As the weather warms and Iowans spend more time outdoors, many of us will be crossing paths with more canines. This is National Dog Bite Prevention Week. Pam Wiese, spokeswoman for the Humane Society in Omaha-Council Bluffs, says even the friendliest of dogs can snap. “Depending on the situation, your extremely happy, sweet, I-love-everybody dog can be set up for failure,” Wiese says. “You can put him in a situation he’s never experienced before where he’s terrified or maybe he feels like he needs to protect you or somebody else, so you don’t always know.”

Always ask the owner’s permission before you pet a dog and do so carefully, she says. Dogs will use their body language to tell you how they feel by the position of their ears, mouth, eyes and tail. All dogs have teeth, Wiese reminds, and all dogs can bite. “If a dog runs away from you, don’t chase it,” Wiese says. “If a dog is in a corner, oftentimes we back dogs into corners, we don’t mean to, but we do, and if he feels like he has nowhere to flee, if it’s fight or flight, he may choose to fight and bite.”

Wiese says the most important message is, if you are approached by an angry or dangerous dog, don’t run. Pretend you’re a tree. “Stand perfectly still. Don’t make eye contact with the dog. Keep your arms down by your sides,” Wiese says. “Don’t make any moves that would prompt the dog to chase or that could be seen as aggression.”

One group that’s especially concerned about dog bites is postal employees. Last year, there were more than 67-hundred recorded dog attacks nationwide on letter carriers. That’s up 200 from the previous year.

(Radio Iowa)

A domestic incident in Underwood late Wednesday night resulted in the arrest early this (Thursday) morning of a man on an assault charge. Authorities in Pottawattamie County say a Deputy was called to a home in Underwood at around 11:15-p.m., Wednesday. After arriving, he spoke with a 38-year old woman who said her boyfriend, 46-year old Robert Lee Robinson, Jr., of Underwood, had “poked her really hard,” in the face.

Robinson was subsequently taken into custody for Domestic Assault with Injury, an Aggravated Misdemeanor.

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

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SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – A 42-year-old Sioux City man has been accused of using a belt on his daughter after she refused to do laundry. Court records say Ricardo Cordova-Larios is charged with child endangerment causing injury. He was arrested Sunday. Jail records show he remained in custody Wednesday.  Court documents say bruises on the 14-year-old girl’s back, neck and upper torso matched the outline of a belt.

AKRON, Iowa (AP) – The impending loss of three longtime doctors has upset many of their patients in the small northwest Iowa community of Akron. The Sioux City Journal reports that some local residents have started a petition drive aimed at keeping Dr. Cynthia Wolf and her husband, Dr. David Wolff, and Dr. Allison Schoenfelder, practicing at Akron Mercy Medical Clinic.

The doctors have told Mercy officials that they won’t be renewing contracts that expire June 30. They have declined to comment publicly about their intentions.

A community corporation owns the clinic, which is leased by Sioux City-based Mercy Medical Center. Mercy Medical Center spokesman Dave Smetter says Mercy “will continue operation of the Akron clinic with qualified physicians going forward.”

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

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Many farmers are anxious to start planting, but an Iowa State University crops specialist says farmers may want to wait at least another week for some warmer weather so the soil can warm up. Joel DeJong works in northwest Iowa and says you need soil temperatures above 50 degrees, and while the air temperature rose a little this past weekend, temperatures then dropped off.”We’ve had average daily temperatures significantly lower than 50 degrees the last couple of days. So, we’re starting to see that temperature drop. In almost all cases up here it is lower than 50. We use 50 as that starting point. We want it to be 50 degrees and warmer, to really get going, because it takes 50 degrees temperature for that seed to really do much of anything,” DeJong says.

DeJong says there were some farmers who had planted their corn by this time last year, and for some it worked out well, while others encountered some problems. “Sometimes the old timers tell me that we need a good warm rain. We really haven’t had a good warm rain to warm things up either. So, that’s part  of the mix. The profile still remains fairly cool. It’s not awful though. We see lots of cases with today’s hybrids and today’s seed treatments, we can tolerate some cooler temperatures than we have historically,” DeJong says.

He says there was a lot of corn planted on the 11th and 12th of April last year, and most of that, particularly the western half of the area did pretty well. He says the research indicates April 15th through May 8th is a planting range where they’ll get from 98 to 100 percent of the typical yield if planting in good conditions.  “We can extend that range from 95 to 100 percent range. You never know what each year is going to bring? Some we can expand that range, others we need to shrink that range a little. But that’s kind of the general,” DeJong says. ” We have a nice window of opportunity. Most producers only take about five…six…seven days to plant. We have some larger producers that take more. So, we’re really early, and more than likely in this part of the state, we will get that window of opportunity in that ideal time period again.”

The Iowa State University Crops Specialist says sometimes if farmers till their ground during wet conditions, it could lead to soil compacting, and the bottom of the disk zone getting smeared. “We need to be a little cautious with that. If its too wet and we smear that gets hard and dries out and then we have  roots having trouble to penetrating that. So, we need to watch that zone a little bit too,” DeJong says.

The weekly crop report from the U-S-D-A released Monday show no planting yet in the state.

(Radio Iowa)

Sheriff’s officials in Montgomery County say no injuries were reported following a single-vehicle accident Wednesday evening, west of Elliott. Authorities say 49-year old Christopher Lee Anderson, of Portsmouth, was traveling west on Highway 48 in a 2008 GMC pickup at around 6:55-p.m., when the flatbed trailer hauling a 1965 Farmall Tractor being pulled by the truck began to fishtail. The fishtailing action caused the truck spin 180 degrees, and resulted in the trailer entering the north ditch, where it overturned along with the tractor.

The pickup, which sustained $8,000 damage, remained upright in the westbound lane. The tractor sustained $4,000 damage, while the trailer damage was estimated at $1,000. No citations were issued.

Sheriff’s deputies were assisted at the scene by Elliott Fire and Elliott 1st Responders, Richter and Son Towing, and Miller Farm Supply, in Elliott.

The Iowa House and Senate have voted to modify the program that lets gambling addicts sign onto a list that prevents them from entering an Iowa casino. Senator Roby Smith of Davenport said “Iowa’s program only offers a permanent lifetime ban, which can scare people away from taking this important first step towards treatment.”

The bill would give problem gamblers the option of a five-year ban from the casinos and it could be renewed every five years. Smith says counselors tell him many problem gamblers have recently been divorced, are dealing with the recent death of a loved one or the loss of a job. “This bill supports our goal of helping susceptible Iowans when they need it the most,” Smith says.

In 2013, Governor Branstad vetoed a similar bill, saying a gambling addiction lasts a lifetime and the voluntary lifetime exclusion from gambling facilities is the appropriate step. This year, an association that represents the professionals who help treat gambling addicts. The five-year casino exclusion option got the approval of all but two senators. It cleared the House last week on a 75 to 20 vote.

(Radio Iowa)

A bill that could dramatically expand the use of medical marijuana in Iowa is NEARLY ready for debate in the Iowa Senate, but it appears the bill as currently written has little chance of winning approval in the House. Representative Clel Baudler, a Republican from Greenfield, said “Three days after hell freezes over that bill will pass in the House.”

Baudler tried but failed to pass legislation out of a HOUSE committee earlier this year that would have set up growing and dispensing operations for cannabis oil in Iowa. House Speaker Linda Upmeyer, a Republican from Clear Lake, is a nurse. Upmeyer says the Senate bill goes farther than House Republicans want, but she’s not ruling out SOME action this year.

“There’s an opportunity to do more,” Upmeyer says. “I’m just not sure that’s the bill.” Upmeyer says one flaw in the Senate bill is there’s no limit on the amount of T-H-C that could be included in medical marijuana products sold in Iowa. T-H-C is the chemical compound in the plant responsible for most of the “high” associated with pot. Senators, meanwhile, are pressing ahead with their bill. It cleared the Senate Appropriations Committee Wednesday and will be considered in the Senate Ways and Means Committee today (Thursday).

Senator Tom Greene, a Republican from Burlington, is a retired pharmacist.”There are so many Iowans who have really kind of been left behind on treatment,” Greene says. “This is a pathway that we can provide for them an alternative use that has been approved in 28 other states, so it’s not a new idea.”

In 2014, the legislature legalized POSSESSION of cannabis oil as treatment for one condition: chronic epilepsy. That legal protection expires July 1st. Legislators say, at the least, they will vote to extend the law so patients who’ve been taking cannabis oil can continue the treatment, which many say has dramatically reduced the number of seizures.

(Radio Iowa)