The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m., w/KJAN News Director Ric Hanson
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The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m., w/KJAN News Director Ric Hanson
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (5.1MB)
Subscribe: RSS
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — MidAmerican Energy says it plans to spend $1 billion updating more than 700 older wind turbines across Iowa. The turbines will be retrofitted with newer, more efficient components, including longer blades, to extend their lifespans an estimated 20 years. The company says each upgraded turbine will annually net between 19 and 28 percent more energy.
The project is beginning with MidAmerican’s first three wind farms, built in 2004 in northern Iowa. Construction crews often work overnight, when winds die down. Work stops when the wind exceeds 20 mph.
One of the sounds of the Yuletide season will soon be heard in Iowa. The ringing of bells on street corners and outside of stores will mark the start of the Salvation Army’s annual fundraising campaign. Susan Eustice, spokeswoman for the charity’s Omaha-Council Bluffs chapter, says their tree-lighting celebration will be held tonight (Friday) and the tree itself is spectacular. “It is 75 feet tall, has 80,000 LED lights and 600 snowflakes,” Eustice says. “It’ll all light up as a signal that the Tree of Lights and the Red Kettle campaign will begin.”
The Salvation Army is putting out an urgent call for help. “We are in serious need of volunteer bell ringers in Omaha and Council Bluffs,” Eustice says. “To volunteer, it’s easy. Go online to RegisterToRing.com or call our volunteer office at 402-898-6000 and sign up.” Chapters across Iowa are seeking volunteers and that same website can be used. In Omaha-Council Bluffs, hundreds of helpers are needed to station themselves beside the red kettles. “We have over 130 sites and we have seven weeks, and that’s six days a week, to ring that bell,” Eustice says. “We need families, we need business groups, church groups to come out, adopt a kettle for a day or two and help us reach our goal.”
The tree-lighting event starts at 6-p.m. at 90th and Dodge Street in Omaha. There will be food, live entertainment, Santa and his reindeer. The kettles will remain out through December 23rd.
(Radio Iowa)
The U.S.D.A. has increased its corn production outlook for Iowa and the nation. The National Agricultural Statistics Service – Crop Production report released Thursday shows Iowa corn production is now forecast at 2.54 billion bushels. Yields are expected to average 197 bushels per acre, up 6 bushels per acre from the October forecast. If the predictions hold, this would be Iowa’s second highest yield and production on record behind last year. Nationally, the average corn yield is forecast at just over 175 bushels per acre, which would be a new all-time high.
Iowa’s soybean production is forecast at 557 million bushels, with a yield of 56 bushels per acre. Both of those predictions are unchanged from last month’s forecast.
(Radio Iowa)
U.S. Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue is suggesting he’ll ask the G-O-P leader in the U.S. Senate to intervene if an Iowan nominated for a top job in the U.S.D.A. isn’t confirmed soon. Texas Senator Ted Cruz is blocking a Senate vote on Iowa Ag Secretary Bill Northey’s nomination to be U.S.D.A. Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation. Cruz wants President Trump to meet with oil-state senators who object to the federal production mandate for biofuels. “I know that there’s a lot of tradition in the Senate,” Perdue said, “but this ‘blue slipping’ people for issues that don’t have anything to do with them I don’t agree with.”
Perdue spoke with farm broadcasters in Kansas City yesterday (Thursday). Perdue joked that he was wearing a “Free Bill Northey” t-shirt under his suit. “God help us if he’s not on board by January, for heaven’s sakes,” Northey says. “We hope to get that done. I will probably go and make direct appeals to the leadership of the Senate if it goes on that long.”
Ted Cruz isn’t the only Republican senator blocking confirmation of one of Perdue’s top aides. Senator Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, is blocking a vote on the man President Trump picked to be the U.S.D.A.’s chief agricultural negotiator. Perdue is due in Iowa this (Friday) morning for events with Republican Congressman David Young and Governor Kim Reynolds.
(Reporting by Meghan Grebner of Brownfield Ag News)
(DES MOINES) – Gov. Kim Reynolds announced appointments to Iowa’s boards and commissions, Thursday. The appointees are unpaid and are subject to Senate confirmation. In the KJAN listening area, the following persons were appointed to their respective Board or Commission:
Workforce Development Board: Becky Jacobsen, Denison; Richard Moon, Sioux City.
School Budget Review Committee: Martha Bruckner, Council Bluffs.
Board of Nursing: Sue Putnam, Griswold.
Today: Partly Cloudy to Cloudy. High 39. SE @ 10-15.
Tonight: Mostly cloudy. Low 30. SE @ 5-10.
Tomorrow: Cloudy w/scattered light rain. High near 46. SE @ 15-25.
Sunday: Any light rain ending in the morning. Mo. Cldy. High near 46.
Monday: P/Cldy. High near 52.
Thursday’s High in Atlantic was 36. Our Low this morning (as of 5:30-a.m.), was 17. Last year on this date, the High in Atlantic was 70 and the low was 39. The Record High in Atlantic on this date was 76 in 1927. The Record Low for this date was 3 in1986.
A western Iowa businessman and farmer has been nominated to serve on the three-member federal board that oversees the Farm Credit Administration. Glen Smith of Atlantic testified before the U.S. Senate Ag Committee Thursday. “I’m truly humbled by the honor of this nomination, but also quite sobered by the huge responsibility, if confirmed, of having a role of ensuring that American agriculture continues to have a source for reliable, secure credit,” Smith said, “which happens to the be mission of Farm Credit.”
Smith founded Smith Land Service Company in 1982. The firm manages farms and is a farm brokerage. He and his family also raise corn and soybeans on about two-thousand acres. “As an active farmer, ag businessman and even dating back to my ag finance days at Iowa State University, I’ve understood the important role of the Farm Credit Administration in setting policy, examining and regulating our nation’s largest long-term agricultural lender, the Farm Credit System,” Smith says. “…The health of American agriculture is critically dependent upon a healthy, viable Farm Credit System. Credit is truly the lifeblood of agriculture.”
Glen R. Smith
Smith told senators he has a “keen sense” of “boom and bust” cycles since he lived through the soaring ag economy of the 1970s, followed by the Farm Crisis of the 1980s. “We can’t afford to lose a generation of agriculturalists like we did in the ’80s,” Smith said. “…I’ve always considered myself to be an optimist. As a farmer you take on the weather, you take on pests, you take on the markets and you have to be an optimist to survive. However, I do have to confess that I am very concerned about the current agricultural outlook.”
Smith says the Farm Credit System can play a key role in supporting young farmers who are most vulnerable to financial fluctuations. “Land is typically the dominant asset on a farmer’s balance sheet,” Smith says. “In the Midwest alone, we’ve seen a 15-20 percent erosion in land values over the last several years…I believe we’re a long ways away from crisis management as experienced in the ’80s, however, out of love for this wonderful industry, I would be a strong advocate for caution in the Farm Credit System.”
If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, as expected, Smith will move to Washington because the position is a full-time job. The Farm Credit System currently is managing more than a quarter of a TRILLION dollars in loans. Fewer than one percent of those loans are 90 days past due or in default.
(Radio Iowa)
A narcotics investigation early this (Friday) morning in Fremont County resulted in two arrests. Fremont County Sheriff’ Kevin Aistrope reports the County K9 Unit was conducting the investigation in to Sidney and Farragut areas, during which a vehicle was stopped on 370th Avenue and Manti Road.
Following the traffic stop, 21-year old Jared Comstock, of Farragut, and 20-year old Alix Gorby, of Shenandoah, were arrested. Each faces a Delivery of Controlled Substance and Possession of a Controlled Substance, charge. They were being held in the Fremont County Jail on $6,000 cash bonds, each.
Alix Gorby
Jared Comstock
The Sheriff says they expect more arrests to transpire from the investigation, and that his deputies were assisted in this latest investigation, by Officers with the Tabor Police Department.
Here is the latest Mid-America sports news from The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost broke a pelvis and several ribs during a fall on his property in Georgia. The team says the 62-year-old manager was working on a deer stand that gave way. Yost is an avid hunter. He underwent surgery in Atlanta and was to be transferred to a rehab facility. The team says he will need a wheelchair for a short time.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — No. 25 Iowa is on a roll as it heads into Camp Randall Stadium for a crucial Big Ten West division game against No. 6 Wisconsin. The confident Hawkeyes beat up on Ohio State last week. Now they face their second straight Top 10 opponent in the unbeaten Badgers, who can clinch a trip to the Big Ten title game with a victory.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Chiefs were Super Bowl favorites during a dynamic 5-0 start. They’ve lost three of their past four heading into their week off. The offense that was so good earlier in the season has slowed down, and lately has been unable to mask a struggling defense. But coach Andy Reid still has confidence in the AFC West leaders, who will face a much weaker schedule down the stretch.
AMES, Iowa (AP) — Oklahoma State and Iowa State can still reach the Big 12 title game. But Saturday’s meeting might be an elimination game for two teams coming off losses that altered the trajectory of their season. The 12th-ranked Cowboys and 24th-ranked Cyclones are now tied with West Virginia for third in the conference behind Oklahoma and TCU, both 5-1 in the Big 12.
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