More State and area news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.
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More State and area news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.9MB)
Subscribe: RSS
Police in Red Oak this (Wednesday) morning, arrested 56-year old James Scott Malmquist, of Red Oak. He was taken into custody at around 6-a.m. in the 200 block of 3rd Street, for Criminal Mischief in the 5th Degree. Malmquist was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $300 bond.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A former Winnebago Tribal Council member has been given probation for his role in the theft of funds from the Nebraska-based tribe’s casino in Iowa. The Sioux City (Iowa) Journal reports that Travis Mallory was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court in Omaha to three years of probation. He’d pleaded guilty in March to one count of theft of funds belonging to an Indian gaming establishment.
Mallory is one of nine former council members who were accused of a conspiracy to siphon more than $327,000 from the WinnaVegas Casino Resort in Sloan, Iowa. Charges against two of them were dismissed. An FBI investigation determined that while on the tribal council, the members had given themselves raises and bonuses totaling $327,500 directly from the casino without approving them at council meetings.
The 7:20-a.m. Sportscast with Jim Field.
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DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — The National Weather Service has confirmed that a tornado touched down southwest of Dubuque. The service says the twister struck around 10:05 p.m. Monday less than a mile from Dubuque, west of the airport, and lifted after churning only a few hundred yards. No injuries have been reported. The service says the EF1 tornado had winds of around 100 mph. It damaged corn, trees and the roofs of two houses.
The Creston Police Dept. reports a Polk County man was arrested Tuesday afternoon on a Union County warrant. 49-year old Dennis Speed, of Des Moines, was arrested on the warrant for Failure to Appear on the original charge of Criminal Mischief in the 4th Degree. Speed was released from the Union County Jail on a $2,000 bond.
The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.
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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar is continuing her outreach to rural voters with the Wednesday release of a plan for revitalizing less-populated areas of the nation.
The plan is largely an outline of principles and goals, and it includes a broad focus on agriculture reform and investments in rural health care, childcare and small rural businesses. It encompasses some of Klobuchar’s policies or bills she’s worked on as senator — including her proposal to expand student loan forgiveness to farmers and other in-demand occupations, and her plan to invest in rural broadband.
Klobuchar will pitch her policy to Iowans today (Wednesday), when she kicks off four days of campaigning with a visit to a family farm.
AMES, Iowa (AP) — An Ames resident has been accused of showing pornography to girls under the age of 13 while he worked at the Ames Boys and Girls Club. Story County court records say 18-year-old Bobby Chase is charged with two misdemeanor counts of showing obscene materials to minors. Jail records show he remained in custody Wednesday. It’s unclear whether he has an attorney who could comment for him.
The court documents say Chase used his phone Monday to show two girls at the club a few seconds of a naked female on a porn website. Erika Peterson is chief executive officer of the Boys and Girls Club of Story County, and she says Chase has been fired. He was hired in June as a youth development professional.
Police say Peterson shared the allegations against Chase after a parent of one of the girls reported the incident to Peterson.
(Radio Iowa) — An ethanol plant in northwest Iowa suspended production last week and industry officials say it won’t be the last. Ethanol plants in Iowa and across the Midwest are expected to sharply cut back on their production in the coming weeks. DeLayne Johnson, C-E-O of Quad County Corn Processors in the northwest Iowa town of Galva, says the two biggest reasons for the reductions are oversupply and the trade dispute with China. “Tariffs are actually reducing our exports,” Johnson says, “and in addition, the small refinery exemptions EPA has given to Exxon, Shell, Mobil and others is certainly eating into the demand as well, to the tune of 2.8-billion gallons of ethanol and about 1-billion bushels of corn.”
Plymouth Energy in Merrill suspended production last week. That’s one of at least ten ethanol plants nationwide to temporarily shut down. Three others have closed. While recent exports have helped, Johnson says tariffs from two of the nation’s biggest ethanol customers are countering that. “With the tariffs, we’re really not able to move anything into China and that’s potentially as much as a billion gallons a year,” Johnson says. “Also, Brazil, there’s a significant tariff there which they are also a very large client. So, we are really missing two of the largest markets.”
Iowa is the nation’s largest ethanol producer, making a record 4.35-billion gallons in 2018. Johnson says biofuel processors in Iowa and elsewhere will need to change up their operations in the future. “That will be very important as we move forward for people to continue to diversify and get more value out of that kernel of corn,” Johnson says, “or look for synergies with other processing and become true biorefineries where we may be doing multiple things in one company. There’s some plants that are doing that as well.”
The margins for ethanol production in the western corn belt have fallen to a four-year seasonal low while ethanol inventories are at their highest levels in nine years.
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