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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!
DES MOINES, Iowa (WHO-TV) — Eight Des Moines firefighters are currently battling cancer, while the Firefighter Union calls on Iowa to cover all forms of cancer. Paul Storbeck is an Iowa native and a successful businessman turned firefighter for the Des Moines Fire Department. He is now a Senior Medic for the department. After years of service, his life changed unexpectedly in 2019 while caring for his father during his final days.
Storbeck was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer in 2023. After more testing, he learned the cancer had spread to his pelvis and lungs. Fortunately for Storbeck, prostate cancer is one of the 14 cancers covered by the state of Iowa for firefighters. However, this isn’t the case for many on the frontlines.
Des Moines F.D. Lt. Rick Thomas said of the 10 or so firefighters diagnosed with cancer,” two have died, and none were covered by the State. With over 200 diagnosable cancers, officials with the Des Moines Fire Department are urging legislators to pass a law that would cover firefighters from all types of cancer. Lieutenant Thomas told WHO-TV “[Firefighters] are 9% more likely to be diagnosed with cancer and 14% more likely to pass away from cancer than the general public.”
This month, the Des Moines Firefighter Union launched a social media campaign for Firefighter Cancer Awareness Month. The CDC reported that cancer is the leading cause of death among firefighters.
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (KETV) — A broken water pipe has left a big mess for more than a dozen businesses in the historic Park Building in the heart of Council Bluffs. Pam Carter, owner of Stella and Irene’s Cafe and Boutique, said she walked into work on Jan. 14, during sub-zero temperatures, only to find a waterfall coming from the ceiling. Carter said she’s spent the past two weeks picking up what’s left of her business after a pipe burst on the fourth floor of the historic Park Building in downtown Council Bluffs.
The entire historic Park Building is closed and will be for the foreseeable future.
DES MOINES, Iowa (KCRG) — The Iowa DOT is rejecting a recommendation from the Federal Highway Administration asking them not to use certain messages on highway signs.
The Federal Highway Administration recently released an updated 1,100-page manual that spells out how signs and other traffic control devices are regulated. In it, the agency strongly recommends against overhead electronic signs with obscure meanings, references to pop culture or those intended to be funny, the AP reports.
Rather, signs should be “simple, direct, brief, legible and clear,” when relaying important information like warning drivers of crashes overhead, adverse weather conditions and traffic delays, the agency said. Seatbelt reminders and warnings about the dangers of speeding or driving impaired are allowed.
The Iowa DOT has been using the signs for just over a decade now, and believe these signs aren’t a threat.Officials say the point of the signs is to help people remember traffic safety messages. Previously, there was confusion that the FHA was trying to ban these types of messages, but the measure is only a recommendation. The DOT will keep the messages up for now, but could reconsider once more research is available.
The idea originated when the department decided to display the number of traffic deaths.
DES MOINES, Iowa (KCCI) — Iowa’s new private school scholarship program will cost the state millions of dollars more than the original estimate. As of October, 16,757 students were using taxpayer dollars to pay for private school tuition and other academic resources. That’s about 3,000 more than they expected.
Since each student receives their own Education Savings Account with more than $7,500, the ESA program will cost the state $127,939,695. That’s $20 million more than the $107 million the state projected this would cost. The governor’s office says that additional money will come from the general fund, which is all of the state’s available revenue from things like income, corporate and sales taxes.
School funding in Iowa is based on a complicated formula, but it relies on certified enrollment totals, which give the state a baseline of how many students are attending Iowa schools. The numbers determine how much the state will spend on education in the next school year. It also gives state lawmakers — who are currently in legislative session — a benchmark on which to base laws and funding.
(Red Oak, Iowa) – A traffic stop a little before 2-a.m. today (Saturday), in Montgomery County, led to a pursuit and the arrest of a Pottawattamie County man. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports Deputies tried to initiate a traffic stop at 1st and Cherry Streets, in Red Oak, but the vehicle sped-off and began to elude them. The vehicle drove through Red Oak without its headlights on, at a high-rate of speed.
While trying to turn into an alley at 4th and Grimes Streets, the vehicle slid on the snow and struck a house before coming to rest a short distance later, due to being stuck in the snow. The driver got out of the vehicle but refused to obey Deputies’ commands. A struggle ensued, but the driver, 40-year-old Kyle Anthony Zeigler, of Council Bluffs, was eventually taken into custody.
Ziegler faces charges that include Felony Eluding/2nd offense (A Class-C Felony), Driving While Barred (Aggravated Misdemeanor), and Interference with Official Acts (Simple Misdemeanor). He was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $10,000 bond.
The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office was assisted during the incident by Red Oak Police, Red Oak Fire and EMS, and the Montgomery County Communications Center.
(Clinton, Iowa) – A collision between a car and a pickup truck Friday afternoon in eastern Iowa, resulted in three people being transported to a hospital. The Iowa State Patrol reports a 2015 Ford Focus was traveling south on 330th Avenue in Clinton County at around 4:30-p.m., when the 71-year-old driver from Camanche, attempted to cross Highway 30. The car was struck by a 2013 Chevy pickup driven b y a 55-year-old from Montour, and that was traveling westbound on Highway 30.
Both drivers and a juvenile passenger were injured. Officials have not released any further information on the severity of their injuries. Their names were not immediately released.
The investigation is ongoing.
(Radio Iowa) – Iowa roads that were knee-deep in snow and ice just a matter of days ago are quickly becoming moonscapes, as fender-rattling potholes are suddenly making our streets and highways a challenging obstacle course.
Bob Ellis, the Iowa Department of Transportation’s District 1 maintenance manager, says DOT crews are fanned out across the state, filling in those car-jarring craters as fast as they find them.
“Right now, we’re putting in what we call a cold mix. It’s a blend of rock chips, oil and some sand that we put in it temporarily to fill the hole,” Ellis says, “and then in the spring, we’ll come back and do more of a permanent fix, whether it be oil and rock chips to fill it in, or a permanent more full-depth or partial-depth patch.” Those springtime fixes are done with what’s known as a HMA or hot mix asphalt — and with concrete.
Ellis was asked to characterize the current condition of Iowa’s roads. “I would say they’re decent, as in normal Iowa roads,” Ellis says. “Now that we’ve got warm this week, so it’s pothole season again. Maybe in a week or two, we might be back in winter season again, I’m not sure, but they’re in decent shape, they’re not terrible.”
Some DOT officials can spout a litany of figures during the wintertime as to the hundreds of tons of salt and thousands of gallons of brine being spread on our roads, so a natural question to Ellis is, how many potholes do they fill in a week, a month or a year?
“I don’t even have that number. It’s a lot,” Ellis says. “Because we’re trying to get them fixed so quickly, I don’t track that right now.”
Hitting a large pothole at high speed may jar something loose in your molars as well as in your car’s suspension. If you can’t avoid one of the concrete chasms, Ellis was asked if there’s a proper procedure for going through a pothole.
“While there is no good way, I mean obviously, we don’t want them to swerve into another lane, so grip the steering wheel tight and get through it, and hopefully it doesn’t cause any damage,” Ellis says, “and if it does, we have a Claims Department they can contact.”
You can also report potholes on the interstates, Iowa numbered routes, and U.S. highways to the Iowa DOT’s maintenance manager located nearest the problem roadway. Find a list of contacts HERE.
(Radio Iowa) – Iowa law lets teenagers start driving themselves to and from school or to work on a farm when they’re 14-and-a-half. A bill ready for debate in a senate committee would let teens drive themselves to any kind of job if they’re at least 14 and a half years old. Republican Senator Adrian Dickey of Packwood says the proposal comes out of a study that also recommends suspending drivers’ licenses for minors who get traffic tickets or cause accidents.
“Not only do you lose that privilege for three months,” Dickey says. “You lose your ability to get your license (at) 16 — the one everyone covets — you lose it for three more months.” Chaney Yeast, a lobbyist for Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines, says allowing younger teens to drive to work is unwise. “The research tells us there really is a difference in the capability of teen drivers,” Yeast says. “They create a greater risk not only to themselves, but others on the road.”
The bill would set a new limit for driving to school — or work — of 25 miles or 50 miles round trip. It also says a minor would have to be done driving with an hour after school activities or their workday ends.
(Hamburg, Iowa) – Fremont County Sheriff Kevin Aistrope says a 77-year-old Hamburg resident died Thursday evening, after he was struck by a passing pickup truck. The accident happened at around 6:06-p.m., near the intersection of Main Street and E Street. in Hamburg. The resident was carrying items to his vehicle from a local community center when he was struck. The man, whose identity was being withheld, pending notification of family, died from his injuries at a nearby hospital.
The driver of the vehicle, a 2001 Ford F-150, was identified as 77-year-old Nancy Bartles, of Rock Port, Missouri. Bartles was uninjured.
The incident remains under investigation by the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office. Hamburg Fire and Rescue responded to the call.
(Underwood, Iowa) – An SUV was engulfed in flames Wednesday afternoon near the Underwood Co-Op. KJAN listener/social media follower Zach Ploen reports the incident took place at around 3-p.m. The vehicle was about 50-feet from the gas pumps, when a gas leak under the SUV sparked the fire.
Crews from the Underwood Fire Department and Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to the scene. No injuries were reported.