It’s feeling more like March, rather than late January, across much of Iowa this week. National Weather Service meteorologist Craig Cogill says today (Wednesday) will be even warmer with many locations likely to break record highs for January 28. “Forecast highs around Des Moines are for the mid to upper 50s, so it certainly looks possible that we break a record — with the old record being 56-degrees back in 1931,” Cogill said. Some sections of western Iowa are expected to post temperatures in the 60’s. More winter-like weather will return to the state soon, as a cold front pushes in tomorrow night and snow could be falling this weekend.

“We’ll have cooler temperatures Thursday and Friday, but still above normal for this time of year, with highs in the 30s for much of the state,” Cogill said. “Into the weekend, we’re going to see a storm system move up from the Southwestern United States with a good chance of snow especially over central and southern Iowa with a few inches of snow possible by Sunday.”

(Radio Iowa)

A bill in the Iowa Legislature would allow more strip searches of inmates in city and county jails, in accordance with a U-S Supreme Court ruling. Under the bill, people arrested for simple misdemeanors such as public intoxication or possession of drug paraphernalia could be searched for contraband even without probable cause. Lisa Davis Cook with the Iowa Association for Justice objects. “It’s still taking their clothes off. You still have people taking their clothes off and to make people take their clothes off you should have probable cause for something such as that,” Davis Cook says. Iowa law already allows so-called visual searches without probably cause for more serious offenses. A-C-L-U attorney Pete McRoberts says the bill should only cover violent offenders.

“And leave the college student who is arrested for public intoxication out of this list,” McRoberts says. Marshall County Sheriff’s Department chief deputy, Steve Hoffman, says that could pose a threat to officers. The college student who is arrested for public intoxication, well perhaps he’s also carrying a weapon on him,” Hoffman says. Law enforcement officers say those arrested for minor crimes can still carry weapons into jails, sometimes at the urging of accused felons temporarily housed at the jail. The bill cleared a three-member House committee after skeptics insisted on exempting those who are in custody for a short time and don’t end up in the jail’s general population.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s three public universities may soon have a more uniform admissions policy for students from the growing number of high schools that do not provide class rankings. The Iowa Board of Regents will consider a new formula next week that would affect students from roughly 40 public and private high schools that don’t rank students.

Students from those schools would be automatically admitted if they score above a 245 on a mathematical formula, which is based on ACT scores, grade point average and number of core courses completed. Students who fall below that number would be subject to individual reviews.

The change addresses inconsistencies in how students without class rankings have been scored for admissions by the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

OSCEOLA, Iowa (AP) — Officials have identified two people who were found dead in a vehicle in Osceola. The Iowa Office of the State Medical Examiner says the bodies found are those of 22-year-old Erick Reyna and 27-year-old Noe Flores Rascon. Autopsy results confirm their deaths as homicides. Authorities charged 38-year-old Richard Ryan Lamb Carson with two counts of first-degree murder. They also charged 47-year-old Lynn Ranean Sutton, 43-year-old Tracy Kay Johnson and 42-year-old Christopher Martin Elben with one count of accessory after the fact.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa State Patrol says it didn’t reduce the speed on a citation given to a high-ranking officer. Capt. Ken Clary was cited for driving 92 in a 70-mph zone this month, following an investigation into a November off-duty incident in which he was pulled over and quickly let go by a trooper. Video doesn’t show the speed clocked on radar and no police report was filed. A patrol spokesman had said he didn’t know whether Clary’s speed was reduced on the citation, which can be done at an officer’s discretion. That’s significant because the penalty for driving 25 over the limit is a license suspension.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Democrats in the Senate say a bill aimed at curtailing wage theft in Iowa would require businesses to be more direct with workers about employment terms. Sen. Bill Dotzler, a Democrat from Waterloo, is co-sponsor of a bill that would require employers to share a written record of employment terms with an employee at the start of a job. The measure would also define penalty terms and expand protection for whistleblowers.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Governor Terry Branstad is out of the hospital but won’t have any more public appearances for the rest of the week. Branstad was rushed to the hospital Monday and treated for what his doctor says is a mild case of the flu and dehydration.

An apparent, ongoing dispute over who has control of monies raised for the Shelby Volunteer Fire Department has resulted in the City firing all of its volunteer fire fighters and relying on help instead from nearby crews from Avoca and Minden, and other help from within Shelby and Pottawattamie Counties. WOWT Channel 6 in Omaha reported Tuesday the fire department’s building and equipment remain, but only the fire chief was retained.

Mayor Pro Tem, Bob Richmond, wouldn’t comment on the reason the volunteers were fired, but he said the City wants to rebuild the department with volunteers who are willing to work within the accountability of the city. There’s no set date for when the city hopes to have the fire department back together.

Officials with the City of Shelby say anyone can submit an application to the Fire Chief, including those who were fired, but Richmond said they will have to discuss the current situation with the applicants, regardless of whether they are new or former members of the department.

Four officers were elected during the Montgomery County Extension Council organizational meeting January 19. The nine-member council annually elects officers to comply with Iowa law. Joseph Jardon of Red Oak is the newly re-elected chairperson. Jardon will preside at all meetings of the extension council, have authority to call special meetings and perform duties performed and exercised by a chairperson of a board of directors of a corporation. Mike Olson of Red Oak was elected vice chairperson.

Karen Klocke of Nodaway was -re-elected secretary; and has the responsibility of keeping the minutes of all extension council meetings and signing required papers for the council. The council re-elected Lori DeKay of Stanton to the treasurer position. The treasurer receives, deposits, has charge of all of the funds of the extension council, and pays and disburses funds. The treasurer insures an accurate record of receipts and disbursements and submits reports to the extension council.

The council is the county governing body of Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. The council hires county staff, manages the county extension budget of approximately $454,000, and helps determine programming. In partnership with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, the council provides educational opportunities that bring university resources to the needs of
the county and region. Local extension programs include 4-H, Master Gardeners, youth summer camps, child care provider trainings and ServSafe for food service professionals.

Des Moines, IOWA – The Iowa Department of Public Safety’s (DPS) State Fire Marshal Division (SFM) received an Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) for $250,000.  With this grant, the State Fire Marshal Division was able to purchase 10,000 smoke detectors and 10,000 ten-year lithium batteries. To date, the State Fire Marshal Division has already received 5,000 of those smoke detectors–2,500 of those smoke detectors have already been picked up from numerous fire departments from across the state.

On January 26, 2015, the State Fire Marshal Division received the second portion of the initial shipment of 5,000 smoke detectors was delivered to the State Fire Marshal Division Headquarters in Des Moines.  Those 2,500 smoke detectors have already been spoken for by numerous other fire departments across the state. Another shipment of 2,500 smoke detectors will be delivered in March and all of that shipment has been spoken for also.

The final shipment of 2,500 smoke detectors, that will fulfill the 10,000 smoke detectors purchase, will arrive this summer and have not been spoken for by any fire departments. Once all 10,000 of these smoke detectors are installed, a total of approximately 35,000 smoke detectors will have been installed across the state since this program started in 2010.

Sheriff’s officials in Union County say a Des Moines man, 25-year old Cody John Courtney, was arrested Monday night at the Law Enforcement Center in Creston, on a Union County Warrant for probation violation. Courtney is being held in the Union County Jail awaiting an appearance before the Magistrate.

The state unemployment rate dropped down in December, and a spokesperson for Iowa Workforce Development says the state is getting close to “full employment.” I-W-D spokesperson, Kerry Koonce, says the December unemployment rate hit four-point-one percent, compared to four-point-three percent in November. “Four-point-one percent is actually the lowest rate we’ve had since June of 2008. The national rate is still standing at five-point-six percent for December,” Koonce says. She says the national experts believe Iowa is getting close to what’s called full employment, or the percentage of the labor market that is able to find a job if they want a job.

“It’s between three-and-half and four percent for Iowa, closer to the four percent,” Koonce says. “It used be closer to the three, three-and-a-half, but as the economy has changed over the years, they say the full employment for Iowa falls in that three-and-a-half to four percent range.” It is the third straight month that the unemployment rate has dropped. “What we’ve seen is we’ve seen a decrease in the number of people who are unemployed, plus a continued increase in the size of our labor force couple with adding 21-hundred jobs to the economy in the month of December, that’s what allows us to bring that rate down continually,” Koonce explains. She takes about the areas where the state gained jobs.

“A larger portion of the jobs were in manufacturing — that was 16-hundred of them — another 500 still in construction, plus we saw 15-hundred in business and professional services, and 600 of those were also in what we call other services, which is kind of a combined category,” Koonce says. The state lost one thousand jobs in the trade and transportation area, which Koonce says included the retail sector.  “You saw a lot of people leave at the end of the holiday season, plus the retail trade is just seeing a lot more people move to on-line shopping, so that just decreases the numbers they need in the actual stores,” she says.

Local and state government saw the loss of 900 jobs in the month, but she says but many of these losses were seasonal transitions and should be recovered in January. Iowa’s largest manufacturing employer, Deere and Company, announced the layoff of 900 workers last week. Koonce says that won’t have an immediate impact on next month’s unemployment numbers. “We’ll see it in the job numbers, but it may be kind of a slow progression. And that’s because the layoffs are spread out over three to four months with John Deere,” Koonce explains. “So they won’t be completed until the end of April, so it would be our May report which is for April numbers, when all of that would have taken effect. But if it’s spread out over several months it will be a small decline, you are not going to see a sudden drop of 900 all at once.”

Koonce says Iowa Workforce Development already is responding to help the Deere workers as they face the layoffs. I-W-D says the total number of working Iowans reached a current-year peak of one-million-642-thousand-900 in December. This figure is 31-hundred higher than November and 38-thousand-100 higher than one year ago.
(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad has been released from a Des Moines hospital where he received treatment for what doctors believe is a viral illness and dehydration. Branstad spokesman Jimmy Centers said the governor was released Tuesday morning and is resting at Terrace Hill, the governor’s official residence. Branstad’s public appearances for the week have been cancelled so that he can recuperate.

Branstad was taken by ambulance to Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines on Monday after he required assistance at a ribbon-cutting event. Doctors said they believed the governor has a viral illness. The hospital conducted tests and ruled out other contributing factors, including cardiac issues for which he’s been previously treated.