(Radio Iowa) – The Des Moines and West Des Moines Fire Departments have taken on a pilot project that could end up saving lives across the state. Des Moines Lieutenant Dan Davis says it involves having blood available that first responders can administer to patients in the field. “So what they wanted us to do was to build up a program, and since we’re full time and we have administrative staff that we could take on this big of a project, build the framework that we could use for the rest of the state,” he says. It’s based on military use where administering blood in the field can help soldiers survive. Davis says the command vehicles for the two departments will have special coolers to carry the blood when the departments receive a call.

“So these vehicles will get dispatched, like in Des Moines, they’re automatically dispatched to all automobile accidents with extrication, all industrial entanglements with extrication, gunshots, stabbings, that stuff, they’re all automatically initiated,” he explains. Iowa paramedics are normally not allow to administer blood, but the pilot program status gives them that ability. Davis says the procedure has been shown to make a huge difference for victims.

“Part of the training is watching that video from New Orleans, and this guy is barely do anything more than moan. By the time they get two units of blood in him, he’s telling his name, date and name and birth date, so it’s pretty remarkable thing,” Davis says. West Des Moines paramedic Brian Rayhons is working with Davis on the project. He says it brings hospital type care to the field to give the patient more time before they get to the doctor. “I’ve been in E-M-S for about 20 years at this point. And I think in my career, even in the future, this is going to be one of the biggest highlights. One of the biggest transformations in care that we are providing to our patients,” Rayhons says. Rayhons says they are figuring out how to put the whole system into a box that departments can use.

“A part of that is how do we bring this to the rest of the state of Iowa, whether that be Fort, Dodge or Waterloo or Iowa City. You name the other city or entity, county level ambulance service that wants to do this. Dan and I are trying to set a pathway or pave the path for them to be able to do it much faster,” he says. They have been planning for around a year to now get it started in the field for the two departments to work through the larger process. Rayhons says there is one thing everyone can do to help. “Blood is a, one of those resources that we can’t just make up, and so without people going out and donating, we wouldn’t have this, this treatment that to be able to provide,” he says.

Rayhons and Davis say another step for the program is to change the rules so E-M-S personnel in Iowa can administer blood to patients.

(Red Oak, IA) – The Red Oak Police Department reports the arrest of a man Thursday night, following a traffic stop. Authorities say 46-year-old Kip Lee Kalkas (no address given) was arrested at around 9:30-p.m. in the 600 block of S. Broadway, for Driving While Suspended. Kalkas was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on bond amounting to a little over $491.

ORANGE CITY, Iowa (IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Wynja Feedlot in Orange City have reached a settlement of $20,000 for the feedlot’s unpermitted wastewater discharges. The EPA can charge up to $68,445 per day of Clean Water Act violations, but the agency lowered the charge on the basis that the feedlot had “a limited ability to pay a civil penalty.”

In addition to the fee, Wynja Feedlot Inc., a 999-head capacity cattle feedlot, is required to apply for an National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, or NPDES, permit, construct a lined containment basin and sample discharges from the surrounding tile for possible pollutants.

The EPA discovered in March 2021 that the confined animal feeding operation had been discharging wastewater through a drainage pipe that led to a “relatively permanent” tributary of the West Branch of the Floyd River. According to EPA, the wastewater contained high levels of bacteria, ammonia, chlorides, and unprocessed organic matter, all of which can contribute to impaired water quality. The feedlot did not have an NPDES permit for the drainage pipe, and according to EPA, the facility admitted the observed discharge had occurred for three consecutive days.

(Radio Iowa) – A ribbon cutting Wednesday celebrated the new facility in Scott County that converts landfill waste gas into usable natural gas. The facility was built by Waga Energy and Bryce Stalcup, the executive director of the Scott County Waste Commission says the gas generated will help power around four-thousand homes each year.  “Unfortunately, there’s waste that you just can’t recycle or divert, and it has to go somewhere,” he says. “Well, when we can then capture the gas as that waste breaks down and then get that use of it, that’s the best thing that we can think possible for our community.”

The process at the Davenport plant takes the gas produced by decomposing garbage and filters it to extract carbon dioxide and other pollutants, and then sends it straight into the MidAmerican energy pipeline. “For Scott County, what this means is cleaner air, better use of our natural resources, and proof that sustainability and economic responsibility can go hand in hand,” Stalcup says.

A new facility in Scott County recovers gas from the landfill. (Waga Energy photo)

The facility is expected to help prevent the landfill site from producing nearly 16-thousand tons of C-O-2 equivalent emissions each year. The facility has been operating for more than a month. It’s the eighth landfill gas capturing facility in Iowa, and the second that Waga Energy has built in the United States.

(Radio Iowa) – Country music superstar Carrie Underwood will perform at the Field of Dreams Movie Site in Dyersville next year. Keith Rahe is executive director of Dyersville Events, which owns and operates the site. He says after the success of the Tim McGraw and Nickelback concerts at the Field of Dream this past Labor Day Weekend, the U-S Concert Agency has booked three concerts at the Field of Dreams next Labor Day weekend.

“They’ve really done an outstanding job this time with Carrie Underwood on Saturday night, Shinedown for Friday night as the headliner and then Creed on Sunday,” Rahe says. Underwood has had 85 number one hits on the Billboard charts. Shinedown is best known for its 2008 hit “Second Chance” and Creed’s top single “With Arms Wide Open” won a Grammy.

Ballpark rendering image (Dyersville Events, Inc. – credit)

The concert series next September is just one of the big events announced this week. Major League Baseball is returning to the Field of Dreams in 2026. “On August 13, we’ve got the Philadelphia Phillies playing the Minnesota Twins…August 11, we’ve got the Iowa Cubs playing the St. Paul Saints, which is a minor league game,” he says. “We’re thrilled to welcome Major League baseball and everybody back with our new ballpark.”

Rahe wasn’t watching on T-V as the Yankees played the White Sox at the Field of Dreams in 2022 or the Cubs played the Reds there following year. He was at the site. “Just to see how excited those professional athletes, like an Aaron Judge and others to walk out of that corn and come onto that beautiful setting, it’s pretty magical,” Rahe says.

On July 7th and 8th, the Field of Dreams will be hosting the Home Run Challenge and All-Star Game for the Northwest League. It’s a summer-time league in the upper Midwest and Canada for college stand outs. Rahe has had his own experience playing on the Field of Dreams. In the movie, a team of Ghost Players clad in Chicago White Sox uniforms emerge from the corn field.

South Homeplate Plaza (Dyersville Events, Inc. – credit)

Rahe is head of a group of local “Ghost Players” who’ve been recreating those movie moments at the field since 1989.  “People come from all over the United States, all over the world actually,” Rahe says. “I think that’s the key element that with the development that we are doing. It doesn’t change the original movie site whatsoever. This ballfield was built in a farmyard with corn surrounding it and we’re never going to change that.”

Rahe was at the field yesterday (Thursday) and people had made the trip there to play catch and take turns at bat.

(Radio Iowa) – The latest Creighton University Rural Mainstreet survey shows nearly 63 percent of rural bank C-E-Os in Iowa and nine other Midwest states believe the rural economy is either in a recession now or will sink into recession next year. Creighton University economist Ernie Goss directs the survey and calculates a monthly economic index for the region. It has fallen to its lowest level since May of 2020.

“That’s problematic for those rural areas just simply because it’s individuals that are dependent on agriculture,” Goss says, “and that links to urban areas as well.” According to the International Trade Association, Iowa has exported more than a BILLION dollars worth of agricultural goods and livestock so far this year — about 28 percent above last year’s tally.

However, over 18 percent of the rural bankers who responded to the Creighton survey expect farmers in their area will wind up earning less than they spent raising crops and livestock this year. “The agricultural economy and the Mainstreet economy tied to it is not doing very well,” Goss says. “It’s being pulled down by weak commodity prices particularly grain, of course, but also…the high cost of inputs.”

Ernie Goss (Creighton University photo)

About 58 percent of the bank C-E-Os expect farmland prices to fall next year. “Farmers are in a pinch, but the good news — and we’ve been asking this question across many months about the paying back of loans — and the farmers in my judgement have been very vigilant about borrowing and the bankers have been very vigilant about lending. In other words, it’s not a return to the ’80s yet and we don’t see it there.”

Goss says data indicates there’s been an uptick in farmland prices in Iowa so far this month.

(Radio Iowa) – The driver of a semi was ticketed for a traffic violation after his truck was hit by a train and the load of meat it was carrying spilled out. Sioux City Sergeant Tom Gill says the driver apparently tried to beat the train through the crossing around 2:30-p.m., (Wednesday). “So it hit the back third of the trailer that was pulled by the truck, causing the trailer to rip in half and then several boxes of meat that the trailer was hauling fell out onto the ground,” he says. Gill says the engineer saw the semi, but could not stop in time. He says the truck driver should never have tried to cross the tracks.

“So there’s going to be red flashing lights, there’s going to be bells going off. Anytime you’re coming up upon train tracks it’s important to look both ways for a train,” Gill says. “It should have been very apparent that there was a train coming, and luckily that truck there was no injuries to the driver. There was some substantial damage to that truck. An estimated 50-thousand dollars in damage to that semi trailer.”

The crash and spilled meat caused the roadway to be closed for several hours. The truck driver is from South Sioux City and works for a transportation company there.

(Atlantic, IA) – The Cass County Sheriff’s Office reports four people were arrested on Theft charges early today (Thursday):

• 18-year-old Kamren Matthew Schmidt, of Ames, 19-year-old  Demetrius Lovell Holmes Jr., of Marshalltown, 18-year-old Tyler Theodore John Harms, of Eldora, and 18-year-old Tylor Murray Ward, of Mount Pleasant, were each charged with Theft 2nd Degree ($1,500 > $10,000). Schmidt was additionally charges with Eluding-Speeding 25 Over Limit. All four subjects were booked into the Cass County Jail, and held.

On Tuesday, Nov. 18th, Cass County Sheriff’s Deputies arrested 27-year-old Joseph Atoliph, of Atlantic, after he turned himself-in on a warrant for Violation of Probation. Atoliph was booked and held at the Cass County Jail.

Three people were arrested Nov. 16th on drug charges in Cass County:

• Tammy Jo Durrett, 56, of Atlantic, was arrested for Possession of Controlled Substance. Durrett was transported to the Cass County Jail where she was booked and later released on her own recognizance;
• 61-year-old Sandra Marie Peel and 35-year-old Scott Nathaniel Belew, both of Atlantic, were arrested for Gathering Where Controlled Substances are Used, and Possession of Controlled Substance. Peel was transported to the Cass County Jail where she was booked and later released on bond. Belew also arrested on a warrant for Parole Violation. He was transported to the Cass County Jail where he was booked and held.

On November 14th, Cass County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Payton Daugherty, 19, of Cumberland, on the charge of Possession of Marijuana 2nd. Daugherty was transported to the Cass County Jail where he was booked and later released on his own recognizance.

(Radio  Iowa) – Next week may be one of the busiest travel weeks in Iowa history, according to a forecast from AAA Iowa. The motor club’s Brian Ortner says the study estimates nearly 82-million Americans will be leaving home for the Thanksgiving holiday, including six-and-a-half million Midwesterners traveling by car, plane, train, bus or boat.

“When we’re looking at this year, it’s growth over last year in our region, for a total of almost 2% growth,” Ortner says. “Those who are taking the car is growing by about 1.3%, a majority of people are traveling that way from our region, over 5.8 million folks. Three-hundred-six thousand are taking to the air, a growth of almost 2%.”

Ortner says the number of people taking cruises this year bounced 12-percent over last year, and he says plenty of Iowans will be setting sail for Thanksgiving. “Some reasons for that are, affordability, accessibility and obviously, the destination,” he says. “Weather, we’ve been fortunate lately, but usually when we get into Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s, weather in our area isn’t always the best. Some of us like snow or cold, but none of us like the ice, and why not be on a boat in the sunshine?”

For road warriors, the current average price for gasoline in Iowa is $2.80 a gallon, which is a full 30 cents below the national average. “We shouldn’t see any significant changes beyond that. There’s some fluctuality going on with the markets, but, looking at the markets today, crude oil, which makes up the largest cost of a gallon of fuel, is trending less than $60 per barrel. So, I would think you’ll see those prices either plateau right now, or even decrease a little bit as we move toward the Thanksgiving holiday.”

The Iowa Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau is reminding Iowa motorists to buckle up. During Thanksgiving week last year, Iowa had 17 fatal or serious injury crashes, including five that involved people who weren’t belted in.