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World Pork Expo begins in June

May 25, 2006 By

The 18th Annual World Pork Expo runs June 8 through the 10th this year, and will have some new features for visitors, exhibitors and producers alike. Jill Appell, a pork producer and grain farmer from Altona, Illinois, is President-Elect of the National Pork Producers Council. She says 500 exhibitors should be at the trade show. She says there’ll be the Marketing Information Center as always, and things everybody always looks forward to like the Pig Races, and the Merchandise Shop where you can buy things to take home.

The Swine Show is another tradition, as is the “Pig-Casso” Art Show, lunch at the Big Grill, and the farm-toy show and sale. New for this year is the World Pork Expo Environmental Center, giving producers information about crop nutrient value, byproducts, the environmental regulations they’re having to deal with and other topics they may want to ask about.

Also new will be an information and registration area called “I.D. Alley.” It’s to register your “premise,” or farm, in case of some outbreak of animal disease, to permit the animals to be traced back to where they came from within 48 hours. The registration system for livestock farms will be done through the states, and in most states you can register for your premise ID on the Internet. There’s also going to be a pork industry job fair and career center, as well as the usual seminars. The World Pork Expo is June 8 through the 10th at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines.

Filed Under: Agriculture

Top bike builders look for locations in Iowa

May 25, 2006 By

Two of the nation’s top motorcycle builders are looking for Iowa communities to rumble through this summer. Production officials from California will be in the state in August, to film “Biker Build-off,” for cable television’s Discovery Channel.

World famous chopper builders Dave Perewitz of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, and Paul Yaffe, of Phoenix, Arizona, will haul cycles to Des Moines. Tom Wheeler, Manager of the Iowa Film Office, says from Des Moines the two builders will ride to Sioux City. Then it‘s on to Sturgis, South Dakota for the Harley Davidson motorcycle rally.

Wheeler says they were originally going to shoot the series in Kansas City, but the film office couldn’t help them out when it came time for helicopter coverage. Production on the fifth season of the program began in February, and features a series of contests in which 26 fabricators — including one woman — will square off in head-to-head competitions. Each builder is given two weeks to create a custom motorcycle from the ground up.

The contest requires the bikes to be fully functional, and they must be ridden as far as one-thousand miles to major bike events, where attendees will vote on their favorite. Wheeler says the producers of the show are looking for some specific things as they plan the route the bikers will take to get to Sturgis.

Wheeler says they want to have some sort of “manly” location.” If you think your community has something special to offer, contact Latrice Beal, Associate producer of Biker Build-off 2006, at lbeal@origprod.com.

Filed Under: Recreation & Entertainment

Blood centers won’t take donations from mumps patients

May 25, 2006 By

The mumps outbreak is slowing in Iowa, but officials at the state’s blood banks are still carefully screening every donor. Blood centers will not take donations from people who might have an infectious disease like mumps.

Susan Miller, a medical technologist at Mercy Hospital in Cedar Rapids says, “Of course, you wouldn’t want that to get into the units and spread to people who are being infused with blood who have other complications to begin with.” She says if a patient received blood from a donor who had mumps, the result could be disaster.

But according to most blood center rules, if you’ve had mumps you must be symptom-free for at least one week before they’ll allow you to give blood. You have to wait two weeks after having the measles/mumps/rubella vaccination to give blood. And you have to wait three weeks if you haven’t had the vaccination.

Nancy Mathahs, director of Mercy’s laboratory services, says she’s not worried about mumps getting into the blood supply because most of Iowa’s mumps cases have been in college-aged kids and there aren’t many regular blood donors in that age group. “A lot of those people were in an age group that don’t usually donate unless they do college type drives and so I think the blood supply is safe,” she says.

Blood bank workers say when cases of another infectious disease are reported, they’ll take similar precautions.

Filed Under: Health & Medicine

Survey gives high rank to drivers in two Iowa cities

May 25, 2006 By

Drivers in two Iowa cities rank among the nation’s safest. Cedar Rapids led the nation on last year’s survey by Allstate Insurance for the lowest accident rate among America’s 200 largest metro areas. This year, Cedar Rapids fell to second place.

Drivers there are likely to have a fender bender every 13-point-two years, according to the survey, with the national average of one wreck every ten years. Des Moines placed number-six, for the second year in a row, while Sioux Falls, South Dakota, took the top spot. Several hundred safe motorists there were treated to free gasoline this week as part of the prize.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With:

Northeast Iowa students get lost on field trip

May 25, 2006 By

It was supposed to be a day in the park, but an end-of-the-school-year field trip turned frightening Wednesday for some northeast Iowa girls. Four Independence Middle School girls got lost at Backbone State Park in Delaware County yesterday, and were found about four hours later. The girls were on a field trip to Backbone and got separated from the rest of their group.

The Delaware County Sheriff’s Department was notified at about 2 p.m. Several area law enforcement officials and fire departments searched the park until the four were found, unhurt, by a Dundee firefighter at about 5:30.

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

One missing after boat accident in Wright County

May 25, 2006 By

One person is missing after a boating accident last night (Wednesday) on Morse Lake in northern Wright County. Four people were on the small fishing boat when high winds caused it to capsize. Three of the people swam to shore but the other individual didn’t make it. Crews from the Iowa D-N-R, Belmond Police and the Wright County Sheriff’s Office responded to conduct a search. That search will resume this morning.

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Western Iowa woman could face charges in baby’s death

May 25, 2006 By

Authorities say a western Iowa woman -may- face charges in the death of an infant. D-N-A tests have confirmed that 22-year-old Kristen Stoberl of Audubon is the mother of a baby whose remains were found in rural Audubon County last November. The recent I-S-U graduate says she placed the dead infant in the remote location after delivering it stillborn on her own in early September.

The infant’s body was found November Eighth by hunters checking trap lines four miles southeast of Kimballton, in the southwestern part of Audubon County. The Audubon County Sheriff’s Department has not yet decided whether charges will be filed.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts
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