With KJAN News Director Ric Hanson….
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The podcast weather forecast for Atlantic and the KJAN listening area from Freese-Notis, and weather information specifically for Atlantic….
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Girls Team Standings:
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COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) – Vandalism and a fire at a Council Bluffs house are being investigated as a hate crime. Firefighters were sent to the home about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, and they put out flames that had engulfed a bedroom there. No injuries were reported.
Kevin Durham and Shelly Owens were gone and their children were at school when the fire occurred. The couple say the house had been vandalized and racial slurs had been spray-painted several times on the walls. Durham is black; Owens is white.
Council Bluffs police Sgt. David Dawson confirmed that the incident is being investigated as a hate crime.
Iowa is involved in four of 33 Conservation Innovation Grants announced Tuesday by U-S Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. Vilsack, the former Iowa governor, said during the announcement that the Natural Resources Conservation Service is already doing a good job in instituting conservation projects. Vilsack says “One of the critical components though for us maintain our edge in conservation is for us to continue to be innovative, and innovation will be key to managing the capacity to manage and adapt to climate changes,” Vilsack says. “It will be key for us to continue to learn and expand on our soil health campaign. It will be the foundation upon which our ecosystem market effort will be built. And it obviously is critically important to water quality.”
Vilsack highlighted one of the grants that involves Iowa. It’s for the multi-state Conservation Technology Information Center. “Which is really going to focus on providing information to expand on the benefits that cover crops can provide. The economic benefits to landowners, the environmental benefits that can accrue,s well as the crop production and ag management benefits that accrue from cover crop production,” Vilsack said.
Cover crops can be grasses or small grains that are planted between the primary crop production times to protect the soil. Researchers from Iowa will use the 482-thousand dollars given to the center along with those from Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota and South Dakota. “This award will basically fund roughly a thousand acres that will help us hopefully dispel some of the myths that may be in the countryside that have discourage producers from focusing on cover crop production,” according to Vilsack.
A companion project at the University of Tennessee will take a longer-term look at the impact of cover crops. Iowa State University received a grant of 485-thousand-850 dollars to study different mixes of cover crops and how they can use up excess nitrogen in the soil. Iowa will also be involved in a Environmental Defense Fund project that won 992-thosuand-dollar grant to study how to decrease nutrients that run into the Mississippi River, the Western Lake Erie Basin and elsewhere.
The final Iowa project involves the Women, Food and Agriculture Network’s effort to increase soil health practices among women who own farmland. Vilsack said each of the projects will provide valuable research. “This is going to be important information that we’ll obtain from these innovative grant recipients. And will help to educate and assist us in the future in terms of conservation program,” Vilsack said.
The innovation grants were created in the 2008 Farm Bill, and Vilsack said it is important that Congress take action to pass a new Farm Bill to ensure these types of programs continue.
(Radio Iowa)
Voters across the State went to the polls Tuesday (9/10/13) to cast their ballots in the 2013 School Board elections. Among the area contested races:
In Cass County, incumbents Kristy Pellett and Josh McLaren were re-elected to the school board in the Atlantic Community School District. Both beat out challenger Bob Reilly for the two At Large open seats on the Board. In the Griswold District, incumbents Steve Baier and Robert Peterson were re-elected to the school board. The men defeated Denise Bridges for the two open At Large seats on the Griswold School Board. Also in Cass County, both Iowa Western Community College levy measures were overwhelmingly approved by the voters.
In Adair County, Megan Kading, Jeff Leonard and Mark Williams were elected to the At Large seats on the Adair-Casey school board. The three won the three open At Large seats in a four way race with Tobin Muller.
In Guthrie County, Deb Douglass defeated two other challengers for the single, open seat in District 2 of the Panorama School District, and Jon Stezel beat challenger Shari Clark in District 4. The winner of the Coon Rapids-Bayard District 1 school board seat was Brenda Schlatter, who beat challenger Kelly Pevestorf 227-to 61. Chad Leighty had a somewhat closer win over challenger Steve Dentlinger in CR-B District 4, 183-to 108.
In Montgomery County, there were no contested races, but voters in the Stanton School District did pass Proposition A by 113 to 6.
In Pottawattamie County, Steve Paul Kock won a two-way race for an At Large seat on the AHST school board, and Lindsay Bentley won a three-way race for a District 5 seat in the Riverside School District. And, in the Walnut School District, Shane Brockhoff and Tom Carroll won a four-way race for two At Large seats on the Walnut School Board.
In Shelby County, the Harlan Community School Board will see no changes after elections Tuesday night. In District 2, Amy Rueschenberg defeated Robert Dickinson 252 to 12 in the only contested race. The Public Measure for the Revenue Purpose Statement for the Harlan Community School District passed 228 yes to 21 no. Sam Hansen and Eric Ramsey won a race against three other contenders for two open At Large seats on the IKM-Manning School Board.
You can see the full results on the News page on our website, at www.kjan.com. Just scroll down and look for the “Sept. 10th 2013 School Board election results.”
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – An Ohio man has been arrested in Omaha after a fatal traffic accident. Omaha police say 30-year-old Evan Shiplett, of Zanesville, Ohio, was arrested on Tuesday evening after he was released from a hospital. He is being held on one count of vehicular homicide.
Police say Shiplett was driving fast when his pickup went out of control and rolled as it left Interstate 480 in eastern Omaha on Friday evening. One of his passengers, 19-year-old Matthew Doty, of Council Bluffs, Iowa, was killed. Another passenger, 18-year-old Jacob Levene, of Neola, Iowa, left the scene but was later taken to a hospital.
Jail records say Shiplett remained in custody on Wednesday morning.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A state official says the 102-degree heat recorded this week in southern Iowa made it the hottest day this late in the year in six decades. State Climatologist Harry Hillaker says the 102-degree heat was recorded Monday at Donnellson and Keokuk. He says the last time a reading that high occurred this late in the year was Sept. 28, 1953, when 100-degree readings occurred across nearly half of the state.
He says that in all, high temperatures have reached 100 or more 109 times in 38 different Septembers. He says most of those winters were followed by less snow than usual, but one was among the coldest and snowiest winters on record. Bottom line? He says, “with hot September weather you always need to be prepared for anything in Iowa.”
Tuesday’s High in Atlantic was 95, just three degrees shy of the record high for Sept. 10th.
Today: Scattered showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 11am. Partly sunny, with a high near 84. Northwest wind 3 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Tonight: Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly clear, with a low around 58. Northwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 81. North wind 5 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph.
Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 51. Northeast wind 5 to 9 mph.
Friday: Sunny, with a high near 74.
Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 52.
Saturday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 72.
Saturday Night: A 50 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 59.
Sunday: A 40 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 74.
Hawkeye 10:
Western Iowa:
Rolling Valley:
Others: