(Cass County, Iowa) – Numerous accidents have been reported in the area this (Wednesday) morning. The most recent was a van pulling a U-Haul Trailer that went into the north ditch off I-80 westbound near mile marker 56. Marne Fire and Rescue, Atlantic Fire and Rescue and Cass EMS were requested at the scene. The accident took place at around 7:19-a.m.

Another accident happened at about the 51-mile marker eastbound off I-80. That reportedly involved a semi and an SUV. The SUV ended up in the ditch. The left shoulder of the road was blocked as of 7:25-a.m. No injuries were associated with either accident.

Roadways are partially covered with a thin layer of snow and ice from melting snow.

A thin layer of snow has resulted in a few accidents in the area, this morning, but there have been no reports of any injuries. According to 511ia.org, roads mainly east of Highway 173, including Highway 71, a stretch of I-80, Highway 44 and 141, as well as parts of Highway 92, 34 and 2 (to name a few), are partially covered with snow. Slow down, and drive with caution.

Road report as of 6:40-a.m. 11/16/22 (Click to enlarge)

(Audubon, Iowa) – The City Council in Audubon will be mulling over ways to fill a vacancy on the Council created by the news during their meeting on Monday, that Councilman Nick Weihs is resigning. His resignation is due to the fact Weihs is moving out of the Audubon City limits. Weih’s term expires in Dec., 2025.

According to City Clerk Joe Foran, Weihs’ seat will likely be filled by appointment until the next election. The Council is tasked now with getting out and finding someone who may be interested in being appointed to the position.

In other business, Foran told the Council that in the next Legislative session of the State, representatives will be considering combining the Local Option Sales Tax with the State Retail Sales Tax and revenue share. Foran explained how that would eventually leave a huge hole in the City budget. The State has had a history of later eliminating revenue sharing income in the favor of keeping it all at the State level. Foran urged Council Members and the public to contact area legislative representatives to stop this legislation.

(Find additional Audubon City Council meeting minutes/notes, HERE)

(Radio Iowa) – An eastern Iowa hospital boasts it’s the only facility in the state to start using a new technology to screen for polyps during colonoscopies. It’s called the G-I Genius and it uses artificial intelligence to highlight suspicious polyps with a visual marker in real time. Dr. Bhavya Akhauri, at Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids, says using the device is like having a second set of very sharp eyes. “It’s a little box which looks like a DVD player and sits on top of our endoscopy processor,” Akhauri says. “It has a software that has millions of images of various kinds of polyps saved on it, and it actively flags the polyps with these green squares.”

Akhauri, medical director of the Mercy Gastroenterology Clinic, says studies are finding that an A-I-assisted colonoscopy can increase polyp detection rates. “Our polyp detection rate is really high,” Akhauri says, “so we just got the technology, so we’ll be comparing and seeing six to 12 months down the line just to see what difference it made to our unit, but it’s supposed to help find more polyps, that’s the rationale behind getting it.” So at what age should you start getting a colonoscopy?  “The consensus for all the GI societies, it’s 45 years. It used to be 50 but that also got changed,” Akhauri says. “We’re finding more and more cancers in younger populations, so currently, it’s at 45 and that’s what I recommend.”

A colonoscopy is considered the best way to detect polyps which could eventually lead to colorectal cancer, the third-most common form of cancer in the U.S., with almost 150,000 new cases every year.

OMAHA, Neb. — An official with the Omaha Airport Authority said Tuesday, Epply Airfield in Omaha, has welcomed its eighth airline. Dave Roth, Chief Executive Officer for the Airport Authority, said beginning in May, Sun Country will offer a direct flight between Omaha and Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport.

The flights, which will operate on Mondays and Fridays, will go during the peak summer travel period between Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa trapping season is underway, and a D-N-R expert says the prospects are good. Furbearer biologist, Vince Evelsizer, says there shouldn’t be any trouble finding furs. “Most of our species of furbearers and Iowa are doing well, the populations are either stable, or increasing slightly,” Evelsizer says. “Examples of that would be things like coons and beavers, even red fox, that sort of thing.” Evelsizer says the only two species that they’re concerned about are foxes and muskrats — which have seen declining populations. He says making a profit from trapping is a little less certain.

“It does look like there continues to be a relatively weak, wild fur market going into this fall and winter. However, some species like bobcats, and beavers, have increased a little bit in value,” he says. Evelsizer says the price of the furs is influenced by several things. “In general, it has to do with the garment industry, and where supply and demand issues are. Right now, for example, in the past six, eight years, especially China and Russia, were two countries that were the bigger for buyers,”Evelsizer says, “and relations with those two countries in the U-S has been tense past few years, and that can affect trade on things like wild furs.” He says there’s been around 14 to 15-thousand licensed fur harvesters the past few years.

“When the fur market is weak, it does tend to lead to a lower harvest or effort from our harvesters,” Evelsizer says. “But that being said, there’s still a lot of fur harvesters that go out and do it. You know, your regardless of the fair market value, they go and do it because they love trapping or they love predator hunting or they love running their coon dogs.” Evelsizer says some trappers aren’t concerned about the fur price.” Some folks are interested in the meat, you know, things like a beaver, for example, can be actually very good eating,” he says.

Trappers don’t have to sell their furs this year — Evelsizer says they can keep them for one year and see if prices go up before they have to sell. He says there is one more beginning trapper event for the year this Saturday in St. Charles. It’s for beginner trappers of all ages and you can sign up on the Iowa D-N-R ‘s website to register.

(Rural Atlantic, Iowa) – Firefighters from Atlantic were requested for a barn fire north of town early this (Wednesday) morning, north of the KJAN Studios. The blaze was reported at 2:40-a.m., on the property at 55717 Olive Street (The Steve Andersen property). The first crew on the scene reported a fully engulfed structure fire. A second page was requested at 3:08-a.m.

AMU was requested to turn off the power, at 3:11-a.m. Marne and Lewis Fire Departments were requested for their tanker trucks and manpower at 3:13-a.m.  Marne Fire was released from the scene at 4:42-a.m. Lewis Fire was released about five-minutes later. Hot spots remained as of 4:51-a.m., and the remaining Atlantic crews were working to make sure those were extinguished before leaving the scene.

View of emergency vehicles on the scene, from the KJAN parking lot on N. Olive Street.

Additional information was not immediately available.

(Radio Iowa) – We got our first taste of snow across the state and the first winter driving conditions today (Tuesday). The Iowa D-O-T’s Sinclair Stolle says the 511ia.org website can help you navigate this winter and that includes personalizing the info. “One of the ways to do that is the layer bar that’s on the far right side of the map. This also includes a legend tab that is dynamic based on the layers that you have turned on,” Stolle says. She says it makes it easy when you want to quickly check out the information on the 511IA.org site.

“If you just want to see certain things, and you want to see them all the time, you can turn on the layers and zoom to the area that you want, and then bookmark that U-R-L. And it’ll come back to that each time when you use that bookmark,” she explains. They added the winter mode button last year that lets you only view the information on winter driving. “It looks like a snowflake, it’s in the upper left corner of the website. And what that does is it only turns on the road conditions and plow locations,” Stolle says. “So that’s all you’re going to see if that’s all you want. It makes it quick and easy. Just click that button. And it’ll just take your view to those layers turned on.”

You can also get the 511IA.org app for your phone. “The winter road conditions are updated every two hours or as conditions change, whichever is sooner,” she says. Stolle says the site does not include information on county and local roads. “We are only putting road conditions out and other information and all the construction and incidents and things on the roads that we maintain, have jurisdiction on, and so that does not include city or county roadways,” Stolle says. She says they do have a regional winter road conditions layer that allows those on the border to see information from bordering states when a storm is coming in.

(Radio Iowa) – The state provides cybersecurity services for Iowa governmental entities and nonprofits at cost — but few are taking advantage of the offer. While 92 percent of counties use the state for cybersecurity, only 14 school districts, three cities and four nonprofits use these services. Iowa State University cybersecurity expert, Doug Jacobson says it doesn’t matter how you plan for an attack — you just need to do it before it’s a problem.

“If you call these people out of the blue and say, I got ransomware help, they got a long road ahead of them to even figure out what you have and what you’ve done and where you are to even start to figure out what the ransomware did,” Jacobson says. Jacobson is the director of the I-S-U Center for Cybersecurity, Innovation and Outreach.

(By Zachary Oren Smith, Iowa Public Radio)

(Atlantic & Audubon) – Officials with the Community Foundations of Southwest Iowa have announced awards of $36,000 to the Cass County Community Foundation and $53,150 to the Audubon County Community Foundations, as part of the organization’s Fall 2022 Grant Cycle. The funds will be used in each respective county for nonprofit organizations and community projects.  All grantees met the criteria as Cass or Audubon County nonprofit agencies or organizations, with charitable missions supporting community needs in the areas of civic engagement, culture, health, education, and social services. Only organizations providing services in Cass or Audubon County were eligible to apply in each separate county.

Including these most recent grants, the Cass County Community Foundation has distributed more than $2.6 million in grants and scholarships over the past 24-years.

Cass County Community Foundation Advisory Board Members pictured include (front row from left to right): Kristi Burg, Chair; Gaylord Schelling, Vice Chair; Stacey Goodman, Foundation Director; Sandy Bierbaum; (back row from left to right) Mike Tibken; Justin D. Hockenberry; and Sue Hunt, Secretary/Treasurer.

The following organizations are Fall 2022 Cass County Grant Recipients:

Anita Public Library Obituary Card File Cabinets $ 1,000
Anita Town & Country Project Organization $ 600
Anita Volunteer Fire Association Laerdal Compact Suction Unit $ 1,175
Atlantic Public Library Exterior Security Camera $ 1,000
Cass County Historical Museum Replacement of HVAC System in Museum $ 3,500
City of Griswold City Park Revitalization $ 2,000
Girl Scouts of Greater Iowa Girl Scout Tree Promise – Cass County $ 500
Griswold Fire Department Ventilation Chainsaw $ 1,610
Griswold Rescue Portable Suction Unit $ 1,060
Iowa Jobs for America’s Graduates (iJAG) Career Pathways for Underserved Youth $ 2,555
Kiwanis Club of Atlantic Books for Kindergartners and Newborns $ 500
LC Clinic Lactation Consultation Equipment and Supplies $ 1,000
Lewis Public Library Tween/Teen Makerspace $ 1,000
Massena Historical Society Interior Improvements $ 2,600
Massena Public Library Community Room Update $ 1,000
Noble Initiative Foundation Concrete Work $ 7,000
The 309 Club, Inc. Parking Lot Improvements $ 1,000
Trivium Life Services Fresh Start Fund $ 1,500
Wesley Retirement Services, Inc. Heritage House Audio/Visual Enhancement $ 5,000
West Central Community Action Emergency Clothing Room Equipment $ 1,000

Advisory board members of the Audubon County Community Foundation are Chair, Steven B. Hansen of Audubon; Vice Chair, Pat Kaiser of Audubon; Secretary/Treasurer, Megan Wagner of Audubon; Gina Benton of Exira; Dr. Bob Blomme, DVM of Audubon; Travis Nelson of Exira; and Donna Olson of Kimballton.

Including these most recent grants, the Audubon County Community Foundation has distributed more than $2.8 million in grants and scholarships over the last 25 years. The following organizations are Fall 2022 Grant Recipients:

Albert the Bull Committee Operation Penny Machine $1,000
Audubon County Agricultural Society Chairs and Carriers $7,000
Audubon County Hospital Foundation ACMH Surgical Lights and Boom $16,320
Exira Lions Club Lions Club and Park Equipment $2,950
Friendship Home Lower Dining Area Air Conditioning $20,880
Girl Scouts of Greater Iowa Girl Scout Tree Promise – Audubon County $1,000
The Children’s Nest Staff Kitchenette and Work Area Improvements $4,000