More than three dozen camels, sheep, llamas and cattle at the Cricket Hollow Zoo near Manchester, Iowa where found living in enclosures with mud so deep their legs sunk half to all the way down into the muck, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) May inspection report.
The two Iowa agriculture department employees primarily responsible for inspecting the troubled Cricket Hollow Zoo have been critical – in emails to superiors and on social media sites – of citizens filing animal welfare complaints against the facility near Manchester.
A federal judge has ruled federal animal-welfare inspectors can no longer conduct “courtesy visits” at dog-breeding operations while allowing violations to go unreported.
Lee Enterprises, Inc. – owner of the QC Times, the Dispatch-Argus and some 70 other newspapers and online new sites nationally – lost $37.5 million during its 2025 fiscal year ended Sept. 29.
For the fourth quarter, the media company headquartered in Davenport lost $6.4 million.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is seeking feedback on its 25-year wildlife action plan, which must be reviewed every 10 years per federal law.
The Region 7 administrator for the EPA sent out a news release recently (11/18) patting the back of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) and "local businesses" for reducing SO2 (sulfur dioxide) pollution, enabling Muscatine to achieve compliance with national air quality standards.... more