Week in Iowa Aug. 21, 2023: Recap of news from across the state

New Iowa Poll shows Trump with strong lead: Former President Donald Trump has a commanding lead over the expansive field of Republican candidates for president, according to new statewide polling. The Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa Poll shows Trump with a 23-point lead over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Trump was the choice of 42 percent of likely Iowa Republican caucus participants, followed by DeSantis with 19 percent support.

No other candidate reached double digits in the poll. South Carolina U.S. Sen. Tim Scott led the rest of the pack at 9 percent, with former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Ohio tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy in a tight pack not far behind.

Reynolds treks to the border to bash Biden: Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds joined Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republican governors Monday at the U.S.-Mexico border for a news conference to criticize President Joe Biden’s border policies, blaming him for record-high crossings, humanitarian concerns and an increase in fentanyl coming into the United States.

Reynolds joined Abbott in Eagle Pass, Texas, where that state installed a 1,000-foot-long floating barrier in July as part of a $4 billion border security initiative, Operation Lone Star.

The trip comes on the heels of Reynolds’ deployment of 109 Iowa National Guard members and state law enforcement officers to the U.S. southern border in support of Operation Lone Star, with the mission of deterring illegal border crossings and preventing the trafficking of illegal substances by cartels through Texas.

Fire at Iowa State power plant sends students home: A fire at Iowa State University’s power plant disrupted the cooling system on campus, prompting the school to move classes online and encourage students living on campus to go home for the weekend.

Ames, like the rest of the state, has been under an excessive heat warning this week amid record-setting temperatures. The National Weather Service reported the air temperature in Ames on Thursday was 94 degrees, with a heat index temperature of 107 degrees.

Iowa State has 20 residence halls, half of which include rooms that aren’t air-conditioned. Before the fire, students who live in rooms without A/C were encouraged to use cooled lounges and common spaces in each residence hall.

Landowners share frustrations, fears at pipeline hearing: Iowa landowners testified Tuesday about their fears and frustrations about a proposed carbon dioxide pipeline being built by their homes, crops and dairy cows.

The Iowa Utilities Board met this week in Fort Dodge for an evidentiary hearing expected to last multiple weeks on a proposal by Summit Carbon Solutions to build a 2,000-mile pipeline, with nearly 700 miles of it in Iowa, to transport carbon dioxide from ethanol plants to underground sequestration sites in North Dakota. Summit is one of three companies proposing CO2 pipelines through Iowa, and has asked the Iowa Utilities Board to grant it eminent domain power so the company may force easements on 973 properties in the state where landowners have not voluntarily agreed to sell access.

They said …

“We’re challenged in understanding how a carbon pipeline — to nowhere now — has the ability to meet the common good.” — Jessica Marson, of Rockford in Floyd County, on building a proposed C02 pipeline in Iowa

“He's given his heart and soul and some body parts to the program. I just like to think he’d be allowed to finish out his career, and love to have him with us here through the end of it.” — University of Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz on the one-year suspension of Iowa defensive lineman Noah Shannon following an NCAA investigation into sports wagering

Odds and ends

Ammonia tank explosion: Six people were injured Wednesday when an anhydrous ammonia tank exploded at an agricultural cooperative facility in Manchester. The cause of the explosion is under investigation, but so far it appears to have been a catastrophic tank failure, possibly exasperated by sweltering temperatures.

Tobacco settlement: Iowa will receive more than $171 million in additional payments from tobacco manufacturers under a new agreement announced Tuesday by Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird that resolves an 18-year legal dispute. Under Iowa law, 78 percent of the payments will pay down the State’s debt to bondholders and the remainder will be deposited in the State Treasury's Rebuild Iowa Infrastructure Fund.

Water cooler

Famed Iowa City diner to reopen: Iowa City's famed Hamburg Inn No. 2 — which has attracted the attention of politicians, national media and travel guides and was re-created in an episode of “The West Wing“ — will reopen in October under new management. The restaurant closed in July for the second time in a year. New owner Gold Cap Hospitality, which owns Pullman Bar & Diner and St. Burch Tavern in Iowa City, hopes to keep the staple’s cultural importance intact “with the intention of stewarding the next generation of this Iowa City institution,” the company said in a news release.

Iowa sports betting fallout: A University of Iowa men’s basketball student manager has been charged with tampering with records involving sports gambling — including allegations he bet on his own team’s games. And Iowa defensive lineman Noah Shannon is facing a one-year suspension following the NCAA’s investigation into sports wagering, which Iowa is appealing. So far, 15 current and former athletes at Iowa and Iowa State have been charged in the ongoing criminal investigation of sports betting.

Gazette-Lee Des Moines Bureau