Field Day To Focus On Soil Erosion
(Le Mars) — Farmers will want to attend an evening field day scheduled for Thursday, August 16th and hosted by the Plymouth County Soil and Water Conservation District, and the Deep Creek Water Quality Initiative Project.
The field day will be held at the Gary Langel farm located at 38482 on Highway 3, east of Le Mars. Speaking at the field day will be Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Crops Specialist, Joel DeJong. DeJong says the focus will be on our soils found in northwest Iowa.
DeJong says farmers will be able to observe two different areas where a backhoe has dug a trench, so farmers can see the layers and depths of topsoil and subsoil.
DeJong says, in one year, as much as five tons of soil could be lost per acre, due to erosion. He says it is often times difficult to visualize what five tons of soil looks like. DeJong says imagine a side dump truck filled with soil. He says that would be approximately 20 tons of soil, or the amount of soil lost each year from four acres. DeJong says he will compare
it to the amount of crops harvested.
The field day is scheduled to begin at 6:00 p.m. An evening meal will be served. Attendees will need to RSVP and contact Kristi Silverthorn at the Plymouth County Soil and Water Conservation District at 546-8858 extension 3.
USDA Finalizing Rules To Implement Tariffs Assistance Package
(Washington) — The first part of a three-part farm aid package is scheduled to be rolled out by the U-S-D-A in about three weeks. Bill Northey, the agency’s Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Ag Services, says more details will be out soon on what’s being called a market facilitation program.
Northey, a former Iowa Ag Secretary, says the delay on the program’s details is because they’re still working on the rule-making part of the process.
Northey says they’re trying to make it so producers can certify their production numbers as simply as possible.
Northey also encourages farmers and ranchers to visit that site for more details on the tariff aid package.
11 Month Old Baby Dies In Bath Tub While Mother Was Away
BAGLEY, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say an 11-month-old child died after being left alone in a bathtub in west-central Iowa.
The Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office said in a Tuesday news release that first responders were called to the home in Bagley around 8:20 p.m. Friday.
The release says they failed to resuscitate the boy.
His mother told deputies that while bathing her son she left him
unattended for a short time. She says he was lying unresponsive in the bathtub when she returned. The two were alone in the house when the incident occurred.
Authorities are trying to determine how long she left him and for what reason. No charges have been announced.
Muscatine Nursing Home Fined For Choking Death Of Resident
MUSCATINE, Iowa (AP) – A Muscatine nursing home has been ordered to pay up to a $10,000 fine after the choking death of a resident in May.
Television station KWQC reports that a report filed by the Iowa
Department of Inspections and Appeals says the resident was known to have problems with swallowing, yet he choked on a large piece of Polish sausage.
Premier Estates of Muscatine was cited for not carrying out procedures, like cutting the resident’s food into small pieces, and not having a licensed nurse in the dining room. The report says staff members also did not perform the Heimlich maneuver and instead, left the room to get help and then wheeled the man down the hall where another staff member performed the Heimlich.
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Nurse Pleads Guilty To Stealing Pain Pills
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) – A nurse accused of stealing pain pills while working in a northern Iowa hospital has pleaded guilty.
Prosecutors say 58-year-old James Moorehead, of Mason City, entered pleas Monday in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids. The charges: one count of acquiring a controlled substance by misrepresentation, fraud, deception or subterfuge; one count of false statements relating to health care matters; and one count of aggravated identity theft. His sentencing date hasn’t been
set yet.
Moorehead admitted that while working at Franklin General Hospital in Hampton in 2016 and 2017, he used patient identities to obtain hydrocodone pills. He left the hospital’s employ in March 2017.
Judge Orders Police To Release All Video Recordings Involving Fatal Shooting
BURLINGTON, Iowa (AP) – A federal judge has ordered the city of Burlington to release additional body camera footage and records related to an officer’s accidental shooting that killed a mother in 2015.
U.S. Senior Judge James Gritzner ordered Tuesday the unsealing of video footage and investigative records related to the shooting death of 34- year-old Autumn Steele.
He ruled in favor of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, a
nonprofit watchdog that had intervened to argue that the records should be released in the public interest. Gritzner says the records will be unsealed in coming weeks after routine redactions of confidential information.
Gritzner ruled that the city’s arguments that the records should
remain sealed “carry little weight.” The city had claimed, among other things, that the previous release of 12 seconds of footage from officer Jesse Hill’s body camera was enough.
The city and its insurer recently agreed to pay $2 million to
Steele’s family to settle the case.
Cedar Rapids Apartment Fire
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say three people were taken to a hospital after a fire at an apartment building in Cedar Rapids.
Firetrucks were dispatched just after 2 a.m. Wednesday. The Cedar Rapids Fire Department says firefighters and police officers used ladders to help residents escape out a window on the third story.
Three residents were taken to a hospital. Their names haven’t been released.
The fire cause is being investigated.
