Farmers Take Advantage Of Dry Weather To Catch Up On Harvest
(Craig) — Farmers have taken full advantage of the past few days with the dry, warm, and breezy conditions by being busy with this year’s harvest. Recent rains and wet field conditions have pushed back the harvest about two weeks behind normal schedule. We wanted to get an idea of how the harvest has been progressing, so KLEM news visited with Doug Schurr, the general manager of the Farmer’s Cooperative Elevator at Craig…
Schurr says the corn harvest is just beginning in the northwest area of Plymouth County.
Orange City To Host Gay Pride Festival
(Orange City) — A small conservative-leaning community in northwest Iowa is hosting its first-ever Pride Festival this weekend. Organizer Michael Goll lives in Orange City, with his husband. Goll admits this event is shaking things up a
bit but he says it’s important to build support within and around Orange City’s L-G-B-T-Q residents.
Orange City is the seat of Sioux County and is home to Northwestern College, a Christian liberal arts school. Goll is a Northwestern graduate and says they decided to celebrate the community’s L-G-B-T-Q culture because, as Goll says,
“Why not?”
Goll adds it’s vital to demonstrate that LGBTQ people in Orange City contribute to the community and are everyone’s neighbors. The event begins today (Friday) and includes live music, storytelling and food. It goes through Sunday, when it
will conclude with brunch and show tunes.
MidAmerican Energy To Re-Power Wind Turbine Generators
(Des Moines) — MidAmerican Energy is upgrading more than 700 of its wind turbines at three wind farms spread across six Iowa counties. Adam Jacobi (jah-COE-bee), spokesman for the Des Moines-based utility, says work is underway at the company’s Century Wind Farm in north-central Iowa’s Hamilton and Wright counties.
The process involves upgrading the turbines with improved technology and putting longer blades on the existing towers to produce more power.
Jacobi says most of the turbines that are being upgraded were installed in 2004 and ’05, so they’ve been in place well over a decade already. The “repowering” will bring a sizeable boost to the power-generating abilities of each tower.
MidAmerican has entered into agreements with General Electric to complete the upgrades at the three wind farms.
September Unemployment Declines
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa’s unemployment rate declined slightly in September to 3.2 percent, reversing a small increase in the previous month.
Iowa Workforce Development reported Friday that the unemployment rate drop came as the number of unemployed residents dropped to 54,600 in September, about
4,500 lower than in August. The August rate was 3.3 percent.
There were 1.63 million Iowa residents with jobs in September, an increase of about 4,500 from August but down 4,400 from a year ago.
Iowa’s unemployment rate compares to a national rate of 4.2 percent.
Iowa’s Budget Figures Are Down Again
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Officials say projections for Iowa’s budget are down again, and could force spending cuts when lawmakers return in January.
A three-person panel concluded Thursday that the $7.2 billion budget in effect since July is down by about $130 million. The panel says Iowa’s economy is growing more slowly than expected.
Iowa Department of Management Director David Roederer says it’s too early to know the impact on the current budget but midyear reductions may be necessary.
The news comes months after the GOP-controlled Legislature cut agency budgets and borrowed money to offset reduced projections released earlier this year and last.
Democrats and Republicans blamed each other for poor budget priorities. GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds is seeking bipartisan support for tax cuts and skilled jobs training.
The revenue panel meets again in December.
