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Capitol Notebook: Record-setting attendance for 2024 Iowa State Fair
Also, Iowa joins Department of Justice lawsuit against Ticketmaster
DES MOINES — The 1.18 million people who attended the recently concluded 2024 Iowa State Fair set an all-time attendance mark in the event’s 170-year history.
According to fair officials, 1,182,682 people attended the 2024 Iowa State Fair, breaking the previous high of 1,170,375, which was established in 2019.
The record-setting performance also included a new single-day attendance mark.
According to fair officials, 128,732 people attended the fair on Saturday, Aug. 10. That was the highest-ever single-day attendance mark, surpassing the 128,298 people who attended the second Saturday of the 2022 Iowa State Fair.
On that record-setting Aug. 10 date, all three parking lots at the Iowa State Fairgrounds were full for the first time ever, fair officials said.
Also, there were eight new Iowa State Fair records set in the 4-H and FFA Sale of Champions, including the all-time record for all species, according to fair officials. The Grand Champion 4-H Market Steer, exhibited by Mason Shalla of Riverside, sold for $175,000.
Proceeds from the Sale of Champions benefit the Iowa Foundation for Agricultural Advancement scholarship fund.
The Bacon Cheeseburger Eggroll, from Winn & Sara’s Kitchen, was the top vote-getter in the Iowa State Fair 2024 People’s Choice Best New Food Contest. The Eggroll won over the Iowa Sm’Oak’ed Roll from Whatcha Smokin? BBQ and Lobster Corn Dog from Destination Grille.
The 2025 Iowa State Fair is scheduled for Aug. 7-17. Those are the earliest dates an Iowa State Fair can be scheduled.
Iowa AG Bird joins feds in lawsuit against Ticketmaster
Iowa has joined 38 other states and the District of Columbia in a civil antitrust lawsuit led by the U.S. Department of Justice against Live Nation-Ticketmaster for monopolization and other unlawful conduct.
The suit alleges Live Nation Entertainment Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Ticketmaster, have unlawfully built a monopoly that stifles competition in the live entertainment industry and inflated ticket prices for U.S. purchasers.
The lawsuit, which includes a request for structural relief, seeks to restore competition in the live concert industry, provide better choices at lower prices for fans, and open venue doors for working musicians and other performance artists.
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, in a news release, said Live Nation has built a monopoly by entering into exclusive deals with the country’s largest venues to ensure that all tickets sold are through the company’s platform. As a result, Bird said Live Nation manages more than 400 artists and controls 60 percent of the concert promotions and 80 percent of primary ticketing at major venues, along with controlling more than 265 concert venues across North America.
Bird, in a statement, said her office is suing “to uphold the law and ensure that no American has to grapple with inflated prices or poor customer service because Live Nation and Ticketmaster have stifled competition.”
The lawsuit claims Live Nation and Ticketmaster violated federal and state antitrust laws.
Iowa AG sues excavators for violating One Call law
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird announced her office has filed lawsuits against contractors in Linn, Dallas and Lee counties for damaging underground utility lines by digging without first having the area properly marked.
Iowa law requires homeowners, contractors and professional excavators to notify Iowa One Call at least 48 hours in advance of digging to ensure all underground utility lines are accurately marked in the area of a planned excavation to prevent damage or injury.
Excavators who violate the law are subject to a civil penalty of up to $10,000 per day related to natural gas and hazardous liquid pipelines, and up to $1,000 per day involving other underground utility lines. Violators also may be liable for the costs to repair damage they cause.
“Always call before you dig,” Bird said in a statement. “That one call may be the difference that saves someone from injury or from danger to a community.”
The suit alleges Klima Drainage of Linn County allegedly changed the location of its original locate request for an excavation to a new, unmarked area with an aboveground gas pipeline marker near the new location where Klima was digging, making it evident that there was a gas line in the area that needed to be marked. Klima agreed to settle the case and pay a civil penalty of $17,500.
Howser Concrete in Dallas County did not place a locate request for the excavation of a basement and damaged an electrical line while digging, according to the suit. Howser agreed to resolve the case and pay a civil penalty of $750.
In Lee County, the AG’s office alleges Eric Fortune Jr. dug a trench without having underground utilities located and marked. During the excavation, Fortune’s equipment hit and damaged a 1-inch natural gas service line. Fortune then attempted to repair the gas line himself instead of notifying the operator or appropriate authorities.
The Iowa One Call Notification Center can be reached online at www.iowaonecall.com or by phone at 811, or toll-free at 800-292-8989. The center is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
To report an alleged One Call violation, go to: https://www.iowaattorneygeneral.gov/onecall/onecall-complaints-and-enforcement.
Feenstra calls on USDA to launch initiative to combat bird flu
Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, of Hull, led a group of House Agriculture Committee colleagues in a letter to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to establish a strategic initiative to combat the spread of bird flu in Iowa and nationwide.
More than 100 million birds have been affected by highly pathogenic avian influenza, colloquially known as “bird flu,” across 48 states since the outbreak began in 2022. Nearly 25 percent have been in Iowa, according to Feenstra, “devastating producers, destroying flocks, and impacting entire communities.”
Feenstra’s office estimates the financial impact will surpass the $3.3 billion in damages from a previous outbreak from 2014 to 2015.
In the letter, Feenstra and fellow House Agriculture Committee members call on the USDA to investigate enhanced biosecurity measures, explore potential vaccination efforts, and discover more efficient and cost-sensitive ways to destroy infected birds.
“The uncertainty that HPAI causes to the entire agricultural community is unsustainable, and we need to be doing more to adequately protect our flocks,” Freenstra said in a statement.
Western Iowa’s 4th Congressional District, which Feenstra represents, is among the top egg-producing and top poultry-producing districts in the country.
The lawmakers, in the letter, state the deadly and costly disease requires a “new, dynamic approach to bring long-lasting benefits to our farmers and producers.”
The letter urges the USDA to work with Congress, land-grant universities, dairy and poultry producers, state agencies, the Food and Drug Administration and Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to develop additional goals.
First housing grants in disaster recovery program awarded
More than $7.2 million has been awarded to support the construction of 175 single-family and multifamily homes across 11 projects in Iowa communities recovering from natural disasters, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced.
The awards are the first wave from the State Disaster Recovery New Housing Grant Program. They will help build new homes in Cherokee, Crescent, Minden, Rock Rapids, Rock Valley and Spencer, among other Iowa communities.
“Today’s awards are about more than building housing. They’re about restoring the sense of home that is vital to these disaster-impacted communities,” Reynolds said in a news release. “This support will help them begin to heal and find stability once again.”
The State Disaster Recovery New Housing Grant, announced by Reynolds last month, provides grant funding up to $1 million to developers who build single-family homes, duplexes and town homes in Iowa counties that fall under the federal disaster declaration. Preference is given to single-family, detached units, duplexes and townhouse-style developments.
The program is funded by $10 million of federal pandemic relief assistance funding, and is being administered by the Iowa Economic Development Authority.
Gazette-Lee Des Moines Bureau
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