The Walnut City Council is expected to discuss and act on approving, Thursday, the first reading of an ordinance amending the speed limit on Highway 83, within the Walnut City limits. City Clerk Terri Abel says the Iowa Department of Transportation conducted a Speed Study. The study resulted in a recommendation of reducing the speed along Highway 83, and the Council has agreed with the recommendation. Following the first reading of the amended ordinance, the Council may decide to waive the second and third- readings of it, and move to adopt the recommendation.

In other business, the Council is expected to adopt a resolution pertaining to an updated Walnut Municipal Utilities’ Identity Theft Prevention Program, which Abel says must be reviewed and updated every year, in order to prove social security numbers and other vital information is secure. They’re also expected to set Halloween as the date for Trick or Treating, in Walnut.

The meeting at the Walnut City Hall begins at 5-p.m., Thursday.

Five Iowa schools are among 286 nationwide named 2013 National Blue Ribbon Schools. The designation is based on a district’s overall academic excellence or their progress in improving student academic achievement. The schools named to the list includes: The Harlan Community High School, Meeker Elementary School in Ames, Hoover Elementary in Bettendorf, Taft Elementary in Humboldt and Okoboji Elementary.

Harlan Community superintendent Justin Wagner says the award is quite the honor. “A great honor for the staff, you know those are the folks in the trenches making the difference. I am really happy for them,” Wagner says. He says the process for being a blue ribbon school is complicated. “You have the Federal and State Government involved. Each state is allowed to nominate a certain amount of schools. They have a rigorous process that they have to go through; they call indicators of excellence they see in certain school districts before you get nominated,” Wagner says.

The superintendent says a lot of the process deals with the school’s academic achievement in regards to the Iowa assessment scores, and in Iowa, you have to be in the top 15 percent. All the National Blue Ribbon Schools will be honored at a recognition ceremony on November 18th and 19th in Washington, D-C. A few members of the Harlan staff will be going to the ceremony including a high school teacher, high school principal, a board member and the superintendent. Wagner said this is a proud moment for the district.

“It truly is an elite award. Again, we are just extremely excited and proud of the high school staff and the high school principal,” Wagner says. “But I will tell you this is a reflection of kids and staff as a whole.” Read more about the 2013 National Blue Ribbon Schools at :www2.ed.gov/programs/nclbbrs/index.html.

(Radio Iowa)

Sheriff’s officials in Mills County report three, recent arrests. On Monday, 34-year old Brooke Eileen Pilcher, of Omaha, was arrested in Douglas County, NE, on a warrant for Failure to Appear on an OWI charge. Her bond was set at $5,000. That same day, 49-year old Timothy Albert Kruse, of Council Bluffs, was arrested for Driving Under Suspension, No Insurance and for fraudulent use of registration. His bond was set at $900.

And, on Saturday, 21-year old Matthew James Maly, a homeless man, was arrested in Mills County for Driving While Barred, following a traffic stop near the intersection of Highwayts 59 and 34. His bond was set at $2,000.

w/ Ric Hanson

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ROCKWELL CITY, Iowa (AP) – A December trial has been scheduled for a 32-year-old Iowa man accused of killing a Rockwell City police officer. Corey Trott pleaded not guilty on Monday to a charge of first-degree murder. He’s suspected of shooting 37-year-old Jamie Buenting on Sept. 13, during an hours-long standoff with police at Trott’s house.

Trott’s trial is scheduled to begin Dec. 3. He’s being held in Webster County Jail.  Buenting was married and had two children.

w/ Ric Hanson

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The Creston Hy-Vee store and two vehicles were damaged by blasts from a shotgun early Sunday morning. According to the Creston News Advertiser, someone drove to the front of the grocery store at around 2:30-a.m. and fired at least one round from a 12-gauge shotgun. The slug damaged pumpkins and broke the glass on window near the store’s entrance.

The suspect drove-off and unloaded three more shotgun slugs near the 400 block of New York Avenue, where two unoccupied vehicles were damaged. No injuries were reported.

Anyone with information with regard to the incidents should contact Creston Police at 641-782-8402.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – A new survey of business leaders in nine Midwest and Plains states suggests that manufacturing growth will help fuel the regional economy through the end of the year.  The overall Mid-America Business Conditions Index climbed for a second straight month in September, rising to 54.8 from 53.8 in August.

Creighton University economist Ernie Goss oversees the survey, and he says growth among durable-goods manufacturers more than offset some pullbacks among nondurable-goods producers and value-added service firms. The survey results are compiled into a collection of indexes ranging from zero to 100. Survey organizers say any score above 50 suggests growth, while a score below that suggests decline.

The survey covers Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota.

Most Iowans are seeing new choices in fuel at their local gas stations. Many pumps will now have ethanol stickers above two handles instead of just one. Due to a national change in how gasolines are being refined, some premium blends will now contain corn-based ethanol. Monte Shaw, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, says it’s been a quiet, yet monumental, change. “Premium gasoline without ethanol is very expensive and so by blending that 10% ethanol into the premium, they can lower that cost,” Shaw says. “Consumers are really going to have some options. To me, that’s a good thing. Let consumers pick the product and the price point they want, but it is different than what we’ve seen for 30 years.”

The change has taken place over the past week or so in Iowa and depending on the service station’s supplier, the premium blends may now contain ethanol. Shaw says you’ll need to pay attention when you grab the gas pump handle. “Most Iowans are going to chose an 87 octane E-10, so you’ve gotta’ look for the 87 sticker now with the ethanol sticker combined, that’s going to be your cheaper gas,” Shaw says, “and I think you’re really going to see the sales of the non-ethanol go way down.”

In recent years, about 80 to 83-percent of all gasoline sold in Iowa has been an ethanol blend. Shaw predicts that number will rocket to 95-percent once this change-over is complete. “There’s two ways it can be a boon for ethanol,” Shaw says. “Number one, we probably will see more people go to that E-10 blend, but also, as the E-zero sales, the non-ethanol sales go down, retailers will have to really look hard at whether or not to keep selling that fuel or to put E-15 in that tank. E-15, which is approved for all 2001 and newer vehicles, is going to be even cheaper than E-10.”

Iowa is the nation’s number-one producer of ethanol with 41 plants in operation and three cellulosic ethanol plants under construction. Triple-A-Iowa says the statewide average price for gas is $3.42 a gallon, two cents below the national average. Iowa’s current average price is down ten-cents from a month ago and down 40-cents from a year ago.

(Radio Iowa)

The federal government shut-down means federal offices will be closed, but Iowa’s governor says state government will be open for business. “We’re going to try to minimize any disruptions or any problems that could occur,” Branstad says. However, some Iowa National Guard soldiers and some workers at the Rock Island Arsenal will be furloughed.

The state-level health insurance exchanges that were created by the federal Affordable Care Act start taking applications today (Tuesday). Governor Branstad says some of the low-income Iowans who can start getting health care coverage through Medicaid can start enrolling on the state health care exchange today (Tuesday) — even though the state doesn’t have a federal waiver for some of the program requirements that are unique to Iowa.

“We’re going to continue to go forward on the assumption that the Department of Human Services is eventually going to approve this,” Branstad says. “We’ve been working with them since February.” The main sticking point for Iowa is the proposed monthly premium some of the new Medicaid recipients would be required to pay under the “Iowa Health and Wellness” plan. 

(Radio Iowa)