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!
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!
DES MOINES, Iowa — Monday’s (July 19th) Des Moines City Council meeting resulted in arrests after protesters disrupted proceedings. It is the third Des Moines City Council meeting in a row to be disrupted by protests. According to KCCI, tensions ramped up after council members voted 4-2 not to allow public comment on items on the consent agenda, some of which were police-related, later voting unanimously to pass the consent agenda.
One of the consent agenda items regarded grant funding for police de-escalation training. Others included grants for police equipment and the Project Safe Neighborhoods program, as well as funding for public safety dispatch software updates. There were at least four arrests after groups began protesting with signs calling to defund the Des Moines Police Department. The arrests began after Mayor Frank Cownie ordered a protester, standing on a chair, to sit down and later leave. The protester remained standing and did not leave.
A previous city council meeting resulted in one arrest. Monday’s meeting resumed after the arrest with discussions on items not related to police. During the public comment section, a number of supporters of law enforcement spoke up as part of a “Back the Blue” group. Others spoke in support of protest groups.
(Greenfield, Iowa) – Preparations have been made, and now the Adair County Fair is set to get underway in full, from now (Tuesday, July 20) through Monday, July 26th, in Greenfield.
On today’s (Tuesday’s) Schedule is:
(Radio Iowa) – A company pursuing a casino license in South Sioux City has presented Nebraska regulators with plans for another casino in northeast Nebraska. The operation in Norfolk would be within about 150 mile radius of four Iowa casinos. The plans from WarHorse Gaming include a horse track that’s five-eights of a mile long and converting Norfolk’s convention center into a casino.
Lance Morgan, C-E-O of Ho-Chunk, Incorporated, the parent company of WarHorse, says “There’s a hotel there. There’s a restaurant, brewery…and they have this 20,000 foot convention center right there.” He says the plans for this race track/casino complex in Norfolk have been in development for four years. “It’s going to be about a $55 million project all in when you actually have the gaming. The track itself is not going to be that much,” he says.
Morgan’s company has also submitted gaming license requests for South Sioux City, Omaha and Lincoln as well as Norfolk. WarHorse estimates it would employ 250 at the Norfolk casino, which would include sports betting as well as other casino-style gaming. Last fall, Nebraska voters approved casino operations at state-licensed horse tracks. As Radio Iowa reported last week, IOWA’s 19 state-licensed casinos took in a record one-and-a-half BILLION dollars in gross revenue for the fiscal year that ended June 30th.
The Hard Rock Casino in Sioux City, which would be closest to the proposed casino in Norfolk, Nebraska, reports 87-million dollars in gross revenue over the past 12 months. The two casinos in Council Bluffs that are closest to pending casino projects in Omaha took in a combined 238 million in gross revenue in the last state fiscal year.
The Atlantic Parks and Recreation Dept. Board of Directors met Monday evening at the Sunnyside Park Kiddie Korral Shelter. During the meeting, Parks & Rec Director Bryant Rasmussen reported work is expected to begin within the next couple of weeks to repair the trail washout at the Schildberg Recreation Area, along Iowa Avenue (the southwest corner of Lake #3). Leftover cement from the hospital parking lot renovation project will be used to help stabilize the bank and repair it. That section of the trail will be closed while work is underway. The washed out asphalt portion of the trail will be replaced with longer lasting concrete, once the bank is stabilized.
Bryant said also, the department is trying to incorporate more programming for young adults and adults. One of the new activities planned for this Saturday at the Trevor Frederickson Softball Field at Sunnyside Park, is Adult Kick Ball. The venture is a partnership between Atlantic Rising, the Chamber of Commerce and Parks and Rec, to have a “pick up-style” game at 5-p.m. Teams will be divided-up once the number of participants is known. You don’t have a team of nine or 10 people, you can show-up by yourself and they will add you to a team.
Another Adult Activity, is “Art in the Park,” set for August 4th at 7-p.m. The adult version of the popular kids’ Art in the Park, called “Creation Vacation” take place in the lower center shelter at Sunnyside Park. The paint and canvas will be available for those who show up to paint on, and step-by-step instructions will be made available for those who want it. The main idea is just to have fun and by free-style creative. Bring your own drink and munchies if you wish.
Rasmussen reports the Summer Programs saw many participants: 53 kids signed-up for Tennis; 47 kids went out for Swim Team, and there is an average of 25-to 30 kids for the Art in the Park program that takes place every Wednesday. He said also, as previously mentioned, Cass County applied for a grant to install water fountains at four different locations. One is currently in-place at the Schildberg Rec Area bathhouse. That has a water bottle filling station and a lower water bowl for pets to use.
The City of Anita was supposed to get a water fountain, but they can’t, so the grant will be moved so a fountain can be installed at the Little League Sports Complex trailhead gazebo. The site already has a bike repair station and signage. Before the fountain can be installed, Bryant said they need to find someone to trench a water line about 200-feet to the gazebo. He’s working toward a solution with the Nishna Valley Trails group. He’s also been working with AMU, to get water from a well between fields five and seven. The site would allow the water to be shut-off before winter to prevent a freeze-up of the fountain.
In other business, cracks at Sunnyside basketball court will be sealed in preparation for use as an ice skating rink in the Winter, and cracks along the Eastridge and Schildberg Trails will be sealed to prevent any additional degradation. And finally, he recommends you stop by the Wildlife Refuge Area along Iowa Avenue, which features many vibrant flowers and plants, including black-eyed peas and milkweeds. Those plants and native grasses will hopefully draw monarch butterflies, some of which they hope to tag and release before they make their way to Mexico.
Iowa Avenue can be found between Buck Creek Road and Chestnut Street, north, off of State and Commerce Streets (as you head toward the Schildberg Campground Area).
Police in Red Oak, Monday (today) arrested a woman for Driving While Suspended/3rd offense. Authorities say 30-year-old Jessica Lynn Hardman, of Red Oak, was being held at the Montgomery County Jail on bond amounting to $491.25.
(Radio Iowa) – Thirty-two years ago — on July 19th, 1989 — United Flight 232 (two-32) crashed at the Sioux City airport. The plane took off from Denver and was bound for Chicago with nearly 300 passengers when it suffered hydraulic failure. An air traffic controller told Captain Al Haynes, the pilot, to do whatever he could to avoid hitting the city.
Due to the loss of hydraulics, the pilot could only make right turns and was flying the plane manually. Emergency crews were waiting at the airport.
The plane tipped just above the ground and a wing hit the runway first. The airliner cartwheeled down the runway, broke into pieces, burst into flames and skidded to a stop in a cornfield at the edge of the airport. One-hundred-12 (112) died, while 184 people on board survived.
United Flight 232 with visible tail damage. Photo taken just before the plane landed, cartwheeled and exploded in Sioux City, in 1989.
(Radio Iowa) – Iowa families will have a new option for early education this year. The nonprofit organization Waterford-dot-org is offering free preschool to 200 children in the state. The program is called Waterford Upstart and works with children and parents through online lessons. Spokeswoman Kim Fischer says the online approach is imperative, which is why the software and internet access will be made available for free.
“What we aim to do is close the gap between the children who are doing well and the children who are not,” Fischer says. “So if there are children that don’t have access to early education, those are the children that we’re looking to reach.” Although the application is open now to all families, the program will focus on children in need and those in underserved populations. Fischer says the program centers on Iowans who don’t have access to brick and mortar schools, and on those who don’t speak English fluently.
“Those are the children we want to reach,” she says. “So truly, it is about finding the children that don’t have access and giving them this access to early education.” Previous C-D-C research found Hispanic students have the lowest rates of access to in-person schools. The program will run from August through May.
(By Kassidy Arena, Iowa Public Radio)
The Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office says no injuries were reported after a pickup truck struck the Guthrie Center Post Office building at 500 Main Street, Saturday afternoon. Authorities say 94-year-old Theodore Keith Hansen, of Guthrie Center, was driving a 2021 Toyota pickup and pulling into a parking spot in front of the Post Office, when he stepped on the accelerator instead of the brake. The pickup accelerated out of control, hopped a curb, and hit the building near the door.
The accident, which happened at around 3:05-p.m., Saturday, caused $12,000 damage to the pickup, and an estimated $6,000 damage to the Post Office. Hansen was cited for Failure to Maintain Control.
(Radio Iowa) – The state auditor says there’s a new tool to help Iowa counties determine how much federal assistance they can use to cover pandemic-related losses in tax revenue. State Auditor Rob Sand says the National Association of Counties online calculator takes a lot of guess work out of a complicated process. “What we’re trying to do is make sure folks across the state of Iowa are aware of that,” Sand says, “because that’s going to make their work more efficient in trying to figure out how to spend American Rescue Plan dollars.”
Sand says his office has fielded questions from local officials asking for help in calculating tax revenue losses that can be linked to the pandemic. “They can head to the calculator and essentially answer a couple of questions and it will spit a number back out to you that is your allotment for lost revenue,” Sand says. Counties, as well as cities and states, must use American Revenue Plan money by 2026. Funds may be used on infrastructure projects as well. Sand says the sooner local governments come up with budgets for the pandemic relief, the sooner they can line up contractors to get the projects done on time.
The IKM-Manning School District has posted a message on social media, with regard to an upcoming bond vote. In their message, school officials said, “At its meeting Thursday night, the IKM-Manning School Board unanimously approved petition language that would call for a bond vote. If enough signatures are gathered, the vote would take place Tuesday, September 14.
“In the petition, the dollar amount was set at $19,950,000. While that number is larger than the bond vote from a year ago, the board made clear that the cost to taxpayers would remain the same. In fact, the higher bond amount is due to lower interest rates available to the school district at this time compared to last year.
“IKM-Manning,” officials say, “would benefit from the lower interest rates, allowing the district to address more of its facility needs with no increase in the taxpayer impact. Our community is simply getting more bang for its buck. Currently, a petition is circulating to gather the signatures needed to put the bond issue on the ballot. After that, the board could place the question on the ballot for September 14.