(Radio Iowa) – Iowans who happened to be up for sunrise today (Wednesday) got a rare treat. Smoke from wildfires in Alberta, Canada, is filtering high over Iowa and it’s making the sun appear as a golden-reddish-orange ball. Meteorologist Brooke Hagenhoff, at the National Weather Service, says the phenomenon should be visible at sunset tonight, too, and for that matter, the sun and sky may look unusual all day, perhaps longer. “It’s really making kind of that reddish look to the sky. It’s gonna look pretty hazy most of the day,” Hagenhoff says. “Right now, it looks like that hazy sky’s going to hang on at least through tomorrow. We do have a cold front coming through on Thursday with some thunderstorms that may help to push some of it out as we get into the end of the week.”

Iowans who have certain health issues and difficulty breathing should -not- feel any ill affects from the smoke, as it’s far up in the atmosphere, perhaps 20-thousand feet up. Plus, she says, it doesn’t even smell like smoke outside. “In the afternoon, sometimes this time of year, whenever it’s warm, you can get some deeper mixing as the ground kind of warms up. That could start to pull some of it down, but again, just how much is kind of an unknown,” Hagenhoff says. “So just something to use caution. Of course, there are air quality products out there so anyone with concerns would want to check to see what those levels may be.”

Image from NASA Earth Observatory

There are at least 90 wildfires now burning in Canada with more than 20 of them out of control. More than 20-thousand Canadians have been evacuated from their homes because of the fires, and cities like Calgary are under alerts due to poor air quality. Hagenhoff doesn’t anticipate anything similar here and the smoke is so high aloft, it doesn’t even appear on radar over Iowa. The odd-looking sky could persist, though. “Because it’s such a small-scale thing with the fires in Canada, and how that’s going to interact with our systems, and how it gets drug down,” she says, “it’s a little tough to kind of figure out exactly where we’ll be with any kind of length into the future past a couple days.”

The federal government runs a website called simply, AirNow, and it’s focused on fires and smoke. The site includes a color-coded map through which you can zoom in on individual Iowa counties to check on air quality.

More at https://fire.airnow.gov/

(Elk Horn, Iowa) – A public hearing on a proposed 2022-23 Budget Amendment for the Exira-EHK School District took place during the Board of Education meeting, Tuesday night. Superintendent Trevor

Miller said his philosophy is to “Not build-in a lot of fluff” when it comes to the budget.

In other business, the Exira-EHK Board approved an amended agreement with the Green Hills AEA for a School-Based Interventionist.

The Board also approved a District Career and Academic Planning (DCAP) Plan, as well as an English Language Arts (Reading) Curriculum, through Amplify.

(Iowa DNR News, 5/17/23) – Despite a rainy cold closing weekend across much of state, Iowa’s wild turkey hunters reported harvesting more than 14,800 birds through the mandatory registration system, an increase of nearly 3,000 versus the 2022 harvest. Officials with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources report Iowa’s spring turkey seasons began April 7 with the youth season and ended on May 14. Hunters purchased nearly 54,500 spring turkey tags, an increase of 2,000 licenses from 2022.

Turkey production has been good across most of the state the past two years and these two-year-old birds were likely a good portion of the harvest, said Jim Coffey, forest wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR). “The two-year-old birds are the most likely to gobble and the most likely to move,” he said. “When we combine birds willing to move, pretty good weather during the season and the great passion our turkey hunters have for the resource, we get a harvest for the record books.”

While the hunting season may be done for 2023, Iowans can help the DNR with its annual turkey production estimates by reporting all the turkeys seen during the months of July and August.  This annual survey is designed to predict the overall production of wild turkeys that will be available for the 2024 season. The DNR will have a link to the survey on its website before it begins on July 1, where Iowans seeing wild turkeys are asked to provide the date and county in which the turkey(s) was seen, if it was an adult female or adult male (males have beards on their breast), and whether there are young poults (baby turkeys) present.

Photo courtesy of the Iowa DNR.

Annual production surveys conducted by the DNR are an important component of the species management plans, which includes providing hunting opportunities.  Anyone seeing turkeys is encouraged to participate in this online survey.

(Carroll, Iowa/KCCI) — Recently released dashcam and body camera video from Carroll Police officers show a traffic stop in 2021 escalated to the point where an officer pointed as gun at the driver while standing on the hood of the vehcle that was pulled over, but then started to take off.

The incident happened during a normal traffic stop on March 5, 2021. KCCI reports a records check determined Dennis Guider, JR., was wanted on an arrest warrant out of Illinois. He was asked to step out of the vehicle during the traffic stop, but the man apparently panicked and began to pull-away from Carroll Police Officer Patrick McCarty, who was standing in front of the car, jumped onto the hood when he realized Guider wasn’t going to stop.

The vehicle sped away from police with the officer clinging to the car’s roof as speeds picked-up. Audio from the incident revealed McCarty, kneeling on the hood of the car with his gun drawn, yelled at Guider to “Stop the car, man. Stop the car.”

Other squad cars went after Guider while McCarty hung on to the roof. The chase only lasted for about a minute as Guider turned into a gravel lot and drove through a ditch where McCarty lost his grip, fell to the ground, and broke his back.

Guider pleaded guilty in March 2023, two years after the initial chase. During sentencing, Guider’s attorney asked the judge for leniency, arguing McCarty was never trained to step in front of a moving car.

(Harlan, Iowa) – The Shelby County Conservation Dept. is hosting its first kayak fishing session in a little over three-weeks. The event takes place Saturday, June 3rd from 8 AM to 10 AM, at Prairie Rose State Park. The group will meet on the east side of County Road M47. Women and families are highly encouraged to participate! This session will be limited to 15 people and there is a $5 fee. Pre-registration is required, please sign-up here: https://conta.cc/3ob9RYO

Kayaks and fishing poles will be provided, but feel free to bring your own equipment. If you are signed up for the hook and paddle program through the DNR, you will get extra points for attending this event. This is a free fishing weekend, so fishing licenses are encouraged, but not required.

(Radio Iowa) – Workers in Davenport have been removing the sand-filled HESCO barriers this week that kept back a surge of water on the Mississippi River. The river is receding fast after nearing record flood stage from snowmelt that came down from Minnesota. Tim Baldwin was around in 2019 when the flood waters inundated his building in downtown Davenport — but he says was feeling pretty confident in the work the city had done to keep his block safe this time.  “We had no worries at all that that wall was going to fail,” Baldwin says.

The city doubled the size and height of the wall after the water breached the wall in 2019. It held through the crest of 21-and-a-half feet. “We saw it creep up to one of its highest points we’ve ever seen it creep up on that wall before. There was a lot of wall left to go we could have handled a lot more water I think and again no concerns whatsoever,” according to Baldwin. Pete Stopulos owns several buildings that were damaged by the downtown flooding in 2019 — but didn’t see a repeat this year. ” Really, I think the major take away was the plan worked. In 2019, we all hoped the city would build the wall they did this time. Obliviously, the blueprint was there and they executed it and it worked quite well,” he says.

Davenport flooding, 4-30-23

Baldwin says they did lose some business at his Front Street Brewery and Tap Room as traffic was limited by road closures to the downtown. He’s counting on the Bix 7 Road Race and the 50th RAGBRAI to recoup some of that lost revenue.

(reporting by Zachary Smith, Iowa Public Radio)

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Two people were arrested on separate charges, Tuesday night, in Red Oak. Police say 40-year-old Elysia Tylene White, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 9-p.m. in the 600 block of N. 5th Street, in Red Oak. White was charged with Theft in the 5th Degree. Her bond at the Montgomery County Jail was set at $300. And, at around 8:30-p.m., 56-year-old John Philip Gekas, of Omaha, was arrested in Red Oak, following a traffic stop near Joy Street and Miller Avenue. Gekas was taken into custody on an active Ida County warrant for Contempt of Court. His bond was also set at $300.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – An investigation into an accident that took place at around 2:30-p.m. Tuesday, in Red Oak, resulted in an arrest. According to Red Oak Police, 25-year-old Hailey Ann Fada, of Red Oak, was arrested for OWI/1st offense. She was also cited for Failure to Maintain Control. Hailey Fada was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $1,000 bond.

The accident happened in the 1400 block of Eastern Avenue, when a 2017 Chevy Malibu driven by Fada, sideswiped a legally parked 2011 Ford F-250 pickup, registered to Charles Shipley, of Red Oak. Damage to the vehicles amounted to $3,500 for the pickup, and $4,000 to the Malibu.

(Rad Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red report a man was arrested Tuesday afternoon, for failing to appear in court on drug charges. Authorities say 29-Cody James Copeland, of Red Oak, was arrested on a Montgomery County warrant for failure to appear on original charges of possession of a controlled substance and a controlled substance violation.

Copeland was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $25,000 bond.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA –Three Cass County (Iowa) residents were sentenced on May 16, 2023 for conspiring to distribute fentanyl causing serious bodily injury or death.

Cam Christopher Jahnke, 33, was sentenced to 193 months in prison. Chase Daniel Jahnke, 29, was sentenced to 204 months in prison. Kelsi Thurman, 27, was sentenced to 156 months in prison. There is no parole in the federal system.

According to court documents, each defendant plead guilty to agreeing to obtaining fentanyl pills from sources in Omaha, Nebraska, and selling those pills in and around Cass County, Iowa. The investigation determined that between August 2019 and June 2022, the group obtained and distributed over 10,000 pills containing fentanyl. Fentanyl distributed by the group caused two fentanyl overdose deaths.

Two additional co-defendants, Colby Clarken, 20, and Collin Clarken, 25, have also plead guilty to the same charge of conspiracy to distribute fentanyl causing serious bodily injury or death. Both are scheduled to be sentenced in August 2023.

United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa stated the convictions disrupted a major source of supply of fentanyl in Western Iowa and was accomplished through the cooperation of numerous law enforcement agencies.

Agencies involved in this investigation included the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement, Atlantic Police Department, Cass County Sheriff’s Office, Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, Southwest Iowa Narcotics Enforcement Task Force (SWINE) Task Force, Council Bluffs Police Department, Iowa Division of Intelligence, Iowa State Patrol, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Crime Lab, United States Postal Inspection Service, and Omaha Police Department.