The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m., w/KJAN News Director Ric Hanson

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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — MidAmerican Energy says it plans to spend $1 billion updating more than 700 older wind turbines across Iowa. The turbines will be retrofitted with newer, more efficient components, including longer blades, to extend their lifespans an estimated 20 years. The company says each upgraded turbine will annually net between 19 and 28 percent more energy.

The project is beginning with MidAmerican’s first three wind farms, built in 2004 in northern Iowa. Construction crews often work overnight, when winds die down. Work stops when the wind exceeds 20 mph.

One of the sounds of the Yuletide season will soon be heard in Iowa. The ringing of bells on street corners and outside of stores will mark the start of the Salvation Army’s annual fundraising campaign. Susan Eustice, spokeswoman for the charity’s Omaha-Council Bluffs chapter, says their tree-lighting celebration will be held tonight (Friday) and the tree itself is spectacular. “It is 75 feet tall, has 80,000 LED lights and 600 snowflakes,” Eustice says. “It’ll all light up as a signal that the Tree of Lights and the Red Kettle campaign will begin.”

The Salvation Army is putting out an urgent call for help. “We are in serious need of volunteer bell ringers in Omaha and Council Bluffs,” Eustice says. “To volunteer, it’s easy. Go online to RegisterToRing.com or call our volunteer office at 402-898-6000 and sign up.” Chapters across Iowa are seeking volunteers and that same website can be used. In Omaha-Council Bluffs, hundreds of helpers are needed to station themselves beside the red kettles. “We have over 130 sites and we have seven weeks, and that’s six days a week, to ring that bell,” Eustice says. “We need families, we need business groups, church groups to come out, adopt a kettle for a day or two and help us reach our goal.”

The tree-lighting event starts at 6-p.m. at 90th and Dodge Street in Omaha. There will be food, live entertainment, Santa and his reindeer. The kettles will remain out through December 23rd.

(Radio Iowa)

The U.S.D.A. has increased its corn production outlook for Iowa and the nation. The National Agricultural Statistics Service – Crop Production report released Thursday shows Iowa corn production is now forecast at 2.54 billion bushels. Yields are expected to average 197 bushels per acre, up 6 bushels per acre from the October forecast. If the predictions hold, this would be Iowa’s second highest yield and production on record behind last year. Nationally, the average corn yield is forecast at just over 175 bushels per acre, which would be a new all-time high.

Iowa’s soybean production is forecast at 557 million bushels, with a yield of 56 bushels per acre. Both of those predictions are unchanged from last month’s forecast.

(Radio Iowa)

(DES MOINES) – Gov. Kim Reynolds announced appointments to Iowa’s boards and commissions, Thursday. The appointees are unpaid and are subject to Senate confirmation. In the KJAN listening area, the following persons were appointed to their respective Board or Commission:

Workforce Development Board: Becky Jacobsen, Denison; Richard Moon, Sioux City.

School Budget Review Committee: Martha Bruckner, Council Bluffs.

Board of Nursing: Sue Putnam, Griswold.

A western Iowa businessman and farmer has been nominated to serve on the three-member federal board that oversees the Farm Credit Administration. Glen Smith of Atlantic testified before the U.S. Senate Ag Committee Thursday. “I’m truly humbled by the honor of this nomination, but also quite sobered by the huge responsibility, if confirmed, of having a role of ensuring that American agriculture continues to have a source for reliable, secure credit,” Smith said, “which happens to the be mission of Farm Credit.”

Smith founded Smith Land Service Company in 1982. The firm manages farms and is a farm brokerage. He and his family also raise corn and soybeans on about two-thousand acres.  “As an active farmer, ag businessman and even dating back to my ag finance days at Iowa State University, I’ve understood the important role of the Farm Credit Administration in setting policy, examining and regulating our nation’s largest long-term agricultural lender, the Farm Credit System,” Smith says. “…The health of American agriculture is critically dependent upon a healthy, viable Farm Credit System. Credit is truly the lifeblood of agriculture.”

Glen R. Smith

Smith told senators he has a “keen sense” of “boom and bust” cycles since he lived through the soaring ag economy of the 1970s, followed by the Farm Crisis of the 1980s. “We can’t afford to lose a generation of agriculturalists like we did in the ’80s,” Smith said. “…I’ve always considered myself to be an optimist. As a farmer you take on the weather, you take on pests, you take on the markets and you have to be an optimist to survive. However, I do have to confess that I am very concerned about the current agricultural outlook.”

Smith says the Farm Credit System can play a key role in supporting young farmers who are most vulnerable to financial fluctuations. “Land is typically the dominant asset on a farmer’s balance sheet,” Smith says. “In the Midwest alone, we’ve seen a 15-20 percent erosion in land values over the last several years…I believe we’re a long ways away from crisis management as experienced in the ’80s, however, out of love for this wonderful industry, I would be a strong advocate for caution in the Farm Credit System.”

If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, as expected, Smith will move to Washington because the position is a full-time job. The Farm Credit System currently is managing more than a quarter of a TRILLION dollars in loans. Fewer than one percent of those loans are 90 days past due or in default.

(Radio Iowa)

A narcotics investigation early this (Friday) morning in Fremont County resulted in two arrests. Fremont County Sheriff’ Kevin Aistrope reports the County K9 Unit was conducting the investigation in to Sidney and Farragut areas, during which a vehicle was stopped on 370th Avenue and Manti Road.

Following the traffic stop, 21-year old Jared Comstock, of Farragut, and 20-year old Alix Gorby, of Shenandoah, were arrested. Each faces a Delivery of Controlled Substance and Possession of a Controlled Substance,  charge. They were being held in the Fremont County Jail on $6,000 cash bonds, each.

Alix Gorby

Jared Comstock

The Sheriff says they expect more arrests to transpire from the investigation, and that his deputies were assisted in this latest investigation, by Officers with the Tabor Police Department.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:45 a.m. CST

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Republican leaders are creating a human resources manager position to oversee harassment complaints at the Legislature. The move comes after the state agreed to pay $1.75 million to settle a lawsuit involving a former Senate Republican staffer who alleged sexual harassment. Staff for the GOP-controlled House and Senate plan to make the hire before the legislative session begins in January. The Senate staffer filed the suit after reporting sexual harassment, then being fired.

ALTA VISTA, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa parents of a 4-month-ol baby whose maggot-infested body was found in a swing in his family’s home have pleaded not guilty to murder charges. The Courier reported Thursday that 28-year-old Zachary Paul Koehn and 20-year-old Cheyanne Renae Harris, both of Alta Vista, filed written arraignments pleading not guilty earlier in the week. Each face charges of child endangerment and first-degree murder in the death of their son, Sterling Koehn.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A western Iowa man accused of raping a teenage baby sitter has been sentenced to two years in prison. The Sioux City Journal reports that 25-year-old Colby Mauch, of Castana, was sentenced Thursday in Woodbury County District Court. He had pleaded guilty to one count of assault with the intent to commit sexual abuse, an aggravated misdemeanor.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa state lawmaker has filed a police report accusing someone in her campaign office of stealing $6,000 in campaign donations over several years. The Des Moines Register reports that Rep. Ruth Ann Gaines, D-Des Moines, reported the theft Wednesday. She told police the campaign worker wrote checks to herself from the campaign account. The Associated Press is not naming the worker, since she has not been arrested or charged with a crime.

ALTA VISTA, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa parents of a 4-month-old baby whose maggot-infested body was found in a swing in his family’s home have pleaded not guilty to murder charges. The Courier reported Thursday that 28-year-old Zachary Paul Koehn and 20-year-old Cheyanne Renae Harris, both of Alta Vista, filed written entered a plea of not guilty earlier this week.

Each faces charges of child endangerment and first-degree murder in the death of their son, Sterling Koehn. Authorities say deputies and medics called to the couple’s apartment on Aug. 30 found Sterling dead in the swing. A medical examiner found maggots in his clothing and skin that indicated he hadn’t had a diaper change, bath or been removed from the seat in over a week.

Koehn and Harris remain jailed pending a trial date.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A western Iowa man accused of raping a teenage baby sitter has been sentenced to two years in prison. The Sioux City Journal reports that 25-year-old Colby Mauch, of Castana, was sentenced Thursday in Woodbury County District Court. He had pleaded guilty to one count of assault with the intent to commit sexual abuse, an aggravated misdemeanor.

Police say that in September 2016, Mauch traveled to the then-17-year-old girl’s home, where she was baby-sitting six children. While the children were in the backyard, Mauch grabbed the girl, pulled down her pants and raped her.