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Coalition sees future of Iowa agriculture in food diversity, not ethanol and animal feed

Ag/Outdoor, News

July 2nd, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Des Moines, Iowa) – Iowa Food System Coalition representatives, Monday, announced a new plan for Iowa agriculture seeks to increase the state’s production of food rather than ethanol and animal feed. The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports he plan, known as Setting the Table for All Iowans, outlines the coalition’s policy goals which include producing more locally grown food, getting more young people to become farmers and providing more financial assistance to farmers. Chris Schwartz, executive director of the coalition, said the plan is an opportunity to positively impact farmers, the economy and the local community.

From left to right, Chris Schwartz, Giselle Bruskewitz, Tommy Hexter and Aaron Lehman speak July 1, 2024 outside the Iowa Capitol about a coalition called Setting the Table for All Iowans. (Photo by Jack O’Connor/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

Director of Grinnell Farm to Table food hub Tommy Hexter said many commodity farmers are struggling because most of the profits are going toward the middlemen like seed, equipment and marketing companies. However, Hexter said selling produce locally cuts out most middlemen and leads to more money going into farmers’ pockets. “Setting the Table for All Iowans provides an opportunity to build that system where Iowa’s farmers and small business owners can truly thrive,” Hexter said in the press conference.

The plan also focuses on how to retain and attract farming talent to Iowa through investments in obtaining refrigerated trucks, increasing the number of rural grocery stores and providing needed equipment to small businesses. President of the Iowa Farmers Union Aaron Lehman, a fifth-generation family farmer, said investments like those are vital for the Iowa agriculture industry where there are more farmers above the age of 65 than below the age of 35.

Over the past two years, the Iowa Food System Coalition has organized a Food and Farm Day at the Iowa Capitol and invited legislators and state agencies to a food policy summit. One of the next steps for the coalition is to educate legislators about the plan so it can be used as a guide to create state policies, Schwartz said.

Smithfield Closing Altoona Plant

Ag/Outdoor, News

July 2nd, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – Smithfield Foods announced it is closing its Altoona ham boning facility to consolidate production volume at other locations in Illinois, South Dakota and Nebraska to improve the company’s efficiency. The Altoona plant has 314 employees and the company says it will meet with them to provide additional details about the transition plan, severance pay, and potential employment opportunities with Smithfield. Smithfield employs nearly four-thousand people in Iowa at its farms and its food-processing facilities in Carroll, Denison, Des Moines, Mason City, Orange City, Sioux Center and Sioux City.

High School Baseball Scores from Monday

Sports

July 2nd, 2024 by Asa Lucas

Hawkeye Ten 

Denison-Schleswig 3, Harris-Lake Park 2
St. Albert 11, Atlantic 0
St. Albert 18, Atlantic 0
Harlan 4, Sioux City East 3
Kuemper Catholic 7, Tri-Center 4
Shenandoah 10, Lenox 8
Glenwood 8, Lewis Central 2

Western Iowa Conference

Riverside 10, Ar-We-Va 0
Martensdale-St Marys 14, Audubon 4

Rolling Valley Conference

Bishop Garrigan 8, Coon Rapids-Bayard 4
Greene County 3, Glidden-Ralston 1

Corner Conference 

Southwest Valley 10, Sidney 0
West Monona 4, Fremont-Mills 2
Bedford 11, East Mills 7

West Central Activities Conference 

Remsen St. Marys 7, Earlham 2
Remsen St. Marys 10, Earlham 0
#2 Des Moines Christian 19, ACGC 0
#2 Des Moines Christian 12, ACGC 2
Pleasantville 6, Grinnell 3

High School Softball Scores from Monday

Sports

July 2nd, 2024 by Asa Lucas

Hawkeye Ten 

Kuemper Catholic 11, Red Oak 0
Kuemper Catholic 12, Red Oak 2
Denison-Schleswig 9, Greene County 2
Glenwood 9, Council Bluffs Lincoln 0
Shenandoah 3, Lenox 1
Atlantic 13, St. Albert 1
Council Bluffs Jefferson 6, Lewis Central 3

Western Iowa Conference

Fremont-Mills 7, Underwood 6
#1 Martensdale-St Marys 9, #4 Audubon 4
#1 Van Meter 10, #15 Missouri Valley 0

Rolling Valley Conference

Coon Rapids-Bayard 5, East Sac County 1
#7 West Monona 9, Woodbine 2
AHSTW 2, CAM 0

Corner Conference 

Bedford 16, East Mills 0
Southwest Valley 14, Sidney 0

West Central Activities Conference 

South Hardin 5, Madrid 3
Pleasantville 8, North Mahaska 7

Iowa State forward Milan Momcilovic talks summer workouts

Sports

July 2nd, 2024 by Ric Hanson

Iowa State sophomore Milan Momcilovic hopes to take his game to another level next season. The six-eight native of Wisconsin was named to the Big 12 All-Freshman after averaging just under 11 points per game and shooting 36 percent from three point range. The Cyclones are going through summer workouts in Ames.

As he said in the above cut Momcilovic wants to be more of a play maker next season.

Momcilovic wants to be more of a factor on the glass.

Momcilovic says strength and condition is a big part of their summer program.

Flood levels along Mississippi River in eastern Iowa rising

News

July 2nd, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) -The Mississippi River at Burlington was above flood stage by Sunday night and is expected to reach more than four feet above food stage by Friday. Matt Wilson, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service in the Quad Cities, says it’s not clear yet how high the river will rise in places like Burlington and Fort Madison.  “The big thing that’s causing this flooding is all the rain that they’re getting up in Minnesota and Wisconsin,” Wilson says.

Wilson says the rivers that drain into the upper Mississippi are sending flood waves south, similar to what happened this spring as heavy snow melted upstream. Boating on the Mississippi River can be dangerous when it floods. “If we’re at major flood from Camanche down to Burlington, the river’s had mamy opportunities to reach out and pick up all kinds of debris from the river banks — dead trees, old campers,” Wilson says. “You’d be surprised what has been found deposited after floods from upstream to downstream.”

Shannon Prado is coordinator of the Des Moines County Emergency Management Agency. She says there’s some limited flooding in Burlington, but nothing is reaching critical infrastructure. “In 2008, if you go way back to 1993, they had severe river flooding in the Burlington metro area,” she says. “They really don’t see those impacts any more due to this floodwall.”

Docks are being pulled out of the Burlington riverfront along that floodwall and Prado says Hesco barriers that create temporary levies are being put up in the area.

Skyscan Forecast for Atlantic & the Nishna Valley: Tues., July 2nd, 2024

Weather

July 2nd, 2024 by Ric Hanson

Early this morning: Showers and possibly a thunderstorm. Some of the storms could produce heavy rainfall. Low around 66. S/SE winds 15-25 mph. New rainfall amounts between 1 and 2 inches possible.
Today: Showers and thunderstorms. Some of the storms could produce heavy rainfall. High near 82. S/SE winds 10-20.  New rainfall amounts between 1 and 2 inches possible.
Tonight: Showers likely & thunderstorms ending late. Becoming partly cloudy. Low 60. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 85. West southwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
Wed. Night: P/Cldy w/a 30% percent chance of showers & thunderstorms after midnight. Low around 64.
Independence Day: Partly sunny w/a 70% chance of showers and possibly a thunderstorm. High near 80.
Thursday Night: A 30% chance of showers and thunderstorms. Low around 60.
Friday: Mostly sunny & breezy, with a high near 77.
Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 83.

Monday’s High temperature in Atlantic was 74. Our Low this morning, 61. We received 1.95-inches of rain for the 24-hour period that ended at 7-a.m. today. Last year on this date, the High in Atlantic was 86, and the Low was 59. The All-time Record High in Atlantic on July 2nd was 102 in 1911. The Record Low was 45, in 1924 & 1959. Sunrise today: 5:50-a.m. Sunset is at 8:57-p.m.

Dominant pitching from AHSTW leads to Win

Sports

July 1st, 2024 by Asa Lucas

The AHSTW Lady Vikes softball team had a 2-0 victory over the CAM Cougars Monday night in the form of a pitching a duel. Starting Lady Vikes pitcher Etta Partlow was unrelenting retiring the first 3 CAM batters in the top of the 1st. The Cougar’s Ailey Wahlert had a similar response striking out 2 batters and giving up no hits in the bottom of the 1st. This form of pitching tug of war keeping the game at 0-0 finally broke at the bottom of the 5th inning. Bella Lamp started the 5th with a double towards left field. She then successfully stole third and came home off of a sac fly from Graycen Partlow to put AHSTW up 1-0. CAM was ready to respond in the top of the 6th as they had runners on third and second with two outs. But the inning ended with a line fly ball out in right field. Then in the bottom of the 6th the Lady Vikes added on to their lead with a run scoring in from an infield error. AHSTW secured the lead at 2-0 and put away the Cougars in the top of the 7th to hold on for the win.

Emma Follman for the Cougars stuck out with her 2-3 performance at the plate. Etta Partlow though had another solid night pitching 7 innings, with 6 strikeouts, 5 hits, no runs, and no walks. AHSTW Head Coach Katie Pace commended the way her pitcher battled throughout the night.

Games between CAM and the Lady Vikes can be a little more sentimental than other matchups with the history between these two programs.

The win pushes AHSTW to 15-8 on the year with their next game at Harlan on Wednesday night. Coach Pace is looking to see energy from tonight’s game carry into Wednesday’s.

The Cougars drop to 11-9 with the loss and travel to Nodaway Valley on Tuesday.

Summit proposes August and September meetings for pipeline extensions

Ag/Outdoor, News

July 1st, 2024 by Ric Hanson

The company that recently gained approval from state regulators for its carbon dioxide pipeline system in Iowa wants to proceed with expansion requests for that system starting in late August. The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports Summit Carbon Solutions has proposed new public informational meeting dates for 23 counties that would span about four weeks, according to documents recently filed with the Iowa Utilities Commission, formerly known as the Iowa Utilities Board. The first meeting would be Aug. 26 in Adams County.

The company must hold the meetings in affected counties before it can negotiate with landowners for easements and file petitions for permits to build the extensions.

The 14 proposed offshoots to additional ethanol plants from Summit’s initial proposal would increase the size of the system in Iowa by about 341 miles — or about 50%. The IUC indicated last week it would grant Summit a permit for the company’s initial proposal, which has about 690 miles of pipe.

The company hopes to transport captured carbon dioxide from ethanol producers in five states to North Dakota to be stored underground. The IUC has stipulated that Summit cannot start laying pipe in Iowa until it obtains permits in the Dakotas. It said the company can use eminent domain to force agreements with unwilling landowners to use their properties for the project.

North Dakota regulators are considering Summit’s pipeline route in that state and whether it would be allowed to pump the greenhouse gas into the ground. Summit has said it will reapply for a pipeline permit in South Dakota this month. The company hopes to start construction next year.

The IUC denied requests from pipeline opponents to consider the extensions along with the initial proposal. Those extensions and maps of their routes were unveiled in March while the initial permit process was still pending. Some argued, unsuccessfully, that parts of the system route should be revamped to shorten its overall length.

Instead, each of the extensions from the initial route will be subject to individual permits. Summit had hoped to hold informational meetings for them in April and May, but the commission rejected those dates without providing a reason.

Summit submitted new maps of the extension routes last week that increased their total length by about a half mile. A notable change was in Hardin County, where a proposed route moved slightly closer to Iowa Falls.

The new proposed meeting schedule — which has not yet been approved by the IUC — goes from Aug. 26 to Sept. 20 in the following counties: Adams, Bremer, Buchanan, Buena Vista, Butler, Clay, Fayette, Floyd, Greene, Guthrie, Hamilton, Hancock, Hardin, Ida, Kossuth, Mitchell, Montgomery, O’Brien, Osceola, Palo Alto, Sioux, Webster and Worth.

The Iowa Utilities Commission, formerly the Iowa Utilities Board, announced its name change on Monday and said it was the result of a state government reorganization last year that removed the agency from the state Department of Commerce.

Gov. Reynolds Announces Appointments to Iowa’s Boards and Commissions

News

July 1st, 2024 by Ric Hanson

DES MOINES – Today, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced appointments to Iowa’s boards and commissions. 

 The following appointments of the following from around the KJAN listening area, are subject to Senate confirmation (name/County): 

 Commission of Deaf Services   

Dustin Blythe, Dallas County

Tina Caloud, Pottawattamie County 

Board of Behavioral Health Professionals 

Lora Keipper, Dallas  

Plumbing and Mechanical Systems Board 

Randy Watts, Cass 

Jeffrey Miller, Pottawattamie     

Real Estate Commission 

Tanner Westberg, Dallas 

Accountancy Examining Board 

Jessica Richter, Dallas 

Lindsay Knoop, Dallas  

Board of Mortuary Science 

Martin Rieken, Pottawattamie 

John Parrish, Dallas 

Kelsey Lo, Dallas   

Landscape Architectural Examining Board 

Nate Weitl, Madison   

Real Estate Appraiser Examining Board 

Tonya Eller, Crawford  

Board of Speech Pathology and Audiology 

Caitlin McKenney, Dallas  

Architectural Examining Board 

Dan Dutcher, Dallas   

Interior Design Examining Board 

Cathy Koch, Dallas  

Engineering and Land Surveying Examining Board 

David Tallon, Harrison

State Workforce Development Board  

Jessica Dunker, Dallas  

The following appointments are not subject to Senate confirmation: 

Iowa Arts Council  

Donna Dostal, Pottawattamie

Council on Agricultural Education 

Ben Booth, Carroll  

Council for Early ACCESS 

Dr. Shelley Horak, Dallas

Statewide Interoperable Communications System Board (ISICS):

Jeffery Vanderwater, Adair 

Fire Service and Emergency Response Council  

Pamela Kenkel, Dallas 

State Banking Council 

Debora Quandt, Crawford