The (podcast) KJAN listening area forecast from Freese-Notis Meteorologist Harvey Freese, and weather data for Atlantic from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson…
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The (podcast) KJAN listening area forecast from Freese-Notis Meteorologist Harvey Freese, and weather data for Atlantic from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson…
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (901.5KB)
Subscribe: RSS
U-S Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is urging the U-S House and Senate Ag Committees to get a Farm Bill ready. Once created, Vilsack says that legislation could be attached to any agreement to avoid the fall off the “fiscal cliff” of automatic tax hikes and budget cuts which loom on January 1st. “That would provide a vehicle for the passage of a food, farm and jobs bill,” Vilsack says. “In order for that to happen, they could not be in a situation where they would ask folks to wait while they crafted and drafted whatever compromises they could reach. They need to do that work now so that when and if there’s a resolution to the fiscal cliff, the farm legislation could be attached to it without delay.”
Vilsack, a former Iowa governor, says it will take a lot of work to get a new Farm Bill ready for the upcoming growing season. “We will do everything we can to move heaven and earth,” Vilsack says. “Once Congress does its job, we will do our job in a timely way. It obviously depends on at what point in time they ultimately get their work done.” The automatic budget cuts that will come with the new year will impact practically every single U-S-D-A program, what Vilsack says would be a disaster.
“That gives me no capacity to manage,” he says. “It’s eight-and-a-half or eight-point-seven percent, whatever it is, across the board, virtually every line item. You can’t transfer. The only way you’re going to deal with it is by reductions in force and that is extraordinarily cumbersome.” Without action by Congress, a series of 500-billion dollars in tax increases and 200-billion in budget cuts will automatically take effect on or around the first day of January, a leap some analysts fear could prompt another recession.
(Radio Iowa)
The U-S Army Corps of Engineers continues to cut water releases from Gavins Point Dam into the Missouri River. Jody Farhat, chief of the Water Management Bureau for the Corps in Omaha, says releases were taken down to 14-thousand cubic feet per second (CFS) over the weekend. “Our inital plan was to hold that just for three days before stepping down to 12 but we’re getting down to the level where some of the water intakes are coming into concern,” Farhat says. “We’ll probably hold the 14-thousand for five or six days, let that decrease get down past those water intakes and see if we are able to make any further reductions after that.”
By comparison, the average flow has been around 38-thousand CFS but during last year’s record flooding, flow rates hit a record of 160-thousand CFS. The current 14-thousand is almost a trickle by comparison. Farhat says low water is causing transportation issues on the Mississippi River, but they can’t really help with that. Several governors, businesses and farm groups are asking Congress and the Corps to boost water levels on the Missouri to help keep barges moving on the Mississippi. “There is a lot of concern about the impacts of this reduction on navigation on the Mississippi River and we’re getting a lot of calls and monitoring that situation,” Farhat says. “In reality, Congress has not authorized us to operate this reservoir system for the Mississippi River, so, we intend to get down to our winter release rate and hold it there, unless something changes.”
Levels of the upstream reservoirs continue to fall. Farhat says that will be a balancing act all winter long. “Most of the reservoir storage is in the upper three, and those are currently between five and 14 feet below normal right now,” Farhat says. “We’ll be moving water between the reservoirs over the winter period and by the start of next year’s runoff season, each of those upper three reservoirs will be between 10 and 12 feet below the desired operating level at the start of a run-up year.” The Missouri River level at Yankton is now 16 feet lower than it was during the record flooding in the summer of 2011.
(Radio Iowa)
TODAY…MOSTLY SUNNY. HIGH AROUND 50. SOUTHWEST WIND 5 TO 15 MPH.
TONIGHT…MOSTLY CLEAR. LOW IN THE MID 20S. SOUTH WIND NEAR 5 MPH SHIFTING TO THE SOUTHEAST AFTER MIDNIGHT.
FRIDAY…PARTLY SUNNY. HIGH IN THE LOWER 50S. SOUTHEAST WIND 5 TO 15 MPH.
FRIDAY NIGHT…RAIN LIKELY THROUGH MIDNIGHT…THEN RAIN AFTER MIDNIGHT. BREEZY. NOT AS COOL. LOW AROUND 40. SOUTH WIND 10 TO 20 MPH. CHANCE OF RAIN 90 PERCENT.
SATURDAY…CLOUDY. A CHANCE OF RAIN IN THE MORNING…THEN A SLIGHT CHANCE OF LIGHT RAIN IN THE AFTERNOON. HIGH IN THE MID 40S. TEMPERATURE STEADY OR SLOWLY FALLING IN THE AFTERNOON. SOUTH WIND 10 TO 15 MPH SHIFTING TO THE WEST IN THE AFTERNOON. CHANCE OF RAIN 50 PERCENT.
SATURDAY NIGHT…MOSTLY CLOUDY. COLDER. LOW IN THE UPPER 20S.
SUNDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY…PARTLY CLOUDY. HIGH IN THE UPPER 30S. LOW IN THE MID 20S.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Dodgers acquired infielder-outfielder Skip Schumaker from St. Louis for minor league infielder Jake Lemmerman on Wednesday. Schumaker hit .288 with 23 home runs and 211 RBIs in 810 games from 2005-12 with the Cardinals, where he had spent his entire career. The left-handed hitter has a .305 career batting average against right-handers.
The 32-year-old Schumaker, from Torrance, Calif., has split time between second base (412 games) and the outfield (389 games) in his career, appearing at all three outfield positions. Last season, he played 61 games at second base, 15 games in center field, 10 games in right field, and one game in left field. He played for the Cardinals’ winning World Series teams in 2006 and 2011. The 23-year-old Lemmerman batted .233 with seven home runs and 46 RBIs in 116 games with Double-A Chattanooga last season.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Jamaal Charles is carrying the football these days with a heavy heart. The Chiefs’ running back was friends with linebacker Jovan Belcher, and helped introduce Belcher to his wife Tiffany’s cousin, Kasandra Perkins. Two weeks ago Saturday, Belcher fatally shot Perkins and then killed himself. Charles hasn’t spoken publicly since the incident, but he’s still turning out big performances on the field. He leads the AFC with 1,220 yards rushing, and his four carries of 40-plus yards this season are tied for second-most in the NFL.That makes Charles a bright spot in a bleak season for the 2-11 Chiefs, who play at Oakland this weekend.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Freshman Mike Gesell was Iowa’s future point guard long before he joined the Hawkeyes. Yet just seven games into what many thought would be a four-year stint, Gesell has moved over in favor of Anthony Clemmons, a fellow freshman. Clemmons has been a revelation as the primary ball handler for the Hawkeyes (8-2).
Clemmons has 21 assists against just two turnovers in three starts, all wins. Clemmons will again start alongside Gesell, for now a shooting guard, when Iowa plays Northern Iowa (6-3) on Saturday in Des Moines in the inaugural Big 4 Classic.
ROME, Ga. (AP) — There’s a new look to the NAIA championship. Morningside, of Iowa, and Marian, of Indiana, will both be playing in the title game for the first time when they face off Thursday night in north Georgia.
Marian founded its football program just six years ago and has reached the NAIA playoffs three times. Now, the Knights are just one victory away from winning it all. Coach Ted Karras Junior says his players have shown “a sense of urgency since we started the program, and this year it came together.”
Morningside (13-0) knocked off defending national champion Saint Xavier of Illinois 47-19 in the semifinals. Perennial power Carroll (Mont.) had appeared in eight of the last 10 championship games — winning six times — but failed to make the playoffs this season.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Governor Terry Branstad says Iowa has some “ancient” mental health institutions that need review. The Gazette reported Wednesday that Branstad says the state should revamp those institutions to deliver services more efficiently. He noted specifically facilities at Cherokee, Clarinda, Independence and Mount Pleasant. Branstad says any review of those facilities would need to be in coordination with affected communities. The governor made the comments during a discussion with state health officials about the 2014 budget.
Lawmakers overhauled the state’s mental health system last session. New legislation creates a regionalized system that coordinates services statewide.
Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa will soon begin implementing its new testing requirements for people seeking to be licensed to teach in the state. The Gazette reports a legislative panel on Tuesday cleared the way for the state Department of Education to begin implementing on January 2nd new rules for teacher preparedness tests.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A second jury has failed to return a verdict in a lawsuit filed against Madison County Sheriff Craig Busch by a former dispatcher alleging sexual harassment. Kathryn Frank originally filed a lawsuit in 2005 against the county, then-sheriff Paul Welsh, and Busch, who was a deputy. The county settled the case, paying Frank $60,000. After Busch became sheriff in 2009, Frank claims he retaliated against her. But in this suit jurors were dismissed Monday after they could not reach a verdict.
CLINTON, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa man is seeking more than $300,000 from the state after a county judge ruled he was wrongfully imprisoned for more than five years for a sexual assault he didn’t commit. David DeSimone of Clinton filed a claim yesterday with the State Appeal Board.
MANCHESTER, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say they’ve captured a man in Indiana who escaped from a county jail in northeast Iowa. The Delaware County Sheriff’s Office announced yesterday that Timothy Reynolds was captured in Lafayette, Indiana. Reynolds escaped from the Delaware County Jail in Manchester, Iowa on November 18th.
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