IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether the details of disciplinary cases against public employees should be available to citizens who ask.  The court on Thursday said it would review an October decision from the Iowa Court of Appeals, which ruled 2-1 that the Atlantic Community School District did not have to release the level of discipline taken against high school employees responsible for improperly strip-searching several teenage girls.   The court ruled that discipline cases were exempt from the state’s public records law except in the case of firings, dismissing a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa.  The group had argued the public’s need to know how an assistant principal and a guidance counselor were punished outweighed their privacy interests.

Atlantic School District Superintendent Dr. Michael Amstein told KJAN News today (Friday), that if the Iowa Supreme Court determines the matter needs to be determined at that level, he would “Certainly defer to the wisdom of the State Supreme Court to make that decision.” Amstein says “Other than that, all of arguments have already been made,” and right now they’ll just have to “Wait and see. I think that it’s an important case, but I think the district still stands on the orginal merits of that case, and we believe that employee discipline records are confidential.”

w/ Ric Hanson

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Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Deputy Brian Miller and his K-9 partner “Francisco” have scored another drug bust. Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Dwayne Riche told KJAN news this (Friday) morning, that Deputy Miller stopped a 2011 Ford Escape for excessive speeding on eastbound I-80 at mile marker 8 near Council Bluffs, at around 2:40-p.m. Thursday.

The deputy asked for but was denied permission to search the SUV, but the driver allowed Miller to conduct a perimeter search of the vehicle with his k-9. When “Francisco” alerted to the presence of illegal substances in the hatchback area of the SUV, Miller conducted a “Probable Cause” search that area of the vehicle and discovered 22-pounds of marijuana in 3 bags. 41-year old John Rolle, of River Pines, CA, was taken into custody on charges of Possession of Marijuana with the Intent to Deliver, Prohibited Acts, and for a violation of the Drug Tax Stamp. The man was booked into the Pott. County Jail.

At the beginning of the month, Miller and “Francisco” recovered 45-pounds of marijuana from a vehicle Miller stopped on I-80 just three miles from where Thursday’s arrest took place. Two men, one from California, the other from Minnesota, were arrested on similar charges.

w/ Ric Hanson

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A study by the Iowa Bicycle Coalition has determined that the economic and health benefits of cycling amount to nearly 365-million dollars of direct or indirect impact on the state. Coalition executive director, Mark Wyatt, says the direct impact involves a lot of things. “It’s people spending money on bicycle gear and equipment, and it’s people taking trips and enjoying unique trails, or having the opportunity for hotel stays, and things like that that really add up in dollars very quickly,” Wyatt says. He says the impact is bigger than they expected. “That’s a million dollars per day that’s spent on bicycling…averaged out over the year,” Wyatt says. The study estimates that bicycling saves the state 73-point-nine-million dollars in healthcare costs for those who cycle recreational, and it shows another 13-thousand-266 dollars in health care costs saved by those who commute to work. Wyatt says the impact of the states bike trails could be even bigger.

“I think there’s a huge opportunity for tourism, and one of the things that this study didn’t address was out-of-state tourism dollars coming into the state,” Wyatt explains. The survey was released on the heels of the annual Iowa Bicycle Summit, which is Saturday in Des Moines.  Wyatt says the summit has been an education session the past eight years, but this year they’ve expanded it to a consumer expo. “People can come and look at bike gear and talk to people who’re running bike trail events, and all sorts of trends and what’s great about bicycling,” Wyatt says. There are some 50 vendors who will be at the summit. The event runs from 8:30 a-m until 4:30 p-m at Veterans Auditorium in Des Moines. You can find out more at: www.iowabicyclecoalition.org.

(Dar Danielson/Radio Iowa)

Page County Sheriff Lyle Palmer said Thursday, a Clarinda man cited last month for trespassing while hunting near Hepburn, and arrested five days later for illegally possessing a firearm, is in trouble again. The Sheriff says 29-year old Donald Ernest Runyon was arrested at around 2-p.m. Thursday, on a warrant charging him with two counts of Failure to appear on the original charge of Dominion / Control of Firearm / Offensive weapons by a person convicted of Domestic Abuse Assault. Runyon appeared before the magistrate, posted a $5,000 bond, and was released from custody.

The Iowa DNR had cited Runyon on December 17, 2011, for trespassing while hunting near Hepburn. He pleaded guilty January 4th and paid nearly $400 in fines and court costs. Five days later, he was arrested after officials realized he should not have had a gun in the first place. Runyon was once convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence, which prohibits him from possessing firearms. A violation is a Class D felony. He was later released on a $5,000 cash bond.

The Iowa Department of Transportation says the scheduled closure of the westbound Interstate 80 rest area, located between Adair and Casey at milepost 80, is being extended into Friday, Jan. 27th, to complete work underway at that location.  The facility had been scheduled to re-open today (Thursday), at 5-p.m.  The rest area is closed to allow two large cranes to install a 148-foot tall, vertical wind turbine blade.

The blade will essentially serve as sculpture, and will join several other pieces of art and plaques at the rest area that highlight Iowa’s wind energy industry. Last year, Iowa became the first state in the nation to generate at least 20 percent of its electricity from wind power. Iowa currently has nearly 2,900 wind turbines creating 4,500 megawatts of electricity.

The Iowa House has given final legislative approval to an emergency allotment of one-point-three million dollars ($1.3 million) that will cover tuition costs for Iowa National Guard soldiers who’ve enrolled in college courses. Representative Chris Hall, a Democrat from Sioux City, has heard from a number of soldiers in his district who saw their individual benefits cut by 13-hundred dollars for this semester. “During the first week of the legislature, I know that I received emails from several of our Guardsmen from the 185th Air Refueling Wing,” Hall says. 

The Iowa Senate approved the bill last week, but Republicans delayed action in the Iowa House to ensure the Guard indeed needed that much money to fulfill its tuition grant promises. Representative Royd Chambers, a Republican from Sheldon who is a member of the Iowa Air National Guard, says Republicans were just going their “due dilligence” in checking the numbers. “We are, of course, all in support of supporting our National Guard members,” Chambers says. “But we also must remember that we are responsible for spending our tax dollars wisely and efficiently.” 

Legislators set aside the money for the program last year, before about three-thousand Iowa National Guard soldiers came back to Iowa after active duty in Afghanistan. The Guard announced in December that Education Assistance grants to its soldiers would be cut because there wasn’t enough money set aside to cover the tuition grants for the 14-hundred Iowa National Guard soldiers who’re enrolled in college. Governor Branstad has indicated he’ll sign the legislation. In other action this morning, the Iowa House approved spending three-million dollars in state money to help restore the U-S-S Iowa, a World War II era battleship that will be docked in Los Angeles as a floating museum. The Iowa Senate approved that level of spending on the project last week.

(Radio Iowa)

The National Weather Service in Des Moines has issued the first hydrologic, or flood outlook for this coming Spring. The outlook covers a period from early February through late April. In general, the Weather Service says the risk of flooding from late Winter into Spring is near or below normal for all locations in their coverage area. Officials caution, however, that a considerable amount of the Winter season remains, and people with interests near river basins need to continue to monitor both weather and river conditions, as well as future Spring Flood outlooks.

The Weather Service says as far as the East Nishnabotna River near Atlantic is concerned, there is only a 10-percent chance the river will reach 16.8-feet. Flood stage along the East Nish near Atlantic, is 17-feet.   The East Fork of the 102 River near Bedford has a 10-percent chance of reaching 18.8-feet.  The flood stage for that body of water is 21-feet. There is a 90-percent chance in the current outlook, that the East Fork River will reach 13.7-feet in the next 90-days, which is still well below flood stage.

The numbers in the outlook were calculated using multiple Spring Season scenarious from 30-or more-years of climatological data. They also take into account current river conditions, snow cover and soil moisture. The next Flood Outlook will be issued by the Weather Service, on February 16th.