712 Digital Group - top

KJAN News

KJAN News can be heard at five minutes after every hour right after Fox News 24 hours a day!
Keep up-to-date with Fox News Radio, Radio Iowa,  Brownfield & the Iowa Agribusiness Networks!

After 70 years, southwest Iowa woman writes final ‘Up a Country Lane’ column

News

November 27th, 2019 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) — She’s been a staple for housewives and avid readers for nearly seven decades, but 100-year-old Evelyn Birkby is ready to say “goodbye” to her loyal readers. Birkby’s final “Up a Country Lane” column appeared in today’s (Wednesday’s) edition of the Shenandoah Valley News Today. Birkby’s weekly column got its start in 1949 in the Shenandoah Evening Sentinel. “Mr. Archie had put in the newspaper that he wanted a farm wife to write a weekly column,” Birkby says.

Birkby’s husband encouraged her to do it. Birkby’s son, Bob, says his mother got a piece of advice before her first column and heeded that advice through each of her over 3,600 weekly entries. “He said: ‘Always put in a recipe,’ because people loved recipes and she as she began writing, she also realized that she didn’t know how to cook very well,” he says. “She asked a lot of friends and listeners and readers to send recipes and she would test them on her family and so dinner at our house would often be something that we did not recognize because it was something that she was trying out for the first time.”

Birkby grew up in Sidney as the daughter of a Methodist minister. She attended Simpson College and was briefly a school teacher before having children. Over the years, she’s authored columns in unique settings, including frequently bringing her work on family camping trips that spanned the country. “The minute I would get that old typewriter out on my picnic table, here would come neighbors who were camping nearby to find out what I was going,” she says. “Well, if there’s anything that can kill a column, it’s people looking over your shoulder and asking you what you’re up to.”

Birkby says new technology has helped her writing process, as she started out on a manual typewriter. “I made a carbon copy and filed the carbon copies until one day, computers came into my life and I was delighted,” she says. “It was the smallest computer you ever saw and I loved it because now I had a spellchecker!” A decade ago, Birkby began losing her eyesight and her son, Bob, has helped type out her columns. Birkby also has appeared regularly on K-M-A, the Shenandoah radio station — and she’ll continue to make appearances monthly. She plans to keep writing, with her son’s assistance, so she can record some of her favorite memories from the past 100 years.

(Podcast) KJAN 8-a.m. News, 11/27/19

News, Podcasts

November 27th, 2019 by Ric Hanson

More State and area news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

Play

Creston woman arrested Tuesday afternoon

News

November 27th, 2019 by Ric Hanson

The Creston Police Department reports the arrest at around 1:30-p.m. Tuesday, of 34-year old Samantha Hays, of Creston. Hayes was arrested at the Union County Law Enforcement Center, on a Union County warrant for Violation of a Protection Order. She was subsequently released on a Promise to Appear in court.

Man accused of 1979 slaying wants trial moved

News

November 27th, 2019 by Ric Hanson

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A man accused of killing an Iowa high school student almost 40 years ago wants his trial moved out of Linn County. The attorney for 65-year-old Jerry Burns, of Manchester, said in a filing Monday that pretrial publicity made it unlikely Burns could receive a fair trial in Linn County. The trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 10.

Police arrested Burns Dec. 19, 39 years to the day after 18-year-old Michelle Martinko was killed. Her body was found the next day inside her family’s car at a Cedar Rapids mall. She had been stabbed in the face and chest.

A ‘dry slot’ pushed more significant snowfall out of Iowa, into Minnesota

News, Weather

November 27th, 2019 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) — DEEP snow did not materialize in northwest Iowa, but the wind is whipping up the snow that did fall. National Weather Service meteorologist Brad Small says between two and five inches of snow fell north of a Storm Lake to Mason City line. “With these strong winds this morning, it’s produced areas of blowing snow. We have visibilities down to a mile or less across much of these same areas and that’ll continue through the morning hours as these winds don’t die down too much,” Small says. “We’re still looking at gusts of 40-50 miles per hour.”

The storm system that dumped a foot of snow in western Nebraska hit a wall of dry air when it reached Iowa according to Small.”That was some of the impact, what we call a dry slot in meteorology, where some dry area worked in,” Small says, “and that pushed probably the more significant snowfall totals to the north of us, into Minnesota.”

Rain fell in other parts of the state. “There was indeed some thunder,” Small says. “We had some thunder snow in the north and some thunder storms farther south and east, even some severe weather warnings were issued by the Quad Cities office along the Mississippi River, so we had all sorts of weather Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.”

Small is based in the National Weather Service office in Johnston.

Audubon County roads report (11/27)

News, Weather

November 27th, 2019 by Ric Hanson

The Audubon County Secondary Roads/Engineer’s Department reports Audubon county hard surface roads are completely to partially covered this morning. Strong winds are blowing snow and creating areas of reduced visibility. Plows headed out at 6am. They advise give yourself extra travel time this morning, and stay safe out there.

Police capture Ankeny man suspected of kidnapping toddler

News

November 27th, 2019 by Ric Hanson

ANKENY, Iowa (AP) — Police have captured a man suspected of kidnapping a toddler from her mother’s home in Ankeny. Polk County court records say 22-year-old Cato Gephart is charged with kidnapping, child endangerment and other crimes. The records don’t list the name of an attorney who could comment for him. Jail records say Gephart remained in custody Wednesday, pending $100,000 bail.

Court documents say Gephart had texted the mother that he was going to kill her and also said he’d leave the child’s body in a cornfield. Officers made contact with Gephart on Monday night and persuaded him to return to the mother’s home with the child. He did so but then ran from officers. They soon shocked him with a stun gun and caught him.

Dubuque nurse chosen as Iowa’s hero for Iowa Nebraska football game

News, Sports

November 27th, 2019 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) — A nurse from Dubuque who helped save a man’s life in March is Iowa’s hero chosen to be honored at halftime of the Iowa-Nebraska football game Friday. Katie Gudenkauf says it started as she was talking with a friend at an indoor soccer tournament on the Clarke University campus in Dubuque. “We were just about to leave when someone yelled up from the court down below that someone had collapsed. So myself and Becky Noethe went down — she’s a nurse as well,” she says. Jake Tebbe was the player who went down during the game. “Jake was kind of on the sideline and his teammates were around him and they didn’t really know what had happened to him,” Gudenkauf says. “So we kind of looked him over and were looking for a pulse — and neither of us found one — and his teammates started C-P-R.”

She says she asked someone to go get the automatic external defibrillator or A-E-D, and her other friend Ally quickly found it. She used it to shock Jake’s heart two times. “He had a pulse before he left the gym and is doing well now. It’s just wonderful how a good team responds like that. Several people who had medical experience were able to help Jake — just everyone working together,” Gudenkauf says.

The Red Cross takes nominations to honor two people at what’s become called the Hy-Vee Heroes Game. Katie’s two friends put together a video to nominate her for the award. “And I was so surprised that they called me back and I said that this has been chosen,” she says. “I actually hadn’t even heard about this, so I went back in and looked at all the Iowa hero videos. And it’s so cool that they do such a thing to show the good that’s going on.” Gudenkauf is hesitant to call herself a hero because she says it was a group of people with medical training that were able to come together when someone needed them. “It’s hard to say that because I feel like in any situation I would never not help. I am just so glad that Jake is doing so well and that we were all there to be able to help him that day,” Gudenkauf says.

She says she doesn’t watch a lot of football, but is looking forward to traveling to Lincoln, Nebraska Friday to cheer on the Hawkeyes. Gudenkauf was telling her friends Ally and Becky that she found out she was pregnant on that day when they were called down to the field to help Jake. Her son is about ten weeks old now, and she says this is going to be a good story to tell him when he gets older.

511ia.Org Road report early Wed. morning

News, Weather

November 27th, 2019 by Ric Hanson

511ia.org road report (as of 5:07-a.m. today); Light blue – partially covered in snow/slush; Purple – Completely covered in snow w/icy bridges; Green – Normal driving conditions.

Iowa early News Headlines: 11/27/19

News

November 27th, 2019 by Ric Hanson

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:35 a.m. CST

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A storm packing heavy snow and high winds that wreaked havoc as it whipped through western states is marching into the upper Midwest as anxious Thanksgiving travelers brace for a busy holiday week. The wintry storm that left at least one person dead was pushing eastward into South Dakota, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin on Wednesday, while a “bomb cyclone” weather phenomenon was expected to simultaneously topple trees, knock out power and dump snow in California and Oregon.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A state board responsible for enforcing Iowa’s ethics laws for state elected officials and employees and ensuring political campaigns follow the law has named an attorney who was once secretary of the Iowa Senate as its new executive director. The Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board said Tuesday Mike Marshall will provide leadership for the board and serve as legal counsel succeeding Megan Tooker who is leaving the job after nine years.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa-based nonprofit owned and operated by dozens of state lotteries says it is a “private entity” and not subject to the state open records law. The Multi-State Lottery Association said Tuesday that a legal review has determined it does not have to release a copy of its recent legal settlement of a lawsuit that had sought millions of dollars in damages. The group helps run the Powerball game and others

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An attorney says a second patient at a program for Iowa’s most dangerous sex offenders is accusing its former treatment director of encouraging an improperly close relationship. Attorney Jason Dunn says he’s representing Daniel Roe, a convicted rapist who is a patient at the Civil Commitment Unit for Sex Offenders in Cherokee. He says Roe fell in love with Shannon Sanders, an unlicensed psychologist who was the program’s treatment director until September.