DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — About two dozen environmental demonstrators are undertaking a 100-mile march in Iowa to protest the Dakota Access oil pipeline. The Des Moines Register reports that they began their eight-day trek Saturday in Des Moines.

Advocacy groups Bold Iowa and Indigenous Iowa organized the march to show unity against the $3.8 billion, four-state pipeline. Protesters plan to walk 10-15 miles a day, completing the march Saturday in Fort Dodge.

Native American Coalition of the Quad Cities President Regina Tsosie told the newspaper that the pipeline could break and poison the water. She also says it has desecrated sacred sites.

Protesters have pushed back against the pipeline for years. But a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study of the pipeline released last week says it poses no significant environmental threats.

Today’s Labor Day Country Music Festival in the Grant Iowa Park has been cancelled due to the continuing rainfall.

Two people are dead, three others were injured during a crash at around 6:15-p.m. Sunday on southbound Interstate 29, in Harrison County. The Iowa State Patrol says a 2017 Cadillac XTS driven by 80-year old Richard Lee Van Zee, of Rock Valley, for some reason drove off the left side of I-29 near mile marker 99, entered the median and the southbound lanes of the Interstate, where it sideswiped a southbound 2005 Chrysler 300 driven by 31-year old Saul Escobedo Gonzales, of Des Moines. The Cadillac then hit a 2008 Ford F-450 truck that was behind the Chrysler.

The Cadillac came to rest in the median. Gonzales was able to pull his car off the road and onto the shoulder, while the pickup came to rest in the west ditch. Van Zee was transported to the hospital in Missouri Valley, where he died. A passenger in one of the vehicles, 65-year old Elizabeth J. Cobbs, of Knightstown, IN, was transported to Burgess Hospital in Onawa, where she died from her injuries. 77-year old Mary Van Zee, of Rock Valley, along with 66-year old Michael E. Gerrish, of Shirley, IN, and 52-year old Melinda A. Gerrish, also of Shirley, IN, were also injured in the crash. Mary Van Zee was flown by LifeNet to Mercy Hospital in Sioux City, along with Michael Gerrish, who was transported by ambulance. Melinda Gerrish was transported by ambulance to Burgess Hospital.

The crash remains under investigation.

(Radio Iowa) — With the 2018 Iowa State Fair now behind them, the foundation that oversees the upkeep of the fairgrounds is working on plans for improvements. Iowa State Fair Blue Ribbon Foundation executive director, Peter Cownie, says a recently announced record donation of 10 million dollars will help them with that task. “Six of which will go towards renovation of the 4-H Building on the fairgrounds, which will commence after the 2019 Iowa State Fair,” Cownie says. “So we will develop the planning and the budget for that in the next year.”

The donation comes from the Richard O. Jacobson Foundation and the remaining four million dollars will go to the foundation’s endowment and help with the upkeep of the other buildings which benefited from donation from the late businessman. While they will spend the next year putting together a plan for the 4-H Building renovation — Cownie says they have a wish list they’ll look at. “We want to build some new classroom space for it, we want to update the kitchen, the restrooms, we want to update all the lighting, all the flooring, it will be a top down renovation,” Cownie explains. “That facility was built during 1939 and the Great Depressions and it’s obviously the backbone of the fair.”

Cownie says the updates will increase the flexibility and use of the building after the annual fair run. “The primary purpose of the Iowa State Fair is those 11 days every August,” he says, “but we are also renting those facilities out during the interim. It’s rented out in the interim now and it certainly will be in the future. Name it, they can host events in there for that. It can be rented out for that. It can be rented out for a thrift show, a craft show.” Once the renovations is completed after next year’s fair, the 4-H Building will have a dedicated memorial in honor of Jacobson and the 15 million dollars total he donated to the organization. The fair grandstand got a facelift before this year’s fair and Cownie says they have plans for work leading up to next year’s event.“In between now and next year’s fair we’re going to develop a new gate and new road to the west of the grandstand. And on top of that — within the next two years we are going to develop a new, smaller grandstand,” Cownie says.

The mini grandstand will hold fewer people for events.He says it will have about five-thousand seats and allow them to hold their tractor pull there.

The Iowa State Fair Blue Ribbon Foundation is a non-profit organization created in 1993 to fix up the building on the fairgrounds. The foundation has raised more than 150 million dollars from individual contributions, state appropriations, in-kind services, and corporate, federal and state grants since it began.