AMES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa transportation officials say barriers that protected Interstate 29 near Blencoe from flooding along the Missouri River will be coming down. Officials say a contractor will begin removing them on Monday because the river continues to fall and they’re no longer needed. The barriers, called TrapBags, are filled with rock. The Iowa Department of Transportation says the work involves cutting open the bags to release the rock, and then loading and hauling the rock and bags away.

The project, which will cost over $160,000, is expected to last until Sept. 30. Northbound traffic will be rerouted for about 10 miles from the Blencoe interchange to a Monona County highway to Iowa Highway 175 and then back to I-29 at Onawa.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) – Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad will bring an assortment of top state officials to Council Bluffs to learn more about this summer’s record Missouri River flooding and hear from those affected by it. Branstad’s flood meeting is scheduled for Friday afternoon. Representatives of farming groups, utilities and Iowa cities hit hard by the flooding are all scheduled to attend. Flooding has been a problem all along the Missouri River since June because heavy spring rains and significant mountain snowpack generated massive amounts of water. The floodwaters have started to recede, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers predicts the river won’t return to normal flows until sometime in October. Corps officials will also give a presentation at the meeting about the way they managed the river’s dams.

The 2011 state report card for the federal “No Child Let Behind” guidelines identifies 415 schools and 30 districts that are in need of assistance for failing to meet benchmarks set by local administrators. That’s several dozen more than last year, and Iowa Department of Education Director, Jason Glass, says while he’s concerned about the designation it’s not unexpected.  “If the goal is just to rank, blame and shame schools we have that model down under No Child Left Behind. If our goal is really want to find schools that are legitimately in need of improvement and help them get better than we need to come up with a different system,” Glass says.

Glass says not only does the program shame schools, it makes it hard for them to change.  He says the program is fundamentally flawed because it ratchets up student achievement goals every year. Glass says while the number of failed schools increased, that doesn’t tell the whole story. “We embrace accountability. But the accountability should be fair, should be intelligent and the sanctions and the supports applied should drive us toward better outcomes for kids. Not toward blaming and shaming schools and educators,” Glass said.

A districts that continually fail to meet benchmarks can be forced to replace it’s principal or even close down. Glass says closing or privatizing the only school in a small town would be difficult. He says he plans to ask the federal government for a waiver from “No Child Left Behind” if congress does not repeal or amend the law. You can read the State Report Card for “No Child Left Behind” by clicking on this link, and then opening or downloading the PDF file:

http://www.educateiowa.gov/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=670&Itemid=4434

A three-person committee tasked with deciding how to fill a vacancy on the Cass County Board of Supervisors created by the recent death of Supervisor Chuck Kinen, has voted to hold a Special Election in conjunction with the November 8th City elections. The decision came during a meeting this (Thursday) afternoon at the courthouse in Atlantic. The committee was comprised of Auditor Dale Sunderman, Recorder Joyce Jensen and Treasurer Tracey Marshall. Their vote was unanimous.

Sunderman said the next step is contact the Chairpersons of the Central Committees, who will be allowed to file a Nomination by Convention. He stressed however, that the nomination will be open to all interested persons who are residents of Cass County, who file a nomination petition. Sunderman said because of the Special election, there will be two ballots for voters in Atlantic Ward Two.

He says there will be a ballot for the County residents with only the County office on it, plus the regular City ballot, with the County office included on it as well. The precincts which make up Cass County Supervisor District 2 are Atlantic Ward 2/Grove Twp 2 (the portion of Grove Twp NW of the Atlantic city limits) and Atlantic Ward 3.

The filing deadline to file nomination petitions to be included for the County Office is 5-p.m. September 23rd at the Auditor’s office in Atlantic. Those interested do not need to declare a party at this time. The person who wins the nomination would be sworn in immediately after the results of the election are canvassed on November 15th, and hold the Supervisors post until the next General election in 2014.

Recorder Joyce Jensen noted that Chuck Kinen would have approved of the committee’s decision to hold a special election during the City Election. She said he would be happy it’s not costing the taxpayers any extra money.

TABOR, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say an southwest Iowa man was injured after he walked into the tail rotor of helicopter that had just landed after touring flooding along Missouri River. The Fremont County sheriff’s office says 80-year old Robert Smith, of rural Tabor, was injured Wednesday afternoon. Sheriff’s dispatcher Cole Tackette told The Associated Press on Thursday that a private, two-seat helicopter flown by Larry Inman, of Randolph, had just landed near Smith’s house southeast of Tabor, and Smith walked out to meet it. Tackette says Smith apparently didn’t see the rotor and was hit in the face.

Smith was rushed to the Fremont-Mills School before being flown by helicopter to Creighton Medical Center in Omaha, and later transferred to the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. Hospital spokesman Paul Baltes said Thursday Smith was in critical condition, but Sheriff Kevin Aistrope told the Omaha World-Herald the mans’ injuries were not considered to be life-threatening.

The Sheriff said it’s possible Smith tripped and fell into the rotor blade, but the accident, which happened at around 1:30-p.m. Wednesday, remains under investigation by the sheriff’s office and the Federal Aviation Administration.

w/ Ric Hanson

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IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – An appeals court has upheld the first-degree murder conviction of a mentally ill man who shot his former football coach in the school’s weight room. Mark Becker had argued that he was legally insane when he shot Aplington-Parkersburg High School Coach Ed Thomas in June 2009. A jury found Becker guilty and rejected his insanity defense. Doctors testified at the trial that Becker is a paranoid schizophrenic but they disagreed over whether he knew right from wrong when he shot Thomas. Becker’s lawyers argued that jurors were given incorrect instructions about the legal definition of insanity.

The Iowa Court of Appeals on Thursday agreed one instruction was incorrect but said jurors were given another instruction that correctly defined insanity. Taken together, the court says jurors were properly instructed.

The Cass County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest over the weekend, of two men from Pottawattamie County. 39-year old Micheal Dean Mundorf, of Oakland, was charged Sunday, with Driving While Barred. He was later released on $2,000 bond. And, last Saturday (Sept. 3^rd), 28-year old Quintin John Perdue, of Council Bluffs, was taken into custody on a District Court warrant for violation of his probation. Perdue was being held in the Cass County Jail, on $10,000 bond.

The City of Atlantic’s Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Task Force is scheduled to meet this evening. During the meeting at City Hall, the committee will hold a review of discussion on TIF matters to-date, discuss the definition of Industrial, Commercial and Residential TIFs’, work on developing recommended criteria and the framework guideline for each category, and, they’ll discuss the inclusion of TIF-funded tax rebates, or a “Reverse TIF,” and non-TIF development incentives and/or tax rebates. The meeting begins at 7-p.m.

The TIF Task Force was established in July, by Atlantic Mayor Dave Jones. The panel will have no authority, implied or otherwise, to establish a TIF policy. It will only offer an opinion on how such a policy should be formulated and implemented.

w/ Ric Hanson

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