Clear Lake

I mean, right now, if the weather can hold like this and we don't get much rain, I think we're going to be in great shape to get this thing done.

and it won't be much longer because like i said i didn't see a soybean field standing anywhere and compared to two weeks ago when i was up in clear lake area and there was barely any harvest going on at all in that area there was some don't get me wrong but it wasn't like you could see any signs of major you know progress being made and it's been a different story here uh this week so you know farmers are moving i know that's just something we got to watch this time of year and And the markets are watching it closely, too.

And, of course, we'll get a check in all those markets and how they started the week.

Mark talks with Teddy Tarvis of Allendale about the grains.

And Chris is passionate about rural communities.

It's actually, if you follow his tour schedule, he'd rather perform in small arenas than the biggest.

So he was actually up at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake earlier this summer.

You see him in those types of communities all across the U.S. and Canada.

I could see, like, Driftless, you know? Yeah.

Clear Lake.

Yeah, that's a cool place.

We did Mason City once.

Count all the K foes, kids.

[laughs]

Hey, don't sleep on Clear Lake.

I like that town.

Ashley Hinson is running for the US Senate, leaving the state's second district open.

Democrat Lindsay James of Dubuque and Republican Joe Mitchell of Clear Lake are making their case to voters across the district.

Much of the region runs on farming, manufacturing, and education.

IPR's Gavin McGeough spoke with voters about their economic realities and how it might impact their choices in November.

This war in Iran, which I would argue is impulsive.

That's James at a debate on October first.

Her opponent, Joe Mitchell, a Clear Lake real estate developer and former state lawmaker, sees it differently.

He says tax cuts will address cost of living, and James is against them.

But I think it's really cool, 'cause, like, NIACC, um, I mean, that's where Isaac went.

You know, Clear Lake, where I grew up, is five minutes from their campus, and then their head coach and I are really good friends.

And same thing, you know, NOC, I coached at NOC, and-

Right

I've been building developments, primarily workforce housing developments around Eastern Iowa.

So I've built stuff in Dyersville, in Clear Lake, in Grinnell, and I build typically duplexes or, or townhomes, and they're typically for seniors, for working families.

I lived in one of my duplexes that I built and, you know, live, um, amongst, you know, all the folks that I've built houses for.

And, you know, these are people that are veterans.

Um, you know, these are, you know, really just tough Iowans, um, that I love and that they're the same people I grew up with 'cause I grew up in Small Town Iowa, and I still live in Small Town Iowa.

And, you know, what I noticed a number of years ago is that we don't have the appropriate, uh, amount of housing, the quality of housing that we deserve in rural America, in rural Iowa, and so that's where I set out to put together sort of a partnership and an investment group to, uh, go out and invest tens of millions of dollars in rural Iowa, and that's what I've done, and that's where we've built these homes and, uh, it's just been a blessing to be able to, you know, put a roof above people's heads.

Um, you know, one of my neighbors, Dick, uh, you know, he's a Vietnam War veteran, and he's an awesome guy, and he couldn't find a zero-rentry, two-bedroom, uh, condo anywhere in Clear Lake.

And we built these new units, and he moved in probably six months ago, and he talks to me every day about the blessing it is to have something that he could downsize to.

Yeah, I agree 100%, and it's interesting because it feels like when you see that, it feels like the Koch brothers and all these corporations are obviously funding this, just wanted somebody that was a good speaker, somebody that just fit the Iowa narrative, somebody that they thought they could be as a poster child in there.

When I first heard about Zach Lane, my friend who's a registered Republican in Clear Lake, Iowa, sent me a text and he goes, what do you think about this guy? And I remember right away, it was it was some video and then it was like i googled him and the first thing that popped up was him and steve king and i was like yeah he's a piece of not even gonna give it the time of day like get out of here with the

day at the end of the day no matter what right things zack lane is saying He's friends with Steve King, and we already decided that was a hard no.

And at the end of the day, that's a white supremacist, and we can't fuck with that.

So there are real, actual, hard choices like that taking place in our communities.

Someone like Joe Mitchell doesn't give a fuck.

He doesn't even – this is another case of – I'm pretty sure he just switched his address to Clear Lake from living in Mount Pleasant, then in Des Moines, then in D.C., whatever he was doing.

Lindsay James has roots in the community and has shown up for her community.