KHOI

Originally broadcast 02/20/2017
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Jonah Powell and Sarah Carlson, describe Death Cafes in Ames, part of an international movement that organizes social conversations that normalize discussion about death.

A pipeline update from Dick and Judy Lamb, who own a farm in Boone County and are part of a joint suit by Iowa landowners and the Sierra Club against the Iowa Utilities Board and Dakota Access Pipeline. They claim that seizure of their land for the Bakken Pipeline, by eminent domain is illegal. The Polk County District Court of Iowa recently rejected their suit.

Jan Brown from Our Lady's Immaculate Heart Catholic Church in Ankeny explains that the group known as A Mid-Iowa Organizing Strategy (AMOS) will go to the statehouse every Tuesday of this legislative session, to advocate for improvements to mental health care in Iowa.

Lauren Frandsen, from the Ames Chamber of Commerce, describes the Chamber's accomplishments in 2016 and their upcoming 2017 lecture series on vision-building leadership.

Dylan Kline, from Integrity Construction, is part of the Chamber of Commerce's yearly Leadership Ames program. As part of the program, he and a few others are partnering with KHOI to create a new show, Business Connect, on KHOI to premier this Friday at 1 PM. Dylan describes the process and what it's that's like for a construction manager to build a radio show.

Originally broadcast 02/15/2017
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First, Steve Gray, joint superintendent of both Nevada and Colo/Nesco school districts, discussed the challenges rural schools face--and how those might be exacerbated by pending legislation. Then, State Senator Herman Quirmbach of Ames told of over one-and-a-half million dollars that will be lost by both Ames and Boone school districts with this year's 1.1% allowable growth law, and describes scenes of disenfranchisement in this week's legislative hearings. Finally, Kelly McMahon, a preschool / kindergarten teacher in the Cedar Rapids school district, formerly a teacher in Milwaukee, compared the climate under Scott Walker's Act 10 to that she expects with the pending Iowa labor bills, HSB84 and SF213. Iowans for Public Education urged citizens to discuss these issues with their legislators. Senator Jerry Behn will hold several.

The second half of our show featured two plays opening this weekend. Joe Ferrell and Sam Barnes gave us a preview of Judge Story's Theatrical Troupe's dinner theatre, Who Will Murder Marsha? a play about a woman addicted to reading murder mysteries, and what happens when her husband tries to persuade her to stop. The second murder mystery, Webster City Community Theatre's Murder on a Budget, is set during a class reunion on a cruise ship (the budget reunion location). Playwright/director Sally Evans described a the situation of this, her fifth, original murder mystery play.

Originally broadcast 02/13/2017
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Additional Audio Excerpts:
• For full audio of the Pam Stangeland interview
• For full audio of staff presentation on Iowa School Report Card at the Jan 30 school board meeting

The Iowa School Report Card showed a 36 percentage point achievement gap between white and black students at Ames Middle School--and this gap has been increasing. Other sources show racial discrepancies in disciplinary measures. ISU sociology professor and school board candidate Monic Behnken, who studies the "School-to-Prison Pipeline", as it is widely called, joins us for a wide-ranging discussion of these issues.

We hear from Ames Middle School principal Pam Stangeland, and listen to audio from the ACSD school board meeting where the achievement gap was discussed by district staff only after school board member Lewis Rosser raised a question about it. Then, we hear from Tom Andre, former Chair of ISU's Department of Curriculum and Instruction and current member of AMOS, about data showing persistent racial disparities in school disciplinary measures across the Ames district.

Finally Melissa Spencer, the Deputy Emergency Management Coordinator of Story County, presents us a reminder of how to be prepared for disasters, in both our households and our places of work.