(Radio Iowa) – A bill to make it legal for Iowa distillers to ship spirits like whiskey and vodka directly to customers in Iowa and other states has cleared initial review in the Iowa House, but that may be as far as it goes in the 2022 legislative session. Under current law, Iowa wineries may ship their products via FedEx, but distilleries cannot. Representative Megan Jones of Sioux Rapids is sponsoring the bill on behalf of Century Farms Distillery in Spencer, which is making whiskey from corn raised on local farms, including hers. “We are having problems being able to get this product into the hands of people who want to keep it as a family memento…so this is an attempt to do that,” Jones says.

Marquas Ashworth is an entrepreneur who’s making Ziyad Rye Whiskey in Des Moines, which is being sold in 500 stores in seven states. “In order to ship nationwide what we have to do right now is pay someone in Florida, ship the stuff, wait for it to ship from there to our consumers,” he says. “…Especially for someone like me — I have over 200,000 social media followers — I could probably sell 5000 bottles a month.”

A legislator who gave the bill the green light to get it out of subcommittee indicated the bill needs more work before he’d agree to letting it advance farther. Distributors object to the bill. David Adelman, a lobbyist for the Iowa Wholesale Beer Distributors Association, says the guardrails in current law exist for a reason. “We’re not selling Doritos or corn flakes,” Adelman says. “We’re selling hard alcohol and this is a dangerous, highly-regulated product.”

Bill backers say Americans are growing used to buying more and more products online, including alcohol. Same-day delivery of beer, wine and hard liquor is allowed under current law, but spirits cannot be shipped via FedEx or other third-party delivery service.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Melanie Petty, with the Frederickson Foundation in Atlantic, reports applications are now being accepted for the 13th Annual Trevor Frederickson Memorial Scholarship. Applications may be obtained from the Atlantic High School guidance office at 1201 E. 14th Street or the Atlantic High School website: www.atlanticiaschools.org.

Up to two $750 scholarships are available to those graduating from Atlantic High School in the spring of 2022. Applicants must plan to attend a college or vocational school, show involvement in school and/or community activities, supply a copy of their college acceptance letter, provide two letters of reference along with their 7 semester transcripts, and maintain academic achievement of 2.5 or better. The scholarships will be awarded at the Atlantic High School Class Night held in May.

Trevor Frederickson

Trevor Frederickson graduated from Atlantic High School in 2006. He went on to further his education at Southwestern Community College in Creston where he studied automotive mechanics and played baseball for the Southwestern Spartans. Two additional $750 scholarships will be available for Southwestern Community College students this fall. Trevor, who passed away in 2009, had plans of pursuing a career in law enforcement and returning to his hometown of Atlantic. Melanie Petty, who is Trevor’s mom, says “Anyone who knew Trevor, knew he valued family, life and community. Trevor continues to live on in our hearts and minds. To this day, Trevor is still giving back to the community he loved to be a part of.”

Funds for the scholarships are raised at an annual golf tournament. Plans are already in the works for the 14th Annual TFred Memorial Golf Tournament to be held on Saturday, June 18th, 2022. Organizers look forward to another successful tournament so they can continue to grant scholarships for many years to come.

(Harlan, Iowa) – The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office reports, that an incident that began in Omaha earlier in the day, Saturday, culminated with a chase and the eventual arrest of four suspects. The Sheriff’s Office says at around 11:20-p.m. Saturday, Shelby County Deputies assisted multiple agencies in pursuing a vehicle from an armed carjacking in Omaha, NE. When the vehicle ran out of gas in Panama (IA), four persons fled from the vehicle. With the assistance of multiple agencies as well as Omaha Police Department Helicopter “Able-1,” all four suspects were taken into custody, after a short search of the area. One individual had minor injuries while attempting to elude law enforcement on foot.

Omaha Police Department Public Information Officer Michael Pecha tells KJAN News, the suspects included two 15-year-old males, a 14-year-old male and a 16-year old female. Their names were not released because of their ages. Pecha says at around 3:10-p.m., Saturday, Omaha Police were dispatched to Immanuel Hospital at 6901 N. 72nd Street, to relieve two other officers who were investigating a carjacking. A 32-year-old woman from Omaha said she was driving a 2007 Toyota RAV 4 owned by a 37-year-old man from Omaha.

As the woman was getting out of the SUV, she was approached by an unknown person who pepper-sprayed her before grabbing her keys to the vehicle. The unknown suspect took off in an unknown direction of travel.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican, is hesitant to criticize actions taken by the Republican National Committee last week against two Republican members of the U-S House. The two were condemned and censured for serving on the House panel investigating the January 6th insurrection at the U-S Capitol. Grassley was asked if he agrees with the R-N-C’s resolution. Grassley says, “I believe in what we call the ‘big tent policy,’ that our national committee should be working hard to get Republicans elected.”

The R-N-C resolution focused on G-O-P Representatives Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois. Grassley says he doesn’t concern himself much with the R-N-C’s actions. “What they did, I haven’t studied, because I’m focused on issues that Iowans raise with me at my county meetings,” Grassley says. “I don’t hear anything about the RNC at my county meetings, either about this or anything else.”

Grassley says the issues he’s hearing Iowans care about include: prescription drug costs, cattle prices, inflation, and border security. The week after the storming of the Capitol, Grassley told Radio Iowa, “What happened on Wednesday…that sort of insurrection is untenable.” The R-N-C referred to the January 6th attack as “a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.” Grassley offered a brief comment when asked to respond to whether the incident was “legitimate political discourse.” “You and I both know that breaking into any federal building is a crime,” Grassley says.

The insurrection caused one-and-a-half million dollars damage to the Capitol, leaving seven people dead, 140 law officers injured and more than 700 people being prosecuted, including at least seven Iowans.

Atlantic, Iowa) – The Cass County Board of Supervisors have approved the appointment of Cameron Ward as Cass County Sheriff’s Deputy. He’s scheduled to start Wednesday, Feb. 9^th. The Board’s action came during their meeting this (Tuesday) morning, in Atlantic. Ward comes to the Sheriff’s Office from the Atlantic Police Department, where he was a Sergeant.

He was sworn-in as a Police Officer in January, 2017, and promoted to Sergeant in July, 2020. Ward comes from a family of law enforcement officers. His father was an Omaha Police Officer for 27 years, retired, then went back to law enforcement as a school resource officer.

Back row: Cass County Sheriff Darby McLaren introduces Cameron Ward as his choice for Sheriff’s Deputy.

In other business, the Cass County Supervisors set February 28^th as the date for a public hearing with regard to a “total maximum property tax dollars” resolution. In his report to the Board, County Engineer Trent Wolken said work continues on 700^th Street Bridge #280, a dirt road south of the pavement.

Wolken and the Board discussed and approved a project agreement with Adair County, with regard to the paving of about one-quarter of a mile of G-61/Victoria, two-miles west of N-51.

The agreement is along the same lines as the grading project the County’s accomplished last year.

Cass County’s share of the cost is roughly 10-percent of the total $2.3-million project, or about $210,000. The Board then moved to approve the project plans as presented. The Adair County Supervisors are expected to sign-off on the agreement during their meeting Wednesday morning, in Greenfield.

(Henderson, Iowa) – The Montgomery County Emergency Management Agency reports several area fire departments responded to a large machine shed fire involving multiple vehicles and equipment at 1031 A Avenue, in rural northwest Montgomery County, early this (Tuesday) morning. Officials say the fire occurred within the Henderson Fire District of Montgomery County. The structure is considered a total loss.

Pictures posted on the Montgomery County EMA Facebook page

Agencies on scene included:

(Atlantic, Iowa) – A regularly scheduled meeting of the Atlantic School Board will take place 5:30-p.m. Wednesday (Feb.9), in the Schuler Elementary School Media Center**. On the Board’s agenda is a Special Presentation with regard to the High School Speech Program, and regular reports from building administrators, including Assistant High School Principal/Activities Director Andrew Mitchell, who is expected to report the “Wall of Honor” TouchPro screen is about to be installed in the High School Commons area. You can go to atlantic.touchpros.com, or visit the HS Commons to check on project progress. The Wall of Honor is a “Living project,” with many updates throughout the years. Graphic Design students are helping to make the project come to life.

The Board will vote on approving the resignations and Contract Recommendations. The resignations include:

• Middle School Principal Josh Rasmussen, who has accepted the Superintendent’s position with the AC/GC School District.
• Preschool Bus Monitor Crystal Sunderman
• ELL Paraeducator Rebecca Garcia,
• and Preschool Paraeducator Haley Wright.

Contract Recommendations include:

• Sam Kennedy, School Bus Monitor
• Dennis Johnson, Substitute Car Driver
• Janet Adams, HS Food Service
• Misty Rhodes, HS Paraeducator
• Mika Freerksen, 1st Grade Teacher (2022-23)
• Cambry Miller, Kindergarten Teacher (2022-23), and
• Jenny Madsen, transfer to Washington Special Education Teacher (2022-23).

The Atlantic School Board will also consider Superintendent Steve Barber’s recommendation to provide all employees (Full- or part-time), a stipend based on continuous years of service at the conclusion of the 2021-22 school year. Years of service will be determined by the number of continuous years as a contracted employee (breaks in service or year[s] spend as a substitute employee will not be counted). Payment will be made to staff on Sept. 1, 2022. (See the stipend amounts below):

• 1- (partial included) to 4-years experience, $1000
• 5-to 9-years of experience, $1,250
• 10+ years of experience, $1,500.

Providing a retention stipend is an allowable use of the ESSER funds, and is a way to recognize staff for their continuing employment with the district, in light of a shortage of persons available to the various district positions. The Board will also act on approving the purchase of 50 MacBook Pros for High School teaching staff. Their current computers were purchased for the 2014-15 school year. And, the Board will act on a Resolution authorizing the Bid Letting and setting the date for a Public Hearing, with regard to the HS south parking lot improvement project, which is expected to cost $552,500. Funds for the project will come from the PPEL/SAVE accounts. The final drawings and design for the project will be sent out to prospective bidders on Feb. 9th, with a one-month deadline to submit bids.

**This board meeting will be streaming live on YouTube at the following link: https://youtu.be/i7DLZniuKOI

This year marks the 50th anniversary of an eastern Iowa camp that serves thousands of Iowans of all ages with special needs, Camp Courageous in Monticello. To benefit the non-profit camp, executive director Charlie Becker says he’s parting with one of his prized possessions: a bright red 1971 Volkswagen van. “In honor of Camp Courageous’ 50th anniversary, we donated that to the camp,” Becker says. “It’s a 50-year van given to a 50-year camp to be raffled off.”

The van has a long history and was recently trucked back to Iowa from California for a new paint job and a complete overhaul, inside and out. Becker says the V-W has 87-thousand original miles. “It’s in beautiful condition,” Becker says. “The person that had it before me used to drive it every day to work and it is in pretty close to mint condition.” The raffle will be held in December and tickets are 100-dollars each. Becker says when the camp first opened in 1972, it only was able to serve 211 Iowa campers. “Right before the pandemic, we were right up just short of 10,000 campers,” Becker says. “We were breaking all the records and then the pandemic hit so we were still serving campers, but in a whole different way.”

Last year, about 38-hundred Iowa campers were served in various ways, and last month, a group of them visited Walt Disney World in Florida. The V-W will be on display at the camp and at some events this summer. For details on the raffle, visit: www.campcourageous.org.

(Radio Iowa) – Weather experts are still studying the powerful derecho that hit Iowa two months ago and they’ve determined the wind storm spawned a record number of tornadoes in several categories. Rod Donavon, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Johnston, says that single storm spun off more than five-dozen twisters, a startling number, especially in one day. “We have verified 63 tornadoes across Iowa for the December 15th event, which is actually a daily record of tornadoes for Iowa,” Donavon says. “We’ve been doing a lot of work, checking out anywhere anybody’s had damage. We even used high-resolution satellite data to help track down all of these tornadoes.”

One person in eastern Iowa was killed in the December 15th storms, which caused extensive damage in multiple Iowa counties. Donavon says there’s an unusual coincidence with the two previous dates for single-day tornado records in Iowa. “Number-two was actually August 31st of 2014 when we had 35 (tornadoes) and I’ll add into that number-three was April 11th of 2001 when we had 28,” Donavon says. “When you combine the previous top two, that actually equals 63, which is the number we had on December 15th.”

Not only did December 15th set a single day record for tornadoes in Iowa, it set a record for the most tornadoes in a month.”Our previous multi record was 57 from back in May of 2004,” he says. “So it even eclipsed the monthly record.” The December 15th storm set yet another record for the highest number of E-F-2 tornadoes in a single day — at 21. The storm was the second derecho to hit Iowa in recent years. The first tore across the state on August 10th of 2020.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Congressman Randy Feenstra says Congress needs to work towards a balanced budget to get the nation’s economy back on track, but the 4th district Republican says that is proving difficult: “You have to have what we have in Iowa — a 99 percent spending limit — and yet the Democrats, they want to add another three to five Trillion dollars to our debt, even adding more cash to the system,” Feenstra says. “And that’s what boggles my mind. Who are their economists? Who thinks this is right? Even the Federal Reserve…are saying this is not the right way to do this.”

Feenstra says the talk of the federal reserve raising interest rates won’t fix the problem. He says we have traditionally kicked up interest rates when there is inflation — but he says that also kicks up the interest rate on our Trillions of dollars in debt. “So all of a sudden you create a debt spiral — and that’s why we are in such a serious situation right now in our country,” he says. The Republican from Hull says there is no leadership being shown by President Biden or majority democrats to address the nation’s inflation: “Everybody is just asleep at the wheel right now when we’ve got these big issues. And we’ve got to have strong leadership — but that’s not what’s happening right now,” Feenstra says.

He says it’s frustrating being in the minority party in Congress where it’s tough to get any movement on possible solutions to the economic problems facing the country.