(Radio Iowa) – Former Iowa Governor Terry Branstad will be “ambassador-in-residence” at Drake University, meeting with students and planning to host a yearly conference about U.S. and China relations. Branstad, who was President Trump’s Ambassador to China, graduated from Drake’s law school 50 years ago.  “I have a lot of good memories involved with going to law school here, even though I was also serving in the legislature. It was a very active time,” Branstad says. “This is where I met my wife, for Drake’s homecoming.”

Branstad, the nation’s longest-serving governor, has just turned 75. His office on the Drake campus is in the law library. “I’m feeling good and I’m in good health and I hope this will be for an extended period of time,” Branstad says. “I do intend to meet with students, be available like on a weekly basis. I will only teach classes not real often, maybe a couple of times a semester or something like that.” Branstad hopes to organize an annual conference to focus on the U.S. relationship with China — a country Branstad says can be considered both an adversary and a potential trading partner.

“We have some big differences on policy and those have gotten wider over the years and especially since Covid,” Branstad says. “The Chinese still deny that it started in Wuhan.” Branstad says it was no easy task as the ambassador to evacuate 13-hundred people from China back to the United States. Branstad says the Chinese government has done everything it can to cover up the origins of Covid-19 and the world probably will never know for sure how it started.

“We had people from the CDC there at the embassy and we’re calling them every day, offering assistance and wanting to help, but no response,” Branstad says. “…They did everything they could to lie and cover it up and say everything is fine and whatever — until it got way out of hand.” Some of Branstad’s personal papers and memorabilia will also be donated to Drake. Some of it is already at the Winnebago County Historical Museum.

“You get a lot of stuff as governor and as ambassador I found out as well and so we wanted a place to display it where the public can see it and so some of it will be here,” Branstad says. “There is some up in Forest City at the Mansion Museum as well.” Branstad’s OFFICIAL papers from his time as governor are digitized and available at the State Historical Museum’s library. Digital copies will soon be available at the library on the Drake campus as well.

Drake’s library is also the repository for Senator Tom Harkin’s papers and the records of former Governor Robert Ray. Ray graduated from Drake’s Law School in 1954 and served as Drake’s interim president in 1998.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – A public hearing was held during Wednesday evening’s City Council meeting, in Atlantic. The hearing was with regard to the sale of city-owned property at 901 Birch Street, a dilapidated home with a large retaining wall, broken windows, a bad roof and other issues. There were no comments received from the public in writing or otherwise. Prior to taking a roll-call vote on passing a Resolution approving the sale to Charles (CJ) Adams for of $5,350, the Council discussed and all agreed that, as Councilman Pat McCurdy said, “it’s a good deal.

Adams has said he intends to “flip” the property (rehabbing the home to make it saleable and profitable). City Administrator John Lund has indicated selling the lot would yield a triple-profit for the City: Cash up-front; Increased property value if Adams chooses to sell it; and a serious liability property would be removed from the City’s books. In other business, Angie Strotman, Fox Engineering Director of Marketing, in Ames, presented Councilman Jim Behrens with a check for $500. She explained the check is the result of a meeting of the Iowa League of Cities last September, in Coralville.

Angie Strotman w/Fox Engineering presents a “check” to Councilman Jim Behrens.

Strotman said also she coincidentally met Behrens before his name was even drawn.

She made it clear that she was not the person who drew his name for the prize. Fox Engineering by-the-way, were the designers of the City’s wastewater treatment plant. Behrens is donating the $500 to the fire department, to be used as part of their extrication equipment fundraiser.  The Council then heard a presentation from Kristine Stokes, Community Development Specialist with the Southwest Iowa Planning Council (SWIPCO), with regard to a Community Development Block Grant – CV (Covid) opportunity for the City’s Food Pantry, to help them pay for food in 2022.

Kristine Stokes

Funds for the grant come from the CARES Act for Covid relief, of which Iowa received $31.3-million to implement the CDBG grants, which are processed through IEDA (The Iowa Economic Development Authority).

The City of Atlantic would simply act as a flow-through agency for any funds that might come from the grant, if it is approved. The Food Pantry/Food Bank cannot apply for the funding on its own. The Atlantic Food Pantry, Stokes said, has been serving the community for nearly 40-years (It was founded in 1982). It has around 30 volunteers. Stokes said there’s been no let-up in the demand for food, especially since the beginning of the pandemic.

The Food Pantry distributes food every Thursday. SWIPCO would serve as the applicant on behalf of the food pantry, which makes the pantry a sub-recipient of the grant funding. Already 38 letters have been received in support of the application.The Council agreed in principal to support the grant application, but since it wasn’t on their agenda for official approval, they couldn’t act on it. Instead, the food pantry will come up on the Council’s agenda in December to conduct a public hearing for the CDBG application, and for the grant application to be processed by SWIPCO.