(Radio Iowa) – The Amana Colonies will host two simultaneous festivals this weekend that revolve around complementary elements: brass bands, beer, and bratwurst, along with side attractions including a wiener dog race using dachshunds.

Todd Bransky, director of the Wurst Brass Festival, says they’re bringing in brass bands — from Iowa and four surrounding states — that will compete in a European-style musical tradition that dates back to the 1870s.

“It happens one time a year where bands from all over the country descend on just a couple of communities and they play marches — it’s all marches — and they perform for judges and they can win prize money,” Bransky says. “We’ve adopted that because there hasn’t been that type of competition for brass bands in the United States, so we brought it to the Amanas.”

The judged competitions will be underway later today at three different locations in the Amanas, while the full concerts begin tomorrow morning.

“We’ll start at 10 AM and we’ll just keep rotating the bands up on stage until about 6:30 PM,” Bransky says. “We’ve got German-style food, bratwurst and German potato salad, and it’s just a really, really fun time. The bands play very entertaining music for kids and for adults and families.”

Most Iowans will recognize the songs, as he says it won’t all be old-fashioned “oompa-oompa” polka music. “What you’ll hear is marches. You’ll hear show tunes. You’ll hear jazz. You’ll hear rock. You’ll hear Broadway show music. You’ll hear stuff from Disney. You’re going to hear overtures. You’re going to hear a great variety of everything and probably very few polkas at all,” he laughs.

The 32-member brass bands will be performing in what Bransky says is the British-style of instrumentation.

“We don’t use trumpets, we use cornets. We use a flugel horn. We use a soprano cornet. Instead of French horns like we have in the U.S., they use tenor horns,” Bransky says. “There are euphoniums, and there are baritones and there’s different music written for each of those, and then in the tuba sections, you’ll see E-flat tubas and B-flat tubas and trombones like you’re used to seeing in bands here.”

In addition to the Wurst Brass Festival, there’s also the Amana Colonies Wurst Festival, two separate events, both underway essentially across the street from one another.

(Radio Iowa) – There was a double digit jump in Iowa home sales in May and the median sales price was five percent higher than in April. Over 34-hundred Iowa homes were sold in May. That’s 14 fewer than in May of last year, but it’s nearly 20 percent more than were sold in April.

The president of the Iowa Association of Realtors says sales data shows promising momentum in Iowa’s housing market, with both growing seller confidence and sustained buyer demand.

There was a nearly nine percent increase in the number of single family homes listed for sale last month compared to May of 2024. The median sales price for an Iowa home in May was 252-thousand.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak arrested a woman late this (Friday) morning, for Public Intoxication. 29-year-old Amithist Chyane Uhlmann, of Red Oak, was arrested at N. 3rd and E. Washington Street at around 11:10-a.m., and transported to the Montgomery County Jail. Her bond was set at $300.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – A key lawmaker said he was surprised by Gov. Kim Reynolds’ veto this week of a bill that would have allowed for the prescription and distribution of synthetic psilocybin, the psychoactive compound in “magic mushrooms” following federal approval of the drug. Reynolds said the bill “moves ahead” of public health systems, law enforcement and regulatory systems in the state.  “This decision is not a dismissal of the emerging science or the sincere advocacy behind this legislation,” Reynolds said in her explanation of the veto. “Rather, it is a call for a more deliberate and Iowa-centric approach.”  According to the Iowa Capital Dispatch, House File 383 was one of two bills from the Iowa House this year that sought to legalize the use of psychedelics as a treatment for mental health issues, like post-traumatic stress disorder.

The bill’s floor manager, Rep. Brett Barker, R-Nevada, said the veto from the governor was “unexpected” considering the bill passed with unanimous consent in both chambers. “I look forward to having a conversation with the Governor to learn more about her concerns regarding the bill,” Barker said in an email. The other bill, House File 978, would have created a psilocybin licensing board in Iowa, and similar to the state’s medical marijuana program, would have allowed eligible patients access to the drug while it is still federally classified as Schedule I substance.  The bill advanced from the House but was not heard in the Senate.

psilocybin mushrooms

HF 383, the bill put before the governor, would have immediately rescheduled any drugs containing crystalline polymorph psilocybin, the synthetic version of the compound, if they were approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.  Under the bill and conditioned circumstances, it would be legal to prescribe, distribute and market drugs with the ingredient, which is also sometimes referred to as COMP360.  Clinical trials of COMP360 as a treatment for PTSD and treatment resistant depression have been conducted and are ongoing.  A similar bill was signed into law in Colorado in March. Colorado and Oregon are the only states with legalized medical licensing programs for psilocybin.

Reynolds said she does “recognize and respect the growing body of research into the potential therapeutic benefits of psilocybin” but she said the compound should be approved by FDA and the Drug Enforcement Agency before Iowa acts to reschedule. “The pathway provided by this bill for legalization of psilocybin at the state level before we have a chance to review federal action … creates legal uncertainty, poses risks for misuse and could undermine broader efforts to ensure safe and effective therapeutic use in the future,” Reynolds said.

(Radio Iowa) – Triple-A Iowa spokesman Brian Ortner says the price of crude oil rose overnight on the news of the attack by Israel into Iran, and that could mean a jump in gas prices. Ortner says oil prices had already started trending up in the last couple of days, and the price of gas will likely go up in a day or two. “You know this is the same conversation we have multiple times, that the price we pay at the pump is in direct correlation to the price of oil, and political events like this one,” he says. Ortner says the jump up in oil is something we haven’t seen in a while.

“Crude oil prices are in the low 70s and that’s a spike of about ten dollars compared to this time last week. So as it currently stands, these the highest prices we’ve seen for oil since mid February. And our partner OPAS says this is probably a short term reaction to the headlines and doesn’t anticipate a dramatic rise,” he says. Ortner says we are getting into the summer travel season where there is always a little increase with increased demand. He says Iran is part of the group of oil exporting countries, and that is why there is some reaction. “It’s not foreseen it’s gonna be a long term disruption to global supplies, again, it should be a short term disruption and a short term increase for what we’re seeing at the pumps right now,” Ortner says.

Radio Iowa file photo

Gas prices in Iowa were below the three dollar mark before the Iran attack.

(Lewis, Iowa) – The Lewis Community Club is holding a celebration of the community this Saturday which is also Flag Day. The Lewis Day Celebration takes place from 2-until 10-p.m., Saturday. Lewis Community Club member Duane Weirich says the timing is an unintended, but welcome coincidence.

Weirich said they’ve been planning for the event since late April, but they could still use some help serving pop and beer. He says the day will be a family event, with several kids games.

There’s also an unusual, “Stand-still parade.” Weirich explains how that idea came about.

Anyone who likes parades can attend and interact with those in-line, just as if your were standing there or sitting in a lawn chair next to your neighbor. There will also be a 30-by-38 American Flag available to viewing. There’s also lots of good food on hand, with the smell of barbecued beef wafting through downtown Lewis.

There’s also tractor pedal tractors for little kids, middle-size kids and adults. And, some”tricky trikes.”

There are antique firetruck rides around the Lewis Freedom Rock, a car show-and-shine, music, and fireworks at dusk. Grand Marshall for the event is long-time community supporter, Betty Auten.

(Radio Iowa) – After two dozen years in business, a small Webster County grocery store announced Thursday it’s closing its doors. The store’s board of directors said that despite cutting costs, ordering alongside other stores and limiting store and employee work hours, the Dayton Community Grocery was at a crossroads that led to its closure. The store’s Facebook page announced that the store is just not able to compete with big box stores to generate the income necessary to keep going at this rate.

The board does not want to be any further in debt that they are currently are and the store owners felt the responsible thing to do is go out debt free. There are eight full and part-time employees at the store. The store will continue to sell grocery items until they are gone but will not be placing additional orders. The store in Dayton will close after the last of the groceries are sold.

(Radio Iowa) – The African American Museum of Iowa is hosting its annual Juneteenth Festival in Cedar Rapids on Saturday. Jacqueline Hunter, the museum’s executive director, says it’s an event designed around remembrance and celebration. “It’s a chance for us to recognize the importance of the holiday, but what does that look like for our community and our state moving forward,” Hunter says. “It’s a deeply personal and powerful reminder of this unfinished struggle for freedom.” Juneteenth is an annual, nationwide celebration of the freeing of the last slaves in the United States on June 19th, 1865, when news of the Emancipation Proclamation at last reached Confederate Galveston, Texas. While that’s part of history, Hunter says current events keep related issues in the forefront.

“I think it’s most appropriate during this time as we are seeing things that play out again, not only locally but within our state and our country and our world,” Hunter says, “in terms of what does it look like for us to come together again behind shared interests, and things that make each of us have a good quality of life in the respective communities that we live in.” The festival will include live music and performances, food and merchandise vendors, a talent show, lawn games, and a homemade sweet potato pie contest. “Not that we don’t eat sweet potato pies everywhere, but it really does have some roots in the South and certainly with those who were enslaved, and just the magic of the sweet potato,” Hunter says. “So certainly something that if you’re down South, you’re probably far more likely to see it on the menu than maybe some other parts of the country, but we appreciate getting a good sweet potato pie anywhere we can.”

The facility will also host a screening of the documentary “Juneteenth: Faith & Freedom” next Thursday, on June 19th. “It really does focus on the connection of Galveston, Texas, to the overall Juneteenth event. It also features the woman that we would call the mother of Juneteenth, or the founder of the celebratory part of that experience in Galveston,” Hunter says. “It really takes you through the church, the period of enslavement, and what happened after emancipation.”

The museum’s Juneteenth Festival is Saturday at Cedar Rapids’ NewBo City Market from 11-to-5 PM.