(Radio Iowa) – Filming is scheduled in November, in Kossuth County, for a movie about a World War Two camp near Algona for German prisoners. The movie’s crew was in the area last weekend, scouting possible filming locations. D. J. Perry is the C-E-O of Collective Development and author of the screenplay for “Silent Night in Algona.” “If we find something and then the owners are agreeable to having us shoot there, sometimes it’s actually deconstructing or taking modern stuff out temporarily,” he says. “Sometimes it’s set directing and adding stuff to a location.” Perry says they’re looking for homes and buildings that were around 77 years ago — during the fall and early winter of 1944. The crew was in Whittemore and Lone Rock this past weekend, searching for places to film. “We’ll be back in end of October with our art team and starting to turn everything into 1944,” he says.

The film will focus on a four month period in late 1944 — from September through December. “It’s about unity, it’s about patriotism — a lot of themes that are very relevant to what’s going on now as well and it’s important that things aren’t forgotten from the past,” he says. “As we know, we are doomed to repeat mistakes if you don’t learn from your past.” Lead actors for the film have been cast, but Perry says they’ll be looking for area residents to be extras and assist in other ways. “When you see those end credits of the movie — all the special thanks and all the people involved, that’s what it takes,” Perry says. “It takes a small army to make these things happen.”

Perry says filming will take about three weeks and he expects the movie to be released in 2022. Perry’s company is based in Michigan and announced this summer two German actors will play lead roles in the film. Another actor who had role in two t-v dramas — St. Elsewhere and Tour of Duty — will portray the Kossuth County Sheriff in the film. Algona was notified in 1943 that a P-O-W camp would be built in the county and an estimated 10-thousand German soldiers passed through until it was dismantled in 1946. A 20-foot by 60-foot nativity scene carved by six German P-O-Ws remains in Algona.

The broadcast News at 7:05-a.m., with Ric Hanson.

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(Atlantic, Iowa) – The City of Atlantic’s Personnel and Finance Committee is set to meet 5:30-p.m. Monday, Aug. 30th, in the City Council’s Chambers, at City Hall. During their session, the Committee will review and act on a recommendation to the City Council, with regard to a request to connect the City’s Sanitary Sewer to a commercial property at 60365 Glacier Road. City Administrator John Lund says a new business has signed a lease for the building on the City’s northwest side, that will create 10-to-12 jobs, and are requesting a sanitary sewer hook-up.

Persons with property outside the City Limits must receive approval from the Atlantic City Council before the hook-up can be made. Lund says he will endorse the P&F Committee recommendation because “It is in the best interest of tax payers,” and it would expand the tax base, creating “Downward pressure on property taxes.” Lund says in the future, the City should “Insist on annexation of properties wanting to connect to our utilities.” In this instance, however, the City has already extended utilities far beyond the limits, and there are parcels of land in between “that make annexation impractical, if not unfeasible,” according to Lund.

He added “The City has placed itself in this situation, where we cannot leverage sewer access to compel annexation. We should consider this an instructive lesson. This is not something we should ever do again.”  In other business, the Personnel and Finance Committee will review and act on making a recommendation to the Council, with regard to East 3rd Street Place Land Donations, and with regard to a New Business Incentive Proposal.

(Radio Iowa) -A new report on global climate change is being released with help from researchers at Iowa State University. The study from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had more than 200 authors from a dozen chapters around the globe. William Gutowski, an I-S-U professor of geological and atmospheric sciences, says the report was three years in the making. He calls it sharp and authoritative. “We have to review all of the scientific literature that’s out there that’s relevant to our chapter and we have to discuss it, decide what we learned from it, what we think is good information and what we think maybe is not so important,” Gutowski says, “and then we get reviewed by people on the outside. I think my chapter had to respond collectively to over 5,000 review comments.”

I-S-U’s chapter covered central North America, where weather extremes in the past year ranged from brutal cold in Texas last February to the drought in Iowa and across the Midwest. Gutowski expects continued weather extremes. “When we look at the future scenarios, there’s different options that we consider,” Gutowski says. “One would be, just keep letting things go along as they have been. Other scenarios we consider are ways that we might control the rise in greenhouse gases, maybe even start to have the level of greenhouse gases go down.”

It all comes down to what actions humans may take, he says, as to how quickly the changing climate may be impacted. “Trying to change things, it’s a long, slow process. It’s like trying to turn a ship around. You don’t just do it overnight,” Gutowski says. “Nonetheless, we can do things now that set the stage for a much better future for our children and their children down the road with actions that we start to take right now.”

Gutowski says the report is a wake-up call to do something and it has to involve countries around the world. Iowans can help to stave off climate change, he says, by doing things like conserving electricity and gasoline, and promoting wind and solar power.

IOWA CITY– The Iowa Department of Corrections reports State Prison inmate, 61-year old James Lee Blair was pronounced dead Friday evening at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Officials say his death was likely due to complications related to COVID-19 and other preexisting medical conditions. Blair He had been transported there recently from the Iowa State Penitentiary due to his declining health.  He was serving a Life sentence for Murder-1st Degree in Polk County.  His sentence began on November 24, 1982.

A 23-year-old U.S. Marine with ties to Red Oak was among 13 service members killed in a terrorist attack Thursday in Kabul, Afghanistan. According a statement from the family released to KETV in Omaha, Corporal Daegen William-Tyeler Page was killed when a suicide bomber detonated a device near the city’s airport in the wake of mass evacuations from the country.

The statement said Page was raised in Red Oak and attended high school at Millard South in the Omaha metro. Corporal Page joined the Marines in 2019. He was a member of the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California.

His family says after finishing his enlistment, Daegan planned to come home and go to a local trade school, possibly to become a lineman.

The Cass County Auditor’s Office reports one person submitted their nomination papers Friday. Deputy Auditor Sheri Karns says Anita Councilman Mark Harris filed to run for a Vacancy position on the Anita City Council. The Council vacancy position became available following the death of Mayor Tom Harris. Councilman John Knutson served as Mayor Pro-Tem, and was appointed in March to serve until the November elections.

As of Friday, the following candidates have filed to run for City offices in Cass County:

Mayor of Atlantic:

Current Councilpersons Pat McCurdy, Grace Garrett and Kathy Somers.

Atlantic City Council, 5th Ward:

Dick Casady (Incumbent)

Mayor of Anita (to fill a vacancy):

John Knutson.

Anita City Council (To fill a Vacancy)

Mark Harris

City of Atlantic Parks and Recreation Board:

Shirley Jensen.

Nomination papers may be filed with the Cass County Auditors Office until 5-p.m., Sept. 16th.

(Radio Iowa) – Dubuque native Kenneth Quinn, a former U-S ambassador in Asia, says he’s been very troubled by some aspects of the U-S withdrawal from Afghanistan. “The good thing we got…most of the interpreters out,” Quinn says, “but to me it doesn’t look like we did as good a job as we should have with the civilians…who put their lives at risk, worked on behalf of our country and are just as deserving and many, perhaps even most of them, are women.”

Quinn is a former U-S ambassador to Cambodia. While he’s never been to Afghanistan, Quinn is in contact with a group still trying to leave from Kabul’s airport. “I think we could have been better prepared. I knew where every American citizen was in Cambodia when I was ambassador. We had a network so we could contact them every day,” Quinn says. Keeping more troops in Afghanistan and getting more people out sooner would have helped, according to Quinn, but he says Afghanistan’s government fell quicker than many had predicted.

Quinn made his comments during taping of “Iowa Press” which airs at 7:30 tonight (Friday) on Iowa P-B-S.

DES MOINES, Iowa – A 12-state human trafficking operation coordinated by the Missouri Attorney General’s Office and the Missouri State Highway Patrol led to 102 arrests and identified 47 victims. Operation United Front involved simultaneous state-level human trafficking operations throughout the day on Thursday and into early Friday morning. The operation, comprised of state and federal law enforcement agencies, is believed to be the first multi-state operation of its kind.

Iowa law enforcement agencies participating in the operation included the Iowa Department of Public Safety, Ankeny Police Department, Clive Police Department, Dallas County Sheriff’s Office, Des Moines Police Department, Jasper County Sheriff’s Office, Polk County Sheriff’s Office, Urbandale Police Department, Walcott Police Department, West Des Moines Police Department, and the Mid-Iowa Narcotics Enforcement Task Force conducted 10 operations to combat human trafficking throughout Iowa. The officers executed 10 search warrants, identified five businesses involved in sex trafficking, made 11 arrests and seized a large quantity of United States currency. The United States Attorney’s Office, Polk County Attorney’s Office, and the Scott County Attorney’s Office assisted with warrants and future prosecution.

“Human trafficking uniquely affects Iowa given our proximity to major metropolitan areas like Kansas City and Chicago and the intersection of two major interstate systems,” said Iowa Department of Public Safety Commissioner Stephan Bayens. “As a result, we know human trafficking is happening in Iowa and that it occurs in a variety of settings. We thank our law enforcement partners and state and federal prosecutors for the unified commitment to stamp out human trafficking in our cities and counties throughout Iowa. We will continue to provide training and resources designed to identify and effectively respond to human trafficking in whatever form it may take.  Together we can prevent this from happening in our state, because even one victim is one too many,” Bayens added.

How Operation United Front Worked

Using both buyer-centric and victim-centric “sting” human trafficking operations, Iowa and participating states were able to rescue and provide medical and other needed services to victims and sex workers, and arrested perpetrators across the country in connection with human trafficking. Other states conducted “minor recovery” operations that were designed to rescue those most vulnerable and easily manipulated by human traffickers.

In addition to the Iowa Department of Public Safety and Iowa law enforcement agency partners, the following agencies conducted separate state-level operations including: Illinois State Police, Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Missouri Attorney General’s Office, Missouri State Highway Patrol, Nebraska State Patrol, North Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation, Oklahoma City Police Department, Tulsa Police Department, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Texas Attorney General’s Office, Wisconsin State Patrol, and the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission is working with the 19 state-licensed casinos on a request to ease some of the licensing requirements for employees. Racing and Gaming Commissioner, Brian Ohorilko says they are seeking a waiver for employees not directly involved in the gambling operation. He says it includes all positions that were not involved in the activity on the gaming floor, handling any gaming revenue, or security of surveillance. Ohorilko says the casino have many employees who work with the related services at the casinos. “Golf course attendants, restaurant employees, valet employees, hotel employees — maybe housekeepers,” he says.

IRGC Commissioner Brian Ohorilko

The labor market is tight right now and there is great competition in the service industry for employees, and he says that’s the motivation behind the request. “The industry cited a couple of factors — one being the difficulty in finding employees right now — and looking for some relief,” Ohorilko says. Non-casino workers at these jobs aren’t required to get a license — while all casino employees are required to get some sort of license to work there. “There are different classes depending on the level of occupation. In other words, the a casino general manager would be required to have the highest level of license — whereas someone who does not work on the gaming floor — like these non-gaming employee class would receive the lowest level of license,” Ohorilko explains.

He says each level of license gets deeper into an individual’s personal and financial background to ensure there are no issues. With the most comprehensive background checks on for the highest level licenses. Ohorilko the commission staff is working with the Iowa Gaming Association to formalize a request for the waiver.