The Atlantic School Board will meet Wednesday evening in the High School Media Room, beginning at 5:30-p.m. Their first order of business is to conduct the annual meeting of the retiring board, followed by adjournment. Afterward, the New Board, which was formed following the Sept. 11th School Board Elections, will be held. Since there were no new members added as a result of the election, the Board will take action on administrative matters. That includes Oath of Office to re-elected Board members Josh McLaren and Kristy Pellett. They will also elect a Board President and Vice President, and set the date and time for future meetings.

During the regular session, the Atlantic School Board will hear from Justin Williams and Paul Iekel, with regard to the naming of the CCEOC (Former Cass, Inc.) Building, and discuss current class size information as presented. Other discussion and action items include Updated Job Descriptions and a Strategic Plan.

FORT MADISON, Iowa – Oct. 10, 2017 – The Iowa Transportation Commission today (Tuesday) approved more than $1.2-million in funding for five State Recreational Trails Program projects.Among them: $400,082 was awarded for Phase II of the Pottawattamie County Trail – Railroad Highway Trail (Sponsors: Pottawattamie
County Conservation Board and Pottawattamie County Trail Association), and $366,000 was awarded for Phase I construction of the the Raccoon River Valley Trail to High Trestle Trail (Dallas County Conservation Board sponsor).

The State Recreational Trails Program was created in 1988 with the purpose of developing and maintaining recreational trails and trail-related facilities for both motorized and non-motorized trail users. The funding is available to cities, counties, state agencies, local governments, and nonprofit organizations through an annual application-based program.

AMES, Iowa (AP) – Officials say the third finalist in the search for the next Iowa State University president is executive vice president at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. The Iowa Board of Regents says Dale Whittaker will visit the Ames campus Wednesday and meet with staff, students and community members. His curriculum vitae and interview schedule are available on Iowa State’s presidential search website, presidentsearch.iastate.edu.

The first finalist, Sonny Ramaswamy, visited the campus Monday. He’s director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture in Washington, D.C. The second finalist, Pamela Whitten, is scheduled to be on campus Tuesday. She’s senior vice president for academic affairs at the University of Georgia, Athens.

The Iowa regents are scheduled to meet Oct. 23 to choose the next president.

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

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(FORT DODGE) – The Iowa Dept. of Corrections reports Andrew James Nielsen, who was convicted of Burglary 1st Degree in Webster County and Prohibited Acts/drug related in Fayette County, failed to report back to the Fort Dodge Residential Center as required last (Monday) night. Nielsen is a 40-year-old white male, height 5’9”, and weighing 167 pounds. He was admitted to the work release facility on July 20, 2017.  Persons with information on Nielsen’s whereabouts should contact local police.

No photo is currently available.

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

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Senator Chuck Grassley has some advice for President Trump and Tennessee Senator Bob Corker: “Both ought to cool it.” Grassley was quizzed by reporters from N-B-C and W-H-O Television yesterday (Monday) about what the two Republicans said of one another on Sunday. Trump claimed Corker decided against seeking reelection because Trump wouldn’t support him. Corker then spoke with The New York Times and unleashed a torrent of criticism, suggested Trump “may be setting the U.S. on the path to World War III.”

Grassley told the reporters in Boone yesterday (Monday) that this very public feud won’t hurt progress on issues like tax reform. “Definitely not, you see, because the president is in the executive branch and we are in the legislature branch…As long as we do our job, it’s doesn’t matter what the president does, only if he doesn’t sign what we send to him,” Grassley said. “That’s the only place where he’s involved.”

Grassley says he’s got “more important things to do” than try to referee the conflict between Trump and the Tennessee senator. Grassley spoke with N-B-C and W-H-O Television after holding a town-hall meeting in Boone.

(Radio Iowa)

The head of a mental health crisis center in southern Iowa expects it to close at the end of the month due to a lack of funding. Jackie Sharp is executive director of Oak Place in Centerville. She says after a grant ran out, the regional mental health authority has refused to fill the funding gap. And state officials haven’t set up rules that would let Oak Place bill Medicaid for services to patients.

“I don’t put a lot of faith in us continuing after October 31st,” Sharp says. “I think my alternate plan is to take care of the graduates that we’ve had and help my staff transition.” The center opened three years ago and has won praise for providing economical care in rural Iowa, where mental health treatment options are scarce.

“Without funding, we’re closed,” Sharp says. “And I have a fear for the other 10 crisis stabilization homes in the state, that they will follow our lead and close due to lack of funding.” Sharp made her comments on Iowa Public Radio’s “River to River” program.

The Centerville facility serves patients from Appanoose County and three other neighboring counties. Advocates say once the center closes, the state will pay about 900-dollars-per-day for psychiatric hospital stays for a Medicaid patient who’d get significantly less expensive care, closer to home, in Centerville.

(Radio Iowa)

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

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Strange as it seems, Iowa Democrats can expect to see Donald Trump at the state party’s annual marquee fundraiser next month. That is, in the form of actor Alec Baldwin, the walking parody of the Republican president. The actor who received an Emmy award last month for his running parody of Trump on Saturday Night Live is to be the keynote speaker at the state party banquet in Des Moines on Nov. 27.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — It took jurors only hours to find a Davenport man guilty in the 2016 fatal shooting of his parents. The Scott County jury deliberated less than three hours before finding 21-year-old Sean M. Freese guilty of two counts of first-degree murder. Prosecutors argued Freese shot 58-year-old Kevin Freese and 57-year-old Donna Freese with a semi-automatic rifle in the early morning hours of Oct. 5, 2016. Freese faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

NASHUA, Iowa (AP) — Chickasaw County authorities say they’re investigating an accident in which an 8-year-old boy at an orchard was wounded by a gunshot fired from a nearby gun range. Authorities say the child was wounded Sunday at the Apples on the Avenue orchard, which is near one of several ranges operated by the Nashua Fish and Game Club. An orchard spokesman couldn’t be reached Monday. The gun club president declined to comment. The boy is being treated at an Iowa City hospital.

AMES, Iowa (AP) — The second of four finalists to be Iowa State University’s next president is senior vice president for academic affairs at the University of Georgia, Athens. Pamela Whitten will visit the Ames campus Tuesday and meet with staff and students.

An actor who won an Emmy for portraying Donald Trump on “Saturday Night Live” will be the keynote speaker at the Iowa Democratic Party’s fall fundraising banquet. Alec Baldwin was last month’s winner of the Emmy for best supporting actor in a comedy series. He’s a long-time supporter of Democrats. Troy Price, the chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party, says Baldwin has vowed to help Democrats win across the country in 2018.

“He has committed to helping us rebuild the party here in Iowa and rebuilding the party across the country and so we’re really excited to have him here,” Price says. The party’s annual fundraiser was renamed “The Fall Gala” a year ago. This year’s edition will be held on Monday evening, November 27th, and Price says his phone blew up once the news was out that Baldwin was the headliner.

“I’ve gotten a few phone calls and some texts,” Price says, with a laugh. “The response has been great. People are really excited about this.” The Iowa Democratic Party’s chairman says he knows “some folks who’ve been working with” Baldwin. “They reached out to me about even if this would be a possibility and we said: ‘Yes.’ We extended an invitation and we’ve been going back and forth over the last several weeks,” Price says. “It worked out for him to come out on the 27th of November, so we were able to lock him in.”

The party’s annual fundraiser traditionally features hot meals on china plates, served by waiters to ticket holders. And the audience sits in a darkened banquet hall, with the speech-makers standing on a brightly lit stage. Price says he and his staff are “still figuring out” what the night will look like.

“Regardless of what’s served or how the event is structured, people are going to have a great time, I can promise them that,” Price says. But do not expect a recreation of a Saturday Night Live skit. According to Price, Alec Baldwin will appear “as himself,” with a message about the state of politics in America. Baldwin will arrive on Iowa’s political stage a few weeks after the release of a book he’s co-authored. The satirical book about Trump’s presidency is titled “You Can’t Spell America Without Me.”

The Iowa Democratic Party’s fall fundraiser — formerly known as the Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner — has served as an organizing test for presidential candidates in the years when it’s held just weeks before Iowa’s Caucuses. Previous speakers include Vice Presidents Al Gore and Joe Biden as well as former President Bill Clinton.

(Radio Iowa)