Two members of the Cass County Board of Supervisors were recognized today (Friday), by Board Chair Gaylord Schelling, for their years of service to the County. Board members Duane McFadden and Chuck Rieken chose not to run for re-election in 2016, and will be replaced by Steve Baier, of Griswold and Steve Green, of Atlantic, who were elected in November, and will represent the District’s 4 and 1, respectively.

Board of Supervisors members, from left to right: Duane McFadden, Gaylord Schelling, Chuck Rieken, Frank Waters and Mark Wedemeyer.

McFadden received a certificate for his 12 years of service. Rieken for his 26-years of service to the County. Rieken chuckled when he said “It hasn’t been easy, I can tell you that.” The Board acknowledged the years of knowledge and experience both men are leaving with, and thanked them for helping make some tough decisions in years past.

The Clarinda Police Department is investigating a break-in of the Dollar General Store in the community. Police Chief Keith Brothers said today (Friday), that officers responded to an intrusion alarm at the store, Tuesday morning. Upon arrival, officers discovered an exterior wall to the building had been breached.

A tactical sweep of the building was conducted, but the intruder had departed prior to officers’ arrival. Brothers said a small amount of consumable goods were taken from the store, which also sustained somewhere between $500-and 1000 dollars of physical damage.

The investigation into the burglary is continuing and officers are pursuing numerous leads.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (5.1MB)

Subscribe: RSS

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (5.1MB)

Subscribe: RSS

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) – Demolition has begun at the old Walnut Grove Elementary School in Council Bluffs. The school closed its doors to students in 2014, after the district deemed the school was no longer suitable for use and too costly to repair. At least seven single-family homes will be built on the property after all the school remains are swept away. Construction is expected to start next summer.

The Daily Nonpareil reports that at a planned Jan. 21 event at Thomas Jefferson High School, officials will reveal the contents of a time capsule recovered when construction crews first started the demolition. District spokeswoman Diane Ostrowski says the capsule box was placed inside a cornerstone of the elementary building on Aug. 17, 1926.

URBANDALE, Iowa (AP) – Police have arrested a man suspected of pepper-spraying an Urbandale officer after a traffic stop. An Urbandale police news release says 25-year-old Brandon Bordinat was arrested Thursday afternoon in Polk County. He’s charged with assault on a police officer and two counts of interference with official acts.

Police say the incident began about 5:10 a.m. Thursday, when someone reported a possible traffic accident. The department says the officer spotted a vehicle that matched the description of a vehicle reportedly involved, so the officer pulled it over. The department says that after the officer started talking to the driver, the man sprayed the officer and fled the scene. His image was caught on the officers’ body camera.

Police Officer body cam image of Bordinat

With Iowa farmers coming off a third straight year of lower incomes, 2017 will require more belt-tightening. Persistently low prices for major commodity crops including corn and soybeans may inch up slightly in the new year, but Iowa State University ag economist Chad Hart says farmers are adjusting their strategies to ride out the slump.
“There’s much more of an emphasis on just getting by, making it to break-even, making sure that our business cash flows,” Hart says. “For a baseball analogy, we’re trying to hit a bunch of singles now rather than swinging for the fences and the home run.”

For some Corn Belt farmers, Hart says that may mean tipping to slightly more soybeans, while for others, it could affect their choice of seed or fertilizer-application decisions. Due to decreased revenue, the state may be forced to cut some services in 2017, in part due to the downturn in the ag economy. Hart says Iowa’s overall economy is sufficiently diverse to absorb some of the losses from farming.

“When you look at the other industries that are in Iowa, they’re actually doing fairly well right now, especially in comparison to agriculture, and they’re helping hold up, if you will, the economic activity throughout the state,” Hart says. “So, yeah, ag is big but it’s not big enough to necessarily drag everything else down with it.”

Good years as recently as 2012 and 2013 likely gave most farmers enough capital to make it through, but Hart says many will be focusing on how they can reduce expenses in the coming season.

(Radio Iowa, w/thanks to Amy Mayer, Iowa Public Radio)

The weather in December has followed a trend that’s familiar to Iowans this year. State Climatologist Harry Hillaker says this month will average slightly warmer than normal, despite some bitterly cold temperatures around mid-December. “Temperatures down as low as minus 29 degrees at Rock Rapids back on December the 18th, so episodes of very cold weather, but the first week and also the last 10 days or so of the month have been much above normal, so basically canceling out that cold period, so overall kind of an average month for temperatures,” Hillaker says.

Some unusually warm conditions arrived last weekend. “The warm spot came on Christmas night. In southeast Iowa, Keokuk got up to 60 degrees just before midnight the end of Christmas Day,” Hillaker says. This month will also enter the books as slightly wetter than normal, with a statewide average of 1.5 inches of precipitation. Sections of northeast Iowa helped boost those numbers after getting over 20 inches of snow in December. Hillaker says the average statewide temperature for 2016 was 51.7 degrees.

“Probably will go into the books as the fifth warmest year on record in Iowa,” Hillaker says. “The most recent warmer one was four years ago in 2012, which was about one degree warmer yet than this year.” In addition to being warmer than normal, the weather in 2016 will be remembered for record-or-near-record flooding. “A large area of the state from the Forest City/Mason City area eastward through Charles City, Decorah, New Hampton, Cresco — those areas — all had their wettest year on record this year,” Hillaker says, “and actually broke the record by quite a large amount in many places.”

Many areas of north-central and northeast Iowa recorded over 50-inches of precipitation during the year. “The highest total I’m aware of at the moment came at Charles City: 58.59 inches of precipitation there for this year and the (previous) record amount was 51.35 (inches) set in 1999 in that location,” Hillaker says.

Meanwhile, it was a relatively dry year over sections of southern Iowa. “This would be places such as from roughly about the Lamoni area, maybe as far north as Oskaloosa and then back down southeastward toward Burlington, but many areas more than a foot rainfall less-than-usual this year,” Hillaker says, “so quite a contrast to the rest of the state.”

A total of 43 tornadoes touched down in Iowa this year. “That’s four less than the recent period average, but I guess the good news in that is most of those were on the weaker side in terms of strength of tornadoes,” Hillaker says. “There were just two that were rated EF2 on the tornado-intensity scale and both of those were on July 17th, both in Benton County.”

(Radio Iowa)

An effort to reduce the improper use of handicapped parking spaces goes into effect January 1st. The State of Iowa will no longer issue “lifetime” handicapped parking permits — those blue plastic placards with a wheelchair symbol in white that are to hang on the rear view mirror when a vehicle is parked in a designated handicapped space. Mark Lowe — the interim director of the Iowa Department of Transportation — says the D-O-T has issued about half a MILLION of those “lifetime” permits and they’re supposed to be turned into the D-O-T when the person dies.

“There are people that use their grandmother’s placard when they’re out driving their car without grandma in the car, so to speak, or that retain placards after somebody has passed away,” Lowe says. Representative Larry Sheets of Moulton said during House debate of this change that too many non-expiring placards are being used “well beyond the death” of the person who got the permit. “Such misuse of these placards reduces the chance for a truly needy person from finding an available parking spot.”

Representative Mary Mascher of Iowa City also spoke out on the issue during House debate. “We’ve all seen and experienced and watched individuals park in handicapped spots where they shouldn’t be,” Mascher said.

The state isn’t yanking the “lifetime” handicapped parking permits that are out there, but starting in January, Iowans with a doctor’s recommendation will only be able to get permits that are good for either six months or five years.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CST

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A U.S. Department of Agriculture official has announced in Iowa today a new policy designed to allow farmers to take land out of a conservation program early if the land is to be transferred to the next generation of farmers. Agriculture Deputy Under Secretary Lanon Baccam says beginning Jan. 9, the USDA will offer an early termination opportunity for certain Conservation Reserve Program contracts.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The head of Iowa’s agriculture department says the state is recovering from the loss of millions of laying hens caused by the 2015 bird flu outbreak. Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey says Iowa’s egg production in October was roughly 1.30 billion eggs, up more than 70 percent from the same time last year. The average number of laying hens on hand in October was roughly 53 million, up 55 percent from last year.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An inmate from Iowa with a history of violence toward guards and one daring escape has died in a Wisconsin prison one month after he was transferred there. Authorities said Thursday that 26-year-old Justin Kestner was found unresponsive in his cell Dec. 21 at the Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun. A medical examiner says autopsy results haven’t been completed.

URBANDALE, Iowa (AP) — Authorities have arrested a man suspected of involvement in a traffic accident who pepper-sprayed an Urbandale officer who stopped him. The accident was reported early Thursday. Police say the officer pulled over a vehicle that matched the description of a vehicle reportedly involved. Police say that after the officer started talking to the driver, 25-year old Brandon Bordinat, the man sprayed the officer and fled the scene.The Urbandale Police Department told KCCI late Thursday afternoon that had been arrested and charged with assault on a police officer with a weapon, interference with official acts resulting in injury and interference with official acts while using a weapon.