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 (4.9MB)
Subscribe: RSS
***UPDATE 10/6/17 – THE TEEN WAS FOUND SAFE IN COLORADO. Please see the latest post on this story***
The family members of an Anita teen are asking for your help in finding her. Claressa Marnin Hensley says her 13-year old daughter Gracie Hensley left their home at around 7:45-a.m. Wednesday, wearing leggings, a sweatshirt and white Adidas shoes with a bright yellow Nike sinch (drawstring)-type bag. Gracie has brown eyes and shoulder length curly hair. She is believed to be in the company of 17-year old Zach Calhoun or Zach Pursley, from Georgia, who is wanted by authorities in that State. The pair are in a white Ford F-150 pickup with personalized Iowa license plates that read MARNIN. The pickup belongs to Hensley’s grandmother.
Her last location as indicated by a ping of her cell-phone, was near Waverly, NE. The phone is currently not pinging. It’s not clear where she was going. If you have seen the vehicle or Gracie Marnin, or know where she is, call the family at 712-249-5386.
ADEL, Iowa (AP) – The adoptive parents of a 16-year-old who weighed only 56 pounds when she died have been charged with another crime in Iowa: first-degree murder. Court records show a Dallas County judge on Tuesday approved the prosecution’s request to bring more charges against Misty and Marc Ray. They’re the adoptive parents of 16-year-old Sabrina Ray. She was found dead May 12 inside the Perry home she shared with Marc and Misty Ray and her siblings.
Marc and Misty Ray already have pleaded not guilty to charges of child endangerment causing death, child endangerment causing serious injury and neglect. Police say preliminary autopsy results show Sabrina Ray was severely malnourished. A trial isn’t expected until next year.
A new report estimates 186-thousand middle class Iowa households will pay more taxes under plans that are pending in the U.S. Senate. Mike Owen of the Iowa Policy Project says half of the tax cuts would go to the top one percent of wealthy Iowans.
“Under that analysis those tax cuts to the top one percent would average $50,000 in 2018 alone,” Owen says.
That analysis of the Iowa impact comes from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. A senate committee is scheduled to vote soon on a federal spending plan that will lay the groundwork for tax cuts. Seth Hanlon, a tax policy advisor to President Obama, is now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. “I think what we’re seeing is massive tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires,” Hanlon says, “and mystery meat for the middle class.”
ReShonda Young is a small business owner from Waterloo whose “Popcorn Heaven” outlets now operate in five locations. She says the business tax cuts proposed by Republicans won’t lower her taxes. “It will not help small businesses,” Young says. “In fact, the budget cuts will hurt small businesses like mine and make us less able to compete with the large corporations that take advantage of unfair loopholes.”
Young is urging Senator Chuck Grassley to vote against the budget plan coming up for a vote in the Senate Budget Committee that sets a framework for the G-O-P’s tax cuts. Republicans say they’re aiming for tax cuts that will stimulate economic growth. The G-O-P also argues it’s impossible to determine the full impact of the party’s tax cut package yet because the details are still being worked out.
(Radio Iowa)
Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller says his office has reached a price reduction agreement with a leading manufacturer of naloxone, a lifesaving opioid antidote. Miller, at a news conference Wednesday morning at a Des Moines fire station, said the deal involves California-based drug maker Amphastar. “They have agreed to provide, to all public entities, a six dollar rebate for any doses in the state of Iowa,” Miller said.
The two-year agreement took affect this week. A typical dose of naloxone can cost between $23 and $48. “In the kind of volume we’re thinking about, a $6 rebate will make some significance,” Miller said.
There are more than 900 EMS providers in Iowa. Police officers often administer doses of naloxone too, as they often encounter Iowans who’ve overdosed on heroin or prescription painkillers. Dale Woolery is with the Governor’s Office of Drug Control Policy. “For instance, I’ve been told in Dubuque, so far this year, the law enforcement officers there alone…they’ve had one save a month,” Woolery said. “So, about 10 saves so far this year – those are lives.”
Prices for various brands of naloxone have risen dramatically in recent years along with the increase in heroin and opioid abuse. The Iowa Department of Public Health reports 180 people died in the state last year from opioid-related causes.
(Radio Iowa)
A musical act that defies genre will make its first-ever stop in Iowa next week, bringing an Iowa native home with his high-energy acoustic band. Jared Hall is the keyboardist for Velvet Caravan, a five-member act that was assembled in Savannah, Georgia, from a wide array of musicians — hailing from as far away as Boston, Austin, Venezuela and Slovenia. “We started just kind of molding all of our sounds together playing in this little restaurant in Savannah,” Hall says, “and it’s amazing how it all just started to work.”
The 40-year-old Hall, a native of Atlantic, says it’s the diversity in their backgrounds that makes their sound so strong and unusual. Their influences include: southern rock, classical, jazz, gypsy, Latin and honkytonk. “We began composing and writing our own material and next thing you know, we had what I like to describe as just this gumbo of great sounds,” Hall says, laughing. “To be funny, we kind of describe it as European Redneck Music.”
The quintet features the musicians on: guitar, violin, standup bass, percussion and keyboards. The eclectic sound often draws a very unusual collection of people in the audience, he says, from grey-haired seniors tapping their feet to break-dancing high schoolers. “We see a lot of young people who are really into that kind of music,” Hall says. “There’s a big resurgence right now for gypsy-jazz, gypsy-swing kind of stuff. We see that all the way from someone who might appreciate jazz music, we see jazz fans out there, we see classical music fans out there. We even have quite a little hipster following going on.” (Here’s a snippet of their sound):
Velvet Caravan’s first Iowa show is scheduled for October 12th at the Temple Theater in Des Moines.
ARMELLA CLAIRE REDING, 84, of Bennington, NE, died Tue., Oct. 3rd, at the Ridgewood Retirement Community. A Mass of Christian Burial for ARMELLA REDING will be held 10:30-a.m. Saturday, Oct. 7th, at St. Bernard’s Catholic Church, in Omaha. Pauley-Jones Funeral Home in Harlan has the arrangements.
Visitation at St. Bernard’s Catholic Church in Omaha, is from 4-until 7-p.m. Friday, Oct. 6th, with a Wake Service at 7-p.m.
Burial will be in the Sts. Peter and Paul Cemetery in Defiance.
ARMELLA CLAIRE REDING is survived by:
Her husband – Germain D. Reding, of Omaha.
Her son – Jeff (Peggy) Reding, of Omaha.
Her daughters – Cindy (Ralph) Werthmann, of Savannah, GA., & Peggy (Dan) Pinkerton, of Elkhorn, NE.
Her sister – Margaret Adams, of Omaha.
Her brothers – Paul (Martha) Bissen, Jr., of Harlan, & Kenneth (Alma) Bissen, of Cedar Grove, TN.
5 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren.
JAMES “Jim Bob” R. VESPER, 32, of Audubon, died Tuesday, Oct. 3rd, in Viborg, South Dakota. Funeral services for JAMES “Jim Bob” VESPER will be held 2-p.m. Saturday, Oct. 7th, at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Audubon. Kessler Funeral Home in Audubon has the arrangements.
Friends may call Saturday at the church, where the family will be present from Noon until the time of service.
JAMES “Jim Bob” VESPER is survived by:
His sons – Dominck, Johann, and Zavier, all of Audubon.
His parents – Jim & Deb Vesper, of Ross.
His brother – Johann (Brandi) Vesper, of Audubon.
His sisters – Laurie (Lance) Meaike, and Toni Vesper, all of Audubon.
other relatives, and many friends.
Today: Cloudy w/light rain mid-day thru early afternoon, then a 60% chance of showers and thunderstorms. High near 68. SE @ 10-20New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Tonight: Showers and possibly a thunderstorm. Low around 60. SE @ 5-10. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
Friday: Showers and possibly a thunderstorm. High near 72.SE @ 10-20. New rainfall amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible.
Friday Night: Showers and possibly a thunderstorm. Some of the storms could produce heavy rainfall. Low around 53. New rainfall amounts between 1 and 2 inches possible.
Saturday: A 40% chance of showers and thunderstorms thru mid-day. High near 68. W/SW @ 10-20. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Sunday: P/Cldy. High near 76.
Wednesday’s High in Atlantic was 70. Our Low this morning 50. Last year on this date, the High in Atlantic was 73 and the Low was 51. The All-time Record High for this date in Atlantic was 93 in 1963, and the All-time Record Low was 22 in 2012.
A FLOOD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 1 PM TODAY (THURSDAY) THROUGH THROUGH 5-A.M. SATURDAY, FOR Fremont, Mills, Montgomery, and Page Counties…
Numerous rounds of showers and thunderstorms with heavy rainfall potential are expected later today into Friday. This could eventually could create locally 3 to 6 inches of rain over a prolonged period of time, which may result in flooding of low lying areas, and possibly some rivers and streams.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…
A Flood Watch means there is a potential for flooding based on current forecasts. You should monitor later forecasts and be alert for possible Flood Warnings. Those living in areas prone to flooding should be prepared to take action should flooding develop.