right now, we think those are more about specific challenges facing certain industries, and not a widespread economic issue across Iowa,” He says. “You know it’s evidence in last month’s report, and we also saw, if you look at prior to January, which had a drop in retail coming out of the holiday, we also had beyond that there was several months of job growth overall. So we think based on that trend, you know, we’re not seeing any major issues of concern for those employers and those industries.”

The U-S unemployment rate increased to three-point-nine percent (3.9%) in February.