The Adair and Guthrie County Emergency Management Agencies will host a joint 2016 Storm Spotter Class at the Menlo Community Center, beginning at 7:00 PM on March 16th. Robert Kempf, Coordinator for the agencies, says the class is free and open to the public.

The following week, March 21st-throught the 25th, is Severe Weather Awareness Week in Iowa. The highlight of Severe Weather Awareness Week is the annual statewide tornado drill scheduled for 10-a.m. Wednesday, March 23rd.  Schools, businesses, state and local governments, and individuals are strongly encouraged to participate in the drill. Additional information about the tornado drill can be found on local National Weather Service (NWS) website.

During Severe Weather Awareness Week, the Iowa Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management will post information on individual and family preparedness at www.BeReady.iowa.gov, including podcasts, public service announcements and videos. The NWS will promote severe weather safety on their websites and by issuing informative public information statements.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — A judge says she will announce next week the fate of a Council Bluffs woman accused of fatally stabbing her ex-boyfriend. The Daily Nonpareil reports that District Judge Kathleen Kilnoski will announce a verdict Monday in Jodie Sherman’s case after the trial ended Friday.

Sherman is charged with first-degree murder in the July 2014 death of Douglas Richt, her ex-boyfriend. Sherman is accused of stabbing Richt in the throat during an argument after he picked her up in a car. Richt died while being taken to a hospital.

Her attorneys have argued that she’s not guilty by reason of insanity. Kilnoski is weighing a verdict because Sherman waived her right to a trial by jury.

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

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The area’s top news at 7:06-a.m., w/KJAN News Director Ric Hanson

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A traffic stop early this (Saturday) morning in Red Oak resulted in a woman being arrested on alcohol-related charges. Police say 56-year old Jo Beth Blay, of Red Oak, was taken into custody at around 2:20-a.m. and charged with OWI/1st offense. Blay was being held at the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center on a $1,000 cash bond.

Governor Terry Branstad says he could go along with House Republicans’ plan to extend 95-million dollars in state tax breaks to Iowa small business owners and farmers who purchased assets in 2015. “It will be tight and it will use up a lot of the surplus over and above what we have in the economic and cash emergency account,” Branstad says, “but we could accept for one year.” Branstad did not include this recommendation in the plans he submitted to legislators in January.

Republicans in the House have voted to make this tax break available to about 177-thousand Iowa small business owners and farmers who’re filing their taxes right now and Republicans in the legislature would like to make it permanent, but Branstad says he’ll only accept a one-year extension. “We’d lose too much revenue,” Branstad says, “and it would put us in a financial position that we couldn’t sustain it for the long term.” The tax break under discussion is a credit for the depreciation of assets and would be available to small business owners and farmers who buy things like computer software, machinery, equipment and on-farm storage structures.

State officials in the past several years have aligned state tax law with federal tax policy in this area. The leader of Democrats in the Iowa Senate says there are private discussions among key legislators to determine what might be possible this year.

(Radio Iowa)

Johnson County currently has a minimum wage that’s higher than the state’s and officials in neighboring Linn County are considering a similar move. Governor Terry Branstad says it “would be better” if the base rate for hourly wages was set on a “statewide basis.” “But I understand we have a legislature that’s divided and there’s not a consensus on that issue, so I’ve indicated a willingness to consider it, but I just don’t perceive that there is a consensus in the legislature between the parties addressing increasing the minimum wage,” Branstad says.

Branstad made his comments today Friday, during a taping of Iowa Public Television program, “Iowa Press.” Last fall, Johnson County officials passed an ordinance that raised the minimum wage to eight-dollars-and-20 cents an hour. It will go up to 9-dollars-and-15 cents an hour on May 1st in Johnson County, although some communities in the county were allowed to “opt out” of the minimum wage hike plan.

On January 1st of next year, the minimum wage for most of Johnson County will rise to ten-ten ($10.10) an hour. Officials with the board that governs the University of Iowa are discussing a move to “opt out” of the higher minimum wage rate for Johnson County, because students in work study programs at Iowa would be paid more than work study students at Iowa State and U-N-I.

(Radio Iowa)

A biofuels industry advisor says the ethanol industry is “ripe for consolidation.” Bruce Comer, director of California-based Ocean Park Advisors, says if tight ethanol margins continue, more companies will be evaluating their options. “If margins stay where they are, more owners, more board members, and more managers are going to take a harder look at whether to continue to own and continue to fight the fight, or to look at other opportunities,” Comer said. “At a minimum, checking the market for what their assets might be worth.”

Comer notes that there are still 94 “stand-alone” ethanol plants that account for more than five billion gallons, or 36 percent of domestic production. “That steady march of consolidation of those 94 independent plants, I think we can expect to see that (continue) for the next several years,” Comer said. “And depending on how this year turns out with margins and inventory and exports and some of those other factors, it could push that number up and we could see a very active year.”

Comer says the pace of ethanol exports will be one of the key factors to watch over the remainder in 2016.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A group of Iowa high school students has been admonished for seemingly using Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s name as a racial insult during a boys’ basketball game. The chant occurred Monday during a playoff game between Dallas Center-Grimes in West Des Moines, a largely white school, and Perry, a more diverse school north of Des Moines.

According to DCG activities director Steve Watson, roughly a dozen students out of the 120 or so in attendance chanted Trump’s name after their team lost to Perry. Trump has drawn fire for saying that illegal immigration from Mexico brings rapists and drug dealers into the U.S. and other controversial statements.

Watson says the chant was uttered three or four times before administrators stopped the students. He declined to say whether the students were disciplined, citing privacy policies.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

NORA SPRINGS, Iowa (AP) — The owner of a northern Iowa strip club says he’s not worried about efforts to change the city’s zoning and close his business because he considers it a “theater of performing arts.” Dale Peterson, who recently opened the Pole Barn Theater in downtown Nora Springs, told the Globe Gazette the city’s plan to change zoning for adult entertainment won’t stop him. The City Council will discuss the matter Thursday.

ELK RUN HEIGHTS, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a northeast Iowa man has died after he dropped his handgun and was struck by a bullet. Deputies were dispatched to an Elk Run Heights home around 12:30 a.m. Friday and found someone giving CPR to 45-year-old Martin Lawrence. The Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office says he was taken to a Waterloo hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — A Cedar Rapids man has been found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of a Waterloo man. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports that a Black Hawk County jury handed over the guilty verdict Friday afternoon for 26-year-old James Robert Ernst the Second.

DECORAH, Iowa (AP) — Two doctors who testified for the prosecution at a man’s first-degree murder trial reached slightly different conclusions about how his wife died in her Boone home. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports Doctor Michelle Catellier conducted an autopsy on Emily Fazzino’s body, and Doctor Brad Randall reviewed the results. Both doctors testified Friday in a Winneshiek County court.