HEROES GAME
The annual Heroes Game between the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Nebraska Cornhuskers will include honors for two area auctioneers.
SCHEELS and the Iowa Hawkeyes will celebrate two charity auctioneers: Randy Stabe of Hinton, Iowa, and Clint Vos of Lawton, Iowa.
The two longtime Hawkeye fans volunteer their auctioneer services annually to nearly 30 nonprofit organizations, many of which they have served for more than three decades. The Boys and Girls Club specifically has benefited more than 40 years from the devoted auctioneer services of Stabe and Vos. In addition to donating their time, the talented pair often donate or purchase items at charity functions as a complementary way to help support the cause.
Stabe and Vos have raised millions of dollars for nonprofit organizations for more than 25 years. They enjoy their work and providing nonprofit organizations auctioneer services free-of-charge. The pair even pivoted plans from live to virtual auctions during the pandemic.
The two will be recognized at halftime. The game kicks off this year from Kinnick Stadium at 3 p.m. CT on Friday, Nov. 25.
NURSING HOME DRUGS
Around eight in ten nursing home residents on Medicare received psychotropic drugs during the past decade, according to a watchdog report from U-S Health and Human Services that was requested by Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley. He says he’s “very disturbed” by the report.
The report covered the years between 2011 and 2019. Grassley says nursing home residents deserve to be “treated with dignity” and their loved ones ought to have the confidence that nursing homes are appropriately prescribing medicines.
Grassley says the Inspector General report “confirms many of our fears” that serious medications are being administered “without appropriate diagnoses or oversight.” He says the report makes it clear that more needs to be done to protect nursing home residents.
IASB AWARDS
Le Mars Community Schools leaders were honored last week at the annual convention of the Iowa Association of School Boards.
Superintendant Dr Steven Webner received an Award of Honor for the time and effort he put forth to develop skills and knowledge needed to become an informed decision-maker.
The Le Mars Community Schools Board was presented with a Team Achievement award. Each board member also received an Individual Achievement Award.
The awards are given each year to board members, board teams, and superintendents/AEA chief administrators who dedicate time and effort to learning, advocacy, leadership, and service projects to expand their knowledge and skills for better governance. Applicants must accumulate a specific number of credits to earn these awards.
TULIP QUEEN
Amanda Hulstein was crowned the 2023 Orange City Tulip Festival Queen, at a pageant last night. Amanda is a senior at MOC Floyd Valley High School. Four others joined Amanda on Tulip Court: Katelyn Huizenga, Elizabeth King, Neveah Sampson, and Kinzie Van Kekerix. The queen and court will serve as Orange City Ambassadors for the Tulip Festival. They will travel next spring, making media and public appearances.
ORANGE CITY COUNCIL
The Orange City Council filled a vacancy in their ranks last night. The council appointed Olivia Chapman, a Family Nurse Practitioner at Orange City Health, to fill out the remainder of the term of former councilman Steve Roesner. Roesner’s term ends a year from now, so Chapman would stand for election to the post in November, 2023. Chapman’s official first meeting will be on November 30, when she is officially sworn into office. Roesner resigned from the council two weeks ago.
The Council has approved a preconstruction agreement with the Iowa Department of Transportation for construction of a roundabout. This is located at Iowa Highway 10 and Jay Avenue, near a new elementary school that is under construction. As part of the agreement, DOT will build a third traffic lane near the roundabout to move school-bound traffic off Iowa 10 heading east, onto Jay Ave. The city will pay for the traffic lane, at an estimated cost of 307-thousand dollars, which the city will repay over a three year period. Construction will begin in late March or early April, 2023.
HARVEST ENDS
The U-S-D-A crop report shows the 2022 harvest season is done. The report shows the corn harvest is now 97 percent complete — after being reported as 95 percent complete last week and eight days ahead of schedule. The soybean harvest was completed two weeks ago. The state Ag Secretary Mike Naig says the first statewide snowfall and subsequent melting will help the topsoil moisture improve for next year’s planting season.
CAUCUS FUTURE
The Iowan who’s on the panel that will decide if Iowa’s Democratic Party Caucuses go first in 2024 says Iowa is key to winning the presidency. Scott Brennan is a member of the Democratic NATIONAL Committee’s Rules and Bylaws panel. It meets in early December to discuss which states vote first as the party picks its 2024 presidential nominee.
Brennan says there’s a basic argument for keeping the traditional line-up of early voting in Iowa, then in New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. The Democratic nominee has won the popular vote in seven of the last eight elections.
As the kick-off event of past presidential elections, Brennan says the Iowa Caucuses have given candidates a way to connect with rural, working class voters.
The delayed results from the party’s 2020 Caucuses results put Iowa Democrats in what Brennan describes as “a bit of a pickle,” but he emphasizes the party is abandoning its complicated Caucus Night rules and will instead use a mail-in system to determine who wins the 2024 Caucuses.
President Biden could be a wildcard as national party leaders gear up for a decision that may change the presidential nominating process. Biden, who says he intends to seek reelection, has not publicly said whether he favors changes.
If the D-N-C’s Rules and Bylaws Committee recommends changes, it will then be up to the full Democratic National Committee to ratify the new plan in late February or early March. That would give the party less than a year to plan for a new system.
IOWA HOME SALES
The number of homes sold in Iowa has declined by nearly 14 percent in the first 10 months of this year — with sales in October down significantly. Twenty-nine-hundred Iowa homes were sold in October. That’s 34 percent fewer than in October of last year. Data from the Iowa Association of Realtors indicates home prices in Iowa were up 10 percent last month and the NUMBER of homes going on the market is increasing after record low numbers earlier this year. The median price for a home sold in Iowa last month was 217-thousand-five-hundred dollars. That’s down nearly 10 percent from the record high set in July.
TURKEY PARDON
Bird flu has forced the cancelation of an annual Thanksgiving week event at the governor’s mansion. A spokesman for Governor Kim Reynolds, says there will be no public turkey pardoning ceremony due to the restrictions brought on by the bird flu. The governor does plan to release a video Tuesday showing her pardoning two turkeys.
