The President of the United States and the United States Congress has declared the week of May 14-20, 2017 as National Police Officers’ Memorial Week. Today (Wednesday, May 17th), at 2:00 p.m., the Clarinda Police Department will conduct a memorial service at the Clarinda Cemetery Armed Services Flag Stand/ Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to pay tribute to law enforcement officers who have died in the line of duty.

One hundred and forty-four, federal, state and local law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty in the United States and its territories in 2016 according to the United States Department of Justice.

Clarinda Police Department Chaplain Dr. Richard F. Iske will officiate the service. American Legion Sergy Post 98 will provide a 3 volley salute and taps at the service. Clarinda Chief of Police Keith Brothers and his staff cordially invites you to attend the memorial service and pay tribute to those law enforcement officers who have given their lives in the line of duty.

In the event of inclement weather the memorial service will be cancelled.

The Atlantic City Council will meet in a regular session beginning at 5:30-p.m. at City Hall. Among the items of discussion and possible action, allowing certain types of poultry to be raised within the City Limits. During the Council’s last meeting, Atlantic resident Jillian Scarf presented a proposal to amend the City Code or Ordinances, which currently bans keeping poultry in town.

Since then, the Community Protection Commission has met and discussed the matter. They voted 2-to 1 in favor of amending the ordinance, which defines the “Keeping of livestock.” City Administrator John Lund said at the CPC meeting, that he’s spoken with officials in Red Oak, Shenandoah and Harlan. The latter does not allow chickens at all. Shenandoah is nearly identical to Atlantic, and Red Oak allows chickens, but only with a permit issued by the City Administrator, and with certain requirements in place. Following the discussion, the Council will hear again from Jillian Scarf, who is expected to request two hens and one cockerel be allowed on her private property.

In other business, the Council will hold the first and final reading of an Ordinance amending the Code, that allows the sale of fireworks beginning in mid-June, but limits when they can be used to the hours of 6-p.m. until midnight on July 4th, and from dusk New Year’s Eve until 12:15-a.m. New Year’s Day. In a letter to the Council, Atlantic Fire Chief Mark McNees said in-part, “I am concerned that there are no buffer zones for certain areas I would like to see included. In particular around school buildings and assisted living facilities such as the ANRC or Allen House etc. I would like to see at least a 300 foot zone around them to try and protect them from aerial devices that could cause a fire.”

McNees said also, “Even though I would prefer the use [of fireworks] to be banned I realize the enforcement issue reality. With that in mind I grudgingly urge that the allowable hours be reviewed from what is proposed. If fireworks are only allowed on the 4th from 6 to 12 a.m., then it will concentrate the activities and responses IF everyone follows the law. Having said that, we know that won’t happen. I think its reasonable to assume people will be shooting them off all day on the 4th and for days around it as well. Perhaps extending the hours on the 4th would help the police and possible the fire dept . I will guarantee the 911 center will be inundated with calls beginning in June as people start buying fireworks and shooting them off. People are only going to hear that fireworks have been legalized in Iowa.”

Another order of business for the Atlantic City Council, is the setting of June 3rd, 2017 as the date for a Public Hearing to Amend the FY 2017 Budget, which City Administrator John Lund says is needed to reconcile the current budget with final expenditures, and is a “Routine matter.”

State officials are hiring “an outside expert” to examine the Iowa Department of Human Services after a second central Iowa teenager is found dead in a home which had been flagged over child welfare concerns. Sixteen-year-old Sabrina Ray was found dead in her home in Perry last Friday. The Des Moines Register reports she was adopted and the state had investigated at least two complaints of improper punishment and inadequate food at the day care the girl’s parents ran out of the home.

Last fall, a 16-year-old adopted girl starved to death in her West Des Moines home. Neighbors and school officials had reported the girl was malnourished. The public information officer at the Department of Human Services issued a written statement Tuesday, saying the agency will be taking “a comprehensive review of our child welfare system.” The department’s Amy McCoy also sought to “assure the public” that the D-H-S is committed to protecting vulnerable children.

McCoy also expressed “deep sadness” and said the D-H-S staff had “heavy hearts” over the Perry teenager’s death. Last month the Government Oversight Committee in the Iowa House announced it planned to investigate the child welfare system, but Republicans on the same committee in the Iowa Senate were reluctant to join in.

Senator Matt McCoy, a Democrat from Des Moines, says he was nauseated when he learned another teenager had “fallen through the cracks.” Earlier this year, McCoy convened a few hearings at the statehouse to try to quiz state officials about the starvation death of Natalia Finn of West Des Moines.

(Radio Iowa)

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – A Nebraska man will stand trial next month for the death in northwestern Iowa of his estranged wife. The Sioux City Journal reports 29-year-old Rogelio Morales, of Hubbard, Nebraska, has been ordered to stand trial on June 6 in Woodbury County District Court. The case has been delayed several times as defense attorneys have repeatedly withdrawn from representing Morales.

Morales has pleaded not guilty to killing 21-year-old Margarita Morales on April 19, 2015, in his car near a Sioux City residence. Court documents say Morales told investigators a fight broke out when his wife told him she no longer wanted to be in a relationship and that she was seeing another man.

A crash Tuesday afternoon in western Iowa’s Monona County resulted in one person dying after they were transported to Burgess Hospital, in Onawa. According to the Iowa State Patrol, 92-year old Dr. John Lee Garred, Sr., of Whiting, died from injuries he suffered when the 1997 Cadillac Eldorado he was driving turned in front of an oncoming semi just west of Whiting, at around 4:35-p.m., Tuesday.

The Patrol says Garred, who was not wearing a seat belt, was traveling west on County Road E-24 when he failed to see an eastbound a 2003 Peterbilt semi driven by 60-year old Duane Robert Miller, of Onawa. The vehicles collided at the intersection of Cork Avenue, when Garred went to turn south. Miller wasn’t injured in the crash.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:45 a.m. CDT

PERRY, Iowa (AP) — Police have identified a teen found dead Friday in a central Iowa home. Perry police say 16-year-old Sabrina Ray was found in the home Friday evening. Officials have not released her cause of death, but the Iowa Department of Human Services says the death is being investigated as a child abuse case. The Des Moines Register reports the girl was homeschooled with siblings in the home, which had been monitored by the state following abuse complaints.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A reporter is facing the threat of jail after allegedly violating an order not to take video of “The Bachelor” star Chris Soules appearing in court in his hit-and-run case. Prosecutors are pursuing contempt of court proceedings against KWWL reporter Elizabeth Amanieh in what could be the first such case against an Iowa journalist in decades. They say she violated a judge’s directive by using her cellphone to record last month’s hearing, which her station later aired.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A Nebraska man will stand trial next month for the death in northwestern Iowa of his estranged wife. The Sioux City Journal reports that 29-year-old Rogelio Morales, of Hubbard, Nebraska, has been ordered to stand trial on June 6 in Woodbury County District Court. Morales has pleaded not guilty to killing 21-year-old Margarita Morales on April 19, 2015, in his car near a Sioux City residence.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The FBI and law enforcement agencies around Omaha have teamed over a rash of bank robberies officials believe have street gang ties. Randall Thysse, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Omaha office, says officials are particularly concerned about the violent nature of recent bank robberies around Omaha and Council Bluffs, Iowa. Thysse says of the 42 armed bank robberies in the last 17 months, 33 were similar enough that investigators believe they are related.