Money Talk, Financial Education for Women, will be offered locally this March by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. The 5-session class gives women the knowledge to make major financial decisions and improve their lives. Designed to help women improve their money management skills and overall level of financial knowledge, Money Talk will be held Thursdays, starting March 3rd, from 6:30 to 8:30-p.m., at the Cass County Community Center in Atlantic. Registration deadline is Tuesday, March 1st to ensure materials are available for participants.

The five week course will cover the following topics:

March 3: Financial Basics – Sandra McKinnon, Iowa State University Extension
March 10: Insurance Essentials – Tammy Cullen, Cullen & Associates

March 17: Investment Fundamentals – Jenny Johnson, Wiges & Johnson

March 24: Retirement Realities – Megan Roberts, Megan Roberts State Farm

March 31: Legal Issues -Jody Lorence, Otto, Lorence & Weiderstein, PLLC

The program is strictly educational, using a research-based Extension curriculum, and does not promote any company or product. Local speakers were invited to share their subject matter expertise, and to be a voice of experience for participant questions.

The cost for the 5 week program is $25 per person. This includes all sessions, handout materials and a 192-page workbook that participants will use to track their goals and progress. This program registration fee is below the usual course fee of $75 per person due to support from the Cass County Extension Council and local sponsors Cullen & Associates; Wiges & Johnson, Ameriprise Financial; Megan Roberts, State Farm; and Otto, Lorence & Wiederstein, PLLC.

For more information, or to register, contact the Cass County Extension Office at 712-243-1132 or email Kate Olson at keolson@iastate.edu. A registration form can also be found on the Cass County Extension website at www.extension.iastate.edu/cass.

The Iowa Agricultural Development Division is co-hosting Beginning Farmer and Military Veteran Workshops. The free events are open to everyone, and are sponsored by the Iowa Bankers Association, Farm Service Agency, FFA Alumni, Iowa Finance Authority and Veterans in Agriculture. Locally, a workshop will be held in Creston, Thursday April 14th, 2016, from 8:30-until 11:30-a.m. at Southwestern Community College (1501 W. Townline St.), Instructional Center Room 180.

The agenda for the meeting is as follows:

8:30-9:00 a.m.: Registration and Coffee
9:00-9:30 a.m.: Farm Service Agency Beginning Farmer Programs
9:30-10:00 a.m.: Iowa Finance Authority Beginning Farmer Programs
10:00-10:15 a.m.: Veterans in Agriculture update
10:15-10:30 a.m.: Break
10:30-11:00 a.m.: Ag Lenders Panel on Regional Ag Topics
11:00-11:30 a.m.: Questions and Discussion
11:30 a.m.: Adjorn

To register for the workshop, visit IowaFinanceAuthority.gov.

The Montgomery County Emergency Management Agency reports the Montgomery County Annual Storm Spotter Class will be held 7-p.m. March 16th, at the Viking Center in Stanton ( located at 501 Elliott St). The class is hosted by Montgomery County Emergency Management in conjunction with the National Weather Service in Valley, NE. It is open to the public and free of charge.

DES MOINES – The filing period for Iowa’s state and federal office seekers began Monday morning, February 29, at 8 am and runs through 5 pm on March 18th. Candidates must file their paperwork with the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office. The petition requirements for each office can be found on the Secretary of State’s website at this link: http://sos.iowa.gov/elections/electioninfo/primary/index.html.

All candidates whose paperwork meets the requirements will have their names posted on the candidate list on the Iowa Secretary of State’s website, available at this link: http://sos.iowa.gov/elections/pdf/candidates/primarycandidatelist.pdf. The list will be updated periodically throughout the day and finalized daily at the close of business during the filing period.

Candidates can deliver their paperwork to the Secretary of State’s offices in the State Capitol or the Lucas Building. Those visiting the Capitol office will be given the opportunity to have their picture taken with Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate or a Deputy Secretary of State. Those pictures will be posted to Secretary Pate’s Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/IASecretaryofState.

Congressman David Young is a member of a task force in the U.S. House that’s been assembled to come up with a Republican alternative to President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. “You can’t just be a party of opposition,” Young says. “You have to be proposing solutions and hopefully we can put something out there that also helps solve the problem.”

About 16-and-a-half million Americans have gotten insurance coverage through the government-run health care exchanges. Young, a first term congressman, has joined with the other Republicans in the U.S. House in voting seven times for bills that would repeal the Affordable Care Act. Young says the “mandate” that penalizes those who do not obtain insurance is a problem. “I don’t necessarily know if I subscribe to that, that the federal government should be making you buy things ’cause if they can make you buy one thing, they can make you buy another,” Young says. “I want to make it very attractive on a person’s own initiative to purchase health care and when people can’t we need to provide that safety net and be able to pool some of the high-risk populations together to try to provide that care for them.”

Republican leaders have said Young and the other task force members need to come up with a “patient-centered” alternative to the Affordable Care Act that increases quality and reduces costs. “It’s not going to be a top-down, kind of big government approach to it,” Young says. “It’ll be taking into consideration and recognizing the strengths and innovations that states have because New York is not Iowa. Our populations are different and health care delivery is different as well as we want to make sure that we empower consumers with their dollars to make decisions on their own and create transparency, knowing what prices are. When you have transparency out there, you’re going to have some competition and have better health care delivery and products as well.”

The Kaiser Foundation estimates that by 2015 about 38-thousand Iowans have gotten health insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act and about 20-thousand young adults in Iowa are currently covered on their parents’ health plans. The law allows parents to cover their children up to the age of 26.

(Radio Iowa)

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

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A public hearing is set to take place Wednesday, here in Atlantic, on an application for Voluntary Annexation of Territory located at 56988 635th Street (Outfitter Plus). The hearing will be held as part of a regular meeting of the Atlantic City Council, which takes place at City Hall, beginning at 5:30-p.m.

Atlantic Mayor Dave Jones has previously explained the hearing is merely a formality, as the infrastructure for the Atlantic Wastewater Treatment Plant is already in place. Jones said Outfitters Plus hooked-up to the City’s sewer system after the businesses’ septic system failed, and they requested the annexation take place.

Following the Public Hearing, the Council will vote on a Resolution approving the application for annexation. If the application is approved, the City could collect the extra penny sales tax for both the land mentioned and any future, adjacent annexations in the same area. The Council will also act on approving a Resolution “Endorsing the Use of City Funds for Matching Funds for [a] Vision Iowa Community Attraction and Tourism (CAT) Grant.

If approved by Vision Iowa, the grant monies will be used for the development of the campground, restroom/shower/shelter facility, an ADA compliant fishing pier and playground, at the Schildberg Recreation Area. City Administrator John Lund says the $100,000 match may need to occur either in this year’s revised estimate or next year’s budget. The grant match will come from the Schildberg Rec Area Fund, drawing down the fund balance and helping move the capital project fund towards a closeout for the FY 2017 City of Atlantic budget.

Medivac Ambulance and Atlantic Police responded to an accident at 7th and Linn Streets, this morning. The two-vehicle collision was reported at around 7:30-a.m. A male subject was complaining of chest pains following the collision. No other details are currently available.

The Creston Police Department reports six, recent arrests. Early this (Monday) morning, 33-year old Warren Logan Davis, of Lenox, was arrested at Highway 34 and Lincoln Street in Creston, for Possession of Drug Paraphernalia and Possession with the Intent to Sell or manufacture, Methamphetamine. Davis was being held in the Union County Jail on $100,000 bond.

Arrested Sunday night, in Creston, was 28-year old Julian Albert Rex Allison, and 36-year old Ronnee Colleen Abel, both of Creston. Allison and Abel were both charged with Violation of a Protective Order. Allison was being held in the Union County Jail, while Abel was being held in the Ringgold County Jail, both were held pending an appearance before a magistrate.

On Saturday, Creston Police arrested 35-year old Garrett Ashley Harper, of Creston, for OWI/3rd offense. He was later released on $1,000 bond. Last Friday, Creston Police arrested 54-year old Clifford Mark Williams, of Creston, for OWI/1st offense, and 28-year old Jeffrey Michael Hoffman, of Creston, for Violating a Protective Order. Hoffman was transferred to Adams County where a warrant had been issued for his arrest. Williams was later released on $1,000 bond.

And, Creston Police are investigating two incidents of vandalism. A resident in the 600 block of W. Montgomery Street reported Friday that his vehicles’ driver’s side window was broken out sometime between 7-a.m. and 7:30-a.m., Friday. The loss was estimated at $500. Officials with Iwireless in Creston reported Friday, that sometime between 5-p.m. Feb. 25th, and 8:55-p.m. Feb. 26th, someone shot at their store window. The damage was estimated at $400.

The area’s top news at 7:05-a.m., w/KJAN News Director Ric Hanson

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