COVID-19 RESPONSE: Mayor John Haila

Listen Here NowOriginally broadcast 03/19/2020
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Ames Mayor John Haila was with us today to give an overview of all the government agencies, university departments, and non-profit organizations that have been coordinating over the past several weeks to guide local citizens of all ages as safely as possible through the coronavirus caused difficulties of closed schools, access to food, maintaining essential services and how to receive necessary health care.  In future programs we will have leaders in all these areas on Local Talk to give us more detailed information. Our host for today, and for much of the Local Talk Series "COVID-19 Response:" is Anne Kinzel, who has served as both a hospital lawyer and health care lawyer. 

 

 

COVID-19 RESPONSE: Health and Food in crisis, Senate Candidate Theresa Greenfield, Health

Listen Here NowOriginally broadcast 03/18/2020
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Members of Our Local Talk Team gathered useful information about 

  1. Store hours and deliveries -- check your favorite grocery stores and pharmacies for changed hours and delivery options 
  2. Meals for school children through the Ames Community Schools
  3. United Way's Hunger Collaboration, Food at First and the Salvation Army
  4. McFarland Clinic's information line 
  5. How to conduct county business online -- including paying property taxes
We also had two interviews.  Cal Haliburton brought us some thoughts from Theresa Greenfield, Democratic Primary Challenger for Senate Seat of Incumbent Joni Ernst. And Carolyn Raffensperger ended with a reflection on Health and our Relation to the Land. 

 

 

COVID-19 RESPONSE: Emergency Management, Evolving County and State Mitigations

Listen Here NowOriginally broadcast 03/16/2020
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Dennis Hart's report came to us from his recent vacation in Orlando, where he gave us the feel of  the  shuttering of Disneyland as well as some of the first news of Iowa preparations for the expected adjustments to be made here in Iowa. Linda Murken, Chair of Story County Supervisors and and Emergency Servics then spoke about the adaptations Story County Offices will be making to carry on necessary business while keeping offices closed to the public.  She advised going to the Story County Website before calling or trying to come in to offices. Then Keith Morgan, Story County Emergency Management Coordinator, filled us in on plans the county has in place.  Ross Wilburn, Legislative Representative for District 46 recommended a couple of websites that we can refer to keep us up to date on the evolving policies and mitigation -- Department of Health and Iowa Governor's Newsroom.  

COVID-19 RESPONSE: Environmental Council, Merry Rankin, Smart Business Challenge Team

Listen Here NowOriginally broadcast 03/13/2020
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Dennis Hart's weekly summary brought news of the first "shelter in place" order in response to COVID-19. Then Angela Davis from the  Environmental Council told us about a recent lobby day when numerous environmental groups joined together for a lobby day at the Iowa Capitol.  On the same theme, Merry Rankin, ISU Sustainability Coordinator, brought in a guest from the Ames Smart Business Challenge Team to tell us about investing in Power Packs to enable people to buy into the solar farm with a small investment.  

More Wind, Nowruz, John Domini

Listen Here Now

Originally broadcast 03/11/2020
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Our show today started with Charlie Kostelnick, former Boone County Planning and Zoning Commissioner, explaining some of the issues facing Apex Renewable Energy as it negotiates with landholders in Boone County (a follow-up to last Wednesday's Local Talk).  Then we offered a program of support to the Iranian Students and Scholars as they told of the cultural importance of the Norwruz (Persian/Iranian New Year) -- Nasim Sabatpour and Fran Amin explained the history and traditions of the festival. This popular festival has been cancelled for 2020.  Finally, author John Domini discussed his book "The Color Inside a Melon," which will be part of an author series at Cambridge Memorial Library (postponed until fall because of Covid 19).  

 

Boone Wind Farm, Regenerative Ag, McGill, McHale Trio

Listen Here NowOriginally broadcast 03/04/2020
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Our first guest was Max Jabrixio, the Public Engagement Manager, for Apex Renewable Energy,which has been working on the Great Pathfinder Wind Project in Boone. Following that was a recording of Finian Makepeace from a Forum on Regenerative Agriculture. And, Paula Forrest came in to tell us about Town and Gown's next concert with the McGill/McHale Trio.  

INTERNATIONAL WOMENS' DAY, SUDAN, VALUES for AMES LIFE

Listen Here NowOriginally broadcast 03/02/2020
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Mary Logsdon, Manager of Adult Services at AmesPublic Library and Linda Hagedorn, President of the League ofWomen Voters for Ames and Story County describe the upcoming International Womens' Day celebration at the AMes Public Library, an annual event that brings together many individuals and organizations. The celebration will be held on March 7 from 2 - 4 PM at the Ames Public Library.

Mary Logsdon, who is retiring in April also reflected on her years of service at the Library, as well as being part of this annual event.

Benjamin Ukelo, Ames native of Sudanese heritage, explained why there was a rally held by Sudanese at the Iowa State Capital a couple of weeks ago, protesting bloody atrocities in Abiea, a border region in South Sudan. 

Bronwyn Beatty-Hanson, Ames City council member at Large, gave an update on work being done at the Ames City Council, to set priorities and goals, according to the values that council members have identified for Ames quality of life.  

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.  

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