(Radio Iowa) – After nearly 50 years as a food desert, one of Waterloo’s predominantly black neighborhoods has opened its first grocery store alongside a community center. After seven years of socioeconomic hurdles, including push-back from groups within Waterloo, the black-owned All-In Grocers and attached Willie Mae Wright Community Center opened this week. Project leader Rodney Anderson says after all the work, he’s still amazed.  “I love it. It looks like Waterloo,” Anderson says, “it feels like Waterloo, and now we’re going to change the culture of Waterloo.”

Waterloo Mayor Quentin Hart attended the opening and says the grocery store idea was a long time coming and he sees it as a huge victory for the neighborhood and the community. “It’s an incredible day for the City of Waterloo and an incredible day for the Walnut neighborhood,” Hart says. “I remember 12 years ago, them wanting a grocery store, and to be here today is such an inspiring vision.”

The community center will hold classes and after-school programs through Waterloo’s 1619 Freedom School Project, which is expected to start by the spring.

(Council Bluffs, Iowa [KETV]) — If your travels take you to Council Bluffs, frequently, you may have noticed the wear on the South Expressway bridge in the city. Bluffs Public Works Director Matt Cox, says there’s no safety threat, because while part of the reinforcing steel is exposed, the bridge is still performing as designed.

And whatever concrete that’s fallen off, he says, has no impact on the structural integrity. Cox said public works inspects these bridges regularly, and people do not need to be concerned with driving over the bridge.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – A man from Clarinda was arrested Wednesday evening on an assault charge, in Red Oak. Police say 36-year-old Bryce Michael McKinnon was taken into custody at around 6:34-p.m. in the 2300 block of Eastern Avenue, in Red Oak. He was charged with Assault on a person engaged in certain professions, causing bodily injury. McKinnon was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $2,000 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – The historic Harlan-Lincoln House in Mount Pleasant is changing hands. The two-story yellow and white house is now a stand-alone Iowa non-profit corporation, Harlan-Lincoln House, Inc. The now-closed Iowa Wesleyan University transferred ownership of the house, which was built by former Iowa U-S Senator James Harlan in 1876.

He was a friend and political ally of President Abe Lincoln – and Harlan’s daughter, Mary, married Lincoln’s son, Robert Todd Lincoln. More than 20 volunteers will give guided tours of the house – and care for the structure and grounds. A public re-opening event is planned for October 21st.

Federal agencies sent out a message to all radios, T-Vs and cellular phones Wednesday afternoon, as a test of the nation’s emergency alert systems. Tracey Bearden, 9-1-1 coordinator for the Polk County Emergency Management Agency, says at 1:20 P-M, all devices were sent the alert as a test of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System by the F-C-C and FEMA.

Bearden says the key takeaway should be that it’s a good drill to make sure that this nationwide system works and to practice for an actual incident. While some of us may have been annoyed by the distraction, Bearden hopes they consider the virtues of this unprecedented test as a way to be prepared.