The 7:20-a.m. Sportscast with Jim Field.
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The 7:20-a.m. Sportscast with Jim Field.
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The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.
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DUBUQUE, Iowa (Telegraph Herald) — The Dubuque City Council has approved an agreement to split the nearly $1.8 million cost of building a dock so Mississippi River cruise ships could stop and let off passengers to explore the city. The 20-year agreement with Viking Cruises passed by the council Monday calls for the dock to be built near Grand Harbor Resort and Waterpark. The Telegraph Herald reports that Viking also would pay the city $1 for each passenger on the boats that dock in Dubuque. The money will help pay for maintenance and operational fees. Viking plans to begin the cruises in June 2022.
Officials with the Iowa Army National Guard report, that as part of the U.S. Army’s ongoing overseas operational requirements, LeMars-based Troop C, 1st Squadron, 113th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division, Iowa Army National Guard, recently received deployment orders for Operation Enduring Freedom in the United States Africa Command (U.S. AFRICOM) Area of Responsibility (AOR). U.S. AFRICOM is responsible for U.S. military operations, exercises and security cooperation activities on the African continent, its island nations and surrounding waters.
Guard spokesman Col. Michael Wunn says “This is the second of several deployments announced by Maj. Gen. Ben Corell, the Iowa National Guard Adjutant General, during his Condition of the Guard address to the Iowa General Assembly on Jan. 16, 2020.” Troop C will deploy with approximately 90 Soldiers. They will be joined by approximately 40 Soldiers from Troop A, 1st Squadron, 113th Cavalry Regiment, assigned to the Freedom Center located on Camp Dodge in Johnson.
Col. Wunn said also, “This is the third federal mobilization for Troop C since 2001. The troop previously deployed to Iraq in 2005 and Afghanistan in 2010. For the last four years, Troop C, along with several additional Iowa Army National Guard units, has completed increasingly complicated training events in preparation for mobilization. The troop is currently working to schedule send-off ceremonies, which will occur in June. They will travel to Ft. Bliss, Texas, to complete their final training and readiness checks before deploying overseas. The deployment is expected to last approximately one year.”
The Iowa National Guard is experiencing an increase in deployments as a number of its units come into their “mission year” as part of the U.S. Army’s current force generation cycle. Additional mobilization announcements are expected in the near future.
The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office reports four recent arrests. Late Monday night, 20-year old Kohl Robert Danielsen was arrested for OWI/1st offense, following a traffic stop for speeding near Avoca. Saturday afternoon, 29-year old Logan Bernard Stichler was arrested in Council Bluffs for Domestic Abuse Assault causing bodily injury/1st offense. Early Saturday morning, 38-year old Allen E. Westerfield was arrested for OWI/2nd offense, following an investigation into a vehicle in the ditch near Crescent. And, a 17-year old male was arrested Friday afternoon in Oakland for making a False report to a public safety entity. The unnamed teen allegedly pulled a fire alarm at the Riverside High School.
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A man’s body has been found frozen in ice in a West Des Moines ditch. Police say a surveyor called around 2:20 p.m. Tuesday to report the body was spotted along a road that runs parallel to Interstate 80. Police say the body is that of a middle-age man. His name hasn’t been released. A police spokesman says officers are treating the area as a crime scene. No arrests have been reported.
OPAL DARLENE MARCUSSEN, 94, of Elk Horn (& formerly of Harlan), died Tue., Feb. 18th. A Memorial service for OPAL MARCUSSEN will be held 11-a.m. Friday, Feb, 21st, at the Burmeister-Johannsen Funeral Home, in Harlan.
There is no visitation. Online condolences may be left at www.burmeisterjohannsen.com.
Burial of ashes will be in the Harlan Cemetery.
OPAL MARCUSSEN is survived by:
Her children: Ann (King) Cole, of Savage, MN; Terry Marcussen, of Adair, and Karen Marcussen, of Cleveland, TN.
Other relatives and friends.
ARNOLD R. SHELDAHL, 91, of Menlo, died Monday, Feb. 17th, at the Stuart Community Care Center. A Memorial service for ARNOLD SHELDAHL will be held 2-p.m. Friday, Feb. 21st, at the Johnson Family Funeral Home, in Stuart, with a luncheon to follow at the Calvary Baptist Church, in DeSoto.
Visitation at the funeral home will be held one-hour prior to the service (from 1-until 2-p.m.), Friday.; Online condolences may be left at www.johnsonfamilyfuneralhome.com.
Memorials may be directed to the Arnold Sheldahl Memorial Funds.
(Radio Iowa) — Two abortion-related bills have advanced as Iowa lawmakers approach an end-of-week legislative deadline for committee votes. One bill approved by a Senate panel would require pregnant Iowans to view an ultrasound image and then wait three days to have an abortion. The Iowa Supreme Court struck down a three-day waiting period in 2018, but Republican Senator Brad Zaun says things have changed. “First of all, we’ve got a new court and I believe in this bill and I can file any bill that I want,” Zaun says.
Two of the five justices who overturned the 2018 law have died and, by this spring, two others will have retired from the court. Opponents of the bill — like Laura Hessburg with the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence — say it puts up more barriers to abortion access. “Of course we want women to have information. What we’re saying is women don’t show up without being informed, any more than any of you show up for a medical procedure without being informed,” Hessburg said.
House Republicans also advanced a bill creating new licensing requirements for abortion facilities.
(By Iowa Public Radio’s Katarina Sostaric)