WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say firefighters have helped three people from a burning house in Waterloo. The fire was reported a little after 4 a.m. Thursday. Two people who saw the smoke followed it to the home and tried to use a garden house on the flames after they called 911. At least one of the three occupants was taken to a hospital. Their names haven’t been released. The fire cause is being investigated.

Police in Creston report 38-year old KImberly Morgan, of Creston, was arrested Wednesday afternoon, on two Union County warrants charging her with seven counts of Compulsory Education Violation, and Failure to Appear in court on the original seven counts of Compulsory Education Violation. Morgan was being held in the Adams County Jail on a $600 bond.

And, 20-year old Jordan McElroy, of Creston, was arrested Wednesday night for Domestic Abuse Assault by impeding blood or air flow. McElroy was being held in the Union County Jail, while awaiting a bond hearing.

Red Oak Police report two juveniles were arrested at around 2-p.m. Wednesday, for Criminal Mischief in the 4th Degree. Authorities say several ceiling tiles in the High School boys restroom were destroyed and taken down from the ceiling. Officials said “The two juveniles had no right or privilege to destroy the property,” that was valued at about $450. The youth were cited into juvenile court and released to the custody of their parents.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Prosecutors have filed a murder charge against a man suspected of breaking into a suburban Des Moines home and stabbing a resident. Court records say 19-year-old Magai Anai-Kur, of Des Moines, also is charged with burglary, robbery and theft. The murder charge approved by a Polk County district judge Tuesday replaced a charge of attempted murder that was filed before 77-year-old Robert Howe died in January. Police say he was stabbed on Sept. 3 when Anai-Kur broke into Howe’s Urbandale home and then stole Howe’s minivan.

The Atlantic Community School District’s Board of Education discussed but took no action on, the 2018-19 School Calendar. The discussion was held during the Board’s regular monthly meeting, Wednesday evening, at the High School. Superintendent Steve Barber said a committee was formed and two calendars were provided to staff in each of the District’s buildings, for feedback. Barber said there were some challenges, given that the first allowable start date is Aug. 23rd, 2018, the final day for school using the current calendar would be the Friday before Memorial Day. 20 instructional hours were missed on the current calendar to date, due the weather, with total being 1,073. This year, the district will add the 25th as a student day, and other small tweaks to the calendar to meet the requirement. Any additional weather delays will result in the make-up of additional instructional hours.The 2018-19 School Calendar would be different from 2017-18, in that First Semester will have students in school on Dec. 21st. Last year, they did not have school on the Friday before break.

The committee thought having Martin Luther King as a professional development day, was too close to the extended break. They agreed President’s Day would be a better time for Professional Development. The committee calendar discussion also included moving spring conferences to later in the school year, or make sure the P/T Conference is the only activity on two evenings. District staff were split 50-50 with regard to changing the week-long break to an extended break around the time of Easter. By doing that, officials say they were able to increase the number of instructional hours in the schedule to create more flexibility with the hours.

School Board member Kristy Pellett said she was asked recently, “What communication happened with the pre-schools in town, in terms of having the calendars coincide somewhat concurrently with their calendars. Board President Alison Bruckner said the preschools “They just usually tie to our calendar. The biggest impact that they usually do, is conferences. Superintendent Barber acknowledged he had not reached out to the YMCA or Little Lambs. He said “I didn’t have a conversation with either of those.” Pellett said the concerns were related more to what was going on this year, with schedules not being aligned, that causes transportation issues and so on. Steve Barber said he will take the suggestions back to the committee and see if there are any tweaks that can be made. He and Pellett both admitted, there’s no way to make everyone happy. Pellett said it would be nice to have consistency year-to-year, when possible. A Public Hearing on the 2018-19 School Calendar will be held during the Board’s regular meeting on April 11^th.

In other business, the Board approved Resolutions pertaining to: the 2018-19 Budget Guarantee, in the amount of $217,766; A PPEL (Physical Plant and Equipment Levy) in the amount of $152,452, or .33-cents per thousand dollars assessed valuation, and, a 2018-19 Fund Transfer of $8,000, from General to Activity, for Protective Equipment.

A proposed ban on abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy is scheduled for debate in a House committee today (Thursday). The abortion ban has been attached to another bill that would make it illegal in Iowa to sell or donate fetal tissue from abortions for use in medical research. Representative Shannon Lundgren, a Republican from Peosta, is guiding these merged measures through the House. “This was not a bait and switch,” Lundgren said. “The senate sent us a bill over for us to debate. We just chose to add it on to this bill.”

In late February, Republicans and the lone independent in the state senate approved a bill that would make it a crime for doctors to perform an abortion after the sixth week of a pregnancy. The plan to be considered in a House committee today does not include criminal charges for doctors. Leah Vanden Bosch was among those who testified yesterday (Wednesday) during a hearing on the new abortion ban.  “Do not let us go back to back-alley abortions, because that is exactly where this bill will take us,” Vanden Bosch said. “I would have done absolutely anything to terminate my pregnancy.”

Tamara Scott, state director for Concerned Women for America and a lobbyist for the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, spoke in favor of a six-week abortion ban. “This is about the physical health and well-being of our fellow Iowans in the womb who don’t deserve to be discriminated against,” Scott said.

Iowa’s current law — enacted last year — bans abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy.

(Radio Iowa)

Republicans on a state senate committee have advanced a plan that would save Iowa-based telecommunications companies nearly 30 million dollars in property taxes each year. The plan changes the way land lines, telephone poles and other property owned by cable and phone companies is taxed. Republican Senator Randy Feenstra of Hull says the current, centralized system for property tax assessments is “archaic.” “When you have a lot of telecommunications companies that don’t have any physical presence in our state and they don’t pay any taxes and yet you have small, telecommunications companies that are in our communities and they pay significant (property) tax,” Feenstra says, “we’ve just got to figure out some parity.”

Democrats like Senator Herman Quirmbach of Ames say now is not the time to reduce the amount of property taxes cities and counties may collect. “I mean, our local governments are already struggling,” Quirmbach said, “and I think it’s really unfair to them.”

The Iowa Association of Counties and the Iowa League of Cities are registered as undecided on the bill, however. Supporting the bill are CenturyLink, the state’s rural telephone cooperatives, the city-run telecommunications utilities and the Iowa Association of Business and Industry.

(Radio Iowa)