The first of Democrat who announced a run for governor in 2018 is dropping out. On January 4th, Rich Leopold kicked off his campaign, but after five months, operations are shutting down. Leopold, who is 52, served as director of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and is currently director of Polk County Conservation.

Leopold says he has suspended his campaign because of “challenging in fundraising and difficulty in competing with the mostly political insiders” who have entered the race. Leopold says the “truth is the reality of an outsider mounting a winning campaign in Iowa is slim.”

(Radio Iowa)

Officials with the U-S Army Corps of Engineers are predicting the above-normal runoff into the Missouri River basin will continue most of the summer. Kevin Stom, an engineer in the Corps’ Omaha office, says it will NOT mean any widespread flooding along the waterway. Stom says, “The 2017 calendar year runoff forecast for the Upper Missouri Basin above Sioux City, Iowa, is 29.9-million acre feet or 118-percent of average.”

Now that we’re into the much-warmer weather of June, Stom says the remaining mountain snowpack will melt off quickly. “During June, July and August, above-average runoff is forecast as a reflection of the above-average mountain snowpack and the increased chance for above-normal precipitation in the upper basin,” Stom says. “Runoff during the fall and winter months is forecast to be about normal.”

The Corps has adjusted releases from Gavins Point Dam to make up the difference, boosting the amount of water being released in cubic feet per second, or C-F-S.  Stom says, “Based on this runoff forecast, the June 1 system storage and the tributary projected storage, the service level adjustment of 5,000 CFS which was established after our April 1 runoff forecast will continue through June.”

The monthly report from the Corps says only localized flooding is possible along the Missouri River basin due to heavy rain, mostly in the downstream region.

(Radio Iowa)

One person was arrested early this (Wednesday) morning, following an investigation into an alleged case of child abuse. The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office says a deputy responded a little after midnight to a call from a woman in Underwood, who said she found bruises on her two-year old goddaughter.  Deputies subsequently arrested 25-year old Ryan Bradley Rapier, of Council Bluffs at around 3-a.m., on a charge of Child Endangerment with Bodily Injury.

More area and State news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – A state Department of Education review has found that the Iowa City Community School District occasionally sent students to padded seclusion rooms for minor infractions rather than solely to prevent them from harming themselves or others.

After a complaint filed last year, the department reviewed 455 incidents of seclusion in the district from Dec. 22, 2015, to Dec. 21, 2016. Officials also visited two of the district’s school buildings. Each contained two of the roughly 6-by-6-foot, padded, wooden boxes.

Department complaint officer Thomas Mayes wrote in his report that, “Seclusion for minor infractions is not a reasonable response.”  He said the district must review and revise all policies and procedures involving seclusion rooms increase staff training on using the rooms.

There are currently a dozen retailers that can legally sell fireworks in the state of Iowa, though the state fire marshal says nearly 1,000 licenses could eventually be issued. Fire Marshal Jeff Quigle says his staff worked over the weekend to start issuing licenses, which includes an on-site safety visit. “There are requirements as far as the product, the actual fireworks themselves, and how they’re arranged in the tent or structure. And then, we look for the basics; proper exiting, fire extinguisher, and then of course it has to be displayed and very clear that there’s no smoking permitted,” Quigle said.

This is the first year for fireworks sales in the state of Iowa. Retailers were supposed to be able to start selling bottle rockets and roman candles on June 1. But, since the bill was signed into law only last month, Quigle says it’s taken his office a bit of time to figure out the licensing process — which usually could take more than six months to create. “We really ramped up the rules process and the statue did allow us to have emergency rule making authority,” Quigle said.

There are two seasons for firework sales in Iowa. The first is June 1st through July 8th. The second is December 10th through January 3rd.

(Radio Iowa, w/reporting by Sarah Boden, Iowa Public Radio)

An environmental policy advisor with the Iowa Farm Bureau says a recent Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) report shows the number of “impaired waterbodies” in the state is leveling off. Rick Robinson says the report’s two percent increase in impaired waters indicates long-term progress is taking place. And Robinson says it showed other positive trends as well.

“Nitrate levels are trending steady to lower at 18 of 22 sites across the state for the last decade,” Robinson says. “Total nitrogen was lower at 19 of 22 sites the last decade. And phosphorus levels trended steady to lower at 23 of 25 sites over the last decade.”

Robinson credits record conservation practices and collaborative water quality work for the progress. He points to a 2016 Iowa State University poll of farmers in the state. “They found that farmers had invested 2.2 billion dollars in conservation the last 10 years. They found that there were modest to major increases in adopting precision ag, building conservation structure and fine-tuning nutrient management practices,” he says. “So all the things they’re doing are paying off in the long-run and trending the right direction.”

Robinson says it’s also worth noting that 75 percent of untreated water in Iowa streams meets or exceeds the EPA’s nitrate safety standard.

(Radio Iowa, w/reporting by Ken Anderson, Brownfield Ag News)

A Cass County man was sentenced to serve a term of supervised release (probation) Monday, in connection with the assault of Cass County Sheriff’s Deputy Ryan Johnson, during an incident that took place April 26^th, in Lewis. Online court records show 41-year old Jeremy Ronald Peterson, of Lewis, was sentenced to five-years in prison, but Judge Jeffrey L. Larson suspended the sentence, and instead placed Peterson on two-years of supervised probation. Peterson pled guilty Monday to charges of Assault on a person in certain occupations with intent to commit injury, and Criminal Mischief in the 4^th degree. An additional charge of Interference with Official Acts with Bodily Injury was dismissed. Peterson was also ordered to pay restitution, court and related costs amounting to a little more than $2,740.

The charges are the result of an incident in Lewis, whereby Peterson, who was reportedly under the influence of alcohol, refused to leave a home, and had broken several pieces of furniture. Deputy Johnson was struck in the face when he arrived on the scene and tried to arrest Peterson. Johnson deployed his Taser in an attempt to subdue Peterson. A neighbor noticed the altercation and came to Johnson’s aid, by assisting him in holding Peterson down so he could be handcuffed.

The leaders of the Ankeny-based Casey’s convenience store chain say the weak ag economy is showing its impact as sales were up but didn’t reach the goals set for the company’s fiscal year that ended in April. Casey’s president and C-E-O Terry Handley talked about the issue during a conference call Tuesday on the fourth quarter results.

“During our fiscal year — like many others in the convenience and grocery store sector, as well as the broader food services industry — we’ve experienced downward pressure on customer traffic, which adversely impacted same-store sales across all of our categories,” Hadley says. He says customers were spending less on prepared foods.

“We believe this pressure is related to the agricultural economy in our marketing area, the growing spread between pricing of food away and food at home, as well as increased promotional activities of other competitors,” Hadley says. Handley says despite the challenging environment the company saw the 16th consecutive year of positive same-store sales growth in both the grocery and other merchandise and prepared food and fountain categories.

Chief financial officer Bill Walljasper says the company had hoped to increase the sale of prepared foods and fountain drinks in the stores by a little more than ten percent, but they didn’t hit that mark. “In the prepared food and fountain category, total sales were up nearly six-point-eight percent to over 233 million dollars for the quarter. Despite the economic environment in our market area, same store sales in the quarter were up three-point-two percent,” Walljasper says. He says steady fuel prices impacted their profit on gas sales in the fourth quarter.

“The average retail price of fuel during this period was two-dollars-22 cents-a-gallon, compared to a dollar-81 last year. The average fuel margin in the quarter was 17-point-two cents per gallon — down from the same period a year ago — primarily due to lower volatility in wholesale costs throughout the quarter,” Walljasper says.
He says the gasoline gross profit dollars for the year were down slightly to 378-point-three million dollars, primarily due to a one-point-two cents per gallon lower fuel margin.

Casey’s is lowering expectations for 2018, projecting growth in sales of between two-and-four percent for groceries and between five and seven percent for prepared foods.

(Radio Iowa)