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

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Western Iowans who are looking forward to boating season should be able to get out onto the Missouri River in a few weeks. The U-S Army Corps of Engineers is preparing the basin’s reservoirs for run-off season. Joel Knofczynski, a hydraulic engineer in the Corps’ Omaha office, says almost all of the flood pool is available behind the six, mainstem dams. “On December 18th, the reservoir system storage reached 56.1-million acre feet, which is at the base of the annual flood control zone,” he says. “This means that all the stored 2016 flood waters have been evacuated from the system.”

Knofczynski says they will soon start releasing water from Gavins Point Dam for the downstream navigation season. “Releases from Gavins Point are currently 17,000 cubic feet per second,” he says. “Releases will be stepped up beginning at or around March 19th to provide flow support for the 2017 navigation season. The navigation season will open on April 1st at the mouth near St. Louis.”

Knofczynski says the Corps is anticipating a full, eight-month navigation season on the Missouri. “Flows for this level of service are designed to provide a nine-foot-deep navigation channel with Gavins Point releases expected to range from the upper 20,000 to the lower 30,000 cubic feet per second this summer, depending on downstream conditions” he says. “Those releases will be reduced in response to downstream flooding, if necessary.”

Corps officials have said -no- spring flooding is anticipated. Also, there will -not- be a spring “pulse” for endangered species habitat this year and run-off is expected to be about 115-percent of normal.

(Radio Iowa)

While the thoughts of most Iowans are on the good things that spring brings, poultry producers are on the lookout for potential problems with bird flu. Cases of the two types of avian influenza have been found in Tennessee and Wisconsin, and Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey says it’s another reminder to be alert. Iowa took a massive hit from the bird flu two years ago when millions of chickens and turkeys had to be destroyed.

“Our producers have invested large amounts of effort and dollars into biosecurity trying to keep the disease away from their farms. From truck washes to limited access onto the farms, to lots of ways to try and keep the disease out,” Northey says. “So that was done from sometimes before the last outbreak, to immediately after the last outbreak.”

He says the news of the case that is highly contagious in Tennessee probably led to some uneasiness in Iowans. “I’m sure everybody is checking their biosecurity plans again. There is no guarantee to prevent a disease from being able to be exposed. And it’s obviously in the Mississippi flyway now in some wild birds — whether it’s a few or a lot, nobody knows. Everybody’s concerned while they continue the plans they have had in place,” Northey says.

Northey says there’s no reason for consumers to be concerned. “It’s important to remind everybody that food safety is not a concern. Go ahead and eat your eggs and eat your turkey meat and chicken meat, that’s not a concern. Producers are concerned about the health of their birds and they are doing everything that they can to keep their birds healthy,” according to Northey.

Thousands of chickens were destroyed at the Tennessee farm after the “highly pathogenic” variety of the disease was found there. Another bird flu outbreak was reported at a Wisconsin turkey farm but it was not the highly-pathogenic variety.

(Radio Iowa)

The Adams County Sheriff’s Office says a traffic stop late Monday night resulted in the arrest of a Corning man. 40-year old Michael Alexander was taken into custody at around 9:47-p.m. for Driving While License Suspended. His bond was set at $300.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office says no injuries were reported after a semi and a van collided on the northwest edge of Red Oak, Monday morning. Authorities say a 2010 Kenworth semi owned by Schildberg Construction, of Greenfield, and driven by 52-year old Monte Standley, of Greenfield, was stopped at the intersection of Highways 34 and 48 and in the process of making a left turn, when the back end of a piece of equipment the rig was hauling struck the side of a stopped 2014 Ford panel van, owned and driven by 49-year old Russell Cera, of Omaha. The accident happened at around 10:42-a.m.

Damage to the semi was estimated at $250, while the van sustained $3,500 damage.

An administrator with the Iowa Department of Human Services went before a legislative panel Monday to defend her agency’s handling of child abuse and neglect allegations. Wendy Rickman is head of Iowa’s Division of Adult, Child and Family Services. “Our system is functional. It is beyond functional,” Rickman said. “We have outcomes that I would put up against any state.”

According to Rickman, her division receives about 50,000 calls a year of alleged reports of child neglect and abuse. She says 52-percent of those reports are assessed. The hearing follows the death of 16-year-old Natalie Finn of West Des Moines last October. The West Des Moines teen died of starvation and State Senator Matt McCoy, a Democrat from Des Moines, has questioned if a lack of DHS social workers allowed the alleged abuse of Finn to go uninvestigated.

“The social workers are telling us that ‘we should be protecting kids, we’re not because we’re overworked. Our staff load is too high. We’ve doubled our overtime in the last year,'” McCoy said. “So my question is: Are we leaving vulnerable children out to fend for themselves when we don’t have adequate staffing?”

Rickman said, while she doesn’t dispute that more social workers would be beneficial, she believes Iowa’s child welfare system is NOT failing. McCoy and other lawmakers have asked the DHS for data on staffing numbers, overtime hours, and caseloads. Finn’s parents are facing numerous charges in connection with the death of their daughter and alleged neglect of their other children.

(Radio Iowa/Reporting by Iowa Public Radio’s Sarah Boden)

After years of trying, it appears politicians pushing to make it LEGAL to set off fireworks in Iowa may get their wish in 2017. A bill addressing the issue has cleared procedural hurdles and is eligible for debate at any time in the Iowa Senate. Senator Randy Feenstra, a Republican from Hull, says northwest Iowans look across the border at South Dakota, where fireworks displays on private property have been legal for years.

“We see everyone blowing them off, technically illegally, and I’ve always said there needs to be regulation in Iowa that either gets rid of them altogether or fully allows them to be sold and blown off,” Feenstra says.

It is illegal to light fireworks in Iowa without a permit from city or county officials. In addition, it’s illegal to SELL fireworks in Iowa. The bill pending in the senate would erase those obstacles and set up a system for licensing and regulating businesses that sell fireworks and assessing a sales tax on fireworks sales. “We’re simply saying, ‘Hey since they’re allowed in the state at this point, now let’s allow them to be set off,'” Feenstra says.

If the bill advances through the Senate AND the House this year, sales of consumer fireworks could start in June. The legislation would make it legal to sell and ignite fireworks during limited holiday periods, like the 4th of July, Christmas and New Year’s. The bill would give cities and counties the option of passing local ordinances that forbid fireworks displays.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:30 a.m. CDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A veteran GOP congressman is drawing bipartisan criticism for saying America can’t restore “our civilization with somebody else’s babies.” Republican Steve King of Iowa made the comment on Twitter. House Speaker Paul Ryan says he disagrees with King’s viewpoint while Republican congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida advises King to “get a clue.”

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s unemployment rate dropped to 3.3 percent in January as Iowa employers added nearly 10,000 jobs. Iowa Workforce Development announced Monday that the rate dropped from 3.5 percent in December and was down from 3.8 percent a year ago. The national rate rose to 4.8 percent in January.

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — Elected officials in Dubuque County will get pay raises, but it will be less than half of what a panel recommended. The Telegraph Herald reports county supervisors Monday unanimously approved 3.5 percent salary increases for elected officials. That’s in line with the raises approved for county staff who aren’t part of a union, though is far less than the 7.5 percent increase recommended by an advisory board. Annual salaries range from $48,605 for supervisors to $122,726 for the county attorney.

MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) — Residents and officials are uneasy about plans for a farm slated to house 98,000 chickens that likely will be approved with little oversight from Cerro Gordo County. The Globe Gazette reports the Iowa Department of Natural Resources is reviewing a manure management plan for the proposed Wharam Creek Poultry facility. The proposed farm is just 2,000 birds shy to be regulated by the matrix used to evaluate large animal feeding confinements in Iowa.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s unemployment rate dropped to 3.3 percent in January as Iowa employers added nearly 10,000 jobs. Iowa Workforce Development announced Monday that the rate dropped from 3.5 percent in December and was down from 3.8 percent a year ago. The national rate rose to 4.8 percent in January.

Agency director Beth Townsend says employers in the state added 9,900 jobs, with hiring especially strong in professional and business services. The number of unemployed resident dropped from 59,000 in December to 56,600 in January.

One person was transported to the Shenandoah Memorial Hospital following an accident this (Monday) morning, in Page County. The Sheriff’s Office say 27-year old Kelly Renae Barrett, of Hamburg, was driving a 2015 Chevy Malibu eastbound on 310th Street about two miles west of Hackberry Avenue at around 7:18-a.m., when she lost control of the vehicle in the icy road.

The car slid into the ditch and struck a tree. Barrett was knocked unconscious during the accident. She was transported to the hospital by Shenandoah Ambulance for treatment of unknown injuries.

The vehicle sustained approximately $2000 damage, while the tree sustained minimal damage.