Members of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (Iowa CCI) say they will be in attendance at a public hearing this evening in Adair County, to demand the County’s Board of Supervisors deny a construction permit for what they say is a proposed Cargill backed hog factory farm.

Eric Taylor is seeking a permit to build a 2,480 head feeder operation in Richland Township, south of Fontanelle.  Members of Adair-Madison County Iowa CCI say they, and neighbors of the proposed large Confined Animal Feeding Operation, or CAFO, oppose construction of the factory farm-because of the environmental and economic damage it will cause to their local rural community.

Auditor Mindy Schaefer told KJAN last Friday, that the public hearing is necessary because the number of animals housed there will be over 1,000. The County will use the Master Matrix scoring method to make it’s recommendation to the DNR following the public hearing.

The hearing will last no longer than 90-minutes, with three-minutes allowed per speaker. Sign-up for the hearing begins at 6:30-p.m., in the Courtroom at the Adair County Courthouse. A member of the Board of Supervisors will sign-up speakers on a first-come, first-served basis. Speakers will make their comments in the order they signed-up. Once the meeting begins, no additional speakers will be allowed to sign-up, or speak.

Written comments must be presented to the Board of Supervisors prior to the public hearing at 7-p.m..

Schaefer says only written comments will accompany the Board of Supervisor’s recommendation to the DNR, along with the Master Matrix scoring.

w/ Ric Hanson

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w/ Ric Hanson

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SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – The Sioux City airport is benefiting from the flooding along the Missouri River because it has become harder for people to drive to Omaha’s airport. The flooding has closed sections of Interstate 29 in Iowa and a number of other roads, so getting to Omaha’s larger Eppley Airfield can be challenging.

Sioux Gateway Airport manager Kurt Miller says ticket sales are higher than average right now. Miller says the longer the flooding lasts, the more likely it is that people who live near Sioux City will consider flying out of the smaller airport in northwest Iowa.

Tree down on westbound 7th Street, just east of Maple

A severe thunderstorm producing winds of up to 51-miles per hour pushed through Atlantic between 2:10 and 2:40-a.m. today (Monday). The storm dumped .6″ of rain here at the KJAN studios. Atlantic Police reported a large tree limb down near 7th and Maple Streets at 2:10-a.m. 

Another, approximately 4-inch diameter tree, limb was observed having fallen down between 4th and 5th Streets, just east of Olive Street. Scattered, smaller limbs and twigs littered City Streets early this morning. Law enforcement reported to the Weather Service at 2:30-a.m., several large tree branches were down, a heavy patio table with umbrella was toppled and blown several feet from its emplacement, and other pieces of yard furniture, garbage cans and yard décor were strewn about. There were also scattered, brief power outages within the city.

The National Weather Service says  a peak wind gust of 51-miles per hour was recorded on the Automated Weather Observation Systems (AWOS) at the airport, at 2:15-a.m. Also,  law enforcement reported  2-to 4-inch diameter tree limbs were down in the Guthrie County Community of Yale, after the storms blew through there at around 2:45-a.m.

Authorities in Montgomery County say a Missouri man wanted on a warrant out of Pennsylvania, was arrested Sunday evening following a traffic stop west of Red Oak. 29-year old Jonathan Lee Lewis, of Gladstone, MO, was wanted for probation violation in Pennsylvania.

Lewis was brought to the Montgomery County Jail and held without bond while awaiting extradition to Pennsylvania.

JEFFERSON, Iowa (AP) — Friends and family members of an Iowa soldier killed in Iraq remembered him as a man of strong faith who did the right thing.

Army Capt. Matthew Nielson’s funeral was held Sunday at the Greene County Community Center in his Jefferson, Iowa, hometown. The 27-year-old died June 29 during an attack in Badrah, Iraq.

The Des Moines Register reports that Maj. Gen. Will Grimsley said Nielson was deeply rooted in his values.

The Rev. Stephen Ude of Zion Lutheran Church in Ogden says he doesn’t know why people’s loved ones die, but he encouraged Nielson’s family to remember God’s everlasting love.

Nielson joined the Army after graduating from the University of Northern Iowa. His family has said he had wanted to be a soldier since he was a young boy.

The Iowa National Guard regrets to announce the death of Sgt. 1st Class Terryl L. Pasker, 39, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Pasker was killed by an Afghan National Directorate Security officer during a mounted patrol, Saturday, July 9, in Panjshir Province, Afghanistan at approximately 9:30 a.m., local Afghanistan time. As Pasker conducted the mounted patrol, the security officer stopped Pasker’s vehicle, then shot and killed both Pasker and a civilian in the vehicle. Master Sgt. Todd Eipperle,  of Marshalltown, Iowa, driving an armored vehicle in front of Pasker, stopped as soon as the shots were fired, and exchanged gunfire with the Afghan security officer, killing the security officer. Eipperle was wounded in the attack.

Pasker was assigned to Co. B, 334th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division, Iowa Army National Guard, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Eipperle is assigned to the Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division, Iowa Army National Guard, Boone, Iowa, and is currently receiving medical treatment at a U.S. Army facility in Afghanistan. The attack is under investigation.

Pasker was born Feb. 26, 1972 in Anamosa, Iowa and graduated from Lisbon (Iowa) High School in 1990. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in July 1990 and joined the Iowa Army National Guard in April 1995. Pasker was serving as an Electronic Maintenance Supervisor during his current deployment. He previously deployed to Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Freedom in 2004-2005.

Pasker was part of the approximately 2,800 members of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division deployed to Afghanistan. These Iowa Soldiers reported to their mobilization station at Camp Shelby, Miss. in Aug. 2010 for additional training and preparation before departing for the Afghanistan theater of operations. The unit arrived in Afghanistan in November 2010, where the Soldiers provide full-spectrum operations in a combat theater, including lethal and non-lethal capabilities, support to Afghan National Army and Police units, and assistance to humanitarian relief initiatives.

BLAIR, Neb. (AP) – The Omaha Public Power District has installed a new barrier around its Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant and is now pumping out floodwaters from the Missouri River. OPPD installed the new 8-foot-tall, water-filled barrier around the plant to replace a similar one that failed two weeks ago after a worker inadvertently punctured it with a bobcat. The utility planned to pump out the water behind the new barrier on Sunday to create a dry area around the plant, so it will be easier to for workers to get around.

Both OPPD and federal regulators have said Fort Calhoun is safe even without this barrier. Officials say all the key areas of the plant have stayed dry inside. The plant will remain shut down until after floodwaters subside in the fall.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Insurance agents in states along the swollen Missouri River say federal officials are causing widespread confusion by pushing the sale of flood insurance policies that might not cover damage from the current flooding. The insurance companies say policies specify that only those bought at least two months before the damage happened will cover it.

But the Federal Emergency Management Agency is telling landowners to buy the insurance anyway, and that some damage might be covered under the insurance program’s complicated rules. The confusion is increasing the anxiety along the river as the flooding continues. The flood is expected to last another two months and affect six states, from North Dakota to Missouri.

The insurance questions affect people whose property normally doesn’t flood and who waited to buy coverage.