The Stanton Community School District Board of Education has selected a new Superintendent for the District. During a special meeting this (Monday) morning, the Board voted unanimously to hire Terry Christie for the top position in the District for the 2012-2013 school year. Christie is a retired Superintendent with 11 years of experience at three different schools. He’s expected to begin his duties in an official capacity, on Tuesday. Christie succeeds retired Superintendent Judd Ashley.

Officials with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach say they want to hear from Iowans about how Iowa State in partnership with counties can best serve citizens. Five town hall meetings have been scheduled across the state, including a meeting in Atlantic on September 10th. The session takes place at the Cass County ISU Extension and Outreach Office, located at 805 West 10th Street, beginning at 10:30-a.m. Other meetings will take place in Ames, Storm Lake, Oskaloosa and Waterloo.

Cathann Kress, ISU Extension and Outreach vice president, and Terry Maloy, Iowa Association of County Extension Councils executive director, will participate in the conversations with Iowans. Kress says they are committed to listening to Iowans as ISU Extension carries out its mission. She says they want to gather feedback about what they’re doing well, where they need to improve, and what needs to be addressed.  Kress says  “All Iowans – citizens, community leaders, decision makers, partners, staff and extension council members – are welcome” to attend the meetings.

For more information about the town hall meetings or specific locations, please contact the Guthrie County Extension and Outreach Office at 641-747-2276.

w/ Ric Hanson

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Baby Boomers should call their doctor now and arrange to be tested for Hepatitis C. The Centers for Disease Control is making that recommendation after seeing a doubling of hepatitis c deaths since the late 1990′s. Dr. Mark Mailliard is a University of Nebraska gastroenterologist and says one in 30 Baby Boomers have been infected and that population is five times more likely than others to be infected with this virus. He says around half the population doesn’t know they have the condition, or about 2-million people.

Hepatitis C can cause one-out-of five patients to develop scarring of the liver, and one in 50 to 100 patients will develop liver cancer. Dr.  Mailliard says treatment for Hep-C is available if detected early. If it’s not detected, the consequences could prove fatal. He says 15,000 people will die from it annually after 2020. He says since treatment is effective, they’re trying to identify the patients, now.

Mailliard says most patients who acquired it when they were in their 20′s have no symptoms until their 50′s. Anyone born from 1945 to 1965 is recommended to get the one-time blood test. Hep-C is spread blood-to-blood. Mailliard says it’s thought that Baby Boomers have had more “risky behavior” overall than other age groups, that have resulted in their infections. He says up to this point, just doing the testing based upon identification of risk factors, have missed millions of people who have it. That’s why officials recommend persons born between 1945 and 1965, get tested.

Of more than 3-million Americans thought to be infected, two-thirds are in the Baby Boomer age group.

(Radio Iowa)

The Griswold Community School District’s Board of Education will meet this (Monday) evening. During their 5:30-p.m. session in the Central Office Board Room, the Board will receive updates on various, ongoing or completed projects as well as the Jahnke Scholarship. They’ll also discuss various Board Policies.

New business during their meeting includes action on: A funding agreement with Cass Incorporated; Adult lunch prices; An agreement with Griswold Rescue with regard to football games; City agreements; the APR (Annual Progress Report); Sidewalks for the Baseball, Softball and Football/Track facilities, and a salary matter. The Board is also slated to receive information with regard to 500- and 700- series Board Polices.

An accident Sunday afternoon in Stanton caused a little over 15-hundred dollars ($1,500) damage, but no one was injured. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office says a pickup driven by Brent Bell of Stanton, was backing out of a yard in the 400 block of Prairie Avenue in Stanton, when the vehicle struck the left front corner of a legally parked car owned by Jolene Louise Johnson, of Stanton. The accident happened at around 2:30-p.m. No citations were issued.

Record or near record Low temperatures were set across the state over the weekend. In Atlantic, Saturday’s 24-hour Low was 40-degrees, which clipped the old record of 41 set 115 years earlier, in 1897. The 24-hour low Sunday was 42-degrees, which was one-degree short of tying the low set in 1981. And, the 24-hour low for Friday, August 17th, was 40-degrees, two-degrees shy of tying the record for that date. The National Weather Service in Johnston said this (Monday) morning, that Des Moines had its longest cool period in over a year, as well.

The average temperature in the capital city has been normal or below for the last 10-days, and today will mark the 11th day. Officials say that’s in sharp contrast to the very warm temperatures of June and July. The average temperature in Des Moines, is now about one-degree below normal for the first 19-days of August. The last time there was a string of below normal temps in Des Moines longer than the current string, was the 15-day period from the 15th through the 29th of April, in 2011.

The Iowa Department of Agriculture reports the price of heating oil rose thirty cents from the mid July report on the fuel. Analyst Harold Hommes, says heating oil is one of the products that is impacted by world oil demand. He says the price of heating oil is tied to oil and there’s been a “general tightening of distillate market.” Hommes says most people notice the issue in higher gasoline prices, but he says the thing to watch this fall is the impact on diesel prices. Hommes says there are a couple of factors involved.

“Turnarounds in the industry, the industry calls those basically shutdowns for improvements, upgrades to their facilities. Some of that is going on right now causing prices to bump up a little bit on both gasoline and diesel,” according to Hommes. He says refineries are also starting to switch over to winter blends, which impacts the price. The increase in heating oil may not have as big an impact on Iowans, but many still use it for heat. “Natural gas is clearly the product of choice…for most of us. Heating oil is still a very common and much in demand product, certainly out east. And certainly here even in the midwest to a lesser extent,” according to Hommes.

The good news in heating fuels continues to be the lower cost of natural gas and propane. Natural gas prices fell 42 cents in the most recent heating fuel survey.  “It’s been absolutely amazing watching the fall and we seem to be hovering with natural gas prices. We broke that two-dollar mark months ago and it has gone back up a bit…we’re still staying at near decade lows on the natural gas side. Propane seems to have fallen considerably since our last report just a month ago,” Hommes says. Propane prices were at one-dollar-29-cents a gallon.

(Radio Iowa)

Police in Red Oak report a local man was arrested Sunday afternoon on drug, burglary and other charges.  30-year-old Bill Joe Gillespie, of Red Oak, faces charges which include Possession of a Controlled Substance, 2nd degree Burglary, 2nd degree Theft and 3rd degree Criminal Mischief. Gillespie was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $10,000 bond.

The Red Oak P-D reports also, that a South Dakota man was arrested early Saturday morning on an assault charge. 43-year-old Michael Colebank, of Rapid City South Dakota, faces a charge of  Aggravated Domestic Assault. He  was booked into the  Montgomery County Jail and later released on $2,000 bond.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press