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Blown tire causes straight truck accident

News

May 15th, 2012 by Ric Hanson

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports a Nodaway man was sent to the hospital following an accident Monday morniong on a county road about two and a-half miles northwest of Stanton. 62-year old Gary Dean Poe was transported by private vehicle to the Montgomery County Memorial Hospital, where he was checked for possible injuries.

Officials say Poe was traveling east on 200th Street at around 9:25-a.m., when the left front tire blew out on the 1979 Kenworth straight truck he was driving. The incident caused the truck, which was loaded with gravel, to cross the center line of the road and enter into a ditch, where it hit a fence and came to rest upright. No citations were issued.

The truck, registered to David Hart, of Stanton, sustained $15,000 damage. The fence, owned by Ronald True, of Villisca, sustained about $150 damage.

(Podcast) Skyscan Forecast – Tue., May 15th 2012

Podcasts, Weather

May 15th, 2012 by Ric Hanson

Here’s the (podcast) Freese-Notis forecast for Atlantic & the KJAN listening area…

Play

Oakland woman arrested

News

May 15th, 2012 by Ric Hanson

The Atlantic Police Department reported Monday afternoon, that a Pottawattamie County woman was arrested Sunday. 42-year old Theresa Reynolds, of Oakland, was arrested in Atlantic on a charge of OWI/1st Offense. Reynolds was brought to the Cass County Jail and held pending an appearance before the magistrate.

Home sales in Iowa continue to climb

News

May 15th, 2012 by Ric Hanson

The number of homes sold in Iowa increased again in April. The Iowa Association of Realtors (IAR) reports two-thousand-606 (2,606) homes were sold last month. That’s just 22 more than in April of 2011, but association president Dale Gross, of Atlantic, says it marks the “eighth or ninth” consecutive month of increased sales. “It’s not up much, but it continues in the same direction,” Gross said. He noted the first four months of 2012 marked the strongest first quarter in terms of homes sold in Iowa since 2007. The median sale price of a home in Iowa last month was $124,375. That’s an increase of 8.2% over the previous year.

“People are beginning to think that the dream of home ownership is affordable with our low interest rates, so they’re stepping up and buying a home,” Gross said. The April report from the IAR shows the average home stayed on the market for 112 days before being sold. That’s up just one day over last year. The inventory of homes being sold, statewide, dropped from roughly 23,000 in April 2011 to just over 21,000 this year.

(Pat Curtis/Radio Iowa)

Corn planting moves ahead to 90%

Ag/Outdoor

May 15th, 2012 by Ric Hanson

Warm, dry weather pushed planting way ahead this past week. The latest U-S-D-A crop report shows corn planting move ahead by 26 percentage points statewide with each district of the state increasing at least 19 percentage points. Corn in the ground now sits at 90-percent complete, ahead of last year’s 85-percent and the five-year average of 79-percent. West-central Iowa producers lead the way for corn planting with 96-percent complete. Fifty-five percent of the corn crop has emerged, which is six days ahead of normal. Soybean planting is not far behind according to the report, which says nearly one-third of the expected soybean crop went into the ground last week. The soybean planting is 39-percent complete, just ahead of last year’s 36-percent and the five-year average of 30-percent.

(Dar Danielson/Radio Iowa)

Nat’l. Weather Service forecast for Cass & area Counties in IA: May 15, 2012

Weather

May 15th, 2012 by Ric Hanson

336 AM CDT TUE MAY 15 2012

TODAY…MOSTLY SUNNY. ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS LATE IN THE AFTERNOON. HIGH IN THE MID 80S. SOUTHWEST WIND 5 TO 15 MPH SHIFTING TO THE NORTHWEST 10 TO 15 MPH WITH GUSTS TO AROUND 25 MPH IN THE AFTERNOON. CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS 20 PERCENT.

TONIGHT…PARTLY CLOUDY THROUGH MIDNIGHT THEN BECOMING CLEAR. LOW IN THE UPPER 40S. NORTH WIND 5 TO 15 MPH.

WEDNESDAY…SUNNY. HIGH IN THE UPPER 70S. EAST WIND 5 TO 10 MPH SHIFTING TO THE SOUTHEAST IN THE AFTERNOON.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT…MOSTLY CLEAR. LOW IN THE MID 50S. SOUTH WIND 5 TO 10 MPH.

THURSDAY…MOSTLY SUNNY. BREEZY. HIGH IN THE LOWER 80S. SOUTH WIND 10 TO 20 MPH WITH GUSTS TO AROUND 30 MPH.

THURSDAY NIGHT…MOSTLY CLOUDY. A 20 PERCENT CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS AFTER MIDNIGHT. LOW IN THE LOWER 60S.

FRIDAY AND FRIDAY NIGHT…PARTLY CLOUDY. BREEZY. HIGH IN THE MID 80S. LOW IN THE MID 60S.

Dempster Still Winless But Cubs Beat Cardinals 6-4

Sports

May 15th, 2012 by Ric Hanson

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Alfonso Soriano singled in the go-ahead run in the eighth inning and the Chicago Cubs sent the St. Louis Cardinals to their fourth straight loss at home with a 6-4 victory on Monday night. Bryan LaHair had three hits for the Cubs, including a two-run homer to break a 1-for-14 slump. Chicago’s late rally wasn’t enough to make a winner of starter Ryan Dempster, whose winless streak reached 15 starts dating to last August. Shawn Camp (2-1) allowed one hit in two innings of work and Rafael Dolis worked the ninth for his fourth save in six chances. Jake Westbrook became the latest Cardinal starter who couldn’t pitch deep into the game, allowing four runs on 11 hits in five innings. Of the other four pitchers during this run through the St. Louis rotation, only rookie Lance Lynn lasted six innings. Mitchell Boggs (0-1) took the loss.

Iowa early News Headlines: Tue., May 15th 2012

News

May 15th, 2012 by Ric Hanson

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Police have arrested a 17-year-old boy charged in the slayings of his grandparents in their home in Manchester. Larry Hedlund of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation says police captured Isaiah Sweet on Monday night in a wooded area of Cedar Rapids after a short chase. Earlier Monday, the teen was charged with two counts of first degree murder in the death of his grandparents, Richard and Janet Sweet. Their bodies were found Sunday afternoon when relatives arrived for a Mother’s Day gathering. Police say their grandson had been living with them.

PLATTSMOUTH, Neb. (AP) — Authorities are treating the case of a missing Nebraska woman and her 11-year-old son as a kidnapping but they say there’s no evidence of a crime. Charlotte and Owen Schilling were last seen Thursday morning in the Plattsmouth area, when she checked her son out of elementary school. They haven’t responded to cellphone calls from relatives. Schilling’s vehicle was found Friday near Lake Manawa near Council Bluffs, Iowa. Her cellphone and wallet were in the car. Police say the two were spotted at a Kohl’s department store in Council Bluffs before her car was found. Investigators say they’re proceeding as if the boy was kidnapped, but they don’t believe anyone is in danger and the mother doesn’t face any charges.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — U.S. Postal Service spokesman Richard Watkins says the agency is stalling plans to close 600 urban and suburban postal branch offices and satellite stations. Watkin’s announcement yesterday follows the agency’s decision last week to halt the planned shutdown of hundreds of rural post offices.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is planning his first trip to Iowa since effectively locking up the presidential nomination. The former Massachusetts governor will give a speech today about debt and government spending at Drake University in Des Moines.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The maker of the beef product dubbed “pink slime” by critics says it’s laying off 86 employees from its South Dakota corporate office, and company officials are blaming what they call a “campaign of misinformation.” Beef Products Inc. announced earlier this month it was closing its three plants in Kansas, Texas and Iowa.

New documentary airs on PBS tonight on Iowan Johnny Carson

News

May 14th, 2012 by Ric Hanson

A documentary debuts tonight (Monday) on Iowa native Johnny Carson, who was once the king of late night television. Carson was born in Corning in 1925 and his family moved to Norfolk, Nebraska, when he was eight.

Corning native Johnny Carson

Emmy-winning filmmaker Peter Jones worked for 20 years to get permission to do the documentary. Jones says the two-hour film shows Carson at his best — and his worst.

“America, when they see this, may even love Johnny Carson more because they see he is a flawed man, just as everyone is in various ways,” Jones says. “I think they’ll come away feeling, perhaps, a connection to him in a way they didn’t when he was the host of ‘The Tonight Show.'” Carson hosted the program for three decades, from 1962 to 1992, and he died in 2005.

The documentary includes interviews with 45 individuals and family home movies of Carson’s childhood. Jones says it explores the life, career, complexities and contradictions that were Johnny Carson. Jones first proposed the idea to Carson more than 20 years ago and wrote to him every year, asking for an on-film interview. He says every year he got a letter or call from Carson’s assistant, denying his request.

“In 2003, I wrote my annual letter and received a call at my office from Johnny Carson,” Jones says. “He said, ‘I admire your persistence and style but I’m not going to do anything because I’m going to let the work speak for itself.” Jones says he was finally able to convince the Carson family that Johnny would be forgotten if something was not done to preserve his memory. The documentary, “American Masters – Johnny Carson: King of Late Night,” can be seen tonight at 8 on P-B-S.

(Matt Kelley/Radio Iowa)

Update: no sign of missing woman/child after search of Council Bluffs lake

News

May 14th, 2012 by Ric Hanson

Authorities in western Iowa are now helping with the search for a missing woman and one of her children from eastern Nebraska. The last anyone heard from 41-year-old Charlotte Schilling and her 11-year-old son Owen was last Thursday when Schilling drove to her son’s school and picked him at 10 a.m. The elementary school is located in Plattsmouth, a town on the Missouri River about 20 miles south of Omaha. Plattsmouth Police Chief Steve Rathman says, so far, there no evidence of foul play or suspicious activity.

“It is a mystery at this point,” Rathman says. “Hopefully, with the agencies partnering together, we can get an answer for the family real soon.” Schilling’s husband and their 20-year-old daughter say the situation is “very out of character,” but police say there’s no evidence of a crime. Charlotte’s car was located Friday at Lake Manawa, just south of Council Bluffs. Schilling had been known to fish in the lake. Rathman says Council Bluffs police searched the land surrounding the lake this (Monday) morning.

“In addition, I had the Plattsmouth Water Rescue go down with their boat and sonar equipment and get out on the lake and check in the lake to see if there was any evidence of suspicious activity or foul play. Both of those searches came back negative,” Rathman says. Schilling’s cell phone and wallet were found in the car’s trunk. Rathman says, right now, investigators have few leads.

“We have investigators out doing follow up interviews. We’re looking for any surveillance videos we can find from gas stations, restaurants or fast food places that the mother and son may have visited so we can get a timeline as to when the last time they were seen and where they were at,” Rathman said.

(Pat Curtis/Radio Iowa)