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

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Police in Creston, Thursday afternoon, arrested 40-year old Teresa Joan Earley, of Creston, on two Union County warrants. The warrants charge Earley with Violation of Probation. The woman was being held for Union County in the Ringgold County Jail, on two, $5,000 cash only bonds.

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

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An Iowa businessman has returned from Brazil where his company helped the country open its first large-scale corn ethanol production plant. Summit Agricultural Group C-E-O Bruce Rastetter, of Alden, says Brazil has previously made most of its ethanol from sugar cane. But the country now has gone to a two-season crop system that has increased the amount of corn available.

“Because of the weather and the rainfall they have been able to move to produce a crop of soybeans, and plant the corn the next day in January and February when harvest the corn in May and June,” Rastetter explains. “So that ability has allowed them to grow to significant corn production on second crop — which allows the opportunity for corn ethanol.”

The 115 million-dollar ethanol plant will annually process 22 million bushels of corn and produce more than 60 million gallons of corn ethanol along with 62-hundred tons of corn oil and 170-thousand tons of feed rations for Brazil’s growing livestock industry. Rastetter says the plant keeps the additional corn production in Brazil — which is good news for Iowa. “For them to produce value in their country — producing energy with it and also then the high-quality livestock feed alongside of it — is probably pretty important to the American farmer when we see large grain surpluses here in the U-S,” according to Rastetter.

He says Brazil already uses more ethanol than the United States, as their minimum ethanol blend with gasoline is 27-and-half percent compared to 10 percent in the U-S. And he doesn’t expect the increased ethanol production to hurt the U-S. He says the U-S exported about 500 million gallons of ethanol to Brazil last year and the number is increasing. And while their home produced ethanol might cut into that, he says other countries like China, Europe and those in Southeast Asia will use more ethanol in the future.

Rastetter says exporting ethanol is not the problem here, he says it needs to be offered in more blends at the pumps like Brazil.”The U-S needs to move form 10 percent to 15 to 20 percent ethanol blends. That’s the problem for the industry, it’s part of the problem for agriculture,”Rastetter says. “Over the last eight years we haven’t seen ethanol use increase in the U-S, production go from 12 billion to 15 billion gallons.”

Rastetter says the new plant used some parts that are only made in the U-S along with some production expertise from a company called I-C-M Incorporated of Colwich, Kansas. He doesn’t think this will be the only modern ethanol plant built there. “We have terrific support from the government..the president of the country as at the inauguration as were a number of ag businesses, farmers and governors. So, we are excited about the opportunity,” Rastetter says.

Rastetter’s company partnered with a Brazilian firm known as Fiagril (Fee-uh-Grill) to build the plant. They broke ground on the facility in early 2016.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:50 a.m. CDT

GEORGE, Iowa (AP) — The start of the school year at one northwestern Iowa school district has been delayed five days until Aug. 28 after a colony of bats was discovered in a second-floor high school office. George-Little Rock superintendent John Eyerly tells the Sioux City Journal that an electrician installing a new phone system during the first week of August found evidence of bats while in the school’s liaison officer’s office.

JOHNSTON, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Department of Public Safety is confirming that recruits at its basic training academy were treated last month for heat-related illness. Department spokesman Alex Dinkla said Thursday that two of 20 recruits needed medical treatment following academy activities. He said he believed they are trooper candidates and remain part of the academy, which started May 30 at Camp Dodge in Johnston and remains ongoing.

MUSCATINE, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a 14-year-old bicyclist died after she was struck by a car in eastern Iowa. The Des Moines Register reports that Raeanna M. Reynolds of Muscatine was riding her bicycle around 9 p.m. when a 1999 Ford Taurus hit her, throwing her bicycle into a ditch. Authorities identified the driver as 26-year-old Alexander Cortes-Wolfe, of Wapello.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa couple whose adopted baby was killed after his birth parents regained custody in 2014 has won a $3.25 million judgment in a lawsuit against their adoption lawyer. The Des Moines Register reports that Rachel and Heidi McFarland were awarded the judgment in a lawsuit against their attorney, Jason Rieper. The couple alleged that Rieper allowed them to believe he’d gotten the baby’s birth mother to sign a critical release-of-custody document when he had not done so.

Funeral services will be held Saturday morning in Carroll, for a man who died at a hospital in Des Moines following a cement truck rollover accident Monday afternoon in Guthrie County. According to reports, 56-year old Randy Dean Barker, of Carroll, was driving a 2016 Mack cement truck southbound on Chestnut Road, south of Coon Rapids, when he came upon a disabled vehicle on the shoulder of the road.

When Barker applied the brakes and swerved left, the truck, which was fully loaded with cement, entered the shoulder/ditch area and came back onto the roadway. The vehicle went out of control and overturned onto the driver’s side. It skidded down the road before coming to rest. The accident happened at around 1:23-p.m., Monday.The cement truck, owned by Moorhouse Ready Mix, of Breda, sustained about $160,000 damage.

Barker was flown to Iowa Methodist Hospital in Des Moines, where he succumbed to his injuries. His funeral will be held 10:30-a.m. Saturday, at the Dahn and Woodhouse Funeral Home, in Carroll.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A new monthly report shows drought conditions continue to burden the rural economy in parts of 10 Plains and Western states. The overall Rural Mainstreet Index for the region rose slightly in August to 42.2 from July’s abysmally low 40.7. The index ranges between 0 and 100, with any number under 50 indicating a shrinking economy.

Creighton University economist Ernie Goss, who oversees the survey, says nearly 58 percent of bankers reported in August’s survey that drought conditions were having a negative effect on agriculture products in their area. Also, bankers expect farmland prices to decline by another 3.5 percent on average over the next year.

Bankers from Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming were surveyed.

GEORGE, Iowa (AP) — The start of the school year at one northwestern Iowa school district has been delayed after a colony of bats was discovered in a second-floor high school office. George-Little Rock superintendent John Eyerly tells the Sioux City Journal that an electrician installing a new phone system during the first week of August found evidence of bats while in the school’s liaison officer’s office.

The school has contracted with a pest control company to remove the bats. To allow enough time to complete the removal and sterilization, classes will now begin Aug. 28 for all district schools. School was previously scheduled to start Wednesday.

The bats’ removal, which will also include installation of some new insulation, will run around $50,000.

After holding its 6th Annual School Supply Drive, the Cass County Democratic Party delivered those donations to the schools in Cass County on 8-17-17. The schools were very excited at the large amount of donations given by the public and assured Sherry Toelle, Chair, that the supplies would be distributed to the neediest Cass County students.

“I am very thankful and happy that Cass County residents were so generous in giving our students needed school supplies. We had an outpouring of support from the community. I want to express my gratitude to those donors for opening their hearts and wallets to ensure that the children of the county have new, needed school supplies,” Toelle stated. “I want to express my gratitude to the media in Cass County who so willingly reported on the school supply drive, making people aware of the drive. I also want to express my thanks to my volunteers who distributed the drive’s flyers and who placed boxes out in the community. They know who they are and they are the best!” (Photo’s submitted)

Terri Smith & Sherry Toelle, Vice-Chair & Chair respectively, Cass County Democratic Party; Dee South and Larry Hunt, CAM School District

Katie Elwood, Griswold Schools; Terri Smith & Sherry Toelle, Cass County Democratic Party Vice-Chair & Chair respectively.

Gun rights activists are renewing their call to allow firearms at the Iowa State Fair after a violent incident on the fairgrounds Tuesday night. A man was stabbed and critically injured in a fight involving four young men on the southwest corner of the fairgrounds. Matt Windschitl, a Republican from Missouri Valley, says the comprehensive gun rights bill that passed this year originally included allowing guns at the fair.

” We had originally wanted to keep that provision in the bill but as we moved through the process there were a few items we had to remove from the bill in order to make sure we were building consensus and to get the necessary votes to pass the legislation,” Windschitl says. He says some lawmakers argued it’s a long-standing Fair Board policy to keep guns out.

“Why would we change that policy now,” Windschitl asks ” Now I personally believe it’s not the best policy. You shouldn’t disarm the law-abiding citizen. It’s their fundamental right to self-defense. But there was uncertainty with it.” Windschitl says he will try to talk to interested parties next year to see if minds have changed.

(Radio Iowa)