As we head into the last weekend before Election Day on Tuesday, the campaigns are winding up where they began here in Iowa. Democrat nominee Joe Biden holds a drive-in rally in Des Moines today, and GOP President Donald Trump is reportedly holding a Sunday event in Dubuque. UNI political science professor Christopher Larimer told KXEL’s Tim Harwood yesterday the motivation for why people are voting as they are is interesting. Trump supporters are more passionate for their candidate, while Biden voters are more inclined to be “anti Trump” voters. And Larimer noted the great increase of those voting early, either in person or by absentee ballot…not just in Iowa, but across the country. News/Talk 1540 KXEL is the politics frequency, and we’ll have live election night coverage on Tuesday starting with Mark Levin, then from Fox News Radio, and Jim Bohannon…and I’ll be here with all the Iowa returns once the polls close at 9 p.m.
Despite the pandemic, the United States Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development office funded a record number of projects in the most recent fiscal year. Grant Menke, Iowa Rural Development state director talked about various projects, including rural broadband, during KXEL Live & Local yesterday. Menke talked about various rural community and infrastructure efforts designed to support ag producers. You can hear the full interview on kxel-dot-com.
ACT scores of the Class of 2020 at Cedar Falls high school showed a nice increase compared with the year before, but students in the Waterloo district dropped a bit. Cedar Falls students averaged 24.3 on the standardized test last year, up significantly from 23.0 the year before. Waterloo students dropped from 20.2 to 20.0 during that same time. ACT tests for the class for the most part were given in the months before the school year was interrupted by COVID-19.
