(Radio Iowa) – Interviews started today (Monday) of candidates who want to be the next president of Iowa State University. All the Board of Regents interviews of the candidates are being held in closed sessions. The Board will continue the interviews Tuesday and then will announce the number of finalists they have selected.

The names of the finalists will be revealed the day before they are to visit campus for a public forum. The Regents hope to select a the replacement for retiring president Wendy Wintersteen by November.

(Clarinda, Iowa) – The Page County Sheriff’s Office today (Monday) issued a report on arrests that took place from Oct. 8th through the 20th.

20-year-old Savannah Christine Vacanti, of Villisca, was arrested in Clarinda at around 2:10-a.m., Monday (Oct. 20), for Driving Under Suspension.

37-year-old Elizabeth Marie Merriett, of Shenandoah, was arrested Oct. 17th in Council Bluffs, for Violation of Probation.

On Oct. 12th: Page County Deputies arrested 49-year-old Michael Scott Morton, of Clarinda, for Driving Under Suspension. (He was released the following day); 43-year-old Andrew Christopher Polk, of Shenandoah, was arrested in Shenandoah for OWI/1st offense. (He was released a few hours later)

On the 11th of October: 20-year-old Noah Robert Comer, of New Market (IA) was arrested in Clarinda for Interference with Official Acts. (He was released about an hour later); 19-year-old Nathan Riley Hughes, of Randolph (IA) was also arrested in Clarinda for Interference with Official Acts. (He was released from custody about 35-minutes later)

Deputies in Page County arrested 27-year-old Spencer Pratt Westman, of Omaha, in Shenandoah on Oct. 9th, for Theft in the 5th Degree (<$300); Separately, 55-year-old John David Stone, of Braddyville, was arrested in Braddyville at around 12:35-a.m. Oct. 9th, on charges that include: Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, Driving While Barred, OWI/1st Offense, and on two-counts Possession of a Controlled Substance, 3rd or subsequent offense.

And, on Oct. 8th at around 1-a.m., 39-year-old Brandy Nicole Strange, of Farragut, was arrested in Coin, for Public Intoxication. She was released later that same day per the magistrate’s order.

(Sheriff’s disclaimer: “It should be noted that a criminal charge is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocents until and unless proven guilty.”)

(Radio Iowa) – President Donald Trump says the U-S may buy beef from Argentina to bring beef prices down for consumers. Bill Bullard is C-E-O of R-CALF USA, the largest trade group for cattle producers. He says the president’s attention is welcome because the U-S cattle market has been broken for decades. “The share of the consumer’s beef dollar flowing back to the producers has been reduced,” Bullard said, “while at the same time the share captured by the packers and retailers in this highly concentrated industry have been increasing.”

Bullard says importing more beef in the U.S. absolutely the wrong thing to do. “It has been imports that have displaced our domestic cow herd over the last several decades, bringing us to the brink of having the lowest, smallest herd size in the history of our industry,” Bullard said. Bullard says the Trump Administration needs to focus on concentration in the meat packing industry.

Four companies are buying 85 percent of the cattle that are slaughtered in the U-S, plus the Food Industry Association says meat sales in mega-retailers like Walmart are growing, while the amount of meat sold in local grocery stores is falling. “We have a handful of packers, a handful of retailers that are interfering with competitive market forces and they are exploiting producers on end of the food supply chain and consumers on the other,” Bullard said.

Bullard says Trump could help cattle producers by placing a quota on imported beef and impose higher tariffs on beef imports once that quota is reached.

Atlantic, IA — Cass Health invites the public to attend a Halloween Trick or Treat event on Thursday, October 30, from 3:00 to 5:00 PM.

Parents and children are invited to come to Cass Health for an afternoon of indoor trick-or-treating and fun. Seventeen departments will be participating in this event.

Attendees are encouraged to use Parking Lot C and enter through either the Rehab Services or Rapid Care Entrances. For a map with parking and participating departments, visit casshealth.org.

(Radio Iowa) – Authorities in Iowa and Minnesota say a pregnant woman was threatened with a knife and seriously injured during a car jacking in northwest Iowa. Okoboji Police say the pregnant woman fell out of a pick-up and was run over as two suspects stole the vehicle last Monday from the Lake Okoboji Resort. The stolen vehicle was later spotted in southern Minnesota. Authorities starting chasing it and were able to arrested 27-year-old Vaughn Harris and 40-year-old Jessica Nordrum after the pickup wound up in a ditch. Both are from the Minneapolis area.

Deputies say the man driving the stolen vehicle was overdosing on fentanyl when he was captured. He was released from a local hospital four days later and booked into a southern Minnesota jail. The woman in the stolen pickup was initially charged with aiding an offender to avoid arrest.

The Okoboji Police Department says both are being charged with first degree robbery, first degree theft, assault with a deadly weapon, assault causing serious injury and operating without the owner’s consent.

CORRECTION per CC Landfill: The schedule change is only in regards to the Saturday schedule. The Landfill will still be open during the regular Monday thru Friday hours of 8:00 am to 4:00pm. as usual. Only the weekend schedule will change on Nov. 1st.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Officials with the Cass County (IA) Transfer Station (Cass Co. Landfill), report the Landfill hours will be changing, effective November 1st. On that date, the Cass County Landfill/Transfer Station will only be open on the 1st and 3rd Saturdays of each month. The change will be PERMANENT and YEAR ‘ROUND, moving forward. THE WEEKDAY HOURS ARE NOT AFFECTED!

Officials say they are making the adjustment to improve operational efficiency, and to better serve you (their customer), whenever you use the facility. If you have questions, please call 712-243-0990.

The Cass County Transfer Station Team thanks you for your understanding and continued support.

(Radio Iowa) – World Food Prize events are underway in Des Moines as several thousand government officials, researchers and food producers from around the globe gather for panel discussions and recognition of this year’s World Food Prize winner. Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack is C-E-O of the World Food Prize Foundation. “We are welcoming the world to Iowa and we are lifting up issues involving food, agriculture, and the serious challenge we face in terms of food insecurity here at home and around the world,” Vilsack said. Vilsack says the annual event is meant to showcase innovation and research that allows farmers to be more productive.

“An opportunity to have some really substantive conversation about food and food security,” Vilsack said. Tomorrow’s (Tuesday’s) schedule includes a discussion of hunger hotspots and a panel of people from the American Soybean Association. Vilsack says there’s a chance tariffs will be discussed. “But I think the focus is going to be, as it needs to be, on innovation and on science and on the extraordinary work that’s being done by researchers,” Vilsack said. “As Dr. Borlaug often said tell the farmer, give it to the farmer, give the tools the farmer and the farmer will respond by being extraordinarily productive. You know, we want to make sure that we’re true to that legacy.”

Cresco, Iowa, native Norman Borlaug won the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for his work improving wheat yields. He founded the World Food Prize in 1986 to recognize breakthroughs in improving the quality or quantity of food. The concluding event this week will honor this year’s World Food Prize laureate. “Dr. (Mariangela) Hungria has done extraordinary research that has led to ways in which soybeans can basically create this sort of self-fertilizing if you will so that you don’t have to have as much synthetic fertilizer, which is good for the environment,” Vilsack said, “and certainly good for the bottom line for farmers.”

A researcher was awarded the 1993 Nobel Price in physics and medicine for genetic research is scheduled to speak tomorrow (Tuesday). Sir Richard Roberts — knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 2008 — is currently the chief science officer at New England Biolabs.

(Glenwood, Iowa) – Police in Glenwood report the arrest Sunday evening, of 28-year-old Dylan Seth Harris, from Glenwood. Harris was arrested for Violation of a No Contact Order – Domestic related. He was being held without bond in the Mills County Jail.

(An Iowa News Service story) – Beth Howard isn’t afraid of starting from scratch. “That is how I like to learn,” says Howard, who premiered PIEOWA, her first documentary film production, at age 63. “Just dive in and figure it out.” Producing and promoting a documentary about pie is the latest in a latticework of professional experiences that Howard says prepared her to showcase baked goods on the big screen. Howard’s desire to document the power of pie pre-dates her four books and a TEDx talk on the topic. Pie is a through-line in her personal narrative. The Ottumwa native once quit a stressful corporate job to become a pie baker in Malibu, touting her Iowa roots as her main credential.

In 2009, the sudden death of her young husband, Marcus, sent her to Iowa in search of solace. Howard began selling pastry out of the iconic American Gothic House in rural Eldon before sharing that story in “Making Piece: A memoir of love, loss and pie,” released in 2012. While writing through her grief, pie became both medium and muse. Four years of sharing slices proved Howard’s thesis: a hand-crimped crust is a shortcut to building community. “I think we’re lonely, and pie is this thing that brings people together,” Howard says. “Usually, if it’s a whole pie, you sit around and share it. You don’t just get one piece for yourself.”

During her first year as a widow, she and a TV producer friend set out in Marcus’s RV to make a pilot for a TV show about pie. Although she scrapped that original project, their quest returned Howard from the West Coast to her home state. More than a decade later, she still couldn’t shake the idea. In 2023, Howard formed “Camp Dough Productions” and decided to bootstrap an on-screen exploration of pie. Originally, she envisioned a coast-to-coast project that would satisfy her wanderlust. Working with a tiny budget, Howard would have to focus.

Seeing a postcard with RAYGUN’s “Faces of Iowa” design, which includes an outline of the state depicted as fresh apple pie, sparked a realization. “When I saw the word PIEOWA, I went, ‘That’s it!’” she says. “I’m going to do the State Fair, and RAGBRAI, and so many other stories.” Making a documentary challenged Howard to transform something raw into a finished product. This time, instead of flour and sugar, she was mixing footage. PIEOWA blends segments about beloved Iowa events with interviews of famous Iowans, including actor Tom Arnold and State Auditor Rob Sand. Amateur and professional bakers like Rachelle Long, whose Chellie’s Sugar Shack sweet potato pies make a mouthwatering cameo, also showcase their skills on-screen.

Since PIEOWA’s premiere, audiences across the state have been eating it up. Ben Godar, director of Des Moines Film and programmer of Varsity Cinema, credits familiar faces of Iowans and a heartwarming message with making PIEOWA one of the longest-running movies since the venue’s re-opening in late 2022. “I added a couple more [screenings], and a couple more, and a couple more,” he says. “People just kept coming.”

A September film festival screening at Hollywood’s famous TCL Chinese Theater was a ‘pinch-me’ moment for Howard, who started her career in Los Angeles. She’s grateful for the warm reception, especially during a polarizing political moment. “[Pie] is a subject that makes people feel so good, and they’re just hungry for that,” she says. “No pun intended.”