(Atlantic, Iowa) – Cass County (Iowa) Sheriff Darby McLaren, Wednesday (1/3/24), issued a statement announcing he will not be running for re-election in the Fall of 2024. The statement is shown below:
(Atlantic, Iowa) – Cass County (Iowa) Sheriff Darby McLaren, Wednesday (1/3/24), issued a statement announcing he will not be running for re-election in the Fall of 2024. The statement is shown below:
FRANK LUDWIG, 75, of Greenfield, died November 27, 2023. Celebration of Life Services for FRANK LUDWIG will be held 1:30-p.m. Saturday, January 20, 2024, at the Lamb Funeral Home in Greenfield.
Burial is in the Greenfield Cemetery, with full military graveside rites will be held by the Greenfield American Legion Head-Endres Post No. 265 and V.F.W. Post No. 5357.
Memorials may be made to the Frank Ludwig Memorial Fund to be established at a later date.
FRANK LUDWIG is survived by:
His daughter – Kim Schossow.
other relatives, and friends.
Online condolences may be left to the family at www.lambfuneralhomes.com.
ON THE MAT
The University of Iowa women’s wrestling team will travel to the UNI Dome in Cedar Falls, Iowa, this weekend to compete at the NWCA National Duals Friday and Saturday. The Hawkeyes are entered in as the second seed, following the previous 2023 National Dual Champions, North Central College.
MAKING HISTORY
The week of October 30th, 2023, was the official start of the inaugural University of Iowa women’s wrestling season. At the East Stroudsburg dual, the Hawkeyes dominated ESU, winning their dual 43-1. On Sunday at the Princeton Open, the Hawkeyes secured six gold medals, and a total of 10 top three finishes. Two placement matches consisted of two Hawkeyes wrestling against each other. Sterling Dias and Emilie Gonzalez wrestled for first at 101, while Anakya Besco and Cali Leng wrestled for fifth at 130.
PREVIEWING THE NWCA NATIONAL DUALS
The Hawkeyes head up to Cedar Falls this weekend to compete in the NWCA National Duals. They enter the tournament as the No. 2 seed in the bracket and will face Adrain College in the first round. The Hawkeyes will travel 15 student-athletes. Sterling Dias, Ava Bayless, Brianna Gonzalez, Felicity Taylor, Ava Rose, Emily Frost, Lilly Luft, Ella Schmit, Reese Larramendy, Marlynne Deede, Bella Mir, Kylie Welker, Haley Ward, Alivia White and Jaycee Foeller.
For the third time in the regular season, the Hawkeyes sit at No. 1 in the NWCA coaches poll. Iowa leads with 115 points, being followed by North Central at No. 2 (107), and King at No. 3 (89).
INCOMING ALL-AMERICAN
HAWKEYES STRONG SHOWING AT SOLDIER SALUTE
NWCA ALL-STAR CLASSIC
NEWCOMERS
ESTRELLA’S FIGHT FOR LAHAINA
On August 8th, 2023, the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than 100 years burned through Lahaina, killing at least 115 people and leveling homes and businesses. University of Iowa wrestler Nanea Estrella attended Lahainaluna High School for four years, boarding in her adopted community about an hour west of her hometown of Makawao, in upcountry Maui. Estrella reached out to the Iowa Student-Athlete Advisory Committee; Macy Anderson, community engagement and communications associate in Student Athlete Academic Services; and Kara Park, assistant athletics director for student development. Together, they decided to hold a drive to replace the toys and athletic supplies that so many kids lost in the fire. Donations poured into Carver-Hawkeye Arena and Iowa Book, as well as Xtream Arena before the Hawkeye volleyball team’s home opener during FRYfest.
GONZALEZ NAMED NWCA WRESTLER OF THE MONTH
Sophomore Brianna Gonzalez was named NWCA region 5 Wrestler of the Month for November. Gonzalez is currently undefeated at 116 pounds, and is ranked third in recent NWCA rankings.
UP NEXT
The Hawkeyes will host their second dual inside of Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Sunday, January 21. Further details about the event will be released soon.
(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s top election official is proposing uniform rules for election recounts and is asking legislators to beef up his training budget for election workers.
Secretary of State Paul Pate said Iowa is one of the top states in election integrity and random audits in all 99 counties of the 2023 city-state elections found results were 100% accurate. “But you can’t just rest on your laurels. There’s got to be constant work to improve on what we’re doing,” Pate said during an interview with Radio Iowa. “…The real frontier that we’re seeing right now that we have to step up to is helping our poll workers.”
Thirty of Iowa’s 99 county auditors will be overseeing their first election in 2024 and Pate wants uniform training for them and for the Iowans who will be working in their local precincts this year. “We’ve got roughly 10,000 Iowans who are standing up for us to run those elections on election day. Those are the folks that your friends and neighbors…who’ll check you in, make sure you are where you’re supposed to be, making sure you have your ballot, making sure everything is done properly,” Pate said. “That’s a pretty heavy role when you’re talking about the 1600+ precincts across the state, so we want consistent training.”
Secretary of State Paul Pate spoke with Radio Iowa on Jan. 3, 2024. (RI photo)
Pate plans to hire more staff to accomplish that. Pate’s bill for uniformity in recounts would allow larger counties to have more than just three people on the county’s recount board. Pate said the 2020 recount of an Iowa congressional race — ultimately decided by six votes — illustrated the flaws in current law.
“This is a big election and if there’s any kind of a recount necessary at all, we need to be prepared,” Pate told Radio Iowa.
The bill Pate proposes also calls for all ballots to be accounted for in a recount. There were four recounts in a 2022 race for a seat in the Iowa House and the Scott County Auditor reported different absentee vote tallies as ballots were counted by hand and by machine. “If there were 5000 votes cast in that precinct or that county, we have to show through our process where those 5000 votes went. You don’t get to home and go: ‘Well, sorry. We can’t find those 250,’” Pate said. “No, no.”
Pate’s plan calls on recount boards to choose one form of counting — either by machine or by hand — before the counting begins.
(Radio Iowa) – The final tallies are in, and state climatologist Justin Glisan says 2023 is going down as one of Iowa’s warmest and driest years in more than 150 years of record keeping. Glisan says when you average out the temperatures over 365 days, it’s rare for Iowa’s year-long average temperature to vary by even one-degree above or below the previous year, but that changed during 2023. “We were over two degrees above average,” Glisan says, “so that was looking at the rankings that we have, it’ll be in the top 20 warmest years on record, again going back to 1872.”
As 2023 concluded, he says it ended 182 consecutive weeks of at least D-1 moderate drought in some part of the state. That’s more than three-and-a-half years of continuous drought and some sections of the state have very dry conditions. “We have widespread drought, a large D-3, which is on that scale of D-0 to D-4 for extreme drought, a large swath in eastern Iowa,” Glisan says. “Precipitation deficits within that D-3 region, anywhere from 12 to 18 inches below average just for the year.”
Justin Glisan (Photo courtesy Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship)
The only corner of the state that recorded above-average precipitation during 2023 was northwest Iowa, which saw between one and three inches more than the norm. However, he says the rest of the state was exceptionally dry. “Overall, if you look at the statewide average, about 27 inches, with the average just a little over 35-and-a-half inches,” Glisan says, “so about nine inches below average, and looking at the rankings, it’ll be in the top 25 driest years on record.”
After three consecutive La Nina winters, we’re now in an El Nino pattern, which Glisan says tends to bring the Midwest warmer temperatures in addition to wetter conditions. Glisan says Iowa had a bit of a snow drought last month. “Climatologically December is the snowiest month for Iowa,” Glisan says. “The preliminary statewide average is 1.4 inches. That’s 6.5 inches below average.” Despite the lack of snow, December was one of four months out of 2023 that wound up with ABOVE average precipitation. “A majority of our precipitation was rainfall and that rainfall was gradual over several days and it was able to soak in,” Glisan says. That’s because December temperatures were above average, keeping the ground from freezing solid.
Glisan says there is a storm system in the Pacific Ocean that’s headed east and the long-term forecast indicates it may bring rain and snow to Iowa as early as this weekend. Glisan cautions, though, that the storm system could weaken as it makes landfall on the west coast and moves across the Rockies.
(Radio Iowa) – Republican leaders in the Iowa Legislature say a proposed constitutional amendment is on hold as they wait for an Iowa Supreme Court ruling on Iowa’s six-week abortion ban. Jack Whitver is the Republican leader in the Iowa Senate…. “We passed the ‘Heartbeat’ bill last year. That is going through the court system right now. I don’t know when that decision will come out and that might have an impact on what we do, but right now plan to let the courts sort that out before we move anything further,” Whitver says.
In 2021, Republicans approved language that declares the Iowa Constitution does not recognize, grant or secure the right to an abortion — but it would have to be approved again this year for it to be voted on in November. House Speaker Pat Grassley says the issue is tied up in the courts and Republicans in the House will decide how to proceed on the proposed amendment after a ruling is issued. “We’ve been consistent as we’ve had a majority for 10 years that we’re a pro-life caucus, so it’s nothing that we’ve ever shied away from,” Grassley says.
House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst suggests Iowa Republicans are putting their proposed amendment on hold after seeing similar amendments fail in Kansas and Ohio. “If their issue is so popular, why aren’t they willing to take it to the voters?” Konfrst says. “Let’s see what the voters say.” Konfrst and other Democrats in the legislature say if they win a majority of seats in the House and Senate, they’ll propose a constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights. Senate Democratic Leader Pam Jochum says if the court rules the six-week abortion ban should take effect, state officials need to be clear about how it will be enforced.
“I have heard from a lot of health providers who are not happy at all about the Board of Medicine’s proposed rules,” Jochum says, “and I think they will continue to get a lot of feedback from doctors in our state who do not agree with how they’re approaching this.” Jochum says the proposed rules do not spell out the penalties for doctors who perform abortions that fall just outside of the guidelines related to medical emergencies and in cases of rape, incest or fatal fetal abnormality.
(Harlan, Iowa) – The Shelby County Board of Supervisors met in an organizational session 9-a.m. Tuesday, January 2nd, and determined the Board will meet as required in the Code of Iowa, with their first meeting of each year held on the first day in January, which is not a Saturday, Sunday or holiday, and shall hold all subsequent meetings of the year as scheduled by the Board. Regular meetings will be held on the first and third Tuesdays of each month. Auditor Mark Maxwell reports the Board proceeded to approve nominate current Chair Steve Kenkel as Chairman of the Board of Supervisors for the 2024 calendar year, and Bryce Schaben as Vice-Chair for the 2024 calendar year.
Afterward, the Supervisors recessed their meeting to hold a public hearing for an amendment to the fiscal year 2024 budget. Having received no comments either written or spoken, the Board closed the hearing and proceeded to pass a Resolution pertaining to the amended Shelby County Budget Service Areas as noted below (click on the images below, to enlarge):
The Supervisors then considered and approved a One-percent increase in wages for Calendar year 2024 for those employees that qualified. Maxwell reports the new GIS agreements were then considered with the Harlan Municipal Utilities and the City of Harlan; the new contracts yearly costs were updated for the first time since at least 2011. Any increase in staff augmentation costs in the future will be split evenly between HMU, The City of Harlan and Shelby County. The Board approved Chair Kenkel’s signing of the agreements.
Bonds for the required Elected officials were then considered, Iowa code requires these bonds to be in force. The Board approved the bonds and ask a District Court Judge to approve the Supervisors bonds as also required. They then acted on passing a Resolution, “Economic Development Public Purpose Statement,” which says the funding of Shelby County Develop Source and Shelby County Area Wide Chamber and any other economic development project deemed appropriate by the Board is an economic development project as defined in the Iowa Code, and that this expenditure would further a public purpose, that public purpose to be an expansion or retention of jobs in Shelby County. Any business receiving economic development funding from Shelby County will be required to abide by the policies set by Shelby County.
The Supervisors voted to re-appoint current Shelby County Solid Waste Board members Stacey Ferry and Gene Gettys. They also passed resolutions pertaining to Bridge Embargo’s, as follows:
In other business, the Shelby County Supervisors, Tuesday, approved a utility permit, as recommended by the County Engineer, the reappointment of Janet Buman to the Conservation Board, and other, administrative matters, to include: The appointment of Scott Markham as County Medical Examiner; and the appointment of the following persons as members of the Compensation Board for the Condemnation of Private Property for Shelby County for 2024:
(Guthrie Center, Iowa) – Guthrie County Deputy Sheriff/Jail Administrator Jesse Swenson, today (Wednesday), released December’s Jail statistics for Guthrie County. Swenson said “December was a busy month for the jail. We processed 70 inmates during the month. We held 30 out of county inmates for different periods of time. We brought in $29,580 from holding out of county inmates.”
Read the summaries of information by viewing the pdf links below:
The (4-6) Audubon Wheelers basketball team used the Christmas break wisely giving time off for their players to rest in preparation for the second half of the season. The Wheelers started the year off 1-4, with their only victory from a last place Missouri Valley team. Head Coach Darran Miller knew something had to change and decided to shift his team’s focus to defense and saw them gel better together. Audubon went on to win the next 3 out of 5 with strong wins against Riverside and Boyer Valley. Coach Miller credits the higher intensity on defense and rebounding for the Wheelers recent success.
A large part of the Wheelers dynamic has been the play of senior Edward Miller on both sides of the floor. Miller is averaging over 15 points and close to 9 boards per game. Coach Miller mentioned that Edward Miller does a nice job of deciding when to attack the basket or settling for an outside shot.
Miller is not the only high contributor for Audubon. Junior Aaron Olsen is the second highest scorer on the team with 10.9 points per game and has 24 steals. Now through 10 games into the year and Coach Miller notices that he has team who has no problem hustling for the ball. This year’s group does not get easily intimidated and will play as hard as they can through all four quarters.
Audubon resumes Western Iowa conference action this Friday on the road against a (3-6) IKM-Manning team who share a similar 3-2 record in their last 5 games. The Wolves are led by sophomore Ben Ramsey averaging over 16 points a game and a respectable 35% from behind the arc as a team. Coach Miller has his team looking to be a cohesive defensive unit to have 2024 start off with an Audubon win.
Tipoff is set for 7:15pm Friday January 5th.
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(Shelby, Iowa) – The Carstens 1880 Farmstead, Inc. will hold its annual meeting on Tuesday, January 9, 2024 at the Shelby Community Hall in Shelby at 7:00 pm. Carstens’ Board President Charlie Leaders, of Minden, says “Everyone is invited to come to the meeting and hear about what’s happening at the farm.”
Members of Carstens Farm will be voting for three positions on the board of directors. The following board members’ terms are ending as of the date of the meeting: David Dittmer of Minden, Doug Martin of Shelby and Dale Schroder of Avoca will be up for re-election for another term. All are running for another term. Continuing board members are Ben Ausdemore, Charlie Leaders and Gerald McCool of Minden, Bill Johnson and Stan Kern of Shelby, Harvey Ferris of Missouri Valley, Rick Newland of Persia and Terry Torneten of Harlan. Results of the election will be announced following the meeting. Leaders says “We will take ideas for projects in 2024. We’ve got several projects planned that we’ll talk about. Building upkeep and repair are always projects we work on. Reports will be given on the 2023 Carstens Farm Days show. I hope to see many members as well as the general public at the meeting because we want to continue to grow our membership.”
Via carstensfarm.com
Carstens 1880 Farmstead, Inc. members as well as members of the public are welcome and encouraged to attend. Those attending will have the opportunity to renew their memberships or to purchase new memberships. Memberships from the public are important for sustaining the farm’s operations. New or renewing members should note that membership rates remain the same as last year: $25 for family; $15 for an individual. Visit the farm’s website for membership information.
Carstens 1880 Farmstead, Inc., a non-profit group of local volunteers, oversees the working farmstead museum exhibit located south of Shelby, Iowa. The farmstead hosts several thousand people annually during Carstens Farm Days which is held the first weekend after Labor Day. For more information visit www.carstensfarm.com
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