In the News

OTTUMWA, Iowa (KYOU) - Monday morning if you saw a plane in the sky it could have been a World War II veteran. Dozens of people came out to Ottumwa Regional Airport to honor three veterans who served 76 years ago.

When U.S. presidential candidates campaign in Iowa every four years, one of the first issues they are sure to be asked by voters in the ag-heavy state is whether they would support continued federal subsidies for ethanol and other biofuels. 

Across the Mississippi River in Illinois, it's safe to say support is just as great. The state produces 1.8 billion gallons of ethanol and 168 million gallons of biodiesel annually, according to the Energy Information Agency. This makes it easily the state's primary renewable energy product.

Demand for ethanol is at best stagnant, and by some accounts in decline. This requires not looking at the immediate future and expanding coalitions to advance biofuels, shares John Coupert, executive director at the National Corn to Ethanol Research Center during a Congressional Biofuels Summit held Wednesday at the Farm Progress Show.

WASHINGTON – Congressman Antonio Delgado (D, NY-19) and three other House members have introduced legislation to improve the Veterans Crisis Line. The Revising and Expediting Actions for the Crisis Hotline (REACH) for Veterans Act would implement key improvements in staff training and management.

The bill would also facilitate the crisis line’s transition to 9-8-8- as part of the national suicide prevention hotline.

The bill is also sponsored in the House by Tracey Mann (R, KS-01), Mikie Sherrill (D, NJ-11), and Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R, IA-02).

Members of Iowa’s congressional delegation say they’re angry and heartbroken about the terror attack at the Kabul airport that killed a dozen U.S. soldiers.

Republican Senator Joni Ernst said it was “foolish…to leave the safety and security of Americans and our allies to the Taliban” and it’s time to “use the might” of the U.S. military. Congresswoman Cindy Axne, a Democrat from West Des Moines, said the mission remains the same — to get as many Americans and Afghan allies as possible out of the country by the end of the month.

DES MOINES, Iowa – Two terrorist attacks by ISIS suicide bombers near a gate at Kabul International Airport in Afghanistan claimed (at the time of this writing) the lives of 12 Marines and one Navy Corpsman (medic), as well as, at least 90 Afghans.

Iowa’s congressional delegation reacted to the news.

WASHINGTON — Iowa's junior Republican Senator said Thursday that President Joe Biden has made the country appear as a weak and unreliable partner, and the situation for him is at a crossroads.

After an attack killed 12 U.S. troops and at least 60 Afghans at the Kabul airport in Afghanistan Thursday, Sen. Joni Ernst said Biden now has a clear choice when it comes to Afghanistan.

The derecho storm that mowed over a large swath of Iowa’s corn and chopped down thousands of trees a year ago has elected officials wondering when the state will fully recover from the devastation.

Senate Democratic Leader Zach Wahls couldn’t make a prediction on Tuesday last week, the one-year anniversary of one of the nation’s most severe inland storms.

“It was a really stressful time. I mean, you’re in the middle of a global pandemic, and then on top of that you have this major natural disaster,” said Wahls, D-Coralville.