(Audubon, Iowa) – Audubon Community School District Superintendent Eric Trager reported to the School Board, Monday, an update on the District’s Building Project. Mr. Trager said the news there was “pretty much all positive.”

He said they still have the whole downstairs area to work on, however, so there might be some surprises in-store…but hopefully not.

In other business, the Audubon School Board approved a request to SBRC for MSA-Dropout Prevention. And, they discussed their Board goals.

The Audubon School District will be on Winter Break from Dec. 22nd through Jan. 2, 2023.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The City Council will meet this evening during a regularly scheduled session. On their agenda, is action on passing two resolutions. The first is for the Final Plat associated with the Prairie Hills Development Subdivision, in Atlantic. During their meeting on Nov. 16th, the Council adopted the preliminary plat for the project. The final plat was reviewed by the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission on Dec. 13th. It was unanimously adopted and sent to the City Council with a recommendation for final approval. The final plat retains the lot layouts of the preliminary plat, but only formalizes lots 1 through 17. Those lots are the target for Phase 1 of the housing development project.

The second Resolution is to Amend the City of Atlantic’s Personnel Policy, “By repealing and replacing Series 100 and Series 200 Codes through 206, with New Codes numbered as the same.” City Administrator John Lund says he and Mayor Grace Garrett spent a considerable amount of time the past Spring, Summer and Early Fall, going through the City’s Personnel Policy, and the Personnel and Finance Committee met in September and reviewed the proposed changes. The Committee has endorsed the proposed amendments as written.

In his report to the Council, John Lund will discuss and/or present the City’s Department Head reports.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Workforce Development Director, Beth Townsend says one of the accomplishments of her agency this year has been to help people who lose their job get a new one faster. “We started the year in January with the new re-employment case management system. And that was a process where we started contacting individuals who filed for unemployment, the very first week that they that they filed. So we’ve helped almost 30-thousand Iowans,” she says. Towsend says they can’t point to specific numbers yet, but believe it has helped the state recover from the post-pandemic workforce crisis

“It’s too early to tell you know what impact that’s had on on the number of weeks that people stay on unemployment,” Townsend says. “But we know anecdotally we’ve heard over and over again about how this has really helped people kind of expand their horizons in terms of their work search.” Unemployment did inch up slightly in the last four months — but Townsend says there’s an indicator that people are finding new jobs.

“What we’ve seen in 2022, is people are not staying on unemployment as long as they previously had — which which is reflected in the low amount of unemployment benefits that we’ve paid, even though the unemployment rate itself or I mean, the unemployment benefit itself goes up every year to keep up with inflation. The amount, the total amount is less so fewer people were drying it for shorter periods of time,” according to Townsend. She says the cut in the number of weeks people can draw unemployment benefits that started in July does not figure into the equation yet. Townsend says it looks like it looks by the end the year the state will pay about 260 million dollars in benefits, when that is about 400 million dollars.

“That’s a really good indication that we’re helping people get back to work faster, that they’re taking advantage of all the opportunities that had been available during this time where we’ve had, you know, high number of job openings and fewer people available to fill those jobs,” Townsend says. She says they will continue working in 2023 to get those who haven’t returned to work after dropping out of the job market during the pandemic back into jobs.

(Radio Iowa) – Strong winds, heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures are expected to start hitting Iowa later today (Wednesday) and it’s coming as the Iowa Department of Transportation is still clearing last week’s snow. Craig Bargfrede, the D-O-T’s winter operations administrator, says the forecast wind gusts of up to 50 miles per hour will make it even harder to clear the roads. “With the amount of snow that they’re talking and the wind that they’re talking, it’s very possible that we could see some road closures,” Bargfrede says, “especially up in the northern part of the state and northeastern part of the state.” He says they’ll work with state patrol staff on whether to make road closures.

(File photo) I 80 W Mile Marker 70. IA DOT Snowplow View 5:14-pm 2/1/15

He advises holiday travelers to watch the weather forecast closely. Bargfrede says given the cold, they’ve lost one important snow-fighting tool. “A lot of times ahead of a storm, we’ll go out and we’ll put down brine, so we have material out on the pavement or ahead of the storm so that when the storm starts, it can get activated and start doing its job,” he says. “With the temperatures the way they are, that’s not going to be a viable solution for us.” Bargfrede says strong winds will also create visibility issues.

(reporting by Kendall Crawford, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – The head of the Food Bank of Iowa says donations from grocery stores and other retailers have decreased and, in the first nine months of the year, her organization’s budget for BUYING food soared 650 percent. Michelle Book is president and C-E-O of the Food Bank of Iowa. “As we go out to procure food, we’re seeing increased prices, a lack of what we need in the marketplace, but then also we have to contract for people to get it to us,” Book says, “so freight costs have also risen extraordinarily.”

The Food Bank of Iowa is BUYING more food because the major food retailers and food processors that typically donate food are donating less because their inventory is down. “People have gotten more comfortable with shelves being cleaned off at the end of the day, there’s just less food to rescue to get back into our food pantry network.” A retired Arizona businessman who volunteered at a soup kitchen came up with the food bank concept after a homeless woman told him she found edible food in the garbage behind a grocery store, but had nowhere to store it. Book says the concept is called food rescue.

“Keeping food out of landfills, working with food retailers to take that food that’s not sellable, but edible and putting it back into the system and so we so that via our smaller, frontline partners — our food pantries,” Book says. The Food Bank of Iowa supplies food pantries in 55 Iowa counties. Book made her comments during a recent appearance on “Iowa Press” on Iowa P-B-S.

(Bloomfield, Iowa) – Davis County Attorney Rick L. Lynch, Tuesday, issued a statement concerning an officer involved shooting that occurred near Blakesburg on December 7, 2022.  35-year-old Charles Hall led officers on a high-speed chase through several counties on Dec. 7. Officers finally stopped Hall near Blakesburg. They say he got out of his car with a weapon and was shot by Iowa State Patrol Trooper Jeremy Cole. Hall was released from a Des Moines hospital, Tuesday, and charged with Attempted Murder.

Attorney Lynch says his investigation determined that “The use of force by Trooper Cole in shooting Charles Hall, was “Objectively reasonable under the circumstances in order to protect his own life, and therefore, legally justified under Iowa law. Consequently, no charges against Trooper Cole are warranted by the evidence, and none will be filed.”

(Stuart, Iowa) – A collision in Stuart Tuesday evening resulted in one person injured and the roadway blocked for at least a couple of hours.

The Iowa State Patrol reports a 1992 Dodge pickup driven by 74-year-old Jimmie Lee Easley, of Earlham, was traveling east on Front Street in Stuart at around 7:30-p.m. A 2004 Chrysler Sebring was disabled on the south shoulder of Front Street, facing east, just west of Adair Street, and a 2019 Chevy Equinox was parked on the south shoulder of Front Street, facing west, assisting with the disabled vehicle.

The Patrol says 44-year-old Shane Martin Wells, of Stuart, was between the Sebring and Equinox, when Easley’s pickup struck the rear of the Chrysler, when then hit the front of the SUV. Wells suffered serious injuries and was transported by LifeFlight helicopter to Mercy Hospital, in Des Moines.

Stuart Police assisted at the scene.

(Sidney, Iowa) – Fremont County Sheriff Kevin Aistrope reports that on Dec. 8th, the Tabor Police Department received a report of a stolen vehicle from a residence in Tabor. Deputies with the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office and Mills County Sheriff’s Office made contact with the suspect, 40-year-old Jeffrey Dale Hankins, of Malvern, at a residence in Mills County. Authorities allege Hankins, who was on probation, fled from deputies on foot, resulting in two Fremont County deputies suffering from minor injuries. A warrant was issued in that case.

On Dec. 14th, Hankins allegedly made a false report to 911, resulting in additional warrants being issued.

Ronnie Hankins

Jeffrey Dale Hankins

At around 9:10-p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 20, deputies with the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office made a traffic stop near the intersection of Elm Street and Main Street in Tabor. Jeffrey Hankins s fled from the vehicle and after a short foot pursuit was apprehended by deputies.

The driver of the vehicle, 66-year-old Ronnie Hankins, of Tabor, was arrested for: Accessory After the Fact, an Aggravated Misdemeanor, and Possession of Methamphetamine, a Serious Misdemeanor. His cash or surety bond was set at $3,000.

Jeffrey Dale Hankins was being held in the Fremont County Jail on charges that include: Interference with Official Acts, a Simple Misdemeanor; False Reporting, a Serious Misdemeanor; Harassment 3^rd Degree, a Simple Misdemeanor; Theft 2^nd Degree, a Class D Felony, and Violation of Probation. Additional charges are pending. Bond was set at $11,300.

(Harlan, Iowa) – Due to the winter weather forecast, the City of Harlan is asking for voluntary off-street parking beginning at 1 p.m. Wednesday, December 21^st until 5 p.m. Friday, December 23^nd. This will assist the Public Works Department with snow and ice control on city streets. As a reminder, parallel parking is required on any streets where snow is windrowed in the center of the street which is primarily in the Downtown Area. The City of Harlan appreciates your cooperation.

(Radio Iowa) – Video conferences may be a permanent part of our work lives now, and an Iowa State University study delves into what people are actually looking at during Zoom and Webex meetings.

Joey George, an ISU professor of information systems and business analytics, says they used eye-tracking technology to find participants -did- pay attention to whoever was speaking during video conferences, but they looked off-screen frequently and for long periods.

“We don’t know exactly what was going on in their heads,” George says. “We just know that for whatever reason they were disengaged from looking at the screen for about a third of the time.”

Anyone who’s been on a video conference knows they can use the camera like a mirror, but shouldn’t do so during a call. Still, the study found women looked at themselves during video conferences twice as often as men.

Joey George (ISU photo)

“Women are much more conscious of how they look and they actually use that image of themselves in the meetings to make sure that their hair is right and their makeup is right and the clothing is all right,” George says, “and men apparently just don’t care as much.”

One of George’s personal pet peeves is people eating during a video call, so one of the distractions they used in the study was people munching on snacks or moving the camera to change the background.

“We found that everybody noticed the distractions but they really didn’t pay attention to them for very long,” George says. “They saw them, they registered them and within a couple of seconds, they went back to the meeting. I guess that’s kind of good news that the distractions are noticed but they just don’t become something that’s a major concern.”

The technology for video calling was around long before the pandemic, but George believes Zoom and similar programs will most certainly continue to be popular well after COVID is a distant memory.

“It’s not going to be the only game in town anymore,” George says. “People really like the personal contact, but I think it’s here to stay.” He says one goal of the study was to help people avoid distractions and to inform the future designers of video conferencing.