Officials with Iowa Western Community College’s Center in Atlantic, today (Wednesday), unveiled plans for expansion within the current facility.

IWCC Atlantic Center Dir. Ann Pross

Cass County Center Director Ann Pross said construction will begin July 1st on a 4,000 square foot renovation for a Student Activities Center Pross says it will serve as “A point of connection” for their students, a place for resources, a comfortable place to meet, to collaborate, attend a variety of club-related activities. It will feature a conference room, quiet study areas, a Student Center with a fireplace, beverage bar, computer stations and wi-fi access along with a new classroom.

It will also have some office space. Pross says the new SAC will serve to enhance the students’ learning environment, support efforts to continue increased enrollment, and expand on the “College experience” for the students. In addition, the Design Technology Program has seen such phenomenal success, that a Design Technology Innovation Center (DTIC) will be constructed within the confines of the current facility.

Joe Vanstrom talks about the new Design Tech. Innovation Center. (Ric Hanson/photos)

IWCC Design Tech Program Chair Joe Vanstrom, says he’s excited by the changes coming soon. He’s getting brand new labs for Electrical and Mechanical Manufacturing, and a 3-D printing center.

Vanstrom says while the Design Tech Program is capable of graduating with a skill set that will enable them to succeed in almost an industry setting, the program is in need of more equipment to train the students. That was the impetus behind the DTIC concept.

A “Project Innovation Center” room within the DTIC will allow industrial representatives to collaborate with them on ideas, and, it will allow students a place to relax. That portion equates to 610-feet of space. It will also allow easy access to the new Design Technology classroom. Vanstrom says the 500-square foot Fabrication Lab will enable students to look beyond just creating products on a 3-D printer. He says they will be training on CNC – Computer Numeric Control – work stations, learning how to operate advanced manufacturing equipment.

The Electrical Fabrication Lab, or Center, will be 390-square feet, a place where students can design almost anything. Vanstrom says the 3-D Design Printing Center will take up 225-square feet of space, feature two more 3-D printers and be entirely student run.

A committee comprised of Atlantic businessmen Jim Tyler, Scott Deter, Larry Turner Duane Acker  and Nick Hunt, is in the process of soliciting funds for future of the Design Technology Program. Money raised will be matched dollar-for-dollar by the college itself, with the goal being $600,000 altogether.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – A Sioux City man has pleaded not guilty to a neglect charge in connection to the death of his 2-month-old son. The Sioux City Journal reports 26-year-old Michael Williams entered a written plea Tuesday in Woodbury County District Court to one count of neglect of a dependent person. A trial date has not been set.

Williams was arrested April 29 after bringing his dead son to UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s hospital in Sioux City. The boy’s autopsy results have not been released.

Court documents at the time of Williams’ arrest say he admitted to leaving his son unattended for long periods of time in his apartment. Investigators wrote the apartment was in poor condition. Two other children in the apartment have been taken into protective custody.

Officials with Iowa Western Community College in Atlantic, today, unveiled plans for expansion within the current facility. Director Ann Pross said construction will begin in July on a 4,000 square foot Student Activities Center.

In addition, the Design Technology Program has seen such phenomenal success, that a Design Innovation Center will be constructed within the confines of the current facility.

The DIC will have a Design Technology Integrated Classroom, Mechanical Fabrication Lab, Electronics Fabrication Lab and 2 more 3-D printers.

We’ll have more on this story later today.

A single-vehicle accident Tuesday evening in Mills County has claimed the life of a man from Minnesota. The Iowa State Patrol reports 74-year old Lawrence Decheine, of Blaine, MN, was not wearing his seat belt, when the semi he was driving entered the median before rolling several times. The accident happened at around 6-p.m. on Interstate 29 northbound, just north of the exit to Plattsmouth, NE.

Officials say when the 2014 Freightliner semi went out of control and entered the median, Decheine overcorrected, causing the rig to roll before it came to rest on the northbound lanes of the interstate. Decheine was trapped in the cab and had to be freed by rescue crews from Glenwood. The man was pronounced dead at the scene.

The top Republican in the Iowa House says if Republicans win statehouse majorities in the House and the Senate this November, one item on his wish list for 2015 is a “flat” state income tax. House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, a Republican from Hiawatha, spoke early this morning (Wednesday) at a breakfast meeting of central Iowa Republicans.  “It’s one of the things that the governor and I have spoken about,” Paulsen said. “…I don’t want to speak for him, but I do know that is something he has interest in as well.”

Paulsen and his fellow House Republicans endorsed a “flat” tax proposal last year, but it was not considered in the Democratically-led Iowa Senate. The proposal would have allowed Iowans to continue filing their income taxes under the current system or choose the alternative of a four-and-a-half percent flat tax on their income, with no deductions.

“That would be about a $400-500 million income tax cut,” Paulsen says. “My guess is it would grow the state of Iowa (economy) and end up over time increasing revenue because I think that is what’s happened every single time we’ve cut income taxes in the state of Iowa.”

Republican Governor Terry Branstad floated the idea of a “flat tax” in December of 2013, but wound up abandoning the proposal in early 2014 because of Democratic opposition. Democrats say the “flat” tax would provide a “significant’ tax break for wealthy Iowans and do nothing to make the state’s income tax system fairer.

(Radio Iowa)

A Storm Lake native has died in Afghanistan in what military officials say was a non-combat incident. The Department of Defense says 33-year-old Chief Warrant Officer Deric Rasmussen of Oceanside, California died on May 11th in Mazar E Sharif, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the Company C, First Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment, First Air Cavalry Brigade, based in Fort Hood, Texas. Rasmussen is the son of Philip and Diane Rasmussen, who lived in Storm Lake until 2007.

Deric graduated from Storm Lake High School in 1999, joined the Marines in 2000 and in 2003, he left the Marines and joined the Army, where he learned to fly helicopters. His unit was deployed to Iraq in 2007. Early last year, he joined his current unit, which was deployed to Afghanistan in January. Rasmussen is survived by a wife and three children. No date has been set for a memorial service.

Iowa Gov. Terry E. Branstad today (Wednesday) announced he will sign House File 2459 Friday, May 16, 2014, at noon. The bill signing will be held at West Des Moines Public Safety Station 19, where the governor was previously scheduled to sign an Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Week proclamation.

House File 2459 is an Act relating to the individual income tax by creating a tax credit for reserve peace officers and by modifying the tax credit for volunteer fire fighter and volunteer emergency medical services personnel and including retroactive applicability provisions.

Sheriff’s officials in Cass County responding to a call about a body in a vehicle southeast of Cumberland at around 2:17-p.m. Tuesday, discovered a central Iowa man dead at the scene.The vehicle was found parked on Highway 92, about one-quarter of a mile west of 710th Street. Upon arrival, the body of 46-year old Gregory Lloyd Blunt, of Johnston, was discovered in the vehicle. Authorities say Blunt died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

According to online records, Blunt was the Senior Manager for Mercy Medical Center’s Core Laboratory.

The incident remains under investigation. The Cass County Sheriff’s Office was assisted at the scene by Cumberland Fire Department, Massena Fire Department, and Atlantic Medivac.

w/ Ric Hanson

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (3.9MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Officials with the U-S Fish and Wildlife Service say the DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge along the Missouri River near Missouri Valley, will be closed to mushroom hunting this weekend (May 17th and 18th), because of a turkey hunt.

A Morel mushroom (ISU Extension photo)

The refuge roads, trails and visitor center will be open as normal, though.

DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge is a destination for people who want to explore the habitats and wildlife of the Missouri River and get a glimpse of what pre-settlement Iowa and Nebraska may have looked like. It’s located 25 miles north of Omaha on U.S. Highway 30, between Missouri Valley and Blair, Neb. The visitor center is open from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily, except federal holidays.