A task force will meet later this week in Des Moines to discuss how to encourage more Iowans to go to college or get additional training. Fewer than half of Iowa adults have a college degree or some sort of technical certification beyond a high school diploma.  Beth Townsend is director of Iowa Workforce Development agency. “The main issue identified by Iowa’s employers today is finding enough qualified and skilled workers who are ready and able to work,” Townsend says, “many of which, as we’ve identified, require education and training beyond high school.”

Iowa’s governor recently set the goal of  having 70 percent of Iowa’s workforce getting technical training or going to college after high school. Townsend says educators as well as  business and labor leaders have agreed to serve on the task force. “The Future Ready Iowa Alliance initiative is something that we firmly believe is necessary in order to develop the workforce we are going to need in the next 10 years,” Townsend says.

The group will address particular concerns about how minorities, disabled Iowans and former prisoners are able to get the training they need to secure jobs in the future. The “Future Ready Iowa Alliance” will meet for the first time this Friday. The governor has asked this task force to come up with a “strategic plan” by October 31st of NEXT year.

(Radio Iowa)

Atlantic City Administrator John Lund reports Henningsen Construction plans to start milling streets tomorrow (Wednesday), as part of the City’s 2016 Street and Alley Improvement Project. Lund says the best case scenario would be to start paving 10th Street close to November 1st. Once crews get 10th done, Lund says they may leave for a few days to go do work in Anita job and let PCS (Precision Concrete Service, Inc., of Atlantic) stay ahead of them. After that they would come back and do the alleys/parking lots.

Earlier this year, the Atlantic City Council passed a Resolution “Authorizing bids for the 2016 Street and Alley Improvements.” The projects were finalized for the Fiscal Year 2016 Capital Improvement plan. Slightly more than 1.085-million dollars for the projects is being financed by the 2016 bond. $500,-thousand dollars is being used from the Local Option Sales Tax Capital Improvement Streets fund to pay for the remaining projects.

Those projects include:

• 10th St. from Sunnyside Lane to the Hospital Drive (3″ Hot Melt Asphalt [HMA] Overlay).
• Olive St. from 7th to 10th (3″ HMA)
• Maple St. overlay from 9th to 10th
• Birch St. overlay from 2nd to 3rd
• Walnut/Elm alley from 4th to 5th
• 3rd to 4th St. alley (Chestnut to Poplar)

The Alley’s include those from:

• 4th to 5th Sts. (between Walnut & Elm)
• 3rd to 4th Sts. (between Oak & Hazel)
• 8th to 9th Sts. (between Chestnut & Walnut)
• 2nd to 3rd Sts.(Between Maple & Linn)
• 8th to 9th Sts. (Between Maple & Linn, and Poplar to Locust)
• 7th and 8th Sts. (Between Poplar & Locust)
• Alley by Gade Insurance
• All alleys and downtown parking lots.

Sheriff’s officials in Fremont County say a teenager from Hamburg has died in an ATV accident. The 14-year old male died when the ATV he was riding crashed into a soybean field at around 6:30-p.m., Monday, about three-miles east of Hamburg.

Sheriff’s deputies were assisted at the scene by Shenandoah EMS, Hamburg, Sidney, and Riverton Rescue units, as well as the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Additional information is currently not available.

Council Bluffs Police say an adult female was transported to Creighton CHI in Omaha, after being struck by a car Monday night. Authorities said the woman, who was not carrying any identification and is listed as a “Jane Doe,” was struck by a 2008 Acura as she was walking east on 9th Avenue.

The driver of the car, 54-year old Tamara Chamberland, of Blue Springs, MO.,  said she noticed the pedestrian walking in the roadway, but was unable to take evasive action in time to avoid striking her. Chamberland was not injured in the crash.

Preliminary investigation indicates that neither speed nor driver impairment appear to be factors in the accident. The Council Bluffs Police Department traffic unit is conducting an investigation into the incident. Any witnesses are asked to call 712-328-4948. Additional information requests should be directed to the traffic unit.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CDT

NEW YORK (AP) — Rockwell Collins, which makes systems for airplanes, is buying rival B/E Aerospace for $6.4 billion. The deal still needs approval by shareholders of both companies and by regulators. Rockwell sells electronics systems used in airliners and business jets, while B/E makes aircraft cabin interiors including seating.

MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) — A Hampton man has been sentenced to life in prison for the fatal shooting of his girlfriend. The Mason City Globe Gazette reports 61-year-old Ronald Rand was sentenced Monday to the life term after a jury in August found him guilty of first-degree murder in the death of 51-year-old Michelle Key, of Waterloo. She died on a couch in Rand’s living room after being shot in the neck with a sawed-off shotgun. Prosecutors argued Rand killed Key because she laughed as she admitted cheating on him.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A Vinton woman has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison after pleading guilty to a charge connected to the fatal accidental shooting of a 14-year-old girl. The woman was sentenced after pleading guilty in May to providing a firearm to a prohibited person. Investigators found she provided a rifle to her 16-year-old son, who she knew used marijuana. Authorities say a teen other than the woman’s son was handling the gun when it fired, hitting Emma Redlinger. She died four days later.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A judge won’t dismiss a lawsuit filed by a retired University of Iowa administrator over private meetings that Board of Regents members held with the man they later hired as the UI’s president. The judge ruled Monday the lawsuit filed in June by former administrator Gerhild Krapf should proceed, though he noted he wasn’t evaluating the suit’s merits. The regents sought to dismiss the suit, which argued regents violated the law by holding private meetings with Bruce Harreld before his hiring.