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Iowa City dad gets five years for carrying handgun into elementary school

News

March 26th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – An eastern Iowa man was sentenced Monday to five years in prison for bringing a handgun to his child’s school. Prosecutors say 32-year-old Brandon Jones of Iowa City walked into Grant Wood Elementary last November and demanded to speak with the principal, saying his child was wrongfully sent home. As he walked into the school, Jones unholstered a nine-millimeter handgun and handed it to someone, saying: “Hold my gun so I don’t do something stupid.” Rachel Zimmermann Smith is the Johnson County Attorney.

“The thing that has probably not gotten enough attention is just the focus on the staff and the kids that were at Grant Wood that day,” she says, “and how it affected them, and what that staff did to protect the kids and each other in what was a really scary situation.”

A judge sentenced Jones to five years for one count of carrying weapons on school grounds and two counts of harassment in the first degree. Initially, Prairielands Freedom Fund posted bail for Jones. The bail fund said in a statement the firearm was legal and when Jones realized he’d brought it into the school, he immediately asked his partner to remove it from the premises.

Volunteers needed for Great American Cleanup

Ag/Outdoor, News

March 26th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – Keep Iowa Beautiful is looking for more volunteers to join the state’s effort in the national Great American Cleanup. Executive director, Andy Frantz says the idea is to clean up public spaces. “Whether it’s church groups, sports clubs, just volunteers or whatever to make a concerted effort to clean up parks, rivers, riverbeds, roadsides, all of those sorts of things. S every year there’s a big push,” he says. You can go to KeepIowaBeautiful.org to sign up. “The first 35 of those communities this year that sign up will be eligible for a 50-dollar reimbursement to any expenses, it’s pretty loose, any expenses that are related to the pickup efforts,” Frantz says. “It can be anything from bags to pickers to gloves.”

He asks that you sign up so they know how many groups are taking part. “They can do it between now and the end of July, we’d like to hope that they’ll be able to pull it together by then. So it’s really an open window that sits available to any of the communities and whatever works for them, you know weather permitting all of those sorts of things to have their local event,” he says. Frantz says the effort makes a difference. “There have been about 50 events in the last couple of years. Seven-thousand volunteer hours and over three-thousand trash bags of litter and debris have been picked up,” Frantz says. He says there are a lot more clean up efforts that happen each year outside this program.

Frantz says applications are due April 30th for those who want to be considered for the reimbursement money. Awarded communities will receive notification on May 6th.

UI study: Many parents keep no tabs on teens’ use of social media

News

March 26th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – Almost half of all parents say they don’t monitor or restrict their teenagers’ internet and social media use, according to a national survey done in part at the University of Iowa. U-I journalism and mass communication professor Rachel Young says they found it’s very hard to keep a digital leash on a teen’s online world. “When we spoke with parents, it wasn’t because they didn’t want to or didn’t think it was important,” Young says, “but rather because it was so incredibly challenging to find strategies that they felt really worked for them and that they could sustain.”

Adults often use social media differently from teens, so Young says when a parent tries to restrict internet use, it can have all sorts of ripple effects. “Monitoring or limiting could really threaten their relationship with their teenager,” Young says, “because media is so crucial to teenagers’ social lives, and entertainment, and even school, and all these areas in the teens’ life, trying to figure out reasonable limits is really tough for parents.”

While the survey’s findings may initially -sound- like parents aren’t stepping up, Young says the responsibility is genuine and parents are taking their duties seriously. “The parents that we spoke with were really engaged in talking to their teenagers about what they were experiencing online, and making sure their teenagers felt really comfortable coming to them if they encountered any trouble,” Young says, “which is exactly what you would want to see.”

State legislators are considering a bill that would require anyone under 18 to have parental permission before they could use a social media account. Young says that could be difficult to regulate. “Kids are often really adept at technology, so to get an account on TikTok or Instagram, there already is a check to see how old you are, but we find that kids are often pretty good at figuring out how to get around that,” Young says. “It’s not really too challenging.”

Still, she says any type of check that would let parents know their kids are creating these accounts is important. Young’s findings were published recently in Computers in Human Behavior.

Red Oak man arrested on a Mills County warrant Monday night

News

March 26th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak, Monday night, arrested a man on a warrant for Probation Violation. Authorities say 24-year-old Brandon Lane Good, of Red Oak, was arrested a little after 9-p.m. on the Mills County warrant. Good was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $5,000 bond.

Ernst holds roundtable in Lamoni focused on FAFSA failings

News

March 26th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – U-S Senator Joni Ernst says time is running out for the U-S Department of Education to fix the application college students and their parents fill out to find out how much federal aid they may qualify for. “All of the money that was supposed to go to updating and simplifying the form — instead they redirected that to student debt bailout,” Ernst says. “It’s just been really, really confusing time, a very frustrating time.”

On Friday, the agency announced another error on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or FAFSA will delay decisions for up to 200-thousand students. A federal law passed in late 2020 called for simplifying the FAFSA form.  “What we have now is a very, very confusing form,” Ernst says. “It’s worse than it was before and the rollout of the FAFSA has been completely botched.”

Ernst, a Republican from Red Oak, cites bipartisan calls to address a new calculation of the finances of farm families and small business owners. Ernst says it doesn’t take into account those who are property rich, but don’t have the cash flow to pay for a child’s college education. “The provision would reduce aid eligibility by thousands of dollars for our farm families and our small business families,” Ernst says.

Ernst was in Lamoni yesterday (Monday) to meet with students and administrators from Graceland University as well as the three state universities and Des Moines Area Community College about that issue as well as the delays in federal aid as well as scholarship decisions due to the FAFSA form delays.

Bill limits local rules on topsoil, storm water drainage

Ag/Outdoor, News

March 26th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – A bill headed to the governor would only let local governments have topsoil and storm water regulations that are tougher than state rules if the city covers the extra costs. Senator Mike Webster, a Republican from Bettendorf who works in the construction industry, says building regulations should be based on life, health and safety issues.

“I don’t build retention ponds. I build houses,” Webster says. “Some of the regulations that come from cities currently…put 24 inches of topsoil on ground that didn’t even have that. (It’s) thousands and thousands of dollars in added expense for somebody just trying to build a house.” Critics say the bill would prevent local officials from responding to flooding issues. Senator Janice Weiner, a Democrat from Iowa City, says the state legislature should stay out of it and let county and city officials make these decisions.

“I’m not worried about parking lots. In the end, I care about people’s homes and town homes. I care about the ability of people, of fellow Iowans to have dry basements.” The bill won Senate passage a year ago. Earlier this month the bill failed in the House, but four days later wound up passing 53 to 46. On Monday, Senate Republicans accepted an adjustment the House made in the bill and gave it final legislative approval.

Skyscan Forecast for Atlantic & the Nishna Valley: Tue., March 26, 2024

Weather

March 26th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

Today: Cloudy & windy w/a 30% chance of snow, mainly before 9am. A  nearly steady temperature around 30. NW winds 20-30 mph. Little or no snow accumulation expected.
Tonight: Partly cloudy & blustery, with a low around 19. NW @ 10-25 mph.
Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 41. West wind 5 to 10 mph.
Wed. Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 23.
Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 59.
Friday: Partly sunny, with a high near 64. Breezy.
Saturday: Partly sunny, with a high near 58.

Monday’s High in Atlantic was 64. Our Low this morning, 29. We received .65″ rain from 7-a.m. Monday through 7-a.m. today, at KJAN. Last year on this date, the High in Atlantic was 42 and the Low was 16. The all-time Record High in Atlantic on March 26th, was 88 in 1907. The Record Low was -2 in 1955. Sunrise today: 7:13. Sunset tonight: 7:39.

No. 2 Iowa women edge West Virginia in NCAA 2nd Round

Sports

March 26th, 2024 by admin

A strong finish allowed the second ranked Iowa Hawkeye women to survive West Virginia.

Rob Brooks on the Hawkeye Network. Sydney Affolter’s three-point play triggered an 8-0 run as the Hawkeyes claimed a 64-54 win. West Virginia had erased a 10 point fourth quarter Iowa lead to tie the game. The Hawkeyes won despite shooting only 36 percent and making only five of 22 from three point range.

That’s Iowa coach Lisa Bluder. Iowa averages more than 92 points per game but was forced to grind it out against the Mountaineers.

Caitlin Clark finished with 32 points as the Hawkeyes had to battle through another second round nail biter.

Clark finished with five three pointers but she was the only Hawkeye to make a shot from behind the arc.

It was the final game in Carver-Hawkeye Arena for Clark and the other Iowa seniors.

West Virginia held the Hawkeyes in check all night and ends the season with a record of 25-8.

That’s West Virginia coach Mark Kellog who talks about the defensive effort by his team.

Iowa plays Colorado in Albany on Saturday in the Sweet Sixteen.

Ryan Lockwood Is The New Head Boys Basketball Coach at Griswold

Sports

March 25th, 2024 by admin

Ryan Lockwood formerly the head girls’ basketball coach at Griswold, has accepted a new position to be the new boys’ basketball coach. Coach Lockwood brings multiple years of coaching experience to this position.

Coach Lockwood was excited when he was offered the Head Boys basketball position at Griswold.

Coach Lockwood mentioned that his team will be experienced heading into next season.

Coach Lockwood elaborated on the defensive changes he wants to make for next year.

Coach Lockwood talked about his expectations for this season.

The Tigers ended the year with 5-16 overall record and 3-9 record in the Corner Conference. Coach Lockwood is looking forward to working with his team over the summer to prepare them for next season.

CAM Cougars Boys Golf Season Preview

Sports

March 25th, 2024 by admin

The CAM Boys Golf team is off to a swinging start. The Cougars have 7 high schoolers out and are coached by Joe Wollum this season.

Coach Wollum had this to say on how last season went.

Coach Wollum mentioned a few of his top athletes on this year’s squad.

Coach Wollum talked about what the team has been working on in practice.

Coach Wollum gave his expectations for the team this season.

The Cougars next golf meet will be Thursday March 28th at Happy Hollow Country Club in Corning. That meet will start at 4:00 p.m