*Early voting is underway in all three Siouxland states. Political party groups are gearing up to inform and turnout Northwest Iowa voters with events that will occur in late October.
The Northwest Iowa Republican Women organization will hold a candidate forum at the Sergeant Bluff Community Center, in Sergeant Bluff, on Tuesday evening, October 22. That event will be to hear from the Republican Woodbury County nominees for various positions.
Looking back on the past weekend, Woodbury County Democrats hosted state party chairwoman Rita Hart on Saturday, as part of their KnockTober events of door-to-door outreach to potential voters in Sioux City.
*A long-time notable fixture in the Siouxland news world has died, as KTIV television Sports Director Brad Pautsch passed away on October 21.
Pautsch was 58, and he hailed from Siouxland, as a native of Early, Iowa.
Pautsch won many reporting awards over the years, and KTIV officials said he loved covering sports and connecting with viewers.
He had battled brain cancer since March 2021, and after surgery and chemotherapy, he returned to the KTIV sports team, where he had first started working in 1990.
However, the cancer returned, and he recently entered hospice care. Pautsch is survived by his wife Sally, and three children, Joseph, Mary and Reggie.
*In other news, one of the most destructive tree pests in North America has now reached all 99 counties in Iowa over the last decade.
Emerald ash borer first showed up in Iowa in 2010, and federal officials recently confirmed the invasive beetle in Emmet County, making it the 99th county in which it has appeared.
Emerald ash borer kills ash trees, which make up roughly 20 percent of total street tree canopy in the average Iowa community. In some communities, ash trees represent over 50 percent.
Mike Kintner is the emerald ash borer and spongy moth outreach and regulatory coordinator with the Iowa Department of Agriculture.
“After emerald ash borer moves through a community, you can really see the impact it has, not only aesthetically, but also financially. It can kind of put a burden on municipalities with resources and also homeowners, too.” Kintner said. 13 SECS
Kintner said preventive insecticide treatment is an option for healthy ash trees. But once they show severe symptoms – like dead branches in the top third of the tree – recovery is less likely.
State officials encourage replacing dead ash trees with a wide variety of tree species.
*Additionally, the American Civil Liberties Union chapter that serves South Dakota has a new executive director, and she has Sioux City roots.
As of this week, the role is held by Libby Skarin.
Skarin is a graduate of the University of Iowa school of law and has spent the last decade working with that region’s ACLU chapter. Before joining the ACLU, Skarin previously worked with the Sioux City Human Rights Commission.
She said with South Dakota’s current situation, it’s hard to pinpoint any one challenge to prioritize.
“Given the fact we’re in October of 2024 and we have a huge election coming up in November, I would say our biggest priority in this moment is voting rights," Skarin said.
"LGBTQ and Two Spirit issues have been a big thing we’ve seen a lot of work on in South Dakota over the last 10 years. A lot of the free speech issues we’ve been tending to see over the past few years have really arisen at the intersection of free speech and racial justice, indigenous justice.”
