(Manchester, Iowa) – A semi tractor-trailer driver from eastern Iowa was injured in an accident Thursday afternoon, in Delaware County. The Iowa State Patrol reports a 2015 Freightliner semi driven by 60-year-old Michael Nelson, of Dundee, was traveling south on 130th Avenue, when Nelson attempted to pick-up a GPS unit that had fallen. When the semi drifted onto the right shoulder, Nelson over-corrected, resulting in a loss of control.

The semi entered the east ditch and rolled over. The accident happened at around 2-p.m., Thursday. Nelson -who was wearing a seat belt – was transported by Unity Point Air to the University Of Iowa Hospital. The vehicle was registered to Jensen Transport, Inc., out of Independence.

The Patrol was assisted at the scene by Delaware County Sheriff’s Deputies, Manchester Fire, RMC Ambulance and Iowa DOT Motor Vehicle Enforcement personnel.

(Creston, Iowa) – Two men were arrested on separate OWI/1st offense charges in Creston over the past couple of days. Creston Police says 18-year-old Austin James Breuklander, of Eagleville, MO., was arrested at around 11:25-a.m. Tuesday. Breuklander was taken to Union County Jail and later posted a $1,000 bond.

And, at around 2:55-a.m. Wednesday, Creston Police arrested 36-year-old James Nicholas Wilson, of Creston, for OWI/1st offense. Wilson was taken to Union County Jail and later released, after posting a $1,000 bond.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Cass County Master Gardeners will host their annual Spring Plant Sale, on May 13th. Kate Olson, Cass County Extension Director, says the event – which takes place on the Cass County Fairgrounds – promises to have a wide variety of perennials available for gardeners looking to update their landscape this year, as well as lawn tools, décor and plants for food gardening.

The sale begins at 8-a.m., on May 13th, and will be held in the front parking lot of the Cass County Community Center on the fairgrounds at 805 W 10th Street in Atlantic. Interested gardeners are encouraged to arrive early for best plant selection, as the annual spring and fall sales occasionally sell out before 10 AM.  The sale will be open to the public to purchase divided perennials suitable for spring planting, as well as a variety of donated garden tools, books and decor. All items will be sold for a free will offering, with all proceeds from the plant sale used to support Master Gardener scholarships and community grants, as well as projects around the county.

For the annual spring sale, Cass County Master Gardeners will be bringing a variety of perennial and annual plants from their own gardens, as well as plants dug from gardens in the local area. Plants currently expected to be on the sale include several varieties of hostas, daylilies, sedum, salvia, penstemon, turtlehead, and irises; with more expected to be added as the sale approaches. Community members are also welcome to donate plants to this event, and members may even help you dig! If you are dividing perennials in your yard this spring and have extra plants to donate, please call in advance and make arrangements to drop off donated plants before the date of the plant sale.

A special offering at this year’s plant sale will be a partnership with the Atlantic FFA to offer food plants and started annuals for sale. Plants will include several varieties of bell peppers, jalapenos, and tomatoes, in addition to garlic, basil, peppermint, cilantro, oregano and onions. Flowering plants will include Marigolds, Zinnias, Coneflowers and 4 varieties of Wave Petunias. This is the first year the students will offer plants for sale, after the recent addition of a new greenhouse at the high school. All FFA plants will be sold at a separate booth and individually priced. Information will also be available on student plant sales from other Cass County FFA chapters.

An informational table will be set up on other gardening partnerships and projects, including growing and donating produce through the Grow Another Row partnership on growing, harvesting and donating extra produce to local pantries and other organizations, to ensure all residents have access to fresh, tasty and local produce throughout the growing season! Details about upcoming Master Gardener activities- including the annual bus tour in early June, and a new local garden tour at the end of June, will also be available at the plant sale. The Cass County Master Gardeners hold annual plant sales twice a year, on the second Saturdays of May and September, to raise funds for projects and scholarship funds and to share gardening information with the public. Mark your calendars now for the fall sale on September 9!

For more information about the plant sale and other Master Gardener activities in Cass County, please call the Cass County Extension Office at 712-243-1132, or email Cass County Extension Director and Master Gardener Coordinator Kate Olson at keolson@iastate.edu.  In addition, you are invited to follow the Cass County Master Gardeners at their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/CassCoMG to keep up with local events and tips for gardening and learn more about the Master Gardener program in Iowa!

(Atlantic, Iowa) – An event scheduled for May 12th in Atlantic will feature Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley. The YMCA’s “Luncheon and Q&A” (Question & Answer) session is open to the public by reservation only. The Town Hall-style event takes place from 11-a.m. until 12:30-p.m., May 12th, at the Nishna Valley Family YMCA (1100 Maple St.), in Atlantic. Lunch will be served from 11-to 11:30-a.m.

Reservations are being accepted until May 10th at Noon. To reserve your seat, please call Tina Olson at 712-243-3934.

(Radio Iowa) – A District Court Judge has ruled that an Iowa law allowing hazardous liquid pipeline companies to enter private land to conduct surveys is unconstitutional. The ruling came in a lawsuit by Navigator against a landowner who wouldn’t let surveyors onto his land near the northwest Iowa town of Sioux Rapids. Omaha-based Navigator wants to build a pipeline that would capture carbon dioxide from ethanol and fertilizer plants and send it to another location to be stored underground. Navigator and Summit Carbon Solutions of Iowa have sued landowners unwilling to allow surveyors onto their property. A Navigator spokesperson issued a statement saying the the company plans to appeal the ruling.

(Radio Iowa) – Waterloo police are investigating the death of a nine-month-old child and the serious injury of a woman in a dog attack in a home Thursday morning. Police were called at 7:22 a-m and say the child died at the scene. The 49-year-old woman was taken to a local hospital with serious injuries, and then flown to the University of Iowa Hospitals in Iowa City. The names of the child and the woman have not been released.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – The Keep Iowa Beautiful (KIB) Board of Directors has announced Farmers Mutual Telephone Company in Stanton and the Community of Manning were among the winners of the 2023 “Keep Iowa Beautiful Award.” KIB Executive Director Andy Frantz says “The Keep Iowa Beautiful award program recognizes exceptional people and organizations that have gone above and beyond to create stronger Iowa communities. Creating a stronger sense of pride in community improves the economic vitality and cultural climate where we live, work and raise a family.”

The Corporation Award was presented to FARMERS MUTUAL TELEPHONE COMPANY, for leading by example in connectivity, housing and community development in Stanton.

The Keep Iowa Beautiful Organization Award goes to the IOWA RURAL DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL, for empowering rural communities and resource providers towards collaboration and positive change.

The Keep Iowa Beautiful Robert D. Ray Award of Excellence was won by the COMMUNITY OF MANNING, for fostering innovation, leadership, and pride in developing a vibrant community, and the COMMUNITY OF POCAHONTAS for building strong partnerships with community groups and businesses and enhancing Hometown Pride in the community.

The Keep Iowa Beautiful Donald F. Lamberti Hometown Pride Vision Award selected SCOTT SMITH for his longtime support and service to improving the quality of life in our state making Iowa’s communities better places to live and raise a family.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – Three high school seniors are receiving Keep Iowa Beautiful $1,000 scholarships toward their studies at an Iowa college or university.

OLIVIA ARKFELD, of Council Bluffs, was awarded the Byers Scholarship. She will be attending University of Iowa, studying environmental engineering. Educator Bob Byers dedication to young people and environmental concerns was a driving force encouraging young people to help improve their communities.

Olivia Arkfeld

CLAIRE BRITT, of West Union, was awarded the Fultz Scholarship. She will be attending University of Iowa, studying marketing/managing.  Bill Fultz was a founding KIB Board member and artist. He started an advertising agency that became the largest agriculture advertising agency in the world.

AMANDA OGLE, of Gravity, was awarded a Schnepf Scholarship. She plan on attending Iowa State University, studying environmental engineering. Gerry Schnepf, founding Executive Director. His careers spanned 50 years of making Iowa a better place to live, work and raise a family.

“Keep Iowa Beautiful is proud to award scholarships to graduating high school seniors who have a

Claire Britt

record of community service and environmental stewardship,” said Andy Frantz, Keep Iowa Beautiful Executive Director, “These seniors have a passion to improve the places where they live and work throughout their lives and careers, and we couldn’t be more excited to see where their education takes them.”

Since the creation of the scholarship program, Keep Iowa Beautiful has awarded $57,000 to 67 students.  There were 112 applications for this year’s three scholarships.

Amanda Ogle

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds says the 2023 legislative session has set Iowa on a new path, starting with what she calls transformational education reform. At the end of this month, low income parents of private school students can start applying for 76-hundred dollars in state money to cover tuition and other costs. House Speaker Pat Grassley says Reynolds and Republican candidates for the House promised action on this and other education-related issues.

“We’ve been in the majority now for over 10 years,” Grassley says. “We try to make commitments and follow through with those things that we tell Iowans that we’re going to do.” Another new law will ban classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in elementary grades. Parents are to be notified if their child asks to be known by a different name or pronoun at school. And books with passages or graphic art about sex will be removed from school libraries. Representative Sharon Steckman, a Democrat from Mason City who’s a retired teacher, says educators are worried.

“I haven’t talked to one teacher that’s excited about any of it,” Steckman says. “They feel like they’re under a magnifying glass and not able to do their job.” The 2023 legislative session concluded shortly after 12:30 Thursday afternoon — a day after a property tax reform measure passed the House and Senate with just a single “no” vote. Senate Republican Leader Jack Whitver says the bill is historic.

“It’s putting in place things legislators have looked at for decades…but a perform storm of a focus of the legislature, a desire of Iowans to see this assessment issue fixed led to some of the best policy that we’ve been able to put forward on property taxes that I believe will truly have an impact at the local level for decades to come.” Democrats say they’re thrilled property owners will see relief, but they’ll be monitoring implementation to make sure cities and counties aren’t forced to cut essential services. Another bill that won final legislative approval this week eases some current restrictions on the jobs and hours teenagers may work. Governor Reynolds plans to sign it into law.

“I think it’s wonderful if kids want to try to earn some money while they’re in high school, maybe save for college because we continue to see the cost go up or maybe get a registered apprenticeship program,” Reynolds says. “They start that opportunity in a business and maybe go on not only to be employed there, but to stay in a rural community and raise a family and support our schools.” Democrats in the legislature opposed the bill and argued relying on teenagers to fill jobs isn’t the way to address the state’s workforce crisis. The governor says she’s not hearing concerns.

“I can’t even really understand all the hoopla about it. It doesn’t seem like very much common sense and I hear that when I travel around the state,” Reynolds says. “People are perplexed, I mean literally perplexed at why we would care if kids want to work or not. It’s not a mandate.” Reynolds says the bill will expand opportunities for young Iowans looking for experience in the workforce.

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds has approved the property tax changes that cleared the legislature this week. “Legislation as complex and important as local property taxes only happen when policymakers are willing to dig into the weeds and get the details right,” Reynolds says. “This bill’s near unanimous passage through both chambers of the legislature is a testament to their long hours of work on behalf of the people of Iowa.”

The new law requires cities and counties to lower property tax collections based on a new formula that kicks in next year. It’s designed to limit property tax revenue growth after this spring’s assessments showed farmland and home values skyrocketing — which could lead to higher property tax bills in September of 2024. The plan includes more generous property tax benefits for veterans and elderly Iowans.

“All tolled, this bill will deliver $100 million in savings,” Reynolds said, “the most significant property tax reform in state history.” Reynolds signed the bill into law Thursday afternoon, shortly after the 2023 legislative session concluded. Senate Republican Leader Jack Whitver says lawmakers are listening to property owners.

“This spring they were shocked, appalled and concerned with the drastic assessment increases to their property and extremely concerned about what it would mean for their property taxes,” Whitver says. “We promised on the opening day of this session that we would address this issue and today we keep that promise.” Senator Dan Dawson, a Republican from Council Bluffs, led development of the bill.

“The historic building blocks being put into place here will start the long-term process of rebuilding our property tax system,” Dawson says. “Ultimately we are asking local governments to do what we have been doing at the state level: fund your priorities, but pass along some of this excess assessment valuation back to the taxpayers.” House Speaker Pat Grassley says the bill provides certainty as well as relief to property owners.

“This bill shows, as well as everything else that we’ve been able to accomplish…the ability for the governor’s office, the House and Senate to identify problems that Iowans have brought to us,” Grassley says, “and be able to take true action that provides true levels of reform.” Every Republican present and all but one Democrat in the legislature supported the bill. Senate Minority Leader Zach Wahls says Democrats are thrilled middle class families are getting relief and will listen to local officials who are worried about how to implement the changes.

House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst says Democrats want to make sure seniors and veterans don’t get smaller property tax bills, but wind up losing local services they depend upon.