After climbing back to the .500 mark in Big Ten play the Iowa Hawkeyes are on the road tomorrow to play 12th ranked Illinois. The Illini are 10-5 in the league race after giving up a late lead in a loss at Penn State.
That’s Iowa coach Fran McCaffery. The Hawkeyes and Illini will meet twice in the final four games of the regular season.
Iowa is 8-8 in the Big Ten and 16-11 overall.
(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Supreme Court has ruled in the first review of whether state lawmakers have immunity when it comes to releasing information on their discussions. The League of Latin American Citizens of Iowa (LULAC) served subpoenas on several legislators seeking copies of communications they had related to changes in the state voting law. LULAC wants the information for its lawsuit that claims the changes were unconstitutional and meant to discriminate against some voters.
Lawmakers argued they are protected by a legislative privilege under the Iowa Constitution. The Iowa Supreme Court says an individual legislator’s intent is not relevant to LULAC’s claims at this point in the case.
The state Judicial Building.
The Supreme Court says legislators do have a privilege to not reveal the information in this case, but stop short of saying the legislative privilege is absolute.
(Atlantic, Iowa) – Officials with SWIPCO (the Southwest Iowa Planning Council), report five new members have been added to the SWIPCO/SWITA team.
Holly Jackson
Gina Gentile
Brandie McFarland
Amy Jones
Adam Kisner
DES MOINES, Iowa — The 81st birthday of a famous battleship bearing the state’s name was celebrated today (Friday) at the Iowa statehouse with a first-of-its-kind honor.
The award was presented Thursday to Jeff Lamberti, a former state lawmaker. It’s called the USS Iowa Lamberti Service Award, meant to promote ideals of service, preservation of history, and love of Iowa.
Jeff Lamberti
In 2007, Lamberti spearheaded efforts to save the USS Iowa. He helped secure donors and galvanized lawmakers to spend money on continuing its legacy. Lamberti is the owner and president of the indoor football team Iowa Barnstormers.
The USS Iowa, which is now a museum in Los Angeles, is the city’s fourth most visited museum, according to pacificbattleship.com.
USS Iowa (BB-61) port-side view (Pacificbattleship.com)
(Iowa Capital Dispatch) – Iowa’s long-running drought has eased since a month ago but is still by far the worst it’s been leading into the growing season in the past three years, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. The area of the state that is suffering from extreme drought — the second-worst classification of the Drought Monitor — is about half what it was in December but still encompasses a vast area of northeast Iowa. That includes some or all of more than two dozen counties.
About three-quarters of the state has some measure of drought. The exceptions are a wide area of northwest Iowa and parts of far southern and far eastern Iowa. Drought conditions have persisted in the state since July 2020 — the longest stretch since the 1950s, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. The dryness peaked in September 2023.
Many Iowa rivers have very low flow, according to U.S. Geological Survey data. In Osceola, residents have been urged to conserve water as the town’s water supply — West Lake — has dwindled. But the city reported early this month that the lake’s level had stabilized.
The area of extreme drought in Iowa has shrunk considerably in the past month. (Courtesy of U.S. Drought Monitor)
DES MOINES, Iowa [KCCI] — Year-round sales of E15 at the gas pump are delayed until 2025. The EPA published its order Thursday. It follows a request from eight Midwest governors, including Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, to expand sales of the higher ethanol blend beginning this summer.
E15 is currently restricted in the warmer months over smog concerns. The biofuel industry says those concerns are unfounded. Governor Reynolds says she’s not giving up her fight to permit sales this summer and says she is pursuing a waiver.
(Radio Iowa)- The governor has proclaimed this (Friday) as the Day of Kindness in Iowa, as residents are encouraged to intentionally do something nice for someone, even if it’s a small act. Kara Matheson, a vice president at the West Des Moines Chamber of Commerce, says they launched this project a few years ago as a way to make a positive impact on the community and it’s grown into a statewide event. The chamber’s holding what it’s calling the Socks of Love campaign. “We call upon the community, businesses, schools, families, and everyone in between to come out to the West Des Moines Chamber and bring any amount of new socks that they would like to donate,” Matheson says, “and then we are going to pass them along to West Des Moines Human Services to be distributed from there.”
While most Iowans can’t make the drive to West Des Moines today to donate socks, they -can- hop online and make a donation of as little as ten dollars to have several pairs of socks delivered to the effort. Last year was the debut year for the socks campaign. “We were hoping for around 100 pairs of socks in our first year, and the community really showed up and we actually ended up with 865 pairs of socks,” Matheson says, “which was incredible.” Matheson is hoping people will take this day to heart and try to do something more than pay for the hot beverage of the person behind you in the drive-through lane.
Several members of the West Des Moines Chamber with the 2023 haul of socks
“The sole purpose of Day of Kindness is to encourage the public to do any simple act of kindness,” Matheson says. “You hear of those Pay It Forward lines at coffee, but any act, even writing a kind note, giving a nice compliment to a stranger, these little acts of kindness truly go a long ways.” She says studies show acts of kindness benefit not only the receiver, but also the giver.
(Creston, Iowa) – Creston Police report the arrest at around 9:30-p.m. Thursday, of 28-year-old Chelsey Mae Madison, of Creston. Madison was taken into custody at the Creston/Union County Law Enforcement Center on a charge of Operating While Under the Influence1st offense. She was taken to the Union County Jail and later posted a $1,000 cash or approved surety bond, before being released.
(Omaha/Valley, NE) – The National Weather Service in Omaha says the warm weather we’ve been experiencing the past few days in southeastern Nebraska and Southwestern Iowa, is here to stay through the weekend. The Weather Service said also, a “Very high fire danger will persist for the next few days.”
In the Hazardous Weather Outlook issued by the NWS in Des Moines, officials said dry and breezy conditions will lead to potential very high fire danger conditions in at least a portion of the area each day. The highest potential may be in southeast Nebraska on Monday, where some areas may see extreme fire danger.
The Iowa Department of Public Safety reports only Harrison County in our listening area, has a Burn Ban in place. That order was issued in late September, 2023, and remains in effect until further notice.
Montgomery County EMA photo (2-21-24)
Montgomery County EMA photo (2-21-24)
Red Oak FD Facebook photo 2-22-24
Red Oak FD Facebook photo 2-22-24
Red Oak FD Facebook photo 2-22-24
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