September 14, 2022 (Des Moines, Iowa) — The Iowa Tourism Office launched a redesign to traveliowa.com and the latest edition of the Iowa Travel Guide. The new website, the definitive source for Iowa vacation inspiration and planning, utilizes a content-first approach, highlighting unique and inspirational ideas that invite users to explore Iowa using rich photography, featured articles and interactive tools. Streamlined navigation leads users to the best content.

Additional improvements to the site include new travel areas more closely aligned with traveler needs, easier use across devices, improved page speed and enhancements to accessibility. “It’s been almost a decade since we’ve had a major revamp of traveliowa.com,” said Amy Zeigler, manager of the Iowa Tourism Office. “This redesigned site better meets the needs of today’s travelers and allows us to show off the best of Iowa through engaging stories and stunning photography. Paired with the latest Fall/Winter Iowa Travel Guide, we hope to inspire lots of travel across the state.”

The 140-page Fall/Winter Iowa Travel Guide includes listings for hundreds of authentic and unexpected destinations, cabins and campgrounds. Editorial content features museums and mansions, barns and grain bins converted into lodging properties, 99 hidden gems, winter skiing and ways to celebrate the holidays.  The free guide can be ordered online at traveliowa.com, by phone at 800.345.IOWA or picked up at any of Iowa’s 14 Welcome Centers. An online version is also available.

(Radio Iowa) – Forecasters say high temperatures should be back in the 80s and 90s for the rest of week, but soon enough, we’ll have to start thinking about winter coats, shovels and snowmelt. Craig Bargfrede, winter operations manager for the Iowa D-O-T, says he’s thinking ahead, too, and is already starting to fill hundreds of seasonal winter positions. “This coming year, we have been approved for 633 positions statewide,” Bargfrede says. “We’re just in the early stages about putting out the advertising for these positions and starting the process of bringing those folks on board.” Those seasonal workers will be working in a variety of capacities.

“These positions will be augmenting our full-time staff,” Bargfrede says. “So we’re looking for folks with CDLs that can operate our snow plow trucks and other equipment in the garages. They’d be looking at everything from plowing snow to filling trucks, making brine and all the other tasks associated with winter operations.” To say that state highway crews should have plenty of road salt for the season ahead would be an understatement.

“We have more salt actually on the ground than we ever have in the history of the Iowa DOT,” he says. “Last winter, we didn’t use as much material as we had contracted, so we were forced to take more salt and store it than what we typically do, but that’s a good thing.” Find D-O-T jobs in your area by visiting Iowa-D-O-T-dot-gov and clicking on the “Careers” tab. The agency maintains 101 garages across the state.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Senior Alumni Scholarship Foundation Board, in Atlantic, recently held their annual meeting and welcomed new members Tammy Wickman and Billie Hoover. The SASF voted to add an additional  scholarship for next year, and will be awarding up to four $2,500 scholarships, to graduating Atlantic seniors. Information on applying for the scholarships is available through the Atlantic Community School.

Senior Alumni Scholarship Foundation. L to R. Mark McNees, C.J. Heithoff, Cathy Baragary, Ted Robinson, J.C. VanGinkel, Mark Smith, Tammy Wickman, Billie Hoover, Deb Schuler. Not present were Cathy Hansen, Denise Masker, Linda Robinson. (Photo & info. courtesy Mark McNees)

The SASF is funded primarily through donations from Atlantic alumni. Anyone wishing to make a donation to the charitable foundation is encouraged to contact any of the board members.

(Woodward, Iowa) – A single-vehicle accident Monday evening in Dallas County claimed the life of a man from southwest Iowa. The Iowa State Patrol reports 39-year-old Jason Lee Johnson, of Lenox, was driving a 2006 Toyota Tacoma pickup east on 150th Street from S Avenue, when for reasons unknown, the vehicle left the roadway/field drive, and overturned.

Johnson was not wearing a seat belt. He died at the scene of the crash, that happened at around 7:45-p.m., south of Woodward. The crash remains under investigation.

(Radio Iowa) – A Go Fund Me account set up for an Iowa sex trafficking victim is going viral and already exceeds 188-thousand dollars. Under state law, 17-year-old Pieper Lewis of Des Moines was ordered to pay 150-thousand dollars restitution to the family of the man she stabbed to death when she was 15 — a man she says was one of her captors who raped her repeatedly. Lewis pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and willful injury and was sentenced Tuesday to five years of probation, no jailtime, in the death of 37-year-old Zachary Brooks.

The organizer of the Go Fund Me account, a former teacher of Lewis’, says money raised beyond the required restitution will help the teen cover other legal bills, save for college, start a business, or to help other victims of sex crimes.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/vxgt7q?qid=b23233cd839bb87f0bdcb88d935b2f24

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa “Hundreds of employees at the I-R-S itself may have willfully failed to pay their own tax bills, including tax collectors, and even a criminal investigator,” Ernst says. Ernst says other I-R-S employees were flagged for not paying their tax bills in full or on time. “More than 300 of these were repeat offenders. Yet the tax collecting agency did little to discipline the tax evaders on its very own payroll. In fact, the I-R-S even rehired employees who had previously been fired or resigned because they had not paid their taxes,” she says.

Ernst says she asked the Inspector General to audit the I-R-S and to ensure that the tax collectors themselves are paying the taxes they owe. She says we don’t need more I-R-S auditors — we need a simplified tax code. “Folks, we have a real problem that the IRS staff who enforce the tax law aren’t paying their own taxes and can’t even understand how to properly fill out their own tax forms,” Ernst says.

She says the Biden Administration should make sure the current tax collectors have paid their own taxes before sending out more to “harass” innocent taxpayers. “No one in Iowa that I talked to is begging for more I-R-S auditors — but I do hear about the urgent need for more teachers and childcare workers, police officers, restaurant workers, and more. Washington should allow job creators to keep more of their own earnings which can be put towards hiring more of the very essential workers we all rely upon,” according to Ernst.

Ernst says Biden says that no one making under 400-thousand a year will be audited — but the Congressional Budget Office has said that is not true.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Atlantic Police Department provided additional information with regard to an arrest made in conjunction with the Cass County Sheriff’s Department. Authorities say at about 2:20-a.m. on Sept. 5th, Atlantic Police were notified an assault had occurred at a residence in the 800 block of Walnut Street, in Atlantic. During an investigation, officers made contact with the victim, who stated they had been assaulted by being struck multiple times with an object.

The victim said shortly after they arrived home, there was a knock at the door. A man entered the residence and allegedly began assaulting the victim. An investigation determined the suspect to be 53-year-old Edward Davenport, of Atlantic. On Sept. 6th, Officers made contact with Davenport, and arrested him in connection with the incident that occurred the previous day. Davenport was charged with Burglary in the 1st Degree, Assault while participating in a felony (serious injury), willful injury (causing bodily injury), going armed with intent, and intimidation with a dangerous weapon. He is currently being held in the Cass County Jail.

Edward Davenport

The Cass County Sheriff’s Department assisted in the investigation. If you have any information with regard to the incident mentioned, please call the Atlantic Police Dept. at 712-243-3512. No other information is being released at this time.

Note: A Criminal charge is merely an accusation, and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

(Radio Iowa) -A federal board that regulates train acquisitions heard from Iowans for two hours last (Tuesday) night speaking out against Canadian Pacific’s sprawling acquisition of Kansas City Southern. Michelle Solis Russell, of Davenport, called the silence from her own city council deafening. Russell says, “Not one person stood up when you asked for city officials, and the reason is, here in our town, we don’t agree with our city leader’s decision to accept the CP money.”

Ahead of the public comment period, Canadian Pacific offered money to towns in exchange for not opposing the acquisition, including ten-million dollars promised to Davenport, three-million dollars to both Bettendorf and Muscatine, and 750-thousand dollars to Le Claire. The U.S. Surface Transportation Board extended its public comment meeting into the night as speakers lined up to oppose Canadian Pacific’s expansion all the way to Mexico. Rebecca Howe is the president of the Merrill Hotel in Muscatine, one of the many railroad towns in eastern Iowa expecting to see some of the highest increases in train traffic.

“With the railroad coming in and it’s really unclear as to exactly what they are doing,” Howe says. “That’s going to have a drastic effect on the downtown and the riverfront which is the biggest asset Muscatine has.” Towns in eastern Iowa are anticipated to see the highest traffic increases nationally. An environmental study estimated an additional 15 trains per day, on average. The board is expected to decide whether to approve the deal by early next year.

(reporting by Zachary Oren Smith, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – A jury in northwest Iowa’s Plymouth County only deliberated for about an hour, Tuesday, before finding an elderly Merrill man guilty of murdering his step-son. In addition, 84-year-old Thomas Knapp was also convicted of five other charges, including willful injury and domestic abuse. Prosecutor Darin Raymond played two 9-1-1 calls made by Knapp’s wife, Darlene, in May of 2020 when Knapp fought with her and shot his step-son, 51-year-old Kevin Juzek. Knapp: “I’m so scared for my son and I know he’s going to shoot me now.” Dispatcher: “Just stay on the phone with me until they get there, okay, Darlene, don’t hang up with me.” Knapp: “Okay, I can do that, yeah.” Dispatcher: “They’re a couple miles away from you right now, okay? Just stay on the phone with me.”

Raymond also played a 30-minute long police interview with Knapp after his arrest as part of his closing arguments. In the recording, Knapp admitted shooting Juzek because he was mad at him for a variety of reasons, including that Juzek apparently knocked over a birdbath in the yard.  ***NOTE LANGUAGE** Police: “What was Kevin doing before you shot him?” Knapp: “Trying to open the door.” Police: “Okay, he wasn’t in the bedroom at that time?” Knapp: “No, he was trying to open the door. I shot him through the goddamn door.”

The defense attorneys told the jury in their closing arguments that Knapp shot Juzek in a fit of a rage and should be found guilty only of voluntary manslaughter. Knapp faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison when he is sentenced October 7th.

(UPDATED) [Atlantic, Iowa] – The newly constructed Atlantic McDonald’s restaurant is set to hold what’s known as a “soft opening” for lunch, Thursday, Sept. 15^th, nearly three months after the projected opening date.

Ric Hanson/photos (9/14/22)

The old restaurant – which was 40-years old – closed on March 24^th, and was torn-down. The structure was slated to have been torn-down on February 22^nd, but Atlantic McDonald’s owner operator Blake Zogleman says matters out of their control, plus a wet March, resulted in a bit of an adjustment on the timeline.

Blake’s family has owned the store since 2013 when they purchased it from the Mueller family. It’s not the only restaurant they own, but it does offer a unique opportunity.

He says their hours of operation on Thursday this week, will be from about 11-a.m. Until 11-p.m. Beginning Friday, their regular hours will be from 5-a.m. Until 11-p.m. If you see cars in the parking lot and people going in the store today (Wednesday), it’s because they are hosting an employee and family appreciation dinner, and making sure the equipment is running smoothly and employees are familiar with the brand new equipment.

And yes, the ice cream machine does work!

At some stores, including the old Atlantic McDonald’s, there were some sporadic issues with the machine. Blake said they have a lot of experienced staff working for the new restaurant, and some new faces.

The new store features two drive-through lanes, instead of one, and two side-by-side order points, instead of one, in order to improve service. A grand opening for the Atlantic McDonald’s will take place the first week of November, with additional details to be provided on the Leonard Management McDonald’s Facebook page.

Bishop construction was hired to do the work by McDonald’s Real Estate Company, based in Elkhorn, Neb.