The new Oskaloosa Early Learning Center won’t be ready for the start of the new school year. Oskaloosa Director of Student Services Melanie Hatch says there have been delays in construction of the new Early Learning Center and YMCA. Hatch says the school year will begin August 26 at the Webster Building at 508 South 7th Street. Pre-Kindergarten classes will be held at Webster until the Early Learning Center is completed—and that’s expected to be after Labor Day.
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Fire damages Hotel Ottumwa
People staying at Hotel Ottumwa had to be evacuated Monday afternoon (8/9) because of a fire. Around 5:15pm, Ottumwa firefighters were called to the hotel on a report of heavy smoke inside the building. The fire reportedly started on the sixth floor and one person was hospitalized. All of the hotel’s guests and residents had to be evacuated because of water leaking from the sixth floor on to the fifth floor, as well as smoke damage. The cause of the fire is not known at this time.
‘Nowhere to run’: UN report says global warming nears limits
By SETH BORENSTEIN
AP – Earth is getting so hot that temperatures in about a decade will probably blow past a level of warming that world leaders have sought to prevent, according to a report released Monday that the United Nations called a “code red for humanity.”
“It’s just guaranteed that it’s going to get worse,” said report co-author Linda Mearns, a senior climate scientist at the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research. “Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.”
But scientists also eased back a bit on the likelihood of the absolute worst climate catastrophes.
The authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, which calls climate change clearly human-caused and “unequivocal,” makes more precise and warmer forecasts for the 21st century than it did last time it was issued in 2013.
Each of five scenarios for the future, based on how much carbon emissions are cut, passes the more stringent of two thresholds set in the 2015 Paris climate agreement. World leaders agreed then to try to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above levels in the late 19th century because problems mount quickly after that. The world has already warmed nearly 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) since then.
Under each scenario, the report said, the world will cross the 1.5-degree-Celsius warming mark in the 2030s, earlier than some past predictions. Warming has ramped up in recent years, data shows.
“Our report shows that we need to be prepared for going into that level of warming in the coming decades. But we can avoid further levels of warming by acting on greenhouse gas emissions,” said report co-chair Valerie Masson-Delmotte, a climate scientist at France’s Laboratory of Climate and Environment Sciences at the University of Paris-Saclay.
In three scenarios, the world will also likely exceed 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial times — the less stringent Paris goal — with far worse heat waves, droughts and flood-inducing downpours unless there are deep emissions cuts, the report said.
“This report tells us that recent changes in the climate are widespread, rapid and intensifying, unprecedented in thousands of years,” said IPCC Vice Chair Ko Barrett, senior climate adviser for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
With crucial international climate negotiations coming up in Scotland in November, world leaders said the report is causing them to try harder to cut carbon pollution. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken called it “a stark reminder.”
The 3,000-plus-page report from 234 scientists said warming is already accelerating sea level rise and worsening extremes such as heat waves, droughts, floods and storms. Tropical cyclones are getting stronger and wetter, while Arctic sea ice is dwindling in the summer and permafrost is thawing. All of these trends will get worse, the report said.
For example, the kind of heat wave that used to happen only once every 50 years now happens once a decade, and if the world warms another degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit), it will happen twice every seven years, the report said.
As the planet warms, places will get hit more not just by extreme weather but by multiple climate disasters at once, the report said. That’s like what’s now happening in the Western U.S., where heat waves, drought and wildfires compound the damage, Mearns said. Extreme heat is also driving massive fires in Greece and Turkey.
Some harm from climate change — dwindling ice sheets, rising sea levels and changes in the oceans as they lose oxygen and become more acidic — is “irreversible for centuries to millennia,” the report said.
The world is “locked in” to 15 to 30 centimeters (6 to 12 inches) of sea level rise by mid-century, said report co-author Bob Kopp of Rutgers University.
Scientists have issued this message for more than three decades, but the world hasn’t listened, said United Nations Environment Program Executive Director Inger Andersen.
For the first time, the report offers an interactive atlas for people to see what has happened and may happen to where they live.
Nearly all of the warming that has happened on Earth can be blamed on emissions of heat-trapping gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. At most, natural forces or simple randomness can explain one- or two-tenths of a degree of warming, the report said.
The report described five different future scenarios based on how much the world reduces carbon emissions. They are: a future with incredibly large and quick pollution cuts; another with intense pollution cuts but not quite as massive; a scenario with moderate emission cuts; a fourth scenario where current plans to make small pollution reductions continue; and a fifth possible future involving continued increases in carbon pollution.
In five previous reports, the world was on that final hottest path, often nicknamed “business as usual.” But this time, the world is somewhere between the moderate path and the small pollution reductions scenario because of progress to curb climate change, said report co-author Claudia Tebaldi, a scientist at the U.S. Pacific Northwest National Lab.
While calling the report “a code red for humanity,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres kept a sliver of hope that world leaders could still somehow prevent 1.5 degrees of warming, which he said is “perilously close.”
Alok Sharma, the president of the upcoming climate negotiations in Scotland, urged leaders to do more so they can “credibly say that we have kept 1.5 degrees alive.”
“Anything we can do to limit, to slow down, is going to pay off,” Tebaldi said. “And if we cannot get to 1.5, it’s probably going to be painful, but it’s better not to give up.”
In the report’s worst-case scenario, the world could be around 3.3 degrees Celsius (5.9 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter than now by the end of the century. But that scenario looks increasingly unlikely, said report co-author and climate scientist Zeke Hausfather, climate change director of the Breakthrough Institute.
“We are a lot less likely to get lucky and end up with less warming than we thought,” Hausfather said. “At the same time, the odds of ending up in a much worse place than we expected if we do reduce our emissions are notably lower.”
The report said ultra-catastrophic disasters — commonly called “tipping points,” like ice sheet collapses and the abrupt slowdown of ocean currents — are “low likelihood” but cannot be ruled out. The much talked-about shutdown of Atlantic ocean currents, which would trigger massive weather shifts, is something that’s unlikely to happen in this century, Kopp said.
A “major advance” in the understanding of how fast the world warms with each ton of carbon dioxide emitted allowed scientists to be far more precise in the scenarios in this report, Mason-Delmotte said.
In a new move, scientists emphasized how cutting airborne levels of methane — a powerful but short-lived gas that has soared to record levels — could help curb short-term warming. Lots of methane the atmosphere comes from leaks of natural gas, a major power source. Livestock also produces large amounts of the gas, a good chunk of it in cattle burps.
More than 100 countries have made informal pledges to achieve “net zero” human-caused carbon dioxide emissions sometime around mid-century, which will be a key part of the negotiations in Scotland. The report said those commitments are essential.
“It is still possible to forestall many of the most dire impacts,” Barrett said.
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Read more of AP’s climate coverage at http://www.apnews.com/Climate
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Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Trucking industry continues to face driver shortage
RADIO IOWA – Trucking companies continue to be behind when it comes to finding enough drivers to get behind the wheel.
Iowa Motor Truck Association president, Brenda Neville, says they’d been behind before the pandemic, and it has gotten worse.
“We had people that retired early during the pandemic, and then we have so many different jobs out there now that are fighting for the same people that we are trying to get into trucks,” Neville says. “Some of our members are reporting an even greater shortage of drivers than they have seen in several years. So, I certainly think that that is a problem we are seeing across all segments of the trucking industry.”
Neville says 57% of all truckers today are over the age of 45 and 23% are over the age of 55. That trend would see nearly one-quarter of the current trucking workforce hit retirement age in the next 10 years, not including the nearly eight percent of truck drivers currently working above the retirement age.
She says the industry has done a lot of things to try and lure people in. “We’re seeing an increase in wages, we’re seeing enhanced benefits packages. Some companies are looking at the amount of time that drivers are out on the road,” according to Neville. “I think they are really trying to be very creative, they are trying to be very aggressive, and we are seeing a number of different things. I think some companies are seeing some success with that.”
Neville says there are openings from the big rigs to smaller trucks. She says one positive is you can get into the industry relatively quickly. She says the training can be six months to one year depending on the program. “And you can be making some very good money very quickly without the debt of a two-year or four-year school,” Neville says.
Neville says you can determine how long you want to be on the road. “There’s a variety of different routes that you can take on that will meet your specific needs. Trucking companies have been very good and very creative at making those jobs much more attractive to a wide variety of people,” she says.
Neville says the industry needs an estimated 60,800 truck drivers immediately to fill open spots.
The governor recently signed a proclamation suspending the rules for truckers hauling fuel, as a lack of drivers has led to issues with keeping gas stations supplied.
Main & Market in Ottumwa closed for construction
A busy Ottumwa intersection will be closed starting Monday (8/9). The intersection of Main and Market Streets will be closed to replace brick pavers that have settled with new concrete. The brick paver crosswalks will also be replaced. Once that work is done, construction crews will move to the intersection of Main and Green Streets for the same type of work. Drivers will need to use alternate routes. The project is expected to take three to four weeks, weather permitting.
Heat Advisory Monday and Tuesday
You’ll want to spend some time in the shade. The National Weather Service has issued a Heat Advisory starting at Noon Monday (8/9) until 7pm Tuesday (8/10). A combination of warm temperatures plus high humidity will make it feel like it is 100 degrees or more. Heat related illnesses like heat stroke can happen in these conditions. The best advice is to drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air conditioned room, avoid working outside for long periods….and if you are working outside, get into the shade whenever possible. Again, a Heat Advisory goes into effect at Noon Monday until 7pm Tuesday.
Farmer’s Almanac calling for rough winter in Iowa, Midwest
BY MATT KELLEY
RADIO IOWA – While forecasters say Iowa’s high temperatures will be back in the 80s and 90s for the next several summer days, it’s hard to think about the foul, frigid winter that’s ahead — but we all know, it’s coming.
Peter Geiger, editor of the Farmers’ Almanac, says the 2022 edition will be out next week and its winter weather outlook for Iowa and the Midwest isn’t pretty. “It’s going to be colder than normal and in terms of the snowfall, we talk about a foot of snow January 8th through the 11th,” Geiger says. “We talk about a big blizzard on the 20th through the 23rd. I think your average in Iowa is somewhere in the 30-inch range and I think you certainly will get that.”
It’s said if you don’t like the weather in Iowa, just wait five minutes and it’ll change, and Geiger predicts there will be a lot of back-and-forth. “I think you’re going to have a fairly rough winter,” Geiger says. “We’re also saying it’s going to be a bit of a flip-flop. So what’s going to happen, as we see it, is that you’re going to get a lot of snow, then it’s going to be mild, then you’re going to get really cold, and then it’s going to be mild.”
The Farmers’ Almanac forecast is detailed and Geiger says some dedicated readers plan their calendars around it. He says “numb’s the word” as for the bone-chilling predictions in the looming winter. “We talk about a real big storm December 1st through the 4th, a real blast of Arctic frigidity with temperatures minus-20 around Christmas, then we talk about a mild beginning of January, heavy snow in the middle of January, a big storm at the end of January and then, this is the flip-flop, in February, it’s going to be cold but we don’t talk about a lot of storms,” Geiger says. “Then in March, we talk about a big storm March 4th through the 7th that will hit you and then a late season storm on April 24th to the 27th.”
“There’s a mathematical formula that was devised by our first editor, David Young back in the 1800s, because farmers needed to know about the weather,” Geiger says. “We apply sunspot activity, planet positions, the effect the Moon has on the Earth, and that allows us to do our weather two years in advance. Some weather people pooh-pooh it, but last year, when Texas had that cold spell, that was in the Almanac.”That late-season storm may just be rain, not snow, he adds. While some meteorologists on TV may not be comfortable predicting the weather farther out than several days, Geiger says the Farmers’ Almanac has been working on forecasts up to 24 months out — and they’ve been doing so for more than 200 years.
The 2022 edition of the Farmers’ Almanac includes specifics about the many predictions it got right for the past year. Geiger admits, they don’t hit every single storm on every single date, but says if you give him a few days of leeway, it’s remarkably reliable.
Founded in 1818 and still based in Lewiston, Maine, the Farmers’ Almanac contains weather predictions for the entire four seasons of 2022 as well as all sorts of information on gardening, cooking, home remedies, folklore, managing your household, living in harmony with nature, and more.
Senators struggle to amend, finish $1T infrastructure bill
By KEVIN FREKING and LISA MASCARO
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearing decision time, senators were struggling to wrap up work on the bipartisan infrastructure plan despite hopes to expedite consideration and voting on the nearly $1 trillion proposal.
The package had appeared on track for eventual Senate passage, a rare accord between Republicans and Democrats joining on a shared priority that also is essential to President Joe Biden’s agenda. But senators hit new problems late Thursday as they worked late into the night on amendments. A procedural vote was set for Saturday.
“We’ve worked long, hard and collaboratively, to finish this important bipartisan bill,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., just before midnight. In announcing Saturday’s schedule, he said “We very much want to finish.”
Called the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the thick bill is a first part of Biden’s infrastructure agenda, and would inject billions of new spending on roads, bridges, waterworks, broadband and other projects to virtually every corner of the nation.
If approved by the Senate, it would next go to the House.
The late-night session stalled out as new debates emerged over proposed amendments to change the 2,700-page package. Senators have processed nearly two dozen amendments, so far, and none has substantially changed the framework of the public works package. With more than a dozen amendments still to go, senators struggled to reach agreements.
One of the amendments generating the most attention Thursday involved cryptocurrency.
The bill would raise an estimated $28 billion over 10 years by updating IRS reporting requirements for cryptocurrency brokers, just as stockbrokers report their customers’ sales to the IRS.
Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and others are concerned that crypto miners, software developers and others would be subject to the new IRS reporting requirement. Toomey led efforts to narrow the definition of who must file the reporting forms to the IRS.
“If we were not to adopt this amendment, then we could be doing a lot of damage,” Toomey said. “We could have a very chilling effect on the development of this technology, and that’s what I am most concerned about.”
A top Republican negotiator, Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, who had written the provision, tweeted that he agreed with the amendment sponsors that more can be done to clarify the intent of the provision and the Senate should vote on their amendment.
But that vote has yet to occur and the White House weighed in late Thursday, suggesting it favored a different approach from Portman and other senators.
White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said the compromise amendment “would reduce tax evasion in the cryptocurrency market.”
He said the administration believes “this provision will strengthen tax compliance in this emerging area of finance and ensure that high income taxpayers are contributing what they owe under the law.”
The Senate came to a standstill for nearly two hours late into the night as senators privately debated next steps.
The bill’s top Democratic negotiator, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, said, “While we were unable to agree on additional amendments today, I do also look forward to us reconvening together on Saturday and proceeding under regular order to finish what will be a historic piece of legislation — both in its bipartisan nature and the impact it will have in our country.”
Overall, the infrastructure package calls for $550 billion in new spending over five years above projected federal levels for a nearly $1 trillion expenditure, what could be one of the more substantial investments in the nation’s roads, bridges, waterworks, broadband and the electric grid in years.
A much anticipated analysis of the bill from the Congressional Budget Office concluded that the legislation would increase deficits by about $256 billion over the next decade.
It’s unclear if the budget office’s assessment could peel away support, particularly from Republican senators who have been wary of using what some view as gimmicks to pay for the package. The bill drafters had said the package would be paid for, but the budget office said in some cases they counted savings that would have occurred regardless of whether the infrastructure bill passes.
For example, the CBO did not count the $53 billion that is expected to be saved because more than two dozen states cut off expanded unemployment compensation before the benefit was set to expire. The bipartisan negotiators had also claimed $56 billion in savings through economic growth, while the CBO did not take that into account.
But the bill’s backers sprang to defend the overall package, and said it included additional savings and would boost economic growth in ways the CBO does not measure.
If senators wrap up work on the bipartisan bill, they will turn to the much more partisan undertaking on the next phase of Biden’s agenda: a $3.5 trillion proposal for what the White House calls human infrastructure — child care support, home health care, education and other expenditures that are Democratic priorities that Republicans have pledged to reject. Debate will extend into the fall.
Schumer wants the Senate to pass both the bipartisan package and a budget blueprint for the bigger proposal before senators depart for an August recess.
The Senate was expected to be quiet Friday as many lawmakers attend funeral services for former Sen. Mike Enzi in Wyoming. But senators are bracing for another weekend session as they push ahead on both pieces of legislation.
Worried parents seek change to Iowa school mask mandate ban
By DAVID PITT
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Worried parents with children too young to be vaccinated called on the the Iowa State Board of Education on Thursday to implore Gov. Kim Reynolds to reverse a state law that bans school mask mandates.
The parents and some teachers sought to change the ban on mask mandates during an online meeting of the board, arguing that with coronavirus infections rising it doesn’t make sense to stop school districts from taking actions to protect children.
Republican lawmakers in May rushed through in the final hours of the legislative session a measure that prohibited counties, cities or school boards from imposing face-covering requirements more strict than those ordered by the state. Reynolds immediately signed the bill into law at a festive news conference where she posed with activists who held signs with anti-mask slogans.
“Please set politics aside and help protect our children’s safety, their learning and their families,” said Jesse Richardson-Jones, a Des Moines mother of two school-age children who asked the board to demand that the governor rescind the mask ban.
Sara Willette of Ames said she’s at high risk of contracting COVID-19 due to an immune system condition and worries about catching the virus from her school-age child.
“The fact that state government stepped in and said we can’t mandate that other students and other teachers are protecting each other and protecting high risk people most importantly, it’s legalized homicide,” Willette said.
Jean Schilling, a member of the Manly-based Central Springs Community School District board, said she was placed in the impossible position last spring of deciding whether to vote to violate the state law and impose a mask requirement in her district or defy local public health officials who were suggesting a mask requirement to stop virus spread in schools. Schilling said she abstained because she could not reconcile the risk of defying local public health directives and could not allow the school district to break the law by defying the governor’s order.
“Please help your local school districts make these proper decisions to keep kids safe,” she pleaded. “Please encourage the governor to allow local school districts to follow local public health recommendations to keep kids safe.”
Even if Iowa State Board of Education members, who are appointed by the governor, recommended changes to Iowa’s mask ban, it’s unlikely Reynolds would support the move. The governor and Republican lawmakers have repeatedly rejected calls for mask mandates, saying face coverings are a personal choice.
Asked Thursday about the matter, Reynolds’ spokesman Pat Garrett said, “Anyone can still wear a mask to school. It’s just not required. The governor is proud of the laws she signed, and trusts Iowans to do the right thing on behalf of themselves and their family.”
The mask debate comes as the COVID-19 delta variant is spreading rapidly in Iowa with more than 3,500 new cases reported in the past week as of Wednesday. That is more than double the number of new cases reported a week ago.
An additional 10 deaths were reported for a total of 6,193 deaths overall. Hospitalizations are rising as are the number of people in intensive care units.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data indicated that 91 of Iowa’s 99 counties have either a high or substantial rate of virus spread, a level at which the federal agency recommends masks be worn inside public spaces, even by vaccinated people.
Scientists have concluded that even vaccinated people can carry enough virus to infect others and since children under 12 cannot yet be vaccinated, they are vulnerable to infection in crowded schools.
A spokeswoman for the Iowa Department of Education did not immediately respond to a message seeking a comment on behalf of the board.
Heckethorn Murder Conviction Upheld
The Iowa Court of Appeals has upheld the murder conviction of an Ottumwa man. In November 2019, a Wapello County jury found Jacob Heckethorn, 21, guilty of second-degree murder and assault with intent to commit serious injury in the august 2018 death of William Shettlesworth. Heckethorn appealed that conviction, citing a lack of evidence at trial. He claims his actions were taken in self-defense. On Wednesday, the appellate court ruled there was substantial proof to support a murder conviction.
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