News

Investigators in Dayton say blood evidence found in a hog confinement has tested positive as belonging to Kathlynn Shepard. The 15-year-old has been missing since she and another teen were abducted Monday—the younger girl escaped.

The blood was found at the hog confinement where the girls were taken following their abduction, and on the body of abductor Michael Klunder. An autopsy on Klunder ruled his death a suicide by hanging.

 Iowa’s 2013 legislative session ended Thursday morning. Democratic and Republican leaders called the session historic as bipartisan compromises on insuring low-income Iowans, reforming the state’s education system and property taxes were passed. Iowa Public Radio’s Clay Masters reports. 

Summer brings with it many pleasures, and one of those pleasures is the time to dig into a great book.  Host Charity Nebbe previews books for summer reading lists with Paul Ingram and Jan Weismiller of Prairie Lights Books in Iowa City and Annie Leonard of The Next Chapter bookstore in Knoxville. 

Annie Leonard of The Next Chapter's Summer Reading List

Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown

Viking, June 2013, History

The deadly tornado earlier this week in Oklahoma recalls other recent tornado disasters in the Midwest. Today on River To River, host Ben Kieffer talks with survivors of the devastating tornado in Joplin, Missouri in 2011…and the twister that struck the Parkersburg/New Hartford area here in Iowa 5 years ago. Some experts join the conversation as well, to shed more light on the effect of the EF5 tornado that tore through Oklahoma.

Jan Weismiller of Prairie Lights Books' Summer Reading List

The Newlyweds by Nell Freudenberger

Paul Ingram of Prairie Lights Books' Summer Reading List

Pacific by Tom Drury

Lost World of Fossil Lake by Lance Grande

Little Elvises by Timothy Hallinan

7-th grader Dezirea Hughes of Dayton has identified herself as the 12-year-old who escaped an abduction Monday afternoon as she and her friend, Kathlynn Shepard, walked home from the bus stop. Shepard is still missing, and search crews continue to look for her in the surrounding area.

With her daughter back, Hughes’ mother, Jeanette Andrews, says life in the small community of Dayton will change.

"I didn’t believe the phone call. I thought I heard her say a man took me, I wasn’t sure if that’s what I really heard."

Investigators continue to search the area surrounding Dayton, Iowa for Kathlynn Shepard, a teenager abducted earlier this week as she walked home from the bus stop.  A twelve-year-old who was taken with her escaped shortly after the kidnapping and is, except for scratches on her arms and legs, unharmed. 

The events have rocked Dayton, a small town of fewer than 1,000 residents. A local church held a vigil last night for 15-year-old Kathlynn Shepard, who has been missing since Monday afternoon.

The New York Philharmonic's "Bach Variations" festival continues at 7 PM Thursday with the Mass in B Minor - Bach's "most spectacular choral work," as the scholar and conductor John Butt calls it.

U.S. senators of both parties are directing outrage at top IRS officials over not being informed earlier about the tax agency’s work to target conservatives, and they’re demanding answers. Today on River to River, it’s politics day. Host Ben Kieffer sits down with our analysts, Tim Hagle, of the University of Iowa, and Chris Larimer, of the University of Northern Iowa, to find out what questions are being asked, why it matters, and how much of what we’re seeing is simply political grandstanding.

Today is the 200th birthday of Richard Wagner. Performance Today at 5 will be almost all Wagner; Barney Sherman from 1-5 will play just a little of his music, but will also feature music by composers who respond, in some way, to or against Wagner: Debussy (a recording of him playing his own "Children's Corner"), Faure, John Adams, Leonard Bernstein, and a movement by Bruckner. We'll also sample a new recording of one of the works that most influenced Wagner, Beethoven's 9th. (And for more, Bill McGlaughlin continues his week-long series on Wagner at 9 PM.)

State troopers narrowed their search Wednesday morning for 15-year-old Kathlynn Shepard. She was abducted Monday while walking home from the bus stop in Dayton, Iowa with a younger girl who escaped soon afterwards. Their suspected abductor was found dead later that day. Despite the efforts search party of more than 300 members of law enforcement and volunteers from the area, Shepard has not been found.

Special Agent Bill Keitzman with the Iowa DCI says Wednesday’s search focuses on a smaller area.

Legend has it that in 1903, for several nights in a row the small town of Van Meter was terrorized by a giant bat-like creature. One-hundred ten years later, Talk of Iowa tries to uncover the truth with author Chad Lewis, a paranormal investigator and co-author of the new book "The Van Meter Visitor: A True and Mysterious Encounter with the Unknown."

Though stalking became a crime in the state of Iowa in 1994, it’s a difficult charge since in many ways stalking is an “invisible" crime.  Upon examining this crime River to River asks, "What should a person do if they're being stalked?" And also, "What drivers stalkers to obsessively harass their victims?"

Facial recognition technology is increasing becoming a part of life, but how is this technology being used and how much is too much?  Brian Mennecke will explain the ways digital advertisements can "read" your face and discuss other commercial uses for facial recognition technology.  Later Gary Wells joins the program to discuss his recently developed proc

  This Saturday at 2 PM, IPR Studio One's Ben Kieffer will host a special hour of "Java Blend" with Korby Lenker.

  This Saturday at 2 PM, IPR Studio One's Ben Kieffer will host a special hour of "Java Blend" with Korby Lenker.

What do we make of the complex legacy of Richard Wagner on the 200th anniversary of his birth, Wednesday? Both Performance Today with Fred Child (5-7 PM) and Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin (9-10 PM) are exploring the question this week with fascinating results. Tune in tonight to PT, for example, to hear Gabriel Faure's "Souvenirs of Bayreuth" - a cheeky quadrille on themes from the Ring Cycle - as well as Wagner in concert by leading performers (among those on PT this week are Bryn Terfel, Deborah Voigt, Sir Simon Rattle, and Esa-Pekka Salonen).

Orchestra Iowa Chamber: Concert 4

Iowa lawmakers are returning to Des Moines for a third week of overtime. The session was scheduled to wrap up May 3, but legislators continue to negotiate education reform, property taxes, Medicaid expansion, and other key issues.

"The Heavens Laugh, the Earth Rejoices"  is the title of a Bach cantata and of the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony's concert of Easter-related Bach, which you can hear on IPR Sunday at noon or Monday at 7 PM. The Brandenburg Concerto no. 1 is preceded by sinfonias from several cantatas (including "The Heavens Laugh, the Earth Rejoices" BWV 31) and the Easter Oratorio, and by the entirety of the beautiful Cantata 104, "Hear, O Shepherd of Israel" (with the University of Northern Iowa Cantorei and soloists Jeffrey Brich and John Hines). Music Director Jason Weinberger conducts.

Mid-American Energy is planning to invest $1.9 billion in Iowa to add up to about one gigawatt of wind generation, which could power 300-thousand homes. That means more than 600 new wind turbines are expected to be built in Iowa by 2016.  Host Ben Kieffer gets details on the project, and he gets a broader look at wind energy in Iowa with both large- and small-scale turbines. We also talk with an ISU professor a grad student working on designing a different wind turbine tower—one made out of concrete.

Thanks to the drought and various blights and diseases, the term evergreen doesn’t seem very appropriate in Iowa right now.  Today on Talk of Iowa, it’s Horticulture Day.  Host Charity Nebbe sits down with forester Mark Vitosh about the state of evergreens in Iowa. Horticulturist Richard Jauron also joins the conversation to answer your questions.

Ever know someone who talks to plants?

Maybe it was your offbeat neighbor cooing at his gardenias; maybe your grandmother analyzed baseball with her cucumbers. It seems a bit silly, but researchers say farmers should maybe take notice.

In 1982, when Bruce Holbert was a young man, he accidentally shot and killed a friend. Today on River to River, University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate, Bruce Holbert will recount that accidental shooting and how he coped afterward. Holbert’s new novel Lonesome Animals is a western detective story in the vein of True Grit, and he connects it to America's fascination with the gun myth.