Owners of the troubled – and now closed – Cricket Hollow Zoo are again in court.

This time the owners of the roadside zoo near Manchester are facing charges they disobeyed the district court's December 2019 order that required them to turn over hundreds of animals for relocation by animal rescue personnel.

The trial of Pamela and Thomas Sellner on contempt charges began Wednesday (1/6/21) and is expected to conclude Tuesday in Iowa District Court in Delaware County. The case was filed a year ago, Jan. 8, 2020.

If only Lee Enterprises, owner of the Quad City Times and Dispatch/Argus, wasn't $538 million in debt.

It would have had $47 million more in income during the past fiscal year to invest back into its 77 newspapers and news web site markets.

And in the fourth quarter ended Sept. 27, the company would have had $12.4 million less in interest expenses, resulting in an $11.1-million profit rather than a $1.3 million loss.

Mandating measures to control and reduce chemical pollution from farm fields should begin, University of Iowa water quality researchers say.

But, don't expect Iowa's land-grant agricultural institution – Iowa State University – to join the call for regulation or any government measures to limit the use of fertilizer on ag land.

Researchers at the University of Iowa Hydroscience and Engineering Department have been analyzing farm field runoff of nitrogen and phosphorus for decades.

Iowa will never achieve its goal to reduce nitrate runoff from Iowa farm fields relying only on voluntary actions of farm operators, according to a hydrologist who has done extensive research on the state's waterways and water quality.

The state has not only has failed to achieve its goal to reduce nitrogen runoff by 45 percent over the past eight years, the 5-year average of nitrate flowing into the Mississippi River has increased, up more than 100 percent between 2003 and 2019, according to Larry Weber, Ph.D, a research engineer with the University of Iowa's IIHR-Hydroscience and Engineering Department.

Unhappy Bettendorf City Council members are sending a stern message to the City of Riverdale and Mayor Mike Bawden: You can plow your own snow and handle your own engineering services if you're going to close down the Mississippi River Trail connection along South Kensington Street.

After furloughing hundreds of Lee Enterprise employees during the coronavirus economic downturn last quarter, the media company was able to pay billionaire Warren Buffet's finance company $36.7 million under the debt refinancing deal agreed to earlier this year.

Lee – owner of the Quad City Times and Dispatch/Argus and 75 other daily newspapers and online news sites – owes Buffet's BH Finance LLC more than $539 million, which carries an annual interest rate of 9 percent.

The Iowa Farm Bureau unleashed its public relations machine after release of the 2018-19 Nutrient Reduction Strategy (NRS) Report July 2, heralding what it called "clear and significant strides" on reducing nitrogen and phosphorus leaching from farms fields into state streams, rivers and lakes.

Problem is the farm bureau either failed to read the report statistics on nitrogen and phosphorus runoff, or simply chose to ignore the research results and spin the findings.

Admissions and revenues at Bettendorf's Isle of Capri Casino fell to lows not seen since the launch of its predecessor Lady Luck Riverboat Casino in 1995 after the COVID-19 virus shuttered the facility for two and half months this spring.

For the 12-months ended June 30, the Isle – now owned by Eldorado Resorts, Inc. – reported gross revenue of $51.2 million and admissions of 627,436. That would be the lowest revenue and admissions since the fiscal 1995 results when the Lady Luck Riverboat generated $10 million in revenue and attracted 325,698 gamblers in operating less than three months.