Jim Field visits with Tayler Etzel about the Iowa State University Bacon Expo.
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Jim Field visits with Tayler Etzel about the Iowa State University Bacon Expo.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.8MB)
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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Supreme Court will formally hear details of a lawsuit against Gov. Terry Branstad that challenges his decision last year to close two state mental health institutes. The court is set to hear arguments today (Wednesday), to determine if Branstad’s veto of funding for the facilities in Clarinda and Mount Pleasant was proper and constitutional.
The president of Iowa’s largest public employees union and several Democratic lawmakers filed the lawsuit in July 2015, shortly after Branstad vetoed funding for the facilities. Branstad has argued patients at the institutes are able to access care through other services.
The lawsuit claims Iowa law requires the institutes to be open alongside institutes in Cherokee and Independence. A district court judge ruled in favor of Branstad.
The Creston Police Department reports two people were arrested Tuesday and one person was arrested early this (Wednesday) morning. 24-year old Richie Rodriguez, of Creston, was arrested at around 1:45-a.m. today (Wed.), for Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. Rodriguez was being held in the Union County Jail on $300 bond.
On Tuesday, Creston Police arrested 29-year old Kenneth Williams, of Creston, and 22-year old Michael Bergman, of Mt. Ayr. Williams was taken into custody on a Dept. of Corrections warrant charging him with a Parole Violation. Williams was being held without bond, in the Union County Jail. Michael Bergman was arrested on a charge of Theft in the 3rd Degree. He was later released on a $2,000 bond.
Creston Police said also, a woman who resides in the 1100 block of N. Walnut Street, in Creston, reported Tuesday that sometime between 7-p.m. Monday and 6:30-p.m. Tuesday, someone stole an industrial door with an iron frame, along with some metal rods. The items were taken from the backyard of the woman’s home. The loss was estimated at $200.
The area’s top news at 7:06-a.m., w/KJAN News Director Ric Hanson
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A traffic stop early this (Wednesday) morning, in Red Oak, resulted in the driver of the vehicle being arrested for Driving Under Suspension. Red Oak Police say 25-year old Tiffany Nicole Studey, of Red Oak, was taken into custody at around 6-a.m. at the intersection of N. 6th and E. Market Streets. Studey was brought to the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center and held on a $300 cash bond.
The U-S-D-A’s National Agricultural Statistics Service’s (NASS) latest report shows the average amount of money farmers pay to rent land for crop production in Iowa has gone down again in 2016. The report shows that average rent for cropland in the state of Iowa dropped 15 from last year — or about six percent — to 235 dollars an acre. The Deputy Director of NASS for the Upper Midwest Region, Doug Hartwig, says they gather information directly from the producers.
He says they look at 100 percent cash rent, not a hybrid mix, and they break it down by cropland and pasture.Hartwig says the reasons for that shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. “Looking out there and seeing what the prices are in the commodities and the livestock, you can probably correlate that back to that as far as lower crop prices are probably going to put pressure on that cash rent value to go down a little bit,” according to Hartwig.
Hartwig says the questionnaires are sent out in February, first by the mail-out/mail-back method. For those forms NASS doesn’t receive back, they do a phone follow-up or allow producers to report the information over the internet. By the time numbers are gathered, Hartwig says it’s usually an 80 percent response rate overall. He says the participation and high response rates allow them to provide accurate numbers for operators and landowners.
While average cropland rent dropped from last year, average pasture rent moved in the other direction — up two dollars from last year to 52 dollars. That’s about a four percent increase. In further detail, the report shows that the south-central region of Iowa averaged the lowest rent for cropland, at 173 dollars an acre, which is 62 dollars below the state average. This region includes Union County, along with Clarke, Decatur, Madison and Ringgold. The next two lowest regions were the southeast and southwest. The southwest region includes Adair County, as well as Adams and Taylor. The average of 216 dollars an acre is notably higher than the south-central, but still lags behind the state average.
The counties closer to the Missouri River showed considerably higher rent numbers. According to the report, the one county in the state with the lowest cropland rent value is Lucas County, coming in at 150 dollars an acre. The northern half of Iowa appeared to bring the overall state average up. Northwest Iowa’s Ida County had the highest average cash rent for non-irrigated cropland, at 281 dollars per acre, followed by Grundy County in northeast Iowa, at 277 dollars an acre. Individual counties are surveyed every two years, while the state average is done every year.
(Radio Iowa)
WASHINGTON (AP) – Republicans have gained ground on Democrats in registering voters in three battleground states and kept their razor-thin advantage in Iowa. That’s encouraging news for Donald Trump eight weeks before Election Day. Data compiled by The Associated Press show that Republicans added hundreds of thousands of voters to the rolls since 2012 in states including Florida and Arizona, and narrowed the gap in North Carolina. In Iowa, Republicans prevented Democrats from surpassing them, aided by a court ruling upholding a ban on voting by ex-felons, who often register as Democrats.
As Election Day approaches, voter registration drives are in full swing. The latest registration numbers aren’t an assurance of new voters for Trump. But the figures, when available, offer important clues as to how each party stands.
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