The (podcast) Freese-Notis forecast for the KJAN listening area and weather data for Atlantic…
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The (podcast) Freese-Notis forecast for the KJAN listening area and weather data for Atlantic…
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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa officials are looking for the next high school student to apply for a special position on the State Board of Education. The governor appoints a student each year to serve as a non-voting student member of the board. The next one-year term begins May 1 and runs through the end of April 2014. The State Board of Education is scheduled to meet more than a dozen times during the term. Most meetings will be held in Des Moines. The junior or senior student must be enrolled in a public high school. Applications are due by Feb. 1st.
A judge in Pottawattamie County sentenced a former Shelby County resident to 20-years in prison for sexually abusing a 12-year old boy in a Council Bluffs hotel room, following a camping trip to Lake Anita. The incident happened 14-years ago. According to the Council Bluffs Daily NonPareil, Judge Greg Steensland found 68-year old Bobby E. Smith, of El Dorado Springs, Mo., guilty on three counts of felony third-degree sex abuse, and one count of indecent contact with a child.
Assistant Pottawattamie County Attorney Dan McGinn said Smith met the boy through First Baptist Church in Harlan, where Smith was a volunteer. The paper says after the boy was unable to come on a church-sponsored fishing trip, Smith offered to take the youth on a separate, non-church-sponsored fishing trip. Together, they went to Lake Anita, and afterward traveled to Council Bluffs. Smith reportedly Smith fondled the victim while enroute to the city, and in a Council Bluffs hotel, where the pair had stayed.
Smith waived his rights to a jury trial. Arguments in his case were heard by the judge in November.Prosecutors had asked for a 32 year sentence – 10 years for each sex abuse count and two for indecent conduct, but both they and the victim said they were happy with the judge’s decision. Smith will be eligible for parole each year of his sentence, and if there’s no trouble while in prison, could be released after a little more than nine-years.
The newspaper says according to the Shelby County Attorney’s Office, Smith moved to Harlan in 1983 and lived there at the time of the alleged assault. He moved to Missouri in 2008. The man has reportedly admitted to abusing other victims since he himself was a child, but no other victims have come forward.
State Climatologist Harry Hillaker is reporting 2012 was Iowa’s third hottest year on record. The statewide average temperature through the year was 51.9 degrees. That was 3.8 degrees above normal, but just over one-degree cooler than 1931, the hottest year ever in Iowa. Nationally, government meteorologists say 2012 was the hottest year on record in the United States with an average temperature of just over 55 degrees. In addition to the heat, Iowa and nearly two-thirds of the country endured a summer-long drought.
Hillaker says 2012 was Iowa’s 19th driest year in 140 years of record keeping. The statewide average precipitation last year was 26.31 inches, nearly 9 inches below normal. The record for Iowa’s driest year was set in 1910 at 19.98 inches of precipitation. Farmers and others who desperately needed rain last summer may find it hard to believe 2012 was only the 19th driest in state history. But, Hillaker notes above normal precipitation was recorded statewide in the months of February, April, October and December. July, meanwhile, was extremely dry and hot.
Hillaker says it the 5th driest July in Iowa history (1st-1936) and the month trailed only 1936 and 1901 for the hottest July in state history. The month of March was the warmest ever, 51.1 degrees on average, besting the previous record set in March 1910 by nearly two-and-a-half degrees. There was yet another unusual weather statistic in Iowa in 2012. You might call it a silver lining of the drought – as there were very few tornadoes.
Hillaker says there were only 16 confirmed tornadoes in Iowa last year and they all happened before the end of May. “Which is pretty amazing considering June is usually our busiest tornado month of the year,” Hillaker said. “That 16 annual total for tornadoes is, at least, our lowest since 1963.” Iowa averages 47 tornadoes per year. A record 120 tornadoes touched down in Iowa is 2004.
(Radio Iowa)
BOYS BASKETBALL
Hawkeye 10:
Western Iowa:
Rolling Hills:
Others:
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Hawkeye 10:
Western Iowa:
Rolling Hills:
Others:
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Ethan Wragge matched career highs with 22 points and six 3-pointers and No. 13 Creighton got off to a blistering start on its way to a 91-61 victory over Drake on Tuesday night. Doug McDermott added 16 points, Jahenns Manigat had 13 and Grant Gibbs 10 for the Bluejays (15-1, 4-0 Missouri Valley Conference), who won their ninth straight game.
Creighton has won 71 straight against opponents .500 or worse, and it was apparent early that the streak was in no jeopardy. The Bluejays, who made a season-high 16 3-pointers, led by 30 points in the first half and by 35 late in the second. Joey King scored 17 points and Jordan Clarke and Micah Mason had 11 apiece for Drake (6-9, 0-4).
An accident Tuesday evening about three-miles southeast of Bayard, in Guthrie County, has claimed the life of one person and resulted in injures to another. The Iowa State Patrol says 85-year old Donald Merle Wetzel, of Guthrie Center, died in the crash which occurred at around 5:40-p.m. on Highway 25, just north of 130th Street. Officials say the accident happened when a northbound 2008 Chevy Impala driven by Wetzel, collided with the trailer portion of a semi driven by 60-year old Duane Eugene Putney, of Stuart, as Putney was backing the semi into a farm drive.
The truck, with its flashers and headlights on, was blocking both lanes at the time of the crash. The car came to rest directly under the trailer portion of the semi, in the northbound lane of Highway 25. Wetzel was pronounced dead at the scene. Putney was transported by Guthrie Rescue to the Guthrie County Hospital. Both men were wearing their seat belts.
Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Police have charged a Cedar Rapids teenager with two counts of vehicular homicide in connection with a wrong-way crash that killed a woman Nov. 18. The Gazette reports the case against 17-year-old Chase Goers was transferred to adult court. Authorities say Goers’ blood alcohol content was nearly twice the legal limit to drive.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A group of investors interested in building a casino near Cedar Rapids want to schedule a vote in early March. The Gazette reports the Vote Yes Linn County group has gathered more than 16,000 signatures to prompt a special election on the $80 to $100 million casino. County supervisors will meet today to set a voting date.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa State Patrol is putting logos and emergency light bars on previously unmarked cars in an effort to increase its presence. The Gazette reports the administrative change was ordered by Department of Public Safety Commissioner K. Brian London.
ANKENY, Iowa (AP) — Police say a central Iowa couple and a boy face gun charges in connection with the September shooting of another boy. Ankeny police arrested the man and woman and the woman’s 12-year-old son yesterday. Police found the victim, also 12, with a gunshot wound to the head. He survived.
Three people were arrested Monday, in Atlantic. In a report released Tuesday, officials said 36-year old Ezra Sedina, of Atlantic, was arrested for Violating a No Contact Order. And, 22-year-old Francis Kirchner along with 21-year-old Samantha Massa, both of Grant, were taken into custody. Each was charged with 4th Degree Theft/shoplifting.
Sedina and Kirchner were booked into the Cass County Jail and held pending an appearance before the magistrate, while Massa was cited and released from custody, with orders to appear in court at a later date.
The Harlan Community School District saved over $2 million in expenditures in 2012. In a regular board of directors meeting held Monday, the district received their good news from the annual audit report. Superintendent Justin Wagner said the main thing is the district was under budget.
“Financial Solvency is something that people can understand as school financials are extremely complicated. Our financial solvency ratio was 19.9 and this year increased to 29.1 and we knew it would for two reasons, property value evaluation went up and even though we reduced our levy to almost under $3 we knew our financial solvency will go up.” He said the district budgets conservatively which is why they saw the savings.
“In addition it is funny numbers because the state doesn’t tell us what our budget is going to be so our budget is projections. We budget conservatively because we remember what happened 5 years ago. Let’s say for example zero allowable growth and the state comes in and says no you get 2 percent. That makes it tricky. I want people to understand we are going to budget conservatively.” Wagner said “We are going to be aggressive educationally but budget conservatively and that’s why we see these great numbers.”
In other business, the board approved the purchase two new buses from Thomas Inc. for $161,260. The district has 22 buses. The two which are being replaced have over 200,000 miles on them. Wagner said during the meeting the district had already budgeted for the buses and will be paid for by PPEL. The board also approved the modified allowable growth for increasing enrollment funding. The district has seen an increase in enrollment which is why the district had a chance for allowable growth. Wagner called it a good problem to have and is a lot like a credit card limit where the district has a chance to spend money when they need to but no necessarily going to.
(Joel McCall/KNOD)
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