Thanks to a wetter-than-normal year, water releases from the reservoir system which regulate the Missouri River are being cut back for winter, but not as drastically as normal. The U-S Army Corps of Engineers is preparing the river for the season ahead. The Corps’ Mike Swenson, one of the Missouri River Water Management Office team leaders, says the overall goal is to prep reservoirs to handle runoff from rain and snowpack melting in the spring.

Swenson says, “The whole idea is just to continue to monitor throughout the year and make adjustments as necessary to make sure the reservoir system is in good shape to handle that runoff.” Releases at Gavins Point Dam will drop to 21,500 cubic feet per second. That is higher than the normal drop of between 12,000 and 17,000 cubic feet per second. Last year, the Corps dropped releases to 18,000 cubic feet per second at the beginning of winter, then lowered them to 17,000 C-F-S later during the winter months.

“It’s still a lower release than we have during other times of the year, but it’s just slightly higher for the winter,” he says. Swenson says the higher levels will have multiple impacts. “With the higher winter release, that does provide some benefits to hydropower, a little bit more winter energy produced,” Swenson says. “It typically helps out the water intakes below the reservoir system.” He says the higher water should also help prevent ice jams this winter.

(Radio Iowa, w/Thanks to Brent Martin, Nebraska Radio Network)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Forest City School board has accepted the resignation of an elementary school teacher placed on administrative leave following racial comments about high school basketball players aired in an online broadcast.

The Mason City Globe Gazette reports that the board unanimously approved Friday the agreement with third-grade teacher Holly Jane Kusserow-Smidt, who will receive her full contracted salary for this school year.

Kusserow-Smidt was working as a radio producer for station KIOW on Nov. 28 when she was hear laughing and agreeing with announcer Orin Harris, who referred to Eagle Grove boys he believed to be Hispanic because of their names as “foreigners” and saying they should “go back where they came from.”

Both Harris and Kusserow-Smidt were fired from the station. In her resignation letter, Kusserow-Smidt apologized to board members, administrators and students and the communities of Forest City and Eagle Grove.

DENISON, Iowa (AP) — A Denison man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for a car crash that led to the death of a teenage girl. The Sioux City Journal reports that Ramon Hernandez was sentenced Friday in Crawford County District Court for his convictions on vehicular homicide, three counts of distribution of a controlled substance to a minor and five other counts. He had faced up to 109 years in prison.

Authorities say Hernandez drove through a farm field with four teenagers in his car before it plunged into the Boyer River on Jan. 19. He and three of the others reached safety. The body of 15-year-old Yoana Acosta, of Denison, was found a week later on Jan. 26.

Hernandez must serve 10 years before he’s eligible for parole.

Three people have been arrested in connection with a Dec. 4th Burglary in Massena. Deputies from Cass County with assistance from the Adair County Sheriff’s Office, executed a search warrant Thursday at 101 Pine Street, in Massena. Arrested at the scene was 49-year old Clifford Thomas Good, of Council Bluffs.  Good was arrested on a Pottawattamie County warrant. As a result of the continuing investigation, property reported stolen in the burglary was recovered, resulting in the arrests of 27-year old Michael Allen Keylon, of Massena, on a felony charge of Theft 2nd Degree, and Burglary in the 3rd Degree. 26-year old Stephanie Lynn Wood, of Massena, was arrested on a felony Possession of Stolen Property charges.

Good was taken to the Cass County Jail where he is awaiting transport to Pottawattamie County. Keylon and Wood were also taken to the Cass County Jail, and both remain held on $5,000 bond each.

Police in Red Oak were called to the Montgomery County Memorial Hospital this (Friday) morning. Officers were responding to a call about a female who was being disorderly. After arriving, and upon further investigation, Red Oak Police arrested 37-year old Rose Amber Lopez, of Red Oak. Lopez was taken into custody at around 8:30-a.m. for Disorderly Conduct, and booked into the Montgomery County Jail. Her cash bond was set at $300.

Record-breaking Iowa astronaut Peggy Whitson will be honored tonight (Friday) at the Celebrate Iowa Gala at the State Historical Building in Des Moines. Whitson was born in Mount Ayr and raised on a family farm near Beaconsfield. At age nine, she watched on her parents’ black-and-white T-V as the Apollo 11 astronauts walked on the moon, which inspired her to eventually become the first Iowa woman in space. The 57-year-old holds a string of space-related records for her multiple missions into orbit, but remains humble about her long list of firsts and accomplishments. “I really feel very privileged and honored to be able to participate in the space program at all,” Whitson says, her voice cracking. “That’s what I’m most proud of.”

Whitson was the International Space Station’s first science officer, its first woman commander and she’s the first woman to command the station twice. In addition to the space endurance record she set earlier this year, Whiston logged more E-V-As — or spacewalks — than any other woman. Whitson was named Glamour magazine Female of the year for 2017. She is also the first woman to serve as Chief of the Astronaut Corps. There’s even a Peggy Whitson Science Center at her old school in Mount Ayr. In this Radio Iowa interview from the space station in December of 2016, Whitson talked about Christmas in zero gravity. Floating on the football field-sized facility and being able to gaze down at the oceans, clouds and continents rushing past, Whitson said it brought new meaning to the phrase “Peace on Earth.”

“I think the perspective of our planet here is very special and it does provide you with the sense that there are no boundaries, that we’re a planet, we are a people,” Whitson says. “It reinforces the fact that we should be together and at peace.”  Whitson has spent more time living and working in space than any other American or any woman worldwide, a total of 665 days over three missions aboard the space station. Her third mission ended in September. She was asked how it felt to be included among other legendary astronauts, like Neil Armstrong, John Glenn, Alan Shepard and Sally Ride. “I’m not sure I’d put myself in that same category,” she says. “But, I do think that having records, breaking records all the time is important for NASA. It shows that we are still progressing, we are still doing new things, and continuing to expand on what we know about space. It gives me pride to be a part of that.”

Whitson is focusing on doing public relations for NASA for the next several weeks but says her future plans are still fluid. “I will be doing PR stuff for another few months and then I’ll find a real job,” she said, laughing. Having been in space longer than any other American, Whitson says NASA scientists gathered a lot of health information about her time in space. “I had signed up for extra because I’m a life sciences background by my training so I’d signed up for pretty much everything I could,” she says. “While in orbit, they took extra data and they are using me in a longer duration data set.”

At tonight’s sixth annual Celebrate Iowa Gala, guests will hear remarks from Whitson and will see the flight suit she wore into space in 2002, which is on display in the museum’s “Iowa History 101” exhibition.

(Radio Iowa)

A construction industry career fair and competition is taking place today (Friday) at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines. High school students from across the state are among those taking part in the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) of Iowa’s annual event. Ginny Shindelar, vice president of education and training for ABC of Iowa, says it’s part of an effort to address a skilled workers shortage across the country. “We’re really trying to get the young kids, the high school students, just involved in the trades as much as possible and bring that awareness that there are great opportunities for careers in the future for them,” Shindelar says.

The construction industry of TODAY is much different than it was 10 to 20 years ago. Shindelar says companies are searching for elite students. “I hear all the time from instructors and employers how we have to make sure we’re getting bright individuals into construction, mostly because of the technology that is used these days,” Shindelar says. “There’s a lot of new technology coming out every day. They really have to know and understand and be willing to learn how to use that in today’s construction.”

At today’s event in Des Moines, more than 100 high school students are involved in team competitions in carpentry, welding and electrical work. Prizes are being awarded in each category. The main event features over 40 apprentices from across Iowa taking part in electrical, HVAC, plumbing and sheet metal competitions. They’re being judged on the quality of their work, as well as their ability to follow safety guidelines. “The winner from each one of the (apprentice) competitions will go on to represent ABC of Iowa at ABC National Craft Championships in Long Beach, California in March,” Shindelar said.

ABC of Iowa claims to have the largest apprenticeship-training program in Iowa and represents around 540 construction-related companies from across the state.

(Radio Iowa)