The Cass County Sheriff’s Office wants the public to be aware of a phone scam that was reported to the office today (Friday). Officials say someone called an individual in the county, claiming to be from the office that administrates their pension fund. The scammer claimed the reporting party had been overpaid from the pension fund and owed money back, but declined to allow caller to stop at the pension office.

The Sheriff’s Office advises that if you receive a call that sounds as though it could be valid, do your homework! Ask for information by mail, and, if you are able, find a number on your own for the place that is allegedly contacting you to verify the validity of the call.

The field representative for the company charged with rebuilding Highway 6/7th Street in Atlantic reports work continues on the project, and more activities are planned for the week of July 13th through the 17th.

Among the scheduled portions of the project is: Finishing the installation of a modified base and paving steel, from Pine to Cherry Streets (The base is what forms the foundation for the laying of forms and PCC paving; The laying of Portland Cement Concrete (PCC) Pavement from Pine to Cherry on the north, 25-feet in width- which is expected to begin next Wednesday or Thursday; Subgrade Preparation and Installation of a Subdrain; The placement of a modified base from Cherry Street to EPA Zone (Near Plum Street); PCC pouring at Spruce Street north intersection and PCC taper from Olive to Spruce.

Among the work that’s been accomplished this past week: Subgrade Prep / Installation of Subdrain completed between Pine & Cherry; and installation of most of the modified base from Pine to Mulberry.

SIBLEY, Iowa (AP) – A northwest Iowa community has designated a “safe exchange zone” where strangers can meet to complete Internet purchases and sales. Sioux City television station KTIV reports that the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office says the zone is at the Public Safety Center in Sibley and it has 24-hour video surveillance.

Chief Deputy Kevin Wollmuth says that if people have any questions or apprehensions about the strangers they’ll be meeting, “then by all means we welcome you to come here.” The zone also may be used as a safe meeting place for online dating or child custody exchanges.

Can you recite your parents’ phone number? If you can’t, you’re not alone. A survey shows 45-percent of those asked couldn’t recall phone numbers of family members because they’re stored in their smart phones. More people are using their phones as an external memory port, leading to what’s called “digital amnesia.” Dr. Aura Nasir, a pediatrician in Omaha-Council Bluffs, says she’s not too worried.

“Our brains are really very adaptive and we will remember what we need to remember,” Dr. Nasir says. “The numbers are not only stored on the phone but also dialed for us and this is one of the reasons we don’t remember them, because one of the ways we remember things is by repetition.” This digital amnesia, or relying on technology instead of memory, is just one way modern advances are altering our way of life.

“I don’t think we fully understand the impact of the digital technology,” Nasir says. “What we know is that digital technology is a tool that is going to affect the way we do business, just like cars changed the way we travel and medicine is practiced in a different way now than it used to be in the past.” Our brains are very efficient in the way memories are stored and if they don’t need to be taking up space, they won’t be there long.

“If it is not an advantage to us to remember or keep those numbers in our brains, our brains are not going to keep them there just because we have sometime in the past and that was in the past advantageous to us, but now it isn’t anymore,” according to Nasir, a pediatrician at University of Nebraska Medical Center. While about half of the people surveyed couldn’t remember their parents’ phone number, about 70-percent knew their spouse’s number by heart. Many of those who report having digital amnesia are 18 years old — and younger — and grew up with pocket technology.

(Radio Iowa)

Republican Congressman Steve King says he regrets the “tragic, evil and brutal” murders of nine African Americans in a South Carolina church, but he opposes efforts to ban the Confederate flag from Civil War cemeteries run by the National Park Service. “I have been listening to this debate over the last week or so and it troubles me greatly over symbolism that has been redefined by a lot of members of the opposite party,” King says.

The chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa this past week made clear he does not want the party of Lincoln associated with the Confederate battle flag after the driver of a Marion County parade float last weekend displayed three Confederate flags on his truck. King, however, says he sees the situation differently. “I grew up in the north. The Confederate flag always was a symbol of the pride of the south from where I grew up,” King says. “My family, my predecessors, my ancestors were abolitionists. They went to war to put an end to slavery.”

One of King’s five-times-great uncles served in the Civil War and his grandfather from five generations ago was killed fighting for the Grand Army of the Republic. “This country has put this behind us,” King says. “We’ve been through this brutal and bloody battle. We’ve gone back together for the Reconstruction and we’ve healed this country together and I regret deeply that we’re watching this country be divided again over a symbol.” King says in a free country, “we have to tolerate” speech and symbols that some find offensive, so that people not only have the right to burn “Old Glory”, they have the right to fly the Confederate flag.

“When I go to Germany and they’ve outlawed the swastika, I look at them and I think: ‘We have a First Amendment. That can’t happen here in the United States because we’re open enough,'” King says. According to King, the country cannot “erase” history, but should “keep it in front of us” so it can be evaluated by each new generation. King considers to the Confederate battle flag to be “part of the country’s heritage.”

“Everything about America’s history is not glorious. Everything about our history is not right in our judgment, looking back in hindsight, but none of us know what it was like for the people to live in that time and that era,” King says. “We can accept our history, we be proud of our history, we can unify our country, we can grieve for those who were murdered and we can preserve our First Amendment rights.”

King made two speeches on the topic yesterday (Thursday) on the floor of the U.S. House. After objections from Democrats, House Republican leaders tabled a vote on a budget bill that would have allowed the limited display of Confederate flags in cemeteries that are adjacent to Civil War battlefields and maintained by the National Park Service. The Republican speaker of the House says he wants to have a bipartisan review of the issue and that will include whether the Confederate flag and its image may continue to be displayed in the U.S. Capitol.

The State of Mississippi’s flag is there, for example, and it bears the image of the battle flag of the Confederate Army. As this debate was raging in Washington, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley approved legislation to remove the Confederate battle flag from the statehouse grounds in Columbia.

(Radio Iowa)