There are some hotly-contested races in this year’s General election. In Adair County: Three people are in the running to become Mayor in Fontanelle, including Lynn E. Eddy, R. Scott Homan, and Gregory S. Jackson. And, 9 people hope to fill three At Large seats on the city council. In Adair, Danny J. Claussen, Kelby Harris and Dennis J. Weigel are running for Mayor, four candidates are running for three At Large seats on the council, and three people are running for two vacancy seats on the council.

In Adams County: Corning incumbent Mayor Guy Brace faces a challenge from Judith Butcher and Janet E. Scheilz-Wood. There are no contested races in Carbon, where one city council position will be filled by a write-in vote. One council position will also be filled by write-in in Nodaway, and the Mayor’s job in Prescott will have to be filled by a write-in vote. Two write-in candidates will fill to At-Large positions on the council in Prescott, as well.

In Montgomery County: five candidates are in the running for the title of Mayor in Red Oak, where Ted Schoonover has opted not to run for re-election. And, three candidates are vying to become Mayor in Villisca. Voters in Red Oak’s three wards and Coburg will cast their ballots at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds’ Gold building.

In Shelby County: There is a three-way race for Mayor in Harlan, where Gary Christiansen has decided against running for re-election after serving in that position since January, 2000. There are also two persons in the race to fill the 4th Ward city council seat being vacated by Rhonda Brown, a 10-year member of the Harlan City Council. In Defiance, 2 incumbents and two challengers are running for city council. In Shelby, seven people are running for three seats on the city council. In Tennant, four people, including two incumbents, are also running for three open seats on the council.

In Guthrie County: three candidates are hoping to become Mayor in Guthrie Center, including incumbent Dennis Kunkle. There are also four people, including two incumbents running for three seats on the city council. In Adair, three candidates are vying to become Mayor. Five people are in the running for three At-Large seats on the city council, with three other candidates squaring-off for two vacancy positions on the council. In Bagley, five people are on the ballot for three council seats. Two are hoping to fill a vacancy term, while other three hope to fill two, four-year council positions. In Jamaica, four persons are on the ballot for two seats on the city council, and incumbent Mayor Hal Meinecke is being challenged by Jayanna Corbin. In Stuart, there are three candidates on the ballot for two council seats, including two incumbents. And, in Yale, there are four persons vying for two seats on the city council, including two incumbents.

There are no contested races in Audubon County.  In Pottawattamie County:  James Maassen is running unopposed for Mayor in Avoca, with incumbent Scott Pigsley not seeking another term. Incumbent Fred Miller and newcomers Marcella Deschamp, Jeff Gubbels, Sandy Petersen and Deanna Scroggie are vying for two City Council seats.

William Heitert and Eric Weuve face off for mayor in Carson, the winner replacing Lyndon Taylor, who’s not running. Five candidates — Richelle Alff, Victor Ayers, Troy Graves, Callie Kallsen and Clifford Pracht — will battle for two council seats.

The Hancock mayoral race features three candidates: incumbent Wayne Bivens and newcomers Jeff Gress and John Hayes. Newcomers Darwin Brockman and Herb Handel join incumbents Cyndi Guyer and James Kock in a race for three council seats.

Underwood Mayor Dennis Bardsley faces newcomer Robert Achenbach, while incumbents Robert Dose and Todd Erwin, along with newcomer Rhonda Johnson, are candidates for three council seats.

Richard Armstrong and O. Dean Olson are candidates for mayor in Minden. Patrick McFadden and Kevin Zimmerman are running unopposed for two council seats. John Wellman is running unopposed to fill the seat vacated by Brian Lund, who resigned.

Macedonia Mayor Terry Pullen runs unopposed, while Mitchell Easton, Terry Franks, Daniel Lajko, Bradley Swope and Donald Tye are candidates for three council seats.

Incumbent Lon Ring faces Jason Zaborowski for Neola mayor, while incumbents John Herbert Brich, Joe Munch and Aaron Wellman, as well as newcomer Pete Sorenson vie for three council seats.

In Oakland, Betsy Moniz is the only candidate for two available council seats. Debbie Rollins and Joe Wede are not seeking re-election.

Walnut Mayor Gene Larsen is running unopposed. Newcomer Marye Bierbaum and incumbent Kathleen Humann are running unopposed for two council seats. Tony Zimmerman is not seeking re-election.

In Treynor, Bryce Poland is running unopposed to replace Mayor Charles Killion, who isn’t running. Incumbent Allen Hadfield is the only candidate on the ballot for two council seats.

Republican Congressman Steve King says the weekend debate he moderated between Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain was a bit like a prize fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frasier.  “I expected that and it unfolded that way,” King says. “Newt — he’s got all the policy, all the moves — floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee. He didn’t really sting anybody. He was very congenial though and I thought…’That’s real good Newt, but you’d better watch out for Herman’s right hook,’ and it was kind of how it went.” The 90-minute forum was held in Houston, Texas, and King says it wasn’t a confrontation between the two men, but a discussion in which the two men aggressively laid out their ideas. 

“Newt used up more airtime than Herman did,” King says. “But when Herman used his airtime, he landed good blows.” King let Cain ask the last question of the night. “He asked Newt what he’d like his first directive to be if he were vice president,” King says, laughing. Gingrich joked that he would not go hunting, a reference to the 2006 accident when then-Vice President Dick Cheney shot a hunting companion in the face. Cain has indicated Gingrich would be one of his top choices for a running mate. Saturday night’s event was a fundraiser for the Texas Patriots Political Action Committee.

(Radio Iowa)

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – Deer are in the spotlight – or headlights – in Iowa. The state has already recorded the highest rate of vehicle-deer collisions for November. Joe Wilkinson of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources says there are three main reasons. It’s the rutting season. The harvest is almost done and deer have lost a primary hiding spot in corn fields. Daylight hours are growing shorter, which means dawn and dusk, when deer are most active, closely coincide when people are heading to and from work. The deer road kill count in Iowa in 2010 was about 10,000. Wilkinson says nearly a fourth of the dead deer along rural highways and interstates were counted in November. The rest was counted over the 11 other months.

In an update to a story we first posted on kjan.com this morning, two people have been arrested after a high-speed chase that ended in a Pottawattamie County corn field. The Iowa State Patrol says the pursuit began this (Sunday) morning on Interstate 29 near Glenwood, when the pair drove off without paying for gas. Speeds topped 100 miles an hour. The suspects, a man and a woman, crashed the pickup a corn field near 272nd and Juniper Streets, between McClelland and Underwood.  Authorities used k-9 units and an airplane to conduct a search of the area. The suspects were found hiding in a ravine, and surrendered without incident at 10:17-a.m..  

The patrol says the vehicle they were in had been stolen from South Carolina, where it was involved in a police chase on Tuesday. The unidentified suspects were booked into the county jail on charges and numerous outstanding warrants spanning several states.

Two suspects who led authorities on a chase and manhunt this morning in Pottawattamie County are in custody. Pottawattamie County Sheriff Jeff Danker says the chase began with a gas drive-off in Mills County. The vehicle, a pickup truck, was reported stolen out of North Carolina, according to Danker. It crashed into a field near 272nd and Juniper. The male and female suspects ran from the vehicle and were apprehended by troopers with the Iowa State Patrol, and after the couple was found hiding in a ravine, at 10:17-a.m. They were arrested without incident. These may be the same people who robbed a convenience store in Harlan last week. Sheriff’s deputies, k-9 units and the Iowa State Patrol were all involved in the search.

The CAM Community School District’s Board of Education will hold a work session Monday, at the high school, in Anita. On the agenda for the 7:30-p.m. session, is long-term planning for the Physical Plant and Equipment Levy (PPEL), School Infrastructure Local Option (SILO) tax, and Public Eduction and Recreation Levy (PERL), or “Playground Levy,”which is used to establish and maintain public recreation places and playgrounds in the public school buildings and grounds of the district.

The Board will also discuss a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Resolution, and a contract.

A 19-year old will be sentenced Monday afternoon in connection with a November 2010 crash that claimed the lives of two Cumberland boys and severely injured their mother. Karli Jo Brown, of Essex, pled guilty in September, 2011, to motor vehicle homicide/reckless driving in the crash that killed 5-year old Maliki and 4-year old Alex Todd. The boys died at the scene of the crash, while their mother Nina McNeese, and Brown, were injured and flown to an Omaha hospital.

The accident happened at around 5:40-p.m. November 28^th, 2010, on Highway 48, as Brown passed two vehicles on a hill, and hit McNeese’ vehicle head-on. Court documents said Brown was driving 74 mph in a 55 mph zone and texting her boyfriend on a cell phone at the time of the crash.

Brown faces up to 10 years in prison on each of two counts of motor vehicle homicide when she appears in court at 1:30-p.m. Monday. In return for her guilty plea, prosecutors dropped a charge of causing serious injury by motor vehicle.

Police in Council Bluffs are investigating yet another convenience store robbery. Officials say at around 9:30-p.m., Saturday, a clerk at the Kwik Shop located at 1602 Avenue G, reported an unknown male subject walked up to the counter, pointed a handgun and demanded money from the cash register. He grabbed about $60 before running out of the store.

The suspect was described as being white, about 20-to 30-years old, 5-feet 11-inches tall, and weighing about 175-to 190-pounds. He wore a dark ball cap, dark coat and dark pants. Anyone with information about the crime is asked to call the Council Bluffs Police Department at 712-326-4765.

Three other convenience store robberies remain under investigation in Council Bluffs. Those events occurred September 30^th at a Kwik Shop, October 30^th at a Kum and Go, and November 3^rd at a Kum-and-Go, all in Council Bluffs.

The Iowa Department of Transportation reports Highway 34 was closed for nearly an hour this (Saturday) afternoon, due to an accident in Adams County. Details about the crash are currently not available, but officials said both lanes of travel on Highway 34 were closed two-miles west of Corning due to the accident, which occurred at around 3:50-p.m.  Traffic was rerouted while the scene was being investigated and cleared.

Officials in Council Bluffs are thrilled the city shares the honor with Omaha, Nebraska, as being the third best place in the nation, to relocate to.  In fact, several cities are in the Midwest are on the list, compiled by Sperling’s BestPlaces.net and posted on CNBC.com. Only Pittsburgh, Penn., and Buffalo, N.Y. finished ahead of Omaha/Council on the Top 10 list, and ahead of such places as Austin, Tex., Madison, Wis., Minneapolis/St. Paul and Des Moines.

The recently released list was based on the following factors: unemployment, cost of living, crime rates, population health, and cultural events. The ten best cities to move to all have lower than average house prices and unemployment rates below the national average (10.2%). Leisure activities and sports teams were also factored into the equation.

According to BestPlaces.net, the Omaha/Council Bluffs area’s cost of living is 12.4 percent below the national average. The average price of a home is $137,600, well below the national average of $171,700. The unemployment rate is 4.7 percent, less than half the national average of 10.2 percent.

Kathy Fiscus, Special Projects Director for the Council Bluffs Convention and Visitors Bureau said the city’s ranking was “Super” news,  and that they’re “pleased and proud” to be on the list. Fiscus told the Council Bluffs Daily NonPareil “A lot of people think we’re ‘Midwest nice,’ which means we’re so nice.” She asked “Wouldn’t you really enjoy living somewhere where you’re greeted on the street and have no fear for yourself when you leave your residence?” Fiscus says the area still serves as a place to live out “The American Dream.”

See the report for yourself at: http://www.bestplaces.net/docs/studies/americas_top_relocate_cities.aspx