The Atlantic Fire Department responded to a report of a possible vehicle explosion this (Friday) morning, at the local scrap metal recycling plant. The call about a fire at Frederiksen Iron Recycling at 607 Sunnyside Lane, came in just after 11-a.m.

Fire department  officials say workers at the facility were working on a car that was being scrapped, when a fire broke out. There were reports a small explosion, possibly related to a fuel tank rupture, could be heard across the street from the business. Workers at the recycling facility typically punch holes in a fuel tank before a vehicle is crushed or recycled, to prevent such a incident.

The fire was quickly extinguished, and no injuries were reported.

The Superintendent of the Exira-Elk Horn Kimballton School District says a 5^th grade teacher has been placed on indefinite suspension, following an incident which allegedly occurred late last month in a classroom. KCCI-TV in Des Moines reports the unidentified teacher was suspended s a result of something he said in front of his fifth-grade class. Parents met with administrators of the school district to discuss the teacher’s behavior, Thursday night.

District Superintendent Dean Schnoes told KCCI the district sent a letter home with parents explaining the situation, but the letter didn’t mention the specifics of the incident.

Schnoes said he “Decided that the individual needed to be suspended until further notice.” Schnoes said a concerned parent called the Exira middle school principal on August 24^th.

Aaime Lyle said her daughter told her the teacher threatened to harm himself if the class wouldn’t be quiet. She said her daughter was among 25 fifth-graders in the classroom. Lyle said it was a full week before she learned of the alleged incident from her daughter. According to the girl, the teacher asked the students not to tell.

Schnoes said the students aren’t in danger. He said as part of the investigation, the Audubon County Sheriff’s Office was called in to search for weapons, but none were found. No charges have been filed. The school district also had a counselor talk to the students the next day.

Schnoes said the investigation is ongoing, and even when it’s complete, he said he will likely have to consult with the School Board before the teacher is allowed back in the classroom.

The Missouri River at Yankton, South Dakota, is now just above 20-feet after maxing out at 26-feet back in early July and remaining there through August. The river dropped below flood stage at Sioux City, Iowa, last week. Dave Becker, operations manager of Gavins Point Dam at Yankton, says releases from the dam have been cut from a record 160-thousand cubic feet per second at the peak down to 90-thousand, where they’re holding.

Becker says, “The primary purpose of staying at 90,000 is really so everybody can take a look at their facilities, the levees, the berms, their sandbag walls, all those kinds of things and make sure that everything is in really good condition.” Becker says the lower releases and the pause will allow the inspection of the dam itself in and near the river.

“Everything is going well, thus far,” he says. “I talk to people every day who are assessing their property and their situation. It’s good that we have this pause in here so people can see what needs to be done at this point and possibly react before we start going down further.” The U-S Army Corps of Engineers had to do a lot of re-rocking of river banks close to the dam during the high water as erosion was blasting it away. Becker says there have been no surprises.

“We have not had any catastrophic issues,” he says. “A lot of minor wear-and-tear things will take some time to get fixed up and we’re starting to fix those already.” Thousands of acres of farmland and dozens of homes were flooded for most of the summer in Iowa and Nebraska as the Corps worked to move record amounts of snow melt and heavy upstream rain down the Missouri.

(Radio Iowa)

The Iowa Department of Transportation’s Council Bluffs construction office reports road construction work on Interstate 80, between the Missouri River bridge at the Iowa state line in Council Bluffs, and Cass County Road M-56 (exit 51) east of Walnut, will cause intermittent lane closures in both directions beginning Tuesday, Sept. 6th, weather permitting.

This project is expected to be completed by late September.

The Iowa DOT’s Creston construction office says Median cable barrier installation work will reduce Interstate 80 to one lane in both directions, between Dallas County roads F-90 and P-58 (exit 106) east of Earlham, and I-35/I-235 (exit 123) in Clive beginning Thursday, Sept. 8th, weather permitting

Eastbound I-80 lanes will be open from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. Mondays through Fridays. Westbound lanes of I-80 will be open from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. Both directions of I-80 will be open from 3 p.m. Fridays until 9 p.m. Sundays. There is a 16-foot width lane restriction in the open lanes. It’s expected the project will be completed Nov. 8th.

The Iowa DOT reminds motorists to drive with caution, obey posted speed limit and other signs in the work area, and be aware that traffic fines for moving violations are at least double in work zones. As in all work zones, drivers should stay alert, allow ample space between vehicles and wear seat belts.

w/ Ric Hanson

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The Council Bluffs entrance to the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge and major portions of the Council Bluffs Trails System will reopen to the public at 8:00 a.m., Saturday, September 3^rd.  These areas have been closed due to flooding.  To ensure these and other sections can be safely used by the public, the City is closing its trails at dark and advising users to be especially cautious when using the trails. 

Although the majority of these trails are in excellent condition, visitors should remain alert to their surroundings and the trail’s surface.  The trails along the Missouri River, Indian Creek and Mosquito Creek were especially impacted by the flood.  Users of these trails may find sections to be worn and uneven.  In other locations, trail users will encounter pipe crossing.  These are necessary to accommodate the pumping which will continue along the levee for some time.  Bicyclists and pedestrians are advised to proceed slowly and with caution in these areas. 

Additionally, the ongoing security, maintenance, inspections and potential construction activities associated with the levees will significantly increase the normal vehicle traffic on the levee trails.  As a result, users must be alert to encountering vehicles along the trails. Although the majority of the Council Bluffs trails will reopen on Saturday, some sections cannot be opened to the public until the river level recedes.  The trail sections that remain closed are: 

• The Riverfront Trail from Harrahs to the Western Trail Center
• The Manawa Trail from Redtail Road to the Iowa West Trail Head Park
• The Big Lake Trail

For further information, please contact the Parks and Recreation Department at 712-328-4650.

The latest survey from the Iowa Business Council shows a drop in optimism for the next six months among the states 20 largest businesses. The projections are measured on a 100-point scale, with sales dropping four points and capital spending and hiring expectations both falling ten points. I-B-C executive director, Elliott Smith says that dropped the overall index eight points over the last survey three months ago.

Smith says the survey has been have a good year up until this quarter, with steady growth in the indicators since the middle of 2009 when the recession hit bottom. “Definitely a pullback in this quarter,” Smith says. Smith says even with the drop, they still are on the positive outlook side for each of the indicators.

He says he hopes this is an aberration for one quarter after coming out of “fairly complicated and frustrating budget talks in Washington,” along with the uncertainty in Europe and some natural disasters that have lent some uncertainty to the business market. Smith doesn’t know if this indicates a possible second recession.

“You know it’s really hard to tell exactly if we’re looking at anything that’s significant and long-term in nature, or if it’s more just a pull back and reboot for the next six months,” Smith says. He says the I-B-C still remains confident with all the numbers still in the positive outlook area, and sales remain strong. Smith says this is hopefully businesses just “checking signals” before they step ahead with any big plans. He says they are hopeful the economic turnaround will continue forward and not falter.

Smith says the president has a major speech next week and if the reaction is good, things may bode well for the rest of the year. Seventy-nine-percent of the businesses in the survey still say they expect hiring levels to remain steady or increase in the next six months. Only 16-percent says they expect sales to decrease in the next six months. See the complete survey at the Iowa Business Council’s website at:www.iowabusinescouncil.com.

(Radio Iowa)

The annual “State of Working Iowa Report” from an eastern Iowa think tank concludes the state’s economic recovery has been “painfully slow.” Noga O’Connor, a research associate with the Iowa City-based Iowa Policy Project, co-authored the report.

“We know that the state is doing better than the nation, but still we’re in much worse shape than we were before the recession hit,” O’Connor says. “So as far as unemployment, underemployment, job losses — all the measures that we traditionally look — we are still really struggling and have a long way to go to get back to where we were in 2007 or the first half of 2008.” The number of unemployed Iowans has swelled and 33 percent Iowans who are currently unemployed have been out-of-work for more than half a year. O’Connor says “underemployment” has grown to nearly 12 percent, as many Iowans have either taken a part-time job or dropped their search for a job altogether.

“Even once we gain the missing jobs, we are still — as far as wages — nowhere near where we used to be,” O’Connor says. “And the kinds of jobs that we are gaining seem to be lower-paying jobs, while the jobs that we have lost were the higher-paying jobs.” The Iowa Policy Project found wage levels in 2010, when adjusted for inflation, were lower than they were a decade earlier in Iowa.

“In several wage categories, we are at the very bottom nationally,” O’Connor says. The Iowa Policy Project identifies what it calls a “jobs deficit” in the state and concludes Iowa’s economy would have to add three-thousand jobs each month for the next three years in order to restore Iowa’s overall employment level to what it was in early 2008, when the recession began.

(Radio Iowa)

The U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affair is urging Iowa soldiers returning from Afghanistan to use their local V.A. health facility when they need care. Secretary Eric K. Shinseki says veterans in their 20’s and 30’s think the local V.A. is a place for old soldiers, but Shinseki says the agency has made changes to meet the needs of the current generation.

“We have an interest in a long-term association with a veteran,” Shinseki says, “and we think we provide that best by having that veteran be part of our system.” Shinseki says one way the agency has changed is by adding outpatient clinics across the country.

“Seven-hundred-89 outpatient clinics that are provided for them in the communities they live in — that’s what’s different,” he says. “Instead of saying, ‘Come to us,’ this system has provided healthcare delivery to where they live.” The V.A. has opened 11 outpatient clinics in Iowa as part of that expansion. Shinseki was in Iowa Thursday. He spoke with reporters before holding a private roundtable discussion with veterans and other officials in Indianola. Shinseki served two combat tours in Vietnam and was wounded, losing part of his foot. He rose through the ranks to become the Army’s Chief of Staff before retiring in 2003.

(Radio Iowa)