At least five hunters were wounded during separate shooting incidents during the second day of the shotgun deer hunting season, in Iowa. Officials with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources say a Red Oak man was injured at around 8:30-a.m. Sunday, while hunting deer west of Indianola. 58-year old Miles Sagen was hit in the shoulder/upper chest area by a deer slug fired at a running deer by some else in his nine-member hunting party. The slug traveled approximately 144 yards before striking Sagen. Dense fog in the area is believed to have played a role in the incident. Visibility at the time was limited to about 100-yards.

A Halbur woman was injured during another hunting accident in Crawford County. 32-year old Stacy Wiltfang, was hunting with one other person north of Arion at approximately 3 p.m.  While she was sitting, a bullet from a high-powered small caliber rifle penetrated her boot, but did not penetrate her foot. She was treated at the Crawford County Memorial Hospital in Denison, and released.

A Cedar Rapids man was injured Sunday afternoon, after his gun discharged while deer hunting in Iowa County. 46-year-old Steven Thompson was hunting about two miles east of Victor, when his shotgun accidentally fired, striking one of his big toes. He was treated in Marengo before being transferred to the University Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City.

A rural Mason City man was hospitalized Sunday after sustaining a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the foot while deer hunting in Floyd County. 29-year old Jeffrey Esser was wounded around 4 p.m. Sunday while hunting in heavy brush southeast of Nora Springs.  The DNR says Esser’s 12-gauge shotgun accidentally fired, hitting him in the right foot. He was taken to North Iowa Mercy Medical Center in Mason City, where he underwent surgery Sunday evening.

And, 48-year-old Clint Morgan, of Saucier, Miss., was wounded around noon Sunday southwest of Blakesburg, in Monroe County. Morgan was struck in the elbow by a slug fired by another member of his seven-member hunting party. Morgan was taken to a Des Moines hospital for treatment.

Each of the incidents are under investigation. None of the injuries were believed to be life threatening. The DNR estimated more than 100,000 hunters took to the field in pursuit of deer this weekend. So far this year, there have been at least 11 personal injury hunting-related incidents reported to the DNR.

The Cass County Board of Supervisors, Friday, held a public hearing on a Contract for Private Development in support of the Fagen Farms acquisition of property in the former Amaizing Energy Ethanol Plant area. The contract, when approved, will be for the purpose of securing a developer to construct a Second Generation Bio-Fuels/Renewable Energy facility, or Ag-related facility on the site.

After much discussion, it was determined that before an agreement is reached, a site survey needs to be conducted to determine exactly which portion of area needs to be reclassified from Light Industrial to Agricultural. The change in classification would serve to reduce the tax bill for Fagen, in fact, nearly cutting them in-half. A reduction in property taxes is one of the conditions Fagen requires to be met before they commit to building a next-gen plant in the area. As it stands now, the 63.7-acres is valued at $1.87-million dollars.

The Cass County Zoning Commission will meet at 7-p.m. December 13^th, to conduct a public hearing on the change in zoning to allow Second Gen Renewable Energy facilities to be included in an Agricultural Zone. It’s also possible the Commission may simply elect to change the terms and definition of “Light Industrial,” to include similar facilities, for future development in the County.

In other business, the Board of Supervisors, Friday, approved the closing of the Courthouse on Monday, December 24^th, and paid as a holiday, in advance of Christmas. The Courthouse offices will be closed Monday and Tuesday, Dec. 24^th and 25^th. They will reopen for business on Dec. 26^th. The Board also opted out of being included in a Regional funding “Pool” for Mental Health Regionalization.

Officials with the Cass County Conservation service say the sponsors of Trumpeter Swan Arrival contest have determined a winner in the contest. The official arrival of the swans, as determined by the Conservation Board, was November 24th  On that day there were 12 Trumpeter Swans at the Schildberg Quarry Recreational Area. The large-winged birds stayed there for more than twenty-four hours. The winner this year’s contest is Alice Brown of Atlantic.

Alice will receive a Trumpeter Swan 8×10 print from the Cass County Conservation Board.  The school contest was won by Mrs. Christensen’s third grade at Washington Elementary The students will receive a trumpeter swan poster and Mrs. Christensen will receive a trumpeter swan 8×10 print! Cass County Conservation would like to thank to all who participated in the annual event.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – A day of free admission has been scheduled at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium.  First National Bank is the sponsor. Gate admission will be free from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday.

The zoo is located just south of Interstate 80, off Exit 454, South 13th Street, in eastern Omaha. It is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. through February.

The opening of deer season this weekend will also mark the start of another round of testing for Chronic Wasting Disease (C-W-D).  The Department of Natural Resources will be particularly focused on a few select counties this year. The disease which is fatal to deer has not been found in 10 years of sampling of the wild deer population, but this year it was discovered in deer held at private hunting preserves in southern Iowa. D-N-R biologist Willy Suchy says they won’t be increasing the number of tests very much.

“Well, we have to keep the cost about the same, so we not going to take too many more. We sampled about 47-hundred last year. We’re going to do pretty much the same, we’re just going to shift some around to different areas to do our surveillance and to target where we think there’s the highest risk,” Suchy says. They will sample more heavily in Wapello, Davis, Pottawattamie and Cerro Gordo counties where the infected deer were found. Most samples of the deer tissue are obtained by wildlife staff.

A majority of the samples are taken received from hunters, but Suchy says they also take some sample from road-kill deer too. “And the most important thing is if anybody sees an animal that appears sick of emaciated, to contact one of our wildlife officers or wildlife biologists to get a sample,” according to Suchy.

The D-N-R has worked with the facilities to contain the infected deer, but Suchy can’t say if that has kept the disease from spreading to the wild population until the check the samples. The heaviest focus on samples in past years has been in northeast Iowa after cases of C-W-D were discovered in the border states of Wisconsin and Illinois.

The state has tested samples from over 42-thousand wild deer thus far and found not positive tests for C-W-D.

(Radio Iowa)

WACO, Neb. (AP) – Monsanto is investing more than $100 million to expand four of its seed processing plants in Nebraska, Iowa and Indiana.  Monsanto officials told the Lincoln Journal Star that the expansion is needed to increase the company’s capacity to product corn seeds.  The St. Louis-based company announced the expansion on Wednesday.

Monsanto’s Shawn Schrader says most of the money will be spent in Waco, Neb., and Remington, Ind., because those projects will have the biggest effect on production. The Iowa expansion will be in Grinnell and Williamsburg.  Another reason why Monsanto is investing in the Waco, Neb., site is that the area is 100 percent irrigated, so the company would be somewhat protected against drought.  The company hopes to have the expanded plants operational by next year’s harvest.

ST. LOUIS (AP) – A new report shows that the nation’s worst drought in decades has worsened for a second straight week, after conditions had improved for more than a month.  The weekly U.S. Drought Monitor report released Thursday shows that 62.7 percent of the continental U.S. was in some form of drought as of Tuesday. That’s up from 60.1 percent the previous week.

The portion of the lower 48 states in extreme or exceptional drought – the two worst classifications – also rose, to 20.12 percent from last week’s 19.04 percent.   The dry conditions intensified sharply in Oklahoma, where 90.5 percent of the state is in extreme or exceptional drought. That’s up 19 percentage points.

The portion of South Dakota in those two classifications rose more than 8 percentage points, to 63.32 percent.