FAIR WEEKEND
Saturday at the Plymouth County Fair promises to be a great one.
The biggest 4H event, the swine show, will take place this morning, Pet and rabbit shows mark the afternoon judging events. Plymouth County Fair Board member Candace Nash says these are the things that make the fair exciting.
What kids learn in 4H and fair projects can help them as they grow up.
She says she tries to set the best example she can for the kids.
Pioneer Village entertainment includes Hypnotist Lizzy the Dream Girl; County sister duo Presley and Taylor; and the ultimate Garth Brooks Tribute. Grandstand entertainment tonight is Thunder by the Round Barn Featuring the Outlaw Truck and Tractor Pulling Series.
One admission price to the fair gets you admission to all these events.
BUTTER FIGURES
“The Music Man” will be celebrated at the Iowa State Fair this year with a butter sculpture to go along with the fair’s famous butter cow. Butter sculptor Sarah Pratt says she took a tip from the fair’s original butter sculptor and started keeping a list of ideas for future sculptures, and the musical she enjoyed while growing up was on the top of the list.
Pratt says while she won’t be able to get all of The Music Man’s “76 Trombones” into the sculpture, there will be at least one trombone and a number of other musicians. She says not everything is set yet on what the final sculpture will look like.
Pratt is taking a couple of field trips before the State Fair starts to get her Music Man mojo going and finalize her plans for Harold Hill and Marian the Librarian.
Pratt says she’s been wanting to do a Music Man sculpture for five years and has been reading up on Mason City native Meredith Willson leading up to this year’s fair.
“The Music Man” movie premiered in Mason City 60 years ago last month, while a Broadway reboot of the musical opened on February 10th of this year. The Iowa State Fair starts its 11-day run on August 11th.
BRANDSTAD LAWYERS
The State of Iowa spent nearly three-point-two million dollars in the nearly one decade of defense of former Governor Terry Branstad’s attempt to replace the state’s Workers Compensation Commissioner. The state’s Executive Council has approved the final payment of 371-thousand dollars to the Des Moines law firm that represented Branstad. Former Workers Compensation Commissioner Christopher Godfrey filed a lawsuit in 2012 accusing Branstad of singling him out because he was gay, pressuring him to resign, then cutting his salary by a third when he refused. In 2019, a jury awarded Godfrey one-and-a-half million dollars. Two years later, the Iowa Supreme Court tossed out the jury’s verdict, ruling that there was no evidence to prove Branstad is anti-gay.
HEAT RETURNING
Enjoy the mild temperatures while they last. As July transitions into August, the National Weather Service says a “prolonged heat event” is coming. Government meteorologist Alex Krull says air temperatures will reach the mid-to-upper-90s by Tuesday, sending heat index values above 100. By Wednesday the heat index could be “anywhere between 105 to 107 degrees.” Krull says the pattern of above-normal temperatures could continue for another 10 days. Iowa isn’t alone. Above normal temperatures are forecast through next week from Nebraska all the way to New York.
