The Mahaska County Board will ask for $280,000 from the state’s government relief fund. County Board Chairman Mark Groenendyk explains what the money will be used for.
“I know the Sheriff’s Department is eligible for the extra hours and precautions they’ve used. We’ve had extra cleaning supplies for our maintenance department. Those are probably the two biggest ones.”
The relief fund is money which came to the state through the CARES Act.
An Oskaloosa man facing charges in a drug overdose death last year has had those charges dismissed in Mahaska County. But 28-year-old Cody Vancenbrock is now looking at federal charges in the same case. You’ll remember Vancenbrock is accused of injecting meth into 24-year-old Ashley Shafer of Oskaloosa, which led to her death, and then dumping her body into the Skunk River. Last week, Vancenbrock was federally indicted on one count of drug distribution resulting in serious injury or death.
Shania Twain is celebrating the 25th anniversary of her GRAMMY-winning album “The Woman In Me” with the release of “The Woman In Me: Diamond Edition,” dropping October 2nd.
The “Diamond Edition,” available in two and three-CD configurations, features a remastered version of the multi-platinum album, along with previously unreleased racks, live recordings and mixes. Fans can also get their hands on the remastered album in vinyl, and limited-edition colored variant vinyl.
Those who buy the three-CD set will get five live performances recorded at a December, 2019 performance of Shania’s residency at Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas. It will also feature an entire “Shania Vocal Mix” containing early takes of 11 songs from nearly a year before the album’s release.
In other Shania news…
The singer revisits her iconic leopard print outfit from the video for 1997’s “That Don’t Impress Me Much” for the new video for her collaboration with Orville Peck, “Legends Never Die.” Fans will want to be sure to tune into “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” tonight, where she and Orville are set to perform the song.
In a new interview with Entertainment Tonight Shania shares that she’s spent her time in quarantine writings songs and getting closer to hubby Frederic Thiebaud. “You learn so much about each other, but I think more than anything, I’ve learned a lot about myself,” she shared. “We’re closer, for sure. I think we realized through this that we’re definitely going to make it.”
Shania also addressed Luke Bryan recently saying on “Watch What Happens Live” that she refuses to give him her phone number. “It’s not true. I would never refuse Luke Bryan,” she says. “He can find me. I will reach out to him now specifically to give him my number. I don’t want to call him a liar, but I never did refuse him, so I’ll make sure we get on a call real soon, get it all straightened out.”
Source: Shania Twain
On this day in 2001, Tim McGraw performed on NBC’s “Today” show as part of their “Summer Concert Series” and drew nearly 4,000 fans into Rockefeller Plaza. According to “Today” show sources, this is among the largest crowds they have ever seen as part of their live concert performances. He entertained the masses with three songs – “Angel Boy,” “Things Change” and “Grown Men Don’t Cry” – from his album, “Set This Circus Down.”
By JOSEPH KRAUSS
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s agreement to establish diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates marks a watershed moment in its relations with Arab countries, but the Palestinians say it puts a just resolution of the Middle East conflict even farther out of reach.
The UAE presented its decision to upgrade longstanding ties to Israel as a way of encouraging peace efforts by taking Israel’s planned annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank off the table, something Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu swiftly rebuffed by insisting the pause was “temporary.”
From the Palestinian perspective, the UAE not only failed to stop annexation, which would dash any remaining hopes of establishing a viable, independent state. It also undermined an Arab consensus that recognition of Israel only come in return for concessions in peace talks — a rare source of leverage for the Palestinians.
“I never expected this poison dagger to come from an Arab country,” Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian official and veteran negotiator said Friday. “You are rewarding aggression. … You have destroyed, with this move, any possibility of peace between Palestinians and Israelis.”
President Donald Trump has presented the U.S.-brokered agreement as a major diplomatic achievement and said he expects more Arab and Muslim countries to follow suit. Israel has quietly cultivated ties with the UAE and other Gulf countries for several years as they have confronted a shared enemy in Iran.
In Israel, the agreement has renewed long-standing hopes for normal relations with its Arab neighbors. Netanyahu has long insisted, contrary to generations of failed peace negotiators, that Israel can enjoy such ties without resolving its conflict with the Palestinians. For now, he seems to have been proven right.
“It’s hard to claim right now that the 53-year-old occupation is ‘unsustainable’ when Netanyahu has just proved that not only is it sustainable, but Israel can improve its ties with the Arab world, openly, with the occupation still going,” wrote Anshel Pfeffer, a columnist for Israel’s Haaretz newspaper.
But the Middle East conflict was never between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, which have fought no wars and share no borders. And the nature of the agreement will likely force the Palestinians to harden their stance and redouble their efforts to isolate Israel.
The Palestinian Authority issued a scathing statement in response to the move, calling it a “betrayal of Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Palestinian cause,” language clearly aimed at inflaming Arab and Muslim sentiment worldwide.
The Palestinians have called for an urgent meeting of the Arab League and the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation to condemn the move. But in those forums they will be pitted against the oil-rich UAE, which has deep pockets, allies across the region and even more influence in Washington following the agreement with Israel.
The international campaign is “meant to isolate the Emiratis so that other countries will not take the same step,” said Ibrahim Dalalsha, a Palestinian analyst. “Whether it will succeed in this or not, it remains to be seen.”
Iran and Turkey lashed out at the UAE, a regional rival, accusing it of betraying the Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims.
But the agreement, and the decision to pause annexation, was welcomed by much of the international community, including Egypt and the Gulf Arab nations of Bahrain and Oman. Many countries, including Germany, France, Italy, China and India, expressed hope it would help revive the peace process.
The Palestinians want an independent state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza, areas seized by Israel in the 1967 war. Trump’s plan would allow Israel to keep nearly all of east Jerusalem, including holy sites sacred to Christians, Jews and Muslims, and annex up to a third of the West Bank. The Palestinians have angrily rejected the proposal.
Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas reiterated his country’s support for a two-state solution when he called to congratulate Israel on the “historic” agreement with the UAE.
“We stand by our position that only a negotiated two-state solution can bring lasting peace to the Middle East,” Maas said in a statement. “Together with our European partners and the region we have campaigned intensively in past months against an annexation and for the resumption of direct negotiations.”
That strikes many Palestinians as a return to a similarly unbearable status quo, in which Israel rules the West Bank and expands Jewish settlements while the international community calls for peace talks that never materialize.
Any serious negotiations, or lasting solution to the conflict, will require the Palestinians, who feel they have been brushed aside.
“We’re now in a situation where everybody is talking about us and no one is talking to us,” said Diana Buttu, a former legal adviser to the Palestinian Authority. It’s a “colonial approach,” she said, “as though we are just some problem that needs to be addressed without ever speaking to us.”
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas suspended all contacts with the U.S. after it recognized disputed Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in 2017. In May, the Palestinians cut all ties with Israel, including security coordination, in response to the threat of annexation, and said they would no longer abide by any past agreements with Israel or the United States.
In recent weeks, as the threat of annexation faded amid internal political disputes in Israel, some had speculated the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority would quietly back down, if only to restore the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes collected by Israel.
Now, in the wake of the UAE agreement, many say that’s out of the question.
“This is not a way for them to climb down from the tree,” Buttu said. “It’s quite the opposite, I think it keeps them there.”
Remember the sinkhole on Highway 63 near Eddyville a couple of weeks ago? Permanent repairs on that sinkhole are scheduled to start Saturday (8/15) and a detour on southbound 63 will go into effect. Southbound 63 will be closed between the Highway 92 exit and County Road G71. The detour is State Highway 92 to State Highway 23 through Cedar and Fremont to State Highway 149 before rejoining 63. You’ll need to take 63 northbound to reach Eddyville. The detour is marked and repairs could take up to two weeks.
A motorcyclist from Albia has died after an accident early Friday morning (8/14). The Wapello County Sheriff’s Office says 20-year-old Jonus McClendon was southbound on US Highway 63 shortly before 2am Friday when his motorcycle ran off the road to the right and overturned. The accident report says there were no signs of alcohol use and it appeared McClendon was coming home from work when the accident happened.
By: Joe Lancello
Here’s a follow-up to a story the No Coast Network told you first. State Senator Ken Rozenboom of Oskaloosa says he’s puzzled by an ethics complaint filed against him earlier this week. Food and Water Action and the Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement Action Fund claim Rozenboom’s support of legislation that bans undercover reporters who trespass at agricultural production facilities fails to avoid a conflict of interest. Rozenboom responds to the complaint.
“A total shock. I don’t understand it at all. The idea that a state senator or any legislator votes on bills that deal with one’s employment or livelihood is, well, I guess on its face, ridiculous. We’re a citizen legislature.
“The folks who filed this complaint base so much of their argument on a false premise. Based on these wild allegations that were made against me by this San Francisco animal rights group that proved to be unfounded by the law enforcement investigation.”
You’ll remember back in February, an animal rights complaint filed against Rozenboom by the group Direct Action Everywhere was ruled to be unfounded.
Rozenboom says when he is formally notified of the complaint, he will have ten days to file a formal response. The No Coast Network will continue to follow this story.
The ACM has brought together Willie Nelson and all of this year’s Best New Artist nominees for a cover of Willie’s classic “On The Road Again,” and now the song is finally out.
The tune features Ingrid Andress, Gabby Barrett, Jordan Davis, Russell Dickerson, Lindsay Ell, Riley Green, Caylee Hammack, Cody Johnson, Tenille Townes and Morgan Wallen.
Proceeds from the song will to ACM Lifting Lives COVID-19 Response Fund.
Today in 2003, a power outage zapped the electricity for 50-million residents in the Northeast – so Jo Dee Messina improvised with a 30-minute acoustic set at the Turning Stone Casino in Verona, New York. Her performance included the apropos “The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia.”
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