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(Radio Iowa) — Congress is allocating billions of dollars to the U-S Army Corps of Engineers for flood mitigation, construction and invasive species management, but the agency is still waiting for money to replace aging lock-and-dam systems on the Mississippi River. Colonel Steven Sattinger oversees the Corps’ Rock Island District and notes many of the structures are well past their prime. “They do occasionally, pieces break, machinery breaks, but we have really great crews in the district who are out there 24/7 fixing it and keeping them open,” Sattinger says. “The longer you defer maintenance though, the more likely that someday it’ll fail in a way that we didn’t foresee.”
While many of the locks and dams on the Mississippi are 80 years old, they were only designed to last 50 years. Sattinger says dam failures could hamstring the shipping economy — and local communities that depend on it. “In the Upper Mississippi River, there’s no bypasses,” he says. “If one of our locks and dams fails, it has to be closed to traffic. The traffic would have to go on the land. There are no additional locks or dams or water routes to move that freight.”
A 2017 analysis by the Mid-America Freight Coalition estimates if a dam failure blocked barges, it could cost the industry 283-million dollars in trucking costs, while causing 28-million dollars damage to the roads.
The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson
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Sheriff’s officials in Montgomery County say an Adams County man was arrested 5-p.m. Friday, on a felony warrant out of Page County. 19-year old Charles Lee Shadbolt, of Nodaway, was taken into custody on a warrant for Probation Violation. Shadboldt was booked into the Montgomery County Jail, where he was being held on a $10,000 cash bond.
(Radio Iowa) — The newest member of the Iowa Supreme Court put on her late father’s official black robe Friday afternoon after she took the oath to serve as a justice on the state’s highest court. Susan Christensen of Harlan is the daughter of the late Jerry Larson who served longer on the court than any other justice in Iowa’s history.
“Dad swore me in as a young attorney in 1991, the first one in the state that day. He swore me in a district associate judge in ’07. He swore me in as a district court judge in ’15 and he passed away in April,” Christensen said. “Governor Reynolds, I’m so honored to have you swear me in today, but you were actually my second choice.”
Christensen accompanied her father to the Supreme Court when he was an attorney and she was a young girl, sitting in the front row eating potato chips as her dad argued a case in front of the justices. “He fiercely loved me and I never stopped watching him,” Christensen said. “…He continues to be with me in spirit and I feel his presence around me today…This robe is his.”
Five former justices who served with Christensen’s father were at today’s (Friday’s) ceremony in the Iowa Supreme Court’s hearing room. It’s been eight years since a woman has served on the Iowa Supreme Court. “I’ve always believed that my gender has nothing to do with my qualifications,” Christensen said. “It has nothing to do with my experience, nothing to do with my passion, nothing to do with my desire to keep learning, but what I have learned since my appointment is that it sure means a lot to others and it reflects the diversity of our state.”
In August, Governor Reynolds introduced Christensen as her pick for the opening created by the retirement of one of the seven court justices. Since then, Christensen says she’s received “a ton” of email, texts, letters and handwritten notes. “From young women and girls across our state and elsewhere,” Christensen said. “It is truly humbling. I embrace that challenge. I didn’t realize how much other people needed that.”
Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Cady closed the event by noting the “new appearance” of the court, since a woman is now one of the seven justices sitting on the bench. “It has new perspectives and it has a new voice,” Cady said,” and, as in the past, this will help bring a new understanding which has been so important to the development of the law, over time.”
Two other long-time friends and legal colleagues of Christensen spoke during the ceremony. Christensen invited her grandchildren up to her seat on the bench and let them bang a toy gavel at the end of the event.
Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CDT
UNDATED (AP) — Police in an Iowa college town had repeated interactions with a troubled drifter in the weeks between his release from prison and his alleged killing of a star student golfer from Spain. Ames police reports show that 22-year-old Collin Richards struggled with drug and alcohol abuse, mental health problems and homelessness after he got out of prison in June. He is charged with first-degree murder in Monday’s killing of Iowa State University student Celia Barquin Arozamena.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Federal prosecutors in eastern Iowa have announced prison sentences for two farmers convicted in separate cases. Prosecutors say 36-year-old David Pitz, of Elma, has been sentenced to 10 months behind bars for using farm profits for personal expenses instead of paying off his loan. In a separate case, 36-year-old Mark Laubenthal, of Bancroft, has been sentenced to a year in prison for lying to his bank about how much land he was farming and how much crop he had in storage.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon says the remains of three U.S. Marines killed when their helicopter was shot down during the Vietnam War will be buried next week at Arlington National Cemetery. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced Friday that the helicopter’s pilot and two infantrymen will be buried as a group with full military honors next Thursday. One of the men was from Davenport.
ELDORA, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa worker safety agency proposes fining the state’s Human Services Department, saying the department’s school for delinquent juveniles isn’t protecting employees. The Des Moines Register reports that school residents assaulted staffers at the Iowa State Training School for Boys in Eldora during at least three incidents. The Iowa Occupational Safety and Health Administration has proposed more than $23,000 in fines for the department.
(Radio Iowa) — A liberal-leaning think-tank in Iowa City has released a report suggesting Iowans who suffer serious shoulder injuries on the job will receive far less in worker’s compensation benefits today than they would have a couple of years ago. Matthew Glasson of the University of Iowa Labor Center helped draft the Iowa Public Policy Project report.
“Shoulders turn out to be a fairly common body part to be injured, particularly in people who work in competitive-motion jobs,” Glasson says. In 2017, the Republican-led Iowa legislature changed the way workers comp pay-outs are calculated. Glasson concludes that because of that change, a worker will be paid on average about 72-thousand dollars less in workers compensation benefits for a serious shoulder injury. Under the old system, a doctor evaluated the worker’s physical impairment, then factors like the person’s age, work experience and education were considered.
“For the purpose of trying to project the impact of the phyiscal injury on the person’s ability to try to earn a living,” Glasson says, “so what the legislature did was say from now on, we’re not going to look at any of those factors. We’re just going to look at the physical impact to the person’s shoulder.” A University of Iowa history professor and a research assistant in the University of Iowa Labor Center also worked on the report. It found most workers who seek compensation for a job-related shoulder injury are men over the age of 50 who have not attended college.
The Pentagon says their remains were identified in March 2017. Military officials say House, the oldest at 28, was the pilot of the Sea Knight helicopter that crashed after being hit by enemy fire on June 30, 1967. Four others also were killed, including 18-year-old Killen and 21-year-old Runnels.
ELDORA, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa worker safety agency has proposed fining the Iowa Human Services Department, saying the department’s school for delinquent juveniles isn’t protecting its employees. The Des Moines Register reports that school residents assaulted staffers at Iowa State Training School for Boys in Eldora during at least three incidents last spring. The Iowa Occupational Safety and Health Administration said in its Aug. 28 report that the staffers “were unnecessarily exposed to violent attacks.” In one, the worker had numerous teeth smashed out and suffered broken bones in his face.
The agency proposes more than $23,000 in fines for the department. The school’s home to about 100 boys who’ve been convicted in juvenile court. Human Services Department spokesman Matt Highland says he can’t comment, because the two agencies are negotiating a settlement.
BETTENDORF, Iowa (AP) — A local investment group has bought an eastern Iowa steel castings company that filed for bankruptcy protection in March. Scott Tinsman Jr. represents the Tinsman family, which is part of the group, and he said Friday the group bought 100 percent of the Sivyer Steel assets from the bankruptcy court in July. The price: $6.5 million.
The company’s new name will be Sivyer Steel Castings LLC. New CEO Michael Baxley says the company plans to renovate its Bettendorf facility and update its equipment. The company also hopes to add to the list of more than 240 employees.
Sivyer produces medium to large steel castings for the mining, military, passenger rail and oil and gas industries. Company officials say a slowdown in orders, especially from the mining industry, forced the bankruptcy filing. Tinsman says Sivyer has “hit the bottom, and we’re on the way up.”
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s unemployment rate dropped slightly to 2.5 percent in August, giving the state the second-lowest rate in the country. Iowa Workforce Development reported Friday that the unemployment rate dropped from 2.6 percent in July and was down from 3 percent a year ago. Iowa was only behind Hawaii, which has the nation’s lowest rate of 2.1 percent.
The number of unemployed people in Iowa dropped to 42,800 in August, with the total number of working Iowans climbing to 1.64 million.
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