Officials with the Cass County Health System in Atlantic, say the next “Healthy U” session at the Cass County Memorial Hospital, is all about “Tummy Troubles.” The session which takes place at Noon on Sept. 22nd in CCMH Conference Room #2, will be presented by Dr. Edna Becht.

Dr. Becht says “Everyone deals with digestion issues at some point. We’ll cover general information about digestion, indigestion, self-care and at-home treatments, and when you need further evaluation.” Dr. Becht is the newest physician at Atlantic Medical Center. She provides comprehensive family medicine services, including obstetric care. Dr. Becht recently completed her family medicine residency at Memorial Family Medicine in South Bend, Indiana, and is a graduate of Des Moines University.

Healthy U is a free educational series offered by Cass County Health System that focuses on a different health topic each month. All registered attendees receive a healthy boxed meal in addition to the educational program presented by medical professionals. To reserve your seat for the session,  call 712-243-7479.

The Union County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest at around 7:30-a.m., Thursday, of 21-year old Todd Michael Murray, of Creston. Murray was taken into custody for Driving Under Suspension, following a traffic stop on Highway 25, near 130th Street, in Union County. Murray was released from the Union County Jail after pleading guilty before the Judge.

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

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LEHIGH, Iowa (AP) – The mayor and city clerk of the small Webster County city of Lehigh have quit, and another City Council member says she may resign. Former Mayor Paula Martin told the Fort Dodge Messenger she resigned because of issues discussed at a Monday council meeting. She declined to give details, and minutes of the meeting weren’t available. City Clerk Kathy Gambill declined to say why she had given her two-week notice. Council member Kay Timmons says she’s considering resigning. The council will hold a special meeting Monday night.

Council member David Hrubes wouldn’t comment on the resignations but says he was surprised by Martin’s decision. Martin was mayor or a council member for most of 25 years before retiring. She again became mayor in 2014 after another mayor resigned.

Iowa’s Secretary of State is touting voter registration efforts on the campuses of 38 colleges and universities in Iowa. “It’s vitally important to make your voice heard and to be a voter.” Iowa Secretary of State Paul is also unveiling a new website that can produce electronic reminders for all Iowa voters — including the more than 300-thousand college students in Iowa.

“One of the most powerful features of the MyIowavote is the ability of a person to opt in to a series of reminders to vote,” Pate says. “So once you’re in, it will remind you that you have a school board election, you have a county election, and it will tell you where to go vote and give you the polling sites and the polling hours.” “My Iowa Vote” was created with “Turbo Vote” software. It will generate a text message, reminding voters where to go — and when — to get their ballots cast. Colleges and universities in Iowa have used the Turbo Vote software to tailor voter engagement campaigns on each campus.

Rachel Zuckerman is student body president at the University of Iowa. “Young people cannot wait until the future to start voting,” she says. “We need to bring our activism to the ballot box now and we need to bring our youthful energy into our democracy to get our elected officials to care about these issues that matter to us.” University of Northern Iowa student body president Hunter Flesch says a “voter palooza” on October 10th in Cedar Falls is part of the “all around push” to get students on his campus registered to vote.

“We all understand that this year is an extremely vital year to get students involved in the voting process,” he says. “However, being involved in the governmental process is something that goes beyond just this election. We want to create a culture not just at UNI, but in the state of Iowa that reminds students that they have a voice and that they can effect real change by voting not just in presidential elections, but also the local elections.”

Iowa State University student body president Cole Staudt says there are voter registration drives on the Ames campus every day.  “We could have a tremendous impact on this election and every election moving forward,” Staudt says. Elisabeth Niebuhr Of Le Mars, a senior at Buena Vista University, says more than 200 students signed a petition asking for a satellite voting station on the Storm Lake campus. “It is our civic duty and it is something, like all of my peers have said, shapes and will shape our country because we are the next biggest generation and we are the game changers,” she said. Emilee Harris is president of the “Democrats Club” at Grand View University in Des Moines. Harris says there are now more than 75 million millennials in America.

“If we got out to vote, we would have our voices heard,” Harris says. Robert Lyons, the student body president at Simpson College, says 62 percent of Simpson students voted in 2012. “Millennials are voting and we’re voting in greater numbers every year,” Lyons says. “Simpson students will be at the polls in November and I encourage other college-age millennials to join us.”

Millennials are people between the ages of 18 and 35. The new text reminders about voting are available for ANY Iowa voter.

(Radio Iowa)

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

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A blend of fuel that’s been off the market in Iowa during the summer driving season is returning today (Friday). Gasoline that has 15 percent ethanol blended in it is now available again. Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA) Executive Director Monte Shaw says federal regulations are to blame as the newer E-15 fuel blend wasn’t given the same summer driving allowance that the commonly used E-10 blend was given 30 years ago.

“As a result of that, you actually have to have two different types of gasoline to blend — one for E-10 and one for E-15. Oil companies use this quirk in federal regulations and only supply Iowa with the blendstock that is suitable for E-10, thereby freezing E-15 out of the market for three-and-a-half months,” Shaw explains. Shaw says the E-15 can be used on a majority of vehicles on the roads. “It’s approved for use in all 2001 or newer vehicles. It is not approved for smaller off-road engines. But if you have a 2001 or newer vehicle, you can use E-15 and you are going to be getting a cleaner product, a higher octane product, and it’s going to cost you less while providing the same mileage and probably a little bit of increased power,” according to Shaw.

He says the inability to sell E-15 year round has kept some retailers from selling the blend, but he says they’ve been working to increase it’s availability. Shaw says 69 stations now offer E-15 across the state, which is a big jump from last year. Shaw says retailers have to stop selling E-15 on June 1st when the so-called summer driving season starts. “We are going to be working very hard between now and next June to try to get the E-P-A to fix this or Congress to fix this. We need one of those two entities to step up and say ‘this is ridiculous,’ there is no scientific basis for treating these fuels differently. It is preventing a legal fuel from being available in the marketplace,” Shaw says.

He says the oil companies want to block anything that will cause more renewable corn-based ethanol and less oil to be used. Shaw says another tactic used by those who are against ethanol use is to say that drivers won’t be able to decide which fuel to use if there are too many choices at the pump. “Somehow you’re smart enough to drive a car 80-miles-an-hour down the interstate, but you’re not smart enough to choose between more than two fuel options,” Shaw says, “I just don’t buy into that.”

He says you can go to a restaurant and choose between thousands of different kinds of flavor mixes for you pop and that doesn’t cause any problems for customers. Shaw says having choices is a good thing. “We support consumer options and consumer choices. No one is forced to buy E-15. In fact in most of Iowa no one is even forced to buy E-10. You can pay quite a bit more money and get a non-ethanol blend,” Shaw says. “I think you are silly if you do — but it’s there. So, we like the fact that consumers can choose E-10, E-15 and in some stations they can choose an E-30 and E-85 if they are driving a flex fuel vehicle.”

Shaw believes E-15 would be a top choice of drivers if they all had access to it. “If we could make this universally available and consumers said ‘hey yeah I’d like to save five or ten cents a gallon, I’m gonna use E-15,’ it could make up 80 percent of our fuel market,” Shaw says. “Now that is going to take some time. Right now what we’re seeing is that it generally makes up anywhere from 15 to 25 percent of the sales of the stations that actually offer it.”

Shaw says stations in Minnesota that offer E-15 have seen it move to 50 percent of their sales. Retailers in the Des Moines and surrounding metro areas are selling the E-15 for one dollar, 15 cents a gallon at times today (Friday) to promote its return to the market. You can find a station that sells E-15 by going to the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association website http://iowarfa.org/

(Radio Iowa)

A traffic stop northwest of Coburg early this (Friday) morning in Montgomery County, resulted in an arrest. The Sheriff’s Department reports 59-year old Micheal Dean Ohnmacht, of rural Essex, was charged with OWI/1st offense, and Possession of a Controlled Substance, after his vehicle was pulled over at around midnight, near the intersection of 250th Street and Evergreen Avenue. Ohnmacht was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $1,000 bond.

Creston Police say no injuries were reported following an accident late Thursday morning. Officials say a 2004 Acura RSX driven by 21-year old Brittany Ann Taylor, of Creston, was traveling south on Elm Street at around 11:30-a.m.  A 2011 Ford Edge driven by 80-year old Roberta Arlene Sobotka, of Diagonal, was traveling eastbound on Adams, and had pulled up to and stopped at, the intersection of Elm and W. Adams Streets. When Sobotka proceeded into the intersection, her SUV hit the car.

Sobotka then panicked and backed up, causing her SUV hit an eastbound 2006 Chevy Uplander driven by 35-year old Amie Jo Jackson, of Creston. Sobotka was issued a warning for Failure to Yield the right of Way. Damage from the collisions amounted to $5,000.

Police in Red Oak say no injuries were reported following an accident that happened at around 6-p.m., Thursday. Authorities say 35-year old Jessica Danielle Blocker, of Red Oak, was cited for Driving While Suspended and Failure to hold insurance. The crash happened at the intersection of Cherry and Broadway Streets, when  a 2016 Dodge Grand Caravan driven by 45-year old Carrie Sue Gray, of Red Oak, was rear-ended by a 2004 Dodge Dakota pickup driven by Blocker. Damage from the collision amounted to $3,100.