COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — Council Bluffs police say a mother and her 1-year-old child were taken to a hospital after they fell from a moving vehicle. 18-year-old Joanna Puentes and her baby were taken to Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Neb., Tuesday night. Police say the SUV, driven by Alex Perez, of Omaha, was traveling on a city street when Puentes and the child fell out of the passenger side door. Perez allegedly told police that Puentes was attempting to put the child in a safety seat when her foot opened the door and they both fell from the vehicle. Perez was cited for several violations, including failure to secure a child.

Montgomery County Sheriff’s officials are asking for information on a break-in at the Elliott Elementary School.  The incident happened between November 23rd and November 29th.  Those responsible pried open a window and made off with three laptop computers and six cameras from several room.  The items are valued at 41-hundred-five dollars.  Tips can be made anonymously to the Montgomery County Crimestoppers Hotline at 800-432-1001.

The Walnut School Board voted at their Tuesday night meeting to enter a sharing agreement with the A-H-S-T schools.  Walnut students will attend classes at A-H-S-T for about three periods per day and share all athletics with A-H-S-T beginning with the 2012-2013 school year.  Walnut Superintendent Jim Hammerich said they voted on shifting academics from Atlantic to A-H-S-T for three periods in the afternoon, just like they currently do in Atlantic.  The board voted for a two-year contract with A-H-S-T.  The Walnut school board also voted  to continue sharing Junior High sports, unanimously sending all boys sports to A-H-S-T.  The board also voted 3-2 to share all girls sports with A-H-S-T.   The board’s vote ends the sharing agreements with Atlantic.  Hammerich said it is a better fit for the Walnut kids, with all the logistics, transportation costs etc., and having Junior High already in Avoca all weighing in on the board’s decision.  He said the Atlantic sharing experience the last five years was wonderful, but it will end this school year.  Hammerich says the two school board’s will continue to discuss future whole-grade sharing between A-H-S-T and Walnut.

Atlantic police say that no one was injured in a two car collision Tuesday afternoon.  Shirley Chester of Atlantic was eastbound on 6th Street approaching Birch Street just before four o’clock.  Her car was hit by another driven by Keisha Houston of Avoca, who failed to stop at the sign as she was southbound on Birch.  Chester car ended up in a nearby yard.  Houston was charged with failing to obey a stop sign.  Damage to the two cars totalld 45-hundred dollars.

Also, Atlantic police arrested 31 year old Christopher Anstey of Atlantic on a charge of 5th degree theft for shoplifting.

w/ Ric Hanson

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A cow owned by a southwest Iowa farmer has given birth to a trio of calves. The rare event occurred on a farm owned by Max and Harriet Griffey, of rural Farragut. According to experts, the odds of a beef cow giving birth to triplets is 1-in 100,00. Another rarity: the cow on the Griffey farm is nursing the calves by herself.

The two male and female calves are doing well, according to Griffey, and at three-weeks of age, are beginning to eat some grain and hay. Griffey told the Omaha World-Herald he’s been raising livestock for over 45-years, and it’s the first set of triplets he’s had delivered by a cow. The same cow, has previously given birth of twins, on more than one occasion.

One expert says record snowpack, followed by record rainfall and record flooding may become a repeating pattern for western Iowa in the future. Steven Hamburg, chief scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund, says as the climate changes, we can expect more extremes and more disasters like this summer’s flooding of the Missouri River basin. Hamburg says, “The key things are going to be changes in temperature and the fact that we’re going to see unpredictable patterns and extremes, heat waves at levels we haven’t historically seen, heavy rainfall that’s going to lead to more flooding and potentially heavier erosion.” Hamburg says climate changes are becoming more apparent in the environment in the Midwest and all across the country.

“That’s already occurring in most places,” Hamburg says. “The work that I do in the forests of New Hampshire, we’re seeing it very clearly and we’re seeing impacts on plants. Crops are going to need to change. We’ll need to plant different varieties. Some of the natural systems will be challenged by those extremes because they’re just physiologically not adapted, nor are we particularly well-adapted to lots of 100-degree days.” Hamburg says the biggest changes could come in the lack of predictability.

“The problem is the variablity is increasing and the predictability,” he says. “We can’t use the past to predict the future which makes it much harder to plan. How do you develop the infrastructure to protect yourselves? It’s going to get harder and harder and what you’re going to have is more disasters. That’s going to have an enormous impact on us economically and socially. Nobody wants to see their house and their life washed away in a flood.” The summer-long flooding of the Missouri River wiped out dozens of homes and businesses and caused some 50-millon dollars damage just to Iowa’s roads and bridges.

(Radio Iowa)

A ribbon cutting ceremony and dedication for one of two final monuments planned to honor veterans in Pottawattamie County will be held next year, on Memorial Day. Eagle of Honor Veteran Memorial Project organizers recently broke ground on the site for the statue in Macedonia. In addition to paying tribute to veterans, organizers says the Macedonia monument pay homage to the town’s spot on the Mormon Trail. The memorial will include information about Mormon settlers who passed through the town in the 1840s.

James Braden, a volunteer on the project said one of the phrases planned for the monument is “following the footsteps to freedom.” The memorial will feature an eagle sculpture by Neola resident Russell Christensen, who has now completed bronze eagle sculptures for every city in Pottawattamie County. The monument site in Macedonia, is near the old school building, which is being torn down. Braden said the estimated cost of the Macedonia monument is $60,000, with fundraising supplementing the $25,000 from the County Board.

The Eagles of Honor project started in 2007, when organizers unveiled the “Colors of Honor” monument in Neola. From there, Christensen and his wife, Penny, an artist herself and collaborator on the project, solicited each town about a monument. Once the received the “go-ahead” from each community, the Pottawattamie County Board of Supervisors agreed to grant $25,000 for each memorial for the five-year project.

Monuments are currently available for viewing in Minden, Underwood, McClelland, Carson, Treynor, Oakland, Hancock, Crescent, Carter Lake, Walnut and Avoca. Groundbreaking for Council Bluffs’ eagle monument was held November 5^th.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – A Kansas-based company has bought the Beatrice, NE., Biodiesel plant in southeast Nebraska for $5 million. Flint Hills Resources LLC submitted the only bid at the bankruptcy auction Tuesday in Lincoln. Flint Hills is a subsidiary of Koch (cohk) Industries Inc. Construction of the $52.5 million plant began in August 2007, but it never started operations. Bankruptcy was declared in 2008. Among Flint Hills’ other operations, it has ethanol plants in four Iowa communities: Fairbank, Iowa Falls, Menlo and Shell Rock. A Flint Hills spokesman declined to release other details of the acquisition or Flint Hills’ plans for the plant.Flint Hills is based in Wichita, Kan.