(Nodaway, Iowa) – Firefightrs from Corning and Villisca responded to a hay baler fire Thursday night, about three-miles north of Nodaway. The fire took place at around 9:20-p.m., near the intersection of Highway 34 and Cherry Avenue.

When fire fighting crews arrived, they found a John Deere hay baler on fire in a field, still attached to a tractor. They were able to disconnect the baler from the tractor, which was not damaged. The baler itself was considered a total loss. A dollar amount of the damage was not immediately available.

No injuries were reported.

In addition to the Corning and Villisca Fire Departments, Deputies with the Adams County Sheriff’s Office and Adams County Ambulance crews assisted at the scene. Their efforts were coordinated by the Adams and Montgomery County Communications Centers.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Natural Resource Commission discussed the possibility of increasing hunting, fishing and trapping fees by 5% at their monthly meeting.

Commissioners and those who spoke on the issue Thursday say the increase could help the DNR do more to conserve and restore wildlife habitat. Commissioner K.R. Buck says the issue has generated a lot of support. “We have lit a fire underneath the sportsmen. I will guarantee you that besides the CO2 pipeline, I’ve been contacted more in the last two weeks about this, and they’re all in favor,” he says.

Buck says supporters don’t think it will be enough. “They’re all afraid that 5% isn’t going to get us where we need to be,” Buck says.
State law caps annual license fee increases at 5%.

State lawmakers and the governor would need to sign off before a license fee increase went into effect.

DES MOINES, Iowa (IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH) – The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced it had improved and expanded its Farm to School Grant program and would invest up to $18 million to connect locally grown food to child nutrition programs. The Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grants program was initiated in 2013, but according to a news release, the fiscal year 2026 investment represents the “largest total amount” the department has offered in a given year.

The Farm to School Grant announcement was made alongside U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s latest Make America Healthy Again report, which called for more whole, unprocessed foods in children’s diets. USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said the grants are “one of the best ways we can deliver nutritious, high-quality meals to children, while also strengthening local agriculture.”

Eligible projects are those that: incorporate more unprocessed and locally produced foods in school meals, encourage the consumption of fresh foods, train producers on food safety and procurement requirements or educate students on agriculture and nutrition. The release from USDA said updates to the program will also streamline the application process, remove barriers to innovation and emphasize partnerships.

According to USDA’s latest Farm to School Census, more than 440 Iowa school food authorities, the entities that manage school food service, have participated in the program. The grants can also be used to support agriculture education at schools through things like ag and nutrition classes, or school gardening programs. According to the census, nearly 50% of Iowa school food authorities had classroom programs and slightly more than 15% of Iowa school food authorities had edible gardens.

According to USDA, Farm to School Grant awards totaled $100 million since 2013. The millions in Farm to School Grant dollars are significantly less than the billions of dollars that schools and food banks used under a pandemic-era program to support local food purchases. These programs, Local Food for Schools and Local Food Purchase Assistance, were canceled in March after USDA announced in October 2024 over a $1 billion in funds to continue the programs across the country.

Tommy Hexter, the policy director for Iowa Farmers Union, said the new investment from USDA is positive, but said it doesn’t make up for the loss of programs that provided “vital government support” to food farmers and players in the local food system. Hexter said the canceled programs created relationships between farmers, food hubs, the state department of agriculture, schools and community, that are “fundamental to our food system in Iowa.”

“The first and foremost thing with this announcement is like, yes, let’s see how we can take advantage of this new announcement and make these programs come to Iowa,” Hexter said. “But we also are acknowledging that this investment does not replace the major loss of funding that happened earlier this year.”

DES MOINES, Iowa — After very soggy weather across the state earlier this summer, including the wettest July on record in Des Moines, abnormally dry conditions have returned to Iowa for September. With the lack of rain, especially over central and southern Iowa, the national drought monitor now shows portions of southern Iowa in the abnormally dry category. With limited rainfall expected over the next week, those dry regions are likely to expand.

15% of western Iowa was in extreme drought

72% of the entire state had at least some level of drought

(Radio Iowa) – A former spokesman for public safety agencies in the City of Cedar Rapids has been charged with insurance fraud. The Cedar Rapids Gazette reports 53-year-old Greg Buelow is accused of forging a receipt for medication for his dog and submitting a claim to a pet insurance company for reimbursement.

Buelow was hired by the City of Cedar Rapids 25 years ago and worked for over two decades for the police and fire departments, often as a public spokesman.

Four years ago, Buelow took a job as the city’s code enforcement manager. If convicted on the felony charges of presenting false information and forgery, he could be sentenced to up to a decade in prison.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley says a few Iowa educators have allegedly made online comments “praising the assassination” of prominent conservative Charlie Kirk and he expects each district to investigate the teachers involved.

Grassley says the posts he’s seen are depraved and he said “the individuals responsible for them cannot continue to hold a position with any level of influence over Iowa children.” Grassley, in a post on Facebook, said if school officials fail to take appropriate steps, the Iowa House Government Oversight Committee will take action “to root out this kind of hate from Iowa schools.”

A high school teacher in Oskaloosa has been placed on administrative leave as school officials investigate a social media post allegedly shared by Oskaloosa art teacher Matt Kargol. Oskaloosa school officias say they were notified of the post at 5:15 p.m. Wednesday and “recognized the community’s concerns.” Iowa Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks, who called for an investigation of the Oskaloosa teacher in a post on X late Wednesday night, said “cheering political violence is wrong and should never be done by those educating our children.”

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Cass County Auditor’s Office, Thursday, said Doug Venteicher has filed nomination papers to run for re-election to the City Council in Massena, where there are two open seats. The deadline for candidates to file their papers ahead of the November 4th City/School Elections is 5-p.m. on Sept. 18th.

(Radio Iowa) – Two Republicans, but so far no Democrats are campaigning to replace State Auditor Rob Sand, who’s running for governor. Republican candidate Abigail Maas, who’s from South Amana, says for many years she’s considered being state auditor as her dream job. “I am a numbers girl. I am very well versed in our property tax system and I see a lot of fraud, waste and abuse that’s occurring there, so I’m super passionate about finding that and I have the experience to do so,” Maas said, “so I decided to put my name in the hat.”

Republican candidate for State Auditor, Abigail Maas

Maas owns a flooring store and a horse boarding facility. She was elected to the Iowa County Board of Supervisors in 2020. She says every local government that collects and spends property taxes should be audited every year — and the state law that lets smaller cities and towns escape annual audits should be changed.

“Right now some of them are as few as one out of every eight years in their frequency to be audited,” Maas said, “and I think we have to look at the past trends and where we’re finding the fraud, waste, and abuse in the city level. It’s cities less than 2000 in population because nobody’s coming to look at their books every single year.”

Maas says the 16-hundred townships in Iowa will get 46 million dollars in property taxes this year — and all those townships should be audited yearly, too. Township trustees have responsibility in rural areas of the state for emergency services, cemetery maintenance and resolving disputes over fence lines.

Iowa Lieutenant Governor Chris Cournoyer, a Republican from LeClaire, is also running for state auditor. She announced her campaign in May.

(Radio Iowa) – Traffic deaths on Iowa roadways are down 32 compared to this day (9/11) last year. D-O-T director Scott Marler told the Transportation Commission they are happy to continue to see the drop. “We’re on a good trajectory, but I think you know us at the Department well enough to know we’re never satisfied with that,” he says. There have been 191 traffic deaths so far this year, with six in September as of today (Thursday).

“One fatality is one too many and until we get to zero, we’re not going to stop, we’re going to continue to push and do the things that are so vital to keeping Iowans safe,” Marler says. Marler says he recently attended the Mid America Association of State Transportation officials conference where they signed a joint resolution to deploy safety technology across our region. He says the focus will be on work zones, commercial motor vehicles and traffic management.

“Things like long-wait detection systems, and notifications. Technologies like these hold a lot of promise, a lot of potential to really help us go further with safety, and to save lives, quite literally save lives,” he says. “So we’re excited that as a as a region in the Midwest, we could join together in signing this safety technology resolution.”

The state is 43 fatalities behind the average number of traffic deaths for this date from 2020 through 2024.