Firefighters from Atlantic were called to the scene of a deck fire early Monday morning. The incident at 704 E. 14th Street was reported at around 12:10-a.m.  Atlantic Fire Chief Mark McNees said a resident of the home called the owner, who was putting the fire out when the first fire crews arrived. A neighbor alerted another apartment resident who called the incident in.

Atlantic Police were the first to arrive on the scene and extinguish the blaze, which did not spread to the attached house. McNees said the fire, which was caused by a discarded cigarette damaged two railings and carpeting on the deck, which was shared by two apartments. The damage was estimated at several hundred dollars.

(Updated 8:30-a.m.)

An organization that celebrates the first road across America has selected Denison as the site for its annual convention. The Omaha World-Herald reports some 250-to 350- people could visit Denison in June 2017, when the community hosts the National Lincoln Highway Convention. Deb Rothmeyer of Denison is the chairwoman of the national convention and current vice president of the Iowa Lincoln Highway Association. She will become the state association’s president in October.

The theme for the weeklong national conference in Denison will be “It’s a Wonderful Road,” playing off Denison’s theme, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” a reference to the movie starring Denison native Donna Reed.

The Lincoln Highway was the nation’s first transcontinental road for automobiles, stretching from New York City to San Francisco. It roughly follows the route of Highway 30. This year’s convention is being held June 17th through the 21st in Toole, UT. For more information, go to https://www.lincolnhighwayassoc.org/

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Governor Terry Branstad has about 40 bills awaiting a decision, a hefty stack of policy and spending measures lawmakers sent him in a flurry as the Legislature adjourned earlier this month. He has about two more weeks to decide whether to sign bills, which include measures regulating the use of unmanned aerial drones, allowing some people with epilepsy to take a marijuana oil derivative, and ending dog racing at Council Bluffs but letting it continue in Dubuque.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa agreed to help conceal why at least 55 state workers had been fired by allowing them to voluntarily resign or retire. The Des Moines Register reports that in some cases the state even removed all evidence of past wrongdoing from personnel records. That means future employers might not know about an individual’s troubled past before considering hiring them.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An overnight fire caused roughly $30,000 damage to a well-known Iowa City restaurant. The Iowa City Press-Citizen reports the fire that started in the basement of Hamburg Inn Number 2 was reported shortly after 1 a.m. Sunday.

NEWTON, Iowa (AP) — Sam Hornish Jr. beat Ryan Blaney off a restart with 21 laps to go and hung on to win the NASCAR Nationwide Series race yesterday at Iowa Speedway. Pole-sitter Ryan Blaney was second, followed by Regan Smith, Chase Elliott and Elliott Sadler in the first stand-alone event of the season.

In an update to our earlier on-line story, the one person was flown by Life Net helicopter to a hospital in Omaha following a motorcycle accident on Interstate 80 Sunday morning, near Shelby. The Omaha World Herald reports the accident happened at around 10-a.m. near the 36.5-mile marker of I-80 eastbound.

According to dispatch reports, a motorcycle driven by a 60-year old man went out of control and crashed into the median. Traffic was backed-up in the eastbound lanes for about 2-miles, until around 11-a.m., because the helicopter landed at the scene on the interstate. The chopper took-off at around 10:47-a.m. enroute to the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

The crash victims’ injuries were not believed to be life threatening. Additional information was not available early this (Sunday) afternoon.

Members of the CAM Board of Education will gather in the High School Media Center in Anita Monday evening, to resume discussions, and possibly act on approving, an agreement with the Nodaway Valley School District, for the sharing of a Superintendent. The meeting begins at 6:30.

Superintendent Steve Pelzer and School Board President Gary Dinkla and Board Member Chuck Kinzie met in April with Nodaway Valley School Board members to discuss a possible sharing arrangement.At that time, the CAM Board voted not to continue discussions with the Coon Rapids-Bayard School Board, with regard to a similar arrangement.

It was also announced in April, that Superintendent Pelzer had held conversations with Adair-Casey Superintendent Steve Smith about sharing possibilities.  The two boards will hold a joint meeting in June or July to discuss sharing opportunities. The  next regular meeting of the Adair-Casey School Board is May 21st, but Superintendent Sharing is not on their agenda.  Members of the Nodaway Valley School Board voted during their meeting on May 8th, to enter into an agreement to share a Superintendent with the CAM School District. Their next step was to form a committee to draft and agreement for presentation to the CAM School Board.

In other business, the CAM School Board, Monday, will discuss and/or act on: Any resignations; An agreement with Casey Computer Consulting; Open Enrollment Applications; An agreement with Iowa Western Community College; a Pre-School recommendations, and Air Conditioner bids for the Massena School.

The Board will then enter into an exempt/closed session for negotiations, before resuming discussion and/or action on Contracts and a Shared Superintendent’s position.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad has about 40 bills awaiting a decision, a hefty stack of policy and spending measures lawmakers sent him in a flurry as the Legislature adjourned earlier this month.

He has about two more weeks to decide whether to sign bills, which include measures regulating the use of unmanned aerial drones, allowing some people with epilepsy to take a marijuana oil derivative, and ending dog racing at Council Bluffs but letting it continue in Dubuque. About 10 of the bills Branstad must consider are spending measures that make up large portions of the state’s $6.97 billion budget.

The governor has 30 days from adjournment to consider bills sent to him at the end of the session. Branstad has signed just over 100 bills into law.

A Pottawattamie County man was arrested Saturday night on a warrant, in Montgomery County. Sheriff’s officials say 21-year old Zachary Thomas Marchese, of Council Bluffs, was taken into custody at around 10:30-p.m. on a warrant for Violation of his probation.

Marchese was arrestedin the 1500 Block of Highway 34 and brought to the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center, where he was held awaiting extradition to Pott. County.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office responded to a single vehicle property damage accident at 12:20pm Saturday, May 17th 2 1/2 miles Northwest of Red Oak in the 1700 Block of G Avenue in rural Montgomery County.

Officers determined that a 1991 Oldsmobile 98 Regency owned and operated by 23-year-old Jameson C. Sands of Red Oak was southbound on county gravel road G Avenue when the driver lost control on loose gravel and entered the the west ditch and rolled once and struck a utility pole coming to rest on its wheels.  Sands was checked at the scene by Red Oak Rescue but refused any further medical treatment.

The vehicle sustained $2,500 damage and is a total loss. Damage to the utility pole owned by Mid-American Energy is estimated at $750.  No citations were issued.

The City Council in Audubon will hold a special meeting at Noon on Monday (May 19th), to approve a compensation package for the new City Clerk. In other business, the Council will change the date or cancel the next regular meeting, due to the holiday. They’ll also act on approving a request from the Chamber of Commerce with regard to the Flight Breakfast, and approve claims along with lifeguards for 2014, and discuss a Tyler Handicap stall for Dr. Doug Olsen.

The meeting takes place in the Council’s Chambers at City Hall, in Audubon.

Two key Democrats in the U.S. Senate say Steve King, Iowa’s Republican congressman, is to blame for the impasse in the nation’s capital over immigration reform. The Senate has passed what was billed as “comprehensive immigration reform” last year and New York Senator Chuck Schumer says King is the main Republican road block to getting the bill through the House. “The reason the House has done nothing on immigration is because House Republicans have handed the gavel of leadership on immigration to far right extremists like Congressman Steve King,” Schumer said this week during a speech on the Senate floor. “…It is time for the House Republican leadership to decide whether they stand with the majority of the American people…or if they’re really going to let Steve King continue to dicate the policy of the Republican Party on immigration. Just to be clear, right now Steve King is winning.”

King says he’s “flattered” to get credit for blocking the “amnesty agenda” Democrats are pushing.”I’ve been hoping not to work on immigration at all between now and the election because the only thing I have confidence in the president doing with regard to that is to do whatever is in his political interest, but he’s not enforcing the law,” King says. “He’s ordering ICE to actually break the law, violate the law and now he’s turned loose 36,007 criminal aliens onto the streets, some of them murderers, some of them rapists numbered in the hundreds, by the way, not just one or two in the 36,000.”

This past week Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid also criticized “extremists in the House” like King for doing “absolutely nothing” to fix the nation’s broken immigration system. “The senate did its work,” Reid said. “For the past 10 and a half months…House Republicans have twiddled their thumbs. It’s time for the House Republicans to act. Let a vote occur in the House. If a vote occured, the legislation would pass overwhelmingly.” King says the two Democratic leaders in the senate are trying to goad House Republican leaders like House Speaker John Boehner into taking action.

“Our speaker will occasionally utter something that sends a message to the country that he’s looking for an opportunity to pass some kind of amnesty and the speaker has said that of all the issues that are on the table or even off the table with he and President Obama, the one he agrees with most is the immigration issue and that he’s hell-bent on passing something, so that means the topic is up,” King says. “It’s alive.”

King says he’s fighting to preserve the rule of law. If immigration reform passes congress this summer, King says Republicans will be a fractured party heading into the fall elections.

(Radio Iowa)