FEENSTRA AG COMMITTEE
Work in a new farm bill is focusing on crop insurance. 4th District U.S. Representative Randy Feenstra told KLEM news that crop insurance is one of the key input costs for farmers each year.
Feenstra says crop insurance costs are also a barrier to young farmers getting started in production agriculture.
The Agriculture Committee is considering discounts on drop insurance for beginning farmers.
Crop insurance is one of the biggest input costs farmers pay each year.
Rep. Feenstra says the largest part of the Farm Bill is food programs, including SNAP. Feenstra says farm state members of the committee want to make the program more efficient as SNAP payments have exploded in recent years..
SEMI TRUCK ROLLOVER
The Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office was notified of a semi truck rollover accident. The crash occured near the intersection of C12 and Dogwood Ave, around 9-30 pm. An investigation determined that 26 year old Jessie Miller of Marcus was a truck/trailer hauling a quarter-million dollars worth of hogs when he lost control and went into a ditch, rolling the loaded trailer. The vehicle was disabled by the crash.
BUTTER TRIBUTE AT THE STATE FAIR
Iowa State Fair spokesperson, Mindy Williamson, says Jack Trice, from Iowa State, Kurt Warner from U-N-I, and Caitlin Clark, from the University of Iowa will be the companion sculptures to the butter cow this year. Caitlin Clark has become one of the hottest draws in Iowa, and a national figure as well, after leading the Hawkeye women to the runner-up finish in the national championship game. Williamson says Clark is pretty excited about it.. Jack Trice was the first African-American athlete at Iowa State, and he died from injuries he received during a football game in 1923. Kurt Warner is another Iowan who gained national fame after going from sacking butter and other groceries to become an N-F-L Hall of Famer. The athletes and butter cow will be on display when the 2023 Iowa State Fair opens on August 10th.
REYNOLDS NEUTRALITY
Former Vice President Mike Pence says he welcomes Governor Kim Reynolds’ pledge to remain neutral right now in the 2024 presidential race. Pence’s comments come after former President Donald Trump lashed out at Reynolds, noting he endorsed her in 2018. Trump said Reynolds was not being invited to his campaign events because she won’t endorse a candidate before the Iowa Caucuses.
Sitting Iowa governors rarely endorse a candidate before the Iowa Caucuses. It’s only happened twice in the last 44 years. Reynolds has said her neutrality shows all candidates are welcome to campaign in Iowa. Pence says he’s grateful for the words of encouragement Reynolds has given him about his campaign.
Pence is praising Reynolds for calling the legislature back into special session Tuesday to pass a fetal heartbeat law. It will ban most abortions after an ultrasound can detect cardiac activity. That happens around the sixth week of a pregnancy.
Pence is among the six G-O-P presidential candidates who will be speaking Friday in Des Moines at The Family Leader’s Leadership Summit. Pence says his message to the group is that he’ll be a champion of traditional marriage and the pro-life cause if he’s elected president. As a leading Republican conservative in congress in 2006, Pence called for an amendment to the U-S constitution that would define marriage as between a man and a woman. As governor of Indiana, he signed a religious freedom law in 2015 that lets citizens of that state who’re being sued cite their religious beliefs as a defense.
LEGAL CHALLENGE TO FETAL HEARTBEAT BILL
The American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa and two abortion providers have filed a lawsuit challenging the fetal heartbeat bill the Iowa legislature passed Tuesday in a special session. A Planned Parenthood official says hundreds of Iowans will be impacted when the governor signs the bill Friday, because it immediately goes into effect. The law bars doctors from performing abortions after an ultrasound detects cardiac activity, which happens around the sixth week of a pregnancy. The same groups filed a lawsuit that blocked a similar law passed in 2018 from taking effect. Doctors say the policy is a functional ban on abortions in Iowa, since many women don’t realize they’re pregnant at six weeks, and those who do get early confirmation of a pregnancy face waiting periods and other hurdles in scheduling an abortion. Governor Reynolds says the voices of Iowans and their elected representatives cannot be ignored any longer and justice for the unborn should not be delayed.
COACH’S SON INVOLVED IN FATAL ACCIDENT
The youngest son of University of Iowa Basketball coach Fran McCaffery has been cited in a fatal accident. Court records show Iowa City police cited 16-year-old Jonathan McCaffery, of North Liberty, with failure to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk. Police say McCaffery struck 45-year-old Cory Hite of Cedar Rapids with his car not far from Iowa City West High School on May 22nd. Hite, who was a National Guard soldier, died from his injuries on June 4th. The citation is misdemeanor, which could include a one-thousand dollar fine, and a 180-day license suspension.
IOWA RAIL TRAFFIC
The rail traffic coming into Iowa is providing some mixed signals on economic conditions. The D-O-T’s Stuart Anderson says the volume of some items shipped by rail continues to increase.
He says those increases can signal the economy is doing okay.
Anderson says on the other side, the number of containers with consumer goods coming in has dropped.
Anderson made his comments during a report to the state Transportation Commission Tuesday.
