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KJAN News can be heard at five minutes after every hour right after Fox News 24 hours a day!
Keep up-to-date with Fox News Radio, Radio Iowa, Brownfield & the Iowa Agribusiness Networks!
(Johnston, Iowa) – The Iowa Gold Star Military Museum invites the public to attend the opening of a traveling exhibit on Thursday May 5, 2022 at 7:00 p.m. “The League of Wives: Vietnam’s POW/MIA Allies and Advocates” exhibit, sponsored by the Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas, includes 18 illustrated panels and related artifacts tracing the story of the women who formed The National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia. They became the POW and MIAs most fervent advocates, going to extraordinary lengths to facilitate their husbands’ freedom and to account for missing military men by relentlessly lobbying government leaders, conducting a media campaign, holding covert meetings with antiwar activists, attempting negotiations with the North Vietnamese, and encoding messages in letters to their imprisoned husbands. The exhibit will be available for viewing through 31 August 2022.
Iowa Gold Star Museum
Ms. Heath Hardage Lee is the opening event’s guest speaker. Her 2019 book, The League of Wives: The Untold Story of the Women Who Took on the U.S. Government to Bring Their Husbands Home from Vietnam, has been optioned for a feature film. Ms. Lee is also the curator of the exhibit. During her presentation, Ms. Lee will tell the story of these remarkable women drawing on first person interviews, diaries, letters, oral histories and archival government records to tell the story of courage, resilience, and rescue. She will provide a book signing opportunity at the conclusion of the program.
(Ames, Iowa) – Iowa has a new, number one burger. Officials with the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association said today (Monday), The Flying Elbow earned the title of “Iowa’s Best Burger, 2022.” The establishment is tucked in among other businesses on North 13th Street, in Marshalltown. Local business owners support one another by encouraging their customers to stop by a neighboring boutique, restaurant, and/or shop. And it’s clear – Iowa’s Best Burger Contest has not only increased foot traffic at The Flying Elbow, but the adjacent, small businesses. The Flying Elbow, an alternative sports bar, was six years in the making. It did not happen by chance; it is the result of pitfalls and perseverance. Now it’s been named Iowa’s Best Burger.
Garrett Goodman, a Marshalltown native, considers himself a foodie, or “a person with a particular interest in food,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Goodman’s passion for preparing food took off early in life, as he spent the weekends cooking alongside his step-dad, a chef. Similarly, his great-grandfather worked in the restaurant business. With no formal culinary training, Goodman can affirm, “You can learn a lot in the field just by doing.”
“I found a food truck, and spring was coming,” Goodman recalls. “And then we ran into roadblocks.” Goodman’s dad passed away unexpectedly, pushing his opening date back to the fall of 2017. But, it ended up being worth the wait. Goodman’s business, featuring pro-wrestling themed hot dogs, picked up 1,000 Facebook likes and 100 five-star reviews in a matter of months. Business was booming. Goodman thought, “Maybe I have something here.” So he began his search for a brick and mortar, which he would find in December 2017.
The building, located at the corner of State and Center, formerly housed the Corner Tap. After months of renovations, Goodman once again opened for business. Eager customers waited in lines, stretching out the door. Then suddenly, business came to a screeching halt. In July 2018, a tornado swept through Marshalltown, destroying the restaurant. Goodman intended to rebuild. He wrote a business plan, purchased a building site, and worked on financing, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Two years later, Goodman stumbled upon the building The Flying Elbow is now located in, at 229 North 13th Street. The owner of the building, John Hermanson, had purchased the building with the intent of a restaurant with a deck/patio space and a partnership was born. Renovations kicked off in January of 2021 and in September 2021, The Flying Elbow opened its door to the public, serving hot dogs and other food items. The restaurant presents a flair of wrestling memorabilia, including classic merchandise, action figures and vintage wrestling matches. It offers “a little bit of something for everyone.”
“I didn’t want to be a niche establishment for adventurous foodies. I wanted to create a place that everybody could eat at. I’ve always had a little bit of something for everyone,” Goodman said. “(We’re) still doing hot dogs. We’ve added corn dogs and a few different things to the menu: loaded fries and grilled sandwiches.” In late January, Goodman felt compelled to do something “different, new and fun.” He offered the smashburger, a thin beef patty packed with flavor. “I’ve always wanted to do smashburgers, so I came up with a plan to release a small menu. Within three days, I was smashing burgers,” Goodman said. “In that week, we did the same amount of sales that we did in all of January. We sold out in three days and the buzz started happening.”
Smashburgers found a spot on the regular menu, and have been flying off the grill. Goodman says, “We served 350 pounds of beef in that first week.” The restaurant has continued to serve large quantities of beef, averaging 350 pounds of beef a week. In February, the restaurant’s loyal customers, also referred to as Elbowmaniacs, helped The Flying Elbow secure a spot among the Top 10 restaurants in Iowa’s Best Burger Contest – less than six months after adding smashburgers to its menu.
The rest of the top 10 burgers can be found at: Lachele’s Fine Foods in Des Moines; Pally’s Bar and Grill in Clive; The Handlebar in Dallas Center; West Towne Pub in Ames; Arty’s Ice Cream & Grill in Wilton; Cattleman’s Steakhouse in Sac City; Flaming Office Bar and Grill in Toledo; Foodie Garage Eatery in Dubuque, and Victoria Station in Harlan.
(Radio Iowa) – The U-S Marshals Service has announced 40 people in Black Hawk County have been arrested over the past four weeks in what the agency calls Operation Washout – Waterloo.
According to a news release from the U-S Marshals Service, the people who’ve been arrested are sex offenders, violent criminals and fugitives facing state, federal and local charges. Twenty-two of the 40 people arrested in Black Hawk County are accused of having connections to organized crime or gangs. The next phase of the operation will involve tracking a handful of fugitives who’ve recently fled the area according to a deputy U.S. Marshal.
Over the past four weeks, the U-S Marshals Service and 10 other law enforcement agencies from the local, state and federal level have been involved in the investigations and arrests in the Waterloo area.
(Radio Iowa) – Numbers from state climatologist Justin Glisan confirm spring jackets weren’t always the best option in April. “We’re about five degrees below average looks like the top 15 coldest April on record in our records go back 150 years,” Glisan says. The state climatologist says he also got a lot of comments about how windy the days were in the just completed month.
“Now April is climatologically the windiest month of the year for Iowa — but really windy conditions — we had you know strings of days in which sustained winds were 20 to 25 miles per hour and gusting up into the 30s,” Glisan says. “So we look at the averages, the climatology of wind speed and direction. We had a significant wind direction out of the northwest but also a secondary southeasterly component to that. And those are driven by wetter days from the northwest and then warmer days from the southeast.”
Those wind conditions help create some stormy weather throughout April. Glisan says the positive from the storms is they brought more precipitation with them. “We look at April last year, we were an inch and a half below average. So relatively dry conditions last April,” according to Glisan. “We were only about four-tenths of an inch below average across the state. And we had pockets in central in north-central Iowa, where we had rainfall departures — positive so surpluses of anywhere from one to two inches.”
The statewide average for precipitation was three-point-two inches. Glisan says the early projections are for May to remain cool and damp. Check out the April weather data for Atlantic in a report on the Weather page at kjan.com (Located under the Community Hub column).
(Harlan, Iowa) – The Shelby County Board of Supervisor’s meeting will be held in the City of Harlan’s Council Chambers, Tuesday, instead of at the courthouse. The meeting time is still 9-a.m. Among the action items on their agenda is:
In other business, the Shelby County Supervisors will receive reports from the County Recorder, Shelby County Chamber of Commerce, and the Secondary Roads report.
DENISON— The Iowa Department of Natural Resources reports a small amount of process wastewater reached the Boyer River in Denison, Sunday afternoon. Alarms rang about 2:45 p.m. at Smithfield Foods when a wastewater processor malfunctioned. Staff immediately closed a nearby storm drain. But an estimated 50 to 100 gallons had already flowed through the storm drain and into the Boyer River.
Smithfield staff continue cleanup efforts. DNR does not recommend recreation in the area until cleanup is complete. DNR will monitor cleanup and consider appropriate enforcement action.
(Council Bluffs, Iowa) – The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office reports a deputy took custody Friday of Atlantic man, who was wanted on valid warrants through the State of Iowa. 36-year-old David Michael Theisen was picked-up from Cass County (Iowa) Correction on an Absence from Custody charge, on an original charge of Driving While Barred. He was transported to the Pott. County Jail and held on a $1,000 bond.
A man from Council Bluffs was cited for Violating the Pott. County Burn Ban, Friday evening. 58-year-old Vincent Paul Tangeman told a deputy he thought that with all the rain he had received Thursday night, the burn ban was lifted. If fact, it wasn’t lifted until just this (Monday) morning.
And, an Omaha man being held in the Pottawattamie County Jail, was served with a valid arrest warrant out of Douglas County, Nebraska. The warrant was for being a Fugitive from Justice. 34-year-ol Paul Matthew Hughes was presented with the warrant, and then return to the custody of Pott. County Corrections staff.
(Radio Iowa) – Former Iowa Governor Terry Branstad is launching a new national organization positioned to compete with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. In 2020, Republican leaders criticized the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for endorsing some Democratic congressional candidates. In a news release, Branstad said America’s business owners and entrepreneurs have not been well-represented in Washington.
The new group is named “The American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce” and Branstad will be its chairman. The new group’s C-E-O will be Gentry Collins. Collins is an Ames native who ran George W. Bush’s Iowa campaign and has served as political director of the Republican National Committee and the Republican Governors Association.
(Panora, Iowa) – A man from Adair was injured during a single-vehicle accident late Sunday night, east of Panora. The Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office reports 18-year-old Colten Cody Morrill was traveling on Highway 44 near Viola Avenue, at around 10-p.m., when he fell asleep at the wheel of a 2006 Chevy Cobalt. The car ended-up in the north ditch. A female passenger in the car was uninjured.
Colten Morrill suffered what were described as suspected minor/non-incapacitating injuries (to his face and/or neck), and was transported by Panora EMS to the Guthrie County Hospital. He was cited for Failure to Maintain Control. The car sustained $3,000 damage to the right front side.
(Council Bluffs, Iowa) – The open burning ban in Pottawattamie County will be lifted today (May 2nd), effective at 9:00 a.m. Ongoing assessment of vegetative fuel, soil, and environmental conditions now indicate a decreased potential for extreme fire behavior and rapid spread. Doug Reed, director of Emergency Management, says “Recent and anticipated precipitation, spring greening of vegetation, and progress in agricultural planting season work have all contributed to reducing extreme fire risk.”
Open burning is now allowable throughout the county EXCEPT in any municipal city limits where there is a standing ordinance prohibiting open burning on a regular basis. Before burning within any city limits, check with your local fire department or city clerk to determine whether your community has such an ordinance.
Residents are to continue using extreme caution whenever burning. The county is still experiencing abnormally dry conditions and seasonal outlooks indicate that will remain the case or even deteriorate later into the summer months.
Residents or farm operators can visit the emergency management agency’s website at https://pcema-ia.org to get updated information regarding fire risk and drought conditions as we move forward. The agency will be updating the current burn ban page to now provide fire risk information, drought condition information, resources for prescribed/controlled burning operations, and other related resources.