An Atlantic man was arrested Sunday. The Atlantic P-D says 24-year old Marshall Fischer,  was arrested on a charge of Disorderly Conduct. Fischer was transported to Cass County Jail and booked in.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Region VII office announced today (Monday), that the states of Nebraska and Iowa, along with Washington County in Nebraska and Pottawattamie and Harrison counties in Iowa, will participate with the Omaha Public Power District in a one-day exercise on Tuesday, August 6th, in support of the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station, located near Fort Calhoun, Nebraska. The routine exercise will test the abilities of the states of Nebraska and Iowa, the utility, and the participating counties to protect the health and safety of the public living and working in the vicinity of the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station.

The exercise is a biennial requirement to determine the adequacy of the state and local radiological emergency preparedness and response plans. It will require the activation of emergency facilities by the participating state and local officials. The activities of the state, county and local units of government will be observed and evaluated by the FEMA Region VII Radiological Emergency Preparedness (REP) Program. Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station on-site performance will be observed and evaluated by officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

On Thursday, August 8th,  a public meeting will be held to describe and explain the full-scale response exercise process. Because the process of evaluating the full-scale response exercise will take months, the preliminary findings are very limited in scope.

Members of the public and the media are invited to attend the meeting beginning at 10:30 a.m.  in the City Council Chambers of Blair City Hall, located at 218 South 16th Street, Blair, Neb. Representatives from FEMA Region VII will chair the meeting and explain the exercise process.  A representative from the NRC Region IV office, located in Arlington, Texas, will discuss activities conducted on-site at the power plant during the exercise.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa residents have a chance to weigh in on the state’s plan to expand low-income health coverage.  A public hearing is scheduled for this (Monday) afternoon in Des Moines on the Iowa Health and Wellness Plan. The hearing is part of the process the state must go through to get federal approval for the plan.

Under the Iowa Health and Wellness Plan, the state will accept federal dollars offered to states that expand Medicaid under President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul. That funding will be used to provide health coverage for as many as 150,000 low-income residents by putting some on a new state-run program and to pay the premiums for others to get private insurance on the new health care exchanges.

Another hearing will be held Tuesday, in Council Bluffs.  It begins at 11:30 a.m., at Iowa Western Community College, Looft Hall Auditorium (2700 College Rd.).

(Today’s meeting in Des Moines takes place 2-p.m., at  River Place, Room 1, 2309 Euclid Ave.)

A pickup truck reported stolen from Taylor County over the weekend was discovered Sunday, in rural Union County. According to the Lenox Police Department, the owner of a  pickup reported at 9:30-a.m., he had entered the Casey’s parking lot, parked his vehicle and left the keys in it. When he went to get in the truck, the keys were missing.

The owner called a friend, who picked him up and brought him to his residence in Afton, where he held a spare set of keys. When he returned to the store’s parking lot Sunday morning, the truck was gone. The Lenox P-D notified area law enforcement agencies, and the missing vehicle was found Sunday in rural Union County by Union County Sheriffs Deputies. The truck, a white 2006 Chevy Silverado was believed to have been taken sometime between 1-a.m. and 3-a.m., Sunday. Lenox Police are asking anyone who may have driven by the Casey’s General Store in Lenox during that time frame and noticed any activity, to call the P-D at 641-333-2929.

The Iowa Department of Education has come up with new proposed rules for when schools can start classes in the fall. Current law says schools can start no earlier than the week in which September 1st falls, but most schools get waivers to start earlier in August. Under the new formula, schools could continue to easily get waivers to start between August 19th and 23rd, but it would be tough to start any earlier. The Education Department’s Mike Cormack says the plan will still leave some people unhappy.

“It’s one side that says schools should be able to make whatever decision they want on this and that’s been the defacto status quo,” Cormack says, “and the other side says the law has a date there for a purpose. Why are we not having a September 1st start?”

The new proposal is considered a compromise between educators who want to set their own calendars and the tourism industry which loses money when kids go back to school earlier in August. Cormack says with their current calendars, 30-percent of school districts would be affected by the new formula, but most would miss the new cutoff date by only a few days. The change means it will be harder to start school before the state fair concludes, which will upset some administrators and parents.

“We’ve had people from both perspectives say if we don’t like how this comes out we’ll sue you,” he says. “We’ve heard that from both elements.” If the board approves the new rules this week and a legislative committee signs off, the change would go into effect for the 2014 school year.

(Radio Iowa/9-a.m. News)

The Fremont County Sheriff’s Department today (Monday), released a cumulative report on arrests and incidents which occurred over the past couple of weeks. Most recently, on July 18th, 38-year old Robert Christopher Greenwood, and 41-year old Phillip Lewis Smith, both of Omaha, were arrested on felony charges of Theft in the 2nd degree and Criminal Mischief, and Trespassing, in association with an incident on property owned by the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe Railroad.  Smith was being held on $10,000 bond, while Greenwood posted a similar bond July 24th. Both are scheduled to be arraigned on the charges August 12th.

And, on July 17th, 38-year old Rhonda Sue Booher, of Hamburg, was arrested on an enhanced Possession of Marijuana charge.

w/ Ric Hanson

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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa motorists who buy gasoline without ethanol could soon see a price jump at the pump.  The Des Moines Register reports that Iowa’s largest pipeline operator, Magellan Midstream Partners, will no longer ship “clear” 87 octane regular gasoline to its Iowa terminals. Instead, the pipeline operator will start shipping 84 octane fuel, which can be blended with more expensive 91 octane fuel to produce the regular 87 octane product. Iowa requires a minimum 87 octane fuel at gas pumps.

The change means that both the new 87 octane and 91 octane fuels without ethanol will likely cost more at the pump. Magellan spokesman Bruce Heine says the change is driven by pipeline customers, including refiners, petroleum traders and petroleum marketers.

Summertime is one of the hardest times of year for food banks as donations drop off dramatically. Brian Barks, spokesman for the Food Bank for the Heartland, says they’re launching a new effort allowing people to “text” donations to the agency. Barks says the signs are clear the economy isn’t getting any better. “Families are having a hard time making ends meet,” Barks says. “If you think, when’s the last time we heard of a company saying we’re adding upper, high-paying jobs? The jobs we’re adding to the economy are lower-level, service-related jobs.”

A recent “Map the Meal Gap” study was compiled by the group Feeding America and Barks says the results were troubling. “The study that’s done each June says 211,000 people in our service area are at risk for hunger,” Barks says. “That number has been pretty much flat the last three years. What that tells us is the issue of hunger isn’t getting any worse but it’s not getting any better.”

It’s hoped the new texting program will lure more people into donating cash to the food bank. They just need to text the word “feed” to 501-501 from a cell phone. “And all you do is type in ‘yes’ and hit ‘send’ and you’ve made a $10 donation,” Barks says. “That will allow us to provide 30 meals to people who need it.”

The Omaha-based facility supplies food items to 325 food pantries, homeless shelters and soup kitchens in 93 counties across western Iowa and Nebraska. Last year, it provided food to 19,000 families in need, in addition to helping emergency shelters, after-school programs, senior housing sites and rehab centers.

(Radio Iowa)