Iowa ranks in the top ten states in all things beef.  On Thursday, June 16th, join Women, Land & Legacy of Southwest Iowa in learning details about different kinds of cattle operations and where your beef products come from. The event will begin at 6 p.m. with a supper served by the Mills-Montgomery County Cattlemen.  The meal will be held at the Will & Deb Frazee Century Farm at 1080 230^th St., Emerson.  Following supper, The Frazee family will present information about their cow-calf operation.

As a group, they will then caravan to Gregory Feedlots, located on J-18 between Randolph and Tabor.  David Trowbridge will give a presentation and a tour of the feedlot operation beginning around 7:45 p.m.  The event is expected to conclude at approximately 8:30.

Not only will this be a wonderful learning opportunity for women interested in learning more about varying aspects of ag production, it will provide excellent information to youth who might be contemplating a career in beef production, or 4-H and FFA members enrolled in either market or breeding beef projects.

This event is open to anyone, with pre-registration required by Monday, June 13^th.  To register, call Iowa State University Extension & Outreach-Mills County at (712) 527-3316, Fremont County at (712) 374-2351, or Montgomery County at (712) 623-2592.  Special accommodations may be requested by contacting these offices.  The cost is $5 per person, including the meal, payable at the door.  Proceeds will be used to offset the cost of the program.  Participants should dress casually and appropriately for the outdoors, and wear close-toed shoes.

This event is sponsored through a partnership of Fremont, Mills and Montgomery counties Farm Service Agency, Soil and Water Conservation District, Iowa State University Extension & Outreach, and Women, Land & Legacy of Southwest Iowa.  Women, Land & Legacy is committed to offering learning opportunities for rural women in areas such as business, management, agriculture and family.

(Press Release from Montgomery County Extension)

The Adair County Board of Supervisors, Wednesday, will receive the resignation of the Greenfield Township Clerk. The Board is then expected to act on an appointment to the position, if a person is available. In other business, the Board will receive a regular report from County Engineer Nick Kauffman, who will also present documents for signing related to plans for bridge and other projects.

The meeting will conclude with a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) presentation. The Adair County Board of Supervisors’ meeting begins at 9-a.m, Wednesday.

More area and State News, from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson

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The Creston Police Department has released a report on recent arrests and thefts. Officials say 19-year old Wayne Signs, of Creston, was arrested Saturday night for Possession of drug paraphernalia and Criminal Mischief in the 5th degree. He was later released on a promise to appear in court. Saturday morning, Creston Police arrested 48-year old Joel Weeks, of Creston, on an assault charge. Weeks was released from the Union County Jail on a promise to appear in court, and later transferred to the custody of Polk County Sheriff’s Deputies. And, on Friday, 18-year old Dakota Williams, of Creston, was arrested for Driving While Suspended. He was later released on $300 bond.

Authorities said also, four incidents of theft or vandalism were reported. On Monday, a woman reported someone stole a red, Murray 22-inch mower off the front porch of her home in the 300 block of New York Avenue, in Creston. The loss was estimated at $156. That same afternoon, a resident reported someone had broken into his home in the 500 block of W. Adams Street, and taken a blanket and jacket. The loss was estimated at $400.

Last Saturday, a resident of Maryville, MO., reported to Creston Police someone had keyed his vehicle while it was parked on the south side of 1100 block of E. Irving Street, in Creston. The damage was estimated at $500. And, on on Friday, a resident of the 1500 block of Maranatha Lane, in Creston, reported someone had stolen 5 traffic barricades from the intersection of Sumner & Prairie Streets. The bottoms of all barricades were left behind, but the cone, top sections were missing. The loss was estimated at $500.

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

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SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – Legal issues remain unresolved following the Iowa Supreme Court’s decision not to rule on the closure of the former Argosy Sioux City riverboat casino. Last week the high court rejected the Belle of Sioux City’s request to review an Iowa Appeals Court decision that upheld previous rulings leading to the casino closure.

The Sioux City Journal reports that among the legal issues still pending is a breach of contract lawsuit Penn National Gaming Co. filed against Missouri River Historical Development, the state-licensed nonprofit gambling group that had held Woodbury County’s gambling license with the Belle of Sioux City, a subsidiary of Penn National.

There’s also the matter of nearly $1.8 million in revenue-sharing payments the Argosy owner withheld from the gambling group during the last year the casino operated.

(Update 5:52-a.m.) vehicle removed from the roadway, all lanes open

Atlantic Fire & Rescue, Marne 1st Responders and Medivac Ambulance were dispatched to a single-vehicle accident early this morning on Interstate 80, in Cass County. Dispatch reports at 5:11-a.m. indicated a subject was in shock following the accident that took place about a mile east of the Elk Horn (Highway 173) exit off I-80 eastbound, and during which all of the vehicles’ airbags deployed. It’s unclear if there were any serious injuries. At least one person was transported to the Cass County Memorial Hospital to be checked for possible injuries.

A man and woman from Colorado were in the 4-door Chevrolet vehicle. Authorities said they were in their early 20’s.

Additional information is not available at this time.

Police in Red Oak arrested a man late Monday night, on an OWI charge. 26-year old Shadoe Lane Steeve, of Red Oak, was arrested just before 11-p.m. in the 1800 block of N. Broadway Street, and brought to the Montgomery County Jail, where his bond was set at $1,000.

A juvenile court officer who’s based in Sioux City says she’s engaged in a “fundamentally different” way of working with troubled foster care kids, to try to keep them out of the prison system. Lisa Nelson is part of what’s called a “crossover team” in Woodbury County.  “We are continually reminded that this work is a living relationship and that each case brings a set of unique needs,” Nelson says. “The fact that there are ongoing struggles and, at times, failures may lead individuals to question the process or the effectiveness of the model, but overall we believe the model forces a fundamentally different way of thinking and working with this population.”

The team includes law enforcement and court officials like Nelson as well as staff in group homes for foster care kids and mental health therapists. “We were also able to employ an educational specialist who tracks educational transcripts for every child in our system who enters care,” Nelson says. One of the team’s goals is to keep foster care kids from being sent from a foster care group home to juvenile detention, because it means the kid then gets a criminal record.

“If they’re in a facility and they’re not doing well and they’re acting out, we don’t want to criminalize that,” Nelson says, “and so we tried to help them come up with levels of intervention and things they could do absent of calling law enforcement and having that child detained.”

About one-third of the foster care kids who wind up in the prison system got there because they were involved in some sort of incident in a group home. Nelson’s team has been working with Georgetown University on this project since 2008. Nelson made her comments during recent testimony at a congressional hearing in Washington, D.C. More than 415-thousand American kids are in foster care today. Iowa ranks among the top 10 states in the percentage of its children in foster care.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CDT

BURLINGTON, Iowa (AP) — Authorities in southeast Iowa say a 17-year-old driver has minor injuries after crashing his car into a pond at a private golf club. The Des Moines County Sheriff’s Office says the teen was speeding early Monday in Burlington and lost control of his vehicle at a curve. The car slid sideways, entered Flint Hills Golf Course and eventually went into a pond on the eighth hole.

HOLSTEIN, Iowa (AP) — Veterans of service in Iraq and Afghanistan are being asked to serve in a different way. The Sioux City Journal reports that membership in such groups as the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars is shrinking as World War II and Korean War veterans age and die. The groups have met varying degrees of success as they try to attract younger veterans.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Proponents say barge traffic on the Missouri River is coming back, although the industry is still swimming upstream against a perception that the river is not reliable enough to support large-scale barge commerce. While some private barge companies never stopped using the river, public ports along the 750-mile span from Sioux City, Iowa, to St. Louis virtually disappeared in the early 2000s. But a public port in Kansas City reopened last year and St. Joseph is renovating its port.

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A retired Army veteran from Clarksville plans to travel the length of the Mississippi River by canoe for personal growth and to raise funds for fellow veterans. The Leaf-Chronicle reports Bennie Giles will set a canoe into Minnesota’s Lake Itasca the first week of June for his adventure.