It would be illegal to use a hand-held cellphone while driving if a bill proposed by the Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau becomes law. Texting while driving would also become a primary offense, meaning an officer would be able to pull someone over if they suspect the driver is texting. Patrick Hoye, the former head of the Iowa State Patrol, is now chief of the Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau.
“We just think it is life-saving legislation,” Hoye says.

Hoye met with members of the Senate Transportation Committee to discuss the bill. He says cell phone use while driving — to either talk or text — is just as bad as drunk driving because not only does it take one hand off the wheel, it takes the driver’s attention away from the road. “For my family, does it matter if they’re drunk and they cross the center line and they take out my family or they cross the center line because they were texting and take out my family,” Hoye says. “You’re not only putting yourself in danger, but you’re putting everybody on the road in danger.”

The distraction of smart phones has become an “epidemic” on Iowa’s roads, according to Hoye. He cites 2013 stats showing 63 percent of the fatality crashes on Iowa roads involved a vehicle that had left its lane. “I think you can make a pretty strong correlation,” Hoye says. “…Something is causing our citizens to leave the road and we just believe that obviously distracted driving and, in particular texting, is one of those strong reasons.”

Fourteen other states have laws which forbid drivers to use their hands to text or hold their phone to talk. The Iowa law that’s been proposed by the Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau would impose a 30-dollar fine for texting or talking on a cell phone while driving and it is similar to the law that’s been in effect in Illinois for over a year. Sergeant John Thompson of the Illinois State Police told members of the Iowa Senate’s Transportation Committee that public opinion in Illinois was overwhelmingly in favor of banning cell phone use while driving.

“It’s scary out there to see what people are doing in vehicles,” Thompson says. “…You see people who are just all over the road…They’re doing everything in a vehicle but driving.” Thompson says traffic fatalities declined in Illinois last year — the first year the cell phone ban while driving was in effect. Last year, a bill banning texting while driving passed the Senate, but it was not considered in the Iowa House.

(Radio Iowa)

JOHNSTOWN, Iowa (AP) – An Iowa Army National Guard medical unit won’t be joining the fight against Ebola in West Africa. A National Guard news release says the 294th Area Support Medical Company’s estimated six-month deployment was canceled “due to completion of Ebola Treatment Unity construction and other major training in West Africa.” Because that work has been completed, more than 800 U.S. military personnel have been sent home, with more to follow.

Originally, 80 Iowans were scheduled for the West Africa mission, but that number was reduced to 40. The National Guard says the Iowa solders would have provided care only for Defense Department personnel and others sent to help, but they wouldn’t have been treating West Africans.

The Iowa Department of Transportation reports Highway 6, which had been closed since Sunday due to snowdrifts and vehicles stuck on the road, has officially re-opened to traffic (as of 9-a.m., Tuesday). Officials say the roadway is still slick, so motorists should travel with caution.

More area news w/Ric Hanson.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.0MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Police in Creston report a local man was arrested Monday at the Union County Jail, on a warrant for Burglary in the 2nd Degree. 50-year old Rodney Wayne Davis, of Creston, was being held in the jail on $10,000 bond.

The 7:07-a.m. Newscast w/KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.1MB)

Subscribe: RSS

The Better Business Bureau is warning businesses not to click on an email that claims to be a “BBB SBQ” (standard business questionnaire). The email was sent out Friday morning to what is believed to be tens of thousands of businesses across the country. The email has a ZIP file attachment that links to a site that can download malware on the user’s computer. Spoofing well-known and trusted brands is a common scam tactic. Other organizations such as the IRS, the FBI and Fortune 500 companies have been spoofed in similar phishing campaigns that victimized consumers and businesses.

BBB officials say as soon as they became aware of the scam, they immediately notified their security vendors and are in the process of taking down the website.  The emails are coming from the domain “BBBL.org,” which is not a BBB domain name, although it is clearly designed to look as if it is. The domain name was created last October and is registered to an individual in Antwerp, Belgium. It’s not immediately clear if the domain owner is directly involved in the phishing scam, but BBB will be turning over its information to the FBI and Interpol for further investigation.

BBB offers this advice to anyone who receives this or other unsolicited emails with links or attachments:
. Do not click on links or open attachments in unsolicited email.
. If your email program allows it, tag the email as spam.
. Report the email to your Internet Service Provider.
. If you are unsure if an email is legitimate, call the sender using a phone number that you know to be correct (not from the email).
. Check out BBB Scam Stopper (bbb.org/scam) for additional information on scams.

The Iowa Dept. of Transportation’s website (511ia.org), indicates that Highway 6, from one-mile west of the Lewis turn-off, westward to Council Bluffs, is still impassible, with drifting on the roadway. Vehicles stuck on the road from Sunday’s snowstorm were preventing snow plows from making progress on clearing the route.

511ia.org IA DOT road conditions map (as of 5:58-a.m. Tue., 2/3/15)

The major arterial’s (Interstate 80, 680 and 29) are in normal driving condition this morning, while the secondary roads around western Iowa are partially covered with a mixture of ice/snow/slush.

Iowa’s weather during January featured several extremes. State climatologist Harry Hillaker says there were radical shifts in temperature, for starters, and despite the heavy snow that blanketed much of the state over the weekend, Iowa ended up lacking for precipitation during the month. “Very cold, generally speaking, for the first half of January, very mild and rather dry for the second half other than the big storm that came into the state on the very last day of January,” Hillaker says. “If we look at the state as a whole, the month ended up being about 2.3 degrees warmer than normal.”

In Atlantic, our average high for the month was 36. The average Low was 13. The normal High is 29, while the normal Low is 9. Most of Iowa got whalloped by a monster winter storm over the weekend that dumped up to 14-inches of snow on some areas of the state. Still, February 1st was Sunday, so the statewide average for precipitation during January was only about half-an-inch, which is about half the norm for the month.

“That basically does not include that event on the last day of the month,” Hillaker says. “For most of the official weather observers, their last report for the month would have come at 7 AM on January 31st, and all of that snow we had for the weekend came after that time, so it’ll end up in February’s records.”

In Atlantic, prior to the snow storm, we had received just 17 one-hundredths (.17”) of an inch of precipitation in January, from melted snowfall. Including snowfall for the 24-hour period that covered the 31st thru 7-a.m. Sunday, we received a total of .78” (78 one-hundredths of an inch) precipitation. Normal precipitation for the month is .84”

Hillaker says Iowa’s high and low temperatures for January were more than 90 degrees apart.
“Cherokee had the lowest temperature of the month, down to minus 24 degrees,” Hillaker says. “Then, toward the tail end of the month, right before the big snow event, we did have an impressive -for January- high of 67 degrees down in Shenandoah on the 28th day of the month.”

The lowest temp for the month in Atlantic, was -10 on the 12th and 13th of January. The warmest day was 59 degrees on the 16th. February started off much colder than normal and, for most of the state, much snowier than usual, too. Temperatures will likely stay below freezing this week and he says there will only be a little melting of the mounds of snow.

(Radio Iowa/KJAN weather records)

A Clarinda man wanted on a Page County warrant for Manner of Conveyance, was arrested Monday night in Montgomery County. Sheriff”s officials say 31-year old Charles Adam Bradshaw was being held for Page County in the Montgomery County Jail. His bond was set at $300.