(Radio Iowa) – The new U-S Drought Monitor shows the areas of Iowa with extreme and severe drought dropped following recent rains. Iowa Ag Secretary Mike Naig says a lot of farmers are thankful for the rains. “You know, you’d still say, and then the drought monitor will still say, that we’re dry. And you know, 100 percent of the state of Iowa is in at least abnormally dry. And you’ve seen persistent drought in some places like along western Iowa, southeast Iowa, there’s a pocket. But once again, this year, we’ve seen timely rain,” Naig says.

He says the impact of the drought has not been totally washed away. “We’ve got some places in the state that certainly will, we’ll see some yield reduction because of that persistent dryness,” Naig says. “But as I’ve traveled the state, there’s a lot of places that look really good. So now’s when you need rain, you still need to finish this crop off. And it’s good to see a more active weather pattern.”

IA AG Sec Mike Naig (RI photo)

Naig was at the Iowa State Fair for its opening ceremonies Thursday. He touted the new “Choose Iowa” program. “This is something that the legislature funded this past year, it’s time for us as a state to have a branded program for Iowa-made, Iowa-raised, Iowa-grown products,” he says. “So you know, it’s everything from a farmer selling beef direct to a consumer or a vegetable producer who’s working with a restaurant working with a chef.”  Naig says consumers have been asking for and want to consider local when they are buying food.  “I see a lot of exciting opportunities here. And I think too, for small and beginning farmers, just more market opportunities for folks to sell. And again, consumers are going to win in this whole thing,” he says.

Food, beverages and other agricultural products that are grown, raised or made within Iowa and meet or exceed minimum criteria can carry the “Choose Iowa” logo.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Democratic Party chair Rita Hart says Democrats have not yet decided whether to hold their Caucuses on the same night as Iowa Republicans. The Iowa G-O-P announced in July their first-in-the-nation Caucuses will be held on January 15th. Hart says she’s not going to commit to that date until the Iowa Democratic Party’s State Central Committee reaches a consensus.

“We’ve said from the very beginning that we would have the Caucuses on the same day as the Republicans,” Hart says. “I certainly would like to see that we are able to do that.”

The two major parties have typically held their Caucuses on the same night as the first voting event in presidential campaign seasons. National Democrats have decided South Carolina will vote first in 2024, followed by four other states. Iowa Republicans have secured the opening spot in their party’s 2024 nominating process. Hart says Democrats were not consulted when Republicans announced their Caucuses would be held on January 15th — the Martin Luther King, Junior holiday.

“I think in the past Republicans and Democrats have worked together on determining that date,” Hart says, “so it was disappointing that we did not have any input.”

Hart says she’s speaking with black leaders around the state to see if they are concerned the Democratic Party’s Caucuses would conflict with events to mark the Martin Luther King, Junior holiday. In 2004, Iowa Democrats and Republicans held their Caucuses on M-L-K Day. Hart made her comments during taping of the “Iowa Press” program that airs tonight (Friday) on Iowa P-B-S.

(Radio Iowa) – Former Vice President Mike Pence says he’s looking forward to a vigorous discussion as the 2024 Republican presidential candidates debate on August 23rd. Eight candidates have qualified for the debate in Milwaukee, but former President Trump has not yet announced whether he’ll be there. Pence says the debate will give voters a fresh look at him and the other candidates.

“Everyone that is standing for the Republican nomination, from my former running mate on down, ought to be on that stage, ought to be making their case,” Pence said, “and we’ll let the American people decide.” Pence spoke at the Des Moines Register’s Political Soapbox at the Iowa State Fair Thursday, and briefly debated a man in the crowd. Pence was asked why he committed treason on January 6th, a reference to Pence’s role in certifying Joe Biden’s Electoral College win. A couple of other people in the crowd booed and Pence intervened.

“It’s a fair question. Look, come on people. That’s why I came…There’s almost no idea more un-American than the notion that one person could pick the American president. The American presidency belongs to the American people and the American people alone,” Pence said, to applause and cheers from many in the crowd. North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum — also campaigning at the State Fair — told reporters he doesn’t need a break through moment in the debate.

“Debate prep looks like this: being at the Fair, talking to real American citizens,” Burgum said. “We’re not going in some closet and trying to memorize lines. We’re talking to real people and what they’re concerned about. They’re concerned about inflation.”

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was at the fair Thursday to offer the Democratic Party’s rebuttal to the G-O-P candidates. “Democrats are going to vote and they’re going to vote for President Biden,” Walz said. “They know what the alternative is.”

Four G-O-P presidential candidates will be at the State Fair today (Friday) and each will appear with Governor Reynolds for one of her Fair Side Chats.

(Radio Iowa) – Republican presidential candidate Doug Burgum says he is fully confident an Iowa company’s pipeline to ship carbon to underground storage in North Dakota will be built. Burgum is the governor of North Dakota, where a three-member commission has rejected Summit Carbon Solutions proposed route through his state.

Burgum says he expects the pipeline to be approved after a reconsideration. Burgum says North Dakota already has carbon pipelines, including one that’s been running for 22 years. He says “carbon is not the devil element on the periodic table.”

(Radio Iowa) – Iowans who enjoy bowling in their spare time should strike out for northeast Iowa to catch some of the top bowlers on the planet at the Professional Women’s Bowling Association Championship Week in Waterloo. Gene Kanak, spokesman for the P-W-B-A, says the event is actually three bowling tournaments in one, including the season’s final major championship.

After qualifying rounds in the P-W-B-A Waterloo Open on Wednesday, the top 12 competitors are bowling two six-game rounds of round-robin match play today (Thursday), and the top five players will advance to the stepladder finals. Kanak says the championships draw droves of spectators and it’s pretty easy to catch one of the pros for an autograph or a selfie.

The occasional bowler might be thrilled to break a hundred, but Kanak says these professionals are scoring significantly higher. A score of 300 is a perfect game, that’s 12 strikes in a row.

The seven-day championship event is underway at Cadillac Xtreme Bowling Center in Waterloo through next Tuesday.

PWBA.com

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa State Fair opened today (Thursday) with Governor Kim Reynolds and others cutting a ribbon near the entrance gate.

The Governor made some brief remarks welcoming everyone.

Fair Board chair Darwin Gaudian of Primghar says he is looking forward to some good weather.

His close “Best Days Ever”, is the theme of this year’s Iowa State Fair. The fair runs through August 20th.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Here’s a reminder from “The Station Where your friends are,” that the Nishna Valley Trails group is holding a Kids Bike Ride Saturday, August 12th, at Schildberg Recreation Area west parking lot, in Atlantic. Check-in, and the start of the ride at the west parking lot, will begin at 10:30-a.m.

Three age groups ride a length of the trail according to age. The event is FREE, and all ages welcome. After the ride check out Atlanticfest going on in the downtown area!

The Kids Bike Ride is co-sponsored by Atlantic Parks and Recreation, Cass County Conservation, Fareway, and West Side Diner, in Atlantic. For questions, call Cass County Naturalist Lora Kanning, at 712-769-2372.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is calling on the federal EPA to demand one of its former leaders pay back tens of thousands of dollars she “wasted” while in office. Grassley stopped short of saying criminal charges should be filed against Katherine Lemos, the former chair and CEO of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, or CSB. He says Lemos violated the public trust and squandered taxpayer resources. “I think that I want the money back,” Grassley says. “Beyond that, I’ll let the Justice Department take whatever action ought to be taken.”

Grassley quotes a recent EPA Inspector General report that says Lemos improperly spent almost $98,000 on travel, unnecessary training, and office decor. He says, “I think that we run into this waste of taxpayers money too much on things being spent that shouldn’t be spent.” Grassley says members of the CSB are paid to investigate and respond to chemical hazard situations, not to redecorate their offices. He says the misspent funds should be returned to reimburse taxpayers — and to deter future abuse.

“This isn’t Senator Grassley making this judgment, it’s the inspector general of the agency making that judgment,” he says, “and yes, she should pay back that 90-some-thousand dollars of taxpayers money that she wasted.” Lemos resigned in July of 2022. The inspector general report found Lemos illegally used government funds to pay for travel between Washington, D.C., and her home in San Diego. The report also says she spent more than $22,000 to redecorate her office, violating a federal law that caps such expenses at $5,000.

(Radio Iowa) – The tree-planting program called Re-Leaf is holding a ceremony in Cedar Rapids this (Thursday) morning, marking the devastating derecho that swept across Iowa three years ago today. Winds peaked at 140 miles an hour and it was the most costly storm in U-S history. Cedar Rapids was especially hard hit, losing two-thirds of its canopy — or some 670-thousand trees. In this interview from August of 2020, state climatologist Justin Glisan said the storm started in southern South Dakota.

“The derecho itself held together for 770 miles over 14 hours before losing strength as it entered western Ohio,” Glisan says. Many Iowans had never even heard the term “derecho” before the powerful storm blasted across the state’s midsection, wiping out trees, power lines and crops. Three Iowans were killed, many were hurt. To be designated as a derecho, a storm must have a width of at least 60 miles and travel at least 400 miles. In this file interview, Dennis Todey, director of the U-S-D-A’s Midwest Climate Hub in Ames, said derechos are hard to predict.

“Unfortunately, we can’t forecast these things too well in advance,” Todey says, “but once it set up and it was starting to look consistent, the Weather Service was right on top of it then and was doing warnings well ahead of it, letting people know this was a pretty nasty situation and had the potential for doing severe damage, which it did.” More than a half-million Iowa homes and businesses lost power during the storm, easily among the worst weather disasters for the state’s electric utilities. The governor declared 20 counties disaster areas. Todey says a derecho is very atypical to the storms Iowans are used to seeing during the summer months.

NWS photo near Shellsburg, August 10, 2020

“Unlike some thunderstorms which build up, rain out and then the cold air that spreads out from that shuts down the instability around a storm, this one is able to feed on itself,” Todey says. “The wind coming out ahead of it is able to lift warmer, moister air ahead of it and that keeps feeding back on that storm and maintain its strength all the way through.”

Derecho is a Spanish word that can be translated as direct or straight ahead. It was first coined by Dr. Gustavus Hinrichs at the University of Iowa in the late 1800s. Hinrichs, who started the first state weather service, is also among the researchers credited with the discovery of the atom and the Periodic Table of Elements.

(Webster County, Iowa) – Police in Fort Dodge have issued Felony arrest warrants for two men suspected of being involved in shots-fired incident. Authorities say a warrant for Attempt to Commit Murder, was issued for 29-year-old Austin S. Ferguson. And, 47-year-old Jason H. Ferguson is wanted for Aiding and Abetting Attempt to Commit Murder. The charges are Class – B Felonies, and were issued Wednesday in association with an incident whereby shots were fired at a car near North 14th Street and 1st Avenue North in Fort Dodge, on July 30th. No injuries were reported.

Austin S. Ferguson is described as being 6-feet tall and weighing 256-pounds. Jason H. Ferguson is 5-feet 9-inches tall. He weighs 220-pounds. Both men should be considered armed and dangerous.

If you have any information on their location, do not attempt to approach the men. Instead, contact Fort Dodge police at 515-573-1424, or Webster County Crime Stoppers anonymously at 515-573-1444, wccrimestoppers.com or by texting “LEC” and the tip to 274637. You can also call 9-1-1 or your local law enforcement agency.