February 2020

Small Towns, Balthazar, Young Artists Concert

Listen Here NowOriginally broadcast 02/26/2020
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Dustin Ingram, Director, Community & Economic Development Outreach for the Ames Chamber of Commerce, came in to talk to us about the March 3 school bond election and how it could affect a couple of small towns in Story County.  The discussion turned to ways small towns attract residents and anchor institutions.  Our second guest was Brandon Russom, describing how his first book “Balthazar Bunny and the Quest for Slicey, Slicey, Cut, Cut" was written with his pre-school students and published in England.  Continuing  with young people's creativity we spoke with MaryKay Polashek, and Kate McAlister about the Young Artists Concert to be performed March 1 at the Ames City Auditorium.  

Felons, Iranian Engineers and Sabrina Fair

Listen Here NowOriginally broadcast 02/19/2020
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We started today's show with a collaboration between KHOI and the American City Liberties Union  (ACLU) of Iowa -- "Our Liberties We Podcast" with Daniel Zeno.  The topic was felony disenfranchisement in Iowa and the constitutional amendment to restore voting rights for felons who have fulfilled their sentences.  Then we turned to the case of the Mahla Shahkhajeh, an Iranian graduate student bound for ISU, who had been denied entry to the US in spite of an extensive visa examination at the American embassy in Tehran.  To learn of ISU's response to this we spoke with Gary Mirka, professor of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering at Iowa State University, who told us the specifics of Mahla's case as well as the importance placed on International graduate students in engineering at ISU.  Fran Amin, a biomedical engineer who came to ISU for graduate school from Iran in 1976, and has studied and worked in Ames every since, told us a little about how the Iranian Revolution had changed the lives of women, but how there are consistently a high number of well trained women engineers. We ended the show with Lori Haynes giving us news of Boone Community Theatre's upcoming events.  

Coffee, Recanvas, Events

Listen Here NowOriginally broadcast 02/12/2020
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Our show started with Leanne Harter and the Story County Report.   Then we took a road trip to visit Loyal Winborn, the coffee roaster in Jewell.  By then we were awake enough to learn from Madalyn Anderson, Story County Democratic Chair, about the ongoing problems of the Iowa Democratic Party's demands from campaigns for re-canvas of caucus results. Angelica Parsons, delegate to the Democratic Convention, told us what inspired her and Marsha and Mark Olinghouse reported on the Republican Party "celebrity caucus" in Ankeny. The balance of our program consisted of announcements about events for the last two weeks in February from Crystal Davis of the Ames Convention and Visitors Bureau.  

Coronavirus, Iowa Democratic Party, Iowa Caucus

Listen Here NowOriginally broadcast 02/10/2020
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Keith Morgan, StoryCounty Emergency Coordinator, and Teresa Ferrari from Story County PublicHealth give an update on the status of the Novel 2019 Coronavirus in Central Iowa. Following that is an explanation of the characteristics, types, and origins of the various Coronaviruses, some which are deadly, and some which cause the common cold most of us will have during this winter. The deadly Novel 2019 Coronavirus currently in the news has not become a significant threat at this time in central Iowa.

Iowa DemocraticParty Chair Troy Price issued a statement on February 7 that the Iowa Democratic Party (IDP) reported the last remaining records of voting result from the 1,765 precincts across Iowa, the nation, and overseas, on Thursday. However, they gave candidates’ campaigns until noon on February 8 to submit evidence of data entry inaccuracies, and that the IDP will give candidates’ campaigns an extended period of time to request a re-canvass or re-count – with a deadline of Monday February 10th at noon.

Other questions surrounding the Iowa Caucus reporting are explored, including the people who built it, and whether the IDP has created firewalls to prevent undue influence by the campaigns.Story County Democratic Party Chair Madalyn Anderson addresses the questions to the best of her ability.

John Howe, from the Raptor Resource Project in Decorah gives an update on the famous Decorah Eagles of the videocam, who are laying eggs.  

Going Hollywood, Secret Service, Farce, Satellites

Listen Here NowOriginally broadcast 02/05/2020
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Sara Jordan-Heintz, our first guest, brought us a discussion of her book GoingHollywood: Midwesterners in Movieland followed by her preview of Larry Adams, with a history of the Secret Service and the fight against counterfeiters for the February 8 Saturday with a Scholar lecture at the  Boone History Center.  Two theatre previews followed -- Joe Ferrell of Roland, one of the stars in "Leading Ladies,the cross-dressing comedy playing at ACTORS in Ames this weekend. Debbie Garner, a star in Ankeny Community Theatre's farce, Don't Dress for Dinner, described a madcap romp in a French farmhouse.  We ended with an Iowa Caucus story about the satellite caucuses from Iowa Capital Dispatch.