THEN FEED JUST ONE EVENT
As we near the Thanksgiving holiday season, a group in Le Mars is remembering children around the world who are in need. Dick Seivert of Le Mars recalls his experience with Then Feed Just One, going back 19 years in Le Mars
Then Feed Just One was started to fight malnutrition in the world
Then Feed Just One sends meals to parts of the world where there is chronic child hunger.
Then Feed Just One holds a number of events each year across the region. (there will be 33 packing events this year) Seivert says their goal is to break their one year record for feeding children. (1.35 million)
Seivert says tomorrow, the student body of Remsen St. Mary’s High School will pack meals at their warehouse. They want to pack 10-thousand meals during their one-hour session.
AG SECRETARY APPOINTS IOWANS TO WATER CONSERVATION BOARD
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig announced the appointment of eleven Iowans to serve on the State Soil Conservation and Water Quality Committee. The group promotes the adoption of water quality practices and provide advice and input on technical and financial assistance programs administered by the State Ag Department. The nominees are from designated segments of the economy affected by water quality. One appointee, Ramona Nitz of Cherokee County, represents a soil and water conservation district.
IOWA FARM ECONOMY HAS SOME HOPE FOR TURNAROUND
A recent Iowa Farm Bureau report shows the Iowa ag economy has seen a down trend from 2023 into 2024 that lead to farm incomes dropping by nearly 25 percent. I-F-B’s economics and research manager Christopher Pudenz says there are some things that could turn the farm economy around. He says getting away from Farm Bill extensions to passing a new five-year bill is one.
Pudenz says the safety net it provides takes some of the uncertainty out for farmers.
He says there are some bright spots going forward, including the international export market.
Pudenz says some of those areas could get farm incomes up a again.
Republicans took back the White House and the Senate in the recent election and that can also impact the Ag economy. Pudenz can’t say yet what that impact will be. Pudenz says these factors are all important as the I-F-B analysis shows the negative impact on the state’s economy from the downturn is more than one- and-a-half-billion-dollars.
IOWA CONGRESSIONAL SEAT IN RECOUNT
Republican Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks says four of the 20 counties in Iowa’s first congressional district have completed recounts and her lead over Democrat Christina Bohannan has grown by two votes. Election Night results showed Bohanann trailing Miller-Meeks by just over 800 votes.
TRUMP PICKS TEXAN BROOKE ROLLINS TO BE US AG SECRETARY
President Trump is nominating a Texan to head the U-S-D-A. Brooke Rollins is an attorney who led an influential conservative think tank in Texas for 15 years before working as a policy advisor in Trump’s first administration. She grew up in a small Texas town, was a member of F-F-A and 4-H and graduated from Texas A-and-M with a degree in agricultural development. Rollins has been the C-E-O of the American First Policy Institute, which was founded in 2021 to advance Trump’s agenda.
GRASSLEY PRAISES TRUMP’S NEW NOMINEE FOR A.G.
Senator Chuck Grassley says President-elect Trump’s second pick to serve as attorney general is well-regarded and experienced. Grassley will be chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2025 and will oversee the confirmation hearing for former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. Grassley says senators will learn more about her in the coming weeks, but Grassley says he worked with Bondi on criminal justice reform during Trump’s first term. Former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz (GATES) withdrew his nomination to be Trump’s attorney general last Thursday, and Trump announced he’d nominate Bondi for the job.
IOWA CITY LAWMAKER TO BE NEXT IOWA SENATE MINORITY LEADER
Democrats in the Iowa Senate have selected their next leader. Janice Weiner of Iowa City will be the Minority Leader in the Iowa Senate when the legislature starts January 13th. Weiner is a retired U-S State Department foreign service officer who moved back to her hometown of Iowa City in 2015, served on the city council and was elected to the Iowa Senate in 2022. Democrats will hold just 15 of the 50 seats in the Iowa Senate in January, their lowest point since 1970. Weiner says Senate Democrats will work to hold those in power accountable and fight to ensure opportunity for all Iowans. Weiner is the third leader for Senate Democrats in less than two years. In mid-2023, Senate Democrats ousted Senator Zach Wahls of Coralville after he hired new staff to work for Senate Democrats and fired two longtime employees. Senator Pam Jochum of Dubuque has been Minority Leader in the state senate since then. She did not seek reelection and is retiring about 32 years as a state legislator.
