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Malvern man arrested on drug charges, Wednesday

News

March 30th, 2023 by Ric Hanson

(Glenwood, Iowa) – The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest Wednesday night of 42-year-old Kenneth Wayne Jenkins, of Malvern. He was taken into custody at around 9:07-p.m., following a traffic stop at 280th Street and Highway 34. Jenkins faces charges that include Possession of a Controlled Substance, from 5-grams to 100-kilograms, and a Drug Tax Stamp Violation. His bond was set at $30,000.

A little after 7-p.m. Wednesday, Mills County Deputies arrested 40-year-old Crystal Marie Paroda, of Plattsmouth, NE, for Simple Assault ($300 bond). And, at around 5-p.m., Wednesday, 53-year-old Wilmer Tucker, of Battle Creek, NE, was arrested at the Mills County Sheriff’s Office on a warrant for Simple Assault (Bond $300).

3 women charged with 5th Degree Theft in Creston

News

March 30th, 2023 by Ric Hanson

(Creston, Iowa) – Police in Creston, Wednesday afternoon, arrested three women on Theft in the 5th Degree, charges. 33-year-old Natasha Ann Campbell, of Creston, was arrested at her home. 54-year-old Gena Ann Chumbley, of Creston, was arrested at 302 N. Pine Street. And, 36-year-old Amber Marie Buchanan, of Creston, was arrested at the Union County Law Enforcement Center. All three women each posted a $300 bond and was released.

Separately, 35-year-old Wesley Gene Keeler, of Creston, was arrested following a traffic stop. He was charged with Driving while Suspended and later posted a $300 bond before being released.

Central College math professor figures lowest vote percentage to win the presidency

News

March 30th, 2023 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – A Central College math professor has updated work that figures the lowest amount of the popular vote a candidate would need to win enough electoral college votes to become president. Professor Russ Goodman says the work was first done in 1961 and then updated in 2012. “So we’ve had a few presidential elections since then, and we’ve had a census since then, also, so the number of representatives per state has changed. And so I really familiarize myself with what their model looked like, and it was just interesting and timely, and I just wanted to push it forward a little bit,” Goodman says. His work shows you could theoretically win the presidency with only 20 to 24 percent of the popular vote depending on the year.

The modern day strategy has been to win the states with the most electoral votes — but Goodman says winning with the fewest number of votes goes completely against that plan.  “Overall, the mathematical model says the exact opposite. What a candidate should do is actually stock up on all of the small states and not get any votes at all from the big states,” he says. Goodman says a candidate would stay away from states like Texas, Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania that have the most electoral votes. “If you stock up on the states, like Maine and Iowa, you know, all the smaller states, if you accumulate those electoral votes, and you get to 270, and you only earn half of those votes, like you just barely win the majority and each of those states, that’ll actually get you more easily to the minimum percentage of the popular vote. Because remember, those big states have lots of people voting,” Goodman says.

Goodman says the proposal is based solely on the mathematics of winning one particular way and doesn’t figure in politics. “So if a candidate wanted to look at this, and think of it as a particular strategy, I don’t know that our current national politics would work all that well,” Goodman says. “Because a state like Maine is very different from a state like Iowa, politically.” He says it’s fun to figure out the mathematics of the problem — but he says the odds are stacked against it ever happening. “Virtually zero. I mean, in reality, it’s virtually zero,” he says.

Goodman says anyone who’s campaigning, probably is using data to help them make good decisions, and using this strategy is not one they would use to give themselves the best chance to win.

Former county attorney pleads guilty to public intoxication, says she has rare syndrome

News

March 30th, 2023 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – Former Dickinson County Attorney Amy Zenor has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of public intoxication — and court documents are suggesting it was carbs, not alcohol, that caused her to appear drunk. On November 10th, the Dickinson County Sheriff’s office was notified someone in the county courthouse was drunk. Zenor was arrested and the county board of supervisors accepted her resignation as county attorney a few weeks later. According to the Iowa Capital Dispatch, Zenor is claiming she has a rare medical condition that causes someone to become intoxicated without drinking alcohol.

It’s called A-B-S or Gut Fermentation Syndrome and the Iowa Capital Dispatch reports an Ohio doctor says Zenor has it. Medical studies indicate when patients with A-B-S eat carbohydrates, the carbs can interact with yeast in the intestines and produce ethanol.

Gut Fermentation Syndrome was first diagnosed in a five year old child in 1947. Fewer than 100 cases have been diagnosed worldwide, over half of them in Japan.

Business owners expect impact from closing of Iowa Wesleyan

News

March 30th, 2023 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa)- Business owners in Mount Pleasant say the closure of Iowa Wesleyan University announced Tuesday is going to be felt around the entire community. Roger Beckman and his brother Dale have owned Main Street Pizza in downtown Mount Pleasant for 32 years. Beckman tells K-C-R-G TV about 20 percent of his business comes from the students. “We have some students that come once or twice a week,” School leaders say there are around 800 students enrolled at the university and 110 staff.

Beckman hopes if any good news was to come out of Wesleyan shutting down, that the building could be repurposed for the community. “Hopefully, they won’t want to hold onto it and let the cobwebs grow,” said Beckman. “Hopefully, something good will come out of it.”

The U-S-D-A helped the school refinance to try to turn things around, but they continued to face financial issues. The U-S-D-A ill take ownership of the campus at the end of the school year in June.

Senate puts the brakes on carbon pipeline regs from House

Ag/Outdoor, News

March 30th, 2023 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – A bill that would have set a few new ground rules for carbon pipelines has stalled in the Senate. Representative Steven Holt, a Republican from Denison, led debate of the bill in the House, where it passed on a 73-to-20 vote. “The legislation’s one of the most important things we could have done this session,” Holt says.

The bill would have required that 90 percent of a carbon pipeline’s route be secured through voluntary agreements before eminent domain authority from the state could be used to compel other landowners to sign easements. “A lot of concerned citizens across the state of Iowa do not want their property taken for this project — an economic development project and I’m disappointed,” Holt says.

Today (Thursday) is the last day of the legislature’s work week and also the deadline for policy bills from the House to have cleared a Senate committee. Senate Democratic Leader Zach Wahls of Coralville says Republicans who control the senate’s debate agenda could have at least scheduled a subcommittee hearing on the bill.  “I think that if the bill would have come to the floor, it would have had strong majority support,” Wahls says, “so I was surprised.”

It’s possible some of the elements of the bill could be tacked onto a budget bill next month. There’s also a chance state regulators’ review of the pipeline projects might extend into early 2024. Holt says that means it might be possible for next year’s legislature to revisit the issue. “Dynamics can change around here very quickly around here when it’s an election year and people begin to hear a lot from their constituents, so we’ll see where it goes.” Holt says, “My concern about waiting a year, obviously, is that eminent domain could already be in process for some of our land owners, but maybe the process will not be that far along, so we’ll see.”

The proposed Wolf pipeline to capture carbon from A-D-M plants is about 300 miles long and the developer says it’s getting voluntary access to the route and will not need to seek eminent domain authority. The other pipeline developers are expected to ask the Iowa Utilities Board for eminent domain authority to secure easements from landowners who haven’t voluntarily granted access to their properties. Navigator’s pipeline would stretch about 800 miles through 33 Iowa counties.

The Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline would be about 680 miles long and pass through 29 counties. Advocates say the pipelines will make ethanol a low-carbon fuel by capturing and shipping carbon from Iowa ethanol plants to underground storage sites in Illinois and North Dakota.

Keep Iowa Beautiful and Diamond Vogel Paint Announce 2023 Grant Awards

News

March 29th, 2023 by Ric Hanson

(March 29, 2023) – Officials with Diamond Vogel and Keep Iowa Beautiful, Wednesday, announced the grant awards for the 2023 Paint Iowa Beautiful program. The program provides free paint to a wide variety of public service projects throughout Iowa. In the 20-year partnership with Keep Iowa Beautiful, Diamond Vogel has awarded over 13,270 gallons of paint for 1,438 community projects in Iowa.

In addition to paint projects, join over 30 communities participating in Keep Iowa Beautiful’s Pick Up Iowa annual program by cleaning up litter and trash along Iowa’s roadsides, neighborhoods, streets, school grounds, parks, and streams. Encourage your community mayor, city council or county supervisors to announce several days or a week as PICK-UP YOUR COMMUNITY. Pick-Up Iowa is being held through July 31st, 2023 on any dates that work for your community. To participate you must register your group/organization at https://keepiowabeautiful.org/get-involved/community-outreach-opportunities/pick-up-iowa/. The first 35 communities who sign up will be awarded a $50 reimbursement that can be utilized to purchase supplies for the pick-up event.

2023 Paint Awards (local list):

(By Community; Organization name; Areas to be painted; Name of person submitting)

  • Anita; Anita Economic Development; The Weathervane Cafe; Cheryl Sokol
  • Atlantic; SHIFT ATL; Cass County Fair Livestock Barns (4 total); Sunnyside Pool House; SHIFT ATL Flipper House; Jessie Shiels
  • Corning; Corning Public Library; Exterior areas on the front, west side of the library as well as some on the roof line.; Alyssa Ogburn
  • Council Bluffs; CHI Health Mercy Hospital; Therapy Garden Wall on CHI Health Mercy’s campus; Abby Jares
  • Denison; Denison Parks & Rec; Park Restrooms (outside and inside) Multiple; Dugouts; Scorers Box; Concession Stand; Brian Kempfert
  • Glenwood; Glenwood Public Library; Upstairs section of the library; Tara Painter
  • Hamburg; Hamburg Hometown  Pride; 1404 Washington Street; Elaine Howard
  • Manilla; Manilla Chamber of Commerce; gazebo in the arboretum and building on Main Street; Virginia Rasmussen
  • Missouri Valley; Missouri Valley Chamber of Commerce; Building on 408 E Erie St and building on 418 E Erie St; Jeannie Wortman
  • Panora; Guthrie County Historical Village; Museum Building at the Historical Village; Kristine Jorgensen
  • Red Oak; SAVE OUR DEPOT INC; Kitchen, 2 small hallways, 1 very long hallway/handicap entrance; Jolene Crawford
  • Shambaugh; Local Governmental Agency; City Hall; Post Office; Playground shelter; Sandra L. Bilokonsky
  • Silver City; Silver City Library; Areas to be painted are the exterior walls of the Library building and trim around the windows and Library sign.; Lynda Thomas (Board President)
  • Union County; Union County Historical Society; Three buildings within the Historical Village – Depot, Blacksmith Shop, and Mill Shed; Ruth Leiser
  • Winterset; Covered Bridges Preservation Association; Holliwell Covered Bridge; Hogback Covered Bridge; Roseman Covered Bridge; Amara Huffine
  • Woodbine; Woodbine Main Street; Exterior of community meeting space; Deb Sprecker.

Atlantic School Board approves resignations/Contracts/23-24 School Calendar & ISL

News

March 29th, 2023 by Ric Hanson

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Public Hearings were held Wednesday at the Atlantic High School Media Center, with regard to a five-year extension of the current Instructional Support Levy (ISL). A second hearing was with regard to the 2023-24 School Calendar. There were no comments submitted during the meeting. The Board took action to approve both matters later on during their session. The School Board also approved pay application number #3 for the High School Air Quality Project for $116,825.00.

The Board also set their meeting on April 12th at 5:30-p.,m., as the date and time for a Public Hearing on the Certified Budget. The proposed property tax rate for the 2024 budget is $13.00317 per one thousand dollars of valuation. You can view the budget as published, below.

The Board approved several resignations, including:

  • Scot Aden, Middle School Principal (Who has accepted a job with the Carroll Community School District)
  • Derek Hall, 6th Grade Science Teacher; Head Boys Basketball Coach & Asst. Girls Track Coach
  • Mikayla Schuler, Kindergarten Teacher
  • Marcella Peck and Jenifer Rugaard, Paraeducators, and an additional resignation for:
  • Misty Rhodes, HS Paraeducator & Bus Monitor

They approved contract recommendations that had been proposed by Superintendent Steve Barber, including:

  • Hannah Alff, 2nd Grade Teacher
  • Kirstin Blake, Kindergarten Teacher
  • Christin Simonton, Preschool Teacher
  • Shawna Macha, Substitute/Activity Driver
  • Derek Knisely, Asst. Boys Soccer Coach
  • and several Volunteer Coaches: (corrected from previous post)
    • Girls Golf: Marty Hobson & Nathan Berg
    • Boys Golf: Darby McLaren
    • Boys/Girls Track: Bruce Henderson
    • Tennis: James Northwick
    • Boys Soccer:Cal Heuton
    • Baseball: Josh McLaren & Darby McLaren
    • Softball: Bob Gross

Property valuations going up across the state

News

March 29th, 2023 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – New property tax valuations are starting to go out and some people may suffer sticker shock when they see the increase. Sioux City Assessor, Tyler Erickson, says they have to do the valuations every two years to ensure valuations are within five percent of market value. “This state actually takes all of our sales and they tell us compared to last year’s values your sales are 25 percent undervalued. We have to raise those values. If we do not raise those values, the state will come in the fall and raise them all up,” Erickson says. He says they use to measure in determining your value.

“We use the cost approach and we use the sales approach,” Erickson says, “and the reason we use that is cost resale should fairly come out. We value off cost and then we adjust for the market that it sits in.” He says the market adjustment ensures your home is being valued based on the sale of homes in your neighborhood that are comparable in cost. Erickson says your taxes don’t automatically go up the same about as the assessed value because there is a state rollback.

“If you look at your tax statement that you get in the mail, you have an assessed value and you have a taxable value. That taxable value is after the state rollback and it is drastically less than your assessed value, usually about 50 percent. It’s expected to go up in the 60 percent range, mid 60s and possibly 70 percent range,” he says.

Erickson says they are already getting calls from upset homeowners after assessments went out. He says you can appeal and should look at the comparable home sales in your neighborhood to see how much difference there is between the valuation and area sales.

Water quality is a key element for Practical Farmers of Iowa

Ag/Outdoor, News

March 29th, 2023 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – An Iowa-based group that aims to help farmers practice a form of agriculture that benefits both the land and the people is working to recruit new members, especially in northwest Iowa. Practical Farmers of Iowa agronomist Sarah Carlson says the issue of water quality is one key area where they’ve determined they can start discussions with potential members.

Carlson says crop rotation, cover crops, and grazing all help to reduce nitrate loss and reduce erosion, which are two of the biggest water pollutants. Some of the older concepts are still very much workable, especially with precision agriculture, which Carlson says has led to a new term, precision conservation.

She says P-F-I works with farmers to diagnose trouble spots, get them out of production and into some sort of conservation project.