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Villisca woman arrested Tue. morning, in Red Oak

News

January 13th, 2015 by Ric Hanson

A traffic stop early this (Tuesday) morning in Red Oak resulted in the arrest of a woman from Villisca. 21-year old Amanda Lee Smith was pulled over at around 2:30-a.m. in the 1800 block of Broadway, in Red Oak, and taken into custody for OWI-drug related/1st Offense.

The woman was being held at the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center on $1,000 cash bond.

(Podcast) 7:07-a.m. KJAN News & funeral report, 1/13/2015

News, Podcasts

January 13th, 2015 by Ric Hanson

With KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

Play

Man barges into home and assaults resident in Red Oak

News

January 13th, 2015 by Ric Hanson

An incident in Red Oak Monday night lead to the arrest of a man on a burglary charge. Red Oak Police say Luke Daniel Rinehart, of Red Oak, was taken into custody on a felony 3rd Degree burglary charge. Rinehart was arrested at around 6-p.m. at 301 1st Avenue, after he allegedly barged into the home at, according to police, and attempted to inflict bodily injury on a male resident inside the residence.

Rinehart was being held at the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center on $5,000 bond.

Grant writing seminar offered in Adair County

News

January 13th, 2015 by Ric Hanson

A free, grant writing seminar will be held in Adair County on Wed., Jan. 28th. Officials with the Empowering Adair County Foundation say the Joe Sorensen with the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines will be the featured speaker at the events, scheduled to take place in Stuart, from 9-until 10-a.m, in Adair from Noon until 1-pm, and in Greenfield, from 3-until 4-pm, Jan. 28th. The seminar i Stuart will be at the AmericInn hotel meeting room, in Adair at the Adair City City Hall meeting room #320, and in Greenfield at the Warren Cultural Center’s Green Room.

The workshops will be informational and provide beneficial guidance for anyone to use when completing a grant application, the process for which can be very competitive, making it more difficult to have your application accepted for funding requests. The seminars offer you a way to create a more professional grant application.

Light snacks will be provided during the morning and afternoon sessions, and a light lunch will be supplied for the noon workshop.  Anyone is welcome to attend, and again there is NO charge. For more information, or to register for one of the three workshops, call Angie Engles or Deena Wells (Adair County Extension and EACF Representatives), at 641-743-8412 (or, email dwells@iststate.edu). The registration deadline is Friday, Jan. 23rd.

Red Oak man arrested on assault charge

News

January 13th, 2015 by Ric Hanson

A Montgomery County man was arrested Monday night on an assault charge. Red Oak Police say 22-year old Dustin James Danick, of Red Oak, was taken into custody in the alley behind 506 E. Coolbaugh Street at around 10:15-p.m., and charged with Domestic Abuse Assault. Danick was being held without bond in the Montgomery County Jail.

Change of venue ordered for Crawford County murder trial

News

January 13th, 2015 by Ric Hanson

A district court judge in western Iowa, Monday, ordered a change of venue in the trial of a Denison man charged with murder. The Omaha World-Herald reports the judge, who continued the trial for 19-year old Jayden Ray Chapman until April 28th, ruled the trial must be held outside of Crawford County. Its location will be determined later.

The trials for Chapman and a co-defendant, 26-year old Michael David Schenk, of Denison, had been scheduled to take place two weeks apart in Crawford County. Chapman and Schenk are each charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of first-degree arson in connection with the March 10 deaths of 80-year old Marvin Huelsing, of Maple River and 81-year old Alice Huisenga, of Arcadia. Their bodies were found on Huelsing’s property southeast of Deloit.

Schenk’s trial is set to begin Jan. 20. Chapman’s trial had previously been set for Feb. 3rd. Public defender Jennifer N. Solberg had argued in a motion filed Thursday that Chapman could not receive a fair trial after extensive news coverage of Schenk’s trial.

A third defendant in the case, Erika Marlys Dains, 37, of Denison, pleaded guilty to reduced charges of second-degree burglary and being an accessory after the fact, an aggravated misdemeanor.

According to a plea agreement, Dains will testify as a prosecution witness at the trials of Schenk and Chapman, if she is called as a witness.

Iowa early News Headlines: Tue., Jan. 13 2015

News

January 13th, 2015 by Ric Hanson

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa (AP) — The White House is offering more details about President Barack Obama’s visit Wednesday to Iowa. Obama will visit Cedar Falls and speak on the issue of increasing access to affordable, high-speed broadband. The White House says Obama’s speech will be streamed live at www.whitehouse.gov/live.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — MidAmerican Energy Company has completed work on three additional wind farms as part of an ongoing sustainable energy project. The Iowa-based energy company says the completion of these wind farms means four of the five farms that comprise the so-called Wind VIII project are now finished. The development project is the largest of its kind in Iowa history. The new wind farms are located in Webster County, Madison County and Wellsburg County.

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — A Waterloo teen has been arrested after allegedly stealing a rifle from a northeastern Iowa patrol car over the weekend. Authorities say the 15-year-old boy is charged with smashing the window of a patrol car parked across the street from the Waterloo police station Saturday afternoon and taking an AR-15 rifle from the vehicle. Police tracked the teen down and recovered the rifle within hours of the robbery. He has been charged with third-degree burglary, second-degree theft and trafficking in stolen weapons.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Federal prosecutors say a former Fort Rucker soldier has been sentenced in the death of his 4-year-old daughter. Thirty-one-year-old Benjamin Schrad of Storm Lake, Iowa was sentenced to six years in prison in his daughter’s 2011 death. Prosecutors have said Schrad rushed his daughter to an emergency room on Aug. 1, 2011, telling doctors that the girl had collapsed while they were playing. Authorities said the girl’s injuries were consistent with being shaken, not with a fall.

MidAmerican Energy completes work on three more wind farms

News

January 12th, 2015 by Ric Hanson

DES MOINES, Iowa – (Jan. 12, 2015) – MidAmerican Energy Company has completed work on four of the five wind farms that make up its 1,050-megawatt Wind VIII project – the largest economic development project in Iowa history. The three wind farms completed in 2014 – Lundgren in Webster County, Macksburg in Madison County and Wellsburg in Grundy County – account for a total of 511.4 megawatts of wind generation capacity, to go along with the 44.6 megawatts of generation capacity at the Vienna II wind farm in Marshall County, which was completed in 2013. Wind turbines

The final piece of the Wind VIII project – the 495-megawatt Highland wind farm in O’Brien County – will be finished by the end of 2015. “With more than half the turbines in our Wind VIII project up and running, we’ve reached a major milestone in the development of another sustainable energy solution for our customers,” said Adam Wright, vice president, wind generation and development for MidAmerican Energy.

“By 2016, we’ll be able to produce enough energy from wind to meet the equivalent of approximately half of the electricity needs of our retail customers.” The Wind VIII project, announced in May 2013 during a joint press conference with Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, represents an investment by MidAmerican Energy of up to $1.9 billion.

With the addition of Wind VIII’s 448 turbines at the five wind farm sites, the company’s wind generation fleet will expand to 1,715 turbines, which can produce enough energy to power the equivalent of more than one million average Iowa homes. “We are extremely proud of our progress over the last decade in the development of wind energy,” Wright said. “We constructed our first wind farm in 2004, and today MidAmerican Energy is a national leader in wind generation.”

(Press Release)

Branstad: Teacher licensing program for veterans is working

News

January 12th, 2015 by Ric Hanson

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Gov. Terry Branstad says a teacher licensing program aimed at helping veterans and their families is working. Branstad said at a Monday news conference that the military exchange license program has helped veterans and their spouses secure technical and provisional licenses that will keep them working in the state. The program allows participants to teach in the state for several years without having to immediately take additional college coursework.

Branstad says the program ties in with his separate Home Base Iowa initiative, which went into effect last year. That law is aimed at giving veterans incentives to work in Iowa once their military service is over. The licensing program is offered through the Board of Educational Examiners. A board report says more than 20 licenses were issued in 2014.

Final 2014 crop report shows record corn and soybean harvest

Ag/Outdoor, News

January 12th, 2015 by Ric Hanson

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s final tally of the 2014 crop year is showing farmers brought in record corn and soybean crops. The agency says in reports released Monday that farmers harvested a record 14.2 billion bushels of corn. That is 3 percent more than the 2013 crop, which had set the previous record. The average bushel-per-acre yield is 171, significantly better than the 158 bushels per acre in 2013.

The record crop came even though farmers harvested about 5 percent fewer acres than in 2013. Record yields are estimated in 21 states, including Illinois and Nebraska. Soybean production also is a record at 3.97 billion bushels, up 18 percent from 2013. Farmers harvested a record 83.1 million acres in 2014.