(Radio Iowa) – The latest report from the U-S Drought Monitor showed a slight improvement with six percent of the state showing no dry conditions. D-N-R hydrologist Tim Hall says the majority of the state is listed as “abnormally dry,” or just before the drought level. “That’s either a precursor to or remnants of coming out of drought. So in the conditions we’re in where we’re kind of on the edge of being in drought and not being in drought,” Hall says. There are some areas in western Iowa and far northeast that have moderate drought. Hall says the dry weather can be an asset to farmers right now.

“From an ag producer perspective, being dry is great because it doesn’t cause any problems with getting into the field. You get really good grain dry down. Those are all good,” he says. Hall says it would not be good to go much longer without some rainfall. “Thinking forward to the next crop year, we need to be adding some moisture into the soil profile,” Hall says. “So it’s not good when we have a September like we’re in. This is likely to end up being the driest September ever on record for the state of Iowa.” Hall says when you look outside of agriculture needs, the state’s water systems are okay.

“Fortunately for the state of Iowa, we had some wetter than normal months for most of the last 12 months, going back to October of last year. So coming out of some pretty decent wet months this spring and early this summer, we’re in much better shape than we would be had we not had that rain,” he says. Hall says rain naturally drops off as we head through fall and into winter, so making up the gap from the dry September may not be easy.

(Bethesda, MD) – Officials with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission report John Deere is recalling multiple models of its Compact Utility Tractors over concerns that their brake systems could fail, creating risk for crashes or injury. The Illinois-based company says there have been four reported incidents — including one hospitalization, two injuries, and some minor property damage. The recalled Compact Utility Tractor models are 1023E, 1025R and 2025R. John Deere says those models can be identified by the model numbers printed on the machines’ hoods. Consumers should stop using these tractors immediately.

The affected models were sold by authorized John Deere dealers from November 2017 through July 2024, and cost between $12,700 and $21,000. The company estimates about 147,900 units are affected. Customers can also check serial numbers for recalled models at the John Deere recalls page.

(Courtesy of John Deere via U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission)

John Deere advises customers to stop using the affected machines and to contact an authorized John Deere dealer to schedule a free repair of the front bell crank in the brake linkage. The company says it’s also reaching out to known purchasers directly.

For more information, customers can visit John Deere online or call Deere & Company from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. ET Saturdays.

(Radio Iowa) – A federal appeals court could take months to decide whether Iowa’s new immigration law that makes illegal reentry a state crime can be enforced. During a hearing in federal court yesterday (Thursday), Iowa’s Solicitor General said the law was passed in response to an immigration crisis and he argued local law enforcement should be able to arrest and charge migrants who were previously deported or denied entry into the United States. American Immigration Council Deputy Legal Director Emma Winger says some immigrants with permanent legal status could be prosecuted under Iowa’s law.

“There’s nothing that truly protects our clients from arrest, prosecution, imprisonment and then orders to leave the country other than a federal court order,” Winger says. “And that’s of course what we’re asking for.”

Winger spoke with reporters after the hearing. The U-S Department of Justice and immigrants rights groups filed the lawsuit that challenged Iowa’s law and earlier this year a federal district court judge issued an order to block it from being enforced. Iowa’s law is similar to a Texas law which has also been blocked by court action.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird has filed a lawsuit accusing an out-of-state company and two of its top executives of failing to properly dispose of over a thousand decommissioned wind turbine blades. According to the Iowa Attorney General’s lawsuit, General Electric and MidAmerican Energy paid millions to a company in Washington state to cut up, transport and recycle wind turbine blades.

The attorney general says that company, Global Fiberglass Solutions, illegally dumped about 13-hundred wind turbine blades at parking lots in Newton and in fields in Ellsworth and Atlantic. The attorney general says those stockpiles posed an environmental risk and the company refused to act despite orders from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. The lawsuit seeks civil penalties of five-thousand dollars per day — over a roughly five year period — for violations of the state’s solid waste disposal rules.

The state of Iowa is suing a Washington-state company and its executives for dumping and then abandoning tons of old wind-turbine blades around Iowa, in violation of the state’s solid-waste laws. These blades were allegedly dumped in the city of Newton. (Photo from Iowa Department of Natural Resources files)

Both General Electric and MidAmerican Energy have had the blades removed from the three sites in Iowa and recycled out of state. General Electric has also sued Global Fiberglass Solutions for failing to dispose of retired wind turbine blades in Texas AND in Iowa. Attempts to reach a spokesperson for Global Fiberglass Solutions were unsuccessful.

(Radio Iowa) – Democrats say ensuring Iowans have access to in-vitro fertilization will be one of their priorities if Democrats win a majority of seats in the Iowa House. House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst says Republican Governor Kim Reynolds wouldn’t sign a repeal of Iowa’s six-week abortion ban, but the legislature should make it clear IVF and birth control are legal.

“When our minority is larger or if we were in charge in January, we would be able to protect those things proactively,” Konfrst says, “so that Iowans wouldn’t have to worry.”

Democrats have opposed using taxpayer dollars to cover private school tuition and Konfrst says the legislature should focus on the students in Iowa’s public schools. “We will be putting forward efforts to defend and support public education at every opportunity,” Konfrst says. “…Public education is a core part of what Iowa stands for and is a core issue that Iowans care about.”

House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst (D-Windsor Heights) (Iowa House Democratic Caucus photo)

Other priorities for House Democrats would be raising the minimum wage and legalizing recreational marijuana for adult use. “These are issues that are reflected and supported by more than 50% of Iowans — not just Democrats, but all Iowans — who want the legislature to focus on things that matter to them,” Konfrst says.

Iowa’s minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. Five of the six states that border Iowa have a higher base wage rate. Recreational marijuana is legal in Illinois, Missouri and Minnesota.

As Radio Iowa reported earlier this month, House Republicans say if they retain majority control in the next legislative session, their top priority will be property tax reform.

(Radio Iowa) – Out of some 800 mayors statewide, the Iowa League of Cities is singling out three for awards, based on the population of their communities. Lake View Mayor John Westergaard is the Iowa Mayor of the Year for towns under two-thousand residents, and Waterloo Mayor Quentin Hart won the title for cities over ten-thousand. For mid-sized cities, Garner Mayor Tim Schmidt is the winner, which he attributes in part to the community’s efforts to build new places to live and grow.

“We have really added a lot of new apartments in this last three years, and a lot of new twin homes and a lot of new homes,” Schmidt says. “So things have really come together. We were really trying to provide housing to bring that workforce into town, and it’s working.” Garner, located in north-central Iowa’s Hancock County, has seen some downtown businesses close in recent years, but Schmidt says they have -not- spiraled into looking like a ghost town.

Garner Mayor Tim Schmidt

“We’ve had some turnover on our State Street, our main street, but every time we’ve had turnover, right away, we’ve filled that storefront again,” Schmidt says, “so we have very, very few storefronts right now, and we’ve seen some neat things come to Garner.” Schmidt says he was stunned by the Mayor of the Year honor.

“This award represents just not me,” he says. “It represents all of Garner because, let’s face it, I would not have that award if we didn’t have a great town and the great people in it, a great council and great city staff, and so it took the whole community for me to receive that award.”

Some of the criteria the league uses in its Mayor of the Year awards include: leadership in other municipal organizations, exceptional service to their community and local region, providing extraordinary service to cities in training, education and development of local leadership, advocating for cities and providing professional assistance and support to cities.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Officials with Vision Atlantic announced today (Thursday), that Ag Ventures Foundation (AgVA), a 501(c)(3) organization based in Mason City, IA, recently awarded a $10,000 grant to Vision Atlantic to support the outdoor classrooms in the new Lakin Foundation Child Development Center of Atlantic. The AgVA Foundation provides grants to other 501(c)(3) organizations to support agricultural education and nutrition programs for adults and youth.

Bob Cole, President of the AgVA Foundation said, “We are pleased to provide these funds to the Lakin Foundation Child Development Center of Atlantic because they will be used to support outdoor classrooms that will allow our youngest youth to learn how to plant and nurture seeds, harvest and prepare produce, and will provide opportunities for children to enjoy eating what they have produced. These learning opportunities can hopefully lead to continued learning throughout their lives of food production and healthy eating.”

The new child development center is being built to meet the increased need for childcare in Cass and surrounding counties. According to Dianna Williams, Director of the Ann Wickman Child Development Center, they are out of space at the current facility. “Over the past four years, our center has been at full capacity, and we consistently have a waitlist of over sixty children. The lack of available childcare in the region negatively impacts families and employers,” Williams stated.

Pictured: Melissa Ihnen, Vision Atlantic Board Secretary; Christina Bateman, Vision Atlantic Board President; Debbie Waterbury, Vision Atlantic Board Treasurer and Jill Euken, AgVA Foundation Board Member.

According to a study conducted in 2023, it was discovered that Cass County has a childcare availability shortfall of over 1,000 children. The new center will be constructed on south Olive Street in Atlantic and will have capacity for 300 children aged zero – five. The Jack and Jill Preschool, currently housed at the Nishna Valley Family YMCA, will be co-located with the new childcare center. “We are excited about this award to support the Lakin Foundation Child Development Center of Atlantic. We know that the new center will provide quality care for children, which is a critical component of economic development of the region, and an important consideration for families when they choose where they want to live,” Christina Bateman, Vision Atlantic President stated.

Along with a new child development center, Vision Atlantic’s project includes a 144-unit housing development and an expansion to the current YMCA facility. Over the past 11 months, $18.3 million has been raised, 60% of a $30 million goal. Vision Atlantic’s Project Committee is actively working to secure the remaining $12.1 million needed. If you are interested in helping transform Atlantic, whether it’s through monetary donations or acts of volunteerism, please contact Vision Atlantic at visionatlanticiowa@gmail.com. Follow Vision Atlantic on Facebook for behind-the-scenes access to project updates or visit www.visionatlantic.org.

Vision Atlantic is a 501(c)(3) non-profit whose mission is to empower growth, enhance lives, and build a thriving community together through the economic development of Atlantic, Iowa.

(Radio Iowa) – Friends and families gathered at a park in Evansdale Wednesday to share their stories of loved ones who have been killed as part of the National Day of Remembrance for victims of homicide. Heidi Maring wears a tattoo on her arm to remember her eight-year-old son Anthony, who was killed by her husband, and tells K-C-R-G T-V she came to Angel’s Park to honor those lost. “We are the last ones to tell our loved one’ story and keep their memory alive,” Maring says. For some, this is a chance to tell people about their journey and the ones they’ve lost.

““It never goes away. You just find ways, you have good days and you have bad days,” Maring says. The Evansdale park is dedicated to Elizabeth Collins and her cousin Lyric Cook Morrissey who were kidnapped and killed in 2012. Drew Collins is the father of Elizabeth and tells K-C-R-G T-V about keeping the hope that the case will be solved. “You have to keep calling the police, you have to keep following up with things, and if you don’t it goes away,” Collins says. Collins spends much of his time connecting with families in similar situations to give them solidarity.  “It’s just important for all these people to know they’re not alone, and they’re not going through it alone,” Collins says.

The people at Angel’s Park, including the father of Elizabeth Collins, said the chance to tell their story to people who understand what they’re going through is rare and also powerful.

(Radio Iowa) – One of the six Republicans who represents Iowa in congress voted against the spending plan that will keep the federal government operating for three months. In a message posted on social media, fourth district Congressman Randy Feenstra said Iowans and Americans deserve fiscal responsibility from their government. Feenstra did not directly refer to his no vote on the temporary spending bill that averts a federal government shut down October 1st, but Feenstra said congress needs to end reckless government spending and produce a balanced federal budget.

First district Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks, second district Congresswoman Ashley Hinson of Marion and third district Congressman Zach Nunn all voted yes on the resolution to provide funding for the federal government through December 20th. Both of Iowa’s U-S Senators voted for the plan, too.