The Iowa Department of Public Safety reports a ban on open burning initiated March 13th in Madison County, will be rescinded effective 8-a.m. Wed., March 21st.  The dry conditions which prompted the Burn Ban no longer exist in the County, or have diminished substantially due to recent rainfall.

Officials with the Monsanto Corporation say an Adams County farmer was selected as a Iowa winner in the company’s 2012 “America’s Farmers Grow Communities” contest. Todd James, of Prescott, won $2,500, and designated Adams County 4-H as the recipient of the funds. Other area winners, and their designated non-profits receiving $2,500 include: Cass County: Mike Noll – Griswold Fire Department; Adair County: Diana Kordick – Washington Stars 4-H Club; Audubon County: Blaine Kerkhoff – Audubon High School Wrestling Fund; Guthrie County: Randy Hughes – Dodge Dodgers 4-H Club; Montgomery County: Jon Young – Montgomery County Family YMCA; Pottawattamie County: Patrick Ellsworth – Underwood School District High School Auditorium Project; and Shelby County: Karen Muell – Panama Fire Department.

Nearly 60,000 farmers participated in the second annual Grow Communities program, which is designed to benefit nonprofit groups such as ag youth, schools and other civic organizations. Farmers in 1,245 counties in 39 states were eligible to win $2,500 for their favorite community nonprofit groups or organizations.  The Monsanto Fund expects to invest more than $3.1 million in local communities. For more information and to see a full list of winners, visit www.growcommunities.com.

Sheriff’s officials in Page County are investigating two recent incidents of theft. Sheriff Lyle Palmer reports a Braddyville man told deputies March 16th, when he went to check on property he owns near the Page/Taylor County line after his tenants moved out, he noticed parts were missing from a vehicle he had stored there. The parts, including an instrument cluster, radiator, distributor and carburetor, were missing from a 1984 Ford F-150 pickup.  The incident remains under investigation.

And, a College Springs man reported to the sheriff’s department, that on or about March 12th, someone broke into his house on Pine Street, and took several items, including two laptop computers, computer cases, a portable dvd player and Sony X-Box 360. The loss was estimated at just over $2,630. The burglary and theft remains under investigation.

TABOR, Iowa (AP) – Emergency crews are searching a private pond near Tabor, for a missing Nebraska man.  The Mills County sheriff’s office says a dive team was called out on Monday. The search continues today (Tuesday). The property owner called 911 after seeing a boat in the pond and the man’s vehicle nearby.  The missing man is from Papillion, Neb.

The Cass County Sheriff’s Office has been nominated to receive the 2012 Secretary of Defense “Employer Support Freedom Award.”

ESGR Award

The announcement was made today (Tuesday), by Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR), a Department of Defense (DOD) agency. Officials say 56 Iowa Guard and Reserve members nominated their employers for the award. Nationwide, there were 3,236 nominations. The Freedom Award is the DOD’s highest recognition for employers supporting members of the Guard and Reserve. Up to 15 recipients will be announced this summer and honored at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. on September 20th. Also nominated for the award was The Micah House, in Council Bluffs.

Southwest Iowa’s Ringgold County was one of two Counties in the state to have recorded the lowest number of child abuse cases last year. Worth County, in northern Iowa also had a low number of cases. Both reported 38. Statewide, the number of Iowa children who were abused or neglected declined last year, reversing two years of increases. The Iowa Department of Human Services released its annual report on child abuse today (Tuesday) and spokesman Roger Munns says abuse cases were down nearly seven-percent (7%) from 2010. “We can’t make too much of this,” Munns says. “Obviously the numbers are going in the right direction, but there are a lot of factors involved and the numbers have waffled back and forth for the last decade or so.” The primary reason for the decline in child abuse cases, according to Munns, is the state’s improved economy.

“It’s pretty well known when families are under financial stress, there’s more stress in every area of their lives including their kids,” Munns says. “So when economic conditions improve, some of that stress is removed.” The number of children in Iowa who were subjected to either a “founded” abuse or a less serious “confirmed” abuse last year was 11,747. Around 79-percent of all abuses were cases of neglect. “Neglect can mean a lot of things. Many times it’s the caretaker or parents who’s capacities are compromised by drug or alcohol abuse,” Munns says. “But, there are other examples too. There are cases where mom or dad goes to the casino and leaves the kid in the car…somebody finds them and no harm is done, but the kid was placed in harm’s way.” Ten-percent of abuses were physical, while four-percent were sexual — similar to past years. Slightly more than half of all abused children, 51-percent, were age five or under. Munns says Iowa’s numbers continue to be consistent with national trends.

“We send out social workers to do assessments on abuse and two-thirds of the time there is a finding of ‘no finding.’ This is comparable to what we see nationally as well,” Munns says. Polk County, Iowa’s most heavily populated county, recorded the most child abuse cases in 2011 with 4,147. That was followed by Scott County (2,194), Linn County (2,016), Black Hawk County (1,613) and Woodbury County (1,244).

(Pat Curtis/Radio Iowa)

The Atlantic Police Department reports 54-year old Devin McDermott, of Atlantic, was arrested Monday. McDermott was booked into the Cass County Jail on a charge of Criminal Trespassing.

A former teacher with the Anita School District scheduled to appear in court Thursday, will answer to charges he sexually exploited a minor female. 65-year old William Glenn Foulkes, of Anita,  has a 1-p.m. appearance set to take place in Cass County District Court March 22^nd. 

William Glenn Foulkes

Foulkes, a former long-time Math teacher at the Anita High School, and Anita Elementary School, was arrested last Thursday (March 15^th), on a felony warrant for Sexual Exploitation by a School Employee, and 49-Aggravated Misdemeanor counts of Sexual Exploitation by a School Employee.

Foulkes served the Anita Community School District from 1969, until his resignation in November, 2010. A complaint filed with the Cass County Sheriff’s Office said “On several occasions between August 1st 2009, and Nov. 11, 2010, Foulkes engaged in sexual conduct with a minor female while teaching the student in a math program. During these tutoring sessions, Foulkes would at times, kiss the minor female student on the cheek, mouth and breasts. These incidents occurred at the Anita Elementary School, Foulkes’ residence, and Lake Anita State Park. The Sheriff says on every occasion, Foulkes was acting in a teaching capacity and was employed by the CAM School District.”

Foulkes posted a $50,000 bond following his arrest. As a condition of his release, he was ordered to have no contact with his alleged victim.

Trees Forever is wrapping up an industrious, two-year tree-planting project that will help make more than a dozen Iowa cities greener and more energy efficient, while helping other towns replace trees lost to natural disasters. Meredith Borchardt of Marion, the group’s program manager and field coordinator, says it was a massive undertaking. “We ended up planting 2,456 trees and those were spread out over about 20 communities,” Borchardt says. “That included 72 different projects.” Ten Iowa communities were originally chosen to take part in the project after they were impacted by floods or severe storms and tornadoes. Additional disaster-impacted communities, like Mapleton, also benefitted from the Trees Forever program during its second year. Other cities that saw plantings include: Greenfield and Jefferson.

“The projects basically fell into two categories,” Borchardt says. “They were either windbreak projects that can help save energy in the winter or they were large shade tree plantings near buildings to help with energy savings in the summer.” It’s estimated the trees will generate an average of 108-thousand dollars in energy savings each year for the next 40 years. In addition to energy savings, she says trees provide other benefits to the community, including enhanced property values, reduced stormwater runoff and removal of pollutants and carbon dioxide from the air. 

Borchardt says, “We tried to work with each local community to identify if, for example, a school didn’t have many trees or if the need was really in residential areas or if there was a new fire station or a new public building that really needed trees, then we tried to make our program match with what those local needs were.” Projects included tree plantings at more than a dozen schools, numerous public facilities, several low-income and senior housing projects and in residential neighborhoods. She says the trees will remove about 957 tons of carbon dioxide from the air each year, on average, for the next 40 years, the same as taking 170 passenger vehicles off the road every year. The trees will also intercept an average of 5.3-million gallons of rainfall in these communities each year, significantly reducing the amount of runoff into our streams and rivers, helping reduce the potential of future flooding. Learn more at: www.treesforever.org

(Matt Kelley/Radio Iowa)

w/ Ric Hanson

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