(Radio Iowa) – Research at the Iowa State University Ames Lab is working to turn waste plastic into fuel and other chemicals. Aaron Sadow is leading the research to find a way to keep plastics out of landfills. “So when we just throw out our plastic waste we’re throwing out about one-point-three (1.3) billion barrels of oil every year the equivalent of that amount,” he says. Sadow says plastics have been an issue for 40 years and they may have found a way to successfully solve the problem. “The plastic waste goes through a catalyst and becomes chemicals, recyclable plastics that don’t end up in landfills, or fuels,” he says. “There’s a need for sustainable aviation fuel and plastic waste could provide that.” He says it’s been a scientific mystery to unlock how to reuse some plastics.

“When it’s formulated, it becomes basically non recyclable. And that’s the reason for the science challenge, as well as the practical challenge associated with recycling,” Sadow says. “So what we’re trying to do is break the chemical bonds and make new chemicals, new materials that address this waste problem.” They received nearly 13 million dollars in an Energy Frontier Research Center grant from the U-S Department of Energy to do the research. Sadow says the goal is to also create a monetary incentive for people to recycle plastic. “The process we’ve developed turns into a one step system that could be located at a materials recovery research center, at a landfill that collects waste and makes diesel, and this could be going to our farms to our power plants,” he says.

Sadow says the diesel they create would be comparable in cost to the diesel now in use and will be cleaner burning. “Normal diesel is about 15 P-P-M, parts per million sulfur and we’re under point one,” he says. Sadow says the diesel from recycled plastic can also be blended with biodiesel. He says they are talking with the city of Ames to look at testing out the fuel created from plastic Sadow made his comments during a presentation to the Board of Regents.

(Radio Iowa) – National Walk, Bike, and Roll to School Day is one week from today (Wednesday) on May 8th and organizers in Iowa say this year’s event promises to be the biggest yet. Matt Burkey, the Iowa Safe Routes to School manager for the Iowa Bicycle Coalition, says they’re working to get more schools registered statewide to take part. “Even though it’s just a week away, there’s still time to get your school signed up,” Burkey says. “All you have to do is not drive to school that day, have you and your students walk, bike, roll any way you want to get the school that gets you outside gets you moving.” This is the 13th year Iowa will be taking part in the effort and Burkey says more than 40 schools will be joining in, including Ottumwa.

“The entire school district is on board. Every school in Ottumwa has signed up and is participating,” Burkey says. “In Dubuque, we have four elementary schools participating, and then in a few other schools around the state, it’s only a few families that are doing an event. Maybe they don’t want to get the whole school involved, maybe they just want to try it the first time and see if walking or biking to school is a great option for them.” Burkey says the annual event is dedicated to promoting healthier, more sustainable communities.

“A 30-minute walk is about all the exercise you need in a day, and so you and your student walking to and from school together gets you the daily amount of exercise you need, gets you outside in the sunshine — or the rain,” Burkey says. “We’ve seen other schools have such good turnout that they do it every Wednesday in May. I’ve met students that say, ‘This was so much fun, can I do it again tomorrow?'” Schools and districts across Iowa are taking part in the event on a variety of levels.

“I understand, especially in rural Iowa, not everyone lives within an easy walking or biking distance to their school,” Burkey says, “and rural Iowa school districts are participating by walking or biking part of the way and that’s still fine.” He says the benefits of walking, biking, and rolling to school include reduced traffic congestion and pollution, enhanced community connections, and improved health and well-being for students and families.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – A man and a woman were arrested on separate charges Tuesday evening, in Red Oak. According to Red Oak Police, 40-year-old Jill Renee Coddington, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 7:45-p.m. for Possession of a Controlled Substance/1st offense – Marijuana, and Disorderly Conduct/fighting or violence. Her cash-only bond was set at $1,000. Coddington was being held in the Montgomery County Jail.

And, at around 6:20-p.m., Red Oak Police arrested 21-year-old Samuel Lehr Hummel, of Riverton, was taken into custody in the 600 block of Miller Avenue, for Harassment in the 3rd Degree. His bond at the Montgomery County Jail, was set at $300.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – A traffic stop at Highway 71 and High Street Tuesday evening in Villisca, resulted in the arrest of a man from Missouri. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports 39-year-old Jasiel Garzon, of St. Joseph, MO., was arrested for providing false information to law enforcement. Garzon was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $300 bond.

The National Weather Service in Des Moines reports several locations in southwest Iowa were hit by severe storms that caused some damage, Tuesday. In the KJAN listening area, egg-size hail (2 inches in diameter) was reported six-miles southwest of Massena in CASS COUNTY at around 4:37-p.m. Other hail reports show Quarter-size hail (1″ in diameter) fell near in or near Orient and Cromwell, while hail the size of pennies fell in Corning, lasting about 20-minutes, and causing some minor tree damage.

Other reports:

• ADAIR COUNTY: 1/4″ hail 3 miles S. of Bridgewater; 2-miles E/SE of Orient; 2-miles E/NE of Orient; 3 miles W/NW of Orient & in the City of Orient.
• UNION COUNTY: Half-dollar size hail (1.25″) fell 2 miles S of Lorimor, 3 miles W. of Lorimor; Golf-ball size hail (1.75″) fell in near Creston (Green Valley Lake); hail that fell in Lorimor caused leaves to be shredded; 1″ diameter hail fell S. of Macksburg near Rea & Creamery roads; Trees and a house were damaged by thunderstorms in Creston.
• MADISON COUNTY: Ping Pong ball size hail (1.5″) fell 3 miles SE of Macksburg; 1″ hail fell near Truro.
• GUTHRIE COUNTY: 1″ hail fell in Bagley;
• DALLAS COUNTY: 1″ hail reported near Perry.
• CRAWFORD COUNTY: 1/4-1″ hail fell in Manilla.
• FREMONT COUNTY: 1″ diameter hail 5-miles SE of Riverton.

Large hail was reported from Council Bluffs to Indianola, as well as north of the metro from Carroll to Ames. One confirmed tornado was reported near Millerton, south of Chariton.

(Radio Iowa) – State Auditor Rob Sand says he’s worked with a non-profit group and identified more than two dozen state job classifications that could be rewritten to widen the pool of applicants. Sand, a Democrat, says Opportunity at Work did a similar analysis for Republican Larry Hogan when he was the governor of Maryland. The number of state jobs in Maryland requiring a college degree was cut in half as a result.

“There are all kinds of jobs in the public sector where the job description states that a four-year college degree is required or it states that a four-year college degree is preferred,” Sand says. “That ‘paper ceiling’ stops a lot of really well qualified people from applying for those jobs or getting those jobs.” Sand says 60 percent of Iowa’s working age population has the skills necessary for government jobs through alternative routes, like military service, a community college degree or work experience.

“The bottom line is that there are a lot of jobs in the public sector, in public service in Iowa that are not getting filled on a timely basis,” Sand says. “There’s work to be done and we need more people to feel qualified and welcome to apply for those jobs.” Sand says the non-profit’s report identified 28 job DESCRIPTIONS in state government that could be rewritten to include people who did not have a college degree, but Sand did not have a specific number of actual jobs or employees that would be impacted. Two years ago, Sand eliminated the requirement that auditors in the state auditor’s office have a four year degree, so those who have a two-year degree in accounting are eligible to apply.

“There’s lot of smart, practical, hardworking Iowans who go get those degrees. They look at the situation and they say: ‘Well, I can get a degree in the same field in half the time, for less than half the money,” Sand said. “It’s a wonderful, value oriented mindset that we certainly want to encourage people to have if they are working for the taxpayer’s watchdog.”

Sand held a news conference in his statehouse office to discuss the non-profit’s report about reclassifying other jobs in the state government. Sand indicated the Department of Administrative Services is the agency that would rewrite job classifications for other areas of state government, but Sand has not yet forwarded the non-profit’s analysis to that department.

(Radio Iowa) – The man accused of killing an Algona Police Officer last September is asking for his trial to be moved out of Kossuth County. Forty-three-year-old Kyle Lou Ricke is asking for a change of venue for his first-degree murder trial, which is scheduled to begin in late June.

In his motion, Attorney Matthew Pittenger states that media coverage of the case was intense following the shooting death of Officer Kevin Cram on September 13th, 2023. He says that publicity has created a substantial likelihood that a fair and impartial jury can not be impaneled from Kossuth County or any surrounding county.

The state will file a written response to the motion before a judge makes a ruling. Ricke is currently scheduled to have a pretrial conference on May 31st. His trial is scheduled to begin on June 25th, pending the outcome of this motion.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Atlantic Trees Forever today (Tuesday) announced that the spring tree vouchers are no longer available. They have all been used. The limited number went in just a couple days.

Atlantic Trees Forever would like to thank those that used the voucher. They have never had the vouchers go so quickly before. They realize with all the tree removals many more people were looking to get trees replaced.

Atlantic Trees Forever would also like to thank the Atlantic HyVee for their support of the tree vouchers. The goal is to do vouchers again next spring and hopefully we will be able to do more at that time.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Department of Agriculture has distributed over three-and-a-half MILLION dollars to 14 water quality projects in urban areas. One of the projects is designed to limit runoff into Smith Lake in Algona. Kossuth County Conservation Chairman Kendall Stumme says a parking lot at the park’s Water’s Edge Nature Center was paved last year.

“Which led to a lot of the rainwater running directly through a drain into Smith Lake and so we wanted to protect the lake and one of the ways to do this was by the construction of a bioretention cell.” The project has received a 24-thousand dollar state grant and the county conservation board must provide matching funds.

“We’ve already taken bids on the project and hope to start in the month of May,” Stumme says, “and have the project completed by the end of June.” A bioretention cell is a shallow basin for stormwater that uses soil and vegetation to filter runoff. Stumme says native grasses and wildflowers will be part of the one in Algona.

“Our main goal was just to protect Smith Lake, the sediment and so forth coming from the parking lot,” Summe says, ‘but it also will be a good opportunity, since it is rirhgt adjacent to the Nature Center and what with all of the field trips that we have, where we can show students and anybody, really, that’s interested how stormwater waste treatment happens.”

Water’s Edge Nature Center in Algona (Photo courtesy of Kossuth County Conservation Board, which managed the center.)

The Des Moines suburb of Altoona got the largest grant — half a MILLION dollars — to help reduce soil erosion and stormwater drainage from a 214-acre area into Townsend Pond, which is in a city park. The City of Durant got a nearly half a MILLION dollar grant for a project to capture and filter stormwater before it drains in a local creek. Belle Plaine is getting a quarter of a MILLION dollar grant to help build a wetland area around the community’s field of water wells.

Last year the state began providing bottled water to Belle Plaine residents as a farmer rerouted a stream that drained into the area around the community’s four water wells. Bloomfield is getting a more than 200-thousand dollar grant to support installation of permeable pavers and bioretention cells around sidewalks around the city square. The cities of Clive, Des Moines, Hudson, Jesup, Johnston, Perry, Urbandale and Waterloo also received grants for urban water quality projects.