Jim Field visits with Sara Slater of Audubon County Tourism about the Community Visioning idea unveiling during Operation T-Bone this weekend.
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Jim Field visits with Sara Slater of Audubon County Tourism about the Community Visioning idea unveiling during Operation T-Bone this weekend.
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The 7:20-a.m. Sportscast with Jim Field.
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SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A judge intends to announce his verdict Thursday in the slaying of two people in Sioux City. Woodbury County District Court records say the verdict will be handed down to 19-year-old Tran Walker, whose non-jury trial ended in May. He’s accused of killing 17-year-old Paiten Sullivan and 18-year-old Felipe Negron Jr. Police say Walker was in a car with the other two on Jan. 28 last year when he stabbed Sullivan and then Negron when he tried to intervene.
A friend of Walker testified that the defendant said he had wanted to talk to the girl about their breakup and that he needed closure. Sullivan’s stepmother, Stevie Sullivan, testified that Walker and Sullivan broke up because he didn’t want her to finish school.
The Creston Police Department reports 24-year old Tyler White, of Creston, was arrested at around 1:30 this (Wednesday) morning. White was taken into custody at the Union County Law Enforcement Center (LEC) on a charge of Theft in the 2nd Degree. His bond was set at $5,000. Two people were arrested on separate charges Tuesday, in Creston: 28-year old Dillon Savage, of Lorimor, was arrested on a Dept. of Corrections warrant for Violation of Parole. Savage was being held without bond in the Union County Jail; and, 19-year old Joel Blazek, of Creston, was arrested at the Union County LEC on a Union County warrant for Theft in the 5th Degree. He was later released on $300 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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(Radio Iowa) — Governor Kim Reynolds says she’s not ready to reveal details of the “new direction” she is seeking in the largest agency in state government. Reynolds, who asked the director of the Department of Human Services to resign last month, says welfare reform is part of the discussion. “We’re going to look at everything. I’m not going to specifically start to point things out,” Reynolds said. This past February, Reynolds said the state cannot afford to pay welfare benefits to able-bodied adults who do not have children to stay at home. Some of the governor’s fellow Republicans in the legislature say welfare reform will be a priority issue next year. On Tuesday, Reynolds said she wants to encourage welfare recipients to enter the workforce with a “carrot instead of a stick” approach. “If we can help provide them the support system them need, help provide them the skills, match them up with an employer,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds held a news conference Tuesday morning, to tout a state website that was redesigned in June and currently lists 80-thousand job openings in the state. “Any time or any way we can get information out to Iowans who are looking for an opportunity to have a better career and a better quality of life in Iowa, we should do that on all fronts,” Reynolds said. Reynolds later reviewed with reporters the reasons she has given for dismissing Department of Human Services director Jerry Foxhoven. Foxhoven has said he was asked to resign after raising concerns about having agency money pay the salary of a staffer in the governor’s office. Reynolds disputes that. “I want to be clear,” Reynolds told reporters. “He never raised any concerns to me or my office about anything.”
Reynolds says the practice of financing governor’s staff salaries with funds legislators set aside for state agencies dates back to the 1970s when Robert Ray was governor. Reynolds says a few state agencies are checking to ensure state rather than federal funds are being used to pay some of her staff. Reynolds has declined — as she did again today — to list the reasons she asked Foxhoven to resign. “I don’t believe that the agency is where it should be and I think that we can do better and because of that, I’ve made the decision to go in a different direction and that’s what we’re doing,” Reynolds told reporters.
Reynolds says she’s looking for someone with new ideas to lead the Department of Human Services — someone who’s provided “transformational change” in a previous setting.
(Radio Iowa) — A delegation of Iowa soybean growers is in Asia, meeting with agricultural leaders in the key trading nations of China and Japan. Iowa Soybean Association C-E-O Kirk Leeds says the visit comes at a time when trade between the U-S and China is at a near stand-still and it’s had a dramatic impact on Iowa soybean growers. The Iowans visited three cities in China in recent days. “We were there with a small group of soybean farmers to touch base with some of our customers, at least our previous customers, to remind them that we still have plenty of soybeans to sell and these are high quality soybeans,” Leeds says. “We look forward to an opportunity to resume our exports of soybeans on a significant scale in the hopefully not-to-distant future.”
Leeds says he’s hopeful something positive can come out of the upcoming talks between the U.S. and China. “Farmers in Iowa and across the country have been on a kind of yo-yo here the last several months where we think we’re making progress and may be on the verge of some kind of agreement and then things seem to fall apart,” Leeds says. “Hopefully, this is a sign we’re back at the negotiation table and that we’ll see some positive movement.” Before the trade troubles began, Iowa’s top agricultural export was soybeans and soybean products, worth more than $3.3 billion a year. Nearly one-quarter of all Iowa soybeans were shipped to China. The Iowa delegation is now in Japan, which remains one of the state’s top trading partners. “Japan is a very mature market for the United States, at least on soybeans. We’ve been there for almost 60 years,” Leeds says. “The population of Japan is falling rapidly and the economy has been stagnant for about a decade but it’s still an important market for us.”
There is promise Japan may further open its markets to take in more U-S products, including pork, poultry and beef. Leeds says the Iowa delegation will spend the next few days in Japan touring ag facilities and farms, returning to Iowa on Friday.
Atlantic Fire was dispatched at 6:14-a.m. today (Wednesday), to a semi-tractor trailer, tire fire. The semi was located at the 60 mile marker eastbound off ramp from Interstate 80. Firefighter Gene Schmeling told KJAN news the truck driver was trying to extinguish the flames when they arrived on the scene. Crews were on location for about 25 minutes. No injuries or truck damage were reported.
Cass County ISU Extension in Atlantic is offering a hands-on workshop for making and taking homemade jam. Learn how to “Preserve the Taste of Summer!” during a hands-on canning workshop presented by ISU Extension Nutrition and Wellness Specialist Barb Fuller. The workshop is based on USDA-approved food preservation recommendations, so that the food you preserve is not only delicious but safe to store for up to a year. Everyone who attends the workshop goes home with a jar of food and a complete collection of ISU Extension home preservation publications. Cost of the workshop is $35, and pre-registration is required by Thursday August 1st.
Jam Making and Dehydration, will be held from 9-a.m. until 1-p.m. Saturday, August 3rd, at the Cass County Fair Food Stand in Atlantic. Get ready to enjoy the taste of fresh fruit year round with this workshop on making and canning blueberry spice jam. This workshop will prepare you for preserving any type of fresh fruit through hot-water-bath canning or dehydration. All supplies will be provided, including jars, lids, screw rings, and berries.
Register online at http://bit.ly/ptts13409, or stop by the Cass County Extension office to sign up today! All registrations are due by August 1 to ensure supplies are available. Call 712-243-1132 for more information and to register for the class, or visit www.extension.iastate.edu/cass to register online.
In addition, ISU Extension offers a library of publications with recipes and instructions for preserving a wide variety of foods, from fruits and vegetables to pickles and meats. These publications are available as free downloads on the ISU Extension Store at https://store.extension.iastate.edu/, or can be picked up at your local ISU Extension Office.