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Cedar Falls boy gains 90,000 Twitter followers by petting dogs

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Kidd with Gunner

A northeast Iowa boy has amassed a tremendous, international following on Twitter thanks to his simple love for dogs.

Nine-year-old Gideon Kidd of Cedar Falls has a website that features photos of himself petting a variety of canines at www.ivepetthatdog.com. It all started when he created a blog when he was seven, with the help of his mom.

“I just thought of it and I love dogs and I wanted to show the world these amazing creatures,” Kidd says.

At the suggestion of his mom, Kidd started posting pictures of the dogs he met on Twitter instead of just the website, and now, @IvePetThatDog has more than 90,000 followers.

Each photo is accompanied by a few sentences about the dogs, just basic questions he’ll ask the owner or caretaker.

“For starters, can I pet your dog and what’s his name?” Kidd says. “Then, I ask about the dog, like, where did you get the dog, how old is your dog, what type of breed, your dog’s personality, any funny stories? Does he like playing? Any favorite toys?”

Besides dogs in his neighborhood, Kidd meets new dogs at places like the farmers market or the Cedar Bend Humane Society. He and his mom go out nearly every day to “get” a dog.

Rachel Braunigan says her son is “extremely social” and she thought it would be a good way for him to meet people.

“He said he wanted to take pictures of all the dogs he met and I was confused at first,” Braunigan says. “Then, he said he wanted to put them up for people to see and I said, ‘Like a website?’ and he said, ‘Yeah!’ So, we decided to try it and I didn’t think it would last this long.”

After being featured on “The Today Show,” Kidd’s number of followers on Twitter bounded from the hundreds into the tens of thousands. Why is it so popular?

“I think it’s just the simplicity of it,” Braunigan says. “It’s a boy, a dog and a short story. It’s not an opinion. It’s nothing polarizing. It’s just the simplicity and people love dogs.” Braunigan says she monitors her son’s online activities. “Everything he posts I’m there to make sure it’s okay, so he doesn’t see things I don’t want him to see and I monitor who he follows,” she says. “It’s such a surreal experience.”

The two made their comments on the Iowa Public Radio program “Talk of Iowa.”

Thanks to Charity Nebbe, Iowa Public Radio

Iowa pork producer donates 30 tons of pork loins to state’s needy

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Today marks the start of a two-week effort to feed the needy in Iowa called “Haul Out Hunger.”

The state’s largest pork producer will be filling freezers at food banks, pantries, schools and churches.

Allyson Ladd, spokeswoman for the Iowa Falls-based Iowa Select Farms, says they’ll be delivering boneless pork loins by the ton.

“School is out for summer so food pantry supplies are at an all-time low,” Ladd says. “We schedule our donations so that it’s timely and so these pantries can have access to fresh, high-quality, protein-packed products like pork when families need it most.”

Ladd says the total donation will be around 60,000 pounds of pork, or about 30 tons.

“The pantries really appreciate the five-pound pork loins we donate,” Ladd says. “From each pork loin, families are going to get about 24 servings of pork, so when it’s all said and done, we’ll have donated about 292,000 servings of pork for families in need here in Iowa.”

The effort is also being made possible by the Deb and Jeff Hansen Foundation. The pork is being delivered through July 2nd.

Deliveries at many of the food pantries will be live-streamed on the Iowa Select Farms Facebook page.

By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City

Iowa astronaut Peggy Whitson announces retirement after record career

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Peggy Whitson.

A record-breaking astronaut from southwest Iowa has retired from NASA, effective today.

Fifty-eight-year-old Peggy Whitson started her career at the agency in 1986 and was selected to the astronaut corps 10 years later. Whitson, who was born in Mount Ayr and raised on a farm near Beaconsfield, was honored earlier this year at the Iowa Statehouse.

“It’s really a fantastic honor to be back here and to have you guys honor me like this. It’s very special,” Whitson said during remarks on the House floor. “I will tell you that I never forget my Iowa roots.” Iowa legislators, in April, passed a resolution praising Whitson — who spent 665 days in space — a record for a U.S. astronaut.

“Everyone’s always asking what made me successful and I would have to say that learning the work ethic of a farmer was key to that,” Whitson said. “My parents – the hardest-working people I know and being from Iowa has been a fantastic experience for me and one I’m very proud of.” In an interview with Radio Iowa from the space station in December of 2016, Whitson talked about Christmas in zero gravity. While gazing down at the oceans, clouds and continents rushing past, Whitson said it brought new meaning to the phrase Peace on Earth.

“I think the perspective of our planet here is very special and it does provide you with the sense that there are no boundaries, that we’re a planet, we are a people,” Whitson said. “It reinforces the fact that we should be together and at peace.” Whitson was the International Space Station’s first science officer and its first woman commander. In addition to the space endurance record, Whiston logged more EVAs — or spacewalks — than any other woman.

The retirement was made public today in an announcement from NASA that included comments from those Whitson worked with.

“Peggy Whitson is a testament to the American spirit,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. “Her determination, strength of mind, character, and dedication to science, exploration, and discovery are an inspiration to NASA and America. We owe her a great debt for her service and she will be missed. We thank her for her service to our agency and country.”

“It has been the utmost honor to have Peggy Whitson represent our entire NASA Flight Operations team,” said Brian Kelly, director of Flight Operations at Johnson. “She set the highest standards for human spaceflight operations, as well as being an outstanding role model for women and men in America and across the globe. Godspeed, Peg.”

(Radio Iowa’s Matt Kelley and O. Kay Henderson contributed to this story)

 

This is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day

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Iowa has one of the nation’s oldest populations and the elderly face increasing threats from crooks — who sometimes turn out to be people they trusted. This is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day.

Amy Ouphachack is an elder rights specialist with the Elderbridge Agency on Aging, based in Fort Dodge. “We work with local law enforcement and DHS in serving those who have been referred to our program either through financial exploitation, self neglect or abuse in general,” Ouphachack says.

Each year, as many as five-million older Americans are abused, neglected or exploited. They lose $2.5 billion — or more — each year, money that could be used to pay for housing, food and medical care. It’s estimated only one in five of these crimes are discovered.

Through the Elder Rights Program, Ouphachack handles cases around central Iowa. “The program is voluntary so we generally go in with a soft approach and explain why we’re there and what we can do to help them,” she says. “We keep in contact with the local law enforcement and DHS. We get a lot of referrals from them as well.”

Ouphachack says these cases can happen anywhere, from an individual’s own home to a nursing home to a church. “A recent case I did a consult on was from Rippey where she was power of attorney for her mother,” she says. “She noticed her mother wrote a check for $25,000 to a man at church and couldn’t explain what it was for.”

Proclamations on Elder Abuse Awareness Day will be signed by the mayors in several Iowa communities today, including Fort Dodge, Carroll and Spencer.

(Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City contributed to this report.)

 

Webster City native’s thesis turns into book of poetry

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A central Iowa native is releasing a book of poetry, his first. Nathanael Tagg, originally from Webster City, is the author of “Animal Virtue.”

“There’s about 50 poems in it and it started out as my thesis when I was at Rutgers,” Tagg says. “My capstone project was to write a book-length work of poetry. After I graduated, I didn’t think it was done and didn’t want to publish it yet, so I spent a couple more years revising it.”

Tagg is now an associate professor of English at Cecil College in Maryland. “I’m influenced by Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, some of the classic poets, but also more contemporary writers like Thomas Lux. He’s one of my favorites because he writes really accessible, funny poems,” Tagg says. “You don’t have to have an MA in English to understand and appreciate his stuff.”

Like his literary heroes, Tagg says he aims to make his poems easily understandable without a lot of pretext. “I think that comes through in my writing,” Tag says. “I’m trying to write to communicate. I’m okay with a little bit of

Nathanael Tagg

mystery but hopefully there’s a layer of meaning in each poem that any intelligent reader can pick up on and appreciate.”

The book is being published by Word Tech Editions and it can be ordered through Amazon and at Barnes and Noble.com.  Tagg will appear in Webster City to read excerpts from his book on June 28th, with another reading tentatively planned in Orange City later in the summer.

(By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)

 

 

Work on Cedar Rapids flood protection continues a decade after 2008 devastation

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The Sinclair Levee built of flood protection in Cedar Rapids includes a bike path on top.

While it has been 10 years since the Cedar River crested at a record flood level of 31 feet to swamp Cedar Rapids, the work on building flood protection still continues.

Assistant City Manager, Sandi Fowler, says high water again two years ago showed the need to keep working. “Certainly we showed in the 2016 flood fight that with Hesco Barriers and berms and a lot of work underground and the stormwater system, that we are able to protect to a certain level. That was a 22 foot crest — but we know we need permanent flood protection,” Fowler says.

Part of the fight has been securing federal dollars to help erect a $375 million permanent flood protection system. “We continue to have lots and lots of conversations to secure the federal funding through many avenues, including the Water Resources Development Act,” Fowler says. “We feel confident that some day the federal government — maybe sooner than later — the federal government will come through with their piece. A piece of it. We certainly have a lot of funding pieces in place.”

Flooded homes in 2008.

She says one of the things they discussed early on was creating flood control that integrated into the communities along the river. Fowler says you can see how the planning and discussions have followed through on that idea. “We just opened the Sinclair levee, it has a bike trail on top of it so you can see the scenic area of Czech Village and NewBo from the top of the levy. So, we want to make sure as we build this flood protection it is going to ensure the economic investment in our community and the protection of homes and businesses,” Fowler says.

Fowler says while flooding is a fact of life along the river — people didn’t want big cement walls between them and the water. “We heard that loud and clear from the neighborhoods and from the community as a whole,” according to Fowler. “We want the flood protection to integrate into the neighborhood. We want it to be transparent, look like the neighborhood that it is in. We don’t want to be cut off from the river.”

She says it’s a part of their heritage. “We’re a river community and we want to make sure that we still celebrate the river as a part of our community — which means exactly that — how do you interact with the river at the same time that you are making sure that you are protecting yourself when things go poorly with it,” Fowler explains. She says they’ve managed to do that so far with the improvements made.

Fowler says they have two pump stations that really are big part of protecting our community from the underground river flowing back into the neighborhoods. She says they also have underground pieces in place in the Czech Village and are building a levee there. “We are about ready to kick off the extension of the Quaker Oats flood wall to protect that big industry in our community. So, there’s a lot of really positive things that are happening that are real flood protection, and we’re really excited about that.”

Fowler says the flood protection goes along with the buyouts of homes in the flood areas to ensure that residents don’t have to go through the same types of losses they suffered in the 2008 flooding.

 

Cedar Rapids marks 10th anniversary of the historic flood

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Aerial view of the 2008 flooding.

Residents of Cedar Rapids are marking the 10th anniversary of record flooding when the Cedar River swallowed up huge portions of the city.

There’s a dedication ceremony planned for the new Northwest Gateway & Memorial Plaza. Assistant City Manager, Sandi Fowler, says the plaza leads into the Time Check neighborhood and includes markers that show the water levels of the flooding

“It also has some images of the houses and families, the actual neighborhood that was there before the 2008 flood,” Fowler says. Fowler says that neighborhood is a good example of how the city responded following the flooding.

“So many of the families were taken out of harms way with the purchase houses in the area that was flooded and so hard hit,” Fowler says. “There’s green space where generations of families had grown up in that area. That is an area that is seeing new housing in areas that are redeveloping as neighborhoods.” Other neighborhoods have also changed in the 10 years.

“Our Kingston Village neighborhood is just bustling with downtown housing now and new commercial areas. And then what people are most familiar with in the last 10 years is the development of the NewBo neighborhood along with Czech Village,” according to Fowler, “really coming back from the flood in a different way than it had been before as a real cultural center, a neighborhood commercial hub — a vibrant area that people go to.” The downtown area of Cedar Rapids has also undergone many changes since the flood waters inundated and surrounded the buildings there in 2008.

The 2008 flooding inundated several Cedar Rapids neighborhoods with water.

“We surpassed most commercial comebacks from natural disasters like this,” Fowler says, “but it was still incredibly devastating. What we’re seeing downtown is incredible regrowth. The city of Cedar Rapids actually ended up purchasing the hotel, the convention center was rebuilt, the arena was redone,” she says. Fowler says talks started about rebuilding soon after the flood waters went down. She says they had to deal with the devastation, but think to the future.

“We never want to diminish how much loss there was. Really families lost everything in a lot of cases,” Fowler explains. “And you never want to diminish that and you want to make sure as you build back — and we did this through a lot of different planning efforts and development efforts — you are going to build better than it was before. You are not just going to put things back they way they were.” She says the efforts to rebuild and include more flood protection and new ideas has helped them overcome the loss from 2008.

“A lot of momentum has happened as a result of that and you see a lot of pride in the community. And those folks who were so devastated by the flood have absolutely been a part of that in rebuilding the community. And I think have a lot of pride in the city as well,” Fowler says.

The plaza features a memorial plaque with the story of the neighborhood. The center of the plaza has a blue light that will shine at night and is symbolic of the blue porch lights that were used to indicate that a home was occupied when the 2008 flood waters receded. The plaza also features a distinctive gateway that will welcome residents or visitors to the site, and a privately-funded sculpture West Side Rising that symbolizes the recovery of the neighborhood and the residents and business leaders.

The commemorative ceremony at Northwest Gateway & Memorial Plaza is today at 2:00 p.m.

(Photos courtesy of the City of Cedar Rapids.)

 

CDC expands recall of cut fruit packaged in Indiana, sold in Iowa

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Federal officials are warning consumers and retailers in Iowa about packaged fruit that’s linked to a salmonella outbreak.

There’s a recall for sliced watermelon, honeydew melon, cantaloupe, and other cut fruit that was packaged by Caito Foods of Indianapolis, Indiana. The fruit was sold in a plastic container shaped like a clamshell. Costco, Trader Joe’s, Walmart, Walgreens and Whole Foods are among the retailers that sold the products.

Iowa was just added to the initial recall which covered four other states.

The Centers for Disease Control has not updated its mapping of cases connected to the outbreak. The agency reports that by late May, 60 people in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan were sickened by salmonella linked to these fruit products. Half of those struck by the illness were hospitalized. No deaths have been reported.

(Photo from CDC website)

Report: Farmers are still using too many antibiotics in pigs

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A report from the Natural Resources Defense Council says hog farmers aren’t doing enough to cut the use of antibiotics in pigs.

Report author David Wallinga says 37% of the antibiotics that are given to livestock go to pigs, drugs that are also critical to human health.

Willinga says new restrictions, in effect since January of 2017, prohibit antibiotic use for growth promotion.

“Regardless, they’re using these antibiotics now the same way they were before,” Wallinga says. “They’re using them at low doses, routinely, added to feed or drinking water and oftentimes when there’s no sick animals present.”

The report says antibiotic use in pork production continues to threaten the critical drugs’ effectiveness in people. That’s because low-dose, routine use allows bacteria to develop resistance.

Tom Marsteller, with Des Moines-based Kemin Industries, says consumer demand as well as changes to government rules about using antibiotics in livestock are driving producers to other treatments.

“The end result is better stewardship of our antibiotic use, use when necessary, when the animals are sick and need the antibiotics,” Marsteller says, “but that means then we’ll use less antibiotics in total, which then should be good for animal health and human health long-term.”

The report cited Denmark and the Netherlands as examples of places that have drastically reduced reliance on antibiotics in pork production by setting and meeting goals.

The report urges consumers to continue pressuring restaurants and grocery stores to offer meat raised without antibiotics.

Several animal health companies are promoting alternatives to antibiotics, including at the World Pork Expo in Des Moines, which concluded on Friday.

Reporting by Amy Mayer, Iowa Public Radio

 

 

 

Dubuque mayor hears from top Facebook official during conference

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Ray Buol

At least two Iowa mayors are at the U.S. Conference of Mayors which will conclude its three-day run in Boston today.

Mayor Roy Buol of Dubuque says one of the weekend’s keynote speakers was Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, who announced a plan to train one-million people and small business owners in social media use nationwide by the year 2020.

“Social media is here to stay and keeps expanding,” Mayor Buol says. “There’s got to be some regulation on truth and fact and they’re certainly working toward that. On the privacy issue, I think Facebook is front and center on trying to address that and make sure people’s information is not shared when they don’t want it shared.” Buol says he’s inspired at these meetings by other mayors who talk about redeveloping and revitalizing downtowns, especially when the community is involved in the planning process.

“I was told by a previous mayor that no one would ever live downtown in Dubuque,” Buol says, “and you know today, it’s a vibrant hub again of our community with 8,000 people employed there.” Buol is in his 13th year as Dubuque’s mayor and he served for a decade on the city council before becoming mayor. After many successes in Dubuque over the 23 years he’s been in office, Buol says he sometimes finds himself in more of a teacher role than that of a learner at the conference, as other mayors want to know his secrets.

“Dubuque has done a lot of great redevelopment,” Buol says. “They’re interested in how we did it and how we made it affordable to do. I talk to them about the different grant opportunities that we’ve availed ourselves of.” Over the years, Buol says Dubuque and its partners have landed more than 550-million dollars in grants for a host of redevelopment projects. Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie is also attending the Boston conference.