SOUTH SIOUX CITY, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say an Iowa man rescued his dog before other people came to his rescue after he and the dog broke through lake ice in northeast Nebraska. The Dakota County Sheriff’s Office says the dog, Jake, broke through the ice on a private lake northwest of Dakota City on Wednesday morning. He’d chased after a goose that had been shot. Thirty-year-old Andrew Sedivy, of Sioux City, Iowa, went after his dog and got him out but also broke through into the frigid water.

Sheriff’s deputies, the landowner and other hunters used a canoe to get Sedivy out of the lake and back to dry land, where he and Jake were later treated for their dunking.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A nonprofit group has won a $5 million grant to bolster its fight against homelessness in east-central Nebraska and southwest Iowa. Heartland Family Service says the grant from the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund grant will let it expand prevention and diversion services; dedicate rapid rehousing resources specifically to families with children; and develop a transition support team.

The grant was one of 24 totaling $97.5 million unveiled Tuesday by the Bezos Day One Fund. Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos announced in September that he’s giving $2 billion to help open preschools in low-income neighborhoods and aid homeless families.

Heartland Family Service was founded in 1875 and serves more than 52,000 individuals annually from more than 15 locations in east-central Nebraska and southwest Iowa. It is based in Omaha.

ANKENY, Iowa (AP) — A trucking company is having a $9 million operations and training center built in Ankeny. The Des Moines Register reports that Ruan Transportation Management Systems says the project will create at least 40 new jobs. The company also plans to relocate more than 100 positions to the Ankeny facility from offices in Des Moines. Ruan President Dan Van Alstine says Ruan has been looking for a place to expand and add training space for drivers and office staff.

City documents say Ankeny will provide Ruan with tax increment financing rebates worth an estimated $262,000 over five years. Construction is expected to begin in early 2019 and conclude in the fall.

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

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MONTEZUMA, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a 6-year-old boy died after he, another child and a man fell through pond ice in central Iowa. The accident occurred around 2:45 p.m. Wednesday at a privately owned pond in Montezuma. First responders were able to get all three out of the frigid water and send them to hospitals. The Poweshiek County Sheriff’s Office says the boy was pronounced dead at a Grinnell hospital. The girl was flown to a Des Moines hospital, and the man was hospitalized in Grinnell. Their names and their relationships to each other have not been released.

(Radio Iowa) — A state law passed in 2012 called on Iowa schools to identify struggling readers and improve the quality of reading instruction. In one central Iowa elementary school, reading aloud is being emphasized. Brian Vaughn, principal of Cornell Elementary in the Saydel Community School District, says  “Our staff has spent multiple weeks teaching, modeling, observing, conferring, self-reflecting on what fluent readers look and sound like in our classrooms.”

“Cornell students,” according to Vaughn, “now know that to be a fluent reader, they need to pay attention to their automaticity — reading quick, smooth and accurate; phrasing — making sure that my group of words sound like talking — and monitoring of expression, “to make sure their voice matches the punctuation.”

Vaughn says his teaching staff is building a “community of readers” with these strategies. “Our work here was to get students to start thinking about themselves as a reader,” Vaughn says, “because knowing one’s self as a reader has empowered them to take charge of their own learning and reach those fluency goals.”

The most recent STATEWIDE data found about 70 percent of kindergarten through third grade students in Iowa’s public and private schools are reading at or above grade level.

(Radio Iowa) — A rising number of beginning farmers are seeking help with loans and other financial planning, according to a report from the Center for Rural Affairs. Wyatt Fraas, the center’s farm and community assistance director, says he advises most of those who are just starting out to apply for loans through the U-S-D-A’s Farm Service Agency.  “In the last few years, there’s been a great increase in the number of small and new farmers who’ve gotten into the business,” Fraas says. “The Farm Service Agency responded to that by offering what they call a ‘microloan’ up to $50,000. Before that, they were focused on the larger commodity operations.”

Those larger operations may’ve been working with sums from the hundreds of thousands into the millions of dollars. He says many of those beginning producers have been challenged lately by low commodity prices and the trade war. “If they’re looking strictly at commodity crops, it’s very difficult to make the cash flow work,” Fraas says. “The Farm Service Agency uses a running average for the prices that they’ll use in those cases, which in this situation works to the farmer’s advantage as far as qualifying for a loan.”

Fraas says it’s critical new producers create a blueprint for their operation that can be shared with the lender. “It’s helpful for beginners to work up a business plan, something that talks about where their business is going to go, how they’re going to run it and the cashflow parts of it,” Fraas says. “The lender may not want to see the entire business plan. They specifically want to see the finances.”

Fraas says any new farmer who’s looking for advice can contact the Center for Rural Affairs, based in Lyons, Nebraska.

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

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DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — Eight Davenport employees have sued the city, saying the city didn’t properly supervise a former housing program manager who hid a camera in a restroom. The lawsuit filed Tuesday in Scott County District Court seeks restitution for “permanent personal injuries” and “an immense amount of emotional distress.” The former manager, Roy DeWitt, was sentenced in July to 16 years in prison after pleading guilty to eight counts of invasion of privacy. The Quad-City Times reports that city attorney Tom Warner disputes the allegations and says the city was not negligent.

The Taylor County Sheriff’s Office reports two men were arrested today (Thursday), on assault and other charges. 30-year old Michael Hartley, and 35-year old Dennis Andrew Hartley, both of Lenox, were arrested in the 400 block of West Illinois St, in Lenox.  Michael Hartley was charged with Assault Causing Bodily Injury, and Interference with Official Acts. He has since posted bond and been released. Dennis Hartley was arrested at the same location, on charges of Domestic Abuse Assault Causing Bodily Injury, and Interference with Official Acts. He was being held without bond in the Taylor County Jail, until seen by a Magistrate.