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Travel alert: Nighttime road closure of westbound I-80 in Polk County scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 27

News

August 24th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

GRIMES, Iowa – Aug. 22, 2024 – Nighttime construction work on the pavement of westbound Interstate 80 will require closing the road to traffic beginning at 10 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 27 until 5 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 28, weather permitting, according to the Iowa Department of Transportation’s Grimes Construction office.

While the road is closed you will follow a marked detour route using the U.S. 65 bypass, Hubbell Avenue, Euclid Avenue, and I-235 (see map).

Overnight closures of I-80 between De Soto and Van Meter begin on Wednesday, Aug. 28

News

August 24th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

CRESTON, Iowa – Aug. 23, 2024 – If you travel on Interstate 80 between De Soto (exit 110) and Van Meter (exit 113) you need to be aware of overnight closures of the roadway that may slow down your trip. The Iowa DOT’s Creston Construction Office reports crews need to close east- and westbound I-80 overnight from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 28, and Thursday, Aug. 29, weather permitting, so beams can be placed for the Old Portland Road bridge over I-80.

While the roadway is closed, you will follow a marked detour route that will use U.S. 169, U.S. 6, Dallas County Road R-16, and I-80 (see map).

The Iowa DOT reminds motorists to drive with caution, obey the posted speed limit and other signs in the work area, and be aware that traffic fines for moving violations are at least double in work zones. As in all work zones, drivers should stay alert, allow ample space between vehicles, and wear seat belts.Road closed digital

Brooklyn city officials investigate after cats shot with crossbow bolts

News

August 24th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

BROOKLYN, Iowa (KCRG) – City leaders in Brooklyn, Iowa, are asking for help finding out who is responsible for shooting cats with crossbow bolts. In a Facebook post on Thursday, city leaders said they have received several complaints.

They also shared images in the post, showing a cat that had been shot through the leg.

Photo from the City of Brooklyn (IA) Facebook page

Anyone with information is asked to call 522-7066.

Ad buys supporting Nunn, Miller-Meeks focus on inflation and border security

News

August 24th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Des Moines, Iowa) – Iowa Republican congressional candidates and supporters are bumping up campaign advertising in races that Democratic officials have targeted as potential pick-ups in the 2024 general election. The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports that while Republican incumbents are favored to win in Iowa’s congressional races, leaders with groups like the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the U.S. House Democrats’ campaign arm, have recently announced $2.5 million in ad buys for Iowa races they say pit Democratic challengers against “vulnerable” Republicans.

The ad reservations included purchases Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, where Democrat Lanon Baccam challenges U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn, and in Iowa’s 1st Congressional District, where Democrat Christina Bohannan challenges U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks.

As Democrats look to make these races more competitive, Republican organizations have also made advertising investments to help Nunn and Miller-Meeks defend their seats. The American Action Network, the advocacy nonprofit working alongside the U.S. House GOP’s Congressional Leadership Fund, announced Thursday that it would spend $5 million on campaign ads supporting 18 House Republican candidates, including Nunn and Miller-Meeks in Iowa.

U.S. Reps. Zach Nunn and Mariannette Miller-Meeks, incumbent Republicans, are defending their seats against Democratic challengers in the 2024 general election. (Photos by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch; photo illustration via Canva)

The organization is running ads calling for Iowans to tell Nunn and Miller-Meeks to “keep fighting to lower costs” as well as asking for the Republican lawmakers to support the Red Tape Reduction Act, a measure supported by U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, another Iowa Republican. The proposal would codify some executive orders made by former President Donald Trump related to limiting and tracking federal regulatory costs.

Dan Conston, president of the American Action Network, said in a statement that the latest ad buys are a means to combat measures passed by Democrats during President Joe Biden’s administration. The group’s ads supporting Iowa Republicans both highlighted the incumbents’ efforts to lower Iowans’ cost of living, but advertising efforts in other states, like Colorado and New Mexico, focus on the Biden administration’s immigration policy. Republicans have heavily criticized Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, for inadequate enforcement of immigration laws along the country’s southern border.

On Friday, Nunn released an ad titled “Safe” that argues Biden and Harris “refuse to secure our border,” linking illegal immigration to increasing problems across the country. While Nunn has pitched himself as a moderate candidate committed to working across the aisle, he has also emphasized border security — an top issue for Republicans heading into the November election. Speaking at the Iowa State Fair earlier in August, Nunn said the U.S.-Mexico border is the “number one issue” he hears about from constituents.

Democrats and some advocates have argued that Republicans are unfairly linking immigration to issues like the fentanyl crisis, as the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has reported that most fentanyl is trafficked into the country through legal ports of entry by citizens, not by undocumented immigrants.

Additionally, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection has reported that undocumented migrant crossings have declined every month for the past five months, according to reporting by USA Today, with July having the lowest level of migrant apprehensions during Biden’s tenure.

In a news release on the ad, Nunn said he spent time in the military fighting to protect and defend America, but that “the Biden-Harris open border crisis is making that even harder.”

Midwesterner’s spot a fireball meteor streaking across sky early Friday morning

News

August 24th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

Reports from some Iowans and others across the Midwest, Friday morning, say they saw an unexpected spectacle in the sky. A fireball meteor streaked through the atmosphere around 6:15 a.m. The meteor itself was located over southwestern Wisconsin but was visible from hundreds of miles away.

NASA’s Meteor Watch reports that “over 70 eyewitnesses in the states of Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and Minnesota have filed reports on the American Meteor Society website of a bright fireball seen this morning (August 23) at 6:13 AM Central Daylight Time. An analysis of these accounts indicates that the meteor was first seen at an altitude of 50 miles above the Wisconsin town of Fairchild, moving slightly east of South at 36,000 miles per hour. Traveling 39 miles through the atmosphere, it brightly flared twice before breaking up 29 miles above the town of Shamrock.”

Meteors often break up as they enter the atmosphere and can explode, which is just what Meteor Watch says happened: “The fireball broke apart with an energy of approximately 60 tons of TNT and the flares were easily detected by the Geostationary Lightning Mappers on the GOES 16 and GOES 18 satellites. The available data indicate that the meteor was produced by the atmospheric entry of a small asteroid 3.5 feet in diameter and weighing roughly 4000 pounds.”

Iowa Man Charged with Distributing Videos Depicting Monkey Torture and Mutilation

News

August 23rd, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(U-S Dept. of Justice Press Release) – An indictment was unsealed today (Friday), in which an individual was charged based on his involvement with online groups dedicated to creating and distributing videos depicting acts of extreme violence and sexual abuse against monkeys.

Philip Colt Moss, of Iowa, was charged with conspiracy to create and distribute so-called “animal crush videos,” and with distributing animal crush videos. According to court documents, in March and April 2023, Moss allegedly conspired with Nicholas Dryden and Giancarlo Morelli to create and distribute videos depicting acts of sadistic violence against baby, adolescent and adult monkeys. Dryden and Morelli were previously indicted and are awaiting trial.

The videos alleged to have been created as part of the conspiracy included depictions of monkeys having their genitals burned, having their genitals cut with scissors, being sodomized with a wooden skewer and being sodomized with a spoon.

If convicted, Moss faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for the conspiracy charge and a maximum penalty of seven years in prison for the charges related to the creation and distribution of animal crush videos. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division and U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Parker for the Southern District of Ohio made the announcement.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and FBI investigated the case.

Senior Trial Attorney Adam Cullman of the Environment and Natural Resources Division’s Environmental Crimes Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Oakley for the Southern District of Ohio are prosecuting the case.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Congresswoman Hinson criticizes Democrat nominee’s border plan

News

August 23rd, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Republican Congresswoman Ashley Hinson is speaking out against Kamala Harris’s southern border policy outlined in her acceptance speech for the Democratic presidential nomination. Hinson’s comments came after Vice President Harris said she would approve the bipartisan border security bill the Donald Trump opposed.
Hinson says the bill simply wouldn’t do enough.

Hinson made her comments during her weekly conference call with reporters and says Harris’s stance on the southern border had been virtually nonexistent before the convention.

Hinson, who represents Iowa’s second district, went on to criticize the Vice President for not yet having met with the head of the Border Patrol Union so close to the election.

Home prices and number of homes on the market up

News

August 23rd, 2024 by Ric Hanson

The latest data from the Iowa Association of Realtors shows home prices are up by more than six percent last month compared to July of last year. Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson reports.

(As said) – From July of 2023 to July of this year, there was a two-point-seven percent increase in the total number of homes sold in Iowa and the median price was 15-thousand dollars higher. However, from June to July, pending home sales declined about two percent. The president of the Iowa Association of Realtors says inventory is the bright spot in Iowa’s housing market. There was a nearly five percent increase in the number of homes LISTED for sale in July of this year compared to July of 2023. A TOTAL of 77-hundred Iowa homes were on the market in July. That’s 22-point-six percent more than July of last year.

Lloyd & Sharon Roberts Inducted into Iowa 4-H Hall of Fame

Ag/Outdoor, News

August 23rd, 2024 by Jim Field

Lloyd & Sharon of Cass County were inducted into the 2024 Iowa 4-H Hall of Fame during a ceremony at the 4-H Exhibits Building at the Iowa State Fair on Sunday, Aug. 18. Ninety-three Iowa

Lloyd and Sharon Roberts photo submitted for Iowa 4-H Foundation Hall of Fame Nomination

counties participated this year and selected 125 inductees for their outstanding service and dedication to 4-H. Inductees or their surviving family members were presented a certificate by the Iowa 4‑H Foundation President, Jeff Murphy, and State 4-H Program Leader, Mitchell Hoyer, as they were introduced on stage.

The commitment, passion, and contributions that Sharon and Lloyd Roberts have left in Cass County have made an indelible mark on the lives of many people and the community. For over 30 years, they have been active 4-H parents, with all four of their sons participating in Cass County 4-H. Lloyd served as a Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent for Rabbits, and as a night guard at the Cass County Fair. Sharon volunteered in the 4-H Exhibit building and assisted with check-in during judging. Along with these volunteer opportunities they also became a host family for a 4-Her from North Dakota.

Counties select inductees for their exceptional work in contributing to the lives of 4-H members and the overall 4-H program, said Katie Bateman, Cass County Youth Coordinator. Many inductees serve as club leaders, youth mentors, fair superintendents or fair board members, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach County council members, county youth council members, fair judges, financial supporters, chaperones or ISU Extension and Outreach staff members. The inductees have demonstrated dedication, encouragement, commitment and guidance to Iowa’s 4-H’ers through the years.

“We are honored to recognize these special individuals, for their advocacy and dedication to the Iowa 4-H program,” shared Iowa 4-H Foundation Executive Director, Emily Saveraid.

“This is a great way to honor the volunteers and staff across the state of Iowa that generously give their time and talents to foster positive partnerships with our 4-H youth,” said Tillie Good, Iowa 4-H staff and volunteer development manager.

Kurt Roberts (Lloyd and Sharon’s son) accepting the honor at the Iowa State Fair August 18th at the 4-H Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

The Iowa 4-H Hall of Fame was initiated in 2002 to help commemorate the 100th anniversary of 4-H. A summary of previous honorees was on display at the 2022 Iowa State Fair in the 4-H Exhibits Building.  These summaries are also available at the Iowa 4-H Foundation office in the Extension 4-H Youth Building at Iowa State University. Information about previous inductees to the Iowa 4-H Hall of Fame also is available on the Iowa 4-H Foundation website, organized by year and by county. Go to www.iowa4hfoundation.org/ and under the heading “What We Do” select “Recognizing Service” then “Iowa 4-H Hall of Fame.”

Cass County (IA) woman arrested on drug & theft charges in Red Oak

News

August 23rd, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Red Oak, Iowa) – A Cass County woman was arrested Friday morning in Red Oak, following an investigation into an incident at the Tractor Supply Store, in Red Oak. According to Red Oak Police, 31-year-old Ashley Dawn Eden, of Griswold, was arrested at around 10:15-a.m., for 5th degree theft, and unlawful possession of a prescription drug.

Eden was taken to the Montgomery County Jail on $1,000 bond pending further court proceedings.