Republican Senator Joni Ernst will host her second annual “Roast and Ride” fundraiser Saturday (Today) and the featured speaker will be G-O-P presidential nominee Donald Trump. Ernst says the event is a “build-up” to November “It is about exciting our base and energizing them and this is perfect opportunity,” Ernst said. “We’re right coming up against that Labor Day weekend which traditionally kicks off the campaign season.” Ernst will be the lead motorcyclist on a late morning ride that will start at the Harley Davidson dealership on the north side of Des Moines.

Sen. Joni Ernst on last year’s “Roast and Ride.” (pic from Radio Iowa)

Last year’s ride raised about $15,000 for a veterans charity known as the America’s Fund. This year’s beneficiary of ticket sales for the motorcycle ride will be Soldier Strong. It’s a non-profit that partners with high tech companies that help wounded veterans. The ride will cover about 42 miles and end at the state fairgrounds early Saturday afternoon. That’s where crews have set up a stage — complete with bales of straw — inside the fair’s huge livestock show ring.

“We did choose to do it inside the pavilion,” Ernst says. “We were a little concerned aboutg the rain, so in order to get it set up on time we just made that call.” Ernst gave about a dozen members of the media a tour of the set-up late Friday afternoon. During a news conference, Ernst was asked about the current campaign charges of racism and bigotry being thrown about between Trump and Hillary Clinton.

“I’m not going to get into that,” Ernst said. “What I would say with both of them, because there have been a lot of barbs thrown at each other, is that they need to take this into a civil discourse and we’re not seeing that right now. I don’t like it when campaigns go that direction and I would say of both of them, you know, ‘Back down and let’s really talk about the policies and the issues.'” Ernst says the bleachers that ring the livestock pavilion can seat about two-thousand people and there will be more seating inside the show ring, in front of the stage. Senator Chuck Grassley, Iowa’s three Republican congressmen and Republican congressional candidate Chris Peters will speak to the crowd, along with Trump, Governor Terry Branstad and Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds.

(Radio Iowa)

Some common August threats are showing up in Iowa soybean fields. That’s according to agronomist Randy Kool, with Syngenta, in Adel, who says spraying for insects is coming to an end for most growers. “Usually R5.5 to R6 (development stage) is about the end of any application treatments for insects. We’ve had some spraying for soybean aphids and we’re starting to hear about the second generation of bean leaf beetles,” Kool said. Kool’s territory includes parts of western Iowa where excessive rainfall has disease pressure mounting.

“I would say (we’re starting to see pockets of) SDS in the western half of Iowa, but it’s not as prevalent as on the eastern side of the state.” Kool says variety selection and seed treatments are ways to manage Sudden Death Syndrome and other diseases moving forward. And late emerging weeds like water hemp are causing problems again. “That’s a little bit more of an issue this year since beans were a little slower to canopy. We’ve got good bean height now, but its been a challenge to take care of some of those weeds earlier,” Kool said.

Kool recommends cleaning harvest equipment before switching fields to limit the spread of weed seeds. The most recent report from the USDA placed 82-percent of Iowa’s soybean crop in good or excellent condition.

(Radio Iowa/Brownfield Ag News)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Utilities Board has approved a wind turbine operation it says will be the nation’s largest wind energy project. Des Moines-based MidAmerican Energy is behind the planned $3.6 billion wind turbine operation that will generate up to 2,000 megawatts of electricity. The utilities board says that’s enough to power 520,000 homes and that the project will see 85 percent of Iowa’s electricity needs met through wind energy by 2020.

Bill Fehrman, the utility’s CEO and president, announced the project in April. MidAmerican Energy said Friday in a news release that the location of the 1,000 turbines for the project is still being determined. The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2019.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa agency overseeing the state’s transition to a privately managed Medicaid program says it recorded over 225 grievances in the first three months of the new system. The Iowa Department of Human Services says three insurance companies that now run the program received the notices of dissatisfaction in April, May and June from Medicaid patients. The department says the grievances were resolved within 30 calendar days.

The department provided the information Friday as part of a roughly 60-page quarterly report, which was required by the Legislature. Some lawmakers are expected to review the report Monday. DHS estimates in the report that the switch to the privatized system saved the state more than $22 million in the program’s first three months.

The Cass County Conservation Board and Friends of Lake Anita said Friday, that “Due to unforeseen circumstances… the “Dutch Oven Cooking” Campground Program” has been cancelled for Saturday.  The free public program was to be held at the Primitive Campground at Lake Anita State Park in Anita, on August 27th at 11-a.m.

The CCCB thanks you for your understanding.

The Page County Sheriff’s Office says no injuries were reported following an accident Friday morning, on the south side of Shenandoah. Deputies were notified of the crash at around 9:42-a.m. The accident happened at the intersection of A Avenue and Highway2.  An investigation showed 86-year old Claude Randall Apperson, of Shenandoah, was driving a 2004 Buick LaSabre.  21-year old Caleb William Chupp, of Cumberland, was driving a 2009 Dodge 3500 pickup with a 1998 Take 3 trailer hauling H & H trailers for sale that are all owned by H & H Trailer of Clarinda.

Chupp was westbound on Highway 2, east of A Avenue.  Apperson had stopped at the stop sign at A and Highway 2, and had started southbound across the Highway. He didn’t see Chupp’s approaching pickup.  Chupp saw the car enter the intersection and swerved to the south, but his truck struck the front driver’s side fender of the Apperson vehicle.

Chupp continued west / south into the south ditch where the pickup / trailer jackknifed causing totaling damage to the pickup.  The action also caused damage to the Take 3 trailer and one of the cargo trailers that was being hauled. Apperson spun west prior to coming to rest in the westbound lane of traffic.  His car was considered a total loss as well. The total dollar amount of damage was estimated at $17,000.  Both driver’s refused medical medical treatment.

The Page County Sheriff’s Office was assisted at the scene by the Shenandoah Fire Department, Shenandoah Ambulance Service, and the Shenandoah Police Department.

The Cass County Sheriff’s Office, Friday, issued a report on recent arrests. Last Sunday (Aug. 21st), the Atlantic Police Department arrested 29-year old Joshua Robert Olwell, of Atlantic, on a Cass County Sheriff’s Office warrant for Possession with Intent to Delivery Methamphetamine. Olwell was taken to the Cass County Jail where he remains held on $10,000 bond.

On Monday, deputies with the Cass County Sheriff’s Office arrested 31-year old Derik Wayne Bud Pickrell, of Fontanelle, on a Cass County Sheriff’s Office warrant for OWI 1^st Offense and an additional charge of OWI 1^st Offense. Pickrell was taken to the Cass County Jail and was released the following day on $2,000 bond.

And, as mentioned earlier this week, on August 22nd, the Atlantic Police Department arrested 25-year old Alexandra Lynn Stone and 19-year old Lucas Lee Stone, both of Atlantic, on Cass County Sheriff’s Office warrants for Possession with Intent to Deliver Methamphetamine. Both parties were taken to the Cass County Jail and later released on their own recognizances.

The Union County Sheriff’s Office says two people were arrested Thursday evening at the Union County Law Enforcement Center, for Violating a Protective Order. 30-year old Samantha Ann Wright, of Winterset, and 31-year old Jackie Lee Marler, of Creston, were being held in custody while awaiting an initial appearance before the Magistrate.

A judge on the Food Network’s “Iron Chef America” is launching his nationwide tour of restaurants in Iowa to educate Americans about “real” Italian cooking. Chef Mario Rizzotti came to the U-S from Rome more than 20 years ago and went to work in a restaurant as a dishwasher. He saw meals being served that claimed to be Italian but that he’d never heard of before. Rizzotti is calling this year-long trip across America his “4 the Love of Italian Food Tour.”

“What we’re trying to accomplish is to promote the healthy benefits of authentic Italian food and authentic Italian ingredients,” Rizzotti says. “There are so many things out there that we consider ‘Italian’ that in Italy, we don’t even have.” He vows that he won’t be flying from city to city on this journey. Rizzotti says, “I’m going to actually drive from Chicago with one of my chefs and we’ll load up the car with prosciutto di San Daniele, with parmigiano di Giano, with many other ingredients that are very hard to find in those cities.”

Rizzotti’s first stop is Sunday in Sioux City at Trattoria Fresco, for a special charity dinner to benefit the Sioux City Farmers Market. The road to healthier eating, he says, begins with portion control. “We sometimes have the perception that a plate of pasta has to be overflowing your dish. We have a perception that we have tons of sauce in our dish, that’s part of the dish,” Rizzotti says. “Well, it’s the opposite. In Italy, our portions are much smaller and the quantity of the sauce that we use is just enough to give a color and taste to the pasta.”

The restaurant tour is designed to teach Americans about authentic Italian food products, helping them distinguish real from fake, and how those real ingredients can help reduce many health issues related to poor eating. Rizzotti says, “It’s all about one main ingredient that should be on every single dish that we cook, Italian or not, and it is the passion for the food.”

He says he lives by one simple motto: “An authentic Italian meal is not the consumption of food, but a celebration of Dolce Vita.” In addition to the Sunday stop in Sioux City, Rizzotti will return to Sioux City next Wednesday. To kick off the tour, he’ll also be visiting restaurants in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and in Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska.

http://www.mariorizzotti.com/

(Radio Iowa)