DES MOINES, Iowa — The dog days of summer are behind us and with the last push of vacation travel, the Iowa departments of Public Safety and Transportation are reminding Iowans of the “Steer it, Clear it” law that took effect July 1, 2017.

Do you know what to do in the event of a fender bender where no one is injured? Iowa’s amended law (House File 313 to amend Iowa Code 321.262) requires the drivers of vehicles involved in a crash where there are no serious injuries to move the vehicles out of the driving lanes of traffic.

The change was made to improve the safety of those involved in the crash, as well as others on the roadway. There are approximately 55,000 crashes in Iowa every year. For every minute a lane is blocked, the risk of a secondary crash increases by roughly 2.8 percent. That means the likelihood of another crash happening in the area of the first crash is very high after about 30 minutes.

Pat Hoye, Iowa Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau Chief, said, “No one wants to be stuck in traffic. Seeing a crash ahead can cause anxiety and frustration by drivers caught by the delay. Clearing minor crashes off the road quickly keeps traffic moving and reduces the risk for all drivers.”

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Officials at a central Iowa jail want to open three empty housing units amid an increase in inmates, but county supervisors hope for other efforts to reduce the jail population. The Des Moines Register reports that Polk County Jail has seen a daily average of more than 1,000 inmates this year.

Jail director Frank Marasco asked the county Board of Supervisors in May to open the three housing units and add an additional 15 detention officers to staff them. County supervisors hope to use deterrence efforts to prevent low-level offenders from ending up behind bars instead of granting the $1.1 million request.

Marasco says the safety of those in the jail is at risk until something is done to address the high number of inmates.

The Union County Sheriff’s Office says no injuries were reported following a rollover accident Friday evening, near Creston. Authorities say 24-year old Courtney Lynne Wilson, of Moss Point, MS., who was wearing a seat belt, was traveling east on 110th Street at around 5:30-p.m., when a rear, passenger side spare tire blew out. and caused the 2008 Chevy Malibu to go out of control. The vehicle entered the north ditch and rolled over. Damage was estimated at $3,000. The car was declared a total loss.

Sioux City’s 185th Air Refueling Wing has gotten back the first tanker aircraft that has been upgraded with the latest digital cockpit instruments. Lieutenant Colonel Shawn Streck, 185th Maintenance Commander, says the instrument panel replacement program known as the “block 45” replaces most of the remaining analog gauges in the cockpit of the aging K-C-135 with new instrumentation and L-C-D displays: He says the jet was built in 1958 and most of the instruments were original to aircraft, so this upgrade puts them on par with the current civilian aircraft.

The block 45 program replaces the radio altimeter, autopilot, digital flight director and other gauges with computer module updates. Streck says during the next 12 months the 185th expects to have five of its K-C-135’s have the new cockpit instruments installed. That should keep the 1950’s era aircraft viable for years to come. “Our maintainers take amazingly good care of these aircraft. And they’re maintaining them at a level that they will be able to fly until 2040-2050,” Streck says. “So block 45 is a good fit to modernize them to make sure that they can stay at the standard that we want to keep them.”

Streck says the new technology means the planes will likely be flying long after he retires. He says he is 43 and plans to retire sometime between when he is 53 and 57. “Unless we get different airplanes, we very well could be flying these same planes 15 years from now. And there could be another generation that takes them 10 or 15 years past that. I would not be surprised to be seeing these tails on this ramp 30 years from now,” Streck says.

The mid-air refueler returned to Sioux City after 60 days at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma where the new systems were installed.

(Radio Iowa)

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (5.7MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Iowa teachers who haven’t done so for THIS school year may have to incorporate Iowa history in their classroom lessons soon. New state standards requiring Iowa history be taught at every grade level were approved by the Iowa Board of Education this spring. “This will ensure that students across Iowa get wide exposure to Iowa history. School districts must implement these standards by 2020.”

That’s Stephanie Wager, the social studies consultant in the Iowa Department of Education. According to the new standards, “active, informed citizenship” and “civic competence” is based on an understanding of history. “I can tell you that we are working hard to make sure Iowa students understand our state’s past and why it matters,” she says.

Iowa is among the last states to require state-specific historical information to be taught in its schools. “The topic of Iowa history is not just one for those who care passionately about the subject. It should be important to all Iowans,” Wager says.

Wager says “Knowing about your community and state provides incentive for Iowans to stay here in the state and improve their own communities.” The State Historical Society has posted a new collection of more than 170 photos, recordings, letters and other documents online. Teachers are being encouraged to use the items in their history lessons. “It’s so important to expose students to a wide variety of media and images and artifacts,” Wager says, “and to see how historians kind of use all of those things to put together the big picture of history.”

The script Iowa native Herbert Hoover used to deliver his inaugural address in 1929 is part of the collection. President Hoover’s handwritten notes are on the documents, along with water marks from the rain that fell the day he took the presidential oath of office. A 100-thousand dollar federal grant helped pay for posting these historical materials online. The items come from the Library of Congress and the State Historical Museum.

(Radio Iowa)

The Creston Police Department reports two men were arrested early Monday morning on drug charges. Between 2:30-a.m. and 3-a.m., 24-year old Michael Cox, and 22-year old Cody Reighard, both of Creston, were arrested at the the Union County Law Enforcement Center (LEC),on four counts each of Burglary in the 3rd degree.

Reighard was also charged with Possession of a Controlled Substance, while Cox was charged with Possession of a Controlled Substance/2nd offense. Both men were being held at the Union County Jail, where Cox’ bond was set at $22,000, and Reighard’s bond was set at $21,000.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.5MB)

Subscribe: RSS

NEW YORK (AP) – United Technologies is acquiring Rockwell Collins for $22.75 billion in order to expand its aerospace capabilities. United Tech, which makes Otis elevators and Pratt & Whitney engines, said Monday it’s paying $140 per share in cash and stock for Rockwell Collins, a 9.4 premium over Tuesday’s closing price, when reports of a deal surfaced. Including debt, the acquisition is worth $30 billion.

Rockwell Collins, based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, makes flight deck avionics, cabin electronics and cabin interiors for commercial and military customers. Farmington, Connecticut-based United Technologies called the businesses complementary and expects $500 million in pretax savings related to the deal. It reaffirmed its 2017 profit estimates.

The companies expect the deal to close by the third quarter of 2018, subject to approval from Rockwell Collins shareowners and regulators.

Iowa school kids are back in class and one of the biggest challenges some districts are facing now is finding enough people to keep wheels on the buses going round and round. Max Christensen, the executive officer for school transportation at the Iowa Department of Education, says many other states have the same issue. “From coast-to-coast and border-to-border, there’s concern with trying to fill that seat behind the steering wheel on those school buses,” Christensen says.

He says Iowa schools are doing all they can to get out the word. “A lot of school districts are parking buses in parking lots at malls or grocery stores and that sort of and putting banners on advertising that school bus drivers are wanted,” Christensen says. “One school district in northeast Iowa is using a new tactic that I’ve never seen before…its’s kind of low tech. They are actually using yard signs to advertise for school bus drivers.”

He says they have around nine-thousand school bus drivers in the state and around one-thousand leave each year. Christensen admits the challenges involved in driving a school bus may deter some people. “Being a school bus driver is not an easy task. You are driving down the road with a big vehicle and you’ve quite a number of students behind you — upwards of 40 or 50 students sitting behind you,” Christensen explains. Trying to drive the bus and control the kids at the same time is sometimes somewhat challenging.”

But he says you don’t just hop on the bus and drive away. He says there’s training for you and there’s licensing through the D-O-T along with drug, background and alcohol tests before you can take the wheel. Bus driving generally requires a split shift in the morning and afternoon, which rules out a lot of people who have other jobs. “They work very well for stay-at-home mothers or retired people, somebody like that,” Christensen explains. “It’s also very good income for a lot of college students. I know in a lot of college towns, college students drive a lot of school buses. It just depends on your personal schedule whether it will fit. For those it works well for — it’s really a pretty good income.”

He says the driver shortage has caused some districts to offer more pay. “I’ve seen upwards of anywhere from 18 or 19 upwards to 25 dollars an hour — which is really pretty good money to drive a school bus,” according to Christensen. ” If it works for you, that’s certainly good extra income,” Christensen says.  He suggests you check with your local school district if you might have the interest and time to drive a school bus. “Regardless or where you are at in Iowa, I think just about every district will take a look at you if you want to come in and drive a school bus. The shortage is just that severe,” Christensen says.

“School Bus Fleet” magazine recently reported that a school district in Muncie, Indiana canceled the first two days of school because they had a shortage of bus drivers. The state of Hawaii had to consolidate and eliminate some of its bus routes due to a lack of drivers, as did a school district in Oklahoma.

(Radio Iowa)