(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Joni Ernst has met in person with Israel’s top leaders as they respond to terror attacks that started over the weekend. Ernst says Hamas needs to be destroyed.

Ernst spoke by phone with Radio Iowa from Jordan after spending much of today (Tuesday) in Israel.

Ernst, a Republican, and three Democrats from the U-S House met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as the leader of the opposition party in Israel. Ernst says having a bipartisan delegation from the U-S meet with Israel’s leaders sends a powerful message.

Ernst, a retired Iowa National Guard officer who did a tour of duty in Iraq, says Hamas chose this weekend to strike knowing it was a major Jewish holiday and there would be many Americans visiting family in Israel. Israel declared war on Sunday.

Ernst left the U-S on Wednesday, originally planning to attend a conference with Israelis, Palestinians and Arab state leaders. Her first stops, though, were in places like the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia’s crown prince this week has pledged to stand by Palestine, dealing a blow to efforts to form a diplomatic relationship among the U-S, Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Hamas burst through border walls in Saturday’s attacks and has been firing rockets at Israel’s capital this week. Israel’s Iron Dome defense system has repelled thousands of rockets. Ernst says the U-S must provide Israel with additional intelligence as well as munitions to restock the Iron Dome. Ernst, a part of G-O-P leadership in the U-S Senate, says House Republicans must quickly select a new speaker so congress can act.

Ernst is also calling for freezing six billion dollars of Iran’s assets, being held in South Korea, that were part of a prisoner swamp the Biden Administration arranged between the U-S and Iran last month.

Ernst says the sadness and terror in Israel is palpable. One of the Americans Ernst met in Israel had just attended the funeral of his 18-year-old son’s best friend.

Iowa Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks has been in some of the overseas meetings with Ernst, including a visit to Bahrain on Monday, but Miller-Meeks was NOT part of the delegation that visited Israel Tuesday.

ATLANTIC, IOWA — Officials with SWIPCO (The Southwest Iowa Planning Council) welcome three new staff members to the organization.

Chris Parks

Chris Parks has assumed the role of Communications Coordinator, overseeing community outreach, public engagement, and media communications for SWIPCO and SWITA (The Southwest Iowa Transit Agency). Parks is a graduate of Glenwood High School and has a bachelor’s degree in Broadcasting from the University of Nebraska at Kearney. He has a wealth of journalism experience as a broadcaster for 16 years at KJAN Radio in Atlantic. Chris lives in Atlantic with his wife Mandy and their two children Carson and Greta.

Julie Hays is a new Transit Scheduler. Julie joins the team that connects area residents to the transportation they need. SWITA serves eight counties in Southwest Iowa with a fleet of 100 vehicles. Transportation provided includes work routes, student transportation, day habilitation routes for disabled individuals, medical transport, and a range of other services.

Julie Hays

To find out more about the transportation services provided by SWITA you can call 712-243-2518 or 1-800-842-8065 or get more information at www.swita.com.

And, SWIPCO welcomes Barb Boggs as a Grants Specialist. She will work with SWIPCO Disaster Recovery Planning to help with citizen claims and surveying for the agency. Barb will help clients navigate through application procedures and ensure the agency is meeting grant regulations.

SWIPCO and the Southwest Iowa Housing Trust Fund operate a wide range of programs including housing repair, down payment assistance, demolition of dilapidated houses, and lead abatement. SWIPCO also provides building inspection services and currently has more than 1,500 rental units in its inspection program. Boggs will assist with all of these programs and will be an asset to the agency.

Barb Boggs

Boggs has lived the majority of her life in Atlantic and graduated from Atlantic High School. She has a varied background with work in financing, a law office, the postal service, and more.

Iowa State University has landed a four-year, 14-million dollar grant to design a national testing facility that will simulate tornadoes and other windstorms, like the powerful derecho that carved a path of destruction across the state in 2020. Professor Partha Sarkar, interim chair of I-S-U’s Department of Aerospace Engineering, is heading up the project.

The grant will support replacing I-S-U’s current Tornado/Microbust Simulator which is nearly 20 years old. It was also designed by Sarkar. That simulator is housed in Howe Hall on the Ames campus and it’s used to research straight-line and rotating winds, aerodynamic testing, flow visualization and more.

The new, larger simulator will be a one-twentieth scale model of the full-scale facility. It would have the capacity to generate 225 mile per hour winds, comparable to a rare E-F-5 tornado. The current simulator can create winds roughly on a par with an E-F-1 tornado at 80 miles an hour.

If the full-size facility is built, it would allow testing a full-scale house or larger scale models of buildings with large footprints, like retail buildings, shopping malls and hospitals. The grant is from the U.S. National Science Foundation.

(Anita, Iowa) – Members of the CAM School District Board of Education, Monday evening, approved an extension of school bus route times. Their action followed a public hearing at the CAM High School Media Center, during which there were several comments. Superintendent Paul Croghan…

He said they held a conversation last month and reviewed some of the things they were doing and reviewing the law. They settled on 15-minutes, which is their shuttle time as well. Croghan said the goal is to keep their regular routes under 60-minutes, given the amount of road/bridge construction underway in the area.

Mr. Croghan said also, the CAM School Board Monday evening approved a resignation and a contract.

A majority of the Board’s meeting, he said was devoted to the district’s facility project process. A couple of representatives of Site Logic – the district’s architects – were in attendance at the meeting.

The process includes potentially getting to a General Obligation Bond Referendum in November, 2024. The goal, he said, is to be fiscally responsible, while getting the district facilities in good shape.

Paul Croghan said in conclusion, there are good things going on in the CAM School District patrons can be proud of, and he asked for people to be safe this harvest season.

(Radio Iowa) – Voters in half a dozen Iowa cities can cast ballots in person today in primary elections for municipal offices. There are primary elections for city council seats in Burlington, Carter Lake, Davenport, Iowa City, Ottumwa and Sioux City. Polls opened at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m.

There’s also a primary in Davenport for mayor. Three candidates are challenging incumbent Mike Matson. Matson, a Democrat who briefly ran for governor in 2017, led the city’s response to the collapse of an apartment building in downtown Davenport this spring.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Cass County Board of Supervisors today (Tuesday), heard a weekly report from County Engineer Trent Wolken. He spoke about current/ongoing bridge and road projects,

Wolken said also they should be pouring concrete on the 730th Street project, this week. The goal was to pour the footing this week.

The Board concluded their brief meeting with the weekly committee reports.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – A public hearing was held this (Tuesday) morning in Red Oak, with regard to a proposed FY23-24 Montgomery County Budget Amendment. The meeting took place as part of a regular meeting of the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors. Hearing no comments for or against the proposal, the Board passed a Resolution appropriating funds for the Budget Amendment. Supervisor Mark Peterson…

In other action, the Board approved an Iowa DOT agreement for a DOT-initiated Detour of Primary Highways onto local roads, for the widening and other improvements of Highway 34. Supervisor Donna Robinson talks about the detour itself…

Montgomery County BOS mtg., 10-10-23

County Zoning Commissioner Barry Byers updated the Board on Secondary Roads Department maintenance and activities.

He also talked about current bridge and other projects.

And, the Board approved an agreement between the County and the City of Elliott, for the assignment of tax sale certificates for two parcels.

(Radio Iowa) – The Pentagon is moving an aircraft carrier strike group, as well as squadrons of fighter jets, closer to Israel following the weekend terrorist attacks, but Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley doubts the U-S will dispatch soldiers directly into Israel — and into harm’s way. “Israel does not want American troops on the ground,” Grassley says. “Israel has the capability of handling this situation, but I think if Israel would cry out to us that they need some help, they would get that help. I think it would be probably help other than troops on the ground.”

Saturday’s attacks by Hamas left a thousand “innocent civilians” dead, according to Grassley, along with at least 11 Americans. The Republican notes how one American media outlet had four sources linking the attacks to Iran, in addition to Hamas leaders thanking Iran for the backing, but Iran’s leaders deny any involvement. “I don’t believe what Iran is saying,” Grassley says, “and I believe the administration ought to be more candid with the people. Instead of saying they have no evidence of any Iranian connection with what happened, they at least could say, ‘We’re going to investigate and see what the sources are.'”

The attacks are a “sobering wake-up call to the world” and to America, Grassley says, as “state-sponsored terrorist groups want to wipe the Jewish people off the face of the earth.” “We in the United States stand strong with Israel, because Israel is our most trusted ally in the Middle East,” Grassley says. “We also stand with our Jewish American friends here at home. These atrocities will not be tolerated.”

He calls the attacks on Israel a threat to the entire Middle East. A group called the Party for Socialism and Liberation is organizing an event in downtown Des Moines at 6:30 tonight (Tuesday) which it’s calling a Rally for a Free Palestine. A statement from the group says, “The unrelenting oppression, murder, torture and occupation carried out by the Israeli apartheid regime has precipitated a counter-offensive by Palestinian resistance forces. Their actions are a morally and legally legitimate response to escalating Israeli oppression.”

AMES, Iowa – Oct. 10, 2023 – The Iowa Transportation Commission has approved $2.69 million in funding for two rail infrastructure and related rail development projects under the Railroad Revolving Loan and Grant (RRLG) Program. The projects are expected to support the creation and retention of 129 jobs within three years of project completion.

The Shenandoah Clean Sugar Plant Rail Spur project in Fremont County received a $424,000 loan and a $144,000 grant from the ITC. And, in Clinton County, the Commission awarded a $715,000 loan and a slightly more than $1.4-million grant for the New Horizons Switching Track project and additions. The total loans awarded amounts to $1.39-million, and the total grants amount to $1.548-million.

ARNOLDS PARK, Iowa – Oct. 10, 2023 – Today, the Iowa Transportation Commission approved $2,753,115 for seven State Recreational Trails Program projects. The State Recreational Trails Program was created in 1988 with the purpose of developing and maintaining recreational trails and trail-related facilities for both motorized and non-motorized trail users. This funding is available to cities, counties, state agencies, local governments, and nonprofit organizations through an annual application-based program.

Among the projects and approved funding is $462, 868 for “Ballpark to Ballpark,” Shelby County Trail project, Phase 2, in Shelby County.

Other projects and funding amounts are include:

• Raccoon River Valley Trail to High Trestle Trail Connector Phase VI
  (Dallas County Conservation Board)                                                                  $ 675,000
• Red Rock Prairie Trail: Prairie City to Mitchellville
  (Jasper County Conservation Board)                                                                 $ 499,800
• Fontana Park Learning and Discovery Trail
  (Buchanan County Conservation Board)                                                            $ 238,534
• Hoover Trail Bridge #2 (Cedar County Conservation Board)                        $ 130,000
• Copper Creek Mountain Bike Park (Polk County Conservation Board)      $ 400,000
• Little River Scenic Pathway Phase 2
  (Decatur County Conservation Board)                                                                $ 346,913