NAIG VISITS HINTON CLASSROOM
Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig visited the 4th grade class of Hinton Elementary School today.
March is Read Across Iowa Month, and the subject today was grapes.
The larger goal is to promote agriculture in schools.
Naig says the lesson is to show students how food gets to your table.
The 64 students also did an activity where they evaluated different flavors of grape juice.
JENEARY FILES FOR RE-ELECTION
Iowa Representative Tom Jeneary of Le Mars has filed for re-election to the House. Rep. Jeneary filed his nomination petitions Monday. The deadline to file for the June primary election is March 15. Jeneary represents District 3, which includes northern Plymouth County and southern Sioux County. Jeneary was first elected to the Iowa House in 2018. He is seeking his fourth term in office. He expressed his thanks to those who signed his nominating petitions.
SIOUXLAND FOOD BANK GETS RECORD DONATION
The Food Bank of Siouxland got a record-breaking donation Thursday from Perdue Farms and the Feeding America program. Food Bank Director Jacob Wanderscheid says Perdue delivered 80-thousand pounds of frozen chicken breasts.
He says it will fill up their freezer space.
Gary Malenke is the senior vice president of Perdue Farms in Sioux Center, and says the Siouxland donation is part of a larger overall effort.
The Siouxland area covers 11 counties and it is estimated that more than 25-thousands resident don’t have enough food, including 42 percent of all children.
VILSACK SAYS E-15 WILL BE FOUND NATIONWIDE THIS SUMMER
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack told a Senate Agriculture Committee Hearing that Summer E-15 use will be implemented this year. Iowa Senator Joni Ernst asked Vilsack if an EPA waiver will be granted this year.
The Environmental Protection Agency last week approved year round E-15 use in eight states, including Iowa, but it won’t be implemented until next year.
STATE ARCHERY TOURNAMENT THIS WEEKEND
Some 23-hundred students from nearly 150 Iowa schools will be in Des Moines this weekend to take aim in the state archery tournament. Zach Benttine, the Iowa D-N-R’s archery coordinator, says there are two types of competition for the students in grades four through 12. There’s a bullseye tournament and a 3-D tournament, with targets shaped like sheep, antelope, deer, bear, coyote and turkeys. Top Iowa finishers this weekend will go on to the national tournament. The shooting runs Friday through Sunday at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, with tens of thousands of dollars in prizes, scholarships and equipment.
MOBILE JOB OFFICE UNVEILED
Governor Kim Reynolds unveiled a new mobile workforce office today (Thursday) that’ll travel around the state to help connect out-of-work Iowans with new jobs. Reynolds says it’s part of her initiative to focus on re-employment. Reynolds says the mobile workforce office will help with the state’s ongoing efforts to alleviate the state’s workforce shortage. She says about 60-thousand jobs are open, many in the health care field. The 32-foot workforce bus cost nearly half a million dollars and was paid for with a mix of COVID relief funds and other federal grants.
SPEEDS IN SW IOWA MORNING CHASE REACH 122 MPH
An attempted traffic stop early this (Thursday) morning in southwest Iowa led to a high-speed chase that cut across two counties. A Montgomery County Sheriff’s deputy attempted to pull over a vehicle near the intersection of Highways 71 & 34 at around 12:30 a.m., but the driver sped off. With speeds exceeding 122 miles an hour, the chase ended in neighboring Cass County, when the suspect’s vehicle ran out of gas. The driver Robert Christopher Greenwood, of Council Bluffs, was arrested and treated by Griswold Rescue before being transported to the Montgomery County Jail. Charges include felony eluding (a Class C felony), driving while barred, and interference with official acts. Greenwood’s bond was set at ten-thousand dollars.
WARM WEATHER WAKES UP TICKS, SO WEAR INSECT REPELLANT
Forecasters predict Iowa will have another unseasonably warm weekend ahead, and one downside to the spring-like temperatures in the 60s and 70s is that creepy-crawly ticks will be on the move. Entomologist Tom Klubertanz (CLUE-burt-anz) says if you’ll be spending any time outdoors, especially hiking in the woods, wear insect repellant, and be sure to check yourself for ticks after you come back inside. Ticks aren’t something Iowans would typically worry about in early March, but he says a warm winter means otherwise. Klubertanz says a longer tick season brings the threat of southern tick species migrating north, like the Lone Star tick and the Gulf Coast tick — both of which can transmit diseases.
