The Shelby County Public Health Department is sponsoring a popular kid’s event this weekend in Harlan. Susan Brumman with the Shelby County Public Health Department, says the 2013 Kidsfest is about safety, health and awareness. She says “It’s all about health and safety issues. It’s geared towards preschool to 5th graders. We have interactive booths with lots of activities for children to do. The 1st 500 children are going to get their choice of a prize and we have lots of other prizes that we will give out in a drawing every ten minutes.”

Brumman says the Public Health Department puts on the event so they can provide education to kids and parents. She said “There are a lot of opportunities for children to go through the fire safety house. They can sit in a police car and sheriff’s cruiser. We have a lot of mascots. They will meet Sparky the Dalmatian, Bitz and Larry the Crash Test Dummies, Charlie the CFL Light Bulb and a lot of the booths are geared towards health and safety issues.” The 2013 Shelby County Community Kidsfest will also feature a big red celebrity.

Brumman says “Clifford the big red dog, who is celebrating his 50th birthday this year. He will greet all the children. There will be a booth for children to go visit Clifford. They can listen to someone reading them books.” The 2013 Community Kidsfest will be held on Saturday at the Veteran’s Memorial Building from 9 to 11:30am and is free to the public.

(Joel McCall/KNOD)

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – Unlike ordinary drivers, the Iowa Supreme Court says licensed truckers will not be given a break if they’re caught driving with a blood-alcohol concentration barely over the legal limit.  The court ruled Friday that the Department of Transportation can suspend commercial drivers’ licenses without considering the margin of error of breath tests.

Justices ruled against Brandon Watson, who lost his license for one year after police said he had a .041 blood-alcohol concentration during a traffic stop. The limit for truckers is .04.   Watson argued the DOT should have subtracted the test’s margin of error of .004, which means he would have been below the limit. That’s what DOT does for non-commercial drivers.

The high court ruled that state lawmakers have chosen to hold commercial drivers to a higher standard.

 Calling a local fire department in Harrison County will end-up costing the citizens of Missouri Valley, after an ordinance was passed last month by the City Council. According to the Missouri Valley Times, the Council approved an ordinance on Tuesday, March 19th, that allows the Missouri Valley Volunteer Fire Department to bill for its services. The ordinance says that after every service call, Fire Chief Johnnie Walker, will have a financial statement prepared and delivered for any fire, hazardous-material cleanup or similar service that the fire department provides. The payment of the fee will be made to the City of Missouri Valley. The money will go to a general fund to benefit the fire department.

The ordinance says also, the fire department has the authority to take in account several items to charge for services including: emergency vehicle actually used in response, standby status of support and man power needed and used and several other items. A false alarm will not be charged to the business or resident. City clerk Rita Miller told the paper, the City of Missouri Valley’s ordinance on billing for fire services, is based on similar ones in Harrison County, Shelby County and the City of Harlan.