SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – The Sioux City School Board has approved an agreement to buy unused space for classrooms in the downtown Sioux City Public Museum. The second-floor space would be converted into 19 classrooms so the district could hold Life Academy and Career Academy courses there. Those courses now are spread out at all three high schools, Wester Iowa Tech Community College and the Ho-Chunk Centre downtown. The district plans still face reviews from city officials.

Before becoming a museum, the building held a Delta Air Lines call center that closed in 2012. The building was built as a J.C. Penney retail store more than three decades ago.

Parts of Atlantic were hit by an apparent microburst of rain and wind this (Wednesday) morning. Tree limbs were reported down in the vicinity of the Mid-Town Apartments located near 8^th and Plum Streets. Strong winds also damaged some windows in the area. The damage seemed to span from 10th and Cherry northeast through the 7th Street corridor, east of Plum Street. A cashier at the Casey’s east store told KJAN News the winds blew the businesses doors open, and rain flowed across the floor to near the soft serve treat area. The storm hit between 6 and 6:15-a.m.

The same area and areas to the west were hit by a micro-burst several years ago. No injuries have been were reported. A microburst is a localized column of sinking air (downdraft) within a thunderstorm and is usually less than or equal to 2.5 miles in diameter. Microbursts can cause extensive damage at the surface, and in some instances, can be life-threatening.

Graphic from the NWS

A Colorado couple, sunburned after days of cycling across Iowa, got married Tuesday afternoon during the Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa. Whit and Sarah Oyler, of Denver, tied the knot on the City Beach stage in Clear Lake. The couple had been on RAGBRAI together when Clear Lake was a pass-through community in 2014. “We got engaged last October and the more we thought about wedding planning, we realized we didn’t want a big, expensive, crazy wedding,” Sarah says. “That doesn’t fit us. What fits us is something simple like RAGBRAI. He came up with the idea and it probably took me five minutes to process and then I said, ‘Okay, let’s do it!'”

Sarah says she contacted RAGBRAI executive director T-J Juskiewicz about the wedding idea, who in turn contacted Clear Lake officials who helped set up the ceremony. Whit says they made everything incredibly simple for the couple.  “They couldn’t have made it any easier, the flowers, they were amazing,” he says. “They didn’t even talk to us about it, they just had them ready. They asked what her favorite color was, periwinkle, they just had them ready. Oh, my God!”    

The newlyweds say they appreciated their fellow bike riders and the folks in Clear Lake for helping them celebrate their wedding day. “I honestly couldn’t be any happier with how easy this process was, how helpful everyone’s been, how nice everyone’s been in this town,” Whit says. “We’ve only been here for an hour, maybe two hours, and everyone’s been incredibly nice.” “All the riders today, it’s been a wonderful experience,” Sarah adds. “Congratulations from everybody, it’s really been great.”

The couple met six years ago while they were going to school at Oklahoma State University.

(Radio Iowa)

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

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The president of the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association says the “master matrix” rules for confined animal feedlot operations in Iowa are working properly and don’t need strengthening. Mike Cline, of Elgin, says it’s critical those regulations are left intact and that there’s one statewide regulation in place for all producers to follow. “We’re strongly in support of one master matrix for the whole state and not have it divided out into a county decision where we could have 99 different decisions across the state,” Cline says. “We’ll be in attendance of any meetings that we can be following it and keeping everybody up to date on where they need to go and give comment on.”

Activist groups are petitioning for putting stricter master matrix rules in place. Cline says the state’s water is being protected by the current rules and changing them now doesn’t make sense. “All the bases are pretty well covered with the current master matrix,” Cline says. “We always need to keep evaluating where we’re at. All of the safeguards are in place and everybody should rest assured that everything’s being watched over.”

He says producers and their animals use the water and don’t want to see any contamination or environmental damage to it. “We would be the first ones to notice any ill effects,” Cline says. “We just don’t want to do the wrong thing and we would be constantly vigilant of watching for anything that might need to be adjusted or changed.”

He says producers and consumers need to work together to enhance the state’s water quality and putting some type of moratorium in place on CAFO operations would be disruptive and hurtful.

(Radio Iowa)

The FREE, 2017 Cass County 4-h & FFA Fair begins today in Atlantic and concludes Tuesday, August 1st, with the Livestock Sale and release of the Static Exhibits. Today at the Fair, there’s 4-H Static Exhibit Judging from 9-a.m. until 2:30-p.m., and the Clover Kids Showcase from 9-until 11-a.m. The Food Sale begins at 10-a.m. inside the Cass County Community Center on the Fairgrounds, and then at 6-p.m., Preparation Day for the rest of the activities will begin.

You can view the full schedule of events here: https://www.extension.iastate.edu/cass/sites/www.extension.iastate.edu/files/cass/2017%20Schedule_Final.pdf

A former Morningside College baseball player says he will seek the Democratic nomination for the 4th District’s seat in Congress. J.D. Scholten formally announced his bid to run against Republican incumbent Steve King for the U-S House seat in a short campaign video news release Tuesday. “I’m running to help build an economy that benefits hard-working middle class Iowans. And a health care system that makes sense for the way we live our lives in this district. And a return to decency and integrity in our politics,” Scholten says.

Scholten released an addition statement that says he is “sick and tired of how divisive politics in this country has become, and how divorced it is from people’s lives.” Scholten was born in Ames and raised in Sioux City. He played baseball for Morningside College and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he graduated with a degree in World/American History. After graduating, he pursued a baseball career that allowed him to play in seven different countries. He currently works as a freelance paralegal and technical consultant.

(Radio Iowa)

GRINNELL, Iowa (AP) – A jury has awarded $4.5 million to a former employee who sued an Iowa hospital for age bias and retaliation. The Des Moines Register reports that the jury’s decision Monday came after a 10-day trial of Grinnell Regional Medical Center and two administrators. The lawsuit brought by Gregory Hawkins said the hospital fired him in June 2015 from his post as lab director while in remission from breast cancer and hired a younger replacement.

His attorney alleged that Hawkins was targeted because he’d declined an order to retire following his initial diagnosis in November 2013. The hospital’s attorneys deny the firing and subsequent hiring of a new director had anything to do with Hawkins’ age or cancer diagnosis. A hospital spokeswoman says the hospital intends to appeal.

Creston Police report the arrest Tuesday evening of a man on an OWI charge. 41-year old Tommy Watters, of Creston, was taken into custody for OWI/1st offense at around 6:30-p.m. Watters was later released from the Union County Jail on a $1,000 bond.

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

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