w/ Denny Heflin
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Class 3-A:
Class 4-A:
Class 5-A:
Cedar Falls @ Cedar Rapids Washington
Cedar Rapids Kennedy @ Bettendorf
Dowling Catholic vs Ames at Williams Stadium
Iowa City West @ Linn-Mar
Johnston @ Valley West Des Moines
Lewis Central @ Ankeny
North Scott @ Pleasant Valley
Southeast Polk @ Waukee
Carlisle @ Washington
Gilbert @ Dallas Center-Grimes
Newton @ Pella
Norwalk @ Creston
Sergeant Bluff-Luton @ Carroll
Solon @ West Delaware
Waverly-Shell Rock @ Cedar Rapids Xavier
Webster City @ Bishop Heelan Catholic
Albia @ Clarinda
Beckman Catholic @ Western Dubuque
East Sac County @ Spirit Lake
Hampton-Dumont @ Collins-Maxwell/Baxter
Mount Vernon @ North Fayette Valley
New Hampton @ Union
Sioux Center @ Clear Lake
South Tama County @ Williamsburg
AHSTW @ St. Edmond
Central Decatur @ Van Meter
Dike-New Hartford @ West Branch
Hinton @ IKM-Manning
North Cedar @ South Winneshiek
Panorama @ Iowa City Regina
South Central Calhoun @ Saint Ansgar
Western Christian @ West Lyon
AGWSR @ Nashua-Plainfield
B-G-M @ Gladbrook-Reinbeck
Denver @ Maquoketa Valley
Earlham @ Montezuma
Lisbon @ Pekin
Van Buren Community @ Mount Ayr
West Sioux @ Logan-Magnolia
Westwood @ Woodbury Central
Coon Rapids-Bayard @ Newell-Fonda
Exira/Elk Horn-Kimballton @ Lamoni
H-L-V @ Janesville
Harris-Lake Park @ West Bend-Mallard
Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn @ Glidden-Ralston
Melcher-Dallas @ Fremont-Mills
Northwood-Kensett @ Elkader Central
Jackson Junction @ Gilbertville Don Bosco
The Walnut Community School District has officially begun the process of reorganizing with the AHST Community School District. The Daily NonPareil reports the Walnut school board approved beginning the process at its Monday meeting. Superintendent Jesse Ulrich says circulating a petition to collect signatures from 400 eligible electors or 20 percent of the district’s registered voters, whichever is smaller, is the first step toward holding a special election, with a reorganization vote taking place in June, 2015.
Walnut already whole-grade shares seventh through 12th grade students with AHST, as well as sharing Ulrich as superintendent. The Green Hills Area Education Agency has recommended Walnut look at reorganization as it and several other smaller districts are “facing a trend of declining enrollment.”
The reorganization process begins with a petition, which has to receive enough support from the community to generate a hearing before the Green Hills Area Education Agency. The AEA board confirms requirements are met and provides an opportunity for residents to object to the proposed combined district.
Iowa requires school special elections to be held on certain dates. According to the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office, opportunities for special elections next summer would include June 30 and Aug. 4.
Ulrich said the district plans to announce details on the reorganization plans today. He said reorganization is a community action – not a board action – so while the AHST school board will mutually consent to the petition and can support the petition, the board itself is not involved in the process.
While Walnut has maintained an independent school district for the past 142 years, it’s likely the 2015-16 school year would be its last. The Walnut district saw the largest enrollment decline in the state – a 25-percent plummet – over the past five years, Ulrich said. Ulrich wrote that reorganization would keep representation for Walnut on a new combined school board, allowing Walnut residents to continue to have a voice in educational decisions. He said in an interview Wednesday that he does not expect the reorganization will meet with much resistance.
However, the name of a consolidated district could prompt some debate, Ulrich said. The district currently calls its secondary facilities AHSTW as a nod to the grade sharing. Two other southwest Iowa school districts are currently asking voters to approve a reorganization. Voters in Hamburg and Farragut will decide Dec. 2 whether to approve a merger forming the Nishnabotna Community School District.
Last year, the Elk Horn-Kimballton and Exira school districts came together. The Iowa Department of Education lists six other districts that consolidated and one that was dissolved last year. Other than Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton, the last merger of local districts was in 2011 when Nishna Valley and Malvern formed the East Mills Community School District. That year also saw Manning and IKM (Irwin, Kirkman and Manilla) form IKM-Manning and C&M (Cumberland and Massena) and Anita form CAM.
Authorities are investigating a shooting incident in Montgomery County that left the victim in critical condition. According to Red Oak Police, the Montgomery County Communications Center received a call just before 10-p.m. Wednesday, with regard to a shooting at a residence in the 400 block of east Coolbaugh Street. When officers arrived, they found 28-year old Cody Allen Keith Tunnell, of Red Oak, had suffered a severe gunshot wound to the face.
Red Oak Fire and Rescue personnel performed treatment at the scene before transporting Tunnell to the Montgomery County Memorial Hospital. The man was later transferred by helicopter to Creighton Medical Center in Omaha, where he was reported to be in stable but critical condition this (Thursday) morning.
The Iowa DCI was contacted to investigate the scene, and a search warrant was obtained. Following a thorough forensic examination and interviews with witnesses to the incident, preliminary evidence gathered indicates Tunnell’s injuries are possibly accidental. Authorities say Tunnell may have thought the weapon he was handling was properly unloaded.
The case will remains under investigation until authorities can speak with Tunnell about the incident.
A new report from the Iowa Policy Project (IPP) finds many work-support policies for low-income Iowa families are presenting barriers to those families moving out of poverty. IPP research director Peter Fisher says the “basic needs” cost of living for an Iowa family is two to three times higher than federal poverty guidelines. “Therein lies the problem, because most public benefit programs, including these work supports, are geared to the official federal poverty guidelines and most of them cut off benefits well before that self-sufficiency wage is reached,” Fisher says.
This is the last of three reports on “The Cost of Living in Iowa” issued by IPP this year. An earlier report stated 1 in 6 Iowa households do not earn enough to provide for a basic standard of living. Fisher says programs, such as Child Care Assistance, have “cliff effects.” Eligibility for the program vanishes when an family makes just 145-percent of the federal poverty level, which is very low, according to Fisher.
“That’s a huge penalty to take for someone who’s in a low-wage job, find they can work more hours or get an opportunity to get a better job, they can find themselves in a position of making their families worse off by earning more money because they would lose all of that child care assistance,” Fisher says. “We have one of the lowest eligibility ceilings in the country at 145-percent of poverty. Many states go to 200-percent of poverty or close to it.”
The IPP report recommends several reforms to Iowa’s work-support policies, such as raising the eligibility for the Child Care Assistance program to 200-percent of the poverty level and implementing a copay schedule that “eases people off the program” as their income rises.
(Radio Iowa)
Arizona Senator John McCain campaigned with Republican U.S. Senate candidate Joni Ernst, Wednesday. “Iowans are concerned about out national security, about the treatment of our veterans and the need to fix that,” McCain says. “I think they realize that Joni is exactly the kind of person with her experience and background, also in the legislature, that will make her hit the ground running when she gets to the United States Senate.”
McCain, who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam, is among a dwindling number of senators with a military background. Ernst, a battalion commander in the Iowa National Guard, is one of a handful of 2014 candidates for the U.S. Senate who have run campaign ads featuring photos of themselves in their military uniforms. McCain says military experience isn’t required, but it’s an “enormous asset” for a member of the senate.
“Joni Ernst has served in a position of command. She understand what morale, efficiency, the capabilities of the men and women who are serving and, most of all, the hardships that men and women undergo as they are serving the country,” McCain says. McCain and Ernst met with veterans at an American Legion Post in Coralville Wednesday, where McCain referred to President Obama’s foreign policy as “feckless” and he called the present state of the Veterans Administration “unacceptable.”
(Radio Iowa)
345 AM CDT THU OCT 30 2014
EARLY THIS MORNING…MOSTLY CLOUDY. ISOLATED SPRINKLES. SOUTH WIND NEAR 5 MPH.
TODAY…MOSTLY SUNNY. ISOLATED SPRINKLES THROUGH MID MORNING. HIGH AROUND 60. SOUTHWEST WIND NEAR 5 MPH INCREASING TO NORTHWEST 10 TO 15 MPH WITH GUSTS TO AROUND 25 MPH IN THE AFTERNOON.
TONIGHT…MOSTLY CLOUDY UNTIL EARLY MORNING THEN CLEARING. BREEZY. LOW IN THE UPPER 20S. NORTH WIND 10 TO 20 MPH WITH GUSTS TO AROUND 30 MPH.
FRIDAY…SUNNY…COLDER. HIGH IN THE LOWER 40S. NORTH WIND 5 TO 15 MPH WITH GUSTS TO AROUND 25 MPH.
FRIDAY NIGHT…MOSTLY CLEAR. LOW IN THE MID 20S. NORTHEAST WIND NEAR 5 MPH SHIFTING TO THE EAST AFTER MIDNIGHT.
SATURDAY...MOSTLY SUNNY. HIGH IN THE MID 40S. SOUTHEAST WIND 5 TO 15 MPH WITH GUSTS TO AROUND 25 MPH.
SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY...PARTLY CLOUDY. BREEZY. LOW IN THE MID 30S. HIGH 46 TO 56.