CRESTON, Iowa – Aug. 5, 2025 – If you travel on eastbound Interstate 80 to reach I-35 and I-235 at the Southwest Mixmaster in West Des Moines you need to be aware of an upcoming nighttime road closure that may slow down your trip, according to the Iowa Department of Transportation’s Creston construction office.

Crews will close eastbound I-80 from Grand Prairie Parkway (exit 118) to the Southwest Mixmaster from 9 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 10, to 5 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 11, weather permitting, so a reconfiguration change can be made to the roadway because of a closure to the eastbound I-80 loop at Jordan Creek Parkway (exit 121).

During this closure you will follow a marked detour route using Grand Prairie Parkway (exit 118), and University Avenue, to reach I-35/I-80 (exit 124).

Detour map for I80 Eastbound from Grand Prairie Parkway to the SW Mixmaster.

The Iowa DOT reminds motorists to drive with caution, obey the posted speed limit and other signs in the work area, and be aware that traffic fines for moving violations are at least double in work zones. As in all work zones, drivers should stay alert, allow ample space between vehicles, and wear seat belts.

Farm tenants and landowners are invited to attend the August 13 meeting in Atlantic

Atlantic, Iowa – Iowa State University Extension and Outreach in Cass County is hosting a farmland leasing meeting on Wednesday, August 13 at 2 PM. The meeting will be presented by Tim Christensen, Farm Management Specialist with ISU Extension and Outreach at the Cass County Community Center, 805 West 10^th Street in Atlantic. The annual meeting is offered to address questions that landowners, tenants or other interested individuals have about leasing farmland. The 2025 annual survey of cash rental rates for Iowa farmland shows that rates decreased, on average, by 2.9% in 2025 to $271 per acre. This is the first decline in cash rents since 2019, after a peak of $279 per acre the previous two years of the survey.

Topics will include land values, market outlook, and cash rent trends, cost of production, methods for determining a fair rental rate, legal updates regarding leases and communicating with tenants or landowners. Farm Management Field Specialists will also address common questions when a lease is impacted by a farm estate or succession plan.

“More than half of Iowa’s farmland is rented, and strong landlord/tenant relationships are important for the long-term viability of Iowa’s valuable farmland,” said Ann Johanns, program specialist at Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. “While the trend in rental rates is fairly steady, individual agreements vary and attending a workshop is a great way to learn more or ask questions on specific aspects of farm lease arrangements.”

Tim Christensen, ISU Farm Management Specialist, speaks with an attendee at a previous meeting in Atlantic. (Photo credit: Lisa Scarbrough)

The two-and-a-half-hour workshop is designed to assist landowners, farm tenants and other agri-business professionals with current issues related to farmland ownership, management and leasing arrangements. Attendees will gain a better understanding of current cash rental rate surveys and factors driving next year’s rents such as market trends and input costs.

Each registrant will receive a 100-page workbook with resources regarding land leasing agreements such as surveys, sample written lease agreements and termination forms, along with many other publications. The workbook may be included in the registration fee in some county meetings and available for purchase in others.

Attend a local meeting

Registration is $25 per individual and includes materials. Pre-registration is encouraged as an additional $5 fee may be added if registering less than two calendar days before the meeting date. To register contact the Cass County Extension office at 712-243-1132 or email keolson@iastate.edu.

The leasing meetings being held across Iowa are facilitated by farm management specialists with ISU Extension and Outreach, for other locations, visit the Ag Decision Maker events page at https://go.iastate.edu/AGDMEVENTS.

The Ag Decision Maker website provides useful materials for negotiating leases, information on various types of leases, lease forms and newly updated Decision Tools.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The 2025 Cass County Fair wrapped up on Tuesday, July 29^th with the annual livestock auction. A total of 333 head of livestock were auctioned off, capping many months of work for Cass County 4-H and FFA livestock project members. Market beef, sheep, goat, swine, rabbit and poultry exhibitors participated in the sale, gaining a little extra reward from local community supporters for their hard work.

Including the Bucket of Junk participants who took part in the Monday night auction, 99 total youth will be receiving proceeds from the sale to help support their future project and educational activities. The Monday night fundraising auction also featured a sale of pies baked by local celebrities and fair supporters. Over 90 local community supporters chipped in to help support the youth members, with proceeds from both sales totaling $288,303 according to officials with Rolling Hills Bank & Trust, who volunteer their services to clerk the sale each year.

For more information about the Cass County Fair or the Cass County 4-H program, call the Cass County Extension Office at 712-243-1132 or visit www.extension.iastate.edu/cass.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa City Fire Department is using a new system that will let drivers know when they are approaching a truck that is on a call. Battalion Chief Zach Hickman says it will be particularly important when crews are responding to calls on Interstate 80. “It puts out a signal and alerts drivers of an emergency vehicle ahead. So when we turn on our lights and sirens, it activates the system and sends out an automated message,” Hickman says He says the automatic nature of the system is important.

“That’s one of the best things about this, we don’t have to do anything on our end, and then the civilian in their vehicle, they don’t have to do anything on their end,” he says. Hickman says the volume of traffic on I-80 makes it important for drivers to know what is happening. “The interstate is one of the most dangerous places that anybody can be from a civilian to a first responder, so the more notice we can give, the better,” Hickman says.

Iowa City’s fire department is using a new warning system for motorists. (photo from Iowa City FD)

The automated warning doesn’t go out to every car and truck on the road, but he says they have continued to expand the number of those that will get the signal. “If they’re using either Waze maps or Apple maps it automatically pops up, but otherwise if they’re driving a RAM, Jeep, Dodge, Chrysler, or Volkswagen, it’s going to just pop up on the dash that there’s an emergency vehicle ahead,” Hickman says. And hopefully that will be enough warning for them and they’ll take notice of that to slow down and move over or at least be prepared for it.”

Hickman says they currently have the device on the battalion command vehicle and get reports on its use. “Just last month, just the emergency calls of the battalion chief truck went on, it says over 150 drivers were notified, received notification of alerts,” he says. Hickman says they hope to add the system to more vehicles in the next six months. He is not aware of any other departments using this system in Iowa.

(Radio Iowa) – A group called the Nishnabotna Water Defenders will meet Sunday in Red Oak to review the recent settlement for last year’s fertilizer spill at Red Oak co-op that killed hundreds of thousands of fish. Last week, Iowa’s attorney general announced NEW Cooperative in Red Oak has agreed to pay a 50-thousand dollar penalty to settle the case, plus another 50-thousand dollars will go to environmental conservation efforts in Montgomery County.

Nishnabotna Water Defenders co-chair Terry Langen says that’s woefully inadequate given the spill’s impact on the river.”The DNR’s initial findings were close to a million fish that were killed, not to include frogs, mussels, snakes that they visibly saw dead and floating at that time,” he says, “but then continued to die.” Iowa officials say over 750-thousand fish died along a 50-mile stretch of river and Missouri officials say along 10 miles of the river in their state nearly every fish was killed.

March, 2024 fish kill on Nishnabotna River (Photo by Mike Peterson, Shenandoah)

The spill happened in March of last year when a valve on a fertilizer tank was inadvertently left open for two days. An estimated 265-thousand gallons of liquid nitrogen flowed through a drainage ditch into the East Nishnabotna River. Langen says it does not appear the settlement requires the 50-thousand dollars worth of conservation measures be focused on the river. “That is a payment to the Montgomery County Conservation Board to be used for projects including habitat and prairie restoration, controlled burn equipment purchases, habitat management, and native tree planting — so none of that is even outlined into the order to have to go to the Nishnabotna River at all,” Langen says.

“That’s up to the Montgomery County Conservation Board’s discretion on where those monies will be spent.” Nishnabotna Water Defenders Secretary Jodi Reese says the settlement lacks safeguards for the river’s future.  “No mention of monitoring, anything like that in the future which really concerns our group which was really formed to speak for the water and the people who use the water,” Reece says, “which is actually all of us.”

Shortly after the spill last year, NEW Cooperative officials announced they’d been working with the state officials to speed up a response to the spill, including building a series of dams and excavating a considerable amount of soil from the creek that goes into the river to prevent further contamination.

(Clarinda, Iowa) – The Page County Attorney’s Office has released a report on the outcome of court cases for June 30, 2025, July 14, 2025 and July 28, 2025. View the report in the pdf link below:

20250805102012478

DES MOINES, IA — Representatives Zach Nunn (IA-03) and Jim Himes (CT-04) today (Tuesday) introduced the Taskforce for Recognizing and Averting Payment Scams (TRAPS) Act, bipartisan legislation to protect Americans, especially seniors, from payment fraud by creating a coordinated federal task force dedicated to preventing scams. In a news release, Nunn said “Scammers are becoming more sophisticated, and too often, Iowa families—especially seniors—are the ones paying the price. In just the past year, Iowans lost over $52 million to scams ranging from fake investments to romance cons. The TRAPS Act brings law enforcement, regulators, and industry together to stop these criminals before they strike and gives victims a better chance at justice.”

Payment scams, fraudulent schemes in which bad actors manipulate victims into voluntarily sending money, are rising at an alarming rate. Iowans reported more than 3,900 fraud complaints last year, with losses exceeding $52 million across a range of scam types. In 2024 alone, the U.S. experienced a 25% increase in fraud from the previous year – underscoring the urgent need to address this growing concern.  Hines said in the news release:

“Congress should be focused on passing legislation that makes a real impact on our constituents. That’s why I’m proud to join Congressman Nunn in introducing the TRAPS Act, which will save Americans money by streamlining federal efforts to prevent payment scams. Families lose billions of dollars each year to fraudulent schemes, and I hope to see this legislation passed quickly into law so that we can move towards more meaningful protection for our constituents.”

Nunn says criminals are exploiting new technologies to reach more victims with emotionally manipulative schemes, such as romance or investment scams. In January 2025, the Iowa Department of Public Safety issued an alert warning of a resurgence of “grandparent scams”, where fraudsters pose as grandchildren to manipulate elderly Iowans into urgent money transfers. Currently, there is no unified federal strategy to disrupt these scams before they occur, leaving local law enforcement and families with limited resources to respond after the damage is done.

The TRAPS Act addresses this growing threat by:

• Establishing a task force led by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and composed of members from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Federal Communications Commission, Federal Trade Commission, Department of Justice, and other federal agencies
• Including representatives from financial institutions, credit unions, digital payment networks, consumer groups, scam survivor advocates, and the tech sector
• Requiring the task force to examine fraud trends, coordinate prevention efforts across agencies, and propose legislative or regulatory solutions
• Issuing annual reports for three years to guide federal action and improve victim support services

In addition to the Iowa Bankers Association and AARP, the bill is endorsed by Early Warning Services, the Electronic Transactions Association, Iowa Credit Unions, American Bankers Association, Consumer Bankers Association, the Defense Credit Union Council, and America’s Credit Unions. The TRAPS Act is led in the Senate by Senators Mike Crapo (R-ID), Mark Warner (D-VA), Jerry Moran (R-KS), and Raphael Warnock (D-GA), who introduced companion legislation, S. 2019.

Text of the bill can be found here.

(Radio Iowa) – As the nation faces a worsening shortage of airline pilots, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says he has some ideas about how to solve the problem, though he’s still undecided about a proposal that would allow for a single pilot to fly commercial jets. “There’s something a little scary for me of just having one pilot in the cockpit, but I can sure understand why we’re trying to find a solution to the shortage of pilots,” Grassley says. “My answer to that is to extend the retirement age for people that are healthy.”

Under FAA guidelines, commercial airline pilots in the U.S. face a mandatory retirement age of 65, though Grassley says just raising the age may not be sufficient to reverse the trend. “Another way I would do it would reduce the number of hours that you have to have to become a pilot,” Grassley says, “because it was increased from 500 to 1,500 hours because of some accident in Buffalo, New York about probably five to ten years ago.”

Learfield file photo

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has been sent separate letters from 45 U.S. senators and more than 150 House members urging him to oppose the single-pilot proposal. One of the letters warns: “The presence of two rested, well-trained and qualified pilots on the flight deck remains a key pillar of aviation safety.” Iowa Senator Joni Ernst signed the Senate letter, but Grassley did not. In part, Grassley says there may’ve been a miscommunication, in addition to his being undecided on the issue. “I don’t want to be opposite Joni Ernst because I’m answering your question without full consideration of all the debates,” Grassley says. “I assume that I was asked to sign it and either overlooked it, because I didn’t make a decision not to sign it.”

It’s not just a domestic pilot shortage, as a report from Boeing projects 674,000 pilots will be needed worldwide over the next 20 years to meet a growing demand for air travel, with 123,000 of those pilots just in North America.