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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!
(Radio Iowa) — Iowans are finding ways to salute “essential workers” during this pandemic. In eastern Iowa, Greg Preussner helped organize a convoy of semi tractors through Dubuque and Delaware Counties on Saturday. “For the medical, law enforcement, EMS, fire fighters, farmers, truckers, military, grocery store workers, convenience store workers — every body that you don’t think of all the time,” Preussner says. “Radio, TV — everybody there — no matter through this pandemic, they’re there every day for us.” The Honor Cruise began in Farley and wound through 14 other towns, covering about 110 miles. “We honor and respect these people that are out there working,” Preussner says. “And the ones that haven’t been able to, we’ll be there for them when they do open up.”
In western Iowa on Friday, truckers making a required stop at an Iowa D-O-T’s weigh station got a free lunch, courtesy of a company that provides commercial trucking insurance. “When the government told everyone to go to shelter-in-place, they told the truck drivers to keep on trucking.” That’s Great West Casualty Company C-E-O Jim Jensen. He was on site, helping distribute the sack lunches to truckers. “Our hats off to the men and women making a difference,” he said, “stocking our shelves, bringing medical supplies, doing everything possible to make our lives better in this time of crisis and this time of need.”
The lunch line set up at the Iowa D-O-T’s weigh station on southbound Interstate 29 between Salix and Sloan served about 200 truckers over a three-hour period on Friday.
DEWITT, Iowa (AP) — Authorities in eastern Iowa have identified two people killed when the motorcycle they were riding veered off the road near DeWitt. Clinton County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Scott Reyhons said Monday in a news release that 63-year-old David Boettcher and 61-year-old Vickie Boettcher, both of Lowden, died in the the Saturday afternoon crash. Authorities say the crash happened around 4:15 p.m. Saturday. Deputies who responded to the crash found that the pair’s motorcycle had left the road and struck a farm fence in a field. Both died at the scene of the crash. The sheriff’s office says it is trying to determine whether the victims were married.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds’ Monday press conference on COVID-19. We plan on having live audio on KJAN as well with the conference set to begin at approximately 11:00 a.m.
(Radio Iowa) — This summer’s first scheduled county fairs must decide how to continue while COVID-19 is still a threat. Some counties have partially reopened, but large crowds are still banned. Tom Barnes, volunteer manager of the Mighty Howard County Fair, says they’re working on backup plans to judge livestock and other exhibits if the fair, opening June 23rd, is cancelled. If it can continue, he says they need guidance on managing crowds. Barnes says, “If we’re asked by the government or the health department to maintain some sort of surveillance as they come onto the grounds that’s quite a bit of work in a short period of time to get set up.”
The Howard County fair is one of eight Iowa fairs scheduled to open in June. Barnes says they’ll decide what to do by mid-May. The Linn County Fair is scheduled to kick off on June 24th and fair board member Jennifer Dunn says keeping people in the crowd at a safe distance would be difficult to manage. “I think we all understand that fairs won’t look like it did in 2019,” Dunn says. “I think we’ve all come to that realization of how things are.”
Dunn says the fair board is creating backup plans for everything from virtual livestock judging to remote grandstand events. Dunn says, “Maybe there’s a truck and tractor pull but there’s nobody in the crowd and we just stream it virtually.” Dunn says the Linn County fair will work with local health officials to decide how to move forward.
(Reporting by Grant Gerlock, Iowa Public Radio)
More State and area news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.
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Creston Police report three arrests took place over the past few days. Saturday afternoon, 47-year old Shawn Connelly, of Creston, was arrested for Driving While Barred. She was released from the Union County Law Enforcement Center (LEC) on a Promise to Appear (in court). Friday evening, 23-year old Cody Lamaak, of Afton, was arrested at the Union County LEC on a Union County warrant for Failure to Appear on an original, Possession of a Controlled Substance – charge. He was later released a Promise to Appear.Friday afternoon, 37-year old Candace Russell, of Creston, was arrested for Driving While Revoked. She was also released on a Promise to Appear.
And Creston Police says a man reported that sometime between 7-and 10-a.m. Friday, his belongings were taken from a shelter house at McKinley Park, in Creston, The missing items included: clothing, paperwork and medication that were contained in a large backpack and smaller bag. The loss was estimated at $600.
The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:05-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.
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The Atlantic City Council will meet 5:30-p.m. Wednesday in another electronic session via Zoom. One of the items on their agenda, is a “Resolution to require Employees and Visitors to City Buildings to wear face masks.” The issue is, of course, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and a request by the Atlantic Library Board for the City’s blessing requiring those entering the library (and other City buildings) to wear the masks in order to further prevent the spread of the virus.
City Administrator John Lund says he reached out to City Attorney David Wiederstein, who agreed the precaution is appropriate. Lund is expected to inform the Council, Wednesday, that if approved, the mask policy:
Lund said also, City Departments will be free to respond to employees or members of the public who refuse to follow the policy (if approved) in a manner that is deemed appropriate for the situation. The Council may adopt the Resolution, vote it down or refer it to a City Committee for further discussion. In other business, the Council will act on setting May 20th as the date for a public hearing to amend the Fiscal Year 2020 budget, and the second reading of an Ordinance prohibiting parking on the north side of East 12th Street, as recommended by the Community Protection Committee. The Council passed the first reading on April 15th.
And, the Atlantic City Council will discuss and act on recommendations for the following:
And, they will act on setting the date for a Public Hearing on the proposed contract documents and estimated construction cost for the Atlantic Facade Rehabilitation Project. This is part of a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), which is in the final stages of pre-construction preparations. The bids will be opened this Friday, and the hearing held during the May 20th City Council meeting.
(Radio Iowa) — This spring planting season in Iowa started out much like last year, cold and wet, but conditions have improved significantly in recent weeks. Angie Rieck-Hinz, a field agronomist with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, monitors crop conditions in north central Iowa. “It’s such a turnaround from the last couple of springs,” she says. “People are still a little bit in shock about how good planting conditions have been over the course of the last two weeks and how much progress we’ve made planting corn and beans. People are in great shape.”
Rieck-Hinz says farmers were prepared to move quickly this spring — and they’re doing just that. “If conditions are good, say we plant about 13-million acres of corn in Iowa, we can knock out about 1.1- to 1.2-million acres planted statewide on a daily basis,” she says. “Our soil temperatures have stayed pretty steady in the low- to mid-50s, but the big thing that’s helped us is, it’s really kind of dried out.” Rieck-Hinz says the spring weather is much more cooperative this year, but she still recommends growers who planted early check on the progress. “There were people planting corn around April 1st and around April 8th, it was still pretty cool back then and it was kind of wet back then,” she says. “I would go out as soon as that corn starts poking through the ground, and some of it has, do some stand counts and make sure your stand’s where you want it.”
When the new weekly crop report comes out, Rieck-Hinz says she expects to hear nearly all of the corn is in the ground and most of the soybeans.
(Radio Iowa) — The Board of Regents will hold a meeting today (Monday) where they will discuss a proposal to freeze tuition and fees for the 2020-2021 academic year. The presidents of the three state schools reported to the Regents during a meeting last Thursday that they have lost millions of dollars from the coronavirus shut down. University of Northern Iowa president, Mark Nook, is not sure how enrollment will be impacted. “It’s really early right now to say that. What we are seeing is the students that we currently have on campus — they are re-registering and falling in line with what we have seen in the past for the students we have here,” Nook said.
U-N-I has struggled to keep its enrollment up in recent years — and has focused on trying to bring in new students. He says it’s too early to say how many freshman and transfer students they will have, although he says they have been doing well in recruitment. University of Iowa president Bruce Harreld said they expect an enrollment drop. “In the recruiting for the new class we see about nine to ten percent down from where we expected to be,” according to Harreld. “So instead of a class close to five-thousand, we are looking at 45-hundred. If it moves a little up or a little down– it’s going to be in that zone.” Harreld said they aren’t expecting much change in current students. “Most of the returning class — right now we see it pretty strong — we don’t see a real issue there. We are concerned about our international students, we have seen a downturn across the nation,” Harreld said.
Iowa State University president Wendy Wintersteen expects a drop in enrollment — but doesn’t have a projection yet. She also has a concern about international students. She said international students may be very interested in coming to I-S-U, but may not be able to get a VISA. Wintersteen says they are hoping online classes will help them with international students by keeping them linked to the school. “Start your first semester with us online. So we’re taking some steps that we see address that problem for some very good students coming from other countries,” she said.
The Board of Regents will meet online today (Monday) to discuss the tuition proposal and then are scheduled to vote on it in June.