(Radio Iowa) – John Deere could be setting the stage for claiming an impasse in negotiations with the United Auto Workers after a company official called the latest tentative agreement Deere’s “best and final offer.” The proposal included an immediate 10-percent raise and kept the pension program available to new workers. It was rejected by union members in Iowa, Illinois and Kansas this week with just 45 percent voting in favor. Paul Iversen, at the University of Iowa Labor Center, says Deere’s statement shows the company shifting toward a more public negotiating strategy.

“After this second offer was turned down, it seems like they have gone on a media blitz to try to turn public sentiment in their favor,” Iversen says, “since it’s very clear the communities support the workers and support the strike.” The rejected agreement would have increased wages by six to nine-dollars per hour over time and offered greater retirement payments. Iversen says it was a stronger deal, but he says workers are pushing for more to restore previous cuts and take advantage of Deere’s record profits.

“They didn’t feel that Deere was respecting the work that they have done over the years,” he says, “and particularly for during COVID, risking their lives to come to work every day to keep the production going.” Iversen says Deere may be pressuring the union to call another vote, which is uncommon. If John Deere claims an impasse in negotiations, he says the company can offer the proposed contract terms to replacement workers. He says the union could dispute that claim with the National Labor Relations Board.

(reporting by Grant Gerlock, Iowa Public Radio)

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Cass County Auditor Dale Sunderman, Friday, said absentee voting is available for the November 30 CITY OF ATLANTIC RUNOFF ELECTION.  Voters may vote an absentee ballot in the Cass County Auditor’s office during regular business hours (8:00 A.M. thru 4:30 P.M.) beginning Tuesday, November 9 thru Monday, November 29, 2021.

ABSENTEE BALLOTS:  Any eligible voter who so chooses may vote a ballot before November 30 (called ABSENTEE BALLOT).  Deadline to request an Absentee Ballot to be mailed is Monday, Nov. 15.  An Absentee ballot may be voted at the office of the County Auditor on any day the office is open beginning Nov. 9 and ending Nov. 29.

IF VOTING AT THE COUNTY AUDITOR’S OFFICE: the absentee voter may come to the CASS COUNTY COURTHOUSE during the regular office hours of 8 AM and 4:30 PM, Monday thru Friday, up through the day before the election and cast a ballot.  In addition to regular office hours, the office of Cass County Auditor will be open until 5 P.M. on Monday, Nov. 15; and Monday, November 29.

Sample ballot

IF VOTING BY MAIL: A written request may be mailed or hand delivered to the County Auditor’s office.  (Absentee request forms are available at the auditor’s office and on the Secretary of State’s web site: sos.iowa.gov).  A ballot along with instructions on how to complete the ballot will be mailed to the requester.  For the ballot to be counted, the completed ballot must arrive at the auditor’s office by 8 P.M. on Nov. 30.

All BALLOTS ARE TO BE RETURNED, whether they are voted or not voted.  A postage paid return envelope is provided with each absentee ballot mailed out.

The address for the Cass County Auditor / Election Commissioner is:

CASS COUNTY AUDITOR, COURTHOUSE, 5 W 7TH ST, ATLANTIC, IOWA 50022  (Phone:712-243-4570;   Email: auditor@casscoia.us)

On Nov. 30, the voting centers for this election will all be at the Cass County Community Center at 805 W 10th St.:

• Atlantic 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Wards will use the main entrance; and
• Atlantic 4th and 5th Wards will use the south entrance.

Polls will open at 7:00 A.M. and close at 8:00 P.M.

(Radio Iowa) – An Iowa City man who was trying to shoot a squirrel in his yard with an air rifle is now facing charges.

Iowa City police found a man involved in a single-car traffic accident on Highway 6 on October 17th was found to have been shot. Sixty-nine-year-old Philip Olson heard about the accident and turned himself in –telling police he was trying to shoot a squirrel from his home along Highway 6 with a .22 caliber air rifle.

Air rifles are not considered dangerous weapons under Iowa code — but city code prohibits shooting an air rifle, toy pistol, toy gun, or slingshot within city limits — and Olson faces a code violation.

Fox Squirrel (Public domain pic)

He also is facing D-N-R charges of hunting without a license or habitat fee, unlawful attempt to take a squirrel, and shooting a rifle over a highway. The man who was shot remains in the hospital.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – Iowa’s COVID-19 positivity rate is on the rise again as the number of Iowan testing positive for the virus continues to climb. The Iowa Department of Public Health released new COVID-19 data Friday that shows the number of positive tests at 7,501 in the last week, up from 6,816 at last report on Wednesday. The 14-day positivity rate climbed from 8.2% to 8.4% since Wednesday. A total of 533,872 positive tests have been reported in Iowa since the start of the pandemic.

While the number of positive tests has been climbing for more than a week, hospitalizations numbers are down. There are 464 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in Iowa, down from 483 on Wednesday. Of those hospitalized with COVID-19, 73.8% are unvaccinated, while 82.6% of those listed in intensive care with the virus are unvaccinated. The number of long-term care facilities reporting outbreaks in Iowa climbed from 23 to 27.

There have been 3,796,829 vaccine doses administered in Iowa, with 68.1% of those 18 and older fully vaccinated and 70.6% of those 12 and older with at least one dose.

DES MOINES – As Iowa’s arts and culture sector continues to rebound from a challenging year, the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs is granting $1 million to market the return to arts and culture experiences, while encouraging Iowans to safely re-engage with concerts, museums, festivals — and each other. The department today (Friday) announced that 118 arts and cultural groups in 47 Iowa communities will receive funding through the Iowa Arts & Culture Marketing Grant program. The department awarded a total of $1 million in grants, in amounts ranging from $1,500 to $18,000. The new, one-time grants were created with federal CARES Act funds that Gov. Kim Reynolds allocated to the department to provide economic relief to Iowa organizations that have been challenged by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The state arts and cultural agency developed a related promotional campaign and toolkit, based on input from statewide arts and culture leaders, to encourage Iowans to “Re-imagine, Re-engage, Reconnect” with arts and cultural experiences. The list of recipients, dispersed throughout 37 Iowa counties, includes local arts councils, theaters and historical attractions, as well as some of the state’s largest museums, art centers and performing arts venues. Here are just a few from around western Iowa:

• Council Bluffs: Preserve Council Bluffs will bring back its popular Historic Homes for the Holidays Tour and produce advertisements to help residents in a five-county region reconnect with the organization’s work to promote the area’s cultural heritage and historic preservation. Grant amount: $2,100.
• Corning: Corning Opera House Cultural Center received a $2,700 grant for marketing expenses
• Greenfield & Red Oak: The Warren Cultural Center in Greenfield, and The Wilson Performing Arts Center in Red Oak, each received a $15,000 grant for marketing expenses.
• Pottawattamie County Arts, Culture & Entertainment and the Pott. County Genealogical Society, both in Council Bluffs, each received a grant for marketing expenses, in the amounts of $17,800 and $1,700, respectively.
• Other grants for Marketing Expenses include:
  • The Museum of Danish America, in Elk Horn, $17,500
  • The New Century Art Guild in Elk Horn, $4,900.

The return to arts and culture marketing grants were created to help Iowa’s arts and cultural organizations publicize their activities and new protocols they’ve established to ensure safe and healthy cultural experiences for visitors and audiences who are re-engaging in arts and cultural activities across the state.

Through the grant opportunity and marketing campaign, the department is encouraging all Iowans to:

• Renew their love of performances, film, museums and all of the arts and historical attractions that make our communities culturally vibrant.
• Re-engage with Iowa arts, culture, film, history and the humanities to support Iowa’s growing creative workforce.
• Reconnect with arts, history, film and cultural experiences for personal well-being and to strengthen communities.

In a typical year, Iowa’s creative sector contributes $4.2 billion to the state’s economy, employing more than 43,000 creative workers across more than 5,000 businesses statewide. In 2020, Iowa’s nonprofit arts and culture sector lost millions in revenue and at least 4,500 arts, entertainment and recreation jobs, stemming from event cancellations and closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

For a complete list of Iowa Arts & Culture Marketing Grant recipients, visit the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs website. For more information about the Re-imagine campaign, visit iowaculture.

(Radio Iowa) – Some listeners might have thought she was crying wolf, when they heard a logistics and supply chain expert from the University of Iowa say to buy their Christmas gifts back in July. The predictions were correct from Jen Blackhurst, a U-I professor of business analytics, and we’re now seeing products ranging from video games to sirloin steaks have vanished from store shelves. “There’s labor shortages, there’s transportation shortages, you see in the ports coming into the U.S., massive backups and delays,” Blackhurst says. “It’s exacerbated and has become more severe over time.”

Many retailers still haven’t recovered from the complications of the pandemic and she says the perfect storm she warned about four months ago is hitting us now, and hard. Plus, it’s not just products we wanted to put under the tree that are hard to find. “What we’re seeing is potential shortages in packaging materials, so, do we have the aluminum, the steel, the resin, even glass bottles? How readily available are those?” Blackhurst says. “We’re seeing a variety of items in short supply.”

Prof. Jen Blackhurst (UI photo)

If you ignored the warnings and still haven’t completed — or even started — your Christmas shopping, never fear, there’s still plenty of products out there to buy, however… “You might not get the exact item that you want, but know that the retailers, the manufacturers, they’re doing everything they can to get products in your hands,” Blackhurst says. “I would say just be flexible and if you see something that you’re thinking about, go ahead and pick it up now.” She implores shoppers -not- to resort to panic buying, like happened in recent months with essentials from cleaning products to hand sanitizer.

“In terms of stockpiling and what we saw last year with toilet paper, that’s just going to make it worse,” Blackhurst says. “Stay calm and eventually, things will get back to normal, but if you see the item you want, go ahead and pick it up now.” So just when will things be “back to normal” for us? Blackhurst predicts it will be “at least well into 2022” before the supply chain again has its many links aligned.

(Atlantic, Iowa) –  Bailey Smith, Executive Director of the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce, reports the Atlantic Chamber Ambassadors were hosted by GracePoint Church, formerly known as E-Free Church, on Thursday, November 4th, 2021. The Ambassadors learned about the recent name change and about the annual Operation Christmas Child program.

Paula and Jeff Osegard shared about the mission of Operation Christmas Child, which is to provide God’s love in a tangible way to children in need around the world. Since 1993, more than 178 million children, in more than 150 countries, have received an Operation Christmas Child shoebox. The project delivers not only the joy of receiving a child’s first ever gift, but also gives the child a tangible expression of God’s love.

Ambassador’s Pictured Left to Right: Lana Westphalen, Colt Doherty, Kathie Hockenberry, Dawn Marnin, Donnie Drennan, Alden Harriman, Jim Kickland, Mike Cook, Dr. Keith Leonard, Dolly Bergmann, Kennedy Freund, Krysta Hanson, Jennifer McEntaffer, Rachel Czaja, Heidi Roland Hinman, Devon, Pastor Don McLean, Paula Osegard and Jeff Osegard. (Photo submitted)

GracePoint Church distributes specific shoe boxes to the community, individuals then fill the shoe boxes with various items like school supplies, reusable water bottles, clothing, toys, etc. Individuals choose to pack the box for either a girl or boy between three age groups: 2-4, 5-9 and 10-14. Individuals can also virtually “pack a box” and give a donation by visiting the Samaritan’s Purse website at https://www.samaritanspurse.org/.

Collection will begin Monday, November 15th and will be taken through Monday, November 22nd at Gracepoint Church, located at 1 East 22nd Street. Collection times are as follows: Monday, November 15th- 5 to 7 p.m., Tuesday, November 16th- 6 to 8 p.m., Wednesday, November 17th- 1 to 3 p.m., Thursday, November 18th- 6 to 8 p.m., Friday, November 19th- 4 to 6 p.m., Saturday, November 20th- 10 a.m. to noon, Sunday, November 21st- 1 to 3 p.m. and Monday, November 22nd- 9 to 11 a.m.

For more specific times of collection or for further information on Operation Christmas Child please contact GracePoint Church at 712-243-4738.

(Glenwood) – The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports two arrests: At around 6:45-a.m. Thursday, 32-year-old James Isaiah Donevley McFarland, of Council Bluffs, was arrested at the Pott. County Jail, on a Mills County warrant for Violation of Probation. His bond was set at $10,000.

And, on Tue., Nov. 2nd, 19-year-old Chad Eugene Bohrer, of Des Moines, was arrested for Driving Under Suspension. His bond was set at $300.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Officials with the Cass County Sheriff’s Office, Friday (Today) said Deputy arrested 41-year-ol Michelle Theisen, of Griswold, on Oct. 29th, for driving while barred. Theisen was taken to the Cass County Jail and was later released on her own recognizance.

And, on Oct. 31st, Deputies arrested 36-year-old Eric Huddleson, of Atlantic, for OWI 1st offense. Huddleson was transported to the Cass County Jail and was also later released on his own recognizance.

(Radio Iowa) – A northeast Iowa judge and jury have declared a Manchester man who’s been missing for nearly eight years legally dead. Brian “Farmer” Burns was last seen December 19, 2013 at his home northwest of Manchester. He was reported missing by a family member a few days later. The Delaware County Sheriff’s Office asked for the public’s help in locating Burns, but he was never found. On Thursday, a jury trial was held in Delaware County District Court, with his brother, Randy Burns, appearing with his attorney to petition for the legal declaration of death.

Brian Burns. (KMCH photo)

The court says from this day forward, it should be presumed that Burns is deceased. Sheriff John LeClere says even though Burns has been declared legally dead, his case will still remain open.

As is required in this kind of infrequently used legal proceeding, the jury reached a unanimous verdict that there is sufficient evidence that Burns is dead and the judge concurred. Burns was 55 years old at the time of his disappearance.