Symbols and reminders of domestic violence are currently on display through the end of this month at the Cass County Courthouse and Cass County Memorial Hospital, in Atlantic.

Photo’s courtesy Bev Groves

T-shirts made by victims of domestic violence or their friends and families, are on display as part of “The Clothesline Project” (www.clotheslineproject.org). In a follow-up to our report last week, KJAN News spoke with Bev Groves Crime Victim Coordinator, and Assistant to Cass County Attorney David Wiederstein,  Groves says t-shirts representing each form of domestic violence are on display as part “Domestic Violence Awareness Month.”

The shirts are made available through Southwest Iowa Families, which collected them from victims of domestic violence and/or their friends and families. Groves says one of the shirts hanging in the corridor of the 2^nd floor in the Cass County Courthouse, caught the eye of 4^th District Court Judge Susan Kay Christensen

The shirt made in memory of Holly Durbin.

The shirt was in memory of 29-year old Holly Rae Durbin, of rural Shenandoah, who died in July 2009, from a gunshot wound to the head. In February, 2015, Fremont County District Court Judge Timothy O’Grady found 35-year old Brian Heath Davis guilty of first-degree murder in connection with Holly’s death. Davis was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Southwest Iowa Families, in conjunction with Catholic Charities and Phoenix House, have been providing the displays for a number of years at this same time. The color of the shirts is representative of the type of violence women have endured.

Four people were injured during a single-vehicle accident Wednesday afternoon, in Fremont County. One of the victims was extricated from the vehicle and transported in critical condition to the Shenandoah Memorial Hospital. Three other passengers were treated at the hospital for unknown injuries. The driver of the vehicle, Kenneth Frame, of Red Oak, was not hurt.

Officials say Frame was driving a 2000 Chevy Impala southbound in the 2300 block of Highway 59 just before 2-p.m., when the car went onto the right shoulder of the road. Frame lost control when he over-corrected, causing the car to exit off a driveway approach and proceed airborne before it landed in the west ditch and hit a tree before coming to rest.

Shenandoah Fire, Shenandoah Rescue, Essex Rescue and Shenandoah Police along with Page County Sheriff’s Deputies, assisted at the scene.

(9-a.m. News)

Authorities in Iowa today (Thursday) say the Emerald ash borer (EAB), an invasive beetle that attacks and kills ash trees, has been confirmed in Adair and Adams Counties. EAB is now present in 28 states after being discovered in Detroit, Michigan in 2002. EAB is native to Asia. Adair and Adams Counties join the growing list of confirmed counties where EAB has been detected in Iowa. Nine counties have been added to the list this year. Iowa first confirmed the presence of this destructive pest in 2010.

The recent discoveries took place at Lake Orient Recreation Area (Adair County Conservation Board) in Adair County and a rural area north of Cromwell in Adams County.

IA EAB Positive sites Oct. 12 2016

Insect larvae were taken from both sites and later positively identified by federal identifiers as EAB. Mike Kintner, Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship EAB and gypsy moth coordinator, says “It is particularly difficult to battle an invasive species like emerald ash borer. One thing people can do to help with this effort is avoid transporting firewood.”

The Iowa EAB Team strongly urges Iowans to use locally sourced firewood, burning it in the same county where it was purchased. Firewood is a vehicle for the movement of EAB. The adult beetle also can fly short distances, approximately 2 to 5 miles.

The adult beetle is metallic green and only about one-half inch long. The larval stage of this wood-boring insect tunnels under the bark of ash trees, disrupting the flow of water and nutrients, ultimately causing the tree to die. EAB-infested ash trees display canopy dieback beginning at the top of the tree and progressing downwards, S-shaped feeding galleries under dead or splitting bark, D-shaped exit holes, water sprouts (along the trunk and main branches), and increased woodpecker activity to the bark.

At this calendar date, the window for all preventive treatments has closed. If a landowner is interested in protecting a valuable and healthy ash tree within 15 miles of a known infestation, he or she should have landscape and tree service companies bid on work, review the bids this fall/winter, and treat beginning spring 2017 (early April to mid-May).

The State of Iowa will continue to track the movement of EAB on a county-by-county basis. Before a county can be officially recognized as infested, EAB must be collected by a member of the Iowa EAB Team and verified by USDA entomologists. To learn more about EAB and other pests that are threatening Iowa’s tree population, please visit www.IowaTreePests.com.

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

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

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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Officials say Iowa student scores have dropped in statewide reading and math tests. The Des Moines Register reports the percentage of Iowa fourth-graders on grade level in reading fell to 74.8 percent last spring from 75.7 percent during the 2014-15 school year. In math, fourth-grade proficiency fell to 79 percent this year from 80.3 percent in 2014-15.

Jay Pennington is the Iowa Department of Education’s bureau chief of information and analysis services, and he says the tests are only one measure of success. Until this school year’s tests in spring, results on the Iowa Assessments have increased every year since the accountability exams were begun in the 2011-12 school year.

Officials say it’s unclear why there were drops for the 2015-2016 school year.

The Atlantic Community School District’s Board of Education Wednesday, approved the hiring of Ray and Associates to conduct a search for the District’s next Superintendent. The fee for their service is $6,500. Their bid was the lowest of the three firms interviewed by the board on September 28^th. They will be charged with finding candidates to replace Superintendent Dr. Michael Amstein, who is retiring at the end of the current school year.

Board Member, Dr. Keith Swanson had suggested prior to the Board’s 4-to 1 vote, that they hire Dr. David Else, of Cedar Falls, as a consultant. Else is formerly with the University of Northern Iowa. He served as the Director of Education Leadership. (Click on the left side of the audio player to listen)

In other business, the Atlantic School Board approved an annual Industrial Technology Sharing Agreement with the Griswold School District, and Superintendent Amstein said the District’s Certified Enrollment numbers won’t be available until a couple of other districts submit their open enroll-out data to the Atlantic District.

And, the Board, Wednesday, approved the resignation of Washington Elementary Special Ed Para-educator Regina Perez.

State transportation officials say they’re planning to test driverless cars on a section of Interstate 380 in eastern Iowa sometime next year. The DOT is partnering with a company, called Here, that’s creating real time maps of I-380 road conditions to guide those driverless cars between Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. Michael Miller, a truck driver who makes deliveries across the country, told KCRG-TV he believes roadway safety will suffer.

“They (law enforcement) are always on us about what we have to do to be safe…but if they put something out here that’s going to drive itself, who is going to have to be in control of that? A computer? A computer messes up more than humans do,” Miller said. Scott Marler, with the Iowa DOT, disagrees. He says the computerized vehicles and freights will have HD maps in them that will constantly update road conditions and they will always know what’s ahead.

“More than 94 percent of crashes are tied into some type of driver error or driver choice, so with these technologies, we also know the potential to reduce crashes are more than 80 percent,” Marler told KCRG. Officials picked I-380 between Iowa City and Cedar Rapids for the driverless car project because of the high volume of freight traffic.

“We do believe this is the future of transportation in Iowa and we think it’s closer than most folks think,” Marler said. Miller, the truck driver, isn’t just concerned about road safety. He’s worried about losing his job if driverless cars become commonplace. “This is all I know how to do. You take this away from me, what else am I going to do?” Miller told KCRG.

(KCRG TV via Radio Iowa)

A spokesperson for the Iowa A-C-L-U says a study by the national A-C-L-U and Human Rights Watch found a huge disparity in how whites and blacks in the state are treated when it comes to drugs. “A black person in Iowa is seven times more likely to be arrested for drug possession than a white person — even though studies find the two races use drugs at about the same rate,” according to Veronica Fowler.

Nationwide, a black person is two-and-a-half times more likely to be arrested than a white person. Iowa is second in the nation for that disparity in arrests, behind only Montana. Fowler says this study follows up an earlier one on marijuana. “A black person in Iowa is eight times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than a white person in Iowa,” Fowler says. “And again that just shows how people are treated very differently.” Fowler says this latest study reinforces the need for some change.

“I think one thing we definitely need to do is look at our drug laws in this state. I think our state legislature needs to consider decriminalizing various illicit drugs, because the war on drugs we started in the 1970’s just isn’t working,” Fowler says. She says the failed efforts to create and then change Iowa’s medical marijuana law don’t give much hope that something will be done with the overall drug issue. Fowler says it is something that needs to be addressed.

“It is a public health problem, we are filling up our prisons, we are devastating our families, devastating our communities, with no indication that it’s doing any good,” Fowler says. She says the cost to house people for drugs crimes is taking away resources that could be used for other things. Fowler says Iowa is one of only three states that automatically and permanently takes away a person’s right to vote after a felony conviction, and that is another impact from the failed drug war.

(Radio Iowa)

Congressman Steve King says Republicans should “hold together” with Trump. “If we pull together, if we persevere, if we are logical and rational and we say to our friends and neighbors: ‘Don’t get caught up in an audio tape when you have the evidence of all of this bad stuff that has flowed from the Clinton family for a long time,'” King says. “And even if that didn’t exist, ask yourself: ‘What will she do?'” King says he does not support the things Trump can be heard saying on a 2005 recording, but King says he does support the policies Trump has proposed.

“The number one thing that launched Donald Trump into this nomination is his position on immigration which, by the way, matches mine. Mexico will do what? Pay for that wall!” King says. King made his comments Tuesday during a rally in Newton with Trump supporters.

King’s Democratic opponent, Kim Weaver of Sheldon, says by sticking with Trump, King is putting “party before country.” Weaver says standing with Trump “does not represent Iowa values.”

(Radio Iowa)