(Radio Iowa) – Iowa D-O-T records show a decline in the number of cars and pick-up trucks registered to drive on Iowa roads last year. In 2023, there were just over a million cars registered for use in Iowa and just over a million pick-ups for personal or business use. However, there was a nearly four percent drop in the number of automobiles registered in Iowa last year. Pick-up truck numbers in Iowa fell a percentage point from 2022 to 2023.

The D-O-T’s data includes semi tractors, mopeds and other types of vehicles. It shows more than three-point-seven million vehicles were registered in Iowa in 2023.

(Radio Iowa) – Managers of an Iowa Great Lakes amusement park have set a 50-thousand dollar goal for a benefit concert to help Spencer residents impacted by flooding. Jon Pausley is executive director of Arnolds Park, which is on the shore of West Lake Okoboji. “All of us in northwest Iowa got affected somehow by all of this floooding, but we were very fortunate here at Arnolds Park to really just have minor inconveniences as compared to many people down in Spencer who were just devastated,” he says, “and we certainly wanted to do something to help our neighbors to the south.”

The concert will be held Sunday afternoon, the 28th of July. Pausley says several local musicians have volunteered to perform, including two musicians from Spencer. “Hormel Foods is going to be providing a lunch that day for residents of Spencer, so as residents sign up to come and their families, the park is also going to open up the amusement park for no cost that day,” Pausley says.

Spencer residents may register this week at the Spencer Chamber of Commerce for free Arnolds Park admission on Sunday and the free lunch. Funds raised at Sunday’s event will be donated to the Spencer Chamber Foundation.

(Radio Iowa) – Researchers recently discovered what’s known as a “remnant prairie” at the Iowa State University Horticulture Research Station and they’re working to restore it. Remnant prairies have never been plowed or completely converted into non-native species. Only about zero-point-one percent of this original habitat remains in Iowa, though it once covered nearly 80-percent of the state. Nick Howell is superintendent for the horticulture research station. “This was found as a fluke,” Howell says. “When I started here in 2006, you couldn’t even get to it. It was just completely full of scrub brush.”

He says the one-and-a-half acre area beside a lake was totally overgrown, but three years ago, a researcher recognized seeds pods under snow while working on a fish habitat project. Howell says prairie specialists came out that spring to confirm it was a remnant. “It had been protected for a long, long time,” Howell says, “and once we cleared the brush and started burning it, the prairie species started to re-appear.” Prairie intern Rachel Sents says it’s taken a significant amount of work to get the prairie back into its original shape. “Really what we’re doing out here is we’re trying to fight back on those species that are out-competing with the natives,” Sents says, “and give the natives a better chance.”

Monarchs flourish on native Iowa milkweed plants — Photo by Karl Schilling

I-S-U ecology professor Brian Wilsey says the remnant prairie at the research station north of Ames is a true gem, filled with all sorts of native plants. “This is a wild bergamot and then of course, there’s rural milkweed, one of the hosts for our monarch butterflies,” Wilsey says. “Most prairies that you visit are reconstructions, so they’re seeded prairies on old crop fields like at Neal Smith and other places. The remnants are really rare.”

Reconstructed prairies are becoming more common, Wilsey says, and they currently account for one-to-two-percent of the state.

(by Rachel Cramer, Iowa Public Radio)

(Creston, Iowa) – Police in Creston arrested six people over the past three days. Two people were arrested early this (Monday) morning: 44-year-old Ronnee Colleen Abel, of Creston, was arrested at around 1:04-a.m. in the 500 block of W. Adams Street. Abel was charged with Possession of Drug Paraphernalia and Possession of a Controlled Substance/3rd offense, non-marijuana. She was transported to the Adams County Jail and later transferred to the Adams County Jail, where her bond was set at $5,300; and, 66-year-old Vicki Jo Abell, of Indianola, was arrested at around 1:10-a.m. at the intersection of Adams and New York Streets, in Creston, for Poss. of Paraphernalia and Poss. of Meth/1st offense. She was later released on a $1,300 bond.

Three people were arrested on separate charges Sunday, in Creston: Laura Ann Phelps, 51, of Afton was arrested at around 9:40-p.m., at the intersection of Highway 34 and Pole. Phelps was charged with OWI 2nd Offense. She was taken to the Union County Jail then transported to the Adams County Jail where she is being held on a $2,000 bond; at around 7:21-p.m., Jenifer Lee Johnson, 41, of Lenox was arrested at the intersection of Russell and Peterson. Johnson was charged with Driving while Suspended. Johnson was taken to the Union Conty Jail and later released on $300 bond; and, at around 5:10-p.m., Sunday, Creston Police arrested Ashley Dawn Vandel, of Creston. She was taken into custody at the Holiday Motel and charged with Animal at large. Vandel was cited and released from the scene on Promise to Appear in court.

And, 24-year-old Mark Thomas Bregar, of Creston, was arrested at around 12:50-a.m. Saturday, and charged with Driving While Barred. Bregar was later released on a $2,000 bond.

Des Moines, Iowa — Twenty lucky people will get the chance to win up to $5 million at a live lottery game show at the Iowa State Fair this year. One of the contestants is Tamara McMahon, from Council Bluffs. The Iowa Lottery said there were over 67,000 entries for its Fair Fever promotion. This will be the first lottery game show at the Fair since 2012. Contestants were chosen through the Iowa Lottery and Iowa State Fair’s scratch game that was released earlier this year. Those who didn’t win instant prizes on their tickets could enter them into the Fair Fever promotion for a chance to compete in the show or win a Grandstand concert prize package.

Each contestant will have to get through a series of games to win the prize. All contestants will take home at least $10,000 and the finalist will win at least $500,000 and have a chance to win up to $5 million. The show will take place on Aug. 8 at 5:30 p.m. on the Grand Concourse.

The rest of this year’s contestants include:

• Craig Bergman of Cedar Rapids
• Michelle Cerwinske of Nashua
• Margo Fox of Johnston
• Kristine Frye of Des Moines
• Nicole Gulick of Des Moines
• Ryan Habeger of Algona
• Gerald Johnson of Iowa City
• Gerald Kennicker of Dubuque
• Steven Moore of Urbandale
• Jolene Murray of Cedar Rapids
• Mary Olin of Des Moines
• Dawn Peterson of Colfax
• Timothy Roberts of Ottumwa
• Scott Stewart of Waterloo
• Steven Stout of Indianola
• Christine Tatman of Orange City
• Rodney Tucker of Des Moines
• Jeff Weiland of Dubuque
• David Wesley of Des Moines

(Radio Iowa) – A flight attendant who was on United Flight 232 when it crashed in Sioux City 35 years ago returned for events this past weekend to remember the 112 who died and the 184 who survived the crash. Susan White was just starting her career and was 26 when an engine failure led to the D-C-10 crashing at the Sioux Gateway Airport. She says the response was tremendous. “The community came together and we do talk about how people were lining up donating blood. It’s just I don’t think you could have that anywhere else,” white says. “And the people were so generous and so gracious and people were volunteering food, volunteering their homes and yeah, it’s like the college I stayed two nights in the college with another flight attendant we shared dormitory room.”

After two nights in the Briar Cliff dorm room, White’s father came to Sioux City to fly back home with her and she eventually returned to her job.  “I don’t know if I could have been on the plane without him holding me, I was very very fearful,” she says, “but through therapy and some time I was able to come back. And I always wanted to come back, I never had in my mind that I wouldn’t come back, because I truly loved my job.” White says part of her therapy was reunions with the other crewmembers, including some that were in Sioux City.

“I’m very close with several people from Sioux City here that have become good friends of mine, and it’s such a comfort to have them in my life. And they’re all part of my story of my healing and continuing to be able to do my job as I do it,” she says. “It was right during the reunions, getting together with the crew and just discussing and telling how we felt and talking about that day and all that happened. I think it was good therapy for all of us.”

White was in Sioux City on the anniversary Friday to talk about how the crew communicated during the emergency.

(Radio Iowa) – A survey by the Iowa Brewers Guild finds Iowa breweries generated a total economic impact of one-point-two-five billion dollars from operations, trade, and tourism in 2022. That’s a big increase from the 245 million dollar impact in 2020. Brewers Guild executive director Noreen Otto says the industry is growing and maturing. “We now have breweries operating in 82 different Iowa communities, and so you know you just see that sprinkling. We go coast to coast with Iowa breweries,” Otto says. “I think it’s also just the open community space that breweries become.” She says breweries have become multipurpose and multi-generational entertainment venues.

“They’re welcoming for so many different occasions both you know adults gathering, but I joke I’ve been to a book club at a brewery, I’ve been to a baby shower at a brewery, I’ve been to a P-T-A meeting at a brewery, and so they’re really becoming these important community gathering spaces,” she says. Otto says breweries have had to adapt after the pandemic hurt the ability of customers to stop by for a beer, and they have not fully recovered from that. “Retail continues to be difficult in a time of you know some economic pressure, but again I think breweries are rising to the occasion with more creative product lines more events in the spaces,” Otto says. She says there’s been changes in laws and regulations that have helped the industry grow.

“This last session we expanded the ability of a brewery to pour at a festival, which gives a little more of local flavor to these events around the state of Iowa that you see, especially all summer long,” Otto says. “And I think continuing to change the environment to be more supportive of craft brewing and allow more flexibility for the small business owners will help us to remain stable going forward.” The state has approximately 150 breweries with a workforce of around 72-hundred employees for direct operations and total employment throughout the supply chain of 14-thousand-448 jobs. Otto says there’s still room for more growth.

Inside an Iowa brewery. (photo from the IA Brewers Guild)

“The economic impact study projected continued growth, almost another nine percent increase in jobs are expecting and a projection of continued growth about 17 percent in total economic output,” Otto says. “I think we’re gonna see that, as we legislatively allow access to more markets for breweries as they continue to mature and continue to grow their product lines.” One of the recent areas of growth has been partnerships with colleges and universities to support the funding of Name Image and Likeness collectives. “It was really fun over about the last year year and a half to see so many partnerships both with, Iowa State and University of Iowa but also Drake, U-N-I and Central College, places like that,” she says. “looking to build both the brewery brands and the sports brands and, you know, kind of honors the legacy and the community surrounding their alumni.”

The Iowa Brewers Guild, the not-for-profit trade association of professional brewers of beer, cider and in Iowa.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Red Oak Police report the arrest at around 4:10-p.m. Sunday, of 24-year-old Cameron Alexander Travis, from Red Oak. Travis was arrested in the 400 block of E. Grimes Street, for Domestic Abuse Assault. He was transported to the Montgomery County Jail, and held without bond.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Bicyclists on RAGBRAI leave Red Oak today (Monday) on their slightly more than 40-mile trip to Atlantic as their next stop-over community. The ride features an elevation of 1,702-feet, 3.7-miles of gravel road options, and a concert tonight in Atlantic, from “The Pork Tornadoes.”

As they make their way from Red Oak on Day 2 of the excursion to across Iowa, RAGBRAI riders will pass through the towns of Elliott, Griswold – which serves as a meeting town – and Lewis, where they might want to check out the Hitchcock House, a national landmark known for its role in the Underground Railroad as a safe house for enslaved people traveling to Canada for freedom.

In Atlantic, they’ll come to know the Coca-Cola Capital of Iowa, the city that hosts the second-largest Coca-Cola Convention in the U.S. every fall, second-only to Atlanta, GA. Atlantic once had a Coca-Cola museum, but that closed during Covid, in the Spring of 2021.

On Tuesday, the RAGBRAI riders will make their way 82-miles to their next stop-over town: Winterset. Along the way they will pass through Wiota, Cumberland, Massena, Fontanelle, Greenfield – Meeting Town, Orient  and Macksburg.

(Radio Iowa) – Nearly 50 Iowans who’re Democratic National Convention delegates will soon be called upon to pick a new nominee after President Biden’s exit from the 2024 race. Iowa Democratic Party Rita Hart says she’s sad Biden has stepped aside. “But I recognize that this action means Joe is telling us it’s up to us to finish the job,” Hart said. Hart said it’s unclear when the party will pick a nominee. “I think this is kind of uncharted territory,” Hart told reporters. “…We don’t know what the process will be.”

A panel of national Democrats will meet Friday and is expected to set the guidelines. Scott Brennan, a former Iowa Democratic Party chairman, is one of Iowa’s representatives on the Democratic National Committee. He says it’s unlikely the party would pick someone other than Vice President Kamala Harris.”I think it’s probably at least an 80% chance she will be our nominee,” Brennan says. “…Mechanically I don’t know how else it works, particularly this late in the process.”

Brennan says there’s a huge campaign finance issue that presents itself if Harris isn’t the nominee. “A presidential campaign is like a big ship and so now we’re going to turn a giant ship from having President Biden be on the top of the ticket to likely Vice President Harris, although who knows?” Brennan said. “I’m surprised we are where we are right now.”

Connie Gronstal of Council Bluffs is one of the delegates who’ll be asked to make the decision. She and her husband Mike Gronstal, the former Iowa Senate Majority Leader, hosted an event for Biden in 2007 and she was planning to back Biden in 2024. She says it’s now time to rally behind Vice President Kamala Harris. “She has my full support,” Gronstal said. “Hopefully all this drama is over with now.”

Then-candidate Joe Biden spoke to Radio Iowa on January 25, 2020 before the Iowa Caucuses. (RI file photo)

The Iowa Democratic Party’s chairwoman says she needs to talk with Iowa’s national convention delegates before making any public statement about having Harris as the party’s nominee. “President Biden’s endorsement really matters…She has the experience and he would not endorse her otherwise,” Hart says. “…Our delegates will respond, but it’s so early.” Derek Muller is a national election law expert who left the University of Iowa a year ago to join the law school faculty at Notre Dame.

Muller says because of a ballot deadline in Ohio, Democrats had already been planning for an electronic roll call of delegates to nominate Biden in early August and Muller says the most likely outcome now is a virtual nomination of Harris in the next couple of weeks. “She’ll have to announce a vice presidential nominee by then, I suppose, and then they’ll move forward in business as usual,” Muller says, “except trying to fundraiser and introduce your candidate to the nation in a much shorter time frame.”

Shortly after Biden announced he would no longer seek reelection, several Iowa Republicans in state and federal office said Biden is unfit to continue serving as president. The chairman of the Iowa G-O-P said it was dangerous for Biden to remain in office. Senator Grassley said voters won’t be fooled by Democrats changing horses in midstream, but he did not call on Biden to resign.