Week in Iowa, Dec. 22, 2024: Recap of news from across the state

Iowa county bans wind, solar projects: The Cerro Gordo County Board of Supervisors last Monday voted unanimously to prohibit utility-scale wind, solar and battery energy developments in rural Cerro Gordo County.

The county already had a moratorium on utility-scale renewable energy projects, put in place in May 2023. Last week, the county made the moratorium permanent.

Several counties in Iowa have tightened restrictions on renewables, or at least certain categories of renewables — particularly wind — making large projects untenable.

Woodbury County, for instance, has visited and revisited the issue on multiple occasions, with the end result that vast swaths of the county are off-limits for turbines. Shelby County passed a moratorium on wind and solar systems earlier this year. In Washington County, supervisors this month approved an effective ban on wind projects, allowing them only under certain circumstances that limits the chances of a new wind development to practically zero.

Parish merger: The Catholic parishes in Sioux County and the communities of Alton, Granville and Hospers are merging into the combined St. Donatus Parish effective at the start of the year.

The Diocese of Sioux City, which includes the St. Donatus parishes, said a precipitous loss of priests and declining participation in Mass prompted the parish merger and numerous others in the 24-county diocese.

In the last year or two, the diocese completed "canonical mergers" of parishes in Spencer and Hartley; Akron, Hawarden, Sioux Center and Rock Valley; and Manson, Rockwell City and Lake City. The diocese also is working on, or will soon begin, mergers of the parishes of Larchwood and Rock Rapids; Sibley and Sheldon; Estherville, Graettinger and Emmetsburg; Salix and Onawa; Holstein and Cherokee; and Spirit Lake and Milford.

Water cooler

Bird flu victims: Geese and swan populations at Sweet Marsh, a wetland northeast of Tripoli in northern Iowa, have been devastated by a bird flu outbreak.

Jason Auel, the wildlife management biologist who oversees Sweet Marsh, confirmed the disease earlier this month. It began with a few sickly geese, and a mass die-off began rather suddenly. The total number of dead birds is not known.

The mild winter weather is believed to be contributing to the outbreak.

The first known human case of bird flu in the state was detected this month in a poultry worker in northwest Iowa.

Odds and ends

Sweepstakes scams: Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird is cautioning Iowans to be aware of sweepstakes scams after helping a central Iowa couple save more than $16,000 from a scamming attempt.

Sweepstakes scams are when scammers use the promise of a prize to get someone’s money or personal information. These scams typically take place over the phone, where scammers usually ask individuals to pay money or provide personal and financial account information to receive a prize, which actually is nonexistent.

Last month, Bird’s office helped the couple after a scammer called the 72-year-old husband, telling him he won a Publishers Clearing House prize of $3.5 million, plus $5,000 a week for life, according to a news release from the office.

He was instructed to pay $16,340 in up-front fees and taxes, leading him to mail a cashier's check to a Miami address provided by the scammer.

The man’s wife and daughter learned what happened and contacted their son-in-law, who was at a training for Iowa county attorneys. The son-in-law spoke with an investigator from the Iowa Attorney General’s Office about the scam and they were able, working with a postal inspector, to intercept the package and return it to the couple.

Bird encouraged Iowans to call her office at 1-888-777-4590 if they or someone they know is suspicious of a sweepstakes scam.

More in the news

Starbucks strike: Unionized Starbucks workers protested on Christmas Eve, including in Davenport and Iowa City, asking for higher wages.

Starting Dec. 20, union workers began protesting at some of the franchise's largest locations in Seattle, Los Angeles and Chicago, with additional locations joining the strike each day since, including two in Omaha.

On social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, the Starbucks Workers United union called it "the strike before Christmas." Among the complaints is that Starbucks is not holding up its end of the bargain by securing livable wages for employees.

Alexis Miller, a union barista in Davenport, said the union was able to negotiate a $15 minimum wage last year and yearly raises for employees based on how long they were with the company. However, Miller called the percentages "pathetic" and said the average raise at the Davenport store was about 30 cents.

Starbucks released a statement Dec. 20, claiming the unions' demands were not feasible, considering the pay and benefits employees already receive.

Special Senate election: Voters in parts of Scott, Clinton and Jackson counties will vote in a special election Jan. 28 for a seat in the Iowa Senate, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Monday.

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The former senator for District 35, Chris Cournoyer, was sworn in this month as the state's new lieutenant governor. Cournoyer resigned her Senate seat at that time. Candidates wanting to run for the seat have until Jan. 14 to file their paperwork. Candidates may be nominated by special convention of one of the political parties or collect signatures and file as a no-party candidate.