(Crescent, Iowa/KETV) –  The Mt. Crescent Ski Area in Pottawattamie County is pushing back its opening day due to warmer-than-expected temperatures. The ski resort says its snowmaking team is doing everything they can to open as soon as possible, but they “need a little help from Mother Nature.” The Mt. Crescent Ski Area is located 15-miles northeast of Omaha, in the Loess Hills. The ski area originally planned a potential opening on December 30. It is now looking at the possibility of opening on Jan. 3, but expects it will be later.

The Mt. Crescent Ski Patrol squeezed in some lift evacuation training in preparation for the upcoming season earlier this week. (Image from the the resort’s Facebook page)

Mt. Crescent thanks visitors for their support and understanding. They tell season pass holders that, despite the weather delay, it still expects an 8 to 10-week season. The lodge is open Thursday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. for pass holders to pick up their pass before the season begins.

(Radio Iowa) – Senate G-O-P Leader Jack Whitver says there’s no consensus among Senate Republicans when it comes to regulating carbon pipelines. “We have some people that believe they need to happen. We have some people that really want to get a bill done to restrict them,” Whitver says. “It’s just really split.”

This past March, the Iowa House passed a bill that would have forced developers to get voluntary access to 90 percent of a carbon pipeline route before the Iowa Utilities Board could trigger eminent domain authority to acquire the rest. That proposal was never considered in the Senate. House Speaker Pat Grassley says prospects in 2024 haven’t changed much.

“I know we are having members that are having conversations with one another, but until we see a shift within this building it’s going to be really hard to move anything forward,” Grassley says. The pipelines have become an issue in the Republican presidential campaign and some state lawmakers have become outspoken critics of the use of eminent domain for the proposed Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline.

Representative Ken Carlson, a Republican from Onawa, is a retired farmer. “I am one who benefited from ethanol plants, there’s no two ways about it, but I can’t handle the eminent domain thing,” Carlson says. “I just can’t handle that.”

This fall the Iowa Utilities Board held a public hearing on the proposed Summit pipeline that would transport liquefied carbon dioxide through 29 Iowa counties. The board has not indicated when it may decide on Summit’s construction permit. Developers of a pipeline that would take carbon from ethanol plants in Cedar Rapids and Clinton to storage in Illinois have said they intend to get voluntary easements for the proposed Wolf pipeline. Navigator cited regulatory hurdles when it announced cancellation of its proposed carbon pipeline.

(Radio Iowa) – As electronics and toys are upgraded this holiday season, officials with landfills and recycling centers across Iowa are particularly worried about what happens to the old stuff. An E-P-A report says household waste increases by about 25-percent between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. Alongside food and cardboard packaging, a lot of what winds up curbside contains rechargeable batteries. John Foster, the solid waste administrator for Black Hawk County, says the uptick in improperly disposed batteries creates dangerous headaches for landfills.

“The issue we run into is those are heavy metal batteries that are typically in there,” Foster says, “so as they break open or as they’re exposed to oxygen and water, they’ll heat up and they’ll cause fires.” He says that in addition to the seasonal increase in household waste, disposal sites are under additional stress because of those improperly disposed rechargeable batteries.

“Whether it’s at a recycling facility or a landfill, as those batteries break open, they’ll kind of start a fire,” Foster says, “and with a lot of combustible material around it, just a little fire can turn into a big fire pretty quick.” Foster also says fires caused by improper disposals are amplified by the prolonged drought, as his landfill has been putting out several small fires a week on average.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Former President Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America, will deliver remarks to a Team Trump Iowa Commit to Caucus Rally in Atlantic, 2-p.m. Saturday, January 13, 2024. The event takes place at the Cass County Community Center (805 W. 10th St.).

President Trump signed a sweeping new Farm Bill into law that provided support and stability to Iowa’s farmers, expanded crop insurance, significantly increased how much farmers can borrow, and helped open new markets for agricultural goods.

Additional details are posted below:

Timeline of Events

11:00AM – Doors Open and Commitment Kick Off

2:00PM – 45th President of the United States Donald J. Trump Delivers Remarks

General Admission Tickets

REGISTER HERE

(Radio Iowa) – The Trump campaign event on Friday, January 5th will not be on the Dordt University campus as originally announced and has been moved to an event center in Sioux Center. Dordt University has released a statement, saying these kind of campaign events are intended to be educational and include questions directly from Dordt students to the candidates.

Dordt officials say they were under the impression nothing would not be publicized until a format was agreed to, but the Trump campaign is planning a rally in Sioux Center and the visions Dordt and the Trump campaign had for the event were incongruent.

Earlier this month, Iowa Congressman Randy Feenstra hosted four presidential candidates for a forum on the Dordt campus and students submitted questions. In January of 2016, Trump spoke to a crowd on the Dordt campus and delivered the oft-quoted line that he could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue in New York and shoot somebody and not lose any voters.

(Radio Iowa) – A nonprofit in Muscatine that helps adults with disabilities and the elderly is reopening its holiday fundraiser after vandalism and theft shut it down.

Crossroads Incorporated set up a holiday light show in Muscatine’s Weed Park earlier this month and Marc Hines, the organization’s CEO, says the person who went to flip the switches for Tuesday night’s show discovered the problem.

“She thought: ‘That’s weird. Why isn’t that on?’ and thought maybe is was just rain and went to check at the outlets and saw that, ‘Oh, there’s 500 feet of extension cord not here,’ and go to the next display and it’s gone and the next and
the next and the next.”

Hines estimates up to 80% of the electrical cords for the 40 light displays had been stolen or cut. Hines says a donor in Muscatine reached out after hearing the news and pledged to provide the money to replace all the electrical cords. “Shortly after we made our post that we were going to attempt to reopen, online donations just lit up,” Hines says.

This was the first year for this Illuminate Light Show fundraiser and the organization now expects to exceed its $50,000 goal. “If you would have asked me at 4:30 on Tuesday when we found the problem…’Hey, are you going to do this again next year?’ I probably would have hestitated to give an answer,” Hines says. “It maybe would have been laden with expletives, but by 9:30 yesterday, that tune changed keys really quickly and we’re absolutely resolute not only that we’re going to reopen on Friday and Saturday, but next year I think we’re going to come out guns ablazing.”

This all happened as Hines and his staff responded to an elderly client’s request to stay at home rather than enter a nursing home for end of life care.”It’s been a pretty emotional week, watching people come together around someone like that and what’s happened in the last 48 hours has been a real incredible way to end the year,” Hines says. “…I am glad to sit where I’m sitting today.”

Hines says if the group’s bulk order of electric cords can’t be filled in time, he vows to “clear out the shelves” in every hardware store in the area to get the electrical cords they need to reopen the display Friday night.

(Radio Iowa) – Planners hope the Central Iowa Water Works will be ready to launch on January 1, 2025 and manage the drinking water supply for nearly 19% of Iowa residents.

The West Des Moines Water Works agreed to join the regional drinking water system earlier this month. The new system would manage treatment and transmission of drinking water to 600-thousand people.

“The last couple of years we’ve been working on an agreement that owuld allow the 13 communities that purchase water from the Des Moines Water Works and collectively oversee that operation,” Des Moines Water Works CEO Ted Corrigan said during a recent appearance on Iowa Press on Iowa PBS.

(RI file photo)

Member utilities will purchase water at the same wholesale rate and share facilities used to produce drinking water. “If we built it together, we can build it bigger which is cheaper and we can all share the cost savings there,” Corrigan said.

A regional system would better manage water distribution if the drought continues, according to Corrigan. “It’s so much better for us to manage these available water resources cooperatively and collectively, than to start fighting over them,” Corrigan said.

Officials in Bondurant and Altoona have decided to produce their own water.

(Manchester, Iowa) – A county attorney in northeastern Iowa has issued a statement saying a Delaware County Sheriff’s Deputy was justified when he shot and wounded a man who was charged with Murder in connection with the shooting of a Monticello Fareway Store employee early last month (November). 48-year old Aaron McAtee died from the gunshot wound he suffered during the incident.

Delaware County Attorney John W. Bernau says Deputy Matt Menard‘s use of his service weapon was “reasonable under the circumstances of the moment, to not only protect his own life, but also the lives of nearby citizens.” He said the Deputy also “acted in accordance with his training and experience. When the whole of the incident is looked at objectively, Deputy Menard’s actions in shooting (Nathan) Russell were reasonable and legally justified under Iowa law, and he will face no criminal liability.” Deputy Russell was previously placed on incident leave, pending results of the investigation.

The incident began to unfold at around 7:24-a.m. on November 7, 2023 in Monticello, when a shooting was reported. At approximately 9:30-a.m., during law enforcement’s search of the suspect in the Monticello shooting, Deputy Menard made contact with the suspect, 38-year-old Nathan Allen Russell, in the area of Walnut and 2nd Streets, in Hopkinton. Russell was taken into custody after being treated for the gunshot wound inflicted by the Deputy.

Russell was charged with Murder in Jones County. Attorney Bernau says “Because that matter remains open, no facts surrounding that charge will be discussed.” Deputy Menard is a 25-year veteran of law enforcement, including the past 14-years with the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office.