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Keep up-to-date with Fox News Radio, Radio Iowa, Brownfield & the Iowa Agribusiness Networks!
KJAN News can be heard at five minutes after every hour right after Fox News 24 hours a day!
Keep up-to-date with Fox News Radio, Radio Iowa, Brownfield & the Iowa Agribusiness Networks!
Creighton University economist Ernie Goss says the Midwest’s manufacturing sector is lackluster while agriculture and energy are slipping into negative territory. Goss blames too much government regulation for the sluggish productivity he’s seeing in Iowa and across the nine-state region.
“You’ve got this bailing out of solar energy companies, the war on coal, all this,” Goss says. “Now, we’ve got a new regulation that if you make less than $47,400, you’re entitled to overtime. These are really bad interferences from the federal government.” Gasoline prices are starting to creep up in advance of the busy travel holiday just ahead, but Goss says pump prices would have to get a lot higher before there’s an outcry.
“We got accustomed to prices between $3 and $4 a gallon and now we’re seeing it much lower than that, depending on where you buy it,” Goss says. “You’d have to see it approach $3 a gallon to get any negative response from the consumer.” The average price for a gallon of gas in Iowa is $2.25, which is up a nickel since a week ago. The national average is $2.30. Goss says the price hike isn’t big enough to have any impact on Memorial Day weekend travel plans.
“The consumer is doing reasonably well, it’s the businesses, profitablity,” Goss says. “We’re in a profits recession now. Profits are negative. The growth has been negative over the last three quarters.” Goss predicts an interest rate hike this summer of perhaps a-quarter percent. Over the next few months, he says the economy is more likely to move “sideways,” not up or down.
(Radio Iowa)
A U.S. Justice Department official is warning on-line predators are engaging in a new form of extortion. Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Duax: “And ‘Sextortion’ is essentially when the offender gets a compromising image or a compromising piece of information about the victim and then threatens the victim with the disclosure of that information if the victim doesn’t engage in sexually-explicit conduct or send him sexually-explicit images.”
In 2014, a 24-year-old Cedar Rapids man was sentenced to 42 years in prison for coercing a dozen girls between the ages of 12 and 15 into sending him photos via text or Facebook and other online sites. Duax says the man then threatened to post the sexually-explicit images he already had online or send the photos to the girls’ parents and friends if they didn’t continue to send him more pictures.
“As a parent you definitely need to know what your child is using on their device, who they’re communicating with on their device and to try to set forth some ground rules for your children when they’re using those machines,” Duax says. “And it’s not easy, sometimes, to have those discussions, but if you don’t, you run the right of being one of the parents of the kids I just talked to you about.”
Duax says U.S. law enforcement agencies investigated 54-thousand reports of online sexual predators in fiscal year 2015, leading to more than 85-hundred arrests. The Cedar Rapids man who was sentenced in that 2014 “sex-tortion” case kept on threatening one girl even after she sent him a text saying she was considering suicide.
(Radio Iowa)
Thunderstorm winds or possibly a tornado caused a Union Pacific Train to derail early this (Thursday) morning, in Crawford County. Emergency Management Coordinator Greg Miller told KJAN News some of the train’s container cars derailed between 2-and 2:25-a.m., about a mile and a half west of Westside. None of the cars were toppled over, though. The train was carrying some hazardous material, but as of the latest report, nothing was leaking, and no injuries were reported.
Miller said the train’s engineers swore a tornado caused the damage, as several of the containers inside the rail cars were sucked out of those cars. He said winds gusted up to 75-miles per hour for a short time. All the crossings are open in area towns, but power lines were down in several communities. Charter Oak, Dow City and Denison all reported scattered power outages. Winds just southwest of Denison at the airport, peaked at 87-mph at around 2:15-a.m. A few minutes earlier, winds were gusting to near 60-mph in the same area.
The National Weather Service says Arcadia, in Carroll County, was hit with near 60-mph winds and quarter-sized hail at around 2:30-a.m. Miller said the town was hit pretty hard. Elsewhere, a resident of Audubon County who lives about 7-to 8-miles east of Exira off 280th Street, reports a solid wood corn crib that’s stood the test of time for over 50-years, was blown over sometime between 2:25-and 2:45-a.m. today. And, a little southwest of Minden, in Dallas County, half-dollar size hail was reported at around 2:35-a.m.
Police in Red Oak, Wednesday night arrested a man on a Montgomery County warrant for 3rd Degree Harassment. 39-year old Richard Allen Straw, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 8:50-p.m. in the 200 block of W. Washington Avenue. Straw was brought to the Montgomery County Jail and held on a $1,000 cash bond.
Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 1:40 a.m. CDT
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Police say they have arrested a suspect in connection to the death of a Des Moines man who was assaulted while riding his bike. Des Moines Police say 28-year-old Michael Scott has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of 65-year-old Charles Brown. Police say Brown was riding a bicycle on the east side of Des Moines on May 1 when he was assaulted by two men.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa man’s use of a smart phone application to get legal help in the middle of the night proved key in getting his drunken driving conviction overturned. The Iowa Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that Davenport police violated Craig Hermann’s right to an in-person consultation before forcing him to decide whether to submit to a breath test.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Police say an Iowa Department of Transportation driving instructor forced a female customer to view sexually explicit photos and videos during a test drive and then threatened her to keep quiet. John Wayne Alexander is charged with felonious misconduct in office and harassment based on his alleged actions toward the woman during the Feb. 26 driving exam.
PARKERSBURG, Iowa (AP) — It’s been eight years since a massive tornado destroyed nearly 300 homes and killed nine people in Parkersburg, and city leaders say the northern Iowa town’s revival is a model for other communities recovering from natural disasters. The May 25, 2008, tornado caused $100 million in damage.
Iowa artists who want to work on a grand scale are urged to apply for the opportunity to paint a large mural highlighting conservation and water quality efforts in Iowa. The mural will be created during the Iowa State Fair in August. Dustin Vande Hoef, a spokesman for the state Department of Agriculture, explains the goal of the project:
“We really want to showcase all of the aspects of Iowa agriculture,” Vande Hoef says. “Certainly, the livestock production, the beef and pork and dairy, the turkey production, the eggs as well, but also, the corn and soybeans as well as the specialty crops like grapes.”
The mural should serve as a visual representation of the commitment by Iowa farmers to protecting the land and improving water quality. It will be created on a six-panel, eight-by-24-foot wall in the Agricultural Building during the state fair.
Vande Hoef says, “We see it as an opportunity to highlight Iowa agriculture and the conservation and water quality efforts that are underway on our farms, in our rural small towns and in our cities.” At least a portion of the mural must be painted during the state fair, which runs August 11th through the 21st, including at least two hours each day between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Artists need to apply by July 1st. In addition to being seen by perhaps hundreds of thousands of fairgoers, there’s cash compensation, too.
“The ag groups have provided $1,500 to support the artist and an additional $500 to purchase supplies, so we want to encourage artists to apply,” Vande Hoef says. “We have all of the information on our website at IowaAgriculture.gov under ‘Hot Topics.'” Besides the state ag department, the project is being sponsored by: the Iowa Pork Producers Association, Iowa Turkey Federation, Iowa Egg Council, Iowa Beef Industry Council, Midwest Dairy Association, Iowa Corn Growers Association and the Iowa Soybean Association.
(Radio Iowa)
Forbes magazine is out with its list of the richest residents in each state and an agri-businessman from Adel is listed as Iowa’s richest person. Seventy-four-year-old Harry Stine is the founder of Stine Seed. He started experimenting with corn and soybean genetics in the 1960s and got patents on key soybean genetics in the 1990s. Forbes pegs Stine’s net worth at three-point-six billion dollars. The magazine’s website says Stine drives a Ford F-150 pick-up and lives in a small home near the Stine Seed headquarters.
Investment guru Warren Buffet is the richest person in Nebraska. South Dakota’s richest resident is a banker. The part-owner of Cargill is the richest person in Minnesota. Wisconsin’s richest person founded the Menard’s chain of home improvement stores. The richest person in Illinois is a hedge fund manager and Missouri’s richest person owns the St. Louis Rams, but recently struck a deal to move the team to Los Angeles.
(Radio Iowa)