Gazette Daily News Briefing, October 27
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for October 27, 2023.
There will be a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms Friday morning, but it should be a clear and sunny day according to the National Weather Service. However, the temperatures will continue their decline, with a high of 58 degrees earlier in the day falling to around 46 degrees by 2 p.m.
Iowa voters in 50 counties will be voting Nov. 7 on whether their school districts or local governments can issue bonds to fund projects.
General obligation bonds are a mechanism schools, cities and counties use to borrow money to fund large-scale, long-term infrastructure projects. Forty-five local government and school entities are asking voters to approve the spending.
School districts make up the vast majority of the bond questions on ballots, requesting approval for a combined $1.27 billion in bond issues across 35 districts, according to data compiled by Iowans for Tax Relief.
In comparison, ten cities and counties are asking for a combined $453.7 million in bond issues.
Iowans for Tax Relief, which lobbies for tax reductions at the state and local levels, aggregated the bond issues on its website in an effort to educate voters about what will be on their ballot, according to Chris Hagenow, the group’s president and a former Republican legislator.
While the group acknowledged some projects are necessary in growing districts, it questioned the need for many of the districts in the state to borrow money for new buildings or updated athletic facilities.
Hagenow said voters should look at their local bonds on a case-by-case basis.
The most widespread and third-most severe outbreak on record of a disease transmitted by biting flies is plaguing Iowa deer this fall.
Epizootic hemorrhagic disease, or EHD, is a viral disease spread to deer by biting flies called midges or no-see-ums. The disease has been in the southeastern and northeastern United States for decades, and was first discovered in Iowa in 2012. It’s often but not always fatal. It cannot infect humans.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has received 1,074 reports of suspected EHD-related deer deaths so far this year, said state deer biologist Jace Elliott. Actual mortality may be even higher considering unreported deaths.
Reports are most concentrated in Southeast Iowa around Henry and Van Buren counties, which each have more than 100 reports. Clayton County in Northeast Iowa has topped 100 reports as well. Counties with the most reports typically also have larger deer populations. The vast majority of counties are seeing less than 10 reports each.
EHD is seasonal, peaking in the late summer and early fall. Hard frosts kill the midges. This year’s warmer fall prolonged the lives of the infectious midges and may have contributed to the outbreak, giving extra opportunities for the disease to spread.
The first hard freeze is expected to hit Iowa by early next week, according to the National Weather Service Quad Cities bureau.
