(Radio Iowa) – U.S. Senator Joni Ernst is a lead sponsor of legislation calling on the Pentagon to assess its suicide prevention efforts. Recently released data indicates there was a 15 percent increase in military suicides last year compared to 2019.  “There are bureaucracies in such a large organization and so what we want to do is strengthen collaboration between all of the different offices within the Department of Defense,” Ernst says, “so that we can really dig in and evaluate the effectiveness of their suicide prevention efforts.”

The bill directs two agencies within the military that are focused on suicide prevention to improve data collection and reduce duplication. Ernst says there also should be better training throughout the ranks on what to look for to help prevent suicides. “We’ve found both with our active duty members and with our veterans it is very hard sometimes for them to step forward and be the one that is asking for help when they are used to being the helper,” Ernst says.

(Image via Rand.org)

The number of Army National Guard soldiers who took their own life increased by 35 percent in the past year. Ernst, a retired Iowa National Guard commander, and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, a combat veteran and retired astronaut, are the bill’s lead sponsors. More than 30 other senators from both parties have signed on as co-sponsors of the “Save Our Servicemembers” or S-O-S Act.

(Radio Iowa) – With a little over a month until Thanksgiving, there are reports of a looming turkey shortage, but the executive director of the Iowa Turkey Federation says that is -not- accurate. Gretta Irwin says there is an “ample supply” of turkeys, however, there are other issues which could leave your feathers ruffled if you’re hoping to have a roast turkey as your centerpiece on November 25th.  “There’s definitely challenges in finding enough employees right now through the entire food chain,” Irwin says. “The turkey industry is definitely a part of that discussion and we have some labor shortages along our supply chain that need to be addressed.”

Irwin says Iowa turkey producers will be raising a number of birds this year that is comparable to previous years, but due to continued troubles with transportation and supply management, your nearest supermarket may soon be running lower than usual. “There are challenges with specific sizes or types of turkeys,” Irwin says. “If you want a fresh turkey, let’s say, or a 12-pound turkey or a 28-pound turkey, I would start having conversations now with your grocer to talk about ordering and making sure that you have a specific product available.”

Many Iowans are already making Thanksgiving plans and know roughly how many people will be around the table and thus, how big a turkey they’ll need. “You’ll start seeing turkeys available in all your grocers now and if there’s a certain size that you’re wanting, I would go out and purchase that turkey now and put that in your freezer,” Irwin says. “It just helps you to plan ahead and takes some stress off of planning for your holiday get together.”

Irwin says Iowa turkey farmers should raise about 12-million birds this year, which will rank the state seventh in the U-S in turkey production, while Iowa is fifth in turkey processing.

(Glenwood, Iowa) – Police in Glenwood report the arrest this (Wednesday) morning, of a Pottawattamie County man. Authorities say 29-year-old Keith Schreck, of Council Bluffs, was arrested for Burglary. Additional details were not provided in the report. Schreck’s cash or surety bond was set at $10,000.

(Iowa DNR News) – Drivers are advised to stay alert as they travel Iowa’s roadsides over the coming weeks. Autumn deer behavior, crop harvest and peak travel times for motorists combine to hike the risk of vehicle-deer collisions in Iowa. From the middle of October until the third week of November, Iowa bucks become more active in the pursuit of does during the breeding season. Motorist may be distracted by the first deer that crosses not seeing the pursuing buck. This adds to multiple scenarios of fast moving, unpredictable deer crossing highways.

The crop harvest is also in full swing, concentrating deer into remaining cover that is often brushy creeks, trees or fence lines which often intersect with roads. A third factor will be the change away from daylight savings time on November 7, placing more Iowans behind the wheel during the deer-heavy dawn and dusk periods.

A few ways to give drivers an edge during this period are to reduce speed, increase following distance from other cars, and to sweep eye movements from ditch to ditch, especially during those low light periods and when approaching those brushy or tree lined ‘funnels’ near roads. Drivers are also encouraged not to ‘veer for deer,’ leaving the lane of traffic could cause a collision with another vehicle or a roadside obstacle, such as a utility pole or culvert.

Iowa’s deer herd is managed to provide a harvest of between 100,000 and 120,000 annually, that is achieved by providing additional opportunities for hunters to harvest does. Last year, Iowa hunters reported harvesting nearly 110,000 deer.

(Iowa DNR News) – Fun abounds statewide for those in search of color and good times outdoors. Enjoy a fall drive and take in all the beautiful colors this weekend. Plenty of fall color is lingering in northeast Iowa. Fall color will be at its peak in central Iowa this week.  Urban maple is showing a few brighter reds and oranges in southeast Iowa. Hard maple is at peak color in the urban landscapes in south-central Iowa.

Warm nights have slowed color changes in west-central and southwest Iowa. Yellows are just starting to appear on the bottomlands in the Missouri River Corridor.

Go to the Weekly Fall Colors Report

(Radio Iowa) – One of the sure signs of fall, Iowans are seeing huge congregations of birds filling the morning and evening skies, giant clouds of feathered creatures that often take several minutes to pass. Steve Dinsmore, a central Iowa ornithologist and bird watcher, says it’s typical during this time of the year to spot birds migrating in tremendously large numbers over Iowa. “Those could represent a number of different species of birds,” Dinsmore says. “One of them is European starlings, so we call those a murmuration of starlings. We also, right now, have very, very large numbers of blackbirds, primarily redwing blackbirds and common grackles, and also other species that are also migrating. Those birds, just like starlings, form these large, wavy, meandering flocks.”

Dinsmore is a professor of Natural Resource Ecology and Management at Iowa State University. He says birds of a feather do flock together for several reasons. “One of them certainly deals with predator avoidance, a sort of safety-in-numbers component,” Dinsmore says. “These birds also feed en mass so one of the other advantages of them associating in flocks is the transfer of information about foraging sites or feeding sites. They do that through these large flocks as they’ve moving to and from roosting and feeding areas.”

Migrating birds. (ISU photo)

The miles-long undulating flocks are fascinating to watch and may contain tens of thousands of birds, perhaps more. “One of the real fun questions to try and answer is, ‘How many are there?’ and certainly, those flocks are very, very large, to the point where you can’t count individuals,” Dinsmore says. “Sometimes, we use estimation techniques or approximation techniques. Pushing 100,000 is pretty unusual but there are records in the hundreds of thousands and some estimates even up to a million individuals.”

Some Iowans who live in larger cities may even be surprised to spot wild turkeys in their back yards, though they’re typically thought of as more of a “country” bird.

The Creston Police Department reports 36-year-old Holly Renee Donehoo, of Creston, was arrested Tuesday night, at her residence. Donehoo was charged with Possession of Drug Paraphernalia and Possession of Controlled Substance Methamphetamine 1st Offense. She was taken to the Union County Jail and later posted a $1,300 bond before being released.

Area broadcast News at 7:08-a.m., with Ric Hanson.

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The Union County Sheriff’s Office says two separate accidents took place Tuesday. Authorities say at around 11:32-p.m. Tuesday, a 2015 Ford F-150 pickup driven by 24-year-old Blaine Andrew Sportsman, of LaClede, Missouri, was traveling westbound on 140th Street in Union County. When Sportsman looked down at his cell phone GPS to see where he was going, the passenger side wheels of the camper his truck was pulling, began to go off the north side of the road, near the ditch. When he tried to get the camper back on the road, it continued towards the ditch before entering, and flipped onto its side.

The flipping action of the camper caused the pickup to flip over as well. Sportsman was wearing a seat belt and was able to safely extricate himself from the pickup. Damage from the accident amount to $20,000 altogether. No citations were issued. And, at around 5:34-p.m., Tuesday, a 1996 Oldsmobile Ciera driven by 42-year-old Jesse White, of Creston, was traveling north on Highway 25. As he was looking at the cornfields, he failed to notice the vehicle in front him, a 2015 RAM pickup – driven by 26-year-old Trevor Blake Luther, of Creston – was slowing down due to a semi hauling crops that was ahead of the pickup. When he finally saw the pickup, White slammed on his brakes, but struck the rear of the pickup truck. He complained of head pain and was transported by ambulance to the hospital in Creston, where he was examined and released. Damage to his car was estimated at $5,000. The pickup sustained $2,000 damage. No citations were issued.

And, the Creston Police Department reports a 2016 Chevy Colorado pickup truck was legally parked in the 100 block of E. Montgomery Street when it was struck on the driver’s side front panel by an unknown vehicle. The other vehicle transferred green paint to the pickup during the collision. The incident, which happened sometime over the previous 24-to 48 hours to Tuesday afternoon, caused an estimated $1,600 damage to the pickup.

(Radio Iowa) – Sioux City’s railroad museum is refurbishing a vintage boxcar purchase from an Atlantic man, to turn it into a replica of the cattle cars that the Nazis used to transport European Jews to concentration camps. The idea came out of the annual “Tolerance Week” — which for 17 years has annually brought Holocaust survivors to Sioux City to visit local schools to educate children about their history. Boardmember Kelli Erickson explains. “And we all thought, what if we brought a railcar up here, and create a Holocaust museum where it is not just one week? So we are going from one week of education to potentially nine months,” Erickson says.

File Photo – (Left) Matt Merke with the Sioux City Railroad Museum, and Keith Olsen, with Olsen’s BP.

The railcar – formerly owned by Keith Olsen, of Atlantic – will be part of a permanent museum exhibit known as “Holocaust Rails, Desperate Passage.” “And it’s very, very important education for us to share. How did this happen, who are these people, how did people let it happen?,” she says. “There are answers to all of these –and the survivors — the stories of the survivors, very inspiring.” The finished cattle car will be the centerpiece of the only Holocaust exhibit in the midwest. “One survivor has been quoted that the railcar symbolized their transition from being human beings to being numbers that could be disposed of at any time. It’s a hub, the very center of what we’d like to create,” she says.

Humanities Iowa and the National Endowment for the Humanities are partnering in the project. They plan a fundraising campaign for the overall project — and hope to have the exhibit ready by the fall of 2022.