(Radio Iowa) – Planned Parenthood officials say they do not yet know on how many Iowans have sought abortions out of state after Iowa’s ban on most abortions after the sixth week of a pregnancy took effect July 29th. Dr. Sarah Traxler is medical director for Planned Parenthood of North Central States, which includes Iowa.

“Quite a few of my patients in Minnesota and Nebraska are from Iowa,” she says. “We do anticipate partner organizations that really focus on the data of abortion care will be releasing data soon so that we can actually measure the impact of this ban in Iowa.” Iowa is among four states that ban most abortions after the sixth week of a pregnancy. The Iowa law has exceptions for rape, incest, fetal abnormality or life of the mother.

Holly Thomas, a patient navigator for Planned Parenthood, says she has personally helped 750 women in the past three months and the majority were from Iowa. “I recently worked with a patient who needed to be seen out of state. She chose to go to a nearby state, but didn’t have any transportation,” Thomas said. “We worked with volunteer pilots who were able to fly her to the location and once there, we provided her with a hotel room and gift cards for food and ride shares to get her to the airport.”

Planned Parenthood closed and consolidated some clinics in Iowa in the past year and has expanded its clinic in Omaha, Nebraska, where abortion is allowed up to the 12th week of a pregnancy. Nebraska voters are being presented with two competing ballot initiatives on abortion this election. Maggie DeWitte, executive director of Pulse Life Advocates of Iowa, is a spokesperson for the Iowa Coalition of Pro-Life Leaders. “I just feel very grateful and blessed that we live in a state where we are now moving forward with more protection for women and families in Iowa,” DeWitte says.

DeWitte says it took six years to get the Iowa abortion restrictions enforced that Governor Reynolds initially approved in 2018.

(Radio Iowa) – Most kids hate to go trick-or-treating while having to wear a winter coat that covers up their spooky costume, but that might be necessary in parts of Iowa this week.

Meteorologist Brooke Hagenhoff, at the National Weather Service, says the forecast for Halloween night calls for lows in the 30s in central and southern Iowa, and the upper 20s in northern Iowa.

“The good news is, those coldest temperatures won’t occur until very, very late, in most cases, after midnight on Thursday night,” Hagenhoff says, “but for prime trick-or-treating, kind of in that 6 to 8 PM time range, we’re looking at temperatures, just after sunset, should be dropping into the mid to low 40s.”

National Weather Service photo

Some areas of northern Iowa may be in the upper 30s during trick-or-treat time, meaning kids will need to wear warmer costumes or layer well under their outfits. Des Moines and a few other Iowa communities will hold trick-or-treating on Wednesday night, and while it’ll be cold, rain is also possible.

“There is a chance for some severe storms as well with these storms as they move through, so not just rain, but also lightning,” Hagenhoff says. “We want to make sure people are not just worried about getting wet, but also staying safe. Lightning can certainly be dangerous as we try to walk around getting that candy, so keep a close eye on the forecast for that.”

In many areas of the state, it’s been a glorious fall, with the leaves changing to stunning golds, yellows, oranges and reds. If you’re a leaf watcher, you might need to snap a few pictures right away, as those colorful leaves may soon be gone with the wind.

“We’re looking at today, wind gusts over 35 miles per hour possible, and then Tuesday, our warmest day is also our breeziest day, and we’re looking at wind gusts that could top 45 miles per hour in most places across the state,” Hagenhoff says, “so we’re going to be blowing a lot of leaves out of the trees.”

High temps today and tomorrow are forecast in the 70s and 80s, but a cold front is forecast to arrive with the rain on Wednesday, knocking highs by Thursday into the 40s and 50s.

(Greenfield, Iowa) – Adair County Sheriff Jeff Vandewater reports one arrest occurred during the past week. 50-yeaar-old Jason James Masolini, of Stuart, was arrested Oct. 21st in Greenfield, on an Adair County felony warrant for Violation of Probation. Masolini was released Oct. 25th during his initial court appearance, on a $5,000 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – A northwest Iowa man has begun serving a sentence for vehicular homicide, for a head-on crash near Cylinder. Twenty-six-year-old Landon Schiek of Algona was killed in June of 2022 when the S-U-V he was driving was hit head on by a pick-up that crossed the center line of Highway 18, near Cylinder.

Brian Freeman of Garner, the pick-up’s driver, was found guilty of vehicular homicide while under the influence in August and sentenced to up to 25 years in prison earlier this month.

The Palo Alto County Sheriff has announced Freeman was transferred to the state prison system this past Wednesday.

(Radio Iowa) – The pheasant season is underway amidst a resurgence in the number of birds available and success by hunters. D-N-R wildlife biologist Todd Bogenschutz says habitat is a key for bird numbers and the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is the main component. “You know, Iowa as a state is doing pretty well with C-R-P. We probably have more than any of the states are joining us, Minnesota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Illinois,” he says. ” But that being said, we are down from our historic enrollments like back in the mid 90s.” The C-R-P program pays farmers to take some land out of regular crop production and it is planted with grasses and other cover crops. Weather is another factor in pheasant populations.

“We had a pretty uh significant turn of weather for about five years there in the late 2000s. That really drove our populations down, but since then we’ve come back to kind of more normal Mother Nature, since about 2013,” he says. He says you can see the direct impact on the pheasant population since the change in weather. “Counts have generally showed a steady increase since then. And you know, that’s why, we’ve gotten a lot more notoriety, I guess, let’s say in the last four years or so, because our counts have come back up,” Bogenschutz says. “I mean, we’re not back to million bird harvest or anything like that. But, you know, half a million still a very respectable number. Half million plus.”

Bogenschutz says increasing pheasant harvest would take a change in the farm policy. ” You know, if we have farm policy, that would push C-R-P back to what we saw in the mid 90s. I absolutely think we could, we could harvest a million birds,” he says. The D-N-R will celebrate the 100th pheasant next fall.

(Radio Iowa) – A Wisconsin company will be closing its printing plant in a Des Moines suburb early next year. The Quad/Graphics facility in Waukee employs 88 people and the company, now known as Quad, notified the State of Iowa of its plan to close the plant in January. Last week, Quad announced it was selling the majority of its European operations to a venture capital firm in Germany for 45 million dollars.

Quad’s chairman says it’s focusing on growth as a marketing experience company and will maintain state-of-the-art printing operations in locations that best support that mission. Quad closed its Dubuque printing plant in 2013, affecting 215 employees. The company closed its printing facility in Marengo in 2014.

(Glenwood, Iowa) – The Glenwood Police Department reports two recent arrests. On Saturday, 21-year-old MacKenzie Patten, of Glenwood, was arrested for Domestic Abuse Assault. She was being held without bond in the Mills County Jail, pending an appearance before a magistrate.

And, on Sunday, 27-year-old Mattie Munox, of Omaha, was arrested on two-counts Possession of a Controlled Substance. Bond was set at $2,000. Munox posted bond, and was released.

Two people reported to Glenwood Police this (Monday) morning, incidents of Burglary and Theft. No other details were released.

(Salt Lake City, UT) – A handful of states, including Iowa, are throwing their support behind Utah’s lawsuit that questions whether the Bureau of Land Management can hold onto nearly 18.5 million acres of public land within the state’s borders. Filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in August, Utah’s lawsuit argues that the BLM can’t indefinitely hold onto land without giving it a designation, like a national monument, national forest or wilderness area. Those 18.5 million acres are what the state calls “unappropriated land” — they’re still leased for grazing, recreation and mineral extraction, but have no designation. Now, 12 states and a few state legislatures are supporting Utah’s effort, signing amicus briefs with the nation’s high court.

An amicus brief, also called a “friend of the court” brief, is filed by organizations or individuals who are not named in the lawsuit, but have an interest in the case or would like to support a particular side. In total, 11 briefs have been filed with the Supreme Court by various groups, states and politicians, all of them supporting Utah’s effort. The Iowa Capital Dispatch says the states filing briefs include Iowa, which spearheaded a brief signed by attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota and Texas.

The brief spearheaded by Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador argues the federal government’s control of unappropriated land curtails state sovereignty. In the filing, attorneys argue that the state’s inability to control that land causes a host of problems. There’s a different criminal code; the land cannot be taxed by the state and results in tax hikes; the state cannot exercise eminent domain; and the state can’t generate revenue from grazing fees, mineral leases or timber sales, the brief claims.

The brief led by Iowa and signed by eight other attorneys general focuses more on whether the Supreme Court should take up the case, and less on the merits of Utah’s lawsuit. Utah is invoking original jurisdiction, which allows states to petition directly to the Supreme Court rather than starting in a lower court and then going through the appeals process. To invoke original jurisdiction, the issue needs to be between a state and the federal government. Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird said in a news release,  “States have a right to sue the federal government, and the citizens of those States have the right to have their interests heard in court.” Bird says she is “Calling on the Supreme Court to let Utah make its case for control over its own lands.”

Most of the cases considered by the high court are appeals — in Iowa’s brief, attorneys ask the justices to consider Utah’s complaint. “Few issues are as fundamentally important to a State as control of its land,” the brief reads. “The Amici States respectfully ask this Court to take this case out of respect for the sovereign dignity inherent in a State’s dispute against the United States.”

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Atlantic Rotary Club invites all those who have served in the military, to the Rotary’s annual “Military Appreciation Lunch.” The event takes place on November 12th, from 11:45-a.m. until 1-p.m., at the Cass County Community Center (805 W 10th St, Atlantic). Reservations are requested. Please call Dolly Bergmann at 712-249-9275 to reserve your spot.

The Atlantic Rotary Club says “We look forward to honoring those who have served our country!”

(Southwest Iowa) – Voters heading to the polls on November 5th in eight KJAN listening area counties, will find a Public Measure on their ballots for a $55-million Iowa Western Community College General Obligation, Bond Referendum. Iowa Western President Dr. Dan Kinney explains how the funds (if voters approve), will be used.

The space he mentioned may have welding in it during the morning, HVAC in the afternoon. Kinney says they can work with high school students, non-traditional/non-credit adult learners in late evening or afternoon, and they can work with business and industry when they need training/up-skilled learning for their workforce.

Kinney says 16-years or so ago, a majority (70%) of Iowa Western’s students were majoring in arts & sciences, 30% were there for a Career and Technical Education. Today, he says, it’s about a 50-50 mix.

He says with regard to the IWCC Atlantic campus, they tried this past Summer to set-up a welding program, but it just wasn’t feasible because of facility limitations and it would have resulted in an unacceptable learning environment.

He says they building – which started as a grocery store and was modified into a learning environment – needs to be modified again.

Kinney said the bond itself will have zero impact on the tax levy rate.

He says the college can do what it needs to do, without an impact on the tax base. Dr. Kinney says the college is in a good financial position because of increasing enrollment, and the bond is just a way of continuing to grow their centers as technology continues to change.