(Update 9:50-a.m.) – Apparent engine failure is reportedly to blame for the emergency landing of a crop duster Tuesday evening, in Carroll County. According to reports, the pilot was forced to make an emergency landing in near a field off Mahogany Avenue near Swan Lake south of Carroll, at around 5 p.m. Tuesday. The aircraft ended up on a terrace, near a corn field.

Authorities say the pilot suffered no serious injuries, but he crop duster, an Air Tractor AT-401 registered to Central Ag, LLC of Corisca, S.D., was an apparent total loss.

The Federal Aviation Administration, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) were notified and will be conducting a joint investigation into the incident.

(Radio Iowa) – Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Ottumwa is pushing to ensure a current benefit for military veterans and the families of soldiers who died while on duty is a permanent policy. The National Park Service issues free park passes to veterans and Gold Star families and Miller-Meeks is sponsoring a bill to make that policy law.

“The VIP Act protects these veterans’ passes by codifying them into law and making them lifetime passes instead of annual passes that have to be resent and reapplied for every year,” Miller-Meeks says. “Making the passes lifetime instead of annual makes the job of Park Service easier and ensures our veterans have full access to all the benefits they deserve.” Passes into the Badlands National Park in South Dakota, for example, cost 15 dollars per person and 30 dollars per vehicle.

Miller-Meeks is getting bipartisan support for her bill. More than 140 House members had signed on as co-sponsors.  “As a 24-year Army veteran, I understand the sacrifices made by our military and their loved ones…and as a doctor, I understand the healing power of nature and outdoor activity,” Miller-Meeks said. “with mental and physical benefits.” Miller-Meeks outlined her bill Tuesday during a hearing held by the U.S. House committee that oversees policy on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands.

Ottumwa native John Paluska, a retired Army Captain, also testified. “There’s something about connecting to nature that all these parks have that helps with the healing,” he says. Paluska, who is a Green Beret, says he visited Yellowstone National Park after his deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.  “I’ll always carry the wounds of war with me wherever I go,” he says, “but when I go to these beautiful places I am able to connect with one of the reasons I decided to serve and that is this incredible, beautiful country, so I feel a connection to this country when I visit these national parks.”

Paluska was injured in a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2006 and Staff Sergeant Travis Strong, the soldier at his side, lost both legs. “Now Travis finds his strength in challenging himself physically at a national parks,” Paluska says. “He’s summited various peaks throughout the US with only his hands and, for him, his park is Yosemite.” There are more than two-thousand national parks, national forests and wildlife refuges and Paluska says he looks forward to showing his newborn son Yellowstone and many others in the coming years.

The bill Miller-Meeks is sponsoring would let active service members, who get annual free passes to the national parks, turn that in for a lifetime pass when they retire or are honorably discharged.

(Radio Iowa) – The first woman to serve as a warden at an Iowa prison for men has retired. Chris Weitzel spoke during the Board of Corrections meeting last week and reflected on her career that started as a corrections officer. “When I started in 1982 at Mitchelville my goal was to be a warden. And I have had an amazing career with wonderful opportunities,” Weitzel says, “but those opportunities were there because I made those opportunities. I got involved in every single thing I could possibly involve myself in.” Weitzel’s last position was as the interim warden at the Fort Dodge prison, and she had also held that job in Newton and Clarinda.

Weitzel says there were many things she liked about the job.  “We never have the same day twice. We make a difference in somebody’s life every single day. And I preach that over and over and over to my staff — because corrections is not a positive environment — and I think sometimes we get caught up in the negativity,” Weitzel says. She says the staff doesn’t see the daily impact they make and underestimate their value.

“And so I am constantly reminding staff ‘you make a difference whether you see it or don’t.’ and then, just our staff. We have the best staff in the state, and they are so dedicated to the mission of our work every single day, even in times of hardship,” Weitzel says. Weitzel says the reality of retirement didn’t hit her until the Board of Corrections approved her replacement.

“I have a lot of things that I am proud of through my career,” she says, “buy I think probably the thing that I am most proud of is that I was the first female warden at a men’s institution in Iowa. I hope that that has paved the way — I know it has paved the way for other women.” Weitzel says she looks forward to spending more time with her family and being able to go on vacations without taking along an Ipad.

Department of Corrections director, Beth Skinner, says Weitzel has laid a 38-year foundation in corrections that will never be forgotten.

(Radio Iowa) – A Democrat who came within a couple of points of defeating Republican Congressman Steve King in 2018 has announced his plans for the 2022 election cycle. J.D. Scholten, of Sioux City, released a video message this (Tuesday) afternoon. “I have decided not to seek elected office this time around,” Scholten says. “Instead, I’m joining RuralVote.org as their executive director.”

Scholten had been among those Democrats mentioned as potential candidates for the U.S. Senate in 2022. Scholten says the national group he’s now leading aims to boost Democratic turnout in about three dozen rural counties around the country. “RuralVote.org last fall in just a few weeks put 42,500 yard signs in three battleground states in rural communities,” Scholten says. “Now, this cycle we’re looking take 39 counties across this nation and improve Democratic performance by 5%.”

JD Scholten

Scholten, who also ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. House in 2020, got more votes than Joe Biden did in Iowa’s fourth congressional district. Scholten drove himself around in an R-V he called “Sioux City Sue” and visited each of the district’s 39 counties. Scholten suggests Democrats have to learn the lessons of 2020 as they prepare for the next election.  “Right now, Democratic policies are very popular, however they’re being drowned by mis- and disinformation. We have to remember that we’re just a handful of states and under 100,000 votes from a Donald Trump second term and a Republican-controlled House and Senate,” Scholten says.

“Our campaign’s going to be focused on being in battleground states in 2022.” He says that may or may not include Iowa. Before he entered politics, Scholten played professional baseball in Canada, Europe, and the U.S., including a stint with the Sioux City Explorers. This season, at the age of 41, he’s been pitching for a Minneapolis-based team in an amateur baseball league.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is introducing a bill today (Tuesday) which he says will help rural Iowa communities — as well as isolated towns across the U-S — get high-speed internet connections. The measure is called the Assisting Broadband Connectivity Act and it’s being co-sponsored in the Senate by Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchar.

Grassley says, “This bipartisan bill will make changes to the rural broadband program at the U.S. Department of Agriculture so that areas aren’t automatically ineligible for federal funding because a project previously received state funding.” The update will help rural Iowa to move forward, Grassley says, by providing more coordination and funding for broadband projects. He says the bill should help to remove barriers to broadband expansion and streamline the process for hard-to-serve rural areas.

“States will be able to use federal funds such as COVID aid for broadband,” he says, “fulfilling their requirement in most applications to match federal dollars.” Grassley, a Republican, says the legislation promises to help small communities connect all the pieces from state and federal levels to get the expensive, urgent projects completed. Grassley says he’s held town halls in 85 of Iowa’s 99 counties so far this year, and at practically every meeting, broadband is brought up.

“Some places you go in rural Iowa are mostly connected with the work of small telephone companies,” Grassley says, “and some of them have outstanding service and then other areas you go and they have no service or they’re underserved.” He says boosting broadband will spark economic development and create jobs in rural America.