AMES, Iowa – The application window is opening July 17 for the fall 2023 Master Gardener training cohort, which will be offered in 55 counties or extension regions. The training will benefit Iowans wanting to deepen their understanding of gardening and horticulture. Area counties offering fall training include: Adams, Dallas, Guthrie, Madison, Mills, Pottawattamie, Ringgold, Taylor and Union.

Iowans wishing to complete Master Gardener training choose a county to complete training through, participate in online learning modules and attend at least four in-person training sessions organized by the county office. After completing the 10-week training, trainees put their knowledge to work with a 40-hour internship in their training county. Applicants have from July 17 to Aug. 18 to apply for the fall session. Training for the fall session begins Sept. 5. Learn more about the program online or through your county extension office.

Alicia Herzog, Master Gardener statewide coordinator with ISU Extension and Outreach, says “Many people have misconceptions about what the Master Gardener program truly is. The Master Gardener training program is about more than just learning how to grow your best garden, although you will learn that as well. Trainees use knowledge gained in training to grow food for those in need, partner with area organizations to design green spaces and present programs in their local communities.” Master Gardeners are volunteers who use research-based information to educate people and coordinate projects that promote healthy communities.

Master Gardeners embody the slogan “Learn it. Grow it. Teach it.” in their various volunteer roles. Presenting public programs is just one way Master Gardeners impact their communities.

Local extension staff can help anyone with questions about joining Master Gardener training this year, including details of when and where in-person meetings will take place in their county or extension region. Iowa State has offered Master Gardener training for over 40 years, engaging more than 15,000 people in learning about gardening best practices.

For more information, Herzog can be reached at 515-294-3627, or aherzog@iastate.edu.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – Officials with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Thursday, said they were notified on July 10th, of a fish kill on the lower Des Moines River. DNR staff from the Fisheries Bureau investigated and found an estimated 20,000 dead shovelnose sturgeon in a 60 mile river stretch from near Ottumwa to Farmington in southeast Iowa. Freshly dead fish collected on July 11 were submitted to Iowa State University for testing. The investigation began with determining the start and end of the fish kill. DNR fisheries staff collected water temperatures and dissolved oxygen levels at nine locations along the fish kill path and sampled for ammonia. Using the American Fisheries Society (AFS) guidelines, staff started counting dead fish at bridge accesses and then expanded their count to free-flowing areas.

Mark Flammang, Iowa DNR fisheries biologist, said “We didn’t find low levels of dissolved oxygen or high levels of ammonia which is usually indicative of some sort of spill, so it comes down to high water temperatures coupled with the low flows that we are experiencing at present.  Water temperatures are in the upper 80s and exceed levels known to cause shovelnose sturgeon mortality. It was also limited to shovelnose sturgeon; no other species were impacted.”

Shovelnose sturgeon (IA DNR photo)

Shovelnose sturgeon are relatively abundant below Ottumwa, as many of these fish move from the Mississippi River into this section of the Des Moines River during the spring and summer. “Ottumwa has one of the largest populations of shovelnose sturgeon in the world,” Flammang said. The shovelnose sturgeon population is a unique resource in the Des Moines River. According to Flammang, “Many of these fish are over 40 years old. It will take several years to repopulate this long-living fish.”

The affected section of the Des Moines River has had sizable fish kills over the years caused by low water levels and high water temperatures, with the most recent in 2012.  DNR fisheries staff partnered with Missouri Conservation to research the cause of that kill and learn more about the effects to shovelnose sturgeon populations.

If you see dead or stressed fish at a lake or river, call the DNR’s 24-hour spill line at 515-725-8694 as soon as possible. Quick reporting can help DNR staff identify the cause of a fish kill and potentially stop a fish kill in progress.

(Radio Iowa) – A professor of women’s and sexuality studies at the University of Iowa says she’s excited for next week’s release of the big budget movie, “Barbie,” that follows the iconic dolls Barbie and Ken as they transition into reality.

The U-I’s Naomi Greyser says she’s intrigued to see how Hollywood introduces Barbie to the real world. “I sort of love that the theme of the movie is she’s exiled from Barbieland because she isn’t perfect, which I feel like is this trend in movies right now, that we feel like we can identify with people’s imperfections,” Greyser says. “Barbie, for such a long time, was seen as too perfect in a way that people started to not identify with her, so it’s an interesting move for Mattel.”

Some early reviews criticize the film for reinforcing stereotypes about ditzy blondes, but others praise the movie for empowering girls and women — and Greyser says she’s fascinated by the pop culture impact. “I feel like they want to market it to people who are really earnest and enjoy the delightfulness of wearing pink,” Greyser says, “and also market it to people who are ironic and critical and want to nod and wink and enjoy Barbie in sort of over-the-top ways, so I feel like it’s kind of both.”

The color pink is prominent in the movie. Practically everything is pink, including Barbie’s clothes, shoes, house, car — and even the sand at the beach. Greyser says pink has meant many different things over the centuries, and color offers help in coding things from social class to values to identity. “Men wore pink to express masculinity in the 19th century, and at that time, pink was gender neutral,” Greyser says. “It was maybe due to the darker colors of military uniforms that darker colors started to be associated with masculinity, and then we saw pink and pastels become associated with femininity.”

A pink triangle, for example, was used in Nazi Germany to identify homosexuals, but it’s since been rebranded by the larger LGBTQ community as a symbol of pride. In the 1950s, pink for girls, blue for boys became popular across Americana, but then morphed and was monetized a few decades later. “Gender color coding took off once prenatal testing let people detect the sex of their babies before birth,” Greyser says. “In the 1980s, people started shopping for babies by gender, and it was a way for people to feel like they were personalizing their nurseries and also a way for companies to make more money by selling millions of different versions of things in different colors.”

She says “real men wear pink” is still a prevalent creedo in some social circles, but the color is also being used by corporations as a point of sale for women, what she calls the “feminization of pink.” “There’s this thing called the Pink Tax, where if you buy the same exact razor in pink instead of in blue, people pay more for it, for some reason, because people pay more for women’s products,” Greyser says, laughing. “So it definitely is not just about the color. It’s also about how corporations and marketers popularize it and spread it and it’s become a much bigger thing.”

Greyser says yes, she played with Barbies as a girl, but her fondest memories of the practice are more about sewing Barbie clothes for the dolls with her mom, and she adds, “My Barbies did -not- end up looking like the Barbies in the movie.”

(Council Bluffs, Iowa) — A Pottawattamie County woman says her toddler tested positive for fentanyl. The suspects include her fiance’s brother and his girlfriend. 18-year-old Megan Harris, from Council Bluffs, told KETV in Omaha that she knew 20-year-old Charlie Stokes and her boyfriend, 22-year-old Alejandro Hernandez, Jr., were recovering drug addicts, but she thought they had gotten clean. Instead, the two are facing felony charges of Child Endangerment, to which they have pleaded not guilty.

Harris said she worries her 1-year-old may have permanent damage. The doctors aren’t sure if the boy will have long-lasting effects from the drug. Her baby, “Junior,” was born early and was in the NICU. Hernandez, Jr., and Stokes are set to appear in court again, next month.

(Harlan, Iowa) – The Shelby County Fair is underway through Monday, in Harlan. Today’s schedule of activities/events include:

7:00 a.m……………………All Exhibitor Breakfast by Agriland FS
7:45 a.m……………………Swine Exhibitors Meeting
8:00 a.m……………………Judge 4-H/FFA Swine
10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m….Little Hands on the Farm Exhibit
12:30 p.m………………….Rabbit Agility Exhibitor’s Meeting
1:00 p.m……………………4-H Rabbit Agility – Tent
2:45 p.m……………………4-H Working Exhibitors’ Meeting
3:00 p.m……………………4-H Working Exhibits – Tent
3:00 – 6:00 p.m…………..Little Hands on the Farm Exhibit
4:00 – 4:30 p.m…………..Strolling Act – ‘The Flying Debris Show’
4:00 p.m……………………Carnival
5:00 – 5:30 p.m…………..Strolling Act – ‘The Flying Debris Show’
6:00 p.m………………….Double S Extreme Bull Riding (horse arena)
8:00 – 8:30 p.m…………..Strolling Act – ‘The Flying Debris Show’
8:30 p.m………………….Concert – ‘Casey Muessigmann’
Dark……………………….Fireworks Show – Shooting off North of Grandstands
4-H & Open Class Buildings open 10:00 AM.- 9:00 PM

(Audubon, Iowa) – The Audubon County Fair is currently underway. The Fair wraps-up Sunday. There are still many activities and events taking place the next few days. Today’s schedule includes:

7:30 AM Clover Kids Swine Show
4-H/FFA Swine Show
9:00 AM Judging Open Class Static & Antiques Entries
10:00 AM 4-H/FFA Horse Show
3:00 PM Cornhole Tournament-Livestock Pavilion
4:00 PM-9:00 PM Inflatable Attractions
5:00 PM Clover Kids Rabbit Show
4-H/FFA & Open Rabbit Show
5:00 PM Pork Feed – Hoop
7:30 PM Figure Eight Races

(Greenfield, Iowa) – The Adair County Fair continues through Sunday. Here’s a look at today’s schedule of events/activities:

(Radio Iowa) – The jackpots for both the Powerball and Mega Millions drawings have moved beyond the 500 million dollar mark. Iowa Lottery spokesperson Mary Neubauer says that’s a rare thing. “This is only the third time in the history of both Powerball and Mega Millions that both jackpots have been above the 500 million mark at the same time,” she says.
The Powerball drawing is an estimated 875 million dollars, while Mega Millions is estimated at 560 million. “The difference there is that extra drawing per week, a few years ago another drawing was added in the Powerball game so that Powerball has three drawings a week now, Mega Millons has two,” Neubauer says. “And that’s where that bump that Powerball is getting comes from because with another drawing per week you just have people buying more tickets and that drives sales faster.”

Around 90 percent of players let the computer pick their numbers. Neubauer says your chances are the same whether you do that or choose your own numbers. “Every ticket in the game has the same odds of winning it doesn’t matter if it’s an easy pick or you choose your own numbers there are just a lot more easy pick winners because that’s the vast majority of tickets that are purchased in the games,” she explains. The odds of winning are based on the amount of number combinations. “In Powerball for example, the odds of winning the jackpot are about one in 292-point-two-million because that’s how many different ways you can combine the numbers in the game to make a play,” she says.

The one thing that is the same for both games is the 8:59 p-m sales cut off for ticket purchases. “There have been people who waited right up until that moment and then were too late to buy a ticket and then they were arguing about the time that showed on their watch versus the time that showed on a lottery terminal. But truly, it’s an automatic cut off,” Neubauer says.

The next Mega Millions drawing is tonight (Friday) and the next Powerball draw is Saturday.

(Radio Iowa) – Two people are dead following separate house fires Thursday morning in Dickinson County. Lake Park Fire Chief Brandon Ehret says they received a report of a house fire around one o’clock with someone possibly trapped inside. “[When we] got on scene, there was heavy fire in the living room area of the house which was a converted from an old garage. We concentrated our efforts on getting the fire out at the same time we sent a crew in the main house if you will through the front door which will lead right into the victim’s bedroom,” Ehret says. “Found him just inside, and fortunately were able to get him out and we performed C-P-R on him as they got him into the ambulance and took him over to Lakes Regional Sioux Falls.”

That unidentified man later died from his injuries. Chief Ehret says the State Fire Marshal is helping them determine the cause. “The cause of the fire is undetermined right now. We have a general area of origin but we just can’t pinpoint what actually started it,” he says.

The second fire was reported around 7:30 a-m in Milford where crews there found smoke coming from multiple locations of the two-story home. The body of a female was discovered in the living room area. Her name has not been released, and the cause of that fire is still under investigation.