The 2013 East Pottawattamie County Fair is set to begin today (Wednesday), in Avoca. The fair runs through Sunday, and as always, will feature the activities of area 4-H’ers, and entertainment for persons of all ages. Judging for the Queen Contest began Monday, and concludes Thursday evening at 6, with the coronation.

Four young ladies are vying for the title of Fair Queen: 16-year old Jessica Butcher, of Avoca; 17-year old Sophie Kock, of Hancock, and 16-year old Hannah Constable, of Shelby. Those teens will be juniors at A-H-S-T this fall. The fourth contestant is 18-year old Breanna Kixmiller, of Walnut, who will be a senior this fall, at the Atlantic High School.

That same evening, a new event débuts at the fair: a Family Fun Night, featuring carnival games, inflatable’s, face painting, a temporary tattoo artist and prizes for kids.  On the schedule Friday night, is the Texaco Country Showdown, a national touring country music talent search. That’ll be followed by the Figure 8 Races, and a demolition derby.

The East Pott. County Fair concludes with a livestock auction next Monday, July 22^nd. For more on the fair, go to PottawattamieCountyFair.com or visit the fair’s Facebook page.

The Iowa Lottery reports a woman from Cass County is the latest, big instant scratch game winner in the County, during fiscal year 2013. Kristen Karstens, of Massena, won $50,000 in the “Super Crossword” game, with a ticket purchased at the 21^st Century Co-Op C-Store, in Massena.

Fiscal Year 2013 ended June 30^th, and the lottery released a review of its top prize winners for the year, last Friday. Officials say Tamara Wiley, of Lewis, was the county’s latest and biggest lotto winner during the year, winning $40,000 in the Powerball game, with a ticket purchased at an Atlantic Casey’s Store.

Even with all those winners, there are lottery prizes that expire without being claimed every year in Iowa. Lottery officials remind players to double-check their tickets for any prizes they may have won. In FY 2013, more than $1.3 million in prizes expired without being claimed in Iowa lotto games. Prize money left unclaimed after redemption deadlines goes into the lottery’s prize pools for future games and promotions.

Winning lotto numbers may be checked by visiting the lottery website at www.ialottery.com or calling the winning numbers hotline at (515) 323-4633. They may also be checked by visiting a lottery retail outlet or calling the lottery at (515) 725-7900 from 8-a.m. to 4:30-p.m. Monday through Friday.  

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) — The family of a man charged in the 1994 killing of a 20-month-old boy has issued a statement expressing sympathy with the child’s family and asking the media to respect its privacy. The Mason City Globe Gazette reportsthe family of 37-year-old Michael Jason Cisneros issued the statement yesterday. Cisneros is charged with first-degree murder in the death of John Joseph Snyder Jr.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The number of people reporting a food-borne intestinal illness believed to have come from a contaminated vegetable is now at 134 in Iowa and Nebraska as new cases continue to surface. Iowa has reported 81 cases of cyclosporiasis spread across 25 counties. The Iowa Department of Public Health says at least five people have been hospitalized.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Authorities in Des Moines say they have made the largest heroin bust in the city’s history. Des Moines police say they seized 11 pounds of heroin and three pounds of methamphetamine from a pick-up truck Saturday on Interstate 80. The Des Moines Register reports that’s more than 440 times as much heroin found in the city last year.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Officials at a Des Moines zoo say a 16-year-old female lion has died of cancer. KCCI-TV reports that Gavivi died after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer in 2012. The lion was born in 1997 and came to the Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines in 1999.

The Red Oak Police Department reports 45-year old Raymond Lee Briggs, of Red Oak, was arrested Tuesday on a 5th degree Theft charge. Briggs was arrested in the 400 Block of North 3rd Street where he was found in possession of stolen property from a vehicle burglary that had occurred 20 minutes prior. Briggs was taken to the Montgomery County Law Center and held on $300 cash bond. There is still an open investigation on the vehicle burglary.

A head-on crash Tuesday afternoon east of Shenandoah has claimed the life of the Shenandoah High School Volleyball Coach. The Iowa State Patrol reports 45-year old Chad Van Houten of Shenandoah died at the scene of the crash at around 2:30-p.m., four-miles West of E Avenue on 190th Street. The driver of the other vehicle, 64-year old Larry Wise of Clarinda, was transported to the Shenandoah Hospital by ambulance. Both men were wearing their seat belts.

Officials say Van Houten was westbound on 190th Street in a 2003 Dodge Intrepid, while  Wise was eastbound in a 2006 GMC pickup. Their vehicles met at the crest of a hill and collided in an offset, yet head-on manner. The accident remains under investigation.

Van Houten coached volleyball at Shenandoah for more than 5-years. He also worked as a guard for the Iowa Department of Corrections in Clarinda, and co-owned a drug store in Clarinda, along with his wife, Annie. Tuesday’s school board meeting in Shenandoah was postponed, and grief counselors called-in to help students, staff and the community deal with the loss.

Council Bluffs is preparing for 25-thousand visitors as RAGBRAI begins this weekend. The Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa brings in bicyclists from around the world and they’ll start the west-to-east trek in Council Bluffs this year. Kathy Fiscus, with the Council Bluffs Convention and Visitors Bureau, says 20 committees have been working on RAGBRAI preparations for several months, with public safety as the top priority.

Fiscus says, “That means examining the route to make sure the streets are in good shape, to consider where directional signage should go so that semi-truck traffic and RVs and campers and bicycles don’t tangle up and create a mishap.” Fiscus says it’s an honor for Council Bluffs to be the first host city for this year’s big cycling event. “It’s a way to show, not only Iowans, but the world, our beautiful city,” she says. “This year, the tire dip is at the Tom Hanafan River’s Edge Park and the exit route this year will go through Council Bluffs, so the riders will see our beautiful Bayliss Park, our historic 100 block of Broadway, for example.”

Council Bluffs hosted RAGBRAI in 2009 and was designated then as City of the Year. Fiscus says 15-thousand bicyclists are expected to leave Council Bluffs Sunday morning for the start of the week-long RAGBRAI. Riders will also pass through Harlan, Perry, Des Moines, Knoxville, Oskaloosa and Fairfield along the route. RAGBRAI ends on July 27th in Fort Madison.

(Radio Iowa)

Clarinda Police Chief Keith Brothers reports a Page County Sheriff’s vehicle was involved in an accident this (Tuesday) morning. According to the report, 43-year old Sheriff Lyle Palmer, of Shenandoah, was traveling west on Lincoln Avenue at around 11:05-a.m., when the 2009 Chevy Silverado Sheriff’s pickup he was driving, and a 2010 Mazda driven by 62-year old Rebecca Wiese, of Clarinda, collided in the middle of the uncontrolled intersection, in the westbound lane. The accident happened as Wiese was traveling north on 15th Street and approaching the intersection with Lincoln Street.

Wiese was issued a citation for Failure to Yield. Damage from the crash amounted to $10,000. No injuries were reported.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – State data shows that more than 3,200 license plates have been issued to local, state and federal agencies with a designation that allows them to avoid tickets from Iowa traffic cameras.  A recent speeding incident involving Gov. Terry Branstad’s state SUV has revealed how cities give a break to some government vehicles caught on red light and speed cameras.  Several cities said they do not issue tickets to drivers whose plates are not included in police databases because they’re conducting undercover or sensitive work.

Iowa Department of Transportation data requested by The Associated Press shows that 350 agencies have been issued at least one license plate with that designation, ranging from small police departments to the Transportation Security Administration. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources leads the way with 210.

You’ve heard of flash flooding. Now, there’s the flash drought. Parts of Iowa are seeing the driest July in decades and Jim Lee, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service, says the term “flash drought” applies, as the heat wave came on very quickly following Iowa’s wettest-ever spring. “A drought can be characterized by a lack of rainfall, low levels of ground water and soil moisture, affects on plants and so forth and sometimes droughts occur over long time scales of several years, sometimes the occur over a period of a few months,” Lee says. “So for the shorter events, sometimes we refer to them as flash droughts.”

Lawns that aren’t being watered are becoming brown and crunchy, especially in parts of central Iowa, where it’s the driest July, so far, since 1976. Des Moines has only gotten six-hundredths of an inch of rain this month. Lee notes, the turnaround from earlier this year is unusual.

“We did have the wettest spring on record in Iowa in terms of the average statewide rainfall from March through May,” Lee says. “We’re not necessarily in a drought yet, in fact, very little of Iowa is in drought conditions right now, however, if we continue to see the dry pattern that we’ve seen established over the last couple of weeks persist through the rest of July, then we could enter that territory.”

Much of the state and a large portion of the region were hit with a drought that lasted the majority of last year, however, the rainy spring gave promise to a change for Iowa. Lee says it’s still not known whether this flash drought will become another full-fledged drought. Lee says, “The fortunate thing about events like this is that because we had that wet spring, we were able to replenish our soil moisture, subsoil moisture, river levels, reservoirs and so forth, so that we’re better able to take a drier second half of summer.”

(Radio Iowa)

The forecast calls for a few scattered showers but no significant rainfall until perhaps the weekend.