IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A big year from Iowa’s football and basketball teams means a big raise for athletic director Gary Barta. Documents obtained by The Associated Press show that Iowa President Bruce Harreld and Barta reached a five-year contract extension last month. It guarantees Barta $4.6 million in compensation through June 30th, 2021.

The deal increases Barta’s base salary from $400,000 to $550,000 in July and guarantees $250,000 in annual deferred compensation. Both amounts increase by $50,000 in 2018. Despite fan unrest last year, Barta stuck by football coach Kirk Ferentz. Ferentz led the Hawkeyes to 12 wins and a Rose Bowl appearance.

Barta’s biggest hire, basketball coach Fran McCaffery, has turned a once-moribund program into the nation’s fourth-ranked team. Barta’s department is also facing a federal investigation into sex discrimination allegations.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A bill that would create a system for manufacturing, dispensing and possessing medical marijuana in Iowa has advanced in the Legislature. The Republican-majority House Commerce Committee voted 17-6 to pass the measure on Wednesday.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A big year from Iowa’s football and basketball teams means a big raise for athletic director Gary Barta. Documents obtained by The Associated Press show that Iowa President Bruce Harreld and Barta reached a five-year contract extension last month. Barta’s biggest hire, basketball coach Fran McCaffery, has turned a once-moribund program into the nation’s fourth-ranked team.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The University of Iowa has seen a 36.4 percent increase in faculty resignations during the 2014 to 20015 academic year, compared with the year before. The Iowa Board of Regents’ most recent faculty report says the number of resignations at the university increased from 66 to 90 between fiscal years 2014 and 2015. The Press-Citizen reports the Iowa Board of Regents is scheduled to discuss the reports when they meet February 24th and 25th in Ames.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Polk County inmate has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and sex abuse after being held in jail for over three years. The Des Moines Register reports that 45-year-old Lavelle McKinley admitted Monday as part of a plea deal to sexually assaulting and strangling Cynthia Rouse. He has been held on a murder charge since January 16th, 2013, two days after Rouse died.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest Wednesday afternoon of a Red Oak woman on two bench warrants.  At 3:50pm deputies arrested 26-year-old Mildred Helenora Douglas of Red Oak.  One warrant was out of Cass County for Driving While Revoked and the second was out of Pottawattamie County for Failure to Appear on OWI Charge.  Both bonds were $2,000 and Douglas was turned over to Cass County.

The Page County Sheriff’s Office says one person was transported to the hospital following an accident this (Wednesday) morning. The crash took place at around 8:05-a.m. at 170th Street and E Avenue, or about two miles south and east of Essex.

Essex Fire and Rescue was called to the scene and extricated 33-year old Susan Elizabeth Moore, of Villisca, from the 2012 Chevy Malibu she was driving. Moore was   then transported to Shenandoah Memorial Hospital by Essex Rescue for treatment of  undisclosed injuries. The driver of the other vehicle, 50-year old Melissia May Long, of rural Shenandoah, and her passenger, were checked for injuries but were found to be okay.

An investigation into the accident determined Long was driving a 2007 Jeep Liberty north on E Avenue from the stop sign, crossing 170th. Long said that she didn’t see the 2012 Chevy Malibu that Moore was operating westbound on 170th east of the intersection with E Avenue. Moore saw the Long vehicle start from the stop sign and continue into the intersection. She started to brake, but Long’s SUV hit the car on the driver’s side front door. The collision caused Moore’s car to spin counter clockwise into the north ditch, where it hit and destroyed a county road sign post. The car came to rest in the north ditch, west of the intersection. Long’s SUV also spun counter clockwise and came to rest in the eastbound lane of 170th just west of the intersection.

Deputies cited Long for Failure to have insurance and Failure to yield upon entering through Highway.

The Pottawattamie County Commission of Veteran Affairs will be sponsoring a Veterans Information Resource Fair at the Avoca Iowa American Legion on April 1st, from 3-to  7-p.m., and April 2nd from 7:30- to  11:30- am. Free meals will be served for attendees on April 1st from 5-to 7-pm and April 2nd from 7:30–to 9:30-a.m.

Vendors wishing to participate should contact the Pottawattamie County Veterans Affairs office by March 21st, to reserve a table. Call 712-328-5797 to reserve your table.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – A Sergeant Bluff man has been given 60 days in jail for head-butting his 13-year-old son. Forty-eight-year-old Bradley Graff also was ordered Tuesday to pay $410 in restitution. The Sioux City Journal reports that Graff pleaded guilty to child endangerment. He pleaded guilty in a separate case to failing to register as a sex offender. He was given a suspended five-year sentence and two years’ probation.

Court documents say the head-butting occurred while Graff was practicing wrestling with his 11- and 13-year-old sons at his business, Wall of Fame. The documents say the older boy asked to stop practicing, but Graff threw him onto a mat several times and head-butted him. The documents also say Graff stomped his son’s head onto the mat, giving the boy a bloody nose.

State officials, along with commodity group leaders, are touting a nine-and-a-half million dollar U-S-D-A grant for water quality efforts that will get four-point-75 million dollars worth of matching funds from the state. Officials say Iowa farmers will invest another 33 million dollars to complete water quality projects. Kurt Simon, the state conservationist, says more than 40 partner are involved.

“This partnership has brought together diverse stakeholders from multiple sectors committed to improving water quality in line with the goals of the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy,” he says. That’s the voluntary approach farm groups and state officials announced three years ago in response to concerns about run-off from ag land.

Kirk Leeds, the C-E-O of the Iowa Soybean Association, is also a spokesman for the Iowa Agriculture Water Alliance and he was at Tuesday’s news conference to announce the combined 47-and-a-quarter million dollar investment in conservation practices on Iowa farms.

The Iowa Soybean Association Research Conference started Tuesday and continues today (Wednesday) in Des Moines. This (Wednesday) morning at the state capitol, the House Ag Committee began debating Governor Branstad’s plan to divert some school infrastructure money to water quality projects.

The Des Moines Water Works, the state’s largest water utility, has sued officials in three northwest Iowa counties for mismanaging drainage districts, causing the utility to spend millions removing nitrates from the river water used as its drinking water supply.

(Radio Iowa)

As many as 15 people have died in fires across Iowa during the first six weeks of this year, twice the statewide death toll compared to last year. Ron Humphrey, spokesman for the State Fire Marshal’s office, says bitter cold weather was a factor in many of the deadly blazes. “That was the case in the Boxholm fire, where it was extremely cold, so (the family was) using extra heat sources in the house, which then led to the fire, which led to the firefighters out in that extreme cold,” Humphrey says. “It’s hard on humans, it’s hard on equipment, it’s a perfect storm. It was hard to fight that fire with everything involved.”

Humphrey says smoke detectors were discovered in the rubble of nearly every fire, but most had no batteries or were otherwise not functioning. “It’s kind of sad when you go into these fatalities and you see a smoke detector there that had a battery and you wonder, would that have made a difference, or there was no smoke detectors in there,” Humphrey says. “That can be very frustrating.”

Humphrey says half of the fatalities occurred in just two fires during January. Three people died in a home in Montrose in southeast Iowa, while a mother and her three children perished in a blaze in Boxholm just south of Fort Dodge.

(Radio Iowa)

The Cass County Board of Supervisors today (Wednesday) approved the appointment of a full-time assistant in the County Auditor’s Office. Cass County Auditor Dale Sunderman said one of his deputies has submitted her resignation effective April 30th, and the appointment of an assistant is needed to train for a couple of months before a Full-Time Deputy Auditor is appointed by the Board. Sunderman requested Mary Beth Anstey be appointed full-time assistant. Anstey will be paid $15 per hour effective March 1st.

Sunderman says Anstey has worked with the County for several years and for the last year has been working in the Adams County Auditor’s Office. In other business, the Board approved a payroll change and change of pay rate for Christopher Williams, a Secondary Roads Dept. employee who has completed his probationary period. The increase is retroactive to Feb. 10th, and since he is a Union employee, his rate of pay will be increase from $18.61 to $19.11, per hour.

Cass County Assistant Engineer Rich Hansen updated the Board on the status of three upcoming bridge sub-structure projects.  He said the plans are ready, and they’re advertising now, for bids. The bid letting will be held March 8th. All three bridges are tied together, meaning the same contractor will take care of the labor and equipment. The County will supply about $54,000 worth of steel and materials for the three projects, which will have steel pilings and sheet back walls.

The bridges are concrete double-T designs, which currently have decayed pilings. Putting in new pilings and substructure will allow the County to remove the weight limits for those bridges, according to Hansen. One of the bridges, #102, is located in far southwest part of County, south of Griswold. Another, bridge #123, is located on Pella Road, about ¾ of a mile from the Adair County line. The third, bridge #17, is located on Yankton Road, about 2 ½ miles west of Highway 148.

Hansen said whomever the contractor is, they will have until November to complete the projects. Work will most likely be conducted on the bridges over the Summer.

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

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