Here’s tghe Freese-Notis forecast for Atlantic & the KJAN listening area, and weather data for Atlantic, including Wednesday’s High, our overnight Low, and more…
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Here’s tghe Freese-Notis forecast for Atlantic & the KJAN listening area, and weather data for Atlantic, including Wednesday’s High, our overnight Low, and more…
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A report in the Omaha World-Herald says a 4th grade teacher with the West Monona Community School District in Onawa is facing a possession of methamphetamine charge, after authorities found her with meth hidden inside an artificial sweetener packet, tucked in her purse. 43-year old Karen Kay Bartelson was taken into custody west of Onawa, July 21st. Marijuana and drug paraphernalia were also found to be in her possession. Barteleson was arrested along with two other people, who were charged with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. Lyle Schwartz, superintendent of the district, told the paper that administrators will wait for the outcome of the criminal investigation before deciding on Bartelson’s future with the district.
An overwhelming number of Iowa corn farmers have voted to increase the “check-off” for corn. For every bushel of corn sold in Iowa, farmers have been paying three-quarters of a cent into a fund that’s managed by the Iowa Corn Promotion Board. It’s called a check-off. The money’s used to finance research, promote the corn industry and find new markets for Iowa corn. The corn “check-off” will go up to a full penny per bushel on September 1st. Iowa farmers voted in a referendum on July 10th and state officials who certified the results say nearly 74 percent of the corn farmers who voted favored the check-off increase.
Iowa farmers voted to establish the check-off in 1977, but it was just one-tenth of a cent per bushel. Farmers have voted three times in the past three decades to raise the per bushel check-off. In addition to promoting corn-based ethanol fuel, one of the check-off campaign’s original aims was to promote the use of high-fructose corn syrup, which is cheaper than traditional sugar. In 1984, both Coke and Pepsi switched from using sugar to using corn syrup in their sodas.
(Radio Iowa)
The state’s annual sales tax holiday is this Friday and Saturday (August 3,4). Iowa Department of Revenue spokesperson, Victoria Daniels, says the holiday suspends the sales tax on purchases of shoes and clothes. “Basically anything that you can wear that is under a hundred dollars and qualifies as clothing and footwear, then you can purchase that tax free,” Daniels explains. She says the holiday was created as a way to help families save on back-to-school purchases, but you don’t have to be going to school to take advantage.
The rules are very specific about what qualifies for the tax exemption. “Anything that you would consider to be like an accessory, you know that’s not really clothing. Things like backpacks…specialized sports equipment, anything that you would use to repair clothing, those types of things don’t really qualify,” Daniels says. “It’s apparel, that you wear on your feet and your body, that’s about it.” Daniels says this is the 13th year for the sales tax holiday. The state first started collecting data on the holiday in 2006. “It looks like the amount of sales reported on this day has grown at a pretty good rate, not huge. It did take a dive in 2008, which I think was around the time the economy went downhill, and so that’s to be expected. But it’s been climbing back up since then and has actually exceeded the amount reported in 2007,” according to Daniels.
Figures show many Iowans took advantage of the tax savings last year. “Retailers self-reported about 14-point-six million dollars worth of sales. And so if you multiply that by the six-percent state tax rate, that’s about 877-thousand dollars. Now that doesn’t include any local option sales tax,” Daniels says. There’s an additional one percent in savings for the areas that have a local option sales tax. You can find out more about the sales tax holiday at: www.iowa.gov/tax.
(Radio Iowa)
Here’s something else to blame on the prolonged heat wave — higher gasoline prices. Gail Weinholzer, spokeswoman for Triple-A-Iowa, says the increase has been gradual, but definite, over the past several weeks of the continuing, blistering hot spell. “In Iowa, as an example, the current average is $3.47, a month ago, it was $3.37,” Weinholzer says. “So, Iowa’s seen about a dime increase in the last month.” The price of gas in Iowa ranges from as low as $3.32 a gallon in Sioux City to as high as $3.49 in Des Moines. The national average is $3.52 a gallon. Weinholzer says there are several reasons for the hike. “One, certainly is the higher global oil prices as well as higher demand because of the busy, summer driving season, along with the higher ethanol prices due to the drought that many areas of the country are seeing,” she says.
As corn plants suffer in the fields from the heat, the price of corn is skyrocketing due to the expected lower supply come harvest time. Weinholzer says gas prices should remain mostly flat through Labor Day but will likely begin to fall in September. “If there’s an increase at all, it will be slight and after Labor Day, we’ll start to see prices decline if everything goes as expected,” she says. Market developments that could change the August forecast include: strengthening or worsening of the global economy, U-S employment data, the hurricane season and geopolitical events in the Middle East.
(Radio Iowa)
The search for two missing girls in northeast Iowa will get more national attention this weekend thanks to a NASCAR driver from Iowa. The back of Michael Annett’s number-43 car will feature pictures of 9-year-old Elizabeth Collins and 10-year-old Lyric Cook-Morrissey as he races in the U.S. Cellular 250 at the Iowa Speedway in Newton. The cousins disappeared on July 13 while riding bicycles in Evansdale. Jeff Dennison, a spokesperson for Richard Petty Motorsports, says the idea was presented by Teresa Miller of Oelwein. “Luckily, through the race team and sponsors, we had an opportunity to have some additional space on the car…on the deck lid or back of the car,” Dennison said. Annett is a Des Moines native and played hockey for the Waterloo Black Hawks between 2003 and 2005. The girl’s pictures on his car will be accompanied by an 800 tip-line number. “Our purpose is obviously to bring light to it and say ‘hey, we have a situation here and Micheal is from (Iowa),” Dennison said. “We’re looking for media attention, but hopefully it helps.” The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at the Iowa Speedway is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Saturday. The race will televised by ESPN2.
359 AM CDT THU AUG 2 2012
EARLY THIS MORNING…MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS. SOUTHEAST WIND NEAR 5 MPH. CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS 20 PERCENT.
TODAY...PARTLY SUNNY. ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS IN THE MORNING. HIGH IN THE LOWER 90S. SOUTH WIND NEAR 5 MPH SHIFTING TO THE NORTHEAST AROUND 5 MPH IN THE AFTERNOON. CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS 20 PERCENT.
TONIGHT…PARTLY CLOUDY. LOW IN THE UPPER 60S. NORTHEAST WIND NEAR 10 MPH.
FRIDAY…MOSTLY SUNNY. HOT. HIGH IN THE MID 90S. SOUTHEAST WIND 5 TO 10 MPH. HIGHEST HEAT INDEX READINGS 100 TO 102 IN THE AFTERNOON.
FRIDAY NIGHT…PARTLY CLOUDY THROUGH MIDNIGHT THEN BECOMING MOSTLY CLOUDY. A 20 PERCENT CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS. LOW IN THE LOWER 70S. SOUTHEAST WIND 5 TO 10 MPH SHIFTING TO THE NORTH AFTER MIDNIGHT.
SATURDAY…PARTLY SUNNY WITH A 40 PERCENT CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS. HIGH IN THE UPPER 80S. NORTHWEST WIND 5 TO 15 MPH.
SATURDAY NIGHT…PARTLY CLOUDY. LOW IN THE LOWER 60S.
SUNDAY AND SUNDAY NIGHT…MOSTLY CLEAR. HIGH IN THE LOWER 80S. LOW IN THE LOWER 60S.
Matt Holliday homered twice and drove in five runs and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Colorado Rockies 9-6 on a rain-soaked night at Coors Field. Rockies reliever Matt Belisle allowed five in 72 innings last year and one in his first 52 innings this season. Belisle has yielded home runs in his past two appearances, including a particularly costly one Wednesday night, when he gave up a three-run shot to Matt Holliday on the second pitch he threw that put the Cardinals ahead 6-5.
After a rain delay of 1 hour, 26 minutes at the end of the seventh, the Cardinals scored a run in the eighth when Matt Reynolds completed a walk with a wild pitch and added two more runs in the ninth off Carlos Torres to send the Rockies to their fifth straight loss and their seventh in a row at home. The Rockies have lost eight of their past nine games and are 4-13 since the All-Star break.
DENVER (AP) — The St. Louis Cardinals activated newly acquired right-hander Edward Mujica on Wednesday. Mujica is in uniform and will be available to pitch against the Colorado Rockies. To make room for Mujica on the roster, the Cardinals optioned righty Trevor Rosenthal to Triple-A Memphis. Mujica, 28, was acquired from the Miami Marlins for former first-round draft pick Zack Cox. Mujica has a 4.38 ERA in 41 appearances this year with the Marlins. Rosenthal was 0-1 with a 4.50 ERA in four games since being recalled from Memphis on July 16.
ST. LOUIS (AP) — More than half of U.S. counties now are classified by the federal government as natural disaster areas mostly because of the drought. The U.S. Agriculture Department on Wednesday added 218 counties in a dozen states as disaster areas. That brings this year’s total to 1,584 in 32 states, including Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming and Iowa. The latest additions make drought-affected farmers and ranchers eligible for federal aid including emergency loans. The USDA also announced ranchers may access some 3.8 million acres of conservation land for haying and grazing, and crop insurance companies have agreed to provide farmers a penalty-free grace period on insurance premiums in 2012.
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