Despite being the breadbasket of the world, a new report shows poverty and food insecurity are rising faster in rural areas of the Midwest than in urban areas. The report from the Center for Rural Affairs covers Iowa and nine other states. Report author Jon Bailey, the center’s research director, says the poverty comes from scarce jobs and paltry salaries. “The jobs in those communities tend to be low-paying jobs,” Bailey says. “So when you add together low pay for the opportunities that are there and then a lack of opportunities, that’s going to lead to economic challenges like poverty and food insecurity.” Bailey’s report finds rural people who were food insecure accounted for nearly 13-percent of the region’s population in 2010. Rural children who were food insecure accounted for almost 24-percent. He says that issue needs to be addressed.

Bailey says “Rural communities are going to have to work on the access to food in their community and then create an economic climate that allows people to live there and afford what they need to live on in those communities.” Bailey says one of the best ways to help rural areas is through the federal Farm Bill, but he says prospects don’t look good right now. “Unfortunately, in some of the early versions of the Farm Bill, there is literally no funding for initiatives that would help that through the rural development section of the Farm Bill,” Bailey says. “We need to change that. We need to have rural communities help put an emphasis on the need for investment in their futures and in their economies to help create those better and well-paying jobs.” The Center for Rural Affairs is based in Lyons, Nebraska. The full report can be found at “cfra.org“.

(Matt Kelley/Radio Iowa)

A Shelby County resident is being showcased in a new exhibit at the Union Pacific Railroad Museum. Dan Bieker of Harlan was selected to be General Grenville Dodge in a new exhibit inside the museum. The Union Pacific Railroad Museum was constructing the exhibit to educate visitors on how the railroad was built west of Iowa. Bieker says the museum struggled to find an actor to play General Dodge so his family reached out to him. He says his sister-in-law and his photographer brother asked him to play the role after they were unsuccessful in finding an actor. They said Bieker had the right stature, facial features and age to try the role. He says it was fun, and an experience he never thought he would have. 

Theatrical makeup was applied to him and the camera crew added more silver to his hair to make him look like General Dodge. Once Bieker was ready to go, he was placed in front of the camera. He says after his audition, officials decided to make his character a part of the museum. Bieker is featured several times throughout the museum on a video screen. He introduces himself as “General Grenville Dodge, Union Pacific’s Chief Engineer,” at the start of construction of the U-P Railroad. He’s on three different screens throughout the museum. The other screens talk about how Dodge met President Abraham Lincoln, and how the railroad was built west of Omaha without any locally available materials – they had to be shipped-in, by steamboat. 

The museum officials told Bieker the display will be around for the next 20 to 30 years. The Union Pacific Railroad Museum is located at 200 Pearl Street in Council Bluffs and is open from 10am to 4pm Tuesdays through Saturday. Admission is free. Bieker says it was an honor and a privilege to be chosen to play the role of General Dodge.

The Iowa Department of Transportation, in coordination with the Federal Railroad Administration and Illinois Department of Transportation, is about to wrap up the second public input portion of the Chicago to Omaha Regional Passenger Rail System Planning Study. Log on at www.iowadot.gov/chicagotoomaha/ to find out more from the online, self-directed open house meeting, which is active through Monday, May 21st, 2012. 

The open house is intended to illustrate various route alternatives, explain the process used to evaluate the route alternatives, discuss results of the alternatives analysis, and gain public input. One of the possible routes in the study would utilize the Iowa Interstate Railroad which passes through Iowa City, Des Moines and Atlantic.

All comments received during the public comment period will be reviewed and considered during development of the draft Tier 1 Environmental Impact Statement. which will be compiled and released to the public for additional input later this fall.

Authorities in Montgomery County say one-person was arrested late Wednesday on a couple of charges, following an incident in Grant. 34-year old Jeremiah John Wieseler, of Grant, was taken into custody at around just before midnight, on charges of Child Endangerment and Serious Assault, following the incident in the 400 block of Jefferson Avenue. Wieseler was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $2,000 bond. Sheriff’s deputies were assisted by the Montgomery County K-9 Unit, deputies with the Cass County Sheriff’s Office and Red Oak Police, in handling the incident.