It truly is spring when the Cartwright Downtown Farmers Market finally opens up.
Market Manager Trisha Wilder expects this season to be one of growth, starting with the farmer’s market season kicking off at 4 p.m., on Wednesday. Thirty-four vendors have already reserved space for the season and more are likely to come.
The number of vendors is in line with what Wilder had on deck last year before the season started. It was slow going as some vendors had hesitation about COVID-19. By June, the vendor numbers picked up. Then the derecho knocked them back down.
The overall turnout last year even with the unexpected challenges gives Wilder encouragement the market will only continue to grow. She is prepared to see this season be even better.
The Associated Press
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University of Iowa’s incoming President Barbara Wilson is introduced during a news conference on Friday at the Levitt Center for University Advancement on the University of Iowa campus in Iowa City.
IOWA CITY The University of Iowa’s governing board on Friday picked the University of Illinois System’s No. 2 executive to be the school’s next president, opting for an experienced academic leader to succeed a president with an unusual business background.
The Iowa Board of Regents appointed Barbara Wilson to succeed Bruce Harreld, who is retiring after leading Iowa since 2015. The selection came after the nine-member board interviewed four finalists in closed session during a meeting on the Iowa City campus.
tbabcock@timesrepublican.com
T-R Photo by Trevor Babcock
Wax Xtatic Record Audio Stereo Shop’s owner John Blabaum (right) and employee Carl Giannetto (left) worked to re-open their store over the past year and four months.
Closed for a painful year and four months, Wax Xtatic Record Audio Stereo Shop has returned to Marshalltown’s Main Street.
“There was a lot of work to get this thing ready, and it’s not quite ready yet,” Wax Xtatic owner John Blabaum said.
Wax Xtatic is known for having one of the widest collections of used and new vinyl in Iowa. Since moving to the new location, the store has been able to triple their selection of new vinyl.
Contributing Writer
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An Iowa county auditor who questioned how the state was spending millions of dollars earmarked for election integrity is now pursuing the matter in court.
An Iowa judge has refused to dismiss a lawsuit that is tied to concerns over the state’s actions on voter registration in the months before the 2020 election.
In July 2019, Linn County Auditor Joel Miller, a Democrat, filed a public-records request with Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate, a Republican. Miller noted that in 2018 the state’s deputy commissioner of elections notified counties that plans were being made on how to spend $8 million updating Iowa’s voter registration system. More than $1 million of that funding was to be spent in the fiscal year that had just ended, Miller wrote.
IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH
Fuel retailers and trucking groups criticized the latest version of a proposal to set state biofuel standards, clashing during a Thursday morning meeting with agriculture groups that support the bill.
“This bill, as written, is detrimental to the retail industry and consumers at large,” said Jason McDermott, owner of several Iowa convenience stores and the McDermott Oil Company.
Lawmakers plan to amend Senate File 549 to match a proposal in the House by Rep. Lee Hein, R-Monticello. The bill will require Iowa fuel retailers to sell E-15, gasoline with a 15% ethanol blend, by 2026.
Farming groups supported the proposal. Iowa is the nation’s top provider of both corn and ethanol, but much of Iowa’s ethanol is sold out of state. Mindy Larsen-Poldberg, director of government relations for the Iowa Corn Growers Association, said the group “enthusiastically and wholeheartedly” supported the bill.