The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.
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The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (5.2MB)
Subscribe: RSS
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Des Moines medical center has announced that after three decades of operation, it will shut down its kidney and pancreas transplant operation. MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center announced in a news release Thursday that the closure is effective Oct. 1. The program had been suspended earlier this year as hospital officials questioned the need for two transplant centers in Des Moines.
MercyOne says it will work with the city’s other transplant center at Iowa Methodist Medical Center to help those in need. The release says the closure affects four MercyOne employees. The Des Moines Register reports that Iowa Methodist Medical Center handles more than twice as many kidney operations per year as MercyOne’s transplant team.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Trial has been set next month for a Guatemala man charged with killing an Iowa woman and her two children. The Des Moines Register reports that a judge on Thursday set Oct. 28 as the start of the first-degree murder trial for 31-year-old Marvin Oswaldo Escobar-Orellana. Escobar-Orellana is accused of fatally shooting 29-year-old Rossibeth Flores-Rodriguez, her 11-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son in mid-July in a Des Moines home.
Escobar-Orellana is charged with three counts of first-degree murder under what authorities say was a false name he initially gave to police: Marvin Esquivel-Lopez. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have said Escobar-Orellana is in the United States illegally and had twice been deported before the July shooting. He was convicted in 2010 of illegal entry into the U.S.
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FOR SALE: Craftsman 1/2 HP garage door opener, chain driven with all the hardware. Works well. Asking $50. Call 243-4308.
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FOR SALE: Deep freeze, 18 cubic feet, bought last year. $300. 712-243-2361.
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A Sioux City teacher accused of sending critical letters to her superintendent and other district leaders has been fired. The Sioux City Journal reports the school board voted to fire middle school teacher Julie Fischer even though a judge cleared her of criminal charges last spring. In March, a judge dismissed six counts of harassment Fischer faced because the letters were deemed free speech, not harassment.
Fischer had other teachers speak on her behalf at the board hearings. She had taught in the district since 1991. Fischer had been on administrative leave from August 2018 until last Wednesday when the school board fired her.
(Radio Iowa) — The High school football season opened in Iowa with nearly 170 games scheduled between last night (Thursday night ) and tonight (Friday night), and parents, students and other fans are being reminded to behave responsibly. Chris Cuellar, a spokesman for the Iowa High School Athletic Association, says there’s a high turnover rate for athletic directors, coaches and especially for game officials like referees. “A lot of them cite aggressive fan behaviors or reactions as a reason why they’re stepping away,” Cuellar says. “It is tougher than ever to keep those younger officials around. No officials means no games.”
The Boone-based association is issuing guidelines for fans who are heading to the athletic events, with the first rule being: Act your age. “That’s a pretty direct message for adults,” Cuellar says. “The kids are the ones playing. Adults have to be the ones that act their age whether they’re in the stands or in the parking lot or watching or listening or wherever they’re at.” The second guideline reminds parents not to live their lives vicariously through their kids. “The event is meant to be their activity, not yours,” Cuellar says. “The reason for doing it should be theirs, not yours. A lot of people can take that to heart as the seasons begin and they start to sign their kids up for things. It’s maybe a little tougher to remember when you’re in the heat of the game.”
There are about 80-thousand boys taking part in Iowa high school sports every year and some parents put a great amount of pressure on their sons to win a college scholarship. Cuellar reminds, that’s not what participating in a school sport is supposed to be about. “Only around 2% of all high school athletes, that’s all sports, that’s boys and girls and that’s all levels of NCAA, 2% are awarded some kind of college scholarship and the average value of that’s less than $20,000.”
The main message he offers to sports fans is — be respectful and considerate.
Council Bluffs, Thomas Jefferson 31, Sioux City, West 6
Today: Partly cloudy to cloudy. High 74. N @ 10 mph.
Tonight: Mostly cloudy w/isolated showers developing late. Low 58. NE @ 5.
Tomorrow: P/Cldy to Cloudy w/showers. High 88. N @ 10.
Sunday: P/Cldy. High 77.
Monday (Labor Day): P/Cldy w/isolated showers & thunderstorms. High 85.
Yesterday’s High in Atlantic was 88. Our Low this morning, 62. Last year on this date our High was 82 and the Low was 55. The record High in Atlantic on this date was 101 in 1947. The Record Low was 33 in 1893.
Here is the latest Mid-America sports news from The Associated Press
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — The Packers defeated the Chiefs 27-20 in the teams’ preseason finale, but the play of the game came from Kansas City safety Harold Jones-Quartey during a dead ball in the fourth quarter. After Packers running back Dexter Williams scored the deciding touchdown with 6:24 to play and Sam Ficken nailed the PAT, a fan raced onto the field as the teams prepared for the ensuing kickoff. Jones-Quartey aided security by making the tackle.
UNDATED (AP) — Football players often refer to their teammates as brothers. In the Big Ten, a lot of them truly are. There are more than two dozen sets of brothers playing in the conference this season. Nebraska twins Carlos and Khalil Davis, Michigan State’s Jacob and Mike Panasiuk and Northwestern’s Andy and Samdup Miller start together on their teams’ defensive lines. Landan and Levi Paulsen hold down the guard spots on Iowa’s offensive line. In all, there are brothers on 11 of the league’s 14 teams.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Scott Frost’s second year at Nebraska begins against South Alabama. All indications are that his turnaround project is heading in the right direction. The 24th-ranked Cornhuskers are projected to be one of the most improved teams in the nation. Even though they finished 4-8 following an 0-6 start, they’re in the preseason Top 25 for the first time since 2014 and a popular pick to win the Big Ten West.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Jurickson Profar homered and drove in three runs, Seth Brown added two RBIs and the Oakland Athletics held off the Kansas City Royals 9-8 to cap a four-game series victory. Everybody in the A’s starting lineup had a hit or drove in a run, bailing out starter Chris Bassitt after a dismal performance. Bassitt failed to survive the fifth before turning the game over to Yusmeiro Petit, who was just about the only effective pitcher all the afternoon.
UNDATED (AP) — The Big 12 has a trio of new coaches that will make their debuts as a Power Five head coach. Kansas State’s Chris Klieman and Texas Tech’s Matt Wells both have been coaching for more than two decades. But each had only one previous season as an assistant at a school currently in the five major conferences. West Virginia coach Neal Brown was an offensive coordinator at Texas Tech and Kentucky. Kansas coach Les Miles, the league’s other new coach, won a national title at LSU.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Democratic National Committee will recommend scrapping state plans to offer virtual, telephone-based caucuses in 2020 due to security concerns, sources tell The Associated Press. The recommendation from DNC leaders makes it highly unlikely that the party’s powerful Rules and Bylaws Committee would allow Iowa and Nevada to proceed with their current plans for virtual caucuses next February. DNC officials and some presidential campaigns have raised concerns about possible hacking.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Congresswoman Cindy Axne says the patience of Iowa farmers is wearing thin as President Donald Trump’s trade policies damage soybean markets and his administration’s ethanol policy reduces corn demand. Axne, a Democrat, convened a meeting with farmers and agriculture groups at the Iowa Capitol on Thursday with USDA Under Secretary Bill Northey, a Republican and former Iowa secretary of agriculture. Northey says Trump realizes farmers are stressed in part by administration policies.
MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (AP) — It took only seconds for a towering coal-fired electricity plant in Marshalltown to be reduced to rubble. The Sutherland Generating Station was imploded Thursday morning, with explosions causing the structure to crash to the ground and send up a plume of dust. The plant, owned by Alliant Energy, had operated since the 1950s but ceased operation in 2017 after a natural gas power plant came online.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa funeral home is calling on families to pick up the unclaimed cremated remains of nearly 100 people that it has been keeping in a locked closet for years, some since the mid-1990s. Lanae Strovers, of Hamilton’s Funeral Home in Des Moines, told TV station KCCI that she has already made arrangements for 200 sets of the unclaimed ashes but is still trying make arrangements for 91 others. Any that remain unclaimed will be buried in a cemetery during a Sept. 26 service.
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