An Atlantic man was one of 30 people appointed today by Governor Terry Branstad, to the Judicial Nominating Commission. Robert Camblin and H. David Boettger, of Harlan, were appointed to the Judicial Nominating Commission for District 4. And, Bill Horan, of Rockwell City, along with Ann Trimble-Ray, of Early, were appointed to the J-N-C, in District 2-B.  The appointments take effect today (February 1, 2012), and are not subject to Senate confirmation. The State Judicial Nominating Commission interviews applicants and selects nominees for appointment to the Iowa Supreme Court as well as the Iowa Court of Appeals.

The commission is comprised of:   A chair, who is the senior justice of the supreme court, other than the chief justice; Seven Lawyer commissioners elected by lawyers; and Seven non-lawyer commissioners appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Iowa Senate.  All commissioners, but the chair, serve for a term of six years.  Within sixty days of receiving the notice from the secretary of state, the commission must submit the names of nominees to the governor. The commission selects three nominees for appointment to the Supreme Court, and three nominees for appointment to the Court of Appeals.

w/ Ric Hanson

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Cass County Engineer Charles Marker said Tuesday,  work is scheduled to begin this Summer on asphalt overlay projects for certain Farm-To-Market qualified roads. During the Board of Supervisors meeting,  Marker said a State bid letting was held January 18th in Des Moines, for an asphalt overlay project on Cass County Road M-56, north of Marne. There were two bids for the project. The Supervisors approved a bid from Henningsen Construction, amounting to nearly $1.8-million, for the 3-inch asphalt overlay project. Marker said the contract requires work to begin no later than August 13th. The contractor will have up to 50 working days to complete the project, regardless of when they start.

Marker said the next project in his 5-year construction plan, which is similar to the M-56 overlay, is for the Lewis road, from Highway 71 west, toward Lewis. Marker said they will borrow ahead out of the Farm to Market account to pay for the project, the plans for which have not yet been formulated. Marker explained how the Farm-to-Market account works to repair area roads commonly used to bring crops to local elevators. He said money for the repairs is generated through the Road Use Tax Fund. The amount is kept in Des Moines to do only those projects which are termed “Farm-to-Market.”

Marker says the County receives quarterly reports from the Iowa DOT, informing the County how much money is in the account. He says as of December 31st, 2011, Cass County had $171,000 in the F-to-M Account. The County receives just under $200,000 per quarter for F-to-M roads, or about $1-million per year. He says the County can borrow as much as 5-years ahead from that account, to combine and handle major road projects, as long as the account is not borrowed on for more than 5-years at a time. He says Cass County has a total contract amounting to nearly $1.18-million, which means the County has a negative balance because it has borrowed nearly two-years ahead.

In his five-year construction plan for Farm-to-Market roads, Marker says he has to show the County will be back in the black within two-years, which would allow the County to start borrowing ahead again. That would allow for the completion of a middle segment of M-56, from Atlantic Airport Road G-30, south to Highway 6.

w/ Ric Hanson

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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – A big jump in a monthly survey index suggests more economic growth is ahead for nine Midwest and Plains states.  The Business Conditions Index rose to 55.9 in January, compared with 50.0 in December. Creighton University economist Ernie Goss says the December report suggested the region’s economy was slowing down because of debt concerns in Europe and the lukewarm U.S. economy. But he says it appears now that December’s “tepid reading was due to seasonal or nonrecurring factors.”

The survey uses a collection of indexes ranging from zero to 100. Goss says that any score above 50 suggests growth while a score below 50 suggests decline for that factor.  The survey of supply managers covers Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota.

A Red Oak man was taken into custody early this (Wednesday) morning, on a warrant out of Montgomery County, for Contempt of Court/Illegal Resistance. Red Oak Police say 20-year old James LeRoy Christensen, Jr., of Red Oak, was arrested just after 3-a.m.  Christensen was being held in the Montgomery County Jail, on $13,000 bond.

Sheriff’s officials in Fremont County said Tuesday, a 74-year old man suffered non-life threatening injuries from a self-inlficted gunshot wound, last Friday morning. Sheriff’s deputies and officers with the Tabor Police Department responded to the scene of a reported shooting incident at around 10:40-a.m., Friday, at a residence on Green Hollow Road.

When authorities arrived, they found Donald D. Study suffering from a gunshot wound to the chest. The man was transported to Mercy Hospital in Council Bluffs, by Tabor Rescue. Officials say Thurman Rescue crews also responded to the call, and assisted Tabor Rescue.

A 120-year old record high temperature was eclipsed Tuesday, here in Atlantic. The old record of 58 degrees in 1892 was surpassed when we topped out at 59, Tuesday afternoon. It was the second consecutive day of record breaking temperatures in Atlantic. On Monday, we reached 65 degrees, which beat the 58 degree record set in 1988.  The weather service said this (Wednesday) morning, they were not aware of any other records being set in Iowa, Tuesday, although temperatures were much warmer than normal.

The “Iowa Competitiveness Index” compiled by a group of the state’s largest businesses shows no change in four of the five measures of the state’s economic outlook, and the fifth moved from “improving” to “no significant progress.” Iowa Business Council executive director, Elliott Smith, says the results show an economy that’s idling in place.  “We’re really at this juncture seeing no significant changes. We’re kind of stuck in an area where there may be efforts underway and we are making some progress, but relative to all the states, were not seeing to consider ourselves out ahead of the curve in most respects,” Smith explained. The index looks at: economic growth, education and workforce readiness, governance and fiscal matters, health and well being, and workforce demographics and diversity. While there’s not much movement in the index, Smith says it’s not an indictment of the total system.

He says there are some good things in workforce education and readiness in terms of A-C-T scores and the percentage of the population that’s getting a high school degree. “But on the other hand the percentage of our population that’s getting bachelor’s degree is quite low,” Smith says. “And those are the sort of things that employers are concerned about.” While the index shows things aren’t changing, there are efforts underway to try and make some changes — such as the governor’s education reform plan. “We’re supportive of the efforts by the governor and the legislature to make progress in that area, it seems as though that’s always just a very hard area to affect any significant change,” Smith says. He says the I-B-C is hopeful the effort to improve the reading ability of third graders succeeds along with the effort to get more students more proficient in science and math. “That’s going to be critical,” he says. Smith says the I-B-C wants to keep the focus on the need to improve.

“We’ve identified some of the problems, there are some initiatives out there which have just sort of launched and we’re anxious to see how early results go, the healthiest states initiative being one of those,” Smith says. “It’s good to just try and create an awareness right now.” You can see the complete index on the I-B-C website at: www.iowabusinesscouncil.org. The Iowa Business Council’s 24 members are the top executives of 20 of the largest businesses in the state, the three state university presidents, and Iowa’s largest banking association.

(Dar Danielson/Radio Iowa)