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Keep up-to-date with Fox News Radio, Radio Iowa, Brownfield & the Iowa Agribusiness Networks!
Authorities say a fire was located in the north pit building containing the grain belt system for the new grain storage building, on the west side of their complex. The fire was quickly extinguished. Grain processing areas checked and no other fire was found. Two outbuildings, the grain leg system, and a grain belt were damaged. Fireground operations terminated at 4:36 p.m.
Red Oak FD Facebook photo (1/23/24)
(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Atlantic City Council will hold two Special Meetings. Both take place in the Council’s Chambers at the Atlantic City Hall. The first meeting, at 4:30-p.m., today (Jan. 24), is with regard to Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Planning.
The second meeting, at 5:30-p.m. Thursday (Jan. 25), is a Closed Session pertaining to a personnel matter, whereby the individual has requested a closed session with regard to their professional competency, hiring, performance or discharge, that is being considered.
Craig Dee Smith
Craig Smith is described as being 6-feet tall, and weighing around 240-pounds. He was wearing jeans, a hooded sweatshirt and a black coat, when he left his residence. It was also reported that Smith could have been heading to see a friend in Keokuk County, IA.
(Red Oak, Iowa) – Sheriff’s officials in Montgomery County say two people were arrested on separate charges, Tuesday. At around 3:50-p.m., Deputies took 55-year-old Gregory Allen Riley, of Red Oak, into custody for Domestic Abuse Assault by impeding an airway and/or blood flow. Riley was being held without bond in the Montgomery County Jail.
And, at around 9:20-p.m., Montgomery County Sheriff’s Deputies arrested 48-year-old Scott Allen Henneman, of Villisca, on a Page County warrant for Failure to Appear or pay Child Support. Henneman was turned over to Page County Corrections and held on bond.
(Washington, D.C.) – The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) has announced an Iowa World War II fighter pilot’s remains have been accounted for. U.S. Army Air Forces Major Theodore Willhite, 26, of Muscatine, who died during WWII, was accounted for Sept. 19, 2023.
In March of 1944, Willhite was assigned to the 724th Bombardment Squadron, 451st Bombardment Group, 15th Air Force in the Mediterranean and European Theater of Operations. On Mar 11, Willhite was piloting a B-24 “Liberator,” when it was struck by anti-aircraft fire after a bombing raid on a German position near Toulon, France. Eyewitnesses on another B-24 reported seeing Willhite’s aircraft spinning out of control at approximately 3000 feet before breaking apart and crashing into the sea. All 11 crewmembers aboard the aircraft were lost in the incident and not identified following the war.
USAF Maj. Theodore Willhite (DPAA photos)
Beginning in 1945, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC), Army Quartermaster Corps, was the organization tasked with recovering missing American personnel in the European Theater. Following the war, the AGRC disinterred and identified seven sets of remains recovered from the Lagoubran Cemetery, at Toulon, France. At the time they were unable to identify Willhite and other crewmembers, and they were interred in the Rhône American Cemetery.
In 2019, DPAA investigators and American Battle Monuments Commission personnel exhumed the remains of X-84 Luynes, X-85 Luynes, X-86 Luynes, and X-92 Luynes and sent them to the DPAA laboratory for analysis and identification. To identify Willhite’s remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological analysis. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.
Willhite’s name is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at Rhône American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Draguignan, France, along with others still missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for. Willhite will be buried at a place and time to be determined by the family.
(Menlo, Iowa) – Adair/Guthrie County Emergency Management Coordinator Rob Kempf says the 2024 Storm Spotter Class for Adair & Guthrie Counties has been scheduled for March 20, 2024. The class will be held at the Menlo Community Building from 7:00 pm to approximately 9:00 pm. The training will be presented by the Des Moines Office of the National Weather Service and is FREE and open to the public. This training is required every 2 years if you are a registered spotter.
The National Weather Service puts out a call for storm spotters each Spring. Spotter training classes are held through the state. They help those interested in learning about the typical, different modes of weather and what to look for when severe weather is possible. The classes teach your the difference between a shelf cloud and a wall cloud, and what differentiates a scud cloud from a funnel cloud.
Each class is about two hours long and covers all severe weather hazards including thunderstorms and tornadoes. You’ll have a better understanding of the structure and movement of severe thunderstorms, including identifying storm features and the difference between each. You will also learn important severe weather safety tips. Most classes do not require pre-registration.
(Radio Iowa) – An Iowa City protester facing charges for a demonstration that blocked traffic in October has rejected a plea deal and is going to trial. Tara McGovern of Coralville was one of seven people arrested under the state’s new penalties for protest-related crimes after a protest of a lecture by a California activist who opposes gender transition surgery for minors. “I don’t believe that anybody at that protest did anything wrong. And I don’t want to plead guilty to something that isn’t wrong,” McGovern says.
The Johnson County Attorney’s Office offered plea deals to drop the serious misdemeanor disorderly conduct charges while preserving a simple misdemeanor charge for interfering with police. McGovern says the actions were within the scope of lawful assembly. “Too quickly these things get swept away and not examined. And then people with less power end up being hurt by these systems,” McGovern says. McGovern’s trial is scheduled for late February.
(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Sweetheart Market 2024 will be held in Atlantic on Saturday, Feb. 10th, from Noon until 3-p.m. The event takes place at the Nishna Valley Family YMCA (1100 Maple St. Atlantic, IA 50022). During this holiday event, vendors will be selling an array of products including produce, local meats and eggs, baked goods, and craft items and gifts for that special someone or yourself!
There will be a free bounce house for the kids, and Zipp’s Pizza Food Truck will be on-site to feed hungry attendees.
To register as a vendor visit www.produceintheparkatlanticiowa.com.
(Radio Iowa) – A bill ready for debate in the Iowa Senate Transportation Committee sends a message to drivers who linger in the left hand lane of highways with four or six lanes of traffic. Senator Mike Klemish, the committee’s chairman, says the left hand lane is for passing other vehicles.
“We feel that if we can make folks aware of the time constraint of being in that lane that they’ll kind of self-correct,” Klemish says. After July 1st of 2025, someone could be fined 135 dollars for staying in the left hand lane too long, but until then, the bill calls for law enforcement to issue warnings for the behavior. Klemish, who is from Spillville, says as he drove to Des Moines on Monday, he encountered two vehicles on Highway 20 that stayed in the left lane too long. “One was left lane ‘camping’ for a good 10 miles,” Klemish said. “It slows traffic, increases hazards and creates concerns.”
In 2019 and 2020, Iowa lawmakers discussed but did not pass bills to penalize drivers who loiter in the left lane. MOST states have laws saying drivers should generally stay in the right hand lane and use the left lane for passing. However, sustained driving in the left lane carries a 120 dollar fine in Illinois and in Minnesota it’s 125 dollars. Drivers in Missouri can be charged with improper passing and charged a fine of just over 80 dollars.
(Radio Iowa) – Sixteen and 17-year-olds could care for infants and toddlers at child care centers by themselves under a bill advancing in the Iowa House. There would have to be at least two adults elsewhere in the facility. The bill expands on a law passed in 2022 that lets 16- and 17-year-olds be in charge of school-age kids in child care centers. Republican Representative Devon Wood of New Market says she supports the bill because there’s a workforce shortage in child care centers.
“It’s an option for them to utilize, especially in some situations where right now they may not be able to safely take a break due to the number of folks that they have available to watch a child,” Wood says. Ryan Page, an administrator in the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, says the change would let a 16-year-old be charge of the care of four babies — or ten three-year-olds.
“I would still continue to have concerns about putting a 16-year-old in an environment with children that can’t self-report and can’t self-protect,” she said, “especially as we see challenging behaviors in certain age groups — two-year-olds biting, three-year-old behaviors.”
An official with United Way of Central Iowa says beyond safety concerns, having older teens care for that many infants and toddlers by themselves will lead to burn out — at a time when child care centers hope the 16 and 17 year olds they employ to look after school-aged kids may choose child care as a career.