With KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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Members of the “Popcorn Button” band will once again take to the stage this weekend in Atlantic,  for a night of music and dancing. The band will host a free, public dance at the Atlantic Elks Lodge on Saturday, July 12th, beginning at 7-pm and ending at 10. Dancers and listeners of all ages and abilities are invited to attend!

Popcorn Button consists of members of various different backgrounds. Many of the members hail from the Atlantic community, including current Atlantic High School Students, AHS alumni, as well as students from Iowa State University, the University of Iowa, the University of Northern Iowa, and also musicians from the community at large.

This dance, titled “Let Freedom Swing”, is a free public event. Everyone, no matter their dancing ability, is encouraged to attend. A free will donation will be accepted at the door to help defray costs of the event. All excess money will be given back to the community in the form of donations or through the Popcorn Button Community Music Scholarship, an award given to help young musicians pay the costs involved with attending band camps, honor hands, or taking private lessons.

For more information, contact Cody Ihnen at info@popcornbutton.org.

Motorists are being reminded to be on the lookout for equipment that’ll be moving through Iowa’s roadside ditches soon. Bob Younie, with the Iowa Department of Transportation, says land owners and others who’ve obtained a permit are allowed to harvest hay from state highway roadsides. The annual program benefits both parties.  “It gives farmers a chance to get some hay and it also means the DOT doesn’t have to put labor into doing the mowing and cutting down tall grass,” Younie said. The mowing and haying of roadsides is not allowed to start until July 15.

Photo courtesy IA DOT

“The reason for that is to give ground nesting birds, pheasants and so on, a little bit of maturity so they can get out of the way of mowers and haying equipment,” Younie said. There’s no cost for farmers to obtain a permit from the DOT to harvest roadside hay. The permit simply outlines where the mowing and haying is allowed and various safety requirements, such as the use of a fluorescent green vest.

Those doing any haying are also asked to move big bales as soon as possible. “We don’t want those sitting on the right-of-way for any extended period of time,” Younie said. Only one cutting in a roadside area is allowed per year. The roadside harvesting and mowing takes place each year between July 15 and September 1.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The trend toward strong storms and too much rain is beginning to take a toll on Iowa crops. Farmers report yellowing corn plants, a sign of too much moisture, and stress to soybean plants. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says in its weekly crop update that 76 percent of Iowa corn is in good to excellent shape, a decrease of 3 percentage points from the week before. Soybeans are blooming ahead of schedule and 73 percent of the crop is good to excellent, condition, down 2 percentage points.

Farmers struggled to get into fields again last week, the third consecutive week farmers had fewer than three days to work in the fields. This time of year weed control spraying, adding supplemental nitrogen fertilizer, and baling hay are common activities.

A Council Bluffs woman charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing death last Friday of 52-year old Douglas Richt, remains in the Pottawattamie County Jail on one-half million dollars bond. The Daily NonPareil reports 45-year old Jodie M. Sherman faces first-degree murder and willful injury assault charges. She was also said to be in violation of a restraining order when she allegedly stabbed Richt in the neck several times, Friday afternoon. A preliminary hearing in her case is scheduled for July 17th.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Gov. Terry Branstad has requested a presidential disaster declaration for nine Iowa counties affected by recent severe weather. The counties under the declaration request are Adams, Clarke, Decatur, Mills, Montgomery, Pottawattamie, Ringgold, Taylor, and Wayne counties. Branstad addressed President Barack Obama in a letter Monday and requested the declaration for counties affected by winds, hail, rains and thunderstorms between June 3 and June 4. Branstad says more requests are possible.

McPAUL, Iowa (AP) — A southwest Iowa man has pleaded not guilty to a charge of assisting or participating in a woman’s suicide. Fifty-eight-year-old James Allen Zingg, of McPaul, is charged with assisting in the January suicide of 47-year-old Gwendolyn N. Melloway. He was arrested in June. Authorities are charging Zingg under a seldom-used law that was spurred when Dr. Jack Kevorkian was prosecuted for helping terminally ill patients end their lives.

MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) — More than 2,000 documents, photographs and cassette tapes have been discovered recently in connection to the case of a man charged with killing his 20-month-old Mason City son in 1994. A retired state Division of Criminal Investigation agent was testifying last week in the case of 38-year-old Michael Cisneros when his comment over 20-year-old crime scene photographs sent both prosecutors and defense attorneys searching the evidence room of the local police department. Cisneros is accused of killing John Snyder Jr., whose body was found in a creek. He has pleaded not guilty

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa (AP) — Officials say a northeast Iowa man lost control of his motorcycle when it struck a deer. The Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office says 43-year-old Jason Melver, of Waverly, was riding the motorcycle early Monday on a road near Cedar Falls when the deer entered the vehicle’s pathway. Melver was transported to a hospital but additional information was not released.

McPAUL, Iowa (AP) — A southwest Iowa man has pleaded not guilty to a charge of assisting or participating in a woman’s suicide. The Omaha World-Herald reports 58-year-old James Allen Zingg, of McPaul, is charged with assisting in the January suicide of 47-year-old Gwendolyn N. Melloway. He was arrested in June. Authorities are charging Zingg under a seldom-used law that was spurred when Dr. Jack Kevorkian was prosecuted for helping terminally ill patients end their lives.

Prosecutors say Zingg made a suicide pact with Melloway. Zingg says the pair both ingested a lethal cocktail of pills, but he survived. He says it was Melloway’s idea to swallow the pills. Fremont County Attorney James Burger says the charge is justified. Zingg’s attorney declined to immediately comment on the case.

(DES MOINES) – Gov. Terry E. Branstad today (Monday) signed a letter to be delivered to President Obama requesting a Presidential Disaster Declaration for nine Iowa counties where significant damage was sustained from damaging winds, hail, heavy rains and thunderstorms from June 3, 2014 – June 4, 2014. The request pertains to damages from the June 3 – 4 severe weather event and it is possible more requests will be made for additional counties adversely affected by subsequent severe weather.

Regarding the June 3 – 4 severe weather event, the letter reads, in part, “In response to the situation, I have issued a total of three State of Iowa Proclamations of Disaster Emergency. The first was issued on June 3, 2014, directing the execution of the Iowa Emergency Response Plan in Pottawattamie County.
Succeeding proclamations have resulted in a total of 11 counties to be in a State of Disaster Emergency. These actions were taken pursuant to Iowa Code § 29C.6 and Section 401 of the Stafford Act.

“I determined that the severity of the damage in Adams, Clarke, Decatur, Harrison, Mills, Montgomery, Pottawattamie, Ringgold, Taylor, and Wayne Counties is so great that Joint Federal, State, and local Public Assistance Preliminary Damage Assessments were required. On June 12, 2014, the State of Iowa first requested a Joint Federal, State, and local Public Assistance Preliminary Damage Assessment for ten of the most severely impacted counties. These assessments commenced on June 18,
and were concluded on June 21.

“As a result of these Joint assessments, I have determined that the severity of damages in nine counties is such that Federal Assistance is needed.”

(Press Release)

TRAER, Iowa (AP) — Weather officials have confirmed four tornadoes hit Iowa after severe storms passed through the state. The National Weather Service says a tornado touched down just north of Traer on Sunday and caused extensive tree damage but remained away from populated areas. A farm outbuilding also was damaged.

Officials say it appears to have been an EF-1 tornado with peak wind of 90 miles per hour. Its path was 6.6 miles long and 200 yards wide. The service says it has analyzed pictures and videos from the media and the public and confirmed at least three additional tornadoes near Jewell, Stuart, and in eastern Jasper County. No tree or structural damage was reported from them.

The agency says at least 11 tornadoes were reported Sunday evening by trained storm spotters.

An Iowa State Patrol trooper was treated and released from Atlantic hospital after a wreck on Interstate-80 in western Iowa late Monday morning. According to the accident report, Trooper Todd Granner, of Atlantic, was buckled in his patrol car east of Atlantic, with his vehicle positioned to direct traffic around another accident in the westbound lanes of I-80.

Trooper Todd Granner

Authorities say a semi driver reached to retrieve something inside his cab and when he looked back up realized traffic ahead had slowed substantially. The semi veered to avoid the line of traffic and ran into the back of the Granner’s patrol car and then into a guard rail. The trooper was taken to the Atlantic hospital as a precaution. The semi driver was not hurt. He was not identified but was expected to be cited for the incident.

(Radio Iowa)