DES MOINES, Iowa, Nov. 25, 2024 – U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development State Director in Iowa Theresa Greenfield today announced that the Agency is investing $2,788,324 in 12 projects in Iowa that promote rural housing, communities, small businesses, cooperatives, and public safety. In the KJAN listening area the following are grant recipients:

–Region XII Council of Governments received a $129,972 grant through the Housing Preservation Grants program to rehabilitate housing that is owned and occupied by very-low income people. This project will make necessary repairs to help eliminate health and safety hazards in homes and will improve the living conditions of 16 homeowners in rural Audubon, Carroll, Crawford, Greene, and Sac counties, in Iowa.

-City of Grant in Montgomery County received a $46,800 grant through the Community Facilities Direct Loans and Grants program to purchase a vehicle. This project will provide the city’s fire department with a grass-fire truck to replace a 20-year old model which needs frequent repairs. This project will improve fire protection services and promote the safety of townspeople, fire-fighting personnel, and residents of surrounding townships supported by the city’s fire department.

Among the five Economic Impact Initiative Grants program award recipients was….

-City of Marne received a $30,800 grant through the Economic Impact Initiative Grants program to purchase equipment. This project will provide updated personal protective equipment and self-contained breathing apparatus packs for the city’s fire department. This project will promote the health and safety of firefighting personnel and better protect residents of this rural Cass County community.

Director Greenfield says “To ensure that Iowans in small towns and rural neighborhoods have good job opportunities and diverse paths to prosperity, USDA is removing barriers to economic growth by advancing locally driven plans and projects,” said Director Greenfield. “USDA is here with programs designed to help rural communities obtain essential services such as fire trucks, emergency sirens, and affordable housing. For co-ops and small businesses in rural areas, USDA may be one more resource to turn to get a project off the ground, up and running.”

(Radio Iowa) – Friday (November 29th) will mark the one-year anniversary since a fire gutted the inside of the Webster Theater in downtown Webster City. Kay Ross of Webster City serves on the committee that’s working to get the theater back open and says they are making progress and are grateful for the donations to help in the renovation. “Most people realize what a massive undertaking it is. I mean, basically they had to tear out all of the systems. It pretty much was torn down to the studs, especially in the auditorium,” Ross says. The original goal was to have the Webster Theater back open in time for Webster City’s Christmas celebration on December 7th, but a problem was found with one of the walls that has delayed the work.

Ross says the donations are part of several sources of money being raised. “Hotel, motel, tax grants, I had two incredibly generous donors within the last month or two who gave 30-thousand dollars each,” she says. “We had an awful lot of people say to us, well, ‘Didn’t you have insurance? Weren’t you fully covered?’ Folks, we had one-point-two million dollars worth of coverage on the building and an additional three-hundred thousand dollars on the contents,” Ross says. “So yes, we felt that we were adequately covered. And those were the suggestions that the insurance company suggested that we be insured for however, there were expenses that weren’t covered by the policy.”

Ross says the problem with the building wall was not covered by insurance and added to the expense. The plan now is to reopen the Webster Theater by next spring. Webster City’s movie fans have been driving out of town to watch movies since the fire last year. If you would like to make a contribution to the effort, go to webstertheater.org

(Radio Iowa) – A member of the Arnolds Park City Council and the owner of two prominent businesses in the Iowa Great Lakes region has died. Jim Jensen began racing sailboats on West Lake Okoboji when he was five and started a sailboat business when he was 13. Jensen was a sales manager, then owner of Okoboji Boats. He sold in 2001 and soon after became one of the captains of the Queen II, a 75-foot-long excursion boat that cruises West Lake Okoboji. He also founded Jensen Realty with his son, Michael. Jensen died November 14th at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester after a long illness. He was 74.

The Arnolds Park City Council intends to appoint someone to replace Jensen, whose term on the council ran through the end of 2027. After a new council member is appointed, Iowa law says citizens have 14 days to collect petition signatures if they favor a special election to fill the vacancy.

(Clarinda, Iowa) – The Page County Attorney’s Office has released a report on court cases in Page County District Court, during the week of November 18th. Read the full report below:

(Radio Iowa) – Two people were found dead of apparent gunshot wounds in a Cedar Rapids suburb on Sunday afternoon. A news release from the Linn County Sheriff’s Office indicates state and local law enforcement agencies were dispatched to a home in Springville at about 4 p.m. Sunday.

Springville, a town of 11-hundred residents, is about eight miles northeast of Marion. The news release says the incident is under investigation, but the sheriff’s office does not believe there’s a danger to the public.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Congresswoman Ashley Hinson says congress may provide a reprieve for so-called DACA recipients — people who were brought into the country illegally when they were children, but Hinson says any adult who entered the country illegally should consider leaving now. President-elect Trump has said he will declare a national emergency when he takes office January 20th and start the largest deportation effort in U-S history. “Some of these people need to take a look at what’s happening and consider self-deporting,” Hinson says. “If they’re here illegally, they should have that conversation.” According to U-S Citizenship and Immigration Services, there are nearly 22-hundred Iowa residents who were brought into the country illegally as children and have so-called DACA protection from deportation.

“I actually would support a DACA fix and I think that that’s something that there is actually broad, bipartisan support for,” Hinson says. “I think that’s a case where many of these children were brought here through no fault of their own, right? And I think that’s a completely different conversation than the mass encouragement of asylum seeking that we’ve seen under the Biden Administration.” Hinson, a Republican from Marion, says she hopes Immigration and Customs Enforcement removal efforts target criminals. “The most important thing is we’ve got these gang members, sex crimes perpetrators — we’ve got some really dangerous people in our communities and that’s what I hope ICE is focused on,” Hinson says. “…Then we can have a conversation about workforce, because I do think that’s a conversation that needs to be had around legal workforce visas.”

A citizen of a foreign country must have a visa in order to legally work in the United States. The American Immigration Council estimates there are 52-thousand people living in Iowa entered the country illegally and are not authorized to work. “Even in Iowa classrooms — right? — where you have dozens and dozens of students coming into these districts that are not English-speaking it creates a challenge for our Iowa teachers and our Iowa students here, so that’s where you see, like, the local impact of that,” Hinson says. “…That’s why I’m so passionate about making sure we have a good solution here because it’s just not sustainable and it is having an impact on our local communities.” However, Hinson says does not expect immigration raids in Iowa as deportations focus on the 40- or 50-thousand illegal immigrants with criminal records.

Rep. Hinson speaking on the House floor (file photo)

“I’m hopeful that’s the tactic we’ll take,” Hinson says, “and we won’t see huge disruptions to our communities here.” Nearly six percent of Iowa’s population is foreign born. That includes those who have become naturalized U-S citizens, people with work or student visas as well as those who entered the country illegally. Hinson says once congress has a bigger conversation about fixing the immigration system, one of her priorities will be helping DACA recipients who’ve applied for legal residency, but haven’t yet received what’s called a green card. “Once they get to a certain age, they are forced out of the country and I don’t think that’s fair,” Hinson says. “We have these kids who, you know — for example, came to the U.S. with their parents when they were five years old. They’re Americans at this point and they’ve gone through the education system with legal status with their parents and n many cases they’re getting engineering degrees from the University of Iowa or they’re really smart people who we want to keep here.”

Hinson made her comments this weekend during an appearance on “Iowa Press” on Iowa P-B-S.

(Glenwood, Iowa) – A man from Nebraska was arrested Sunday, in Glenwood. The Glenwood Police Department says 20-year-old Andrew Williams, of Omaha, was arrested for OWI/1st offense. His bond was set at $1,000, but Williams was released on his Own Recognizance.

November 25, 2024 (DES MOINES) – Iowa Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Grant Menke and a 16-member delegation have just returned from a trade mission to Taiwan and Japan. The mission, coordinated by the Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA), included representation from Iowa’s meat production, grain, and meat processing industries. The purpose of the mission was to encourage trade development, bolster partnerships and identify opportunities to expand export markets.

Taiwan and Japan were both ranked in the top 10 U.S. agricultural export markets in 2023 and continue to be critical Iowa trading partners. In 2023, Iowa companies exported $225.1 million in agricultural goods to Taiwan and $1.3 billion to Japan. Taiwan is Iowa’s 13th largest trading partner, with exports estimated at $321 million in manufactured and value-added goods in 2023. Taiwan is the eighth-largest destination for Iowa soybeans, which accounted for $87.4 million in 2023. Iowa companies exported $50.5 million in meat products to Taiwan in 2023.

Japan is Iowa’s fourth largest export destination and the second-leading export market for pork and beef products. Iowa companies exported $533 million in meat products to Japan in 2023. With $367 million worth of corn purchases made in 2023, Japan is the second largest destination for Iowa corn. Through September, corn exports to Japan have risen 25% in 2024.

“Iowa is an agricultural production powerhouse, so it is vital for our state’s farmers and agribusinesses to be able to share our abundance with the world through trade and to seek new market opportunities for Iowa ag products through participation in international trade missions,” stated Iowa Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Grant Menke. “This North Asian mission allowed our well-rounded ag delegation to build on Iowa’s longstanding friendship and partnership in trade with both Japan and Taiwan – strong, stable markets that depend heavily on imports for their food and agriculture needs and deeply value the reliability and premium quality of Iowa’s meat products and commodities. Our meetings, briefings, tours and customer visits showcased the innovation and creativity of Japanese and Taiwanese businesses, provided key information and insights on Iowa agriculture, addressed technical barriers to trade, and confirmed the potential and desire for even greater volumes of Iowa ag exports to Japan and Taiwan in the future.”

The Iowa ag delegation visited Taipei, Taiwan and Tokyo and Osaka, Japan from November 15-23. The itinerary was comprised of trade policy discussions, information sessions on Iowa’s agricultural industry and business development meetings. The delegation was comprised of representatives from Iowa ag processing companies, the Iowa Beef Industry Council, Iowa Corn, Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, Iowa Pork Producers Association and the Iowa Soybean Association. IEDA worked with the U.S. Grains Council, U.S. Meat Export Federation, U.S. Soybean Export Council and USDA – Foreign Agriculture Service to identify and organize business prospects for the mission.

IEDA’s International Trade Office connects Iowa companies with markets for their products and services, educates Iowa businesses on exporting and assists global companies wishing to establish or expand operations in Iowa. To find out more about these services or other trade missions, visit iowaeda.com.