WEST LIBERTY, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say an eastern Iowa man died after becoming trapped in a grain bin. Cedar Rapids station KCRG reports that Cedar County first responders were sent around 5:50 p.m. Thursday to a farm about 5 miles (8 kilometers) north of West Liberty. The Cedar County Sheriff’s Office says 64-year-old Randy Koch was pronounced dead at the scene.

The hostess of the Cooking Channel program “Good to Know” is urging Iowans to change up their grocery shopping habits. Laurie March, who also appears on the H-G-T-V show “House Counselor,” notes Iowa farmers may be helping to feed the world, but a lot of that food winds up in the garbage.  “Believe it or not, one-third of all the food that’s produced on earth gets wasted,” March says. “Much of it is ending up in a landfill.” A study finds the average American wastes 27-dollars worth of food every week, or about 14-hundred dollars worth per year. March says the food waste problem causes double-trouble in the state’s landfills.  “Aside from taking up a ton of space, all that food is breaking down and it’s releasing methane gas, which is a greenhouse gas and it’s contributing to our climate change,” she says.

We should stop buying food in bulk, March says, and make out a weekly meal plan, only buying what we’ll use that week.  “Obviously, we can all make some changes in our shopping habits,” March says. “We can look to use food better, is there some preserving you could do at the end there or is there a big soup you could make where you could throw lots of things in before they go bad.” In addition to freezing leftovers, she suggests sharing with friends and neighbors. “Use everything and maybe keep a journal,” March says. “Look at the end of the week and say, ‘Hey, wow, I wasted all of this so when I go to the grocery store next time, I’ll buy half as much,’ so you don’t throw away that 27 bucks a week.”

She also suggests using your garbage disposal more instead of tossing food in the trash. So it won’t end up in a landfill, that food goes through the water treatment system which she says is more environmentally-friendly.

(Radio Iowa, w/thanks to Karla James in Omaha)

Officials with the Glenwood Police Department report 40-year old Matthew Eichelberger, of Glenwood, was arrested Thursday. Eichelberger was taken into custody for Driving While Barred. His bond was set at $2,000 cash or surety.

(9-a.m. News)

Officials with the Harlan Police Department and the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office say they have received numerous calls from citizens regarding phone calls claiming to be from the Internal Revenue Service. A caller will tell you that money is owed to the IRS and that you can be arrested if the call is not returned and/or money sent. Authorities warn “These are scam calls. The IRS will NEVER contact anyone by phone regarding their tax status.  Ignore these calls. Do not call them back or give out any personal information. If a voicemail has been left with you, simply delete the message.”

The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office has released a report on recent arrests and other activities. Authorities say a man who was getting ready to bond-out of the Pott. County Jail, was served with a warrant Thursday morning, for Violation of Parole. 42-year old Anthony Cortez Francis, of Council Bluffs, was advised of the warrant and returned to the custody of Corrections Staff. Late Thursday morning, a Pott. County Sheriff’s Deputy appeared at a residence in Neola, to locate a woman who had a valid warrant for Probation Violation. He spoke with 36-year old Staci Lynn Ashley, of Neola, the person wanted on the warrant. She acknowledged the warrant and asked to make some phone calls to arrange for bail. She was permitted to do so, then taken into custody and booked into the Pottawattamie County Jail without incident.

At around 11-p.m. Thursday, an eastern Iowa man was arrested by a Pott. County Deputy, at the Love’s Truck Stop, in Shelby. 42-year old Jason Asa Grulkey, of Cedar Rapids, was loitering at the Truck Stop and was asked to leave the area, but refused to so. A Deputy located Grulkey and ran a license check on him. Dispatch advised Grulkey had warrants for his arrest out of Linn County.  He was into custody and transported to Pott. County Corrections to be held on the Linn County warrant until their deputies could pick him up and transport him back to Linn County.

A man from Council Bluffs was arrested early this (Friday) morning, after 52-year old Vernon Atkinson, of Glenmora, LA., called the Sheriff’s Office at around 1:10-a.m.  Atkinson reported to authorities someone had tried to break into his truck while he was sleeping on the side of the road on Interstate 80 at the 17 mile marker. When Atkinson confronted the suspect, 31-year old Jestin Michael Hambright, Hambright fled east on Interstate 80. Atkinson followed the suspect vehicle to the 23 mile marker, where law enforcement was able to make contact and stop the suspect vehicle on 298th Street just east of Neola.

The driver of the suspect vehicle was identified as Hambright, who was taken into custody for burglary 2nd degree. Hambright was also charged with a restraining order violation due to his sister 18-year old Shaylee Elizabeth Hambright being in the vehicle. There is currently a no contact order in place between Jestin and Shaylee Hambright, with Shaylee Hambright being the protected party. A third passenger in the suspect vehicle identified as Zachary Michael Digilio was taken into custody for having outstanding warrant for Theft and Violation of Probation, in Pottawattamie County.

Officials with the Iowa Department of Transportation report construction work on Interstate 29 in Sioux City, will require closing the inside lane of northbound I-29 from the Floyd River to Hamilton Boulevard nightly, from 6-p.m. until 6-a.m. Sunday nights through Friday mornings, weather permitting, from this Sunday, April 29, until Friday, May 11th. Motorists should expect to encounter road construction crews and slow down…it’s the law.

Warm spring weather has been slow to spread across Iowa and the rest of the Northern Plains, causing costly delays for planting, construction and other outdoor activities. Meteorologist Dennis Todey, director of the U-S-D-A’s Midwest Climate Hub, says changes are underway in the major climate drivers. “We are transitioning between La Nina and potential El Nino, so, a large part of what you’re seeing here is trapped,” Todey says. “There is this noted warming hole over the middle part of the country in the middle part of summer, so that’s what is coming into play here.”

La Nina patterns often bring cooler temperatures along with more storms in some areas and droughts elsewhere. El Nino patterns typically do the opposite. Due to the extended cold weather, many Iowa farmers are a couple of weeks behind in planting and Todey says it will take quite a while to get back to normal growing conditions.  “The catching up cannot happen during the early part of the summer,” he says. “Above-average temperatures, middle part of the summer don’t do much to catch us up in the way of growing degree days.”

Todey says there is no single cause for the prolonged winter we’ve seen across much of the region in recent weeks. “There is a little bit of La Nina influence still because we still are in La Nina,” he says, “but there’s not one indicator. There’s a combination of several different things that has locked into it.”

Many areas in the region have set all-time April records for snow and cold temperatures. The Midwest Climate Hub is based in Ames.

(Radio Iowa)

The half dozen Democrats who are running for governor say it’s time to address the “scourge” of sexual harassment in our culture. Their comments came last (Thursday) night — a few hours after Republican Governor Kim Reynolds publicly released the letter she received in March from a state employee who alleged the Iowa Finance Authority’s boss was harassing women in the agency. Reynolds fired the man a month ago. Fred Hubble, a retired businessman from Des Moines, says if there’s a lawsuit over a state official or state employee’s conduct, that person — not the taxpayers — should pay any damages. “There is no room for sexual assault or sexual harassment in our state, period,” Hubbell says. “Not just state government, but in our state, in our communities, on our sidewalks. We’ve got to stop that.”

All six Democratic gubernatorial candidates were in Adel last (Thursday) night for a Dallas County Democrats’ fundraiser. Nate Boulton, a state senator from Des Moines, says the female employee’s letter revealed a “toxic culture” where a state official abused his power in the work environment. “The statehouse, state government, should lead by example and not be — unfortunately — a bad example,” Boulton says. Andy McGuire, a medical doctor who is a former Iowa Democratic Party chairwoman, says harassment is a cultural issue that must be addressed. “I want to make sure when I’m in office that we value every state employee, that we value everyone in Iowa,” she says, “so that we make sure we don’t have this anymore.”

Cathy Glasson, a nurse and union organizer from Coralville, says Reynolds “could have led” on the issue after a state senate employee who complained of harassment won a two-million dollar jury verdict last July. “She sort of deferred it to that chamber, to the senate, like it’s just their problem, when obviously there’s a much bigger problem affecting the work environment in state government in Iowa,” Glasson says. Ross Wilburn, a former Iowa City mayor and current employee of Iowa State University Extension, says Reynolds needs to ensure state workers know where they can safely go to air these kind of complaints. “The governor does set the tone for the values and expectations on behavior,” Wilburn says.

John Norris, who served as Democratic Governor Tom Vilsack’s chief of staff, calls the allegations in the woman’s letter “reprehensible.” “Now you know why they tried to bury it,” Norris says. According to Reynolds, it was up to the woman who wrote the letter to decide whether the graphic details of the alleged misconduct should be publicly revealed. During a W-H-O T-V interview yesterday (Thursday), Reynolds said she felt she had the right to keep the document confidential, to protect the identity of a woman in a small state agency who filed the complaint. Reynolds also referred to Iowa Finance Director Dave Jamison’s alleged actions as “pathetic” and the governor said Jamison was “absolutely done” once she read the woman’s letter. Reynolds has often said while she can’t dictate morality, her administration has a “zero tolerance” policy towards sexual harassment that seeks to change the culture in state government.

(Radio Iowa)

More area and State news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (5.4MB)

Subscribe: RSS

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A newspaper has reported that a Drake University professor accused of sexually exploiting female students has been allowed to resign effective June 1. The Des Moines Register reports that a November internal investigation found that Mahmoud Hamad “physically, sexually and verbally intimidated” female students and “did exploit the power differential that existed between him and his female students.”

The report found that Hamad violated university policies through “unwelcome advances and unwelcome verbal and physical conduct and intimidation aimed at female students because of their sex.” The case hasn’t been referred to police. In the report Hamad denied the student accusations. He’s declined to otherwise comment. Drake administrator Sue Mattison won’t say whether Hamad was asked to resign. She says he’s on a leave of absence.