The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest on Wednesday, of a Glenwood man on a drug charge. 24-year old Thomas Michael Cash was arrested for allegedly possessing Drug Paraphernalia. He was taken into custody and around 6:30-a.m., and held in the Mills County Jail on $300 bond.

Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds today (Thursday) announced a series of town hall meetings will be held across Iowa, with regard to “The importance of giving students a great education in science, technology, engineering and math.”

Reynolds is co-chair of the Governor’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Advisory Council along with Mary Andringa, CEO of the Vermeer Corporation. The Council’s goal is to raise student interest and achievement in STEM and building a stronger STEM workforce.

The tour this spring will update Iowans on the progress being made by the Council, showcase student STEM presentations and seek feedback from community members about how the Council should set STEM priorities moving forward. Governor Branstad, Mary Andringa and local business leaders will join Reynolds at select town halls.

The public is welcome to attend STEM town hall events, one of which will be held in Corning on Tuesday, March 6th, beginning at 1:30-p.m. Lt. Gov. Reynolds and Gov. Branstad will be in attendance for the meeting, to be held in the Southwest Valley High School Auditorium.

The Cass County Board of Supervisors are set to hold their weekly meeting Friday morning, here in Atlantic. On their agenda for the 8:30-a.m. session, is approval of an Iowa DOT Preconstruction Agreement for the reconstruction/bridge deck replacement of a bridge on County Road M-56 over I-80 (at the Marne exit).

The Board will also act on a Resolution to encourage the implementation of a recommendation from the 2011 Citizen’s Advisory Council (CAC), with regard to: Increasing the state fuel tax rates across the board by 10-cents; increase the “Fee for New Registration” from 5-to 6-percent, and, allocate new funding to go to the TIME-21 Fund up to the $225-million cap, with the remaining new funding  to be distributed consistent with the Road Use Tax Fund (RUTF) distribution formula.

The TIME-21 Fund is an additional source of State revenue is dedicated primarily to maintenance and construction of certain primary highways in the state (60 percent), but also of secondary roads (20 percent) and municipal streets (20 percent). TIME-21 was created by the legislature in 2008, as a response to a “perfect storm” of factors threatening to create an estimated $267 million per year funding shortfall, hindering the state’s ability to adequately maintain and improve public roadways in Iowa

w/ Ric Hanson

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With KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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Police in Red Oak say a teenager reported missing from Bellevue, NE, was located early this (Thursday) morning, in Red Oak. 17-year old Michael Ryan Eona, Jr., who was also wanted on a warrant out of Sarpy County, NE , was taken into custody near the intersection of North 7^th and East Maple Streets, following a foot pursuit by Red Oak Police Officers.

Eona was transported to the Juvenile Detention Center in Council Bluffs, where he will await extradition back to Nebraska.

Police in Council Bluffs arrested the driver of a vehicle following  a chase that began at around 2-a.m., Wednesday. The Daily NonPareil reports the incident ended with 21-year old Dylan V. Rooney, of Council Bluffs, being taken into custody for alleged drunken driving. Police officials said an officer saw Rooney, who was in a 2001 Chevy Cavalier, ignore a flashing red light at South 32nd Street and 23rd Avenue.

Backers of a plan to end greyhound racing at the casinos in Council Bluffs and Dubuque are amping up their public relations push, launching an on-line petition drive on their new www.EndIowaDogRacing.com website. Rick Dickinson, president of the Greater Dubuque Development Corporation, spoke at a statehouse news conference Wednesday afternoon.

“Greyhound racing is the Blockbuster Video of the gaming industry,” Dickinson said. Like Blockbuster, Dickinson argues dog racing is “bankrupt” because it no longer has enough customers. Dubuque Mayor Roy Buol says the three-point-three million the Mystique casino spent on the prizes for greyhound breeders last year would be better spent as charitable contributions to Dubuque area schools, fire houses and non-profit groups.

“Greyhound racing is no longer profitable,” Buol said during the news conference. “…Together we can achieve the common sense vote to end the dead, debt-ridden venue of greyhound racing.” The Council Bluffs casino provides a 10-million dollar annual subsidy for greyhound racing at its facility, but former Council Bluffs Mayor Tom Hanafan stressed how the track occupies prime real estate that could be better used. “We’re in a situation where we need more hotels,” Hanafan says. “And one of the attractive things about this area is the opportunity to build hotels and some retail.” Bob Mundt, president and C-E-O of the Council Bluffs Chamber of Commerce, says the track sits near one of the Midwest’s high-traffic areas — the intersection of two Interstates.

“That creates a lot of opportunities for us and as we see the decline of dog racing and the ability to reuse that particular location for higher and better uses, we stand in favor of the elimination of dog racing,” Mundt says. Hanafan points to how Omaha redeveloped the site of the old Arsarben Horse Track. “It’s become the trendy place to live in Omaha. It has education opportunities, living opportunities. It has economic development that Omaha has never seen,” Hanafan says. “It’s taken a piece of property that may have been a track 60 or 100 years ago and made into an economic development package for today — and I believe this is the opportunity that we have in Council Bluffs.”

A bill that would end greyhound racing is eligible for debate in the Iowa House. The legislation calls for the two casinos to pay reparations to the Iowa greyhound breeders who will no longer be able to race their dogs in Dubuque or Council Bluffs. Dickinson, the Dubuque chamber executive who also sits on the Dubuque Racing Association board of directors, says that’s a “fair” settlement. “Seventy million dollars over a seven year period I think by any Iowan’s standards is an unbelievable amount of money to go away,” Dickinson says. Iowa is one of just seven states which host greyhound racing today. No other state which has closed down dog tracks has called for payments to the greyhound breeders.

(Radio Iowa)

A new report from an Iowa City based research organization shows many families in Iowa cannot afford to make ends meet. Peter Fisher, lead author of the report from the Iowa Policy Project, says the cost of living in Iowa has increased significantly since the last report on the issue in 2012. “Two years ago, we were able say that because of the recession, inflation had pretty much been held in check in many areas. That’s not been the case recently,” Fisher says. “Food costs, depending on the family, have gone up between 8 and 15 percent.

The state average cost of child care for preschoolers has gone up 13 to 16 percent.” According to the report, rent has increased between 8 and 13 percent and the cost of owning a vehicle has risen by roughly 6 percent. Fisher says, for most families, the wage that’s needed from a job to cover those “basic needs” is substantially above the median wage offered in Iowa.

“In other words, you’d have to be in a job paying above and sometimes well above what over half of the jobs in Iowa pay,” Fisher says. Lily French, who helped prepare the IPP report, says after accounting for expenses like childcare, transportation, and rent, Iowans have to earn one-point-six to three times the federal poverty line to make ends meet.

“There’s a significant disconnect between the measurements the federal government uses to describe the number of people who are struggling, they also use that number to help determine policies and programs to help fill in the gap for people,” French says. The gap was even more significant for workers who do not receive health insurance through their employer.

A single parent in that scenario would have to earn nearly 21-dollars an hour to support just one child, according to the analysis. The “Cost of Living in Iowa” is available on the IPP website: www.iowapolicyproject.org.

(Radio IOwa)