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.
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DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) – A 19-year-old driver has made a plea deal on charges stemming from a fatal collision during a police chase in Davenport. Court records say Angel Ochoa intends to plead guilty to vehicular homicide, reckless driving and other charges. The records say that in return, prosecutors will drop a charge of vehicular homicide while driving under the influence. The judge is not bound by the agreement. On June 13 an officer tried to stop Ochoa’s car and a chase ensued. Investigators say Ochoa’s car reached speeds of up to 90 mph and ran through several red lights before broadsiding a car, killing Lori Letts.
The 7:20-a.m. Sportscast with Jim Field.
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Statewide, the month of December is normally the third driest month of the year. That was true here in Atlantic, where rain and melted snowfall amounted to just .7” (Seven-tenths of an inch). Normally, we would see 1.11 inches. The most precipitation during December happened on the 28th, when we received .6” rain here at the KJAN Studios. The most snow (.6”) fell on the 15th.
The average High for last month was nearly 41-degrees (40.9), which was 8-degrees warmer than normal. The warmest (and record-setting) day, was on Christmas Day, when we topped out 60-degrees. The average Low of 20 (19.9), was 5-degrees warmer than normal. Our coldest mornings were on the 17th and 18th, when we bottomed out at 9-degrees both days.
During the month of January, our High in Atlantic is typically around 29 (29.4), and the average Low is 9 (9.3). Precipitation (rain and/or melted snow) is normally around .84” (a little more than ¾ of an inch).
The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.
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A man and woman from Creston were arrested Tuesday afternoon on several charges. Creston Police report 45-year old Jennifer Campbell and 55-year old Roger Austin were taken into custody for Child Endangerment, Possession of a Controlled Substance/1st offense, and Possession of Paraphernalia. Both were later released from the Union County Jail on $3,300 bond, each. And, at around 12:45-a.m. Wednesday (Jan. 1st), Creston Police arrested 19-year old Isaiah Jones, of Dallas Center, for OWI/1st Offense. Jones was later released on $1,000 bond.
(7:05-a.m. Newscast)
(Radio Iowa) — New Jersey Senator and 2020 presidential candidate Cory Booker says he hopes the election raises the moral conscience of the country — and he’s cautioning his fellow Democrats not to succumb to tribalism. “The 60 million people that voted for Donald Trump are not our enemy. They are our countrymen and women,” said Booker. “And Understand this…The call of the Democratic Party — the ultimate moral call — is not to beat Republicans, simply. It’s to unite Americans in common cause and common purpose.”
Booker urged a crowd in Shenandoah on New Year’s Day not to get hung up on the policy differences among the Democratic candidates. “Let me tell you a little secret. Whoever becomes your president, is probably going to steal the 90 or 100 policy ideas, platforms that each of us have,” Booker said. “…They better be taking the best ideas from the whole lot to bring them to bear in our policies.” Booker, the former mayor of Newark, New Jersey, says mayors understand how to enact real change with little money. “All the candidates here are really good people, but the next president is going to face impossible problems, and they can’t play by the rules that we are playing by now. They have to think of creative ways to get us out of these situations,” Booker said. “If I’m your president, I am not going to give in and give up on anything.”
Booker campaigned in Creston early Wednesday afternoon and spoke to more than 100 people Wednesday night, in Perry. California billionaire Tom Steyer kicked off a bur tour of Iowa with an event in Council Bluffs on New Year’s Day.
(Radio Iowa) — Iowa Ag Secretary Mike Naig says 2019 could best be characterized as a roller coaster ride for farmers — and not the kind you enjoy. “Certainly trade has impacted markets, we have seen some up and down in terms of renewable fuels policy. And I think the dominant issue for our farmers this year was absolutely the weather and the historic delays in planting and harvest, and really historic flooding,” Naig says.
Naig says there were bright spots too — including some good yields at harvest. “Even though we had historic delays in planting and historic delays in harvest progress — for the most part I’m hearing some pretty good things in terms of corn yields in particular. And beans yields are okay — all things considered,” according to Naig. He says one of the issues that continued in 2019 was the preparation and build up of defenses against animal diseases. “African Swine Fever has been active in China and parts of Asia now since August of 2018 and is very much on the minds of our pork producers. One is to of course keep it out of the United States — keep it out of North America — and two is really heightening biosecurity on farms. So if it were to come to North America that folks could keep it off of their operations.”
Naig says there is hope that the prices farmers get for their goods will increase in the new year. Naig says commodity prices have been below the cost of production or just enough to break even since 2018.”That of course is just not a sustainable situation,” he says. “So, what we’ve needed to correct that is of course to increase demand here and around the world. And also to bring some certainty back to the marketplace.”
Naig hopes the pending trade deals will help with that goal of increasing demand in 2020 and lowering the amount of uncertainty.
OMAHA, Ne. (AP) – A survey report suggests the economy is growing slowly in nine Midwest and Plains states as the U.S.-China trade war continues. The Mid-America Business Conditions index rebounded to 50.6 in December from 48.6 in November. Creighton University economist Ernie Goss oversees the survey, and he says the trade war and the global economic slowdown will be drags on the overall Mid-America economy for the first half of 2020. But he expects overall regional growth to remain soft but positive. Survey organizers say any index score above 50 suggests growth. A score below that suggests decline.
(Radio Iowa) — Recreational marijuana became legal in Illinois Wednesday, and one distributor has set up up a heated tent and a shuttle service in preparation for new border-crossing customers. Nature’s Treatment of Illinois is located just outside of the Quad Cities, in Milan. The store’s Tammy Lafontaine says they’ve already gotten a lot of interest from across the border. “We are expecting a lot, a lot of Iowa residents. I have been fielding phone calls from people saying they’re traveling from the middle of Iowa, they’re renting rooms in Jumers (casino hotel), etcetera. It’s…it’s going to be quite, quite busy here,” Lafontaine says.
Out of state residents will be able to buy half the amount of marijuana that in state-residents can buy. Lafontaine says they’re also trying to warn out-of-state residents about the legal limitations. “It’s still federally illegal. So whatever they’re going to purchase here in Illinois, they need to find a place that they can consume it in and those need to be private residences,” she says. “So if you have friends in Illinois, go to their house, enjoy your cannabis, go back home.”
It is still illegal to use marijuana in public in Illinois, to transport it across state lines, or drive under the influence of the drug.