(Radio Iowa) – One of the ceremonies on Veterans Day honored Iowa military hero George “Bud” Day of Sioux City, and his wife Doris. The event was a ribbon cutting at the Interpretive Center at the Siouxland Freedom Park in South Sioux City. Day’s son George Junior was at the ceremony. “When I think of our dad’s legacy and our mom’s legacy — and the fact that in a way we are honoring them — but more importantly we are honored by the people of this community in America and what it’s doing to inspire the youth of future generations,” he says.

Brigadier General Day received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his service after being shot down over Vietnam and put in a prison camp. He was tortured, escaped, and was caught and tortured again. “It’s incredible to hear him talk about that and then share it with others. One of the biggest things that he shared was his faith in God,” Day says. “He never expected to survive in Vietnam. He never expected to live as many years as he did. He never expected to live through two bailouts in fighters. And yet, God kept him on this earth for a reason, and we are so thankful for that.”

The Bud Day Center

His children grew up without him while he was in the prison camp until the war ended. His daughter Sandra wore his flight jacket to the ceremony, and says she didn’t realize for a time what her dad had gone through.

George Jr and Sandra Day. (KSCJ photo)

“Probably my biggest revelation was when I actually sat down and read his book. Then it really hit home about what he went through and how bad it was,” she says. Sandra learned more about what he endured in the North Vietnam prison camp as she took care of her dad.

“In taking care of him when he was sick I could see the lash marks on his back. And that was really difficult — when you see it like that and you realize what it is — that really brings a new meaning to freedom and a meaning to torture and what he went through,” Sandra says.

George Junior graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1985 and went on to become an F-16 pilot. He later flew plans for Southwest Airlines after leaving the military.

(Radio Iowa) – A class in disaster preparedness is being offered at Iowa State University for the first time this fall to ready students for everything from severe weather to hazardous materials spills. I-S-U’s emergency manager Clayton Oliver is teaching the course to students in the Honors Program who need to pass special classes as part of their requirements to graduate with honors.  “The name of the class is You Are Your Own First Responder,” Oliver says. “The general concept behind it is teaching baseline first responder skills, disaster medicine, triage, how to use a fire extinguisher, light duty search and rescue to, in this case, honor students.”

As part of the course, an Ames apartment was turned into a simulated tornado disaster area as students learned how to respond to and manage an emergency. “This is a class that offers them a lot of skills where, hopefully, they’ll never be in a situation where they have to use them, but if they are, they can take definite action,” Oliver says. “There’s a strong interest in our students in learning how to take care of themselves — and how to take care of others — in emergencies.”

The seminar is built around Community Emergency Response Team, or CERT, training. It includes academic elements like studying reports from disasters like the 1993 Iowa floods and the 2011 tornado that hit Joplin, Missouri. “What I’m trying to do with this is pilot what I hope will be a larger program someday where we can spread these skills to more people across the campus, whether that’s students, faculty or staff,” Oliver says, “and ultimately, build a campus that is more prepared to respond to disasters, more resilient and more capable of recovering from them.”

Besides the tornado drill, students are also learning about disaster medicine and stabilizing victims with Thielen Student Health Center staff, search and rescue and extrication with the Ames Fire Department, and disaster psychology for victims and responders with I-S-U Student Counseling.

Two women and a man were arrested late Thursday night, in Red Oak. Authorities say they were taken into custody at around 11:25-p.m. at 1200 E. Summit Street. 20-year-old Alisha Lynn Seyler, 18-year-old Adriana Rose Monreal, and 20-year-old Dyllan Hunter Hansen, all of Red Oak, were charged with Simple Assault. Seyler was additionally charged with Interference with Official Acts. Her bond was set at $2,000. Bond for Monreal and Hansen was set at $300 each. All three were being held in the Montgomery County Jail.

(Radio Iowa) – A former member of the city council in Sioux City has been ordered to pay a more than four MILLION dollar fine for committing what a federal prosecutor calls “environmental crimes.” Forty-seven-year-old Aaron Rochester of Sioux City ran businesses that promised to recycle electronic components. In 2018, the State of Iowa filed a lawsuit against Rochester, accusing him of illegally storing 12 million pounds of hazardous waste in Sioux City and another four-and-a-half million pounds of waste at sites in Nebraska. It was mainly the leaded glass from televisions and computer monitors according to court records.

A Special Agent for the E-PA says Rochester’s disregard for the laws governing how to properly handle hazardous waste posed significant risk to nearby communities. In March of this year, Rochester pleaded guilty in FEDERAL court to one count of unlawful storage of hazardous waste and one count of transportation of hazardous waste. A federal judge issued the four-million dollar fine this week and sentenced Rochester to probation for three years.

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds has signed the State of Iowa onto three separate lawsuits that are challenging Biden Administration Covid vaccination requirements in the workplace. “We’re going to keep fighting for Iowans to give them the opportunity to make their own choice about their health care,” Reynolds says. In response to one lawsuit, federal courts have temporarily blocked an OSHA rule to require businesses with more than 100 employees to ensure workers are vaccinated for Covid or tested regularly.

“We’ve got a pretty good chance,” Reynolds says. “Our goal right now, really, is to just — and I’ve let businesses know this — to really take the temporary stay and make it permanent until we can get it litigated through the courts, so we can really have our chance to make our case in court and to just pause what I feel is tremendous overreach and we believe it’s unconstitutional as well.”

The latest lawsuit Reynolds has joined was filed by 10 states on Wednesday and challenges a requirement that most U.S. health care workers get vaccinated. Reynolds says a Covid vaccine mandate for employees in facilities that treat patients receiving Medicare or Medicaid benefits could be devastating to Iowa’s nursing homes as some workers are threatening to quit rather than get vaccinated.

“They’re already stretched so thin and they are a phenomenal example of the heroes that have been on the front line from the very beginning and, you know, they don’t get to shut down for a couple of days like a restaurant or a manufacturing facility,” Reynolds says. “They have vulnerable older Iowans that they need to take care of. And so if you don’t have staff to do that, what do we do?”

An A-A-R-P analysis released yesterday (Thursday) indicated 71 percent of Iowa nursing home staff have been fully vaccinated, an increase of about four percent from early October. Reynolds got a dose of Johnson and Johnson’s Covid vaccine on live television and has encouraged Iowans to get vaccinated. She says the reluctance some Iowans have about getting a Covid shot is based on an array of factors, including what she says is an arbitrary decision to choose businesses with 100 or more workers for one of the Biden Administration’s vaccine mandates — and to exempt Postal Service workers.

“You know, people get an annual flu shot and they don’t think anything about it, but it’s been vetted. It’s been there for a long time,” Reynolds says, “so I just think there’s a lot of just frustration and confusion with the mixed messaging.” Reynolds made her comments to Radio Iowa after appearing at a Veterans Day ceremony at the Iowa Veterans Cemetery.

Officials in the Biden Administration say the federal government clearly has the authority to protect workers from grave danger and — with about 13-hundred Americans dying of Covid daily — the threat from the virus is ongoing and overwhelming. Some of the nation’s largest companies have Covid vaccine requirements. Tyson Foods announced in late October that more than 96 percent of its employees were vaccinated.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Harvest Market 2021 is now accepting pre–orders at www.produceintheparkatlanticiowa.com. Market Manager Brigham Hoegh says pre–orders will be accepted through Friday, November 19th.  Harvest Market 2021 will also offer in–person shopping, but some vendors—such as Miss NiNi’s Fine  Desserts and Claire’s Cinnamon Rolls—are only offering pre–ordered products.

Harvest Market 2021 will be held at the Cass County Community Center on Monday, November 22 from 3–7 pm. This fall farmers market is held the Monday before Thanksgiving, so shoppers can pick up premium local produce, local meats, delicious baked goods, and other local foods to enjoy at holiday celebrations. The market also offers locally–made craft products including seasonal candles, goat milk soaps, holiday decorations, and gifts.

Hoegh says pre–ordering is an excellent option for customers who want to plan on a particular food item at their Thanksgiving meal (such as a French–silk pie), customers who are short on time to shop at the market, and customers social distancing this holiday season. Produce in the Park thanks customers for masking and distancing at indoor markets.

Harvest Market Vendors Offering Pre–ordering: Brun Ko Farm, Miss NiNi’s Fine Desserts, Kringle Man, Bridgewater Farm, Smudge, Erickson Foods, A–Town SmokeShack, Harrisdale Farmstead, Ter–Bear Honey, TJ’s Kitchen, Claire’s Cinnamon Rolls, The Pet Bistro, Sweet Sisters Vegan, Kingwood Farm, Johnna Joy Designs, and Noble Provisions.

Visit www.produceintheparkatlanticiowa.com to pre–order by Friday, November 19. For the latest information on Harvest Market, follow Produce in the Park on Facebook (www.facebook.com/ProduceInThePark) or Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/produceintheparkatlanticia/) or sign up for the Produce in the Park newsletter at www.produceintheparkatlanticiowa.com.

Harvest Market is sponsored by the Atlantic Community Promotion Commission, First Whitney Bank and Trust, Camblin Mechanical, Cass County Tourism, Cass County Farm Bureau, the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce, and Lindeman Tractor.

(Creston, Iowa) – Police in Creston report one person was arrested following a collision Thursday night. Authorities say 57-year-old Todd Earl Jackson, of Creston was eastbound on Adams Street, responding to an active fire, with his lights and siren on. When he slowed for the intersection of Elm and Adams Streets, he believed the intersection was clear.

A southbound 2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by 69-year-old Gary Forrest Stonehocker, of Afton, pulled out into the intersection and failed to yield to Jackson’s 2013 Chevy Silverado pickup. The pickup struck the Jeep at the intersection. No injuries were reported. Damage to the vehicles amounted to $6,000.

Following an investigation, Stonehocker was arrested for OWI/1st offense. He posted a $1,000 bond, and was released from the Union County Jail.

(Radio Iowa) – State public health officials say Iowa’s overall vaccination rate is inching up, but parts of the state are lagging behind. Seventy-one percent of Iowans over the age of 11 have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Ken Sharp of the Iowa Department of Public Health says the vaccination rate is lower among middle-aged white men and 20 to 30 year olds in general.

“We still have, as everybody recognizes, a ways to go, but we are making progress,” he says. “…We continue to see new Iowans come into that dataset to get their first vaccine, so we’re just going to continue to kind of grind away at getting those numbers as high as we possibly can.”

Sharp says about 7000 Iowa kids ages 5 to 11 got their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Monday. Pfizer’s pediatric dose of the vaccine was approved last week, making more than 280,000 Iowa kids eligible to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

IDPH chart

“There are some, I think, frustrations we’re hearing that parents weren’t able to get the vaccine where they would normally go to get the vaccine and I think it’s just a matter of timing,” he says. “We’re still taking that as positive news that parents are excited about getting their kids vaccinated and looking for that vaccine very quickly.”

Officials say Iowa received 99,000 pediatric doses of the Pfizer vaccine in its first shipment, and 24,000 more have been ordered. Some major pharmacy chains were able to order thousands of additional doses on their own.

The number of Covid patients hospitalized in Iowa and the number of Iowans testing positive for the virus has increased since last week. By the middle of this week, state officials had confirmed 7166 Iowans have died of Covid since the pandemic began.

(By Katarina Sostaric, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – After major flooding in 2019, a small western Iowa town is making progress toward building a protective flood barrier, with construction of a berm scheduled to start in the spring. Hornick Mayor Scott Mitchell says the Woodbury County town is putting the finishing touches on its plan to prevent future flooding.

“For me, it truly isn’t going to sink in until we start moving dirt,” Mitchell says. “Then I can say we’re to that point where we know it’s going to be built and we’ve climbed all them hills and have made it through all the things that have made it difficult through the way.” The town has been discussing the construction of a berm since 1996, but only received the two-point-one million dollars needed to fund the project through the 2019 Flood Recovery Fund.

Mitchell hopes to see construction complete by the fall of next year. Hornick was inundated by the West Fork of the Little Sioux River nearly three years ago.

(reporting by Kendall Crawford, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – Some rural E-M-S directors are looking toward a new state law to help train more volunteer medical responders and keep them on the job. The law allows counties to declare E-M-S an essential service like police or fire and collect taxes to pay for it. Julie Scadden is the ambulance service director for Dysart in east-central Iowa. Scadden says her department is depending on fundraisers and Medicare fees from transporting patients.

“We can’t rely on it from year to year because you just don’t know,” Scadden says. “With COVID, Dysart as an example, we dropped 46-percent of our transport during 2020 and so our revenue dropped 46-percent.” About 80-percent of the medical responders in Dysart are volunteers. Scadden says the program was already shorthanded before seven people stopped volunteering last year over concerns they could be exposed to the coronavirus.

“That, I think, is one of our biggest struggles, trying to get the volunteers to come back,” she says, “and because workforce issues for all jobs, regardless of whether it’s EMS or not, are just really tough for everybody right now.” Scadden says local taxes could help rural programs cover the cost of training and equipment. She says Dysart is in the early stages of organizing an emergency E-M-S resolution. The law requires approval from county supervisors and at least 60-percent of voters. Scadden made her comments on the Iowa Public Radio program, “River to River.”

(reporting by Grant Gerlock, Iowa Public Radio)