Iowa State Extension and Outreach in Guthrie County has named their new Office Coordinator, Megan Van Houten, of Yale. Megan began her work as the Guthrie County Office Coordinator on December 19, 2018. As Office Coordinator, Megan will have the responsibility of managing the office in Guthrie County. Megan comes to the position with strong financial experience and excellent customer service skills. She will oversee the coordination of the day-to-day operations, bookkeeping, and assist in various program plans.

Megan Van Houten

ISU Extension and Outreach’s core purpose is to engage citizens through research-based education, accomplishing these goals by developing diverse and meaningful partnerships. Through these goals, Extension and Outreach is able to increase the ability of Iowans to make informed decisions by applying relevant, needs-driven resources. Please stop by the Guthrie County Extension Office at 212 State Street in Guthrie Center and welcome Megan to her new position. Feel free to contact her with any questions, as well as any suggestions you have.

Heavy snowfall and blizzardlike conditions are being reported as a powerful winter storm moves through the middle of Nebraska. The Nebraska Transportation Department closed Interstate 80 and U.S. Highway 30 in both directions Thursday morning, from Lexington to North Platte. It cited whiteout and other weather factors. The National Weather Service has posted blizzard or winter storm warnings for several counties. Most of the warnings are scheduled to expire by Friday morning. Six inches of snow was reported in Cozad and Elwood.

CORALVILLE, Iowa (AP) — A judge has rejected the city of Coralville’s request to build a new railroad crossing to accommodate future development near the Coral Ridge Mall. Administrative Law Judge Jonathan Gallagher sided with the Iowa Interstate Railroad, which opposed Coralville’s plan to establish the crossing near Lowe’s west of Coral Ridge Avenue. The city requested permission to build the crossing after negotiations with the railroad failed.

Coralville says the crossing would provide a second access point for emergency vehicles into land that’s expected to be developed commercially in the future. The railroad argued the plan would be challenging from an engineering perspective and that the city has several nearby crossings. In a Dec. 18 ruling, Gallagher says the city’s request to use eminent domain is premature. He says the city has no specific development plans or details on the infrastructure changes and costs that building a crossing would require.

A final reminder for those of you in the Griswold area: you have until Dec. 30^th to fill out an online Child Care Center Survey. (http:www.quia.com/sv/891022.html) Steve Baier, one of the organizers of the effort to get people participating in the survey, said families with young children in the Griswold area are being asked to fill-out the survey to gauge the need for child care. The initiative was made possible, thanks to a gift of $65,000 from the Noble Center Church, which is disbanding.

Those funds are being matched by Griswold Communications.

An Ad-Hoc committee was established to govern the project, which is expected to be run by a non-profit organization.

The survey may be answered anonymously, with names being optional. Baier says the information they’ve received so far from this survey and others, has been very useful.

He said about two-thirds of the respondants so far said they would use a non-profit run child care center, if it were offered. The deadline to fill-out the survey, which takes about 10-to 15-minutes, is December 30th. It asks you very basic questions, and some that are time-specific.

If you have questions or would like to complete a survey, but do not have internet access, call Steve or Barb Baier at 712-778-4452. The next step, after the results are compiled, is to find a facility to lease rather than build something new, with the hope of having ready by next summer, and a fee structure that would not be a burden on working families. In the meantime, organizers will be writing grant applications and looking for financial partners. They will also accept donations.

(Radio Iowa) — Federal operations in Iowa are scaling back services as a partial government shutdown continues. Those federal workers who are considered essential are still on the job, including law enforcement. National Monuments and wildlife refuges only have minimal staffing, but are open to visitors and hunters. Chuck Traxler is a regional director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “At most of our national wildlife refuges, we follow state hunting seasons, so if there is a legal hunting season going on and that refuge is open to that hunting, it’s open to the public to use,” Traxler says. “I would add, we do have law enforcement folks that are all on duty.”

Those federal facilities in Iowa have not been vacated, he assures. “There will be staff at every refuge, just doing the essential stuff to make sure public equipment is safe and secure,” Traxler says, “just to make sure in case something breaks or there’s any kind of emergency maintenance needed.”

The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch is closed due to the government shutdown, and National Weather Service offices in Iowa will keep forecasting, but social media updates are limited. Funding for parts of the federal government ran out at midnight Friday as President Donald Trump and members of Congress bicker over building a wall along the southern U-S border.

More State and area news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A former shelter dog has retired after eight years of comforting patients at the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics in Iowa. Maggie, a certified therapy dog, has been part of the hospital’s Furry Friends program. Her owner, Sue Braverman, says Maggie seems to have a gift for making people feel better— patients and hospital staffers alike. Maggie’s hospital friends said goodbye to her Wednesday at a retirement gathering. She’s 13. Braverman says Maggie will spend the rest of her days at her home.

(UPDATE 8:15-a.m.: The roadway was last reported to be open to 1-lane) Officials with the Taylor County Sheriff’s Office report traffic on State Highway 148 near the 2 mile marker is currently slowed due to an overturned tractor trailer. The road may be temporarily closed this morning to clean up the accident. Please take this into account with your travel plans if this is along your route. Updates will be posted as soon as they are available.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:35 a.m. CST

UNDATED (AP) — California is trying to matter in the 2020 presidential election. The nation’s biggest state has moved up its primary in the hopes of getting some love from candidates along with the traditional quartet of early-voting states _ Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. There’s no guarantee the strategy will work. California is expensive to campaign in, and that will limit who can compete there.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Prosecutors say thousands of individuals and businesses were victims of a large-scale scheme in which ordinary corn and soybeans were fraudulently marketed nationwide as “certified organic.” The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, says that potentially “tens of thousands” were defrauded by Randy Constant and his associates into paying a premium for products that they didn’t want. Constant, of Chillicothe, Missouri, and three others have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Three former managers at the University of Iowa police department have filed lawsuits claiming that their jobs were eliminated as part of a “culture of discrimination” against older workers. The lawsuits were filed by former UI Department of Public Safety associate director William Searls, Capt. Ian Scott and Capt. Loren Noska. The three were notified on April 20, 2017 that their jobs were being cut by Director Scott Beckner, who cited “an organizational realignment” as the reason.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — A judge has issued restrictions for media coverage of the trial for a 12-year-old eastern Iowa boy accused of trying to shoot a junior high school teacher. The Quad-City Times reported Wednesday the Scott County District Court judge ruled the media can’t name the boy or take identifiable photographs of him or witnesses younger than 18. The boy is charged with attempted murder, carrying weapons on school grounds and assault while displaying a dangerous weapon. The incident happened in Eldridge.