(Des Moines, Iowa) – State Auditor Rob Sand’s Office today (Tuesday), released a Financial Statement pertaining to Cass County (Iowa). In brief, the statement shows:

2023 FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS
* Revenues of the County’s governmental activities increased 2.3%, or approximately $428,000, from Fiscal 2022 to Fiscal 2023. Property and other County Taxes increased approximately $349,000. Operating Grants and Contributions increased approximately $569,000.
* Program expenses of the County’s governmental activities increased O.5%, or approximately $65,000, more in Fiscal 2023 than in Fiscal 2022. Public Safety and Legal Services increased $48,000, County Environment and Education increased $165,000, Roads and Transportation increased $422,000, and Administration increased $506,000.
* The County’s net position increased 9.6%, or approximately $4,314,000, from June 30, 2022 to June 30, 2023.

Read the entire report, here: Cass_County_Iowa_2023_496625401942C-min

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is predicting an extension of the 2018 Farm Bill will be in the temporary spending bill congress is likely to pass in the next few weeks to keep the government operating.  “I think we’d be better off having a five-year Farm Bill,” Grassley says, “but that isn’t going to happen.” Congress voted last November to extend the policies of the 2018 Farm Bill, which had expired on September 30th. So far this year, the House Agriculture Committee has voted for a new version of the Farm Bill, but the measure hasn’t been brought up for a vote in the full House and negotiations in the Senate haven’t produced a bill yet either.

Grassley, a Republican who serves on the Senate Ag Committee, says the new Farm Bill needs to include higher price supports for commodities like corn and soybeans. “We say it this way in the United States Senate: ‘We need more farm in the Farm Bill,'” Grassley says. “Presently it’s 85% food stamps and 15% agriculture and we think the reflection of the inflation to put more farm in the Farm Bill.” Congress has a September 30th deadline to pass budget bills, but 1997 was the last time that happened.

Lawmakers instead pass a measure that funds all government agencies. Grassley says that move should happen well before September 30th. “When you get close to shutting down the government, like let’s say the week before, there’s a lot of taxpayers’ money spent just getting ready to shut down the government,” Grassley says, “so we ought to bring some consistency to it and it should not be a controversial thing.”

After the House and Senate passed a short term spending plan last September, a handful of Republicans successfully removed Kevin McCarthy from his role as House Speaker.

(Red Oak, Iowa)  – The Board of Supervisors in Montgomery County today (Tuesday), received a regular, weekly report from Montgomery County Engineer Karen Albert.

The Board also heard comments from West Township resident Jan Norris, with regard to the South Dakota Pipeline ruling. She said passing a zoning ordinance establishing setback distances from rural Montgomery County homes is the only thing the board can do to mitigate the risk she believes residents will be forced to live with “should these hazardous liquid pipelines be allowed to be built next to our homes and through our farms.” And, she said the additional Phase II pipeline route gives Montgomery County another opportunity to be proactive. She urged the Board to “take advantage of it.”

Norris also claimed Summit Carbon Solutions’ claim about the number of easements they have reported at meetings in Red Oak and Corning, are false and misleading to property owners.

She said the recently held area meetings, show opposition to the pipeline is growing.

MC BOS mtg. 9-3-24

The Supervisors Tuesday (Today) approved of tax rebate requests for:

• The County Farm, in the amount of $4,938.
• City of Red Oak-owned property at 205 4th Avenue, in the amount of $188, and the rebate of property taxes acquired by Kimberly Lamb from the City of Red Oak, at 1210 N. 4th St., in the amount of $1,250.
• They also approved Tax Transfers from Rural Services Basic to Secondary Roads for FY 24/25, in the amount of $80,000, and from General Services Basic to Secondary Roads, in the amount of $1-million, for FY 24/25.

OAKLAND, Iowa — A Disaster Recovery Center (DRC) is set to open this (Tuesday) afternoon, in Oakland. The center will open at 1-p.m., and continue its operations until 6-p.m. Hours the rest of this week are from 8-a.m. until 6-p.m. The DRC will provide one-on-one help to people affected by severe storms, tornadoes and flooding this past Spring.

Recovery specialists will explain assistance programs and help survivors complete or check the status of their applications.

The DRC is located at the Oakland Community Center, 614 Dr. Van Zee Road.

(Creston, Iowa) – Police in Creston say a woman from Prescott reported Saturday night, that someone had stolen her car keys and work bag out of her vehicle in a parking lot at an apartment complex located at 120 Manor Drive, in Creston. The loss was estimated at $40.

(Creston, Iowa) – Authorities in Creston say no injuries were reported following a collision Monday night at the intersection of Townline Street and Sumner Avenue. According to the Creston Police report, a 2024 Ford Bronco driven by 55-year-old Jeffery Coffin, of Greenfield, was traveling north on Sumner Avenue at around 11-p.m., Monday, and had stopped at the flashing red light. The Bronco was in the inside lane, and turned west onto Townline, into the inside lane.

A 2024 Dodge Ram pickup driven by 55-year-old Scott Tridle, of Creston, was traveling west on Townline in the inside lane, and came to a stop at the flashing red light. When the pickup and SUV entered the intersection, the left front side of the pickup struck the right rear of the Bronco, causing a police estimated $2,000 (minor) damage to each vehicle.

No citations were issued.

(Radio Iowa) – A new study shows cancer rates in the Midwest are among the highest in the nation, and the number of cancer cases in Iowa is rising, while the state’s rate of cancer deaths is falling. Dr. Ben Parsons, a hematologist-oncologist at Gundersen Health System, says part of the reason for the rising numbers is lifestyle choices like alcohol and tobacco use, but obesity also plays a big role in cancer risk. “There are significant hormonal changes that happen as people carry a lot of extra weight, especially women and breast cancer, and it’s a huge deal,” Parsons says, “and I think it’s one of those ones that people don’t always think about when they’re thinking about their health.”

A report from the University of Iowa-based Iowa Cancer Registry estimates 21-thousand Iowans will be diagnosed with cancer this year, an increase from last year, while the projected number of Iowans who will die from cancer is falling. With Iowa being such a farm-focused state, Parsons says chemicals may also play a leading role in the rise in the state’s cancer cases. “If you look at the number of unregulated chemicals that are released into our society, there’s 250-plus new chemicals that have been released since 1950 and a lot of that we’re learning more and more about them,” Parsons says. “The Midwest is a large agricultural area. There’s definitely an association with glyphosate or Roundup and some cancers, especially lymphoid malignancies, like lymphomas.” Access to health care can also be a factor in cancer rates, and Parsons says some rural areas of Iowa are under-served.

“Most of our communities actually have access to a relatively high level of quality health care,” Parsons says, “and that’s really what obviously sways whether or not you’re going to have early detection, treatment, and have better outcomes associated with that.” He says some keys to staying healthy include getting annual physicals, keeping up with vaccines, and getting screened for various risks — like routine colonoscopies or mammograms. Plus, there’s exercise. “It’s encouraged to have 150 minutes of exercise every week. That can be as simple as taking a 15-minute walk a day,” Parsons says. “It doesn’t have to be what most people think of as exercise, like going to the gym and lifting weights and things like that. It’s really just getting your body moving, taking the stairs at work, parking a little further away from the grocery store, any of those little things add up.”

(Radio Iowa) The Iowa Waste Reduction program’s report for the last fiscal year shows they worked with some 52-hundred businesses to find a home for items that no longer needed. Iowa Waste Exchange Coordinator Shelly Codner says that kept 87-thousand tons of items from landfills. “We are talking about anything from industrial sludge, to stuffed animals and anything in between,” she says. Any Iowans who have a product that they don’t want to sent to the landfill, they give us a call, and we try to find an alternative home for it.” She says for the fiscal year that ended in June they saved businesses three-point-four million dollars.

“That includes disposal fees, freed up storage, transportation. There’s a number of metrics that are included in that avoided purchases,” Codner says. Codner says the fun part of the job is helping people find materials they need at very little cost. “The ones that are probably most rewarding are those that were taking something that is in perfectly good condition, destined for the landfill, and then helping another demographic and serving the need that they have,” she says. For example, they recently were able to send unneeded beds and mattresses from Iowa State University to flood victims in Spencer. Codner says there are many other examples where they have found a new purpose for items.

“During covid, for example, we had an onslaught of t-shirts and the Food Bank of Iowa actually needed additional bags to get the food out, so staff with the Iowa waste exchange actually made t-shirt bags for the food bank of Iowa to use for that purpose. We use the t-shirt sleeves, and we teamed up with the Des Moines public libraries community outreach and we made first aid kits. We made drawstring bags out of the sleeves and made first aid kits for the library to hand out,” she says. You might not think there’s a use for industrial sludge, but Codner says they can find one. “It depends on the composition. If it’s got some nutritional value, there might be markets for that. If it’s if it can be remanufactured into a new product, there is applications for that as well,” Codner says. “If we’re talking about syrupy liquids and those type of things that are coming out of food processing, there may be a nutritional value for that that can go to a food producer, for example.”

Codner says they added more than 400 materials to their database in the past fiscal year. She says last year they kept more than 10-thousand truckloads of material from going to Iowa landfills.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – A man on an ATV died Monday evening near Red Oak, after the machine overturned into a creek bed. Red Oak Police Chief Justin Rhamy reports Jay Douglas Woodward, of Red Oak, died after attempts to safe his life were unsuccessful. Chief Rhamy says the Montgomery County Communications Center received a call about the ATV accident on the trails west of the levy off of Oak Street, at around 5:31-p.m.

Upon arrival of Red Oak Police and Red Oak Rescue, responders located an ATV in the creek bed, with Woodward trapped beneath the machine. After he was extricated, medical personnel attempted to save him, but it was too late.

Red Oak Police were assisted at the scene by Montgomery County Sheriff’s Deputies, Red Oak Fire and Rescue, Montgomery County Emergency Management, and Montgomery County Communications.

(Radio Iowa) – Today (Tuesday) is the day Iowa’s Secretary of State certifies which candidates will have their names printed on Iowa ballots for the November election, but three Libertarian Party candidates have gone to court asking for a delay until their legal challenge is resolved. Last week, a state panel kicked Libertarians running in three Iowa congressional districts off the ballot after Republicans in those areas signed petitions saying the timing of Libertarian Party county conventions did not follow state law.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, a Republican, discussed the decision this weekend during an appearance on “Iowa Press” on Iowa P-B-S.  “It’s never easy as a member of the Objections Panel to have to tell someone that they didn’t qualify for the ballot,” Bird said, “but the law applies equally to everybody, every candidate, regardless of their party.” Bird says Libertarians held their precinct caucuses AND county conventions on the same date, which is not allowed under state law.

“Just to be clear, everybody gets their day in court, so they can appeal the decision to the district court if they want to, but my position is I’m not going to pick and choose which parts of the Iowa Code are going to apply,” Bird said. “I’m going to uphold the law.” Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate, a Republican, joined Bird in voting to remove the Libertarians from this fall’s ballot — while State Auditor Rob Sand, a Democrat who also serves on the panel, voted to keep the Libertarians on it.

Sand says the Objection Panel does not have the authority to rule on how a political party conducts its business. The Iowa Libertarian Party’s chair says the decision to remove her party’s candidates from the ballot is a direct attack on voter choice.

The Libertarian Party nominated Nicholas Gluba of Lone Tree to run in Iowa’s first congressional district, Marco Battaglia  of Des Moines to run in the third district, and Charles Aldrich of Clarion to run in the 4th district.