(Radio Iowa) – Congressman Randy Feensta, one of the five Republicans running for governor, kicked off a statewide campaign tour with an event in Sioux Center. “I don’t want to climb the Washington ladder. I don’t want to be swallowed up by D.C. games. I want to be right here, fighting for you full time,” Feenstra said. “…Tonight, back home, I am excited to announce that I am running for the governor of Iowa!”

Feenstra spoke to a crowd last (Monday) night on the Dordt University campus. It’s his alma mater and where he later taught business and economics classes. Feenstra says it’s been an honor to serve the past five years in the U.S. House, but his time there is wrapping up and he wants to bring his experience in helping craft the Big Beautiful Bill that President Trump signed in July back to Iowa.

“Washington isn’t me. I want to be back home,” Feenstra said. “I want to be together. I want to be right here, fighting and taking this state to new heights.” Feenstra did not mentioned the four other Republicans who are in the governor’s race, but spent a good chunk of his speech criticizing Rob Sand, who is positioned to be the Democratic Party’s nominee for governor. “Rob Sand, he won’t tell you what he believes. Maybe he thinks truth is too mean. Perhaps he wants everyone to think that he agrees with them or maybe he just doesn’t dare to stand up for anything,” Feenstra said. “Iowa needs a strong leader, one who is respectful, but honest; civil and courageous; and one that doesn’t just go along to get along.”

Congressman Randy Feenstra (R-Hull) spoke on the Dordt University campus in Sioux Center tonight. (RI photo)

Feenstra, who lives in his hometown of Hull, says his goal as governor would be to ensure small town values are promoted and preserved. Feenstra greeted people in the crowd, posed for some photos and then spoke to reporters. He expects to vote in the U.S. House tomorrow (Wednesday) on the plan to reopen the federal government. “There’s a lot of work to be done in D.C. and it’s so exciting that we’re going to open finally, after 40 days, the Democrats have finally relented and now can give SNAP benefits and salary dollars back to air traffic controllers and TSA agents and all this stuff,” Feenstra said, “so I’m so grateful for that.”

Feenstra also told reporters he expects work on the Farm Bill to begin in earnest when the House reconvenes.

(Radio Iowa) – An Iowan’s 15 year search for a long lost World War II memorial with his uncle’s name on it has ended — and the plaque is now hanging in a Michigan museum.Jeff Ortiz, of Ames, grew up in Detroit. Ortiz says his dad — a World War II veteran — never really talked about his brother who died after the U-S-S Indianapolis was hit by a Japanese torpedo and sunk in the Pacific on July 30th, 1945. Ortiz has pieced the story together himself. “I have a very strong feeling that anybody that has been killed in the line of duty for our country, that their stories should not be forgotten,” Ortiz says. Ortiz’s uncle “Bobby” — Orlando Robert Ortiz — enlisted in the Navy when he was 18 and was 20 when the U-S-S Indianapolis was hit.

“I was lucky enough to meet two of the survivors — there’s still one alive — and they both concurred that because of his position he probably had like a day shift kind of a job and it was so hot that night that anybody that didn’t have to be in the ship was probably sleeping on deck, so he probably went into the water,” Ortiz said. “That’s about the best I have for what happened to my uncle.” Ortiz knew about the plaque that listed his uncle and the other U-S-S Indianapolis shipmates from Michigan who died because he had a copy of the program on the day the plaque was dedicated.

“In this program, there was a picture of this,” Ortiz said, “and then about 15, 16 years ago, I started wondering: ‘Whatever happened to this thing?'” Ortiz spent part of every trip back to Detroit searching V-F-W halls, museums and even Detroit City Hall. “Last December I was back there for my 50th high school reunion and there were two places I hadn’t checked out yet. One was the convention center…I walked every square inch of it, looking to see if it got hung in there. I went to another place called the Dossin Great Lakes Museum and it was closed because it was Saturday,” Ortiz said, “which ended up being a blessing.”

Jeff Ortiz of Ames holding the program from the original dedication ceremony for the plaque after it was found in a storage site for the Detroit Historical Museum. (Photo courtesy of Jeff Ortiz)

Ortiz called the museum later when he got back to his home in Ames and got a tip that the Detroit Historical Museum might have the plaque in storage. “Sure as shootin’ there it was in this dark corner, leaning up against a wall, dirty — no archive of when, how or why they got it,” Ortiz said. A ceremony was held in August for a rededication — and the plaque now hangs in the Arsenal of Democracy section of the Detroit Historical Museum. “Fifteen years of looking and digging for it and almost giving up — and not giving up and finding it,” Ortiz said. “Now it’s on permanent display.”

Ortiz says his uncle made his last trip home to Detroit in the spring of 1945 as the U-S-S Indianapolis was being repaired in California after being damaged in the Battle of Okinawa. That July, his uncle and the rest of the crew headed back to the Pacific, carrying top secret cargo. Not even the captain of the ship knew what was inside the crates. “They loaded key components of the atomic bomb on the ship,” Ortiz says. On July 26th, the U-S-S Indianapolis dropped off the crates on the island where the bomb that struck Hiroshima was assembled.

Four days later, the U-S-S Indianpolis was hit by torpedoes from a Japanese submarine. Ortiz has learned 27 Iowans died in the sinking of the U-S-S Indianapolis and three survived. The survivors were Seaman First Class Charles O. Wells of Camanche, Seaman Second Class Glen Laverne Milbrodt of Akron and Electrician’s Mate Second Class Edward Koche of Denison. Ortiz’s uncle was a Yeoman Third Class and his obituary says he was a veteran of five sea battles in the U-S-S Indianapolis and had planned to become a C-P-A after the war.

Ortiz gave photos of his uncle to the producers of the 2016 movie about the U-S-S Indianapolis that you can see as the film’s credits roll. Ortiz also notes a character in the 1975 movie “Jaws” mentions his hatred of sharks began when he was floating in the Pacific for four days, waiting to be rescued after the U-S-S Indianapolis was sunk.

(Guthrie Center, Iowa) –  Three separate collisions between vehicles and deer last week in Guthrie County, caused a total of $12,500 damage, but none of the drivers were injured. According to the Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office, the accidents happened at around 5:50-p.m. on Nov. 4th, and two of the collisions occurred about 40-minutes apart Friday evening, in two separate areas of the Guthrie County.

The collision on Nov. 4th happened on White Pole Road, and involved a 2018 Toyota RAV4 driven by 51-year-old Laurie Welsch, of Dexter. The impact with a deer caused damage to the right front side of the vehicle.

A 2020 Jeep driven by a 16-year-old female from Casey, struck a deer at around 6-p.m. on Nov. 7th, while the vehicle was traveling north on Highway 25. The front driver’s side of the SUV was damaged as a result of the impact.

And, a 2020 Buick SUV driven by 20-year-old Dannielle Peters, of Newell, hit a deer at around 6:40-p.m. on westbound Iowa Highway 44. Peters came upon multiple deer standing on the road and was unable to avoid striking one of the animals. The impact to the front of her vehicle caused it to become inoperable.

(Humboldt County, IA) – An SUV went out of control on a snow and ice covered road in northern Iowa Monday morning (Nov. 10th) was struck by a semi, resulting in fatal injuries to the SUV’s driver. The Iowa State Patrol reports the accident happened at around 7:45-a.m., when the 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by 60-year-old Debora Lei Ruberg, of Hardy (IA), crossed Highway 3 at State Avenue, in Humboldt, and was struck by a 2016 Freightliner semi, driven by 37-year-old AustinLee Van Klopme, of Maurice, IA.

The Jeep was traveling westbound when it went out of control. The semi was traveling eastbound on the highway. Debora Ruberg was wearing her seat belt, but was ejected from her vehicle during the collision. She was transported to the hospital in Humboldt, but died from her injuries.

(Radio Iowa) – Natural disasters in Iowa that cause millions and even billions of dollars damage are becoming more frequent, which some experts blame on our changing climate. The 15th annual Iowa Climate Statement was released today (Monday), endorsed by 177 Iowa science faculty at 24 colleges and universities statewide. Dave Courard-Hauri, a professor of environmental science and sustainability at Drake University, says the cost of disasters like droughts and floods don’t impact just those who file insurance claims.

2024 flooding in Spencer. (Iowa DOT photo)

“With climate change increasing risks from extreme events, that cost will increase for all of us,” Courard-Hauri says. “Given that homeowners insurance is required to obtain a mortgage, as insurance costs become prohibitive, or as companies choose not to insure in areas of high risk, the entire housing market can experience ripple effects.” While farmers are especially vulnerable to natural disasters and their associated costs, the report says the American dream of homeownership may become unattainable for some Iowa families as climate change accelerates the rise in insurance premiums.

Bill Gutowski, professor emeritus of meteorology at Iowa State University, says temperatures are rising globally due to an increase in greenhouse gases which is caused by the burning of fossil fuels. “These higher temperatures allow more moisture in the atmosphere, which yields a tendency for more precipitation when storms do occur, and that leads to more flooding,” Gutowski says. “When that water condenses, it adds energy in the form of heat to those storms, which can make them stronger, especially the severe weather storms we experience in late spring to early summer.”

When adjusted for inflation, the report says billion-dollar disasters in the region encompassing Iowa have more than doubled over the past 40 years. Peter Thorne, a professor of occupational and environmental health at the University of Iowa, says these Midwest events are part of an emerging global trend of shattered long-term climate records, with growing losses of life and property, resulting in higher insurance costs.

“Rising insurance premiums in Iowa are driven by increased costs of labor, building materials and reinsurance,” Thorne says, “and the reinsurance industry is that which ensures the insurers. They tie their rates to national and international risks that are being driven by climate change. So these costs all are amplified by climate change and are escalating.” Property owners in Iowa can make moves to try and reduce their own carbon footprints and to reduce their insurance costs.

Emma Stapleton, a research professor of internal medicine at the University of Iowa, says for example, trees can be planted as natural wind buffers, and there are all sorts of “smart” building materials for construction. “There are some benefits to consumers for energy efficient upgrades, like better insulation, things like reducing the risk of fire with building materials,” Stapleton says. “Some policies do give you green update coverages where you can rebuild or replace the damaged parts of your house with environmentally friendly materials.”

The report says some insurance companies have pulled out of Iowa and elsewhere after recent disasters, like the 2020 derecho. Gutowski says every one of the Earth’s ten hottest years on record has occurred in the last decade, with 2024 breaking all previous records. He says those temperature changes lead to the types of extreme events and damages that we have seen more of in recent years.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Supreme Court rules on a case involving charges being cleared from a person’s record. A man identified as John Doe was charged with domestic abuse assault and child endangerment in 2013. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct and the child endangerment charge was dropped. Doe filed to have the charges removed from his record in 2023, but the district court ruled only the information misdemeanor charge could be expunged.

The Iowa Supreme Court says keeping the dismissed charge open still allows the public to draw inappropriate inferences, and keeps the stigma that the law was intended to remove. It says the case can be removed from the record without depriving the public of valuable information.

The ruling also notes that Doe waited more then the required eight years to request that his record be expunged, and met all the prerequisites to required for the request.

(Greenfield, Iowa) – The Adair County Sheriff’s Office reports a man from Union County was arrested Nov. 2nd, in Greenfield. 39-year-old James Alan Davis, of Creston, was arrested for Violation of a No Contact/Protective Order by electronic communication -Contempt of Court, on an original charge of Domestic Abuse Assault. Davis was being held without bond in the Adair County Jail.

On Nov. 4th, 40-year-old Derik Wayne Bud Pickrell, of Fontanelle, was arrested in Greenfield for Driving While Barred, with nine withdrawals in effect. And, on Nov. 8th, 23-year-old Emily Rae Marie Dohrn, of Creston, was arrested following a traffic stop, for Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. Pickrell and Dohrn were released from custody with citations. Pickrell was additionally issued a warning for vehicle equipment violations.

(Glenwood, IA) – The Glenwood Police Department reports the arrest early today (Monday), of a woman on drug charges. 48-year-old Nichole Inez Jackson, of Glenwood, was arrested in Glenwood for Possession of a Controlled Substance/3rd or subsequent offense, Poss. of Drug Paraphernalia, and for Contraband/weapon in a correctional facility. Jackson was taken into custody at around 12:20-a.m. and held in the Mills County Jail, where her bond was set at $10,000.