January 2020

Caucus 101 and Weekend Activities

Listen Here NowOriginally broadcast 01/29/2020
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We had Judy Trumpy, Organizations Chair for the Story County Republican Party, followed by Madalyn Anderson, chair of the Story County Democratic Party with Democratic Caucus Chair Lewis Rosser to give us detailed descriptions of what we need to know for Caucus night, February 3.  Wes Martin gave us a brief glimpse of how the Democrats "do the math."  Steffen Schmidt, political science professor at Iowa State University and well-known caucus expert gave us the history of caucus development since 1972 as well as "retail politics."  For the weekend we have the Climate Crisis Parade in Des Moines (sponsored by 70 organizations)  while in Ames, Clark Ford's new musical "2020 America I Miss You" will play at Unity Church.  

Getting Ready to Decide (Iowa Caucuses), 75th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz

Listen Here NowOriginally broadcast 01/27/2020
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Voter opinion: Mike Sauer from Nevada Iowa explains why he is a swing voter. A former Republican who is unhappy with candidates conforming to party platforms, he explains why he is still undecided about how to vote.

Visitors to Iowa Caucuses:  Kristoffer Hellane, chalk artist from Santa Cruz, California, describes how he does chalk art to build a grassroots support for Bernie Sanders, and explains why he supports Sanders.

Today marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi WOrld War 2 concentration and death camp, Auschwitz in Poland. To commemorate the day and in the spirit of never forgetting, Lily Misner in Los Angeles (originally from Poland) , tells her story: as a survivor of Auschwitz.  

Raising Readers, Ames Progressive Alliance, Eagle Shooting

Listen Here NowOriginally broadcast 01/24/2020
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The Story County Community Foundation grant recipient, Lisa Reeves will tell us about Raising Readers. And Anne Kinzel and Carolyn Myers with Ames' Progressive Alliance will be here with their feature on Skunk River Paddlers member David Denhaan concerning a user friendly kayac launching structure at Ada Hayden Heritage Lake. And the shooting of an eagle in Ankeny was reported.  

Water Quality, Prairie Network, Log Chairs

Listen Here NowOriginally broadcast 01/22/2020
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Ingrid Gronstal Anderson, water program director at the Iowa Environmental Council  spoke with us about how the IEU proposes to increase participation in the Nutrient Reduction Strategy https://www.iaenvironment.org/ .  Our second guest, Adam Mason, from Iowa Citizens for Community http://iowacci.org/improvement, discussed actions ICCI has taken to put pressure on the Iowa legislature to change laws -- everthing from lobbying legislators to demanding a moratorium on new Combined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs).  Mike Meetz, Lloyd Crim and Carmen Rosburg came in to tell us about the Prairie Network's Winter Seminar "Prairie Seeds, Bees and Birds" Saturday January 25th. - 9:30 to 5:00 at Ames High School https://monarch.ent.iastate.edu/2020-iowa-prairie-network-region-5-winter-seminar Our final guest, Chad Kelchen, who started making furniture out of invasive black locust trees at Big Creek State Park, told us how the project was started and how it developed into furniture crafting.  

Enabling People with Disabilities, Iowa Capitol Dispatch

Listen Here NowOriginally broadcast 01/15/2020
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Lisa Heddens, Story County Supervisor and Karla Webb, Director of Community Services   http://www.storycountyiowa.gov/94/Community-Services  came in to tell us about the variety of services provided not only in Story County, but in eight other counties in central Iowa.  Among these is a Statewide Crisis Line 855-581-8111 .  For more help specifically for People with Disabilities Anna Magnusson, executive director of Iowa Able Foundation https://www.facebook.com/iowaablefoundation/ came in to tell us about assistance available to enable people to live independently.  Linda Hagedorn of the Ames League of Women Voters  described a registration and training session at the ARC of Story County https://thearcstory.org/ to help people with disabilities navigate both Democratic and Republican Caucuses. To introduce an exciting new non-profit online news source Iowa Capitol Dispatch https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/ Mark Witherspoon, editorial advisor to the Iowa State Daily, told us how social media has changed the way we get our news.  

Supervisors, Childcare, Medicare For All

Listen Here NowOriginally broadcast 01/08/2020
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Linda Murken, chair of the Story County Board of Supervisors, gave us important updates on issues facing the Supervisors including (1) filling the vacancy of the office of County Attorney, (2) CAFOs, (3) renaming "Squaw" Creek, where to make public comments on the request of Dakota Access Pipeline's request to double the amount of oil flowing through Iowa, (for information about filing a comment Google hlp.2014.000).  Our second guests was Melissa Juhl, Regional Director of Iowa Child Care Resource and Referral (https://iowaccrr.org), who gave us important information about locating and evaluating available childcare, and Matthew Covington, staff member of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, who announced a Town Meeting on Medicare for All to be held on January 11, 9:30 to 11 am, at Grace United Methodist Church in Des Moines.   

2020 Bird Counts and More

Listen Here NowOriginally broadcast 01/01/2020
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This New Year's Program drew from KHOI archives on Christmas and New Year's Bird Counts, including basic information from Steve Dinsmore, Shane Patterson, and Jim Pease; how birding can enrich family life with Amy Yoakum, Mike Hudley and Max Hudley; Wolf Oesterreich telling us about birds at Ada Hayden Lake and how people can share this knowledge (and photos)  through the Friends of Ada Hayden blog and Facebook page;  reflections on the 40th anniversary of the Endangered  Species Act with Stan Temple; an alert from Erv Klaas, whose career in with the Fish and Wildlife Sevice made him aware of environmental threats to trout and eagles from the proposed Pebble Mine near Bristol Bay in Alaska.  Finally Joe Lynch mused about his awe as eagles are nesting on central Iowa rivers and creeks where they have never been before--an auspicious beginning to the decade starting on New Years 2020.