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Extremely dry February extends record drought conditions streak

Posted on by Sam Parsons

DES MOINES — February set multiple records for warm, dry conditions and minimal precipitation, according to the latest Water Summary Update.

February 2024 ranks among the top two warmest, top three driest and top five least snowy months on record. Overall winter temperatures also rank among the top five warmest recorded, with February showing a statewide average temperature more than 12 degrees above normal.

February’s preliminary statewide average precipitation was 0.21 inches, 0.96 inches below normal. At the end of February, Iowa’s Drought Plan showed mostly stable conditions for the state, with areas of northeast and southern Iowa carrying a drought watch designation.

Over the past year, precipitation in Iowa has been more than 8.5 inches below normal, and the state has now seen 200 consecutive weeks of dry or drought conditions.

“A very dry February has wiped out much of the benefit received from the wet January. The encouraging trend that started the winter has not continued,” said Tim Hall, the DNR’s Hydrology Resources Coordinator. “March through June are critical months for water resources in Iowa, and normal to above normal rainfall is critical this year especially.”

The state typically sees increased precipitation, whether rain or snow, during the late winter and spring months. Another dry year following the last three years of drought would be particularly challenging for Iowans.

For a thorough review of Iowa’s water resource trends, visit:

 www.iowadnr.gov/watersummaryupdate

Central Announces New Director of Career Development and Civic Engagement

Posted on by Sam Parsons

PELLA — Central College named Jodie Smith as the director of career development and civic engagement. She joined Central’s career development office in October, serving as the associate director of career and professional development.

In her new role, Smith will oversee four key areas of a Central education: career development, civic engagement, pre-health advising and off-campus programs including international education. She will direct the professional development series on campus with résumé and cover letter writing and job search strategies through presentations in classes. She will organize the internship fair, education fair and career workshops. Smith will support her team’s efforts in helping students find internships, study abroad through international education, pursue health-related careers and complete service-learning opportunities with community partners.

Smith came to Central from Iowa Western Community College where she served as the TRIO Student Support Services program director, working with first-generation students and students with disabilities. She was introduced to higher education when she worked with the student development office at Central several years ago. She admits her career path had interesting curves and changes, which prepared her well for this new role.

“It’s been my passion and desire to help students succeed,” Smith says. “I remember how I felt getting ready to graduate and not sure what I wanted to do. I thought I needed to have it all together. I didn’t and I was terrified of the next step. I want to help students navigate the next steps in their careers.”

Working with Aaron R. Roerdink ’97, associate dean for learning enrichment and associate professor-in-residence of chemistry, Smith will lead a dynamic team with a portfolio of programs focused on students and their success. Those include:

  • Debbie Abel, administrative assistant for career development and civic engagement.
  • Cyndi Boertje, assistant director for off-campus academic experiences.
  • Jeremy Burke, pre-health advisor and Class of 2026 class dean.
  • Natalie Nunnikhoven assistant director of civic engagement.
  • Emma Ware, AmeriCorps Outreach and Volunteer Recruitment VISTA.

Smith is excited about the new curriculum core and civic engagement components of a Central education.

“Our team will assist faculty in carrying these initiatives out through creative ways that align with our changing workforce,” Smith says.

She graduated from the University of Iowa with a B.S. in psychology and from William Penn University with a B.A. in sociology and human services. Her M.A. in higher education administration was earned at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln and she is currently completing an M.A. in sociology from Sam Houston State University. She lives in Oskaloosa with her husband, Al, five children and two dogs.

Mahaska Chamber Hosting Next Coffee and Conversation Tomorrow

Posted on by Sam Parsons

OSKALOOSA — The Mahaska Chamber is hosting their next edition of “Coffee & Conversation” tomorrow morning.

Previously known as Eggs & Issues, this engaging series of informative sessions provides Mahaska County residents with invaluable insights into state, county, and local topics, fostering opportunities for community members to meet, learn, and discuss subjects important to community improvement.

Tomorrow’s panel will feature speakers from Mahaska Health, Mahaska EMA, the Mahaska County Sheriff’s Office, and the Oskaloosa Police Department.

All Coffee & Conversations are hosted at Smokey Row Coffee in Oskaloosa (109 S Market St) from 8:30-9:30am.

Little Hawkeye Conference Announces Boys Basketball All-Conference Teams; Roach, Scholes, Bunnell Receive Honors

Posted on by Sam Parsons

By Sam Parsons

The Little Hawkeye Conference unveiled their boys basketball all-conference squads for 2023-24. Below are the full teams, with area athletes highlighted in bold.

First Team

Redek Born, Senior, Norwalk*

Calix Cahill, Senior, DCG*

Jackson Green, Senior, DCG*

Aidan Harder, Senior, Norwalk

Jonathan Howard, Senior, DCG

Tysen De Vries, Senior, Pella Christian

Dane Geetings, Senior, Pella Christian

Jack McGuire, Sophomore, Pella

Second Team

Luke Hardman, Senior, Pella

Cameron Rowe, Senior, Pella

Jaden Jones, Senior, DCG

Tate Perrin, Junior, DCG

Cameron Thomas, Junior, Norwalk

Josiah Vos, Senior, Pella Christian

Max Roach, Sophomore, Oskaloosa

Caleb Mattes, Senior, Newton

Honorable Mentions

Brogan Fuller, Senior, DCG

Dayne Mauk, Senior, DCG

Grady Sigrist, Junior, Norwalk

Timothy Korselman, Junior, Norwalk

Caleb Van Arendonk, Senior, Pella Christian

Isaiah Breems, Junior, Pella Christian

Brayden Traetow, Junior, Pella

Romon Hugan, Senior, Pella

Christian Lawson, Senior, Newton

Nate Lampe, Senior, Newton

Aiden Scholes, Senior, Oskaloosa

Gus Bunnell, Senior, Oskaloosa

George Blake, Freshman, Indianola

Andrew DeWall, Junior, Indianola

TSA unveils passenger self-screening lanes at Vegas airport as ‘a step into the future’

Posted on by Sam Parsons

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Federal airport security officials unveiled passenger self-screening lanes Wednesday at busy Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, with plans to test it for use in other cities around the country.

“How do we step into the future? This is a step,” said a system designer, Dimitri Kusnezov, science and technology under secretary at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. “The interface with people makes all the difference.”

The Transportation Security Administration checkpoint — initially only in Las Vegas, only for TSA PreCheck customers and only using the English language — incorporates a screen with do-it-yourself instructions telling people how to smoothly pass themselves and their carry-on luggage through pre-flight screening with little or no help from uniformed TSA officers.

“We want to avoid passengers having to be patted down,” said John Fortune, program manager of the Department of Homeland Security’s “Screening at Speed” program and a developer with Kusnezov of the prototype.

Instead of a boxy belt-fed device using a stack of gray trays, the futuristic-looking baggage and personal belongings inspection system looks like a scaled-down starship medical magnetic resonance imaging machine. It uses an automated bin return that sanitizes trays with germ-killing ultraviolet light between users.

Travelers step into a separate clear glass body scanning booth with a video display inside showing how to stand when being sensed with what officials said is the type of “millimeter wave technology” already in use around the country. A reporter found it sensitive enough to identify a forgotten handkerchief in a pocket. He did not have to remove his shoes.

“Really, one of the main aims here is to allow individuals to get through the system without necessarily having to interact directly with an officer and … at their own pace,” said Christina Peach, a TSA administrator involved in the system design. “It’s also about not feeling rushed.”

Nationally, nearly all passengers who pay to enroll in the TSA PreCheck program pass through screening in 10 minutes or less, agency spokesman R. Carter Langston said, while regular traveler and carry-on screening takes about 30 minutes.

Peach said eight uniformed TSA officers might be needed to staff two lanes of the new system, compared with 12 officers in lanes today.

However, Kusnezov and Karen Burke, TSA federal security director in Nevada, said agents including union members would just be freed from hands-on screening to focus more attention on broader security concerns.

“No one is going to lose their job,” Burke said.

Fortune declined to estimate the cost of designing the system, but he said the type of scanners used were similar to ones already deployed around the country.

Officials said they’ll time how quickly travelers pass through the prototype during evaluations this year.

Testing is being done at a unique-in-the-nation “innovation checkpoint” that TSA unveiled in 2019 in a sprawling international arrivals terminal that opened in 2012 at Harry Reid airport. It already features screening lanes with instruction displays and estimated wait times.

“This change in technology is for people who want to get through a checkpoint faster,” said Keith Jeffries, a former TSA director at Los Angeles International Airport and now vice president of K2 Security Screening Group, a company that installs screening systems at shipping ports including airports. “It’ll be a great step, but I anticipate it will be for the experienced passengers.”

Jeffries, in an interview on Tuesday with The Associated Press, compared the new system to self-checkout lanes that were introduced in the 1980s and are now common at supermarkets across the nation. He recalled that some shoppers initially avoided scanning their own purchases.

“It’s going to take time to educate the public,” he said of the TSA screening lanes. “You’re going to have a new generation of travelers that just wants to get through with the least amount of hassle and delay. I think eventually we’ll see more and more of them.”

Harry Reid International Airport was the seventh-busiest passenger airport in the U.S. in 2022, ranked by Airports Council International behind New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. In 2023, the Las Vegas airport handled a new record of 57.6 million arriving and departing passengers.

The Transportation Security Administration reported its busiest day ever at the airport last month, screening nearly 104,000 travelers and their luggage as they headed for airline flights Feb. 12, the day after the NFL Super Bowl was played at Allegiant Stadium.

National ag survey shows Iowa gained farms, younger farmers

Posted on by Sam Parsons

By John Slegers (Radio Iowa)

Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig says he noticed two surprises in the latest Census of Agriculture, as he says it’s always interesting to see where Iowa bucks the national trends.

“More farms was one of those,” Naig says. “Really, only a handful of states that had more farms than the last census. The average age of an Iowa farmer did go up slightly, but it didn’t go up as high as the national average, and we did have an increase in young farmers, farmers under 35.”

Naig says several factors may be behind these emerging agricultural trends for the state.

“This is about opportunities for the next generation of farmers to come into agriculture,” he says. “Livestock is often a way to do that, but we also launched Choose Iowa this year, a branded program for Iowa-grown, Iowa-made, Iowa-raised products. We’re also seeing some of our younger farmers get into diversified agriculture, selling things direct to consumers.”

While he’s pleased by elements of the survey, Naig says a host of obstacles are still in place for farmers who are just starting out.

“It also remains very difficult for our young farmers to get access to the land that they need, the capital that they need,” Naig says. “It’s encouraging, but we know that there’s a lot of work to do.”

Naig says the ag census shows there is generational change underway on Iowa’s farms.

“As farmers get older in Iowa, there’s going to have to be a transfer to the next generation. I think the numbers also indicate that that transfer is occurring,” Naig says. “So it’s something that again, what are the various ways that we can assist with that transfer and again, give our youngest farmers a chance to be successful.”

The 2022 Census of Agriculture shows Iowa gained 800 farms, about one-percent more than the 2017 Ag Census, and the number of farmers under the age of 35 is ten-percent of the total.

ISU Extension in Mahaska County hosts Iowa Farmers Market Nutrition Program Training on March 14 and May 30

Posted on by Sam Parsons

OSKALOOSA — Iowa State University Extension and Outreach in Mahaska County is proud to announce a partnership with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) to host an Iowa Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) vendor training on March 14 and May 30 at 9 am. This training is for fruit and vegetable growers, as well as honey producers, who sell their product at farmers markets, and aims to enhance their participation in the FMNP.

The Iowa FMNP, administered by IDALS with support from the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, is vital in supporting local farmers and providing access to fresh, locally grown produce for eligible seniors and WIC families. In 2023, over 14,000 seniors and 30,000 mothers and children in Iowa received FMNP vouchers, contributing to the certification of more than 500 farmers at 125 farmers markets and 100 farmstands. Certified farmers saw an average increase of $1,500 in sales through FMNP participation.

This training is the initial step toward FMNP certification, a requirement for farmers who wish to accept FMNP vouchers. In 2024, the Iowa FMNP is embracing modernization by introducing QR code scanning for instant voucher redemption via smartphones. Farmers without technological access can mail vouchers to a designated redemption center. All new and recertifying farmers must undergo vendor training in 2024, regardless of their last training date.

The training will take place at the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach office in Mahaska, located at 212 North I Street Oskaloosa, on March 14 and May 30 at 9 am. Attendance is free, but preregistration is mandatory. For registration and further details, please contact 641-673-5841. striegel@iastate.edu.  For inquiries regarding FMNP vendor certification, please contact IDALS at 515-725-1179 or FarmersMarket@IowaAgriculture.gov.

Beacon Man Arrested on Warrant

Posted on by Sam Parsons

OSKALOOSA — A Beacon man was arrested by authorities on a warrant from another county, and charged with several crimes related to an investigation.

The Oskaloosa Police Department reports that on Tuesday, 18-year-old Jaemon Hole of Beacon was arrested by officers on a warrant from Hardin County for probation violation from 3 counts of assault on a police officer.

Authorities say he was also charged based on a separate, months-long investigation for 3 different felonies, including sexual abuse in the 2nd degree with a child (a Class B Felony), enticing a minor under 14 years of age (a Class D Felony), and lascivious acts with a child (fondle or touch – a Class C Felony).

Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Threads logins restored after widespread outage

Posted on by Sam Parsons

BOSTON (AP) — A technical issue caused widespread login issues for a few hours across Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, Threads and Messenger platforms Tuesday.

Andy Stone, Meta’s head communications, acknowledged the issues on X, formerly known as Twitter, and said the company “resolved the issue as quickly as possible for everyone who was impacted, and we apologize for any inconvenience.”

Users reported being locked out of their Facebook accounts and feeds on the platform as well as Threads and Instagram were not refreshing. WhatsApp, which is also owned by Meta, appeared unaffected.

A senior official with the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency told reporters Tuesday that the agency was “not aware of any specific election nexus nor any specific malicious cyberactivity nexus to the outage.”

The outage comes just ahead of Thursday’s deadline for Big Tech companies to comply with the European Union’s new Digital Markets Act. To comply, Meta is making changes, like allowing users to separate their Facebook and Instagram accounts so personal information can’t be combined to target them with online ads. It’s not clear whether the outage is connected to any preparations Meta might be carrying out for the DMA.

In 2021, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp were down for hours, an outage the company said was a result of faulty changes on routers that coordinate network traffic between its data centers. The next year, WhatsApp had another brief outage.

USDA announces Conservation Reserve Program general signup for 2024

Posted on by Sam Parsons

DES MOINES, Iowa – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that agricultural producers and private landowners can begin signing up for the general Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) starting March 4 and running through March 29, 2024. This conservation opportunity gives producers tools to conserve wildlife habitat while achieving other conservation benefits, including sequestering carbon and improving water quality and soil health.

“Historically, CRP has been important to us but it has become more important through time,” said Todd Bogenschutz, upland wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR). “As a percentage of habitat on the landscape, CRP has grown from 42 percent in 1990 to 62 percent in 2023. As CRP goes in Iowa, so goes Iowa pheasants, and that’s why the Farm Bill is so important to us.”

In addition, landowners are reminded USDA opened up the Continuous Conservation Reserve Program (Continuous CRP) for signups on Jan. 12. Continuous CRP is one of the most flexible conservation tools we can provide producers and landowners. One popular wildlife practice under Continuous CRP is the State Acres For Enhancement (SAFE). The SAFE initiative restores vital wildlife habitat in order to meet high-priority state wildlife goals. Iowa has SAFE projects that target pheasants, quail, prairie chicken, ruffed grouse and grassland songbirds.

Landowners and producers interested in CRP should contact their local USDA Service Center to learn more or to apply for the program before their deadlines.  Those landowners interested in more details on SAFE can visit the DNR’s CRP page at www.iowadnr.gov/crp.

As one of the largest private lands conservation programs in the United States, CRP offers a range of conservation options to farmers, ranchers, and landowners. It has been an especially strong opportunity for farmers with less productive or marginal cropland, helping them re-establish valuable land cover to help improve water quality, prevent soil erosion, and support wildlife habitat.

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