Atlantic Fire Chief Mark McNees is urging residents to use caution and be respectful when it comes to using fireworks. He said the biggest thing is, if you are going to use fireworks, know your local ordinances, and use the fireworks properly. Know what they do and how they are supposed to be used. Don’t aim them at people, don’t tear them apart, and don’t make your own. He stressed you should be “considerate of those around you and cautious of those around you, because they don’t often go off as designed.”

He cautions also, that if you shoot off a fireworks and it lands on someone’s home or property, you are liable for damages and/or injuries. He recommends having a bucket of water handy in case there are mis-fires. McNees said there are areas in town where it is illegal to shoot-off fireworks. There is a 300-foot buffer around schools, the hospital and any assisted living facility. And there are certain hours when fireworks are allowed. Fireworks may be used from Noon until 10-p.m. Today (Tuesday), and from Noon until 11-p.m.,Wednesday. You’ll face hefty fines for setting them off outside those hours.  You are also only allowed to use fireworks on your own property, or property you have been given permission to use. That means no fireworks on City streets or property. That also includes the Atlantic Municipal Airport, during Wednesday night’s huge fireworks display. He said there were some issues last year with dangerous activity involving people bringing fireworks to the airport. McNees says this year’s fireworks show at the airport will be bigger and louder than before, in celebration of Atlantic’s sesquicentennial.

J&M Displays will be in charge of electronically shooting off the fireworks at the airport, with an extra special element at the end. For those wanting to come out to the airport for the display, McNees said there are restrictions on when you should arrive for the show. Parking will not be allowed before 8-p.m., Wednesday, and it is limited. The Display will begin after dusk, at around 9:45-p.m., or around 10-p.m.

Senator Chuck Grassley says he hopes the North American Free Trade Agreement is renegotiated before Mexico’s new president is sworn into office December 1st. On Sunday, populist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador became president-elect of Mexico by winning a four-way race with more than half the vote. “On the surface, I would be very pessimistic,” Grassley says, “but I think I have seen this guy who is very left wing campaign in a different way than he did when he lost the elections in 2006 and 2012.”

Lopez Obrador is the author of the book titled “Listen Up, Trump” and during the campaign, he vowed that Mexico would not be the U.S. president’s pinata. But this week, Trump and Mexico’s next president have engaged in polite, diplomatic statements about one another. Grassley suggests that’s progress. “I’m very hopeful that there’ll be good communication between the United States and Mexico,” Grassley says. “And I hope, even before he’s sworn in, we can get a new NAFTA agreement.”

Representatives from the U.S., Canada and Mexico have been negotiating since last summer, but the deal is not done. Grassley made his comments Monday after a mid-day speech to Webster City’s Rotary.

(Radio Iowa)

A traffic stop Monday afternoon in Pottawattamie County resulted in the arrest of a Council Bluffs man. 46-year old James Franklin Tague was taken into custody for Possession of Explosive materials, Possession of Drug paraphernalia, and Driving While suspended. Sheriff’s officials say Tague was under the influence of narcotics at the time of his arrest at around 4:15-p.m.  They found a glass meth pipe in his possession, in addition to an unspecified homemade explosive.