Pavement created from soybeans? ISU dedicates a new pilot plant facility tomorrow to produce bio-polymers from soybean oil.The facility helps companies that want to eventually replace petroleum-based polymers in their asphalt paving products with bio-renewable polymers. The 5-million dollar facility took 18 months to design and construct.
Des Moines will save nearly 4 million dollars on demolition of an aging parking garage at 7th and Grand. The bid accepted by the city council for the demo project included allowing the recycling of the materials in the current structure. The demolition will start this fall.
A dozen Jasper County farmers are opposing plans for a diamond interchange at the intersections of state highway 330 in the county. IDOT says the interchange will help prevent crashes and fatalities…but the construction will wipe out the farmers’ homesteads.
West Des Moines’s new streamlined sidewalk improvement program is helping to save the city and residents money, and get sidewalks repaired more efficiently and quickly. Homeowners are now allowed to use city-approved materials to make repairs or replace sidewalk panels in front of their property, instead of waiting for the city to fix damaged walks.
The housing future of Urbandale will be explored on Thursday at a public meeting at Walker Johnston Park. The 6 PM session is inspired by a technical assistance grant from the EPA to see what the city plans to do to preserve and develop affordable housing as it promotes job growth.
An Ames company is getting funds from the Iowa Economic Development Authority to help develop a business that assists 911 operators and police. Priority 5 created a system that assists departments in processing camera feeds, sensors, alarms and calls that come in.
The state utilities board says it has received 37-hundred objections to plans for the Dakota Access Oil Pipeline, and 560 letters of support. Most of the objections aim at letting the out-of-state utility take private land for the pipeline. The board is expected to make a decision on the pipeline by the end of the year.
Dozens of Republican lawmakers are asking the state attorney general to investigate abortion providers in Iowa to make sure they’re not selling aborted fetal tissue. The push is in the wake of the release of secretly-recorded videos of Planned Parenthood officials discussing how they provided aborted fetal organs for research.
A pair of Iowa men accused of threatening the World Pokemon competition on social media are being held without bond in Boston. There was a little more to it than that…police say they found guns and ammunition in Kevin Norton and James Stumbo’s vehicle while they were trying to register at the event. A hearing is set for September 1st.
The Iowa State Fair hit a record attendance rate this year. The fair this year drew in more than a million-117-thousand people, breaking the 2008 record of a million-80-thousand. Great weather, visiting politicians, high-profile music acts and the change in the school start date are all credited for the increase.
