Brian Button Fall Iowa Outdoors Magazine

News Talk 1540 KXEL, where Iowa comes to talk.

Hello, I'm Jeff Stein.

Six times each year, we are fortunate enough to view a new issue of Iowa History Journal.

The September-October issue, the fifth issue of Volume 18, was released just prior to the month of September.

And we begin this month of October by welcoming a return guest, always a privilege to speak with Michael Swanger.

Mr. Swanger is the editor and publisher of Iowa History Journal.

Of course, iowahistoryjournal.com.

Thanks so much for taking the time, sir.

The privilege is all mine.

Thank you, Jeff.

really nice bright cover, not just that you've got a red background, but very distinctive because I would suggest the cover art you chose for this issue, it's one of the most recognizable pieces of, I'll say, pop culture of the 20th century.

I agree, not only just about World War II, but you're right, the 20th century, we're talking about the We Can Do It Rosie the Riveter poster.

I think many people are familiar with that image.

that was produced by Westinghouse for the U.S.

War Production Committee in 1942 and it was to help enlist women at home in the war effort from 1942 to 1945 to more than keep the home fires burning.

Women, if you're not familiar with the story of what was taking place here at home, you're really missing a big important piece of the history of that war.

And if it wasn't for the women who enlisted, well, I shouldn't say enlisted, but who chose to go work at all these plants and manufacturing plants around the country to produce everything that all of the armed forces needed.

to fight that war, then you're missing out on a big chunk of an important part of our history, not only our nation's history, but our state's history as well.

It is the cover story.

Rosie the Riveter, women rolled up their sleeves to help US win World War II, the cover story.

And you have as the author, someone who has extensively researched this era, right down to publishing a book that many in this audience probably have on their shelves.

I would think so too, Jeff, certainly having listened to your program and learning about our state's history over the years.

Linda Bethsenderm McCann is a well-known Iowa author.

She's written several books.

I would argue that this one's...

you know, perhaps her most popular one.

I can't say that for sure.

I don't know.

I know all of everything she's written is has been well received.

But I see that she continues to speak quite a bit about Rosie the Riveter is across the state and her book's been out for for a little while now.

So yeah, like we've talked about before, if I have an opportunity

to work with an author who has a certain area of expertise on a subject, then I'm going to definitely try to do that first.

That's not to say that any of our stable of talented writers yourself included couldn't take it on, but someone who's just spent years researching it.

And again, there is not much out there other than her book about this effort in Iowa in particular.

So I was really happy that she agreed to work with us for the first time and proud to present her story.

and Linda has written many books that are tied to geography, stories of certain counties, et cetera, and those are very popular, and she speaks frequently at public libraries, other events, but this one from 2023, the book, Rosie, the Riveters of Iowa, and for that, and much of it is in this excellent article in Iowa History Journal, she talked with more than 50 women who worked as Rosies, as they were known,

And now you're going back 80 years to World War II.

And again, what an amazing experience and time in US history.

Thank goodness that she documented those stories as we know We we lose those stories unfortunately as generations pass so I'm glad that she did reach out to them and get their personal stories and just to kind of set Set things up, you know We know that when the war started after December 7th 1941 the bombing of Pearl Harbor and we declare war on Japan and and and then of course Germany and we're in the war but

What's interesting is that she kind of sets the table for this to happen She writes a little bit about how two years before the US entered the war there were 72 manufacturing firms in Iowa that claimed to be ready to quote swing immediately into war production unquote and that's an interesting little tidbit that I was not familiar with and the newspaper reported it was the Des Moines register at that time that

Des Moines had 11 factories, Davenport and Dubuque each had seven, and Burlington, Sioux City, Bettendorf and Waterloo each had five.

And obviously there in your hometown, Waterloo played a huge role in the production of things that needed to be processed for our servicemen overseas.

So it was interesting to me that the wheels had began

The wheels are already in motion before the war.

I was not familiar with that.

I thought that it was just all instant right after that, but it was already on the minds of folks who were running those plans.

Cover story in the current issue, September, October issue of Iowa History Journal, Rosie the Riveter.

The cover story is by Linda Betzinger McCann based upon her.

book on the topic of Rosie the Riveters of Iowa.

Michael Swanger, the owner and publisher of Iowa History Journal, joins us to talk about the September-October issue.

Now, this is also a time of year when you folks run a special discount, which is really helpful as we look toward the holiday season.

What's the big deal that y'all have other than the wonderfully appropriately low price for magazine subscriptions any day of the year?

Well, we're running our annual 50% off sale of all of our previous issues, Jeff, and as you and I have talked about this over the years.

Our back issues are quite collectible.

Every now and then, I'll venture on to eBay and find copies selling for $20 to $50.

It's amazing to me.

We're in our 18th year of publishing now.

And the first two years are sold out.

A few other issues have sold out.

But this time of year, it's almost like clockwork.

I think some of our readers who are fairly new subscribers, wait, they know it's a good time to get to pick up these issues because they are timeless.

We have timeless stories in them.

And when you think about it, I would say 90% of our past issues are on sale for only $2.50.

Well, a one year subscription is $19.95, which in and of itself is very reasonable, I think.

Obviously, that's a biased opinion.

But 1995 for six issues is a bargain.

You can get six issues now if you miss an entire year for only $15 and you could pick up the whole year and there's a little bit of shipping included.

But I hear from readers and especially our older readers and this is what I just it really warms my heart when I hear from grandparents and parents who say that

They not only read the magazine, but they keep it and they pass it on to their children or their grandchildren.

And a lot of times they will fill in their collection this time of year so that they have them on the shelf and they can give them to their family, to their friends, to their neighbors.

I hear about it being shared all over the place.

And I love hearing those stories.

If you go to IowaHistoryJournal.com, there's a tab right there at the top that says Previous Issues and it goes year by year and you can see the cover and you can see what the stories were.

And so if you say, yes, I'm a fairly new subscriber, I wonder what I've missed five years ago.

Well, you can certainly take a look and see if a smiling image on a cover speaks to you and place your order again.

This 50% off is good through when.

Good through the end of October.

And Jeff, I've already had a handful probably in the last week or two who have bought everything.

A few customers who've said, I ain't brand new, I want everything.

And we're happy to accommodate them and get them out to them.

So hey, they're not doing us any good sitting here in the office.

We want them in the hands of Iowans.

And one of the things, again, that we've talked about, not to harp on this, but we're not doing a good job as a state.

And this is a whole other subject about educating our children about the history of Iowa.

And I find that teachers use the magazine as

as a supplement for their instruction when they are afforded the opportunity to teach Iowa history.

And so it's when I speak to groups, especially folks who are grandparents and parents, and kind of remind them that we as a state, we as a society are failing.

our young Iowans by not teaching them our state's history.

It perks their ears, and I get a lot of people who say, well, I think I need to help do something in resolving that matter.

by our back issues and they start that trend with their children and their grandchildren.

Well, I'm one of those who has every single issue over the course of 18 years and they're a great resource sometimes just to thumb through as a reminder of things or for me as a research tool.

It's IowaHistoryJournal.com.

Subscribe and that way you don't have to worry about missing an issue.

And then after you get the issue, you can go to a number of stores and pick up second, third and eighth copies for friends and neighbors.

There's a very exhaustive list on the website.

But for those who want to pick it up in the store, I typically see it at the Barnes and Noble.

Where else might I go?

You can find it most likely at your local high V books a million, some select Mills Fleet Farm and

There's a list on our website at IowaHistoryJournal.com of retailers in your town.

It's an easy way to find it that way.

Barnes and Noble, definitely.

We're at all the Barnes and Nobles in Iowa and a few others across the border.

One of the things that I really love about the magazine is I could keep count of how many times as I page through, I say, I didn't know about that.

You know, it could almost be, it could be a counter.

Right?

Well, there are a couple of stories in this current issue where I look at it and I say, oh, no, I had no idea about that.

And one of them has to do with the Scattergood hostel.

Now, I'm familiar with the name, but I certainly did not know about what happened around the time again of World War Two.

This was fascinating to me.

Yeah, the Scattergood hostel is located, currently it's a school, it's called Friends of Scattergood, and it's located in West Branch.

It's history, the school was established in the late 30s.

But it's a wonderful story written by Jerry Harrington, who had pitched it to me about a year ago.

I had heard about it.

I knew that there was a connection to World War II, but I did not know all the details that he pulls out for this wonderful story.

But the gist of the story, Jeff, as you know, is that it became a place of refuge for European

Europeans who were trying to escape Nazi persecution during World War II.

And so there were a lot of, of course, Jewish immigrants who moved there, but it was folks from across the continent and anyone that kind of fell into that group, unfortunately, of people who were being persecuted at that time by

Nazi Germany, we're talking about the late 30s, the mid 30s, when Hitler was already into power, even before the war started, they began welcoming people.

And it was a Quaker boarding school called Scattergood.

And like I said, it's still a current school.

It's like a private school there in West Branch.

But one of the one of the fun things too about the story is the artwork that we're able to find, including a Des Moines register spread from 1939, a massive broad sheet of photos titled Hitler Exiles Happy in Iowa.

Now, how often do you see a headline with a connection to our state that reads like that?

It's fantastic.

And it shows the individuals.

enjoying this new way of life and again the freedom that they have here in this country.

And again, that was from 1939.

So to your earlier point, we are fixated with appropriate reason on December 7, 1941.

But in terms of preparation in advance, in terms of being empathetic and sympathetic to the plight of others overseas, because the war was going on there for years before,

it was brought to American ships and bases and servicemen.

So for that to appear in 1939, that's really forward thinking on the part of those who hosted these so-called Hitler exiles.

Absolutely.

And I think one of the interesting aspects of this story, Jeff, is the fact that many of these people who fled Europe and came to West Branch

were highly educated, not all of them, but they were successful business people back home.

I mean, they were doing well for themselves.

Well, when they moved here, it was like starting all over, right?

Because they had to leave all the worldly possessions behind.

And when they came to West Branch, they had to learn how to do all the basic things that they took for granted, or maybe some of them who are wealthy enough, who have, for instance, housekeepers or maintenance people.

Well, part of the

process of being there was that you had to pitch in.

You had to roll up your sleeves and do your part to keep it because it's also a working farm.

So a lot of these folks who were educated, say doctors, professors, well, they had to go to work in the field and they had to learn how to make food and cook and do things like this.

So it was very interesting.

It was their introduction to

American life and Iowa life, but especially in agricultural life that many of them were not familiar with.

So I think it's wonderful that they had that experience and some of the quotes in the story support this, but the memories that the folks had from that time of their experience there stayed with them for the rest of their lives and they were grateful for

what they learned and the work ethic that they picked up from Iowans because Iowans showed them the way of how to do what they were doing.

And that was such an interesting point because we've seen it in other situations where people emigrate and they may have held certain positions of stature.

Well, when that was washed away, they had to start over.

And the skill set doesn't transfer the needs that we might have had didn't transfer.

And again, it's another excellent piece by Jerry Harrington, who is such a great writer.

And the focus of it is on the Scattergood Hostel, which welcomed European refugees prior to American involvement in World War II.

Again, one of the articles in the current issue of Iowa History Journal.

You learn much more at IowaHistoryJournal.com.

Now, folks, do not see the video from this conversation.

We're on Zoom.

We can connect with one another with visual cues because this is a baseball playoff time.

You are sporting a white socks cap, which is entirely appropriate and entirely in keeping with your character.

If I were so dressed, mine, of course, would be a Yankees hat.

And that's why when I flip to the publisher's perspective, I read it.

And the main thing I wanted to know is, how in the blazes did you learn about this?

This is another thing I picked up a few years ago.

I don't know how many people know that Babe Ruth visited Drake University 100 years ago suited up to practice football.

with the Bulldogs and as a Yankees fan, you can especially appreciate it.

And I think if you're a baseball fan, well, let's face it.

I mean, Babe Ruth is an American icon.

So if you're just an American, you can appreciate the fact that Babe Ruth visited Drake.

But yeah, this happened.

100 years ago was on October 17th, 1926.

The Bambino was in town for an exhibition game and he had received a message from Drake University's head football coach and athletic director Ozzy Solm and who invited him to visit his team during homecoming activities.

Well, Ozzy just assumed that they would come in and say a few words to motivate the boys and keep them going for the season.

No, they being the

the great person that he was, the character that he was, if you will.

He said, no, I want to suit up and let's scrimmage a little bit.

Well, the players were told not to tackle him, fortunately, not to hurt him.

So that was good because Bear in mind is a Yankees fan.

This is in the fall of 1926.

So this is six months before the start of the next season.

the famous 1927 Yankees murderers row.

I mean considered to be the all-time greatest baseball team in major league history so it's a good thing they weren't tackling him because you wouldn't want him on the pine for that season but it's it's a really fun little tidbit of Iowa history.

I had seen a few photos I'd been sitting on it for a while I thought ah now's the time it's the 100th anniversary

It's time to show these.

And what's also interesting is that Ozzy wrote a column for the Des Moines Register at the time.

And I found his old column and pulled a few quotes from what he experienced that day with Babe.

And it's such a great thing for you to have found.

But I know as someone who tells stories for a living, it's not in your nature to find something out and sit on it.

And so it must have just been killing you.

It's like, okay, is this the best time to run the babe story?

Obviously the 100th anniversary is the perfect time.

But again, just sitting on that story thinking, well, maybe this is the time.

No, we should probably wait.

I mean, unwrapping that's kind of like a kid at Christmas, isn't it?

You're right.

You know, I hadn't thought of it that way.

But yeah, I've known about it for a couple of years.

And what's funny is is about a day or two after the magazine was mailed to our subscribers, I had a couple of friends who are who are baseball writers and email me saying, where did you find those photos?

And how do I get my hands on them?

So it was kind of fun to hear from like minded individuals.

So yeah, I hope our readers appreciate the fact that how rare these little nuggets are and that they enjoy seeing.

I put all of them that we were able to find in the magazine.

There's five wonderful photos.

Now, I did not notice this the first time.

And this is what I do.

The mail comes, I see there's a new issue, I go ripping through it just so I can see what's in it, right?

And then I go back and more methodically read.

Well, I was paying attention to this story, and yep, oh, that'll be really interesting.

Then I read it, and now I'm looking at it again.

The babe did not exactly fit in the uniform did he because I'm kind of looking here and the other boys the college students The the uniform trousers are snapped with a little belt and babe looks like he's just finished Thanksgiving dinner You know where you kind of loosen the the top of the pants.

I mean it they poured him into that including the helmet

They did you're that's a good observation.

Listen, I can't bad mouth him.

I'm the same way I'm happy just

You know, give a belt around me some days.

So I said, no, you're right.

But he's an older man.

It's that's not fair.

Those

older man.

Yeah.

He's

an

older guy.

He was at the height of his fame with the Yankees just before he set the major league home run record.

Now you might have said he was a man of size that I think.

What if he's an older man?

He was probably 28.

I

know.

I know.

It's sad though.

When you think about it that way, I know.

But when you do see him side by side with the other guys, I see your point.

Well, you know, they've had a wonderful workout regimen, you know, after every game, go out and have a few beers and eat hot dogs and bless his heart.

I mean, they don't make him like him anymore.

No, they don't.

And at the time of this, I just looked it up.

It would appear that Babe was 31 years of age at the time.

But, you know, a senior gentleman, to be sure.

Speaking of anniversaries and birthdays and years, you've got a very nice article about your alma mater in here as well.

Yeah well certainly I think this will really resonate with folks in your home base area there as I'm sure a lot of your listeners already know this.

This is the 150th anniversary of the University of Northern Iowa and I asked assistant professor of history there at UNI Kevin Mason who had written his debut story for us last year about the

Dragoon Trail to write the story about you and I. And I was also very pleased to see that the university recently just shared it, shared our story online.

So we're really happy to partner with them and work with Kevin on this to get this story on the pages of IHJ.

It's amazing to think that the school

started 150 years ago as really as an orphanage for children who were misplaced from the Civil War.

So I mean, you think about the Civil War ending when it did.

And then 10, 12 years later, obviously there are still orphaned children from the war who don't have a place.

And thank goodness a group of women decided to take them in and build a building there in Cedar Falls.

And that was the spark.

that became the University of Northern Iowa, including all of its name changes over the years.

150 years at UNI.

In addition, why Iowa should be known as the popcorn state.

I'm supporting that effort as well.

Barn couple us and so much more.

It's the September, October issue.

Iowa History Journal, Rosie the Riveter right there on the cover.

And you can subscribe.

IowaHistoryJournal.com or go to Barnes & Noble, many high V's, a whole list of places at IowaHistoryJournal.com.

This never gets old, does it?

I mean, a new issue, I just imagine that when it shows up from the press, you just rip open the box and start paging through it.

It's just got to be such a great feeling.

It is Jeff and I don't take a day of it for granted and like you and like many of our readers.

I say the same thing every time I go to press or something.

I learned something new about our state and that's just one of the joys of owning IHJ.

Iowa History Journal, IowaHistoryJournal.com.

You can also find them on the Facebook, the Instagram, all of those newfangled sites as well.

Michael Swanger, publisher, editor, owner.

Chief Cooking Bottle Washer, thank you so much for the time and again for another great gift of a magazine and we'll do this when the November December issue comes out, if not before.

Looking forward to it.

Thanks again, Jeff.

Michael Swanger, IowaHistoryJournal.com.

This is where Iowa comes to talk.

News Talk 1540 KXEL.

And as KXEL live and local rolls on on this Thursday, first day of the new month of October, time four.

Today's our FT-1540 conversation and for that as per custom, we drop on the inside of Dustin Hoffman, supervising editor, senior farm broadcaster, Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network.

Now you hear reports from the network.

No fewer than nine times each weekday here on the blow torch and Dustin joins us here for this extended conversation Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Well, I mentioned it's a new month.

That actually means we're in the new government fiscal year.

The U.S.

government fiscal year runs October 1 to September 30.

That means some things expired at the end of the fiscal year with no action being taken.

Well, the government didn't shut down, but they certainly didn't do farmers any benefit, did they?

Know that they didn't Jeff as of right now.

We have no action on the farm bill in the course October the house goes home for You know campaigning and the third of the Senate goes as well And so we're in a tough situation right now because of the fact that the Senate ad committee passed the farm bill out of their committee Narrow margin and would face a very uphill struggle in the full Senate don't get me wrong 60 votes needed to pass it But the problem is is we don't have anything

right now we've come to the end of the fiscal year it was supposed to be done by yesterday just like the budget bill and everything else but the fact of the matter is

that now we're in a stasis.

We don't know if we're gonna extend the 2018 Farm Bill a fifth time.

We don't know if we're gonna get a new Farm Bill in the lame duck session.

We could be looking at a whole new congressional makeup here by the lame duck session.

We could be in a, there's a lot of political storm there.

And so this is a tough spot, but the bigger problem is, Jeff, that if we don't get anything done by December 31st, and the reason we,

do this stuff is we got to get it done by the calendar, even though the fiscal year ended the 30th.

We got a couple months to get these implemented, you know, before Jan 1.

And that's when these new farm bills usually take effect.

And so that gives us a little bit of cushion of time.

The problem is if we don't get it done, we go back to depression era government policies to dictate all these programs that farmers need, whether that is what we do for the crop insurance prices.

things like that and so we're in some tough situations because reference price updates doesn't matter if there's no farm bill that's only that's only in a farm bill I know we have the big beautiful act but that's basically supplementing what was in the farm bill and getting those reset but the problem is that doesn't help us if we don't have a farm bill and so we're talking depression era government policies would go into effect if this does not get renewed or kicked down the road yet again

And it is an embarrassment that we are still talking about this because it is not, and we call it the Farm Bill, but it's not just farmers who benefit.

This has to do with food security and food policy throughout the country.

Absolutely right.

And in fact, its technical name is, you know, colloquially known as the Farm Bill, but it's the Farm Forestry and Supplemental Nutrition Act is what it is.

And so that covers SNAP, which is, again, SNAP and...

is about 85%, 87% of the Farm Bill.

There's a lot of people, like we've always said, and people are like, well, why is the Farm Bill only 13% farm?

Well, because of the fact that, yes, only 2% of the population farms.

but 100% of the population eats.

And that's why these food programs, nutritional programs like SNAP are in the Farm Bill.

Because also, if we didn't have them connected, many politicians on both sides of the aisle told me that if they were ever split apart, no one would give two cents about what happens to the farmers.

Because 90 or 90% to 986 to 90% of the lawmakers aren't in rural districts.

and so they really don't care.

And so that is a tough spot to be in, you know, and to not have any farm knowledge and not have the programs renewed is a problem.

But the problem is Snap has become a very political sticking point.

Honesty, goodness, the farm and forestry parts of it usually aren't too...

crazy where they are going to cause problems.

Everything that we've had these problems, especially with this 2018 Farm Bill and what took it so long, it got down to the wire before it got passed, which was in late December of the 2018 year as well.

And so, which was already a year late.

But when they did that, you know, they still had to fight over snap.

That's just become the polarizing issue in these, in these debates used to be one of the most bipartisan bills.

we had.

It usually passed with almost unanimous support, but now as the wants of snap and you have to have changed and it's become more polarizing over, you know, let's give everybody everything versus let's make sure that they're qualified to get it and let's be scrutinizing absolutely every aspect of it and making the states be more responsible for their mishandling of any of those funds, which you can open up that debate and I'm not here to have that debate right now, but or that the fact that it might be being abused.

Having that debate but the problem is those are the issues that are causing this fight to happen and right now It's being the big sticking point in the Senate ad committee and that's why it barely passed with any with with the Senate ad committees because the snap was supposed to have a period of 2029 for the states to go in and Reef and fix their errors some of their overpayments or anything like that anything that didn't line up the states were supposed to fix it and the states were supposed to have

to pay for it because the federal government already paid.

And now the states have to figure it out because if you screwed it up, you're expected to correct it, which seems to make sense when you look at it.

But the thing is, they had till 2029 and Democrats were on it was this is plain and simple.

I'm not trying to pick on anybody on either side.

I'm saying but Democrats were wanting to hold it up because they wanted it extended another two years to 2031 for the states to get that done.

Republicans said we've already given you enough time.

How much more time do you need?

We're not going to just sit here and keep

putting back your responsibility for not doing it correctly.

So then there was a compromise offered to the Republicans to try to get it from the Republicans of the Democrats to try to get it done.

And how about we go ahead and we'll meet you halfway.

We'll push it back to 2030, you know, make it one year extension.

They weren't satisfied with that.

They wanted a two year or nothing.

And so right now we've got

Well, we've got the Senate Farm Bill just through, because Mitch McConnell showed back up from his health issues.

But basically, we don't have anything, even though it's out of the Senate committee, we don't have anything.

And if we, what are we going to do if the Senate would happen to pass it?

Because they're not going to probably get in the business anyway because of the recess for the election.

But if they were to make it happen.

Where's the house?

How do we get back and how do we pull everybody back to get that done?

And so that's almost impossible as well.

So I know I've kind of rambled on this, but Jeff, it's not putting us in a good position right now.

Well, and everybody is pushing this idea of the lame duck.

That's when you can get some things done.

Well,

I get that, and it's not you saying it.

I've heard this on all manner of topics from all manner of individuals.

Just got to get to the lame duck session.

Well, I don't know that that's going to be where a lot of movement takes place because you're going to know how things turn out for the next Congress.

You'll know who's in the majority.

My sense is if you have a change in the upcoming majorities,

Who in the world from that side is going to work with their opponents to get anything done until they hold the gavel on January 3rd?

I think, again, that's just the concept of optimism taking over pragmatism or reality, frankly.

Well, you're absolutely right because even if you're a Democrat on in the House or the Senate that has let's just say you're a Democrat But you got voted out and so you wouldn't have any qualms about if you believe that this is a good bill and I'm fine with it It's not like it's gonna cost me a reelection anyway because I didn't get one and so that way I could see where you maybe you would go against the Go against your party and you and you go for getting it done or Republicans in the same boat could say you know what I'm really still not on board with this

and even though they could all jump ship one way or the other, but you're right, if the Democrats take a majority, they're gonna have the gavel.

Even if they have a razor thin majority, they're gonna have a gavel.

You don't know, even if they have people losing people from their party that are going out, you can't guarantee that they're not gonna just hold their guns, dig in their heels and just stick it to the Republican side of the aisle on the farm bill because they don't have to do anything because the Democrats will have control.

However, the Democrats are taking the risk that the Republicans don't get enough of a majority that they don't need to worry about whether or not the Democrats, you know, vote against them.

And then the Democrats may be wanting to consider, hey, we better give in to some of these things, otherwise we're gonna get completely lambasted in the next Congress, or the Republicans can then dig in their heels and say, fine, we don't need you anyway.

Now we can do it what we wanted and you guys can't stop us.

And so that's the tough thing.

And all that really hangs, I mean, simple majority in the house is one thing.

It's if anybody hits that 60,

Senator threshold and either party that's when we're gonna have some issues and so that's where we could have the problems and if anybody gets that 60 then Then it's gonna be all bets are off because that's the hardest chamber to pass these things out of if you need a bipartisan bill because a lot of these you need obviously 60 votes to get it done especially on these heavy bills like budget because there's a process a Hard process if you want to just a simple majority and odds are the Senate is not gonna go for it if they if one party has just a razor

thin majority, the other side in the razor thin minority is not going to go for it because they don't have to, they can hold it up.

And so it's going to be, there's so many ways this could play out in a lame duck, so many ways this could play out in the Congress.

And but basically what it comes down to, and I talked with Secretary Nag about this earlier in the last week, and like he said, if we go to the end of the year, we're going to be starting this all over again.

So unless there's something incentive wise to get this done in the lame duck, the best they can do is hope to kick the can down the road.

because no matter who's in power, or how much power they have, or how much majority they have in the next Congress, the fact of the matter is, if they don't get this done, there's gonna be big problems for SNAP, for Farm Bill of priorities, for forestry of things, and so there's a lot on the bounce.

Neither side can afford to let it drop.

But the problem is right now, we're not sitting in a situation where we have any thought process on where this could go.

Oh, it is so frustrating.

Dustin, speaking of the secretary, you have more from him coming up soon, correct?

Yes, we're going to have the last part of our monthly sit down we have with the secretary coming up on weekend ag matters, so make sure you tune in for that.

Looking forward to having that for you.

Weekend ag matters, the excellent half hour program from the network.

Saturday mornings at six, or if you prefer, or in addition, Sunday mornings at 1130.

Dustin, thanks for the time.

Have an excellent weekend.

We'll check in with you folks from the network next week.

Sounds good, Jeff.

Dustin Hoffman, supervising editor, senior farm broadcaster, Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network, and he joined us for today's RFD 1540 conversation on News Talk 1540, KXEL, where Iowa comes to talk.

News Talk 1540 KXEL, where Iowa comes to talk, fall colors will be coming our way in just a matter of weeks, maybe even less than that, depending on exactly where you are in Iowa.

And also coming our way in the days ahead, the new edition of Iowa Outdoors Magazine from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

And to find out about the fall issue, we're joined now by Iowa Outdoors Editor, Brian Button.

Thanks for being back with us, Brian.

Always always a good time.

Thanks.

So where is the magazine taking us in the fall of 2026?

Well,

we have some excellent destinations.

We have three state parks that are celebrating 100 years this year.

Waubonsie State Park in extreme southwestern Iowa.

Pine Lake.

State Park near Eldora and Springbrook State Park, which is about an hour northwest of Des Moines.

And all three of those parks were established 100 years ago for very, very good reasons.

They are stunningly beautiful and offer a tremendous amount of scenery and things to do for people.

They all have cabins.

Campgrounds, miles of trails, they all three have lakes.

Well, Bonsie, way down in southwest Iowa, is rather unique.

It sits on the lush hills and you have some trails there that afford views to far off Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska.

And when you're standing there on that ridge top, the west facing ridges are windswept and it almost has a semi-arid look to it in places.

There are plant species there and reptiles that are found nowhere else in Iowa.

And the rest of the park has deep forest, very shaded campgrounds, and it's well worth the jaunt down there.

And you can take the interstates and then just head south of Omaha, Nebraska, or Council Bluffs to get down there.

So despite being tucked away, it's accessible.

We're talking with Brian Button, who's the editor of Iowa Outdoors magazine about the fall edition, which is just on its way out here very soon.

And you told us a little bit about one of those three state parks.

Let's talk about Pine Lake State Park in Hardin County.

Pine Lake near Eldora, of course.

Pine trees, it had the most southern

a stand of magnificent eastern white pines in the state.

That's how it's got its name.

A lot of those trees over the years have been damaged by high winds, but there's been a lot of replanting of pine trees there.

And of course, it's also got a tremendous amount of deciduous trees.

And it's in the Iowa River Valley, a couple of lakes.

It's right along the Iowa River.

And the leaf fall color changes in all of these state parks, it's really just a tremendous time to get out and go to these parks if we've not been before.

Springbrook State Park just about an hour outside of Des Moines.

Despite its close proximity to the metro, it really doesn't get a lot of tourism pressure there.

It's just kind of off people's radar and it has a really, really beautiful lake.

It's a quiet lake.

It's all electric motors.

There's rarely anybody using it, particularly in the fall.

Campground often has ample space.

even on the weekends.

And just all of these parks, they also have wonderful 1930s-era civilian conservation core structures, lodges, cabins, beach and bath houses that were all hand-built back in the 1930s, stone and large timber, and just really has that nostalgic

aura to it because of all those structures.

So those are fantastic and fascinating places to venture to this fall and get out on the road and take a tingle road trip.

we are obviously getting in to fall in that for a lot of people means hunting season and typically Iowa outdoors has something for outdoors enthusiasts who are interested whether that's a bow hunters or or shotgun hunters what's in this issue

We don't really have a hunting story this issue.

We do have a recipe in our wild cuisine for a pheasant piccata dish.

And of course, pheasant numbers are strong this year.

And so we expect a lot of people to be having success in the field.

We do have a feature story centered around fishing in a way.

It's more of a voyage.

a woman who had lost her husband to cancer and disease.

In her anguish and suffering, she was looking for a new adventure and she had read in an earlier magazine of ours about somebody that had gone out and wanted to catch a fish in all 99 counties.

And so she set off.

on this adventure going out with some friends and always a dog with her.

And it took her seven years to get this done, but she did it and she just had a tremendous wonderful experience.

And it's really an uplifting story that shows kind of the resilience of people and how people often utilize

nature and the outdoors to make memories and to overcome sometimes personal grief and to keep on living.

And I like to say that memories are made outdoors.

And certainly that was the case for her.

Brian Button is the editor of Iowa Outdoors magazine with the fall edition about to come out and one of a couple of moving stories in this edition.

You told us about one.

Tell us about another that is from Buchanan County.

A very talented writer, Timothy Grover, put together a story about

taking his dad, who was aged 86 at the time, taking his dad out for this gentleman's first ever canoe trip, and they were on the Lopspinican River near Quasquiton, and just the joy of this adventure and the significance of it.

the writer's elderly father had done a lot of conservation work over many, many decades, for example, helping plant 37,000 trees along that waterway.

And it wasn't too long after that that the author ended up losing his father to old age and how important it was.

to have that journey and to do something like that with his dad.

Once again, memories are made outdoors and it's really just a very heartfelt, warm, wonderful story and really tugs at the heart strings.

And so, you know, I advise everybody to take advantage of time and to get outdoors with people because, like I said, memories are made outdoors.

In Iowa Outdoors Magazine, I think we're accustomed to seeing stories about native animals and plants, but in this edition, there's a different form of life that the magazine goes into detail about, one that people may not notice.

Lichen are complex little organisms that is made up of fungi.

that gives it its body, its structure, and it houses.

It protects an algae growing inside of it, and that algae uses sunlight to make food for its fungi host.

These grow all over.

They grow on tree limbs and tree branches and fences and

stones and if you've ever been in the cemetery, an older cemetery you probably have seen lichens growing all over them.

Just an absolutely fascinating group of organisms and we have over 400, about 480 species in Iowa which dwarfs the number of bird species that we have.

We only have about 57 mammal species in Iowa.

And going out with a little hand magnifying lens and taking a look at these things, they just look alien, the structure to them.

They have a wide variety of potential applications for medicines, anti-cancer drugs, anti-mold, anti-mildew capabilities.

It's just a really, really well-written, interesting story about the history of their discovery and ongoing experiments.

They've been out on a space satellite for a few weeks and they're extraordinarily durable and just an interesting look and some unique photos too.

That will open your eyes to life all around us that we just take for granted.

Don't give a second thought to.

Always a lot of fascinating content in Iowa Outdoors Magazine.

Brian Button is the editor and the new fall edition is coming out.

Brian, let me just leave you with the last word about getting this DNR publication.

If folks are interested in finding it.

Yeah, you can purchase this copy by calling the DNR's main office and we'd be happy to send it to you.

Single issue is just $5.

We have one other kind of a fun story.

Of course, the Psyhawk rivalry in sports and we kind of

went out on a limb and we created the Psyhawk Arbor series, determining which of the two campuses has the highest number of state champion trees.

And so we've got Herky and Psy making an appearance in the fall issue.

It's a fun read.

Again, that's all in the fall issue of Iowa Outdoors Magazine.

Brian Button is the editor and that new edition is on its way to mailboxes very soon.

This is the station where Iowa comes to talk.

News Talk 1540 KXCL.