Second-quarter earnings at Winnebago Industries released Wednesday show the company had a profit of more than 15 million dollars. The Forest City-based recreational vehicle manufacturer reports on a per-share basis, it had a profit of 48 cents. Earnings were 46 cents per share. Winnebago posted revenue of 370-and-a-half million dollars for the period, exceeding Wall Street forecasts. Company C-E-O Michael Happe says the company is building the foundation for a stronger future.

He says, “In our second quarter, we continued to make strong progress in transforming Winnebago Industries into a material-larger company with a more balanced R-V product portfolio, and an enterprise with significant runway for profitable growth in the future.” It was just over a year ago when Happe took over as the head of the legacy motor home manufacturer. In that time, he says he’s tried to guide the company to find its future identity.

He says, “We’ve made much progress in the last year. We admit there’s much work to do, and we’ll continue to set our goals high for what this Winnebago team can accomplish in the years to come.”

The second quarter marked the first full financial period after Winnebago acquired Indiana-based towable manufacturer Grand Design for 500 million dollars. Happe says with Grand Design on board now, it’s complimented Winnebago’s existing towables unit.  He says the overall towables segment in the second quarter accounted for about 46 percent of the roughly 370 million dollars revenue. “This 370 million dollars in enterprise sales was a 64 percent overall increase over the same period a year ago, when 90 plus-percent of Winnebago Industries’ revenue came from our motorized business.”

Winnebago Industries stock has risen almost 30 percent over the last 12 months.

(Radio Iowa)

Sheriff’s officials in Union County say a Creston woman reported Wednesday morning, that sometime during the overnight hours Tuesday into Wednesday, two 4-wheel ATV’s were taken from her property on Quail Avenue.  A few hours later, both 4-wheelers were recovered with no damage.

Also taken from the property was a 5-gallon gas can and a 24’ machete.  The still missing items, were valued at $50.

Sheriff’s officials in Pottawattamie County report the arrest following a traffic stop, of a man who was in violation of a protective order. At around 2:10-p.m., Wednesday, a deputy stopped a pickup driven by 65-year old Marvin Ring, of Underwood. Records indicated a passenger in the truck, 38-year old Kirk Thomas Ring, also of Underwood, had a protection order issued against him by Marvin Ring.

Kirk Ring was placed under arrest and transported to the Pott. County Jail.

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

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LONG GROVE, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say a driver and a student were injured in a collision of two school buses in eastern Iowa’s Scott County. The accident occurred around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, about two miles northwest of Long Grove. The Scott County Sheriff’s Office says a northbound bus halted at a stop sign and then proceeded into the rural intersection, colliding with a westbound bus.

The driver of the northbound bus, 67-year-old Stanley Ray, was taken to Trinity Bettendorf hospital for treatment of injuries believed to be non-life-threatening. One child was treated at the scene.  It’s unclear how many children were on the two buses. The Sheriff’s Office says both were carrying children from the North School Community Schools district. The collision is being investigated.

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

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Red Oak Police, Wednesday afternoon, arrested 25-year old Robert James Adams, of Red Oak, for Driving While License Suspended. Adams was taken into custody at around 4:20-p.m. in the 400 block of E. Linden Street, and transported to the Montgomery County Jail, where his bond was set at $300.

Officials with the Senior Alumni Scholarship Foundation (SASF) report the Foundation will award three, $1,750 scholarships to Atlantic High School seniors. Applications are due Monday, April 3rd. Application forms are available on the Atlantic Community Schools website. Follow the links to Atlantic High School, Guidance, Local Scholarships and then scroll down to SASF Scholarship.

SASF Chair Leslie Bullock Goldsmith says many students meet the criteria for SASF scholarships, which are broad-based and require: Financial need; A character reference; A GPA of 2.5 or higher, and acceptance to a two- or four-year college or vocational/technical school.

SASF encourages high school seniors and their parents to check out all of the local scholarships on the school’s website. Students may be eligible for several of the scholarships on the list.

OSKALOOSA, Iowa (AP) – Another Iowa hospital is closing its inpatient psychiatric care unit. Mahaska Health Partnership Chief Executive Officer Jay Christensen said Wednesday that the Oskaloosa hospital discharged its last psychiatric inpatient Monday.

He says the unit has been losing about $500,000 a year, in large part because many psychiatric patients have to stay in the hospital for weeks or months after they’re ready to leave, because nursing homes or other residential facilities won’t take them. He says many of the patients are physically aggressive.

The Oskaloosa psychiatric unit is the latest of several closed over about the past several years in Iowa. The state closed its Clarinda and Mount Pleasant psychiatric hospitals in 2015. Community hospitals in Creston, Fort Dodge, Iowa Falls, Keokuk and West Union also closed their inpatient psychiatric units.

Should they stay or should they go? Iowa Senators debated the fate of traffic enforcement cameras for nearly an hour last (Wednesday) night, dramatically ditching a proposal to ban the cameras. Instead, senators voted to let the cameras remain, with the fines used exclusively for public safety or roads. Senator Dan Zumbach, a Republican from Ryan, touted the traffic cameras along Interstate-380 in Cedar Rapids. “Those traffic cameras have changed people’s habits,” Zumbach said. “…The road is safer because of those cameras.”

Senator Kevin Kinney, a Democrat from Oxford, is a Johnson County Deputy Sheriff. He says the cameras are helpful on congested highways where law enforcement cannot safely pull drivers over for speeding. “I’ve had to tackle a state trooper to get him out of the way of vehicles coming at us,” Kinney says.

Traffic cameras have passionate critics, too. Senator David Johnson, an independent from Ocheyedan, ridiculed colleagues who voted to keep the cameras going. “This group hug for Big Brother.” Senator Brad Zaun, a Republican from Urbandale, has tried for years to pass a bill to outlaw traffic cameras.  “I am very disappointed, but that does happen,” Zaun said. “…I call these ‘gotcha cams.'”

The first automated enforcement cameras were installed in Iowa about a dozen years ago. Since then, legislators have debated bills that would limit fines as well as legislation to completely ban the cams, but there’s never been a final resolution. Critics say out-of-state companies that review the video and mail out the citations are making too much money from the cameras. In late January, the chiefs of police in Iowa’s two largest cities told senators the cameras in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids had been placed on interstates where it’s not safe for police to pull drivers over and ticket them for speeding.

(Radio Iowa)