A new book, “Industrial Farm Animal Production, the Environment, and Public Health,” will be the topic of a two-day conference hosted by the Harkin Institute this month. According to a news release, the conference’s aim is to highlight the “serious risks posed to environmental and human health by current farming systems and to examine local and national strategies for…

The Iowa Association of Business and Industry Foundation has announced the class of 40 Iowa leaders who will participate in its 2024-25 Leadership Iowa issues-awareness program. Leadership Iowa began in 1982, with participants coming from all over the state and including a variety of jobs and backgrounds, according to a news release. Two-day sessions each…

Optimae LifeServices, a disability services provider, has opened its second intensive residential service home after the opening of its first in Ames in June. According to a news release, these homes serve adults with the most severe and persistent mental illness conditions who have functional impairments by providing 24-hour supervision, behavioral health services and other…

The World Food Prize Foundation has announced the recipient of the 2024 Norman E. Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application. Dennis Beesigamukama, a postdoctoral fellow at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology in Nairobi, Kenya, will receive the award for his work in developing innovative, low-cost technologies that recycle organic waste into…

Jeremy Guenther believes the community’s thinking around access to public transit should be elevated to the same level as access to clean water, electricity and internet service. Guenther, 44, is an investment operations analyst at Principal Financial Group and rides the Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority’s Express Route 92 from a bus stop at…

It had been a long time since I’d seen my friend, K.C., and I wanted to ask him a question. I found him in the John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park standing between artist Tony Smith’s two installations, sculptures called “Marriage” and “Willy.” Both are black, angular, steel sculptures. They are said to “combine abstract…