(Radio Iowa) – A $53-million project south of Ames is part of an effort to reach targets in Iowa’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy. The Water Pollution Control Facility handles around six million gallons of wastewater daily from Ames, Iowa State University and the town of Kelley. John Dunn, director of Water and Pollution Control for Ames, says upgrades over the next decade aim to reduce nitrogen discharge by two-thirds and phosphorus by three-quarters. “It’s a mix of physical and biological processes,” Dunn says. “It’s really what happens in nature. We’re just forcing it to happen on an accelerated scale.”

During Tuesday’s groundbreaking ceremony, Ames Mayor John Haila said the upgrades will increase treatment capacity, which will support residential and industrial growth. Haila says the main goal is to cut down on nutrients entering the South Skunk River. Haila says, “So this is our effort to help reduce that while also meeting the goals of the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy.” A complex series of tanks remove grit, grease and other gunk before the water is released into the river.

Other large wastewater facilities in the state are required to hit similar targets as part of Iowa’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy. It’s the state’s roadmap to curb nitrogen and phosphorus in Iowa waterways and the Gulf of Mexico.

DAVENPORT, Iowa – A Davenport man was sentenced Monday (Sept. 16) to 25 years (300 months) in federal prison for possessing a distribution quantity of methamphetamine and a possessing a firearm in furtherance of his drug trafficking.

According to public court documents, law enforcement witnessed Roy Albert Phillips, 35, recklessly driving and attempted a traffic stop. Phillips did not stop, ran multiple stop signs, and drove more than 50 miles per hour in a 25 mile-per-hour-zone. Phillips eventually struck a pole and fled on foot. Officers observed Phillips drop a backpack while fleeing, which was later found to contain a loaded handgun and approximately one pound of methamphetamine. Officers searched Phillips’ phone and located messages indicative of Phillips trafficking pound quantities of methamphetamine and carrying the gun related to his drug trafficking activities.

After completing his term of imprisonment, Phillips will be required to serve a five-year term of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system.

United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. This case was investigated by the Bettendorf Police Department, Iowa State Patrol, Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement, Davenport Police Department, and Scott County Sheriff’s Office.

(Creston, Iowa) – The Creston Police Department reports two people were arrested on separate charges, Tuesday evening. At around 5-p.m., 40-year-old Curtis Lee Lamasters, of Creston, was arrested for Public Intoxication and Interference with Official Acts. He was also taken into custody on a Union County warrant for domestic abuse assault-1st offense. Lamasters was being held without bond in the Union County jail.

And at around 7:10 p.m., Tuesday, Police in Creston arrested 67-year-old Vicki Jo Abell, of Indianola, following a traffic stop. Abell was charged with Operating While Under the Influence and Possession of Controlled Substance – Methamphetamine/1st Offense. She later posted a $2,000 cash or approved surety bond, and was released.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – The most recent Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll shows that while Vice President Kamala Harris has made a significant dent in former President Donald Trump’s lead in Iowa ahead of the 2024 presidential election, more Iowans still favor Trump on issues like inflation, immigration and U.S. international relations. The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports Iowa Poll results published Tuesday (Sept. 17) found 58% of likely voters responded that they believe Trump would do a better job than Harris on “keeping America secure,” and 50% responded they believed he would do better on “bringing about real change” than Harris at 46%. Trump was also favored by a percentage point over Harris as the better candidate on “winning the respect of world leaders” and “caring about people like you.”

Harris was chosen as the better candidate by 47% of poll respondents on “being more trustworthy” than Trump, and 46% of likely voters said they believed the vice president would do a better job of “successfully unifying the country.” Trump was the choice of 45% on trustworthiness and 39% on unifying the country.

The poll also found a majority of likely Iowa voters believe Trump would do a better job than Harris on the issues of inflation, immigration, relations with China, the wars between Russia and Ukraine and between Israel and Hamas, as well as on housing prices. The only issue Iowa voters favored Harris on in the most recent poll was abortion, with 53% saying Harris would do a better job and 42% supporting Trump as the best choice to tackle the issue.

The largest margin between the candidates was on inflation, with 57% choosing Trump as the better candidate for addressing the issue compared to 41% for Harris. Though the poll found that the former president still has a lead in his race against Harris,  J. Ann Selzer, president of Selzer & Co. that conducted the poll, said “the race has tightened significantly.” Part of the shift comes from increased engagement in the election, with 81% of Iowa poll takers saying they will definitely vote in the general election, an increase from 76% in June. Compared to the last poll, there was a 10 percentage point increase in Iowans younger than age 45 who said they were likely voters, and an 8-point increase among women voters — both demographics that the poll identified as more likely to support Harris.

The results seem to reflect what some Iowa Democratic leaders have predicted about Harris’ impact on the race. But Republican leaders disputed the poll results showing a positive shift for Democrats ahead of the Nov. 5 election. The Iowa Poll was conducted from Sept. 8-11 with 811 Iowans — 656 who identified as likely voters. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points with likely voters, and a 3.4 percentage points margin of error for questions asked of all Iowans.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Montgomery County Engineer Karen Albert, Tuesday, provided the Board of Supervisors with the weekly, Secondary Roads activities and maintenance report.

Montgomery County Supervisor’s meeting, 9-17-24

(Radio Iowa) – An asteroid is approaching the Earth which the experts say will come close enough to be caught in our planet’s gravity well, technically becoming a second moon, at least for a few months. University of Iowa physics and astronomy Professor Casey DeRoo says this asteroid will be captured by the Earth’s gravitational pull around September 29th, it’ll slow down, then go into a sort of U-shaped orbit. “For a horseshoe orbit, it’s something that starts off in front of us and ends up behind us as we are orbiting the sun,” DeRoo says. “Really, it’s going to do just a single slingshot around the Earth and sort of an oblong or ellipse, and then carry on its way behind us, having approached from the front.”

The asteroid known as “2024 PT5” is only about 33 feet in diameter, or about as big across as a school bus. While it will come relatively close to Earth, close in astronomical terms, DeRoo says there’s no chance the asteroid will hit us. “They are easy to pick out, their trajectory versus the stars, because they’re the things that are moving more rapidly than the stars themselves, right? And so with just a couple of observations over the course of a few days, you can actually get quite a bit in terms of orbital parameters,” DeRoo says, “and those orbital parameters tell you essentially how that orbit will evolve within our solar system. So we are 100% confident on this kind of trajectory.”

If you’re hoping to catch a glimpse of this wandering space rock, you’re wishing on the wrong star, because even though it’ll be in our orbit, it’ll still be many tens of millions of miles away. “If you imagine trying to see a school bus from the distance of the moon, that would be the difficulty that you’re trying to actually encounter here. So it is a really faint object,” DeRoo says. “This is the kind of thing that you pick out with dedicated ground-based observatories or telescopes. So you’re going to have a difficult time finding this from the ground, unless you’ve got, say, a two- to three-foot telescope lying around.” By that, he means a two- to three-foot diameter lens would be needed.

The experts say the asteroid will slingshot out of orbit around November 25th, after about 56 days as our looming moon. Where did it come from? There are various theories. DeRoo says it could have been created many millennia ago when the Earth and Moon first separated, or it may have fallen out of the asteroid belt that hovers between Mars and Jupiter. We’ll likely never know for sure.

(Radio Iowa) – The State Fire Marshal has been called in to help determine the cause of a fire that heavily damaged a Jones County bar Tuesday. The Jones County Sheriff’s Office says emergency personnel were called to Jones County Local about two miles southwest of Anamosa, shortly before 6 a-m. When firefighters arrived, they were met with heavy smoke and fire inside the building.

Fire heavily damaged the Jones County Local bar Tuesday. (KMCH photo)

The business was not open at the time. No employees were present, no injuries reported. The inside of the building sustained heavy heat, smoke and fire damage.

(Corning, Iowa) – Sheriff’s officials in Adams County are investigating a potential threat of violence in the Southwest Valley School District. The threat on social media was reported at the high school in Corning, Tuesday morning. School officials said the high school was made aware of a potential threat of violence via Snapchat to a student.

After initiating an investigation, authorities deemed the situation safe, and said there was no concern of a threat at this time. In a post on the district’s Facebook page, Superintendent Chris Fenster said classes have resumed. Read the Superintendent’s letter to parents and students, below:

(Red Oak, Iowa) – The Board of Supervisors in Montgomery County, Tuesday, unanimously voted to reinstate the County’s Compensation Board, but decided to leave their policy for public comment during their meetings, unchanged, for now. Their current policy has a two-minute public comment period that follows the reading and approval of the previous Board meeting minutes, near the top of the weekly agenda.

Supervisors Chair Mike Olson proposed limiting the number of people speaking on a particular topic, and prohibiting personal attacks against board members. He said the policy would be similar to what the Pottawattamie County Board of Supervisors placed into effect, after comments regarding wind energy got out of control.

Supervisor Randy Cooper objected to some who wanted the public comment period moved to the end of the meeting. He said it would inconvenience some residents wanted to briefly attend the meeting and then get back to their jobs. Supervisor Donna Robinson suggested any changes should be made after she and Cooper – who are not running for re-election – leave at the end of the year.