The latest U-S-D-A crop report shows wet weather has slowed planting progress — especially in the southwest part of the state. Overall, 96-percent of the corn crop has been planted, which is one day ahead of last year, and three days ahead of the five-year average. In southwest Iowa, just 81-percent of the corn has been planted, and I-S-U Extension Agronomist, Aaron Sauegling says it’s just been too wet.

“We’re still behind. There’s still corn to be planted in portions of southwest Iowa. There’s actually a fair amount of soybeans to go. I have some producers that have yet to plant any soybeans, and I have some producers that are done,” Sauegling says. Farmers have just had to wait for things to dry up. “It gets close, and there have been some producers that have tried to push that a little bit — to try to literally mud some of this crop in — and it’s just not fit.

Soil conditions have just not allowed us to go out in the field,” Sauegling says. Sauegling says farmers are monitoring weather forecasts, while also keeping an eye on the calendar. “We don’t want to panic too much at this point, but once you start to get to June, we’d sure like to get a chance to get some of the beans in.”

Across the state 81-percent of the corn that’s planted has emerged, which is six days ahead of last year and four days ahead of normal. Soybean planting is 70-percent complete, behind last year’s pace for the first time this year. Thirty-two percent of the soybean crop has emerged, slightly ahead of last year and normal.

(Radio Iowa)

Glenwood Police report two recent, separate arrests. Officials say on Tuesday, 33-year old Joshua Morrison, of Glenwood, was arrested for Domestic Abuse Assault. Morrison was being held without bond in the Mills County Jail until making an appearance before the magistrate. And, on Sunday, 48-year old David Craigmile, of Glenwood, was arrested for OWI. Bond was set at $1,000.

Iowa Department of Transportation Planning Coordinator Scott Suhr, today (Wednesday), provided an update on the Highway 6/7th Street construction project, in Atlantic. Suhr says the contractor is milling the asphalt surface off of US 6 through Atlantic, and will be working on that for about 3 days. The schedule for the remaining of the week (weather permitted) is as follows:

• Milling the asphalt surface off of US 6
• Removal of concrete on the east end of project
• Removal at Plum Street
• Sanitary sewer at Plum Street
• Pavement removal from Plum street to 400 feet east

A public hearing will be held Thursday morning, in Atlantic, with regard to a change of zoning classification from General Agricultural to a Light Industrial District, for a 1.32-acre parcel of land in Cass Township on property owned by Todd Leighton. The hearing at 8:40-a.m., is part of the Cass County Board of Supervisors’ regular weekly meeting. Following the hearing, the Board will act on approving the zoning change.

In other business, the board is expected to act on: Approving the placement of outdoor warning sirens for the City of Lewis, on County-owned property just east of the Lewis School building and west of the road; They’ll also act on authorizing County Auditor Dale Sunderman to sign on behalf of Cass County, for liability, property, medical, life and other insurance documents and claims.; Action will be taken as well on allowing business property tax credits for credit on taxes payable in 2015-16, and, on appointing a Cass Township Trustee to fill a vacancy term through 2016. The final action item is with regard to the appointing of a commissioner to the Southern Iowa Regional Housing Authority, representing Cass County. This would replace a motion set in place May 6th.

The Supervisor’s meeting takes place in their Board Room at the Courthouse, in Atlantic.

More area news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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A relationship study of older mothers found more issues than expected with their children. Iowa State University researcher Megan Gilligan is the lead author the study which she says found one in 10 mothers had at least one estranged child. They didn’t start the study with a focus on finding mom and kids that weren’t talking. “So there were no questions directly asked, you know ‘is there a child who you are estranged from?’ But, we did ask all of the mothers about their relationships with each of their children,” Gilligan explains. “So the study was designed to look at how these relationships might vary. Some mothers may be closer to one child, or the opposite where they may be more disappointed in another child.”

The study included mothers aged 65 to 75 with children who were 45 or older. “The first thing we looked was if a mother had not contact — either in person or on the phone — in the last year. And then also, we classified estrangement if the mother maybe had very small amount of contact, so maybe she had talked to them once in the last year,” Gilligan says. They also asked the mothers about their emotional closeness and she says they were surprised at the number who say they have little emotional closeness to a child.

“Which is actually pretty rare in parent-adult child relationships. Most of the time mothers report either middle-range or actually high range emotional closeness. So, there were relationships that the mother reported very little emotional closeness to these children,” Gilligan says. Gilligan is an assistant professor of human development and family studies at I-S-U and conducted the research with colleagues at Purdue and Cornell University. She says they were surprised again when they started looking at the cause of the bad feelings between mother child.

“Immediately everyone kind of thought on the research team, well lets look at illegal behavior — so we looked at if the child had had problems with the law or if they had a substance abuse problem, ” Gilligan says. “But was really interesting is that didn’t predict estrangement. Those children weren’t more likely to become estranged.” They found something else impacted the rift.

She says value dissimilarities ended up being the strongest variable. The core values and beliefs of the mothers drove their views of their kids. “One of the mothers was really upset that her adult child had gotten a divorce and then remarried. She was Catholic and she said ‘that really goes against what I believe religiously and morally.’ So thing that were kind of core to their beliefs and values, if the child had violated those things, that’s what created this tension and strain in the relationship,” Gilligan explains. Gilligan says they didn’t expect those issues to cause so the estrangement.

“I think it’s interesting, because I think these are issues we often think about as political issues that you might get into a discussion around the table and get really upset about those types of things. But, I don’t know if most people would feel like these are things you would cut off contact from your child,” Gilligan. In addition to core values, researchers found the mother’s marital status was also a predictor. Mothers who were divorced or widowed were more likely to have an estranged child than mothers who were married.

Gilligan credits the role of the father. She says many of the incidents the created estrangement happened earlier in the child’s life and they might not have realized the impact it would have. Gilligan says the lesson could be that you need to focus on mending a relationship right away when these things happen. The new study is published online in the Journal of Marriage and Family.

(Radio Iowa)

MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) – A man accused of tossing a cat into the Winnebago River in northern Iowa’s Mason City has been fined $100. Sixty-nine-year-old William Hill was sentenced on Tuesday. He’d pleaded guilty to abandonment of an animal in a deal with prosecutors who lowered the charge from animal torture.

Authorities say the cat was inside a duffel bag tossed by Hill into the river near a Mason City bridge on March 21. A couple witnessed what happened and soon retrieved the bag. Inside was the adult calico. Hill turned himself in to authorities a few days later.

A new home for the cat, since named Winnie, has been found with St. Paul, Minnesota, resident.

The 7:06-a.m. report w/KJAN News Director Ric Hanson

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Two valuable, but unclaimed Powerball tickets purchased in Iowa are about to expire. Iowa Lottery spokesperson Mary Neubauer says the tickets were bought on opposite sides of the state a little less than a year ago. “The first ticket won a $10,000 prize back in the drawing on June 18, 2014. It was purchased at a Casey’s in Council Bluffs,” Neubauer says. “The other ticket won a $20,000 prize. It was purchased at Quillin’s Food Ranch in Waukon and it won a prize in the drawing on June 28, 2014.”

The ticket bought in Council Bluffs will expire at 4 p.m. on June 18, while the ticket purchased in Waukon will expire at 4 p.m. on June 29. The businesses where the tickets were purchased have put up signs reminding customers to check their old tickets. “Somebody won these prizes and we want to see them claimed,” Neubauer says. “That’s why we work so hard to get the word out and hope that we can maybe reach that person at the last minute, jog their memory, and they’ll go home and find that winning ticket.”

In fiscal year 2014, nearly $1.4 million in Iowa Lottery prizes went unclaimed.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a sprinkler helped contain an overnight fire at a Des Moines high school. The Des Moines Fire Department says it responded to a fire at East High School shortly before midnight Monday. Authorities discovered a pressure washer that had been on fire but was extinguished by a single sprinkler head. The device was part of an automatic sprinkler system that activates at a certain temperature. No injuries were reported.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — State officials say there are two probable cases of bird flu in Adair and Webster counties in Iowa. The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship says initial testing at two commercial laying operations were positive for bird flu. The operations have a combined total of about 1.1 million birds. The agency says if the disease is confirmed, all birds on the properties will be euthanized. It would also mean there are now 66 cases of the disease in Iowa.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Thousands have attended funeral services for Omaha Police Officer Kerrie Orozco. They heard a priest say she loved helping others in times of need and serving as a peacemaker. The Iowa native who was fatally shot last week while serving a warrant is being buried at a cemetery in Council Bluffs, where she lived.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Some lawmakers are back at the Iowa Capitol to continue budget talks. The Republican-led House and Democratic-majority Senate must determine an overall spending level and how much new money to provide to K-12 education.