There’s going to be a public meeting in Ottumwa Thursday (8/20) about the upcoming Ottumwa Street reconstruction project. The meeting will be from 5 to 6pm at the shelter house located behind VFW Post 775 at 702 West Main Street. A new water main will be installed on Ottumwa Street and the pavement will be completely replaced.
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Iowa COVID-19 deaths pass 1000
Posted on by Rick Watts
Iowa’s death toll from the coronavirus has passed one thousand. The Iowa Department of Public Health reported 16 additional deaths Wednesday (8/19) to bring the pandemic total to 1003. A Jasper County resident and one from Wapello County are among the newly reported deaths. Also, another 414 people have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the statewide total to 53,538. Nine new cases have been reported since Tuesday (8/18) in Marion County, with six new cases in Jasper County, five each in Poweshiek and Wapello Counties and two each in Monroe and Keokuk Counties.
Ernst checks on storm damage in Grinnell
Posted on by Rick Watts
Iowa US Senator Joni Ernst was in Grinnell Wednesday (8/19) to get an update on damage from last week’s derecho storm that took down trees as well as power lines. When she met with local officials and business leaders, she also heard quite a bit about Washington’s response to coronavirus and that more needs to be done.
“The Paycheck Protection Program…a lot of suggestions there from small business owners and those that have been involved in the process of distributing those dollars here locally. Forgiveness of the Paycheck Protection Program was a big one. And then allowing more funds for those smaller, smaller businesses that are still struggling.”
Grinnell City Councilman Jim White, who owns a downtown business, tells the No Coast Network what help he’d like to get.
“I’d like to see more help for small town business. I’d like to see more help for the average citizen. The large corporations, you can absorb some of this. But the small business, the mom and pop stores, the people that are just working class, they need help. We need money.”
Ernst will also visit Cedar Rapids to help volunteers with packing food boxes for families in need.
MEET THE H & S FEED & COUNTRY STORE PET OF THE WEEK: “IVEY”
Posted on by Bob Ballard
This week’s H & S Feed & Country Store Pet of the Week is “Ivey”, a two-year-old miniature Schnauzer mix. Ivey is affectionate, gets along great with people and kids, and she’s housebroken. Ivey is looking for her forever home, and would love to meet you! If you’d like to set up an appointment to meet Ivey or any of the pets at Stephen Memorial Animal Shelter, visit https://www.stephenmemorial.
Check out our visit about Ivey with Terry Gott from Stephen Memorial Animal Shelter here:
A Song Needs To “Hit” Tim McGraw Before He Records Them
Posted on by Bob Ballard
Tim McGraw’s new album “Here On Earth” drops tomorrow and while it’s filled with songs that are important to him, he didn’t actually write any of the tracks on the record, which isn’t uncommon for him.
“I write for every project that I do,” Tim shares. “Sometimes it makes it, sometimes it doesn’t.” For Tim it’s more important “for the best song to win,” noting that before he chooses to record a song “it has to hit me.” “It has to viscerally hit me and feel like it’s coming from me and it feels like my voice,” he shares, “or I can hear it in my head as my voice and hear my interpretation of it.”
Tim realizes that if he gets a song from another songwriter it has to go from the songwriter, to him and then to the fans, noting, “if a song holds up through all those steps, to me, then it’s a really good song.”
Meanwhile, Tim kicks off he album with the song “LA,” which features an orchestral sound, which Tim thought was a perfect way to launch the record. He explains, “I did want it to kick the album off because of the strings at the beginning. I just thought it set a tone for the album.”
This day in Country Music History
Posted on by Bob Ballard
Today in 1986, the album, “My Home’s In Alabama,” by Alabama was certified double platinum.
Today in 1993, Little Texas topped the country charts with “What Might Have Been.”
Today in 1996, Billy Ray Cyrus released “Trail of Tears” and the Beach Boys released “Stars and Stripes Volume 1,” which featured the group collaborating with stars like Lorrie Morgan, Sawyer Brown, Toby Keith and Collin Raye.
Today in 1997, Alabama Governor Fob James joined the mayors of Montgomery and Georgina, Alabama in the Alabama State Capitol to dedicate a 50-mile stretch of Interstate 65 to the memory of country great Hank Williams. The section of roadway was renamed the “Hank Williams Memorial Lost Highway.”
Today in 2000, “InStyle” magazine released their annual “What’s Sexy Now” issue, which featured hundreds of their readers voting on the “lust factor” of various people, places and things. In the category of Sexiest Female Musician, the winner by a landslide was Shania Twain, with 52% of the vote.
Today in 2000, Kenny Chesney’s third album, “I Will Stand,” which includes hits like “That’s Why I’m Here” and “She’s Got It All,” was certified platinum.
Today in 2000, Shania Twain’s album, “Come On Over,” broke the record for being the #1 album on the “Billboard” Country Albums chart. On the top for 44-weeks, the album officially held the spot longer than any other album in history. The previous record holder was Randy Travis’ “Always and Forever,” which spent 43-weeks in the top spot. Plus, she also became the only country artist ever to have eight top 20 country hits from the same album: “Come On Over.”
Today in 2002, Diamond Rio’s “Completely” and Lee Ann Womack’s “Something Worth Leaving Behind” albums arrived in stores.
Today in 2010, Lady Antebellum earned a gold certification (marking sales of 500k) for their single, “American Honey” and a quadruple-platinum cert (marking sales of 4-million) for their single, “Need You Now.”
Today in 2015, Carrie Underwood’s “Smoke Break” hit the airwaves.
Apple is 1st US company to be valued at $2 trillion
Posted on by Rick Watts
NEW YORK (AP) — Apple is the first U.S. company to boast a market value of $2 trillion, just two years after it became the first to reach $1 trillion.
Apple shares have gained nearly 60% this year as the company overcame the shutdown of factories in China that produce the iPhone and the closure of its retail sales amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The company’s hugely loyal customer base trusts its products so much that they continued to buy iPhones and other devices online while stuck at home. Apple recently reported blowout earnings for the April-June quarter,
An upcoming four-for-one stock split that will make Apple’s shares more affordable to more investors also sparked a rally after it was announced three weeks ago.
Apple has been at the vanguard of a group of Big Tech companies that are increasingly taking over people’s lives — and the stock market. Just five companies — Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and Google’s parent company — account for nearly 23% of the S&P 500’s entire value.
Saudi Aramco reached a market value of $2 trillion shortly after becoming a public company in December 2019. The Saudi energy producer’s shares have fallen since amid a drop in oil prices and its market value is now about $1.82 trillion.
Pella man gets probation for smuggling bear hides into US
Posted on by Rick Watts
A federal magistrate judge in North Dakota has sentenced a Pella man to a year of probation for unlawfully bringing two black bear hides into the United States from Canada. Manitoba licensing laws prohibit more than one big game license of the same type in the same hunting year. Prosecutors say 69-year-old Louis Floden Jr. admitted he shot the second bear and knew it was illegal. He agreed to forfeit the hides that he brought through the Pembina Port of Entry in North Dakota. The judge also fined Floden $7,500 Tuesday (8/18) after he pleaded guilty to unlawful transport of wildlife in foreign commerce.
Sailors from new USS Iowa take time out for derecho clean up duty
Posted on by Rick Watts
RADIO IOWA – Four sailors who are preparing the U.S.S. Iowa submarine for duty in Connecticut are in Iowa the next couple of days helping with the derecho recovery.
Bradford Vanorden is from New Jersey says the decided to help out after hearing about all the damage here. “We wanted to be able to give back to our sponsor state, so what we did is we did a collection drive and we got a bunch of supplies and tools and we drove them out here on Monday,” Vanorden says.
He has never been to Iowa before. “It was really actually quite amazing yesterday driving through Cedar Rapids and seeing just how much damage there was in that area. It reminded me a lot of — being from New Jersey — I lived through Hurricane Sandy and Irene and it reminded me a lot of what happened there,” according to Vanorden.
Crewmember Keith Miller is a Des Moines native. “The damage is really, it’s just insane, not something I thought I’d be coming back into,” Miller says, “I heard the stories — but seeing it first-hand is completely different.”
Vanorden says they would normally be preparing for the submarine’s completion in September of 2022. “Our day-to-day operations are mostly training and working on qualifications to get ready for when we will actually be standing watch on the boat and then preparing for taking operational control of the various systems that will be turned over to us by the shipyard,” according to Vanorden. “And then throughout the construction process where we eventually will have full control of the boat, getting ready to test it and get it underway.”
Miller is looking forward to serving on the ship named for his home state. “I am pretty excited to get the opportunity. It’s one of the military’s most advanced pieces of equipment and you have the honor of building that and shaping that and getting it ready for the future,” Miller says. “And if you think about the average life span of the submarine — somewhere in the next 30 years — we are bound to experience some sort of action, some sort of conflict. So, it’s good to be shaping it up and being sure everything is good to go to protect America.”
The sailors worked at Union Park in Des Moines Tuesday and today will assist with clean-up at the Iowa Veterans Home in Marshalltown. They will finish with clean-up in eastern Iowa on Thursday and Friday. The submarine is the fourth naval vessel to be named after the state of Iowa.
Parker resigns from Mahaska County Board
Posted on by Rick Watts
A Mahaska County Supervisor is stepping down. Steve Parker announced Tuesday (8/18) that he will resign his seat on the County Board effective Friday (8/21). Parker was elected to the County Board in 2018; his term was set to expire in 2022. The opening created by Parker’s resignation will be filled in the upcoming November election. Political parties have until August 26 to nominate someone for that opening on the Mahaska County Board.
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