Jim Field visits with Howard Raymond of the Nebraska Antique Farming Association about the Antique Tractor Drive, especially the Iowa portion, this June. To find out more: CLICK HERE!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (19.6MB)
Subscribe: RSS
Jim Field visits with Howard Raymond of the Nebraska Antique Farming Association about the Antique Tractor Drive, especially the Iowa portion, this June. To find out more: CLICK HERE!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (19.6MB)
Subscribe: RSS
The American Red Cross is issuing a call for type O negative and AB blood donors to make an appointment to give after severe winter weather in some parts of the country caused about 250 Red Cross blood drives to cancel in March, resulting in more than 8,500 uncollected blood donations.
Type O negative blood and type AB plasma are two of the most in-demand blood products by hospitals. Those who give can help patients locally or across the country as the Red Cross has the ability to move blood products where and when they are needed most.
Type O negative blood can be transfused to patients with any blood type and is often needed in emergency situations when there isn’t time to determine a patient’s blood type. While less than 7 percent of the U.S. population has type O negative blood, hospitals depend on frequent O negative donations to ensure it’s always available for patients in need. Type O negative blood donors are an important part of the Red Cross trauma team.
Type AB is the universal plasma type and can be transfused to patients of any blood type in an emergency. Plasma helps maintain blood pressure and supplies critical proteins for clotting and immunity. Plasma can be donated through a blood donation.
How to help
Eligible donors can learn more, find a donation opportunity and schedule an appointment by using the free Blood Donor App, visiting redcrossblood.org or calling 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767). A blood donor card or driver’s license or two other forms of identification are required at check-in. Individuals who are 17 years of age in most states (16 with parental consent where allowed by state law), weigh at least 110 pounds and are in generally good health may be eligible to donate blood. High school students and other donors 18 years of age and younger also have to meet certain height and weight requirements.
Blood donors can save time at their donation appointment by using RapidPass to complete their pre-donation reading and health history questionnaire online, on the day of their donation, prior to arriving at the blood drive. To get started and learn more, visit redcrossblood.org/RapidPass and follow the instructions on the site.
Look! Up in the sky! It’s a super-sized flock of birds! Iowans are seeing huge congregations of feathered creatures filling the morning and evening skies, giant clouds of birds that often take several minutes to pass. Steve Dinsmore, a central Iowa ornithologist and bird watcher, says it’s typical during the spring and fall to see the birds migrating in tremendously large numbers over Iowa.
“Those could represent a number of different species of birds,” Dinsmore says. “One of them is European starlings, so we call those a murmuration of starlings. We also, right now, have very, very large numbers of blackbirds, primarily redwing blackbirds and common grackles, and also other species that are also migrating. Those birds, just like starlings, form these large, wavy, meandering flocks.”
Dinsmore is a professor of Natural Resource Ecology and Management at Iowa State University. He says birds of a feather do flock together for several reasons. “One of them certainly deals with predator avoidance, a sort of safety-in-numbers component,” Dinsmore says. “These birds also feed en mass so one of the other advantages of them associating in flocks is the transfer of information about foraging sites or feeding sites. They do that through these large flocks as they’ve moving to and from roosting and feeding areas.”
The miles-long undulating flocks are fascinating to watch and may contain tens of thousands of birds, perhaps more. “One of the real fun questions to try and answer is, ‘How many are there?’ and certainly, those flocks are very, very large, to the point where you can’t count individuals,” Dinsmore says. “Sometimes, we use estimation techniques or approximation techniques. Pushing 100,000 is pretty unusual but there are records in the hundreds of thousands and some estimates even up to a million individuals.”
Robins are out in plentiful numbers this spring, and some Iowans who live in larger cities are being surprised to spot wild turkeys in their back yards, though they’re typically thought of as county birds. “Those birds, in some cases, do pretty well in urban environments,” Dinsmore says. “It also turns out, because we just came off of a really mild winter, many species of birds, turkeys included and other game birds and other song birds, probably are going to do really well this year because they were able to survive what turned out to be a relatively mild winter.”
The waterfowl migration is also at its peak now in Iowa and in some areas, “spectacular numbers” of geese and ducks have arrived early and are staying later.
(Radio Iowa)
MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (AP) – One of the state’s largest hospital chains has gained approval to buy Marshalltown’s struggling hospital for nearly $12 million. The Des Moines Register reports a federal bankruptcy judge last week approved the sale of Central Iowa Healthcare’s 49-bed hospital to UnityPoint Health-Waterloo, an affiliate of Des Moines-based UnityPoint Health. UnityPoint spokeswoman Teresa Thoensen says the $11.9 million deal is expected to close this spring.
The sale followed Central Iowa Healthcare’s declaration of bankruptcy after losing $20 million last year. The losses were blamed on a poor launch of an electronic billing system and difficulties of operating an independent hospital amid moves of most hospitals to larger systems.
Central Iowa Healthcare also owns clinics in Marshalltown, Conrad, State Center and Toledo. Thoensen says Central Iowa Healthcare employees will be encouraged to apply for jobs with UnityPoint.
Police in Creston report 19-year old Adam Austin, of Creston, was arrested early this (Wednesday) morning, for Public Intoxication/2nd offense. Austin was being held in the Union County Jail on a $1,000 bond.
And, 34-year old Casey Claiser, of Creston, was cited Tuesday afternoon, for allowing an animal to run at-large.
The area’s top news at 7:06-a.m., w/KJAN News Director Ric Hanson
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.8MB)
Subscribe: RSS
The Iowa Basketball Coaches Association has announced the All-Sub State boys and girls basketball selections for the 2016-2017 season.
Two Hawkeye Ten boys coaches were named as sub-state coaches of the year, Alan Jenkins of Atlantic was named the Class 3-A Sub-State 8 coach of the year and Kuemper Catholic’s Sean Minnehan was tabbed in Class 2A Sub-State 8.
Local players that were named to an All-Substate boys team include:
Class 4-A Substate 1
Class 3-A Substate 8
Class 2-A Substate 7
Class 2-A Substate 8
Class 1-A Substate 7
Class 1-A Substate 8
The IBCA also announced the All-Region girls teams:
Class 4-A Region 1
Class 4-A Region 2
Class 4-A Region 8
Class 3-A Region 2
Class 3-A Region 3
Class 2-A Region 3
Class 2-A Region 4
Class 1-A Region 1
Class 1-A Region 8
PERRY, Iowa (AP) – A 25-year-old man has been convicted of hacking to death his girlfriend, her teenage daughter and the landlord of their home in central Iowa.
A Dallas County jury took just two hours Tuesday to find Carlos Hernandez-Ventura guilty of three counts of first-degree murder. Prosecutors say he used a machete on Oct. 29 to fatally attack 34-year-old Lourdes Flor De Leake, 14-year-old Melany Barraza and 78-year-old Juan Jimenez Tejada at the home in Perry.
Hernandez-Ventura testified that Leake’s estranged husband ordered him to kill the three because the man feared they knew about his drug dealing. Hernandez-Ventura said Daniel Leake told him that he would kill Hernandez-Ventura and his family if he didn’t kill the three.
Investigators testified that they found no evidence Daniel Leake was dealing drugs.
Today: Partly cloudy to cloudy w/lite mixed precip. this morning. High 49. NE @ 10-15. (UPDATED 7:20-a.m.)
Tonight: Mostly cloudy. Low 36. E @ 5-10.
Tomorrow: Mo.Cldy w/a 50% chance of showers & t-storms. High 60. SE @ 10-20.
Friday: Mo. Cldy w/a 70% chance of showers/thundershowers. High near 70.
Saturday: Cloudy an 80% chance scattered showers & tstrms. High 64
Tuesday’s High in Atlantic was 48. Our Low this morning was 29. We received .06” of rain and some flurries Tuesday, in Atlantic. Last year on this date, our High in Atlantic was 63 and the low was 49. The Record High in Atlantic on this date was 86 in 1910. The Record Low was -6 in 1912.
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
RSS