If your New Year’s resolution has something to do with gardening, don’t miss your chance to become a trained Iowa Master Gardener in 2013! Classes start Tuesday, January 15 at the Cass County Extension Office, but you must have your registration form turned in by noon on Monday January 7 to avoid a late fee, according to Extension Program Coordinator, Kate Olson.

“We need to have all our names turned in to campus by January 7 so course materials can be sent out prior to class starting on the 15th,” says Olson. “It is a fantastic program and I would encourage anyone to sign up if they have a love for gardening, a desire to learn more about the world of gardening, and a commitment to being a positive part of their community!”

Master Gardeners are members of the local community who take an active interest in any type of gardening and have a desire to share their knowledge through education and community involvement. Master Gardener trainees attend 40 hours of classes taught by Iowa State University Extension & Outreach staff and specialists on topics including lawn care, flower and vegetable gardening, ornamental trees and shrubs, fruit crops, and houseplants, insect, disease, and weed control, soil and plant nutrition, and pesticide safety.

In exchange for training, participants are asked to volunteer 40 hours of service in their local communities. The service opportunities are wide-ranging, from public educational activities to assisting with public garden spaces. Master Gardeners speak to local groups, teach youth about gardening, plant/maintain community gardens, staff plant clinics or displays, provide horticulture therapy activities for the elderly, and assist with county fair horticulture activities as judges or project coordinators, to name a few. Cass County also has an active Master Gardener group that meets regularly to coordinate volunteer and educational opportunities for members.

Classes will be held at the Cass County Extension office, located at 805 W. 10^th Street in Atlantic. The first session will be Tuesday evening, January 15 from 6:30 to 9:30 pm, and will continue on consecutive Tuesday’s through March 19.  There will also be three Thursday evening sessions held locally, and one Saturday in February spent on the ISU campus for hands-on training in the horticulture department.  The cost for the entire program, including reference materials and all training, is just $150 per person.

Registrations must be in the Cass County Extension office by noon on January 7 to have materials available for the first training session. A $25 late fee will be charged to anyone signing up after this date. Persons interested in becoming a trained Master Gardener in Cass County are encouraged to contact the Cass County Extension office at 712-243-1132 or visit www.extension.iastate.edu/cass for information on signing up for the winter certification classes, or to learn more about Iowa Master Gardeners.

(Press Release/Cass Co. Extension)

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Warren Buffett’s company has sold off the two short-line railroads it discovered owning this fall to satisfy regulators who might have reviewed Berkshire Hathaway’s 2010 acquisition of the BNSF railroad. Berkshire told the Transportation Department’s Surface Transportation Board earlier this month that it had recently completed the sale of both short-line railroads ahead of schedule.

If Berkshire had reported owning those railroads when it acquired Burlington National Sante Fe Corporation, the Surface Transportation Board would have scrutinized the deal. Berkshire sold the 12-mile-long WCTU railroad that serves an industrial park near Medford, Oregon to RVTR Rail Holdings in December.

The 6-mile-long CBEC railroad that serves one of MidAmerican Energy’s coal plants near Council Bluffs, Iowa, was sold to its two other co-owners in November.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — A Council Bluffs couple with a limousine business says they want to offer services every year to homeless people in the area. The Council Bluffs Nonpareil reports Jim Kelley and his wife, Christine, offered party buses to nearly 70 homeless people this month as part of a holiday present. Many of the participants were children. Other local businesses provided dinner and dessert before the buses and a limousine took the participants to a train museum. Guests were then taken on a city tour to view holiday lights.

The couple says it was their first time organizing the service, and they plan to make it an annual event.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

The Cass County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest last week of 22-year old James Michael Howard. The Atlantic man was arrested Dec. 21st  on a charge of Domestic Abuse Assault (Simple Misdemeanor) and on an outstanding warrant for Violation of Probation. Howard was taken to the Cass County Jail where he was being held on $5000 bond.

The Cass County Sheriff’s Office says an additional charge of Animal Abuse has been filed against a Marne man who shot a woman’s dog Monday morning. As we reported Monday afternoon, the Cass County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a dog having been shot in Marne. A deputy responded to the Atlantic Animal Health Center, where the owner of the dog, 23-year old Stacy Ernat from Denver, CO, reported her chocolate Labrador “Wrigley,” was playing with a relative’s dog in the church lot adjacent to the residence of Charles Collins Cutler, the individual who shot the dog with a shotgun, from a distance of 30-to 40-feet.

Ernat brought her dog to the Atlantic Animal Health Center where it died. Ernat and another friend told the deputy they witnessed Cutler shoot the dog. Upon investigation, a Sheriff’s Deputy cited Cutler for Animal Abuse (Aggravated Misdemeanor) and Reckless Use of a Firearm (Simple Misdemeanor). Cutler was given a court date of January 17th, 2013.

The debate over credit card “swipe fees” is surfacing again at the statehouse. The issue is pitting banks and credit card companies against retailers, both big and small. Jim Henter, with the Iowa Retail Federation, says businesses shouldn’t have to pay a fee on the tax portion of the bill when a customer buys something with a credit card. “We understand the need to cover the costs of these transactions, but we believe the big banks have gotten greedy,” Henter said. “That’s why we’re talking about this issue.”

The fee is two-and-a-half percent of the total purchase, including the tax, and Henter told a legislative interim committee that it amounts to a “tax on a tax.” Retailers want limits on the fee they pay every time a customer makes a purchase with plastic. But Justin Hupher, with the Iowa Credit Union League, said it would be “a mess” if every state passes its own laws on swipe fees. “In my opinion, this is the wrong venue because of the interstate nature of plastic payments. This issue has been lobbied and debated in Congress prior to the Dodd Frank act when Congress did take action,” Hupher said.

But, the federal law affects only the very biggest companies, so none of Iowa’s credit unions are covered by the law.

(Radio Iowa)