The Audubon County Community Foundation has announced grants totaling $104,350 were awarded to Audubon County nonprofit organizations and community projects as part of its spring grant cycle. The following organizations were awarded grants by the Audubon County Community Foundation Advisory Board:

All grantees met the criteria as 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 Audubon County were eligible to apply. The Audubon County Community Foundation is an affiliate of the Omaha Community Foundation, which meets National Standards for Community Foundations, and is one of nine county members of the Community Foundations of Southwest Iowa. It receives funds annually from the State of Iowa County Endowment Fund Program for endowment building and grantmaking throughout the county. Made possible through the County Endowment Fund Program, this cycle of grants was funded by a percentage of the state’s commercial gaming tax revenue, which is distributed annually to participating community foundations associated with counties without a state-issued gaming license.

Beyond the County Endowment Fund Program, the Audubon County Community Foundation works with individuals, families, businesses, and organizations to create permanent and expendable funds that address changing, vital community needs and interests. To inquire about donating to the Audubon County Community Foundation, please contact the Community Foundations of Southwest Iowa staff or any board member (**listed below). Gifts to permanently endowed funds through the Audubon County Community Foundation may be eligible to receive a 25% Endow Iowa Tax Credit.

For information about donating or establishing an individual foundation/fund, please contact Stacey Goodman, Iowa Foundations Director, at 800-794-3458 or stacey@omahafoundation.org.

**Board members of the Audubon County Community Foundation are Chair, Genelle Deist of Audubon; Vice Chair, Joel Hoegh of rural Brayton; Secretary/Treasurer, Megan Wagner of Audubon; Gina Benton of Exira, Bob Blomme of Audubon; Steven B. Hansen of Audubon; and Donna Olson of Kimballton.

The Cass County Community Foundation has announced grants totaling $104,325 were awarded to Cass County nonprofit organizations and community projects as part of its spring grant cycle. The following organizations were awarded grants by the Cass County Community Foundation Advisory Board:

All grantees met the criteria as Cass 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 County were eligible to apply. The Cass County Community Foundation is an affiliate of the Omaha Community Foundation, which meets National Standards for Community Foundations, and is one of nine county members of the Community Foundations of Southwest Iowa. It receives funds annually from the State of Iowa County Endowment Fund Program for endowment building and grantmaking throughout the county.

Made possible through the County Endowment Fund Program, this cycle of grants was funded by a percentage of the state’s commercial gaming tax revenue, which is distributed annually to participating community foundations associated with counties without a state-issued gaming license.

Beyond the County Endowment Fund Program, the Cass County Community Foundation works with individuals, families, businesses, and organizations to create permanent and expendable funds that address changing, vital community needs and interests. To inquire about donating to the Cass County Community Foundation, please contact the Community Foundations of Southwest Iowa staff or any board member (**listed below). Gifts to permanently endowed funds through the Cass County Community Foundation may be eligible to receive a 25% Endow Iowa Tax Credit.

For information about donating or establishing an individual foundation/fund, please contact Stacey Goodman, Iowa Foundations Director, at 800-794-3458 or stacey@omahafoundation.org.

** Board members of the Cass County Community Foundation are Chair, Kristi Burg of Massena; Vice Chair, Gary Maas of Anita; Secretary/Treasurer, Roland K. Landsness, Esq. of Atlantic; Sandy Bierbaum of Griswold; Sue Hunt of Atlantic; and Mark D. Kyhnn, CPA of Atlantic.

An official with the Council Bluffs Fire Department reports firefighters were dispatched at around 11:40-a.m. Wednesday to a residential fire at 3237 Ave F.  Deputy Chief Fire Marshal Alex Ford says crews arrived to find an enclosed porch on the backside of the house fully involved with the fire spreading to a detached garage. The fire was declared under control approximately 40 minutes later.

Ford says two occupants home at the time of the blaze were able to escape safely, and no other injuries were reported. The cause of the fire was under investigation.

The 8:05-a.m. newscast with Ric Hanson.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (3.8MB)

Subscribe: RSS

The Creston Police Department says a woman residing in the 900 block of S. Lincoln Street reported Tuesday night, that sometime between January 1, 2021 and March 30, 2021. someone entered her home and went through her personal items. Missing property included a TV, jewelry box, coins and some other items. The loss was estimated at $500.

The newscast at 7:07-a.m. w/News Director Ric Hanson.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.1MB)

Subscribe: RSS

The City Council in Walnut will meet today at 5-p.m. in-person at the Walnut Community Center, and on-line, via GoToMeeting, for those unable to attend. (You can also dial-in via the phone number 1-408-650-3123, and entering access code 479-815-845 when prompted to do so) On the agenda, is discussion with regard to a Memorandum of Understanding with AHSTW for the Shelter, and a Water System in the Business Center. The Council will also discuss the Sesquicentennial Celebration, which is set to take place July 30, July 31, and August 1, 2021, and, Property Maintenance.

The Council will receive updates on “Out of the Box/Ramsey’s Market,” and a Housing Grant. They’re also expected to act on approving a Law Enforcement Services Contract with the Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Department, and be reminded about General Garbage pickup on April 20th.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Lieutenant Governor Adam Gregg visited the Life Serve Blood Center in Sioux City Tuesday. Gregg says he wants to highlight the need for donations. “The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted blood supply all across the state and all across the country, because blood drives have had to be canceled or reduced at major businesses, at high schools, colleges…so it’s especially important right now to make a donation,” Gregg says.

The Lieutenant Governor says he has been a blood donor for years and continued during the pandemic. “It’s a great way to take a few minutes of your time that might save a life,” according to Gregg. “Donated blood goes to help cancer patients, it helps trauma victims, it helps burn victims.”

Gregg says convalescent plasma from blood donations played a key role in helping people recover from COVID-19. Anyone wishing to donate blood can make an appointment at lifeservebloodcenter.org. Or you can call: 800-287-4903.

(Radio Iowa) – A district court judge has dismissed the grocery industry’s challenge of how state officials interpret Bottle Bill requirements for redeeming the nickel deposits on empty beverage containers. Meanwhile, at the state Capitol, a plan that would set the conditions by which grocers could opt out of processing the empties in their stores is eligible for debate in a state senate committee. Senator Dan Dawson, a Republican from Council Bluffs, says the bill could breathe new life into the effort to make changes.

“Iowans do like the Bottle Bill, but we have to be sympathetic to the infrastructure out there,” Dawson says. “Just because we like something doesn’t mean we can pass an unfunded mandate onto all these industries and turn around and say: ‘Make it happen,’ when we know the current system is not sustainable and is collapsing.”

Brad Epperly, a lobbyist for the Iowa Grocery Industry Association, says the solution beverage distributors and grocers came up with after daily meetings this year has no chance of winning HOUSE approval.  “We were told by the House it was a non-starter,” Epperly says. David Edelman, a lobbyist for the Iowa Wholesale Beer Distributors Association, says the groups will continue to negotiate, in hopes of finding acceptable adjustments in the Bottle Bill.  “After 40 years, I think we can all acknowledge that tweaks in the system need to be made,” Edelman says.

Jess Mazour of the Sierra Club of Iowa says consumers want convenience and the ability to take their empties back to the stores where they bought the beverages in the first place.  “We keep hearing about the grocers and the bottlers all saying they’ve come to an agreement, but we know that citizens overwhelmingly love the bottle deposit law that we have,” Mazour says.

The Grocery Industry’s lobbyist says redemption rates in Iowa are falling and the latest state report suggested 64 percent of bottles and cans are recycled. Mick Barry, president of MidAmerica Recycling in Des Moines, says only 32 percent of beverage containers are recycled nationally, so Iowa’s redemption rate for bottles and cans is about double that. “Cold turkey taking it out of the stores is probably going to take us backwards,” Barry says.

Senator Pam Jochum, a Democrat from Dubuque, says she’s concerned because in 2017, Iowa failed to claim 35 million in their deposits for bottles and cans.  “I’m hoping this time all the interested parties really are seriously talking to one another to find a solution,” Jochum says, “because the system is eroding.”

The grocery industry’s lawsuit that was tossed yesterday argued the Iowa Department of Natural Resources did not have the authority to enforce Bottle Bill rules. The judge ruled the agency’s actions weren’t irrational and it did not abuse its discretion.

(Iowa City) – A judge in eastern Iowa, Wednesday, ordered a Colorado man detained, following statements the man made when he attempted to purchase a weapon.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Jackson noted that 40-year-old Adam Vannoy attempted to buy guns in Iowa after he was released on bond from a jail in Nebraska, where troopers had seized several firearms and marijuana from his vehicle during a March 14 traffic stop. T

Vannoy raised eyebrows last week when he said he was surprised people didn’t suspect he was the Boulder mass shooter. The judge says Vannoy’s continued attempt to obtain weapons and odd behavior justifies the government’s request to jail him pending trial.