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

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URBANDALE, Iowa (AP) – A dive team has recovered the body of a man from a pond in the Des Moines suburb of Urbandale. Police were first called to the Extended Stay America hotel around 9 p.m. Saturday, where a man reported that his brother and another man had been swimming in the pond near the hotel when one of them went missing. Officers couldn’t find him Saturday night.

The Polk City dive team was called in early Sunday morning, and divers found the body a little before 2 p.m. Police haven’t released the man’s name. An autopsy was ordered.

JOHNSTON, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say customs officials near the Canadian border have taken into custody a man suspected of fatally shooting his girlfriend in a suburb of Des Moines. The man was picked up Sunday at International Falls, Minnesota. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials recognized his car from information in a release put out by police in Johnston, Iowa, where the slaying occurred.

Police say the man has yet to be formally charged. The victim’s been identified as 34-year-old Agnes Yarlee. She was found wounded Saturday night by officers sent to investigate several reports about gunshots at an apartment complex. Police say she died at the scene.

A study finds record ethanol and biodiesel production in Iowa in 2016 had a significant impact on the state’s economy. The report says renewable fuels supported more than 42-thousand Iowa jobs and generated 2-point-3-billion dollars in household income for Iowans. Study author John Urbanchuk says because the fuels are produced in the state, impacts on the state economy are even more important.

“What makes the industry so important to Iowa is that virtually all of the feed stock that’s used by that industry is produced in the state,” Urbanchuk says. “The economic impact, all the dollars spent on that stuff, circulate back through the Iowa economy. That’s a bit more important for Iowa than it is for some of the other states.”

He says the amount of ethanol that was exported to other countries also helped the state’s economy. “We looked at the volume of export on the U.S. side and figured Iowa’s share of production roughly represents that of the trade and calculated what the impact, coming from trade is,” Urbanchuk says, “and that is not inconsequential. It points out the fact that foreign trade is not only a fairly large component but a growing component of economic activity for Iowa as well.”

Urbanchuk says while ethanol production expanded in Iowa in 2016, biodiesel expansion was even greater. “We saw a very small increase in total U.S. ethanol capacity in 2016,” he says. “Iowa’s capacity also expanded in terms of production capacity and that helped them a little bit as well.”

Iowa’s 43 ethanol plants produced a combined record of 4.1-billion gallons of ethanol last year. The study was by conducted by A-B-F Economics and was commissioned by the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association.

(Radio Iowa)

Lawmakers are aiming to finish the work of the 2017 Iowa legislative session this week, but it will require a flurry of votes in the House and Senate. A series of bills outlining more than seven-point-two BILLION dollars in spending for the next state budgeting year have been drafted, but none have reached Governor Terry Branstad’s desk yet. “I think it’s going to be a very productive session, under difficult circumstances,” Branstad says.

Lower-than-expected state tax revenue prompted a round of cuts to the CURRENT year’s state budget. An updated and even more depressed report on revenue in March forced Branstad to recalculate HIS plan for the NEXT state budget. Republican lawmakers have decided to go even LOWER than Branstad, by about 38 million dollars. “I think the legislature has been working diligently and a number of significant improvements in our public policy are being made,” Branstad says.

Policy-related bills that are already law have dramatically changed Iowa’s collective bargaining law and the system for compensating injured workers. The G-O-P has control of the legislature’s debate agenda, since Republicans outnumber Democrats in both the House and Senate. Senator Joe Bolkcom, a Democrat from Iowa City, says the G-O-P spending plans close some state parks and will wind up causing tuition hikes at the state universities and community colleges. “As this Republican budget sees the light of day, it cuts vital services to all Iowans,” Bolkcom says.

Bolkcom says the problem is all the “give aways” promised to businesses in the form of tax CREDITS — not just reducing taxes, but in some cases, prompting the state to write checks to businesses that get more credits than they owe in taxes.  “The 99 percent, they’re paying for all these give-aways,” Bolkcom says, “and here we are, balancing the budget on their backs.”

A bill still pending in the state senate would let doctors prescribe marijuana as treatment for a number of chronic and debilitating conditions, but Republican House Speaker Linda Upmeyer of Clear Lake says the bill is “pretty broad” and House members would prefer something “more limited.” “Happy to work on it. Happy to have a bill that is helpful to people,” Upmeyer says. “But we’ve got to be able to have a bill that we also have enough support for to make work.”

Upmeyer says, at a minimum, legislators will at least extend the current state law that decriminalized possession of cannabis oil as treatment for chronic epilepsy. That law is set to expire July 1st.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:45 a.m. CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Republicans have had plenty to celebrate this legislative session, as they pushed through a conservative agenda, but none seem to be enjoying the final task of balancing the budget. Lawmakers could complete work as soon as this week on a roughly $7.24 billion budget that cuts funding for services including health care, higher education and court services.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — One of two men imprisoned for the 1983 robbery killing of an Iowa bartender is getting another chance to challenge his conviction with the trial court. The Quad City Times reports the Iowa Court of Appeals has sent B.C. Pendleton’s case back to Scott County District Court in Davenport. The appellate court ruled Pendleton didn’t get an adequate opportunity to argue against a summary judgment, and that the court record is incomplete.

DENVER, Iowa (AP) — A couple is restoring a 150-year-old church believed to be the second-oldest in Black Hawk County because of fear it would otherwise disappear like so many other churches in rural Iowa. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports that Martha Reineke and her husband, William Cozart, are restoring the former East Janesville United Methodist Church southwest of Denver, Iowa. They plan to reopen it as a country wedding chapel and community events center.

WINTERSET, Iowa (AP) — An iconic Madison County, Iowa, covered bridge _ pictured on the cover of the best-selling novel “The Bridges of Madison County” _ has been destroyed by fire, and authorities say they suspect it was intentionally set. The Madison County Sheriff’s Office tells the Des Moines Register that the fire at the Cedar Bridge was reported around 6 a.m. Saturday. Officials say the bridge was fully engulfed by the time firefighters got to the bridge near Winterset in south-central Iowa.

Police in Creston, Sunday, released information on two, earlier, non-injury accidents. Officials say at around 3:55-p.m. Friday, 21-year old Shandi Christine Brown, of Creston, was “Emotional” as she was driving a 2000 Dodge Neon and following her boyfriend’s vehicle westbound on Prairie Street. Witnesses said the woman was traveling at a high rate of speed and as she approached the stop sign at the 4 lane intersection with N. Sumner Street, failed to stop. She laid down some skid marks prior to failing to yield, but her vehicle hit a 2012 Mazda CX9, which was traveling north on N. Sumner, and preparing to turn left. The driver of the Mazda was 34-year old David James Crawford, of Creston. Damage from the collision amounted to $11,000. Officers cited Brown for Failure to Obey a Stop or Yield sign and Failure to show proof of insurance.

The other accident happened at around 8:30-a.m April 5th, when a car driven by 21-year old Malachi Xavier Canada, of Creston, failed to stop for the red traffic light at the intersection of W. Prairie and N. Elm Streets. The 1999 Pontiac he was driving struck a 2013 Ford SUV driven by 53-year old Mark Chubick, of Creston. Following the collision, Canada left the scene, but when located by Police, gave a story that falsely identified the occupants of the other vehicle. Canada was cited for Failure to have a valid driver’s license and failure to obey a traffic control signal. Damage from the collision amounted to $4,300.

Atlantic residents have another chance to take of spring cleaning by getting rid of good, used/and-or broken electronics, for FREE. Jason Erickson, COO of ThinkSpace IT, said the company and Southwest Iowa Composite Squadron have joined with Midwest Metal Recyclers in Logan, to host an e-waste recycling drive in Atlantic from 4-until 8-p.m. on Tuesday, April 18^th, at the American Legion Memorial Building (The Old Armory), at 2^nd and Poplar Streets.

Most all electronics expect tube televisions and large lead batteries, will be accepted. The electronic equipment can be almost anything can carry. Televisions and computer monitors should be recycled at your local landfill, or large “Box Stores,” like Best Buy (but you should call ahead first). The E-waste is transported to another location to be broken down into separate, smaller components and then melted down into their valuable metals (Gold, silver, etc). Those metals are re-sold to make new products.

Erickson says there’s really no limit on the amount of small electronics you can bring to event. They will accept laptops, desktops, servers, computer mice, printers, scanners, external & internal hard drives, keyboards, UPS battery backups, tablets, and more. The event is being coordinated by the local Civil Air Patrol group, the “Southwest Iowa Composite Squadron.”

The community service project is aimed at getting toxic chemical found in electronic that might otherwise be illegally dumped in the country, into a safe place for disposal.

Red Oak Police report a man was arrested on an assault charge, Saturday night. Officers arrested 35-year old Thomas Zachary Bentley, of Red Oak, at around 9:30-p.m. in the 100 block of E. Maple Street. Bentley was brought to the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center and held without bond on a charge of  Domestic Abuse Assault.

Strong thunderstorms brought heavy rain, some brief tornadoes or funnel clouds, and large hail to parts of Iowa Saturday evening and night. The Severe Storms Predication Center issues a Severe Thunderstorm Watch a little after 5-p.m., Saturday, and it wasn’t long before warnings for severe weather were popping up in southwest Iowa.

The National Weather Service says one-inch diameter (quarter size) hail began to fall three-miles south/southwest of Pacific Junction in Mills County, just before the Watch was issued. Nickel size hail fell two-miles southwest of Thurman, in Fremont County, at around 5:35-p.m., but nearby, quarter-size hail was falling. About 10-minutes later, the hail had increased to the size of ping pong balls.

At around 7:40-p.m. quarter-size hail fell at Greenfield, in Adair County, and soon after, penny size hail was falling in Stuart. At around 8:45-p.m., ping-pong ball size hail fell around Mondamin, in Harrison County, and in Logan about 5 minutes later.  Quarter size hail fell around Portsmouth, in Shelby County, and golf ball size hail fell Persia at around 9:20-p.m. Golf ball size hail was also reported in southeast Iowa, near New Virginia and Traer.

There were no confirmed tornadoes in southwest Iowa, but there were reports of funnel clouds. Just south of the State line in Missouri at around 7:40-p.m., a trained spotter in Blanchard, Iowa, observed a funnel cloud had formed four-miles northeast of Westboro, MO., and law enforcement confirmed a funnel cloud near Rockport, MO., at around 7:15-p.m. In eastern Iowa’s Linn County, trained firefighter spotters saw a funnel cloud during a lightning event near Central City.

There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.