With KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.
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(Updated 9-a.m.)
Harlan, 4.2″; Underwood, 1.88″; Council Bluffs, 2.35″; Glenwood, 1.3″; Atlantic ( @ KJAN ), .96″; Massena, .36; 1.5 miles S. of Avoca, 1.5″; 3 miles w. of Oakland, 1.5″; Audubon, 2.25″; Irwin, .75″; Shenandoah, .96; Clarinda, .55″; Blanchard (Page County), 2.02″
Democrat Jack Hatch says if he’s elected governor, he’ll “realign” the Iowa Economic Development Authority advisory board, splitting it into four regions, along the lines of Iowa’s four congressional districts. Each region would get an equal amount of money from the state and the local boards would decide which projects quality for state grants and loans. “As a state, we find our best ideas come when we allow our communities to determine their own destiny and not rely on a top-down model in which government picks winners and losers,” Hatch says. Hatch would forbid any of the members of these advisory boards to be involved in a business that gets a grant or loan from the state.
“It’s now like an ‘old boys club’….You have to know somebody in Des Moines,” Hatch says. “That just leads to abuse and loss of opportunities.” Hatch says the regional boards he envisioned would likely dedicate more state resources to smaller businesses rather than the big corporations Republican Governor Terry Branstad has been courting.
Branstad reconfigured the Iowa Department of Economic Development shortly after returning as governor in 2011, establishing a public-private partnership instead of a strictly state-run agecny. Hatch unveiled his idea for regional advisory boards during a speech in Davenport on Monday.
(Radio Iowa)
Governor Terry Branstad says he’s open to continued discussions about how to find new funding sources for road and bridge construction in Iowa, including the idea of imposing the state sales tax on fuel. “That kind of an approach is an approach that has been used now recently by a number of other states and its one that would be more of a permanent soluation,” Branstad says. Charging the six-percent state sales tax on gas would add far more to the cost of filling up the tank than just raising the state gas tax by 10-cents a gallon.
For example, someone buying 10 gallons of gas would pay a dollar ($1) more if the state gas tax went up a dime. But, if the state sales tax were charged on that transaction, the consumer would pay two-dollars ($2) more. “Anything you do, obviously, the users are going to have to pay for it,” Branstad says. The state fuel tax hasn’t been hiked since 1989, when gas was selling for less than two-bucks a gallon. The average price today in Iowa is 3-37 ($3.37) a gallon. Branstad says charging the state sales tax on fuel purchases would keep up with inflation.
“Going away from the old-fashioned gas and diesel fuel tax, to me, makes sense,” Branstad says. But the governor is not calling on legislators to pass a bill that would make the change. Branstad has repeatedly said he’s waiting for a “bipartisan consensus” to develop in the legislature. According to Iowa D-O-T estimates released a couple of years ago, the state is at least 215-million dollars short of what’s needed to maintain and expand the state’s transportation network.
(Radio Iowa)
BLAIR, Neb. (AP) – The siren alert system will be tested Tuesday at the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Station in eastern Nebraska. Omaha Public Power District says the radio-controlled sirens are placed within 10 miles of the plant. The plant sits on the southeast side of Blair, across from Iowa on the Missouri River and about 20 miles north of Omaha.
OPPD says the sirens will sound for four minutes sometime between 9 and 10 a.m. The annual test may be delayed if the weather is severe.
If something that posed a danger to the public were to occur at the plant, the sirens would sound to signal people that they should tune into local broadcast media and follow Emergency Alert System guidance.
As the nation’s largest outdoor farm equipment show kicks off today in Boone, one issue in the spotlight is the nation’s largest conservation program. More than 1,400 farms across Iowa and 20,000 farms across the nation are up for renewal for the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP).
Matt Russell with Practical Farmers of Iowa says the Conservation Stewardship Program is a working lands program, not a “set aside.” “It’s the whole farm in most cases, all of the conservation practices put together on working lands and then taking those and adding some enhancements,” says Russell.
Through the CSP, participants take additional steps to improve soil, water, and air quality. In the first five years of the program, nearly 60 million acres of farm and ranch land have been enrolled nationwide. Russell says his farm in Marion County has implemented rotational grazing and cover crop practices, along with wildlife areas. They’ve also gone chemical-free, but Russell notes CSP allows for an approach that is greatly flexible and individualized.
“It is farm specific and farmer specific,” he says. “Everything that’s in your contract does improve conservation on your land, but you get to choose based on what your production model is, and what your own interests are in terms of conservation or stewardship.”
For the first class of CSP participants, the window to apply to re-enroll will end on September 12th, while a general sign-up will be coming this fall. More information is available at the Practical Farmers of Iowa website, or through one of the many offices of the Natural Resources Conservation Service across the state.
(Iowa News Service)
RITA K. (HUGHES) BURKE, 71, of Denver, CO (& formerly of the Adair-Casey area), died Aug. 23rd, in Denver. Graveside services for RITA BURKE will be held 11:30-a.m. Sat. (Sept. 6th), at the Saints Peter & Paul Catholic Cemetery in Atlantic. Roland Funeral Service in Atlantic has the arrangements.
Online condolences may be left at www.rolandfuneralservice.com.
Memorials may be directed to the West Sioux Educational Foundation.
RITA BURKE is survived by:
Her children – Sean (Carmen) Burke, of Loma Linda, CA; Erin Vogel, of Denver, CO; Tom (Cheryl) Burke, of Stewartsville, NJ, & Michael (Jaime) Burke, of Omaha.
Her sister-in-law: Susan (Craig) Smith, of Atlantic.
and 10 grandchildren.
Police in Red Oak arrested two people late Monday night on Disorderly Conduct charges. Just after 10-p.m., police arrested 17-year old Nicholas James Terry, of Red Oak, and 18-year old Daniel John Platt, of Emerson. Terry was arrested at the Red Oak Plaza and later released to one of his parents. Platt was arrested at a residence in the 1600 block of north Broadway Street in Red Oak, and held in the Montgomery County Jail on $300 bond.
The Adams County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest of a Red Oak man Monday evening. 35-year old Joseph Smith was charged with Driving While Revoked, Failure to re-file SR-22, having no insurance and no registration.
His arrest was the result of a traffic stop take took place at around 7:50-p.m.
ADA VIRGINIA PIERCE, 86, of Perry (& formerly of Panora), died Sun., Aug. 24th, at the Rowley Memorial Masonic Home, in Perry. Funeral services for ADA PIERCE will be held 10:30-a.m. Wed., Aug. 27th, at St. Cecilia’s Catholic Church in Panora. Twigg Funeral Home in Panora has the arrangements.
Visitation at the funeral home is from 4-to8-p.m. Tuesday (today, 8/26), with the family present from 6-to 8pm. A Vigil service will take place at 7-p.m., also at the funeral home.
Burial will be in the Peoples Township Cemetery in rural Boone County, near Woodward, at 2-p.m. Wed.