State and Regional News

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds on Thursday insisted that the state controls how public schools will resume classes next month, saying districts can provide online learning only if coronavirus cases are surging in their communities. The teachers union immediately pushed back against her demand that schools seek the state’s permission to send children home, saying the lives of children and teachers are at stake and that science not politics should guide decisions...

With China unlikely to keep its crop-buying promises in its Phase One trade agreement with the United States, farmers are looking to Southeast Asia for new markets, agriculture leaders said Thursday. “We certainly see plenty of tensions between the United States and China and I think they all pool together to create a little bit of uncertainty.” said Jim Sutter, CEO of the U.S. Soybean Export Council...

Iowa could convert train box cars into homes and crank out new houses with 3-D printers to address a shortage of affordable abodes, a top state economic development official said Friday. Debi Durham, director of the Iowa Economic Development Authority and the Iowa Finance Authority, told the Iowa Economic Recovery Advisory Board she will propose legislation for additional spending after a recent $10 million round of workforce housing tax credits applications for rural housing. ...

The proposed Cherokee Braves football field turf project fundraising effort received a joyous jump this week with the announcement from North Star Community Credit Union of Cherokee that it was donating $225,000 to the project. North Star representatives met with project committee members Tuesday at their new building nearing completion on North 2nd Street to commemorate a check presentation. The funds will be dispersed over a 5-year period, as will all major donations, according to plan...

Iowa physician groups are urging Gov. Kim Reynolds to order the public to wear masks as cases continue to rise. The Des Moines Register reports that the Iowa Medical Society and 14 other health-professional groups said Monday in a letter to the governor that “widespread use of cloth masks in public settings will dramatically slow the spread of COVID-19 and save lives.”...

During their meeting Monday evening the Clay Central-Everly School Board met with Brent Koppie, of Guardian Education and Athletic Services, to discuss a proposal for purchasing the former CC-E High School building and grounds in Everly. “Basically what we’re looking at is, more or less an intermediate college program, this would be geared toward college athletes,” Koppie said. ...

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig confirmed that the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship is aware that individuals in Iowa have received unsolicited seed shipments from China and other countries. The Department is asking anyone who receives unlabeled seed from an unknown origin to retain the original packaging and report it immediately at 515-281-5321. ...

Iowa, South Carolina and South Dakota have now joined Nebraska in agreeing to share state driver’s license information with the U.S. Census Bureau to help the Trump administration to determine the citizenship status of every U.S. resident. Until recently, Nebraska had been the sole state to sign an agreement with the Census Bureau to share the information. ...

A Sac County man has won a $50,000 lottery prize. Brian Pickhinke of Early won the 15 top prize in the Iowa Lottery’s “$50,000 Super Crossword” scratch game. He purchased his winning ticket at Casey’s, 2245 Karr Avenue. in Early, and claimed his prize last week at the lottery’s Storm Lake regional office...

School districts that plan to reopen classrooms in the fall are wrestling with whether to require teachers and students to wear face masks — an issue that has divided urban and rural schools and yielded widely varying guidance. The divide has also taken on political dimensions in Iowa, among other places, where Democratic-leaning cities like Des Moines and Iowa City have required masks to curb the spread of the coronavirus, while smaller, more conservative communities have left the decision to parents.. ...

Iowa’s COVID-19 testing initiative — Test Iowa — had performed 100,000 tests as of July 9, according to Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, but Iowa’s Auditor of State Rob Sand recently took issue with Test Iowa’s reporting methods. Results are to be reported immediately to the Iowa Department of Public Health, according to Sand, but state auditors found Test Iowa results were first being sent to three different entities before reaching IDPH. ...

Local officials pushed Monday for more comprehensive study of data on police stops to guard against bias, while a top state law enforcement official pushed back on the idea of eliminating some traffic stops altogether.  The Black Lives Matter movement is pushing for new local ordinances protecting citizens from unfair treatment by police based on race or other factors not related to violation of the law. ...

President Donald Trump’s executive order Tuesday omitting undocumented immigrants from census data used for reapportionment will harm Iowa and “is wrong in every way there is,” a leader of a group representing Iowa Latinos said. A spokesman for Sen. Chuck Grassley, however, said the order might help Iowa gain seats in Congress...

Pocahontas County Economic Development Commission (PCEDC) has been awarded $20,000 from the State of Iowa in support of their Jump-Start Accelerator Grant program for new startup businesses in Pocahontas County. The $20,000 Rural Innovation Grant that PCEDC has received was developed in 2019 by the Governor’s Empower Rural Iowa Initiative which supports creative, non-traditional ideas that focus on current issues and challenges faced by rural communities...

While members of the Shayla Bee Fund organization take a typical midsummer opportunity to catch their collective breath and gear up for the approaching milestone 200th family announcement, the local nonprofit continues to make an impact courtesy of some very generous donations...

The four Catholic Diocese bishops from Iowa issued a statement Monday supporting immigrants in DACA and asylum programs. “Recently, these days are not easy in our country. We see new instances of overt racism, the return of capital punishment at the federal level, a pandemic sickening and killing thousands of people, the possibility of thousands of young people with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status being deported, and proposed sweeping, negative changes in the U.S. ...

The state auditor said Tuesday that the Iowa Department of Public Health is violating the law and exposing Iowans to greater health risk through the delayed reporting of COVID-19 test results. Auditor of State Rob Sand issued a report Tuesday that alleges the results from the COVID-19 testing conducted through the Test Iowa program are not being passed immediately to IDPH, as the law requires. ...

Skaters planning to try out their kickflips at the skate park in East Leach have to find a new venue for an entire week as the city announced the park’s immediate closure on Monday. The city’s announcement came through a letter penned by Spencer Recreation Director Jared Elbert, who wrote that his department takes pride in keeping parks areas clean and well maintained for the public but there is also a responsibility on the users of the park system and suggested the Spencer skate park has not been treated well.. ...

A couple of vintage local fire trucks come steaming around the curve at Circle Park, making an impromptu parade route pass of their own on the 4th of July, though the traditional parade was canceled this summer.

U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, made a visit to Spencer Tuesday as part of her 99-county tour. The senator stopped at Grand Avenue Community Outreach and met with the Grand Avenue Community Outreach board as well as local and state government officials inside the former Tangney Hotel space where the group toured the building and the ministries housed in the outreach...

Iowa on Friday registered its largest daily jump in coronavirus cases since May, leading health officials in the worst-affected parts of the state to warn people to take the threat more seriously and to stop congregating in bars and other places in large numbers...

An employee of the Spencer Park Department was terminated recently after Spencer city officials conducted an investigation into an alleged incident at Spencer’s Walmart where the former employee is alleged to have used racist comments toward a black woman ahead of her in line at the store’s checkout. The exchange reportedly occurred during a dispute over the number of items in the cart...

A coronavirus virus outbreak that has infected 61 inmates and five staff members at the Fort Dodge Correctional Facility has claimed the life of its first inmate there. The Iowa Department of Corrections said in a news release Tuesday that 71-year-old Ray Allen Vanlengen was diagnosed with COVID-19 before he died Monday at the University of Iowa Hospital. ...

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has signed into law a bill that requires women to wait 24 hours before getting an abortion, trying again to institute a restriction similar to one struck down two years ago by the Iowa Supreme Court. Reynolds signed the measure into law just after lawyers representing Planned Parenthood of the Heartland and the state wrapped up arguments before a state court judge. ...

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig presented the Wergin Good Farm Neighbor Award to the Albright family in Lytton, Iowa, recently. The farm is run by Ben and his wife, Susan, Ben’s younger brother, Nick, and father, Alan. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the award presentation ceremony was limited to the family. Secretary Naig and the Albright family practiced social distancing while receiving the award live on WHO Radio’s The Big Show...

There’s no hiding it — masks are the COVID-19 story of the week, in Iowa and around the nation. Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement has started a #MaskUpIA petition drive asking Gov. Kim Reynolds to require Iowans to wear masks or other face coverings in public. More than 1,500 people have signed the petition since it was posted at midday Tuesday...

In the mid-1930s, my parents, A.A. Adams (Vete) and Grace, purchased a farm 12 miles south of Spencer across Highway 71 from the Ditton place, “Goat Hill.” I heard about the possibility of bulldozing the old Goat Hill house. It occurred to me that perhaps I could be the last living person to have known the old man who lived there, Jesse Ditton. ...

The U.S. House passed a sweeping police reform package Thursday night in response to massive civil unrest over police brutality. The package cleared the chamber largely along partisan lines, with 236 lawmakers (mostly Democrats) voting for it and 181 lawmakers (180 Republicans and one Independent) voting against it. Three Republicans sided with Democrats in backing the bill — Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Fred Upton of Michigan and Will Hurd of Texas...

By THOMAS BEAUMONT Special to The Pilot The families of three workers who died after contracting the coronavirus in an Iowa meat plant outbreak sued Tyson Foods and its top executives Thursday, saying the company knowingly put employees at risk and lied to keep them on the job...

Before the sun had a chance to shine on the city of Spencer’s downtown district last Monday, Brock Storm — the Spencer High School alumnus and full-time artist — was clad in black and had made peace with the fact that his newest project could land him in serious trouble. ...

Iowa regulators say they found no workplace safety violations at Tyson Foods’ largest pork processing plant, which employed several people who died after contracting the coronavirus. The Iowa Occupational Safety and Health Administration closed its inquiry into the Tyson plant in Waterloo earlier this month without sanctioning the meat company...

A recalled bagged salad distributed to a dozen Midwestern states by grocery stores has sickened 122 people in seven states and sent 19 to the hospital, the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday. The salad distributed by Hy-Vee, Jewel-Osco and Aldi grocery stores is contaminated with cyclospora, a parasite that can cause diarrhea, stomach cramps, nausea, and fatigue...

The legislature adjourned for the year on Sunday, June 14. This year’s session was definitely different than previous years. While we didn’t get to all the legislation we wanted, we were still able to accomplish a lot in the time we did have. Before we paused the session in March, the Senate passed legislation to lower barriers to some professions, and bring unemployed people back into our workforce and encourage them to build careers for themselves. ...

By THOMAS BEAUMONT Special to The Pilot After Donald Trump carried Iowa in 2016 by nearly 10 points, its swing state status was in doubt. But now, with stunning swiftness, Iowa Democrats have spun from distraught to hopeful. This shift appears to be propelled by the president’s uneven handling of the coronavirus pandemic and his aggressive response to protests over the death of George Floyd. ...

Student leaders at Iowa’s public universities are calling the Legislature’s decision to cut $8 million in spending for higher education “short-sighted and deeply disappointing.” Student representatives at the University of Northern Iowa, University of Iowa and Iowa State University say the cuts for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, coincide with protests over “deep racial inequities in our society” and “will fall hardest on students of color.”...

A renewed argument over Republicans’ efforts to place new restrictions on absentee voting dominated the final hours of the 2020 legislative session in the Iowa House. The Senate, which had worked all night, adjourned at 1:32 p.m. Sunday. The House adjourned minutes later, at 1:39 p.m., after taking final action on a $7.8 billion budget...

When the Legislature recessed on March 16th due to the covid 19 pandemic it was that time of the session when committee action on many policy bills had been completed and those bills were ready for floor debate. It was also the stage of the session when budget considerations were coming to the forefront. As we came back to session on June 3rd it was difficult to try to pick up where we had left off, especially in the budget process with the unprecedented uncertainty of Iowa’s economic outlook...

The Iowa State Fair is canceled for 2020, leaving Iowans and the Midwest without their beloved tradition of fried corn dogs and hog calling in the humid summer heat. This marks the first time the fair has been canceled due to a pandemic, said Iowa State Fair CEO Gary Slater. The fair was canceled five times in the past: Once in 1898 because of the World’s Fair in Omaha and 1942-45 due to World War II...

The Iowa National Guard is assisting with site demolition work for Storm Lake High School’s courtyard conservation project. Over the past several weeks, the National Guard has been helping run the COVID-19 TestIowa site outside the school. Guard members have offered to assist with additional tasks, and the courtyard project emerged as a great opportunity for collaboration...

After recessing on March 16th due to the spreading covid pandemic the Legislature reconvened on June 3rd to a whole new set of challenges. Not only does the budget picture look entirely different than it did on March 16th, our entire state is facing paradigm changes of a magnitude never seen in our lifetime. ...