News Center newsletter

A little over two months ago, the need for a new Postville Medical Clinic was shared at a Postville City Council Meeting with that announcement being met with a round of applause from everyone there. At that meeting, Michael Coyle, hospital CEO, stated the there are many reasons for this new clinic, with the main point being the lack of space for the growing number of patients at the clinic each day plus room for new providers that are beginning to see patients.

The microscopic, soil-borne soybean cyst nematode (SCN) is considered the most serious biological threat to the U.S. soybean industry. In North America, it causes yield losses worth more than $1 billion annually. 

The SCN Coalition helps farmers combat this relentless pathogen in a variety of ways. Established by Professor Greg Tylka, director of the Iowa Soybean Research Center, with several colleagues at other universities, the coalition was launched in 2018 and now includes university scientists from 28 states and Ontario, Canada, grower checkoff organizations and corporate partners. 

Each year, Tylka and his team develop an updated list of commercially available SCN-resistant varieties for Iowa that the Coalition helps promote. ISU Extension and Outreach publishes the list in the fall. A preliminary version of the list for 2026 is available online.

To the Editor:

Farmers are a dying breed. During the 1980s, my first husband and I lost our farm in a farm bankruptcy, along with 250,000 other farmers. This wasn’t because we weren’t good farmers, but because the federal government created artificially high interest rates and inflation was out of control. Another farm debt crisis is happening now, thanks to tariffs, the possible importing of beef from Argentina, and hand-outs to Argentina.

The tariffs on soybeans caused our largest buyer, China, to stop buying U.S. products, and they have turned to Argentina. Tariffs are meant to “even the playing field,” but instead the tariffs decimated the playing field, and thus are decimating farmers.

And this week (10/18/2025), Trump floated the idea of buying beef from Argentina to reduce the price of beef in the grocery stores. Now, he is reducing the one profitable enterprise for farmers, after years of losing money on beef.

To the Editor:

I appreciate Ashley Hinson voting to keep the government open and operating for Iowans. The letter published a couple weeks ago failed to include the facts that House and Senate Democrats are keeping the government closed over providing healthcare for illegal aliens and providing hundreds of millions of tax dollars to NPR and PBS.

Ashley has worked hard to expand access to healthcare for Iowans - she supports keeping premiums low, improving maternal health care, and expanding telehealth options for rural Iowans. It’s unfortunate that Democrats are playing politics with healthcare instead of working on common sense solutions.

I appreciate Ashley fighting for Iowans in DC. She is doing exactly what we elected her to do.

Cristina Smith
Waukon
 

Joyce M. Regan, 78, of Waukon died Friday, October 24, 2025, at Veterans Memorial Hospital in Waukon. Funeral services will be held Thursday, October 30 at 11 a.m. at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Waukon with Fr. Joseph Sevcik officiating. Burial will be in Lycurgus Cemetery, rural Waukon.

Friends may greet the family from 9 a.m. until the time of services Thursday at the church. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to either St. Patrick Catholic School, Veterans Memorial Hospital, or St. Mary’s Lycurgus Cemetery Fund.

Joyce Marie (Troendle) Regan was born Sunday, December 8, 1946, in Waukon. She was the seventh of eight children born to George Francis Silas “Cy” and Loretta Ann Ellen (McLaughlin) Troendle. She received all her sacraments at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Waukon.

Frank L. Sivesind, 83, of Waukon passed away peacefully at his lifelong home Friday, October 24, 2025. Funeral services were held Monday, October 27 at Zalmona Presbyterian Church in rural Waukon with burial following at the church cemetery. Memorials can be made to Veterans Memorial Hospital or Zalmona Presbyterian Church cemetery fund, both in Waukon. Martin-Grau Funeral Home in Waukon handled the arrangements.

Frank Leroy Sivesind was born November 2, 1941, in Waukon to John and Olive (Tolander) Sivesind. Frank grew up and worked on the family farm while attending area country school. He graduated from Waukon High School in 1959, and was actively involved in basketball, baseball, 4-H, and FFA.

Frank took pride in his work as a county Dairy Herd Improvement Association (DHIA) supervisor through which he made many lifelong friends and memories.

Dean J. Barber, 59, of Lansing died surrounded with love Thursday, October 16, 2025, at Aase Haugen Home in Decorah. Graveside services will be held at a later date in Evergreen Cemetery in Anita. Martin-Grau Funeral Home in Waukon assisted the family.

Dean J. Barber was born March 16, 1966, in Atlantic, the son of Rex and Janell (Claussen) Barber. He grew up on a farm in Anita. While attending Anita High School, Dean was involved in FFA, Speech, school plays, and in his junior year, he joined the National Guard. When he was younger, Dean was a farm hand with his older brothers for the family farm and they took many camping trips to Colorado as a family.

The Monday, October 20 permanent closure of the Black Hawk Bridge at Lansing marks the end of the iconic structure’s service to those who crossed the Mississippi River between Lansing and Wisconsin Highway 35 over a period of 94 years. Although such a closure was not originally planned to take place until much closer to the anticipated Spring 2027 completion of the bridge currently being constructed to take over those crossing duties, safety concerns regarding construction activity for that new bridge impacting the structural integrity of the older bridge that was first opened for duty in 1931 forced the Iowa and Wisconsin Departments of Transportation to come to the decision that the Black Hawk Bridge would need to be closed and eventually dismantled and demolished, which will take place as the remainder of this calendar year 2025 unfolds.

After traveling a different route last year, The Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited (CPKC) Holiday Train is scheduled to make its return to the Lansing and New Albin areas again this year as part of its 2025 trek to help raise money, food and awareness for local food banks in communities along the CPKC network. The festive railway celebration is scheduled to make its way through northeast Iowa Monday, November 24, traveling southward this year instead of northward as in year’s past and making Allamakee County stops in New Albin and Lansing that afternoon, before continuing south to Marquette, Guttenberg and Dubuque that same Monday.

Saturday, November 1 at 10 a.m., the Allamakee County Veterans Museum will present a program commemorating the “Red Ball Express” truck unit during World War II which relied upon the U.S. Army “Deuce and a Half” truck to supply the Allied break-out from the Normandy D-Day beaches across France and into Germany.

A video documentary will be presented at the Veterans Museum, located at 105 Allamakee Street in Waukon. The program will also include a presentation by Darren Burroughs about his father’s “Deuce and a Half” truck (pictured below) which is displayed in front of the museum. The replica 50-caliber machine gun created by Burroughs will also be mounted on Bugsy Burroughs’ former “Tank Yank” for display only during this program.

The public is invited to attend. There is no admission or membership charge. The museum facility is handicapped accessible.