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Rains wash away Iowa extreme drought for first time in 2 years

Ag/Outdoor, News, Weather

May 10th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – The latest U-S Drought Monitor map of Iowa shows no red areas indicating extreme drought.

DNR Hydrologist Tim Hall says we’ve been seeing red for a long time. “The first time in almost two years that we’ve not had extreme drought somewhere in the state of Iowa,” Hall says. It is a big turnaround, but not all the color has washed out of the drought map. “We still have half the state are so impacted by drought conditions, but that area is shrinking all the time as we get these good rains,” he says.

Hall has continually said we need weekly rains every month to turn things around, and that’s the pattern we’re now in. “We’ve now had five out of the last seven months have had above normal precipitation and that’s exactly the recipe we wanted,” he says, “where you get month over month just above normal precipitation, and that’s what’s really helping us to get out of the drought,” Hall says.

He says depth of the drought is evident in the lack of any major flood issues. “Go back to this winter when we had all that snow in January that melted very quickly and we had no flooding. And we’ve now had a couple of above normal precipitation months, and yes, we got some flooding, but nothing even approaching a widespread or catastrophic flooding,” Hall Says. “So that really points to a couple of things, how dry the soil was, and the fact that the rain we have received has been fairly well spaced out.”

Half of the state’s annual rainfall usually comes in May through August, and Hall says if we are above normal in any of those months, we could go a long way toward pushing all the drought colors off the map.

2024 World Food Prize has 2 winners

Ag/Outdoor, News

May 10th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – Two scientists who played key roles in creating a world seed vault are the winners of the 2024 World Food Prize. World Food Prize Foundation president, Terry Branstad, Thursday, announced Geoffrey Hawtin of Great Britain and Cary Fowler of the United States as the winners.

“They focused their careers on preserving and protecting the world’s heritage of crop diversity and mobilizing this critical resource to defend against threats of global food security,” Branstad says. During the ceremony at the U-S State Department, Branstad says they conserved more than six-thousand varieties of crops and culturally important plants. “Sustaining storehouses of seeds that we need to breed tomorrow’s crops for more nutritious, and climate smart crops,” Branstad says. “They then went on to work to establish the famous Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway.”

World Food Prize Foundation President Terry Branstad. (photo from World Food Prize Foundaiton)

The Norway facility is often referred to as the “Doomsday Vault,” and holds one-point-two-five million seed samples in an underground facility in the Arctic Circle. More than anyone else these laureates have together shaped the global system we now have for protecting, sharing, and utilizing crop diversity for the benefit of humanity,” Branstad says.

Hawtin is the founding director and executive board member at the Global Crop Diversity Trust. Fowler is currently the U-S Special Envoy for Global Food Security. The World Food Prize was created by Cresco, Iowa native Norman Borlaug, who received the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for his work that contributed to increases in agricultural outputs which was termed the Green Revolution.

The two will receive the World Food Prize at an event at the Iowa State Capitol building in October.

New law may speed up new vehicle registration, license plate delivery

News

May 10th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – For decades, Iowa law has required the title and registration for a newly-purchased or leased vehicle to be filed in the county where the owner of the vehicle lives. A new law going into effect July 1st will let Iowa auto dealers file that paperwork in the county where the dealership is located. Bruce Anderson, president of the Iowa Automobile Dealers Association, says it’s an adjustment to the way people buy vehicles today.

“You used to go to your hometown local car dealer and that’s where you would shop, but with the advent of the internet online automotive shopping customers are shopping all over the state,” Anderson says. “With some brands, especially with higher luxury brands, there aren’t dealers in every county, so a single dealer might be working with upwards of 40 or 50 different county treasurers.” Anderson says this gives auto dealers a familiar, local point of entry to file the vehicle’s title, register a lien if the customer took out a loan to buy the vehicle and get license plates ordered.

“It should eliminate a lot of delay and make the titling and registration process quicker. Customers should get their plates quicker, their new registration quicker,” Anderson says. “It’s also a plus for law enforcement because instead of having to put this information in an envelope and sending it across the state, potentially have it come back if there’s a discrepancy on postage amounts or something like that. It’s getting the information into the database quicker.”

Anderson credits county treasurers and the Iowa D-O-T for working with automobile dealers to address bottlenecks and inefficiencies in the system for registering vehicle after they’re purchased or lease. The new law will raise various vehicle registration fees by 10 dollars on January 1st of next year. The fees — one of which is just a dollar — were set decades ago when the average price of a new vehicle was 10-thousand dollars.

Feenstra bill continues Medicare coverage of over-the-phone telehealth appointments

News

May 10th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Congressman Randy Feenstra is sponsoring a bill to require Medicare to cover over-the-phone tele-health services for another year. That coverage was set to expire on December 31st of this year. “Audio only services are a lifeline to rural communities across the country who still contend with severe lack of broadband access,” Feenstra says. During the pandemic, Medicare began covering patient appointments conducted via video link and over the phone.

Feenstra says many rural residents have no way to make a video connection. He cites a Federal Communications Commission report which found 45 million Americans cannot get broadband with high enough speeds capable of streaming video. “I believe this underscores the need for audio-only telehealth coverage to ensure access to health care for Americans in rural areas,” Feenstra says. “This provision is particularly vital to seniors who shouldn’t have to travel hundreds of miles to receive routine care.”

The U-S House Ways and Means Committee unanimously approved the bill yesterday (Wednesday). It allows federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics to bill Medicare for telehealth and delays the in-person visit requirement for mental health services for seniors.

Lawsuits seek to block Iowa immigration law from taking effect

News

May 10th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) = Civil rights groups have filed a lawsuit seeking to block enforcement of an Iowa law that would let state officials arrest and deport immigrants who are in Iowa after previously being deported or denied entry to the country. The law is scheduled to take effect July 1st. Rita Bettis Austen is legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa.

“It is truly impossible to overstate how terrible this law is, how poorly written it is, how bizarre it is and how extreme it is,” Bettis Austen says. Iowa police do not have the ability to accurately determine a person’s current immigration status, according to Bettis Austen.  “We’ve heard that from law enforcement across the state directly,” she says. Kate Melloy Goettel, legal director with the American Immigration Council, says the law is unconstitutional.

“The crux of this lawsuit is that it challenges the state’s ability to create its own immigration system,” she says, “flouting more than a century of law that leaves that authority to the federal government.” One of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit is a 68-year-old woman who has a green card and is living in Iowa today.  “She was deported to Mexico in 2005 and waited 17 years to be able to come back to the United States lawfully where her family resides,” Melloy Goettel says. “She has five kids and many grandchildren, most of whom live here in Iowa and she is under great stress and anxiety not knowing if she’s going to be prosecuted under this law.”

Rita Betis Austen. (photo from ACLU news conference)

Melloy Goettel says the law has no exceptions for people who have legal authority to be in the U-S now, but had been removed in the past. Erica Johnson, executive director of the Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice, says the law is creating fear among immigrant communities. “I think we can all agree that our immigration system needs improvement, but this law is no solution,” she says. “…It doesn’t matter now if they have authorization to be here, they can still be put in prison or deported at the border, often thousands of miles away from their home country.”

Governor Kim Reynolds says President Biden refuses to enforce immigration laws and she has a responsibility to protect the citizens of Iowa. Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird says states have to take matters into their own hands and she stands ready to defend the law in court.

The U-S Department of Justice announced late Thursday afternoon, that it also has sued the state to try to block the law from taking effect. A similar Texas law is on hold due to a federal lawsuit.

Off-duty Adams County Sheriff’s Deputy dies from injuries resulting from an excavator accident

News

May 10th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Winterset, Iowa) – Sheriff’s officials in Madison County report on off-duty Adams County Sheriff’s Deputy has died from injuries he suffered during an excavator accident Thursday morning in rural Madison County. 34-year-old Nicholas Koeppe,  of Corning, died after being flown from the scene to a hospital in Des Moines.

Authorities say a preliminary investigation shows that Koeppe was alone when he attempted to drive the excavator over a bridge on private property that spanned a body of water. When the bridge collapsed, the excavator rolled into the water trapping Koeppe below the surface. The accident was discovered at around 8:06-a.m.

Madison County S/O photo

A witness who found the overturned excavator in the water called 911 and was able to gain access to the cab and pull Koeppe out and performed CPR as rescue personnel arrived. Assisting the Madison County Sheriff’s Office at the scene was the Madison County Ambulance and Winterset Fire Department.
Koeppe was working a part-time job at the time of the incident.

Atlantic Trojans Boys Track Team Finished In 3rd place at the 3A Qualifying Meet

Sports

May 10th, 2024 by admin

The Atlantic Trojan boys track team finished in 3rd place with 187 points at the Class 3A State Qualifying meet in Atlantic on Thursday.

The following Trojan individuals qualified for the state meet: Senior Colton Rasmussen placed second in the long jump and sophomore Gavin McLaren placed second in the shot put.

The following Trojan teams that qualified for state: The Atlantic team placed first in the Sprint Medley, placed third in the 4×400 meter relay and placed second in the 4×800 meter relay.

Coach Abby Becker said she was surprised by the way her team performed.

Becker was proud of how her team supported each other.

Atlantic senior Bennett Whetstone will be going to state for the fourth year in a row.

Whetstone talked about the advantages of competing on his home track.

The Trojans will be participating in next week’s State Track Meet beginning Thursday May 16th at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.

Atlantic Girls Track Team finishes in 4th place at Class 3A State Qualifying Meet

Sports

May 10th, 2024 by admin

The Atlantic Trojans girls track team finished in fourth place with 87 points at the Class 3A Qualifying Meet on Thursday in Atlantic.

Here are the following Trojan individuals that qualified for state. Senior Claire Pellett placed second in the 800 meters. Sophomore Jayci Reed placed second in the 100 Meter Hurdles.

Here are the following Trojan relay teams that qualified for state.  The Atlantic team placed second in the Shuttle Hurdle and placed first in the Distance Medley.

Coach Matt Mullenix said the Seniors finished out their regular season at home

Trojans coach Mullenix was impressed by the team’s performance.

Atlantic senior Nicole Middents commented on finishing her last regular season track event at home.

Middents elaborated on what she will focus on in practice moving toward the state track meet.

The Trojans will be participating in next weeks State Track Meet. The State Track will begin on Thursday May 16th at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.

Cass County (IA) Sheriff’s report, 5/9/24

News

May 9th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Sheriff’s officials in Cass County have released a report on persons arrested from April 20th through May 7th, 2024:

  • On May 7th, Deputies arrested 36-year-old Kisauo Stephen, of Council Bluffs, on a warrant for Failure to Appear. Kisauo was transported to the Cass County Jail where he was booked and held.
  • On May 5th, 57-year-old Rex McDermott, of Elk Horn, was arrested for OWI/3rd Offense. McDermott was transported to the Cass County Jail where he was booked and held pending his later release on bond.
  • On May 3rd, 2024, Cass County Sheriff’s Deputies arrested 18-year-old Jace Siemer, of Omaha, NE, on the charges that include Speeding, No Valid Driver’s License and Failure to Yield to Emergency Vehicles.  Siemer was transported to the Cass County Jail where he was booked and held pending his later release on bond.
  • There were two arrests May 1st in Cass County: Ashley Butler, 38, of Atlantic, was arrested for Disorderly Conduct.  She was transported to the Cass County Jail where she was booked and held pending her later release on her own recognizance; And, Shane Suhr, 33, of Anita, was arrested on a warrant for OWI 3rd Offense.   Suhr was transported to the Cass County Jail where he was booked and held pending his later release on bond.
  • On April 26th, 2024, the Cass County Sheriff’s Office arrested Nicole Anaya, 43, of Atlantic, on a warrant for Driving While Revoked and Possession of a Controlled Substance – Marijuana.  Anaya was transported to the Cass County Jail where she was booked and held pending her later release on bond; and, Uriah Hardisty, 35, of Council Bluffs, was arrested on a warrant for Harassment 1st Degree.  Hardisty was transported to the Cass County Jail where he was booked and held pending his later release on his own recognizance.
  • On April 23rd, Marion McGrew, 20, of Indianapolis, IN, was arrested in Cass County on a warrant for Violation of Probation.  McGrew was transported to the Cass County Jail where he was booked and held.
  • And, on April 20th, 2024, the Cass County Sheriff’s Office arrested Johnathan Vannornam, 24, of Papillion, NE, on the charges of Possession of a Controlled Substance – Marijuana and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.  Vannornam was transported to the Cass County Jail where he was booked and held pending his later release on his own recognizance.

Red Oak woman cited for littering after alleged furniture dumping incident

News

May 9th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak responded to the 700 block of W. Coolbaugh at around 2:15-p.m. today (Thursday), for a report of someone dumping furniture, where it was clearly marked that it was illegal to do so. After an investigation, Officers cited and released 67-year-old Debra Lynn Benson, of Red Oak, for littering. Red Oak Police were assisted in their investigation, by Deputies with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office.