Authorities say one person has died in an industrial accident at a biofuels plant in central Iowa.
Television station KCCI reports that the Nevada Public Safety Department confirmed the death occurred Thursday afternoon at Verbio North America's Biorefinery in Nevada, which is about 40 miles north of Des Moines.
Officials say the person died at the scene but did not give details of the nature of the accident. The victim’s name has not been released pending notification of family members.
An investigation into the fatal accident is ongoing.
A northwest Iowa man has been killed in a hunting accident.
KIWA Radio in Sheldon reports 37-year-old Nicholas Van Ginkel died near Webster, South Dakota on Veterans Day.
Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts says it’s “imperative” that he and lawmakers come up with a way to lower property taxes that can win approval in the upcoming legislative session.
Ricketts expressed confidence lawmakers will find a way, despite an ongoing struggle in the tax-focused Revenue Committee to unite around a proposal.
The governor made his comments in a conference call from Germany, where he is leading a trade delegation.
Farmers in Iowa are not the only ones working to get the harvest completed. According to the USDA multiple states are harvesting at the same time and that is increasing demand for propane to dry the corn for storage.
CEO of the Iowa Propane Gas Association, Deb Grooms says the situation has prompted a cooperative spirit ..
“And one of the big things we are doing right now is we are taking trucks to Conway Kansas , there is plenty of product there, so we are having a lot of trucks go there to bring propane back to the state. We have had trucks from a lot of the southern states volunteer to come up and help transport and that is a big thing for us to have other people helping us do that.”
In addition, Grooms says some farmers have volunteered to delay drying their corn so deliveries can be made to home owners and livestock producers who depend on the propane to keep themselves and their animals warm.
And, the former Iowa Secretary of Agriculture and currently Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation for the USDA Bill Northey will be in Siouxland tomorrow.
Northey will award a grant for increasing e-connectivity for households and farms in Iowa and South Dakota.
The ReConnect announcement will take place at a farm outside of Hawarden. The ReConnect program provides broadband resources to rural and unserved areas across the country.
The wife of former Vice President and presidential candidate Joe Biden plans to campaign in northwest Iowa tomorrow and Saturday.
Dr. Jill Biden is scheduled to attend events in Sioux City, Cherokee, Storm Lake and Spencer. The event in Sioux City will take place at the downtown library at 10:30 a.m. Biden will be in Le Mars and Onawa Saturday afternoon and evening.
Eight months after flooding began along the lower Missouri River, the amount of water being released from dams upriver will start to be reduced later this month.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says the amount of water being released from the Gavins Point dam on the Nebraska-South Dakota border will start to gradually be reduced Saturday, November 23rd as part of its plan to cut releases for winter. The amount of water being released into the river has been at 80,000 cubic feet per second — more than twice what is typical — for months.
By mid-December, that will be reduced to 22,000 cubic feet per second. The river has remained high ever since the spring flooding because the amount of rain and melting snow flowing into the river was near record levels this year.
State natural resources officials say Iowa will report 622 river, lake and wetland segments with impairments to the Environmental Protection Agency as part of its 2018 summary of water quality.
That’s a 2% increase over the 608 reported in the 2016 report.
The Iowa DNR says the 622 water body segments on this year’s list had 831 impairments.
An impairment means a segment of a water body doesn’t meet established quality standards.
The most common river impairments in Iowa include the presence of bacteria presence and fish kills, for which the most common cause is animal waste.
Iowa has more pigs and egg-laying chickens than any other state, and it constantly struggles to balance water quality and agricultural interests.
The most severe problem for lakes is algae growth. That’s often the result of nutrients such as phosphorous from farm fertilizer washing from fields into the water.
Environmental activists Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement say it is evidence, the state is failing when it comes to improving water quality.
Iowa has one of the lowest survival rates for lung cancer in the nation, according to a new report by the American Lung Association.
The annual report found the state’s five-year lung cancer survival rate is 19 percent. That’s below the national average of 21 point 7 percent. That means it ranks 35th out of the 45 states that had available data.
Alyssa DePhillips is with the American Lung Association. She says that’s because many cases are diagnosed at later stages when they’re less likely to be curable.
"We're really encouraging Iowans to talk to their doctors to see if they're eligible for lung cancer screening because that is the best way to catch lung cancer early so that it can be treated and so that the survival rate is higher."
The top causes of lung cancer in Iowa are smoking, secondhand smoke, radon exposure and air pollution.
Police are investigating what officials say is a threat posted on social media to three students from Iowa State University.
The Iowa State Police Chief says the university is trying to identify who posted it on Reddit.
The university says the threat targeted three students who participated in a Land Acknowledgement statement made at a Students Against Racism meeting last week.
The poster typed these words next to the photo: "We fought for this land and won, and will be more than willing to kill for it again if you try and take it."