(Radio Iowa) – The state archeologist has determined a jawbone found in a remote area of the Iowa River likely belonged to a prehistoric man. Someone on the Marshall County Conservation Staff discovered the bone in early August while conducting a wildlife survey. The jawbone, which is the strongest bone on the human face, was sent to the State Medical Examiners Office. It was confirmed to be human, but with no modern significance. The bone was transferred to the Office of the State Archaeologist at the University of Iowa.

According to a news release from the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office, experts have determined the bone likely belonged to a prehistoric Native American adult male.

The Iowa Archeology director says testing will be done to try to trace the bone to one of 26 tribes that lived in Iowa before Europeans settled in the area. If an ancestry link is found to a tribe, the bone will be returned over for burial. If not, it will be housed in the Office of the State Archeologist, a repository for bones that are 150 years old or older.

(Radio Iowa) – New Hampton police have arrested a 15-year-old student after the investigation into a threat against the school. Authorities say they were notified by administration of the threat Wednesday and began an investigation. Police say they arrested the 15-year-old juvenile male Thursday morning and charged him with threat of terrorism.

Authorities say they believe there is no credible evidence of an active threat to the school, students or staff.

(Radio Iowa) – The U-S-D-A has awarded a co-op in the southeast corner of Minnesota a five-point-six MILLION dollar grant to extend broadband access to farms and businesses in two counties in northeast Iowa. The project in Allamakee and Winneshiek Counties and a neighboring county in Minnesota will connect nearly a thousand people, 42 business and 122 farms to high-speed internet. U-S Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says applicants for this round of the agency’s “ReConnect” grants had to show they’ll meet certain thresholds.

“So that the download and upload speeds are significantly greater and there’s capacity to increase them even more,” Vilsack says.

The grant money comes from the infrastructure bill congress and the president approved last year. In this latest round of funding, a total of 502-million dollars in grants are going to projects in Iowa and 19 other states.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Association of Business and Industry (ABI) finds continued uncertainty about factors impacting business as they survey members on their outlook for the fourth quarter. A-B-I President, Mike Ralston, sums it up this way. “The bottom line with the survey is folks are continuing to see a strong business cycle. But boy, there’s a lot of concern about what lies ahead,” Ralston says.

Ralston says finding employees continues to be a concern and has been for several years. He says one other item was more prominent in the latest survey. “A lot of talk about supply chain issues and inflation and the impact that has on materials costs.” Ralston says. “Many, many more respondents mentioned those than is typical, so the business cycle was strong. But I’d say folks are pretty cautious and watching a couple of issues to see what happens.”  He says businesses have been doing a lot of creative things to deal with the supply chain problems. “Certainly looking for new vendors and have had some luck in that regard. But we’ve even seen manufacturers who were sort of combining their efforts. By that, I mean, they’re, they’re placing a joint order. So if they need a certain product, they’ll be able to hire, they’ll be able to purchase at a greater quantity, which brings the price down some,” according to Ralston.

He says it doesn’t look like supply chain issues are going to go away anytime soon. “In fact, I was looking over some information that we had from some other sources about supply chain issues, and the first time we talked about it, I think in a big way, was 2019. And one of the economists said, well, it won’t happen soon, but it should be over by the end of 2020,” he says, “And here we are, you know, approaching the end of 2022. And it’s still there. And so I think our folks are going to expect that supply chain issues continue for a while yet.”

A-B-I 15-hundred member companies of all types and sizes in all 99 counties employing more than 330-thousand workers. Ralston says one thing stands out among all the concerns about supply chain issues, inflation, and finding workers. “Despite all this talk about concern and caution — 60 percent of those who replied said that they expect to make capital expenditures in the fourth quarter of this year. I mean, that continues to amaze me.” Ralston says. “And, you know, business folks are pretty cautious. They wouldn’t do that if they didn’t think there was going to be a good business cycle ahead. So there’s some real hope and that number for sure.”

Thirty-seven percent of respondents expect sales to expand in the third quarter of the year. That’s a decrease from 48 percent in the third quarter and 60 percent for the second quarter of 2022. Eighteen percent expect sales to retract, a five percent increase from last quarter.

(Dexter, Iowa) – Officials in the Dallas County community of Dexter, late Wednesday, issued a WATER EMERGENCY for residents, and asked them to conserve water as much as possible. Officials say the declaration is due to a water main break. The City of Dexter is implementing Stage 4 of the Water Conservation Plan.

Officials ask residents to “Please refrain from any non essential use of water at this time, including washing of automobiles, driveways and sidewalks, and irrigation of lawns or gardens.” Restaurants may only serve water to customers when they request it. The city hasn’t said how long it will be in a Stage 4 emergency.

A copy of the Ordinance detailing stage 4 of the water conservation can be found in Chapter 94 of the City’s Code of Ordinances, and can be found HERE.

(Radio Iowa) – The Capitol Police officer who diverted a mob of rioters away from the U.S. Senate on January 6th, 2021 has testified at an Iowa man’s trial in Washington, D.C.   Doug Jensen of Des Moines is charged with a number of felonies and four Capitol Police officers testified at his trial yesterday (Wednesday). Video widely broadcast and shared on social media last year showed Jensen leading a line of rioters confronting Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman.

Goodman testified that as Jensen and the mob advanced up flights of stairs, ignoring his orders to halt it felt like they were going to rush (him) any time. Prosecutors say Jensen was among the first 10 rioters to breach the Capitol. He was escorted out of the building once, but went back in through a broken window and had to be escorted out a second time.

Jensen’s attorney has urged the jury to consider Jensen’s attire for the day when making their decision — arguing Jensen was not dressed for battle, but was dressed in costume. Jensen was wearing a t-shirt to show his support of an online conspiracy theory.