From the Associated Press (11:20 a.m.):
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Month by month, more of the roughly 40 million Americans who get help buying groceries through the federal food stamp program are seeing their benefits plunge. The reductions come even as the nation struggles with the biggest increase in food costs in decades. The payments to low-income individuals and families are dropping as governors end COVID-19 disaster declarations and opt out of a still-ongoing federal program that made their states eligible for dramatic increases in SNAP benefits, also known as food stamps. The increased benefit were in response to surging unemployment after the COVID-19 pandemic swept over the country. The result is that depending on the politics of a state, people find themselves eligible for significantly different levels of help buying food.
BEDFORD, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say a young woman and a 1-year-old boy were found dead inside a burning house in southwestern Iowa this week. Television station KCCI reports that firefighters were called to the home east of Bedford in Taylor County around 7 a.m. Wednesday. Fire crews found the bodies of a 21-year-old woman and the baby inside the home. Authorities have not yet released their names. Fire officials are investigating the cause of the fire.
DYERSVILLE, Iowa (AP) – The new owners of the “Field of Dreams” site in Iowa plan to use $80 million in private investment to make the popular tourist attraction a destination for youth baseball and softball tournaments. The Des Moines Register reports that Go the Distance said in a news release Thursday that the money will be used to build baseball and softball fields, team dormitories and a hotel, among other improvements. Go the Distance’s CEO is longtime Chicago White Sox star and hall-of-famer Frank Thomas. The site in rural Dyersville, Iowa, has long been a popular destination, since the 1989 Kevin Costner movie.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Newspaper publisher Lee Enterprises is facing renewed pressure from a hedge fund to speed up its transition to digital publishing and consider adding new digital-savvy leaders to its board. This after successfully fighting off a hostile takeover from a different hedge fund. Lee’s largest shareholder, Cannell Capital, this week disclosed buying nearly 20,000 more of the company’s shares, giving it a 9.1% stake. The fund’s head, Carlo Cannell, said he thinks Lee needs new board members and executives with experience running a digital publishing business.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A lawyer for former Democratic Congresswoman Abby Finkenauer has told the Iowa Supreme Court that a lower court judge was wrong to kick her off the June 7 primary ballot for U.S. Senate and the high court should allow her to run in June’s primary for the chance to try to unseat Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley. A panel of state officials concluded that signatures with missing or incorrect dates on Finkenauer’s nomination petitions still substantially complied with state law. But the lower court judge said a literal interpretation of the law required the signatures to be disqualified. The high court heard arguments Wednesday and must rule before Monday, when ballots must go to printers in order to be mailed on time to Iowans abroad.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Two cases of bird flu have been confirmed in U.S. zoos, but officials said they won’t order widespread euthanasia of zoo birds the way they have on farms. Agriculture Department spokesman Mike Stepien declined to release any details about the zoo cases Thursday. Many zoos across the country have closed down their aviaries and moved birds inside whenever possible to help protect them from bird flu that officials believe is primarily being spread by the droppings of wild birds. Nearly 27 million chickens and turkeys have been slaughtered in 26 states to limit the spread of bird flu during this year’s outbreak. Officials order entire flocks to be killed when the disease is found on farms.
