Jim Field visits with Kylie Peterson, Director of Marketing for the Iowa Beef Industry Council about the Hot Beef Sundae Virtual Cooking Contest.
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Jim Field visits with Kylie Peterson, Director of Marketing for the Iowa Beef Industry Council about the Hot Beef Sundae Virtual Cooking Contest.
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The 7:20-a.m. Sportscast with Jim Field.
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The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.
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(Radio Iowa) – The annual roadside survey for small game animals starts this week as staff with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources drive routes across the state, looking for a variety of critters. Iowa D-N-R wildlife biologist Todd Bogenschutz says they’ll be seeking pheasants, quail, Hungarian partridge, jackrabbits and cottontails. Bogenshutz says he’s particularly optimistic about the pheasant population. “Last year, the counts were down a bit. We had a tougher winter and it was a wetter spring,” Bogenschutz says. “Coming into this year, we had a fairly mild winter which means we probably had fairly decent hen survival through the winter.”
Bogenschutz says the year ahead may be particularly promising for hunters, especially when compared to 2019. “Spring was cool but it was also one of the driest in almost ten years, that’s usually a good sign in talking about our nesting wildlife,” he says. “A lot of folks are excited about what we’re going to see in the count. Everybody’s expecting things to be up.” Bogenschutz says the work of the counters in the survey should not be impacted by COVID-19 as they’re staff members, not volunteers, and they’ll be driving their routes themselves. He anticipates a busy fall hunting season. “I know our fishing license sales are up and our spring turkey hunting license sales were up,” he says. “I think it’s just because of the COVID thing. A lot of people aren’t working so outdoor recreation is one of the ways they fill the void and maybe that’ll continue this fall.”
The results of the roadside survey will be released by early September. The count started in Iowa in the 1930s.
(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa chapter of the Sierra Club is calling for a climate adaptation plan and other policies to overhaul the state’s agricultural economy. The group calls for changes to make farming more environmentally sustainable while still being profitable. Chapter director Pam Mackey-Taylor says to create a climate adaptation plan, they want farmers, state officials, consumers and environmentalists to meet and address key questions. “How do you sustain farm incomes in the future?” Mackey-Taylor says. “What kinds of things do we need to do to adapt? and how do we make sure that agriculture remains a part of our economy for the future?” Mackey-Taylor says the state could invest economic development dollars in small meat processors and in creating new markets so farmers can expand beyond the standard two-crop rotation.
The chapter is also backing the national organization in distancing itself from founder John Muir. In recent weeks, Muir’s ties to eugenics and white supremacy have prompted the nation’s oldest environmental organization to call for a reckoning with its founders and past attitudes. Mackey-Taylor says many people and groups are reconsidering their actions and language around race. Mackey-Taylor says, “It makes sense for Sierra Club to do that close look and to mend the hurts and the harms that we’ve done and to move forward after that.” Across the country, the environmental movement is confronting its lack of diversity as some of the few activists and staffers who are not white have quit or called for organizational overhauls.
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The Planned Parenthood affiliate that includes Iowa issued a statement last week denouncing what it called the “problematic positions” of the organization’s founder. The group said Margaret Sanger’s advocacy of racist ideas was wrong and repugnant.
(By Amy Mayer, Iowa Public Radio)
(UPDATE 10-a.m., 7/28/20) – The State’s Coronavirus dashboard today (Tuesday) shows 253 additional positive, confirmed cases of COVID-19 over the past 24-hour reporting period, and seven more deaths from the virus. IDPH reported 3,327 individuals tested Monday, with a 7.2% positivity rate. There have been 458,738 Iowans tested for the virus. One of 7 Iowans have been tested and one of 74 have tested positive.
The IDPH says 414,286 Iowans have tested Negative; 30,476 have recovered from the virus, and 836 have died. Hospitalization data show: 253 are hospitalized across the State from COVID-19 (an increase of 12 from yesterday); 75 patients are in an ICU (3 less than Monday); 30 were admitted to a hospital since Monday’s report, and 31 people were on a ventilator.
Hospitals in western/southwest Iowa report: 2 more hospitalizations from COVID-19, for a total of 13; Four more are in an ICU, for a total of nine; two people with virus symptoms were admitted to the hospital since Monday, and one person remains on a ventilator.
Long-Term Care facility (LTC) data show 21 outbreak (One less than yesterday), 651 staff/patients have tested positive for COVID-19, 213 have recovered, and 455 have died (7 more than reported on Monday).
IDPH Dashboard, current County Positive case counts, and the number of reported recoveries ( )
One person was injured during a single-vehicle, rollover accident Monday morning, in Montgomery County. Authorities say 67-year old Michael K. Reynolds was driving a 2011 Dodge Ram 3500 pickup pulling a trailer, when the trailer began to sway as he was traveling west on 110th Street. The swaying action caused the pickup to leave the road and rollover. The accident happened at around 7:30-a.m., west of Pilot Grove Park.
Reynolds was extricated from the pickup and flown to Nebraska Medicine, in Omaha, for treatment of serious injuries. Red Oak Fire and Rescue, Grant Fire, Elliott Fire and Villisca Fire all assisted at the scene.
Red Oak Police have arrested a woman on a Felony Theft charge. 41-year old Heidi Ann Divis, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 6:20-p.m., Monday in the 400 block of E. Corning Street, for Theft in the 2nd Degree. Divis was transported to the Montgomery County Jail and held on a $5,000 bond.
(Radio Iowa) – Officials are asking Iowans who’ve gotten a mysterious package from overseas to call the Iowa Department of Agriculture. The packages are coming from China and other countries and often indicate the contents are jewelry, but small packets of seeds are inside. Robin Pruisner is the seed control official at the Iowa Department of Agriculture.
“There are no labels, so we don’t know what the seed is,” Pruisner says. “…We don’t know if they have any potential to transmit any seed-borne diseases and, in some cases, it appears they’ve been treated with a pesticide. But again, it’s unlabeled and so treated with exactly what?” Pruisner says she and plant health officials in other states are waiting for U-S-D-A guidance on how to properly dispose of these seeds.
“Do not plant them. Don’t open them. Just kind of hang onto them, but do give us a call and let us know you have them so we can put you on our list,” Pruisner says, “and then once we have direction from USDA, we can make contact and pick up those seeds.” The goal is to ensure some plant disease, unwanted genetic trait or noxious weed doesn’t get introduced in the United States. Pruisner says she’s hearing from a lot of home gardeners as well as people who have never ordered seeds before who’ve gotten these packets. Investigators suspect this COULD be something called a “brushing” scheme.
“You have people who will gather just enough personal identification on you to develop an account for you on a website and then they will send something to you,” Pruisner says. “…With that fake account, they’ve got you down as a verified buyer.” The scammers then use your name on positive reviews posted online to tout the sale of other products.
Here is the latest Mid-America sports news from The Associated Press
DETROIT (AP) — Maikel Franco hit two of Kansas City’s six home runs, and the Royals pounded the Tigers 14-6, spoiling Detroit’s fan-free home opener. Whit Merrifield had three hits and three RBIs, finishing a triple shy of the cycle on a night when the Royals rallied from an early 5-1 deficit. Foster Griffin won in relief, but he also had to leave his major league debut with a left forearm strain. Detroit’s Michael Fulmer allowed three homers in his first start back from Tommy John surgery.
Anthony Rizzo homered for the third time, and the Chicago Cubs held on for an 8-7 victory over a Cincinnati Reds team coping with coronavirus uncertainty. Jeremy Jeffress escaped a bases-loaded threat in the ninth for his first save with the Cubs. Wade Miley failed to make it through the second inning of his Reds debut. Rizzo scored three times as the Cubs won for the third time in four games. The Reds dropped to 1-3, a disappointing start after their $165 million offseason makeover.
Tyler Chatwood pitched three-hit ball over six innings, Willson Contreras homered and the Chicago Cubs beat the Milwaukee Brewers 9-1 to take two of three in their opening series. Chatwood gave the Cubs just the sort of outing they were looking for after working mostly out of the bullpen last season. He struck out eight and walked two in an impressive start for a pitcher who struggled with his control his first two years in Chicago. Contreras smacked an RBI double in the Cubs’ four-run fourth and a long solo homer in the seventh.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Nobody really had any idea what training camp would like look until the NFL and its players’ union came to an agreement late last week. The deal dramatically altered the collective bargaining agreement to ensure football will be played in the age of the coronavirus. Andy Reid might well have been the first one with a plan when the details were finally decided. The coach of the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs has always been a stickler for planning. That could come in handy when the pandemic is forcing plans to change almost daily.
Minnesota Vikings vice president of sports medicine Eric Sugarman has tested positive for COVID-19. Sugarman is in charge of the organization’s virus prevention plan as the infection control officer. The team announced that Sugarman and his family tested positive over the weekend. The Vikings said they’ve tested all individuals who’d recently been in close contact with Sugarman.