Le Mars To Host Regional Cattle Producers Meeting
(Le Mars) — Area cattle producers will be meeting in Le Mars this week for their summer regional meeting. The Iowa Cattlemen Association has held regional meetings across the state during this week, with the last meeting scheduled for tomorrow at Le Mars. Katie Olthoff serves as the communications director for the Iowa Cattlemen Association and says rather than cattle producers traveling to Ames or Des Moines, the “Beef Meets” are designed to go to the cattle producer.
Olthoff says registration for the Beef Meets is just $35. She says one topic certain to be discussed is the new agreement with China which will allow U-S beef to be exported to the oriental nation for the first time in over a decade.
The cattle organization spokesperson says while it is good news that U-S beef will again be exported to China, she explains some of the requirements the Chinese people have requested for beef to enter their country.
According to Olthoff, the first shipment of U-S beef is expected to arrive in China in mid-July, about the same time Governor Kim Reynolds will be leading an Iowa agricultural-based trade team to China. Olthoff says there are several members of the Iowa Cattlemen Association, and the Iowa Beef Industry Council, that will be accompanying Reynolds on that trade mission. Olthoff discusses some of the educational seminars that will be featured during the Le Mars meeting.
Sioux County Authorities Investigate Theft
(Orange City) — The Sioux County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the theft of a 2007 PCE HC8 fluid delivery hose and cart reel. The theft of the equipment is thought to have happened sometime this week. The theft occurred at the Automated Waste Systems located two miles west of Hull. If you have any information about the crime, you are asked to contact the Sioux County Sheriff’s Office.
Independent Voters Disappointed With President Trump
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa independents who helped Donald Trump win the presidency see last year’s tough-talking candidate as a thin-skinned chief executive.
They wish he’d show more grace.
Unaffiliated voters make up the largest percentage of the electorate in the Midwest state. Iowa backed Trump in 2016 after lifting Democrat Barack Obama to the White House in two straight elections. Ahead of Trump’s visit to Iowa on Wednesday several independents who voted for Trump expressed frustration with the president.
It’s not just his famous tweetstorms. The barrages represent a president distracted by investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and a court battle over his executive order barring refugees from majority-Muslim countries, at the expense of tangible health care legislation and new tax policy. President Trump is scheduled to make an appearance in Iowa on Wednesday.
Former President Bush To Speak At Iowa Charity Event
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Former President George W. Bush is scheduled to visit Iowa this fall to serve as the featured speaker at a fundraiser for a Des Moines charity.
Bush will speak Oct. 14 at a dinner for Trailhead International Builders, a Christian nonprofit group based in Ankeny that raises money to build church and community centers in developing nations.
The event will be held at the Iowa Events Center. Tickets go on sale June 30.
Bush, a Republican, was president from 2001 to 2009.
Iowa Supreme Court Bans Guns In Courthouses
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Supreme Court has for the first time issued a statewide order prohibiting weapons in courthouses and other public areas used by the state court system.
Chief Justice Mark Cady says in the order released Tuesday that it does not affect peace officers.
It does, however, ban other visitors from carrying weapons into courthouses. The order requires the chief judge in each judicial district to work with local officials to carry out the order in all 99 counties but does not specify how weapons would be detected.
Currently 72 counties prohibit weapons in courthouses but just 10 have airport-like metal detectors at entrances. The court says 27 counties have no known courthouse weapons ban.
Cady says current policies are inconsistent and must be corrected, “to uniformly protect all Iowans.”
Grassley Trying To Get Wellmark-Blue Cross Blue Shield Back On Iowa Insurance Exchange
(Washington) — One health insurance company will continue selling individual policies on Iowa’s Affordable Care Act exchange next year, but Medica proposes a rate increase of 43-point-five percent. If the company pulls out, some 72-thousand Iowans would have no options. Two other providers, Aetna and Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, abandonded the exchange this spring. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says he’s working to return one of them to the fold.
The state is proposing a “stopgap” plan that would revise the A-C-A and keep insurers on the state’s exchange. Wellmark officials say the company’s re-entry would hinge on federal approval of that stopgap. It’s a complicated process, according to Grassley, who says if they can’t sort it all out soon, “we won’t get this job done.”
The U-S House passed a replacement plan for the A-C-A weeks ago, a plan many senators rejected. The Senate, according to Grassley, is making significant progress on its own replacement plan.
Grassley, a Republican, was quick to place blame on the health plan which was initially devised by Democrats.
He says he emphasizes that point repeatedly because his office is still being flooded with emails from constituents who beg that Congress not touch the A-C-A.
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Spilled Milk Flows Into Creek
FONTANELLE, Iowa (AP) – Iowa officials say there could be reason to cry over the spilling of a lot of milk – at least some of which made its way into a southeastern Iowa river.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources said Tuesday in a news release that the crash of a tanker hauling milk east of Fontanelle Sunday evening caused the spill. Officials say the tanker could have been carrying 7,500 gallons of milk, and that the tanker was almost empty when it was hauled away.
DNR officials say heavy milk concentrations can cause fish kills in streams.
Investigators who arrived Monday found milk in a road ditch flowing into an unnamed tributary. From there, the milk ran into the Middle Nodaway River, creating a visible plume.
The investigation into the spill continues.
