Olivia Cohen

Drought conditions are continuing to spread in Iowa, despite this year starting as the ninth wettest year on record after an unusually rainy spring.

But the frost should not affect the harvest, unless crops were planted late in the season.

The Iowa Department of Transportation has awarded about $16.2 million to add 28 fast-charging stations for electric vehicles along Iowa’s interstates, the first awards in the $51 million Iowa expects to receive in federal funds for the stations.

The project will include recreation enhancements at Cedar Lake and the Alliant Energy LightLine pedestrian and bicyclist bridge.

Within the last 18 months, both turbines on a Cedar County farm have been struck by lightning — and now, one of them twice.

Orange and red are bursting into Iowa’s fall landscape, but the colors this year may be muted by dry conditions. Find out when colors are expected to peak, and where best to see them.

Prohibition, a mammoth blizzard, herbicide drift damaged Iowa vines during 20th century

This September was the driest on record in 152 years

The harvest season, cooler temperatures and deer entering their mating season prompt more deer movements this fall.

Days after MidAmerican Energy deployed workers to Ohio to help restore power to customers affected by Hurricane Helene, the company announced its crews will relocate to North Carolina to assist with “repairing catastrophic grid damage” in the state.

About 150 Alliant and 70 MidAmerican line workers and crew members were sent to Virginia and Ohio, respectively, to help energy companies there restore customers’ power that was knocked out by the severe storm.

Acting assistant administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency, in Cedar Rapids, calls the project a “win-win-win.”

On a typical day, Cornell College’s cafeteria is stocked with meals that are 20 to 30 percent locally sourced. But Tuesday, all the food served to Cornell students — breakfast, lunch and dinner — came from within 150 miles of the Mount Vernon campus.

Fewer acres in the Conservation Reserve Program and bad winters contributed to declining pheasant harvests. But the 2023 pheasant harvest was still the best in 16 years.

The state previously had been ‘drought-free’ since May after four years of at least some drought conditions.