Officials with the Cass County Health System in Atlantic said today (Friday), that the next session of Healthy U is scheduled to take place at noon Thursday, February 23rd, and will focus on Diagnostic Imaging. Director of Diagnostic Imaging, Carrie Schmitt, will present during the session.

Schmitt says she will “briefly cover all of the services [they] offer including radiography, MRI, CT, ultrasound, and more.”  The presentation will then take a more in-depth look at DEXA and osteoporosis, as well as mammography and breast cancer.

CCHS Director of Diagnostic Imaging, Carrie Schmitt (photo submitted)

Healthy U is a free educational lunch series at Cass County Health System held monthly in Conference Room 2. The public is invited and welcome to attend, but reservations are required as lunch is provided for all attendees. Call 712-243-7479 to reserve your seat.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Once near extinction, the bald eagle population is seeing a spike in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa. The Omaha World-Herald reports that warm temperatures ahead mean the birds are following their waterfowl prey as they head north. Joel Jorgensen, Nebraska Game and Parks’ nongame bird program manager, says the migration makes it prime time for eagle-viewing.

The Game and Parks department documented a record 162 active bald eagle nests in 2016, a huge jump from when the state recorded its first active nest in about a century in 1991.

Jorgensen says the eagle population will flourish as long as illegal shooting of the birds is minimized and the pesticide DDT stays banned. Bald eagles are protected by federal law.

The Ambassadors were hosted by the Atlantic Parks & Recreation Thursday, February 9th, 2017. The Ambassadors had the opportunity to visit the Sunnyside Ice Skating Rink that opened the beginning of January. Seth Staashelm, Parks & Recreation Director, said the idea came to him when the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce hosted their Holiday Skating Rink event.

Staashelm received a lot of positive feedback from the community and their desires to have a more permanent rink available during the winter months. The rink is made up of six inches of ice with a protective liner covering the basketball courts, funded by the Community Promotions Commission, to protect the court from damage. The rink is open Sunday – Thursday, 6 AM – 10 PM and Friday – Saturday, 6 AM – 11 PM. For more information, visit the Sunnyside Ice Rink Facebook page.

Staff Pictured: Seth Staashelm (Director), Stuart Dusenberry (Board Member), Jolene Smith (Board Member)
Ambassadors Pictured: Haley Kickland, Debbie Leistad, Carole Schuler, Michelle Heath, Sue Muri, Melanie Petty, Tammy Waters, Casey Symonds, Dr. Jim Kickland, Donnie Drennan, Dr. Keith Leonard, Steve Anderson, Lucas Mosier, Kent Hanson and Dawn Marnin. (Photo submitted)

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) – The nation’s largest 4-H livestock show is relocating from Omaha to Fonner Park in Grand Island, where the Nebraska State Fair runs. The Aksarben Foundation sponsors the Aksarben Stock Show, which began its Omaha run in 1928.  The foundation’s Kevin Kock says moving to Grand Island will help the event expand.

Last year it drew nearly 1,100 4-H participants from surrounding states. Kock says the Fonner Park facilities offer more room than Omaha’s CenturyLink Center, which has hosted the show since opening in 2003.  This year’s stock show will be held from Sept. 28 through Oct. 1.

A professional rodeo has run with the show since 1947, but Kock says a contract for the 2017 rodeo hasn’t been signed yet.

A divided Iowa Supreme Court has reversed the conviction of an eastern Iowa man who was arrested after a routine traffic stop. An Eldridge police officer stopped a car that was registered to a woman who had a suspended driver’s license. The officer found a man, Jayel Coleman driving the car that he said he had borrowed from his sister. The officer checked Coleman’s driver’s license and determined he was driving while barred.

Coleman appealed, saying the officer had no reason to question him. The Iowa Supreme Court ruled the reason for the traffic stop was resolved when the officer found Coleman driving and it was unconstitutional to continue the stop. Three justices issued a dissent, saying the ruling gives Coleman a free pass and determines the routine request to see a driver’s license and registration in a traffic stop violates the search and seizure provision of the Iowa Constitution.

The dissent says the case goes out of its way to connect the case to racial profiling and does not consider the multiple driving violations and other arrests of Coleman.

(Radio Iowa)

Republicans in the Iowa House have passed a bill designed to cut some of the “strings” on federal block grant money for city and county road and bridge projects. Cities and counties would send their money to the Iowa Department of Transportation and the Iowa D-O-T would send the same amount back, without enforcing the federal requirements. Representative Gary Worthan, a Republican from Storm Lake, says other states have made this move and hundreds of thousands of dollars that would have been spent complying with federal rules was spent on new bridges and roads instead.

“This process will eliminate a lot of paperwork, a lot of requirements on the cities and counties when they go to do their local road projects,” Worthan says. Democrats like Representative Abby Finkenaur of Dubuque say the bill is designed to avoid federal wage rules for construction crews and “Buy American” requirements for construction materials.  “Buying U.S. steel, buying American-made products with American tax dollars is restrictive and cumbersome? I don’t think so,” she said.

And Finkenaur says getting rid of the federal “prevailing wage” rules will lower pay for crews working on city and county road projects in rural Iowa. Representative Jerry Kearns, a Democrat from Keokuk, says the bill’s a “swipe” at American workers. “We should not be trying to see how we can legislative less pay. Our our governor says we need good paying jobs,” Kearns says. “This flies in the face of what the president says about American products and, here we are, trying to do exactly the opposite.”

Worthan says he’s confident contractors will continue to pay their crews well. “I don’t think that wages are going to change a whole lot,” Worthan said. “In fact, I find it somewhat offensive that’s the premise that the argument is being based on.”

A similar bill has cleared a COMMITTEE in the Iowa SENATE.

(Radio Iowa)

Sheriff’s officials in Pottawattamie County reported a Shelby County man was arrested Thursday afternoon at the Clarke County Jail, for charges originating in Pott. County. 29-year old Justin Michael Levell, of Irwin, was arrested on a Pott. County warrant for Theft in the 4th Degree, and two warrants for Forgery, at least one of the warrants was related to the fraudulent use of a Credit card.  Levell was transported back to Pott. County and booked into the Pottawattamie County Jail.

The Sheriff’s Office said also, 33-year old Andrew Michael Hasbrouck, of Council Bluffs, was arrested Thursday evening for Being a Fugitive from Justice. Hasbrouck was taken into custody after he was seen walking in the area of Highway 92 and Valley View Drive. A records checked indicated he had an active warrant.

And, 42-year old Terry Allen Heuton, of Honey Creek, was arrested for OWI/2nd offense and cited for improper use of lanes early this (Friday) morning, after a deputy observed Heuton’s vehicle going the wrong way on E. Pierce Street at North Avenue. The deputy noted Heuton has a strong odor of alcohol and there were open containers of beer on the floor and passenger seat of his vehicle. Heuton also reportedly had blood shot and watery eyes, and slurred speech. The man initially consented to taking a Field Sobriety Test, but then refused and instead consented to a Preliminary Breath Test, which resulted in him being placed under arrest.

The Union County Sheriff’s Office says a Lorimor resident reported last weekend, that sometime over the past week, someone broke into his home in Lorimor. A door sustained about $250 damage during the incident. And, several items were taken, including a wooden box containing old silver coins, a box containing assorted ammunition, a Samsung 42” flat screen tv, and a jewelry box with assorted jewelry items.  The items were valued at $8,500 altogether.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – University of Iowa officials have told campus residents about a problem with the campus water system. The university said in an email Thursday that the water exceeded the maximum contaminant level for a byproduct of the treatment process. The byproduct forms when chlorine reacts with naturally occurring organic matter. The levels of organic matter are higher in winter.

The university says disease prevention specialists with the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics say special precautions are not necessary and that the situation doesn’t pose “an immediate risk.” But the university says prolonged exposure to elevated levels of the byproduct could have long-term consequences.

The university will flush fire hydrants to lower the time water sits in the distribution system, reducing the amount of time available for the byproduct to form.

We’re six weeks into the new year and Iowans who made a resolution to get fit are likely succeeding if they have a gym membership, according to an Iowa State University study. Elizabeth Schroeder, lead author of the report and a former I-S-U grad student, says the study found people who belong to a health club tend to exercise more and see healthier returns.

“From the results, we speculate that you have more options at the health club so you’re more apt to have all that resistance training and weight machines around you,” Schroeder says, “but you also have classes you can take and the social support from others to help you work out, that could lead to more physical activity while you’re at the health club instead of at home.”

The study found health benefits were even greater for people who had a gym membership for more than a year. “A lot of motivation goes into working out, so it’s not just buying the membership, it’s not going to make you work out,” Schroeder says. “There has to be some other internal motivation that’s also going to make you go there which could be as simple as you bought a membership, it’s going to cost you X dollars a month and you don’t want to waste that money.”

While it’s no surprise that people with a gym membership work out more, the differences were dramatic. The study found gym members were 14 times more aerobically active than non-members and 10 times more likely to meet muscle-strengthening guidelines, regardless of their age and weight.

“Even though you have the health club membership, we thought maybe those people would exercise less when they’re at home and not at the health club,” Schroeder says. “You get that mentality of, ‘Oh, I worked out today, I went to the gym so I don’t need to do anything the rest of the day,’ but we actually found that people who had the health club membership worked out or were just as active outside the health club as people without that membership.”

The results were similar in men and women. It’s recommended adults get 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity each week, such as brisk walking or running, along with two days of weight lifting or other muscle-strengthening activities. Despite the health benefits, only half of Americans get enough aerobic activity and about 20 percent meet the guidelines for strength training.

(Radio Iowa)