The counties highlighted in purple are in a Winter Weather Advisory.Predicted snowfall amounts through Saturday:

48 Hour snowfall forecast

Roads covered with a thick layer of slush are making travel hazardous early this (Thursday) morning, here in western Iowa. The DOT’s 511ia.org website shows most roads along and north of Highway 92 and west of Highway 148 (Anita to Massena), west into Pottawattamie County, are completely covered with snow/ice/slush. Some semi’s were having trouble early this morning. One jacknifed on I-80, while another had trouble making it up the hill on  Olive Street in Cass County, just south of I-80, at around 3:45-a.m.

In Atlantic, snow was falling at 4-a.m. Roads were lightly covered with the heavy, wet snow.

The Glenwood Police Department is searching for a missing 16-year-old.

Crysta Brammer

Crysta Brammer was last seen leaving Glenwood Community High School at 1:30 p.m. on April 29 with a white male from Omaha in a 1990’s red Dodge Dakota pickup with no plates. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Glenwood Police Department at (712) 527-9920.

A report by Iowa State University economics professor, Bruce Babcock, finds government incentives to help farmers pay for crop insurance push them toward the more expensive insurance and increase the costs to taxpayers. Babcock studied the crop insurance payouts for corn and soybeans related to the 2012 drought. “The premium subsidies incentivize farmers to buy Cadillac coverage,” Babcock says. “The Cadillac coverage increases the indemnities paid out. Taxpayers are paying three-quarters of those indemnities, so the subsidies have a direct impact on taxpayer costs because taxpayers are paying for part of that premium — but they inflate the overall indemnities and taxpayers pay the lion share of those in high-loss years.”

Babcock found the payouts for the top insurance coverage, known as revenue protection, were over 12-BILLION dollars in 2012.  “What I wanted to know was, well what if the subsidies hadn’t created such and incentive to drive farmers to the Cadillac insurance product and instead they got a bare bones..or a regular revenue insurance protection. Or what if they just bought regular yield insurance?,” Babcock asked. He says the answer to the question was the cost of the insurance was much lower. “And it turns out that if farmers had replaced revenue protection with a product called ‘Revenue Protection H-P-E’ –which is pure revenue insurance — the amount of loss would have been decreased from more than 12-BILLION dollars to about six-BILLION dollars. That is, the subsidies had basically increased the indemnities paid to farmers, it more than doubled them,” according the Babcock.

Babcock says he is not being critical of the crop insurance program itself as a security net for farmers. “I’m a critic of the subsidies, and those two are two separate items,” Babcock says. “And I just think that you could cut the subsidies a tremendous amount — or restructure them — save tens of BILLIONs of dollars over 10 years and still provide a high-quality assurance safety net. If that’s what Congress wants, you could do it at a far lower cost.” He says if farmers want the protection of the higher end insurance program, then they should have to pay for it and not have the taxpayers picking up 75-percent of the bill. Babcock talked about his findings with reporters in a conference called set up by the Environmental Working Group.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

The City of Atlantic’s enforcement of its Minimum Maintenance Code has resulted in a reduced number of dilapidated houses and community involvement in improving others over the past year, but there are some property owners who are or will be receiving “Not so friendly” notices from the City, to get perceived problems with their properties resolved. That was the word during Wednesday night’s City Council meeting, from Jon Lund, Assistant to City Administrator Doug Harris.

Lund said much of the credit for improving the look of the City, with respect to dilapidated houses, goes to Atlantic residents Pat McCurdy and Jennifer McEntaffer, as well as CADCO (The Cass-Atlantic Development Corporation. Together, they came up with a “Let’s Paint the town” idea, whereby three homes owned by low-income residents were painted. Lund says it’s hoped three more homes in disrepair can be painted this year. Lund said many local businesses and groups stepped forward to donate the paint and time for the effort. Other businesses donated food and beverages for the workers, or discounted supplies. Others businesses donated cash for the project. He says that demonstrates the best solutions to some of the problems facing the City are found in the compassion and generosity of the people, and not the government.

On a darker note, Lund said their were more complaints this past year about nuisance properties. He says more abatement notices and bills mailed to property owners who were not in compliance with the City’s Minimum Maintenance Code. When questioned by Councilman Steve Livengood about a decrease in the number of “friendly warnings” given last year as compared with the previous year, Lund said he’s not messing around with the warnings, after fair notice has been given to some repeat offenders. He said he’s jumping right to abatements.

Lund was praised by the Council for his efforts to make the process fair and logical, when it comes to identifying and warning about nuisance properties. He said “Atlantic is a good place to live. We just need to encourage some people to take a little more pride in their property.”

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa teenagers who want their intermediate driver’s license will have to wait a little longer under a bill signed into law by Gov. Terry Branstad. Branstad signed 13 bills into law Wednesday, including one that requires minors to have their learners permit for a year instead of the current six months. In Iowa, teenagers can get their intermediate license at age 16, and a full license at 17.

The new law also says minors with an intermediate license are only allowed to drive with one unrelated minor within the first six months of having it. But they could drive more if accompanied by a parent, guardian or driving instructor. Currently they’re allowed to drive as many passengers as there are seatbelts.

A lot in downtown Atlantic that has been on the real estate market since 2008 may be sold. During Wednesday night’s City Council meeting, it was revealed that a tentative offer has been made for site of the former Old Hotel, at 314 Walnut Street.

The lot at 314 Walnut Street owned by the City of Atlantic is for sale, and may be used for a sports bar/restaurant, office space and upscale condo’s.

Mayor Dave Jones explained why the structure was torn down to begin with a few years back.  He said it was because it was an eyesore and a dangerous, vacant building. The City had hoped to recoup the taxes it’s lost since the building was demolished and the site cleaned-up and made available for purchase.

The prospective buyer, Jacob Weitzel, told the Council he and his grandmother would like to build a structure on the site that could serve as a sports bar, restaurant, office space and upscale condominiums. Weitzel said the restaurant is sorely needed in the downtown area, due to the recent closure of the Main Street Grill on Chestnut Street and Farmer’s Kitchen, just across the street from the lot, on Walnut. He said the restaurant would “Provide customers with familiar favorites as well as diverse and modern cuisine found nowhere else in our area.” He said they would also like to enhance the downtown dining experience with “A premiere sports bar,” office space on the second floor, and six-to eight luxury condominiums, depending on how much space is available.

The offer of $30,000 for the land is $20-thousand less than the current listed price. Mayor Dave Jones said he would like the City to have the “First right of refusal” for the property, in the event the proposal failed to make it to fruition. He said the City should have the right to buy the land back if that happens, rather than having the land be resold as a parking lot or other eye sore.

Currently, the land is a trimmed, grassy area. City Councilman Shaun Shouse questioned why the City needed to “Control the offer” or attach strings to it, when it hadn’t done so previously. Councilman Chris Jimerson said the stipulation would also protect the potential property owners, in the event they didn’t have a buyer for the land if their plans don’t go through. City Attorney Dave Weidersteen will work with the prospective buyers to draw-up a purchase agreement. The next step would be a public hearing on the sale of the land, during a future City Council meeting.

A band of moderate to locally heavy snow is forecast to bring 3 to 5 inches across western to north central portions of Iowa this evening into Thursday morning. Some locally higher snow amounts are possible over far north-central portions of the state. Rain will gradually switch over to snow further southeast mid to late evening from Mason City to Denison line. All rain is expected across central to southern Iowa tonight into Thursday. Another round of snow is forecast to develop Thursday night into Friday over central and northern Iowa.