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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!
(Pacific Junction, Iowa) – A traffic stop Saturday evening outside of Pacific Junction resulted in a pursuit and the arrest of a man from Mills County. The Mills County Sheriff’s Office says at around 6:24-p.m., deputies tried to stop a 2008 Chrysler 300 at Highway 34/190th Street, but the vehicle failed to stop. Speeds during the resulting chase exceeded 100-mph before the vehicle stopped near mile marker 40 on Interstate 29.
The driver of the car, 33-year-old Aaron Wade Opdyke, of Malvern, was arrested. During a probable cause search of the vehicle, authorities found nearly seven-ounces of marijuana, along with methamphetamine.
Aaron Wade Opdyke (Mills County S/O photo)
Opdyke was transported to the Mills County Jail and held on $15,000 bond.
(Radio Iowa) -Community colleges in Estherville, Mason City and Sheldon have been notified they’re among 150 U.S. community colleges that can compete for what a former president has called the “Oscar” for achievement and student performance. The Aspen Institute’s one-million dollar prize is handed out once every two years to just one of the country’s more than one-thousand community college. Robert Leifeld, Iowa Lakes Community College vice president for administration, says the Aspen Institute evaluated publicly available data to come up with its list of 150 schools.
“Student retention, the completion, transfer and equitable rates as far as those of low income and students of color — those are the key areas they look at when they did the initial round of selecting the institutions,” he says.
North Iowa Area Community College in Mason City and Northwest Iowa Community College in Sheldon are the other two Iowa colleges on the list. Leifield says the next step is to fill out an official application. It’s due in early December and the Aspen Institute will then select 10 finalists.
“Of the 10 finalists, then there’s an on-site visit and that will be about in the fall of 2022,” he says. “Then they’ll look at more information and my understanding that information would include employment and earnings data and insight about promising practices that the institution is working on, pursuing or implemented.” The next Aspen Institute Prize for Community College Excellence will be awarded in early 2023. Three community colleges in Florida and one in California have been recognized since the award was established. Leifeld says it’s an acknowledgement that a community college is accomplishing its mission.
“That they’re serving students, they’re helping students and the students are reaching their goals,” he says. The Aspen Institute is an international non-profit that hosts an annual Ideas Festival that draws well-known participants like former presidents, Supreme Court justices and leaders from other countries.
(Radio Iowa) – While many Iowans will keep up the tradition of Black Friday shopping today, it’s predicted even more bargain hunters will be out in force tomorrow for Small Business Saturday. Jayne Armstrong, director of the U-S Small Business Administration’s Iowa District Office, says when you buy an item at a brick-and-mortar store, there’s no worry about it being delayed or lost during the shipping process.
“It’s a great reason to get out and buy from our local businesses, from artisans,” Armstrong says. “There are so many small businesses that need the help and could really use a shot in the arm after everything they’ve been through the last two years.” An economist predicts year-end holiday sales in Iowa will be up ten-percent compared to last year, and it’s easy to believe as so many people were still staying home in 2020 due to the pandemic. Armstrong says COVID-19 may still be keeping some Iowa shoppers from in-person buying, but far fewer than a year ago.
“A lot of small businesses, too, during the pandemic made a shift and they pivoted to look at other revenue streams and they put a lot of products online,” Armstrong says, “so if somebody is uncomfortable with that, they can still support their local small business community by looking online.” Sales during the final weeks of the year may often mean the difference between turning a profit and ending the year in red ink, so Armstrong urges Iowans to “Be Loyal, Buy Local.”
“One thing for people to think about for the holiday season is not just buying products, but buying gift certificates and supporting local restaurants and nonprofits,” Armstrong says. “Everybody was hit hard during the pandemic and it’s going to take all of us coming together to get them through this final stretch of the recovery.” While the pandemic spelled the end for some Iowa businesses, she says it’s been welcome news to see so many new small business start-ups in Iowa succeed in 2021. Armstrong says 97-percent of the businesses in Iowa are small businesses.
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(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Farm Bureau economist, Sam Funk, doesn’t expect all the logistics and other issues to be sorted out and bring food prices down as we move into a new year. “You know I really doubt that the prices are going to decrease going into the new year. I really think it’s going to be a longer-term inflationary pressure that we’re still going to feel,” Funk says. Fertilizer prices have been rising — and he says the cost of all other inputs used by farmers are unlikely to drop. “If you think about just increasing the price of fertilizer for our corn and soybean fields even across Iowa — you’ve got to think that that’s probably going to push more and more areas even outside of Iowa or lower productivity acres potentially in the state, they are going to take a hit because they won’t be able to afford to put fertilizer on those areas. We may take back some of that corn acreage or soybean acres,” according to Funk.
“And frankly, with the demand, we’ve seen across the world, and people want to eat better. We will probably see some more inflationary pressure,” Funk says. “Federal policies, if we have any more of these programs out through there, you could see additional dollars that will make it potentially a higher amount of pressure for inflation to go up yet.” Higher energy prices also figure into the equation. “We’ll probably actually see more pressure because we’ll see somewhat of a decrease in the amount of productivity that we can get out of the ground because we’ve got higher energy prices that just won’t be counteracted,” he says.
He says those issues will go along with the logistical problems the country is facing in getting the inputs in and the products out.
(Radio Iowa) – Iowans are warned to be extra cautious before buying anything online or even in-person on this Black Friday. Consumer protection expert Michael Domke says if you’re shopping in brick-and-mortar stores, you need to read the ads carefully and be aware of each particular merchant’s guidelines on returns, among other things. “There are laws that require certain disclaimers in advertisements and those are typically buried in that fine print,” Domke says, “and in that fine print is where you’re going to find the duration of the sale, whether there’s any terms and conditions, and return policies.”
Online scammers will certainly be out in force on this big shopping day, looking to get your money by offering fake ads for popular items. “They’re advertising either an item that is typically out of stock,” he says, “a really hot item for the season, and it’s a fictitious website.” Domke says you should be very careful when clicking on coupons or other deals in your phone’s text messages or in social media feeds. “They try to lure more information out of you,” Domke says. “It may be the situation where once you click on it, the malware is going to suddenly infect the device that you’re using and give them access to your personal or banking information.”
It’s buyer beware once you’ve left established websites or stores, he says, as fake items can also being listed on places like Amazon, eBay or Walmart. Take a look at the seller and check reviews before putting down any cash. As always, if a deal seems too good to be true, double-check that link before you double-click.
(Rural Creston, Iowa) – No injuries were reported following a collision on Highway 34, southwest of Creston, Thursday afternoon. According to the Union County Sheriff’s Office, a 2011 Chrysler 300C driven by 89-year-old Tommie R. Stoner, of Afton, and a 2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee, driven by 33-year-old Maggie E. Stuart, of Creston, were both eastbound on Highway 34 at around 2:54-p.m., near mile marker 86, when Stuart was following to close and failed to pay attention to the speed of the Chrysler, which was ahead of her.
The SUV struck the rear of the car, causing a total of $6,000 damage. Both drivers pulled-off onto the south shoulder of the road following the crash. No citations were issued.
(Radio Iowa) – After disruption in the meat supply at the start of the pandemic, the federal government will spend half a billion to expand meat and poultry processing and another 150 million specifically for small meat lockers. In Iowa, officials are reviewing 72 applications for grants from a 750-thousand dollar state fund for expanding meat lockers. Iowa State University economist Chad Hart grew up in southwest Missouri where his parents ran a small meat locker for several decades and he says running a meat locker is hard work.
“You’re not only doing that physical work, but maintaining that customer base has been difficult, so when you think about it, we saw these small town locker plants disappear due to one — the physicality of the work — and two — the economics that drove larger and larger facilities to be built.” Finding people capable of doing the work in a meat locker will be difficult, according to Hart.
“It is a very labor intensive business, especially when you’re doing it on a small scale and that can be difficult for folks, especially as we’ve transitioned to labor that is specialized and less — let’s call it brute force hard labor, which is what small town meat processing was,” Hart says. “I remember with my parents’ locker plant, you’re talking about horsing around sides of meat.”
A side of beef is usually between four-hundred and five-hundred pounds. A whole pig routinely weighs between 150 and two-hundred pounds. The other conundrum for meat lockers is building a customer base willing to pay more for locally raised and processed meat — since meat from the four large corporate processors will cost less per pound. “If you’re just competing on the commodity scale and working against your Cargills and your JBSes, you’re never going to be able to beat them on the low-cost scale,” Hart says, “so you have to offer something more.” Hart says securing repeat customers is key for meat lockers.
“The problem’s going to be that just like smaller plants disappeared in the past, it’s likely a lot of these that are started up under these grants will likely to disappear going into the future unless they can figure out to specialize themselves within that local market to help drive demand for their services, reaching out to their cattle producers and hog producers in that area and saying: ‘Hey, bring your animals to us. Allow us to process them,'” Hart says. “…And can we benefit from the local food movement to truly drive that business?”
Hart made his comments during a recent appearance on Iowa Press on Iowa P-B-S.
(rural Atlantic, Iowa) – Firefighters from Elk Horn, Kimballton and Marne were dispatched Thursday night to a small shed fire located north of Interstate 80, at 144 Zinnia Road . The call went out at around 5:48-p.m. The structure was fully engulfed when firefighters arrived.
According to Josh Krause with the Marne Fire Department, the shed was nearly destroyed by the time the first crews arrived on the scene. A shed to the south of the burned building was beginning to show signs of smoke, but crews were able to protect it from further damage. He says the blaze apparently started with a brush pile nearby, north of the shed, which spread to the trees.
Atlantic Fire was called to bring a tanker truck to the scene, but told to disregard because Marne’s unit was on the scene. No injuries were reported. (Photo’s submitted)
Google view of the property