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

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The Atlantic School Board, during their meeting Wednesday evening, discussed a possible change in the field surface at Trojan Bowl. The options include a natural grass surface, a synthetic field, or sod. Superintendent Steve Barber said they’ve learned since the $9.5-million bond issue passed, that two of those options are problematic, especially when it comes to the 2020-21 football season. Natural turf takes at least a year to establish, so they would need to wait for a whole season to play on the field. Sod costs more, and it doesn’t seat as well after the first season of use, likely resulting a muddy field more than anything.

Board member Keith Swanson asked if it was possible for the football team to play all of their games on the road instead of at the Trojan Bowl while the natural grass grows. The rest of the Board wasn’t receptive to that idea. There’s a $600,000 difference between using natural turf and synthetic turf. Since that would be a change from the original concept when the money was bonded for, if the Board elects to go with that type of turf, they would have to raise money privately to make up the difference, or hope for lower bids once the decision is made. Snyder and Associates Engineer Dave Sturm said they could hope for that…but the bids could be much higher. The $8.5-million dollar construction project, he said, will no doubt attract numerous bids.

There is a group looking to come up with extra funds to help pay for the synthetic turf surface. In-kind contributions from sub-contractors could also help reduce the costs. Superintendent Barber says the School Board needs to make a decision by their next meeting May 8^th. Board President Josh McLaren said if they don’t go after the synthetic turf now, in two-or three-years they’ll probably regret it.

The plan you may recall, also calls for upgrades to the baseball/softball complex, a new parking area at Washington Elementary, a safer unloading and loading area for middle school and Elementary students, and a new synthetic field turf at the high school soccer field and a complete renovation of the Trojan Bowl which initially included a natural grass surface.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Another trial starting date has been set for a 19-year-old in northwest Iowa accused of stabbing to death his ex-girlfriend and another young man. Woodbury Country District Court records say a judge cited scheduling and other problems in setting a new date to begin the trial of Tran Walker. The trial had been set to begin this coming Tuesday. The new starting date is May 2.

Walker’s pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder. He’s accused of killing 17-year-old Paiten Sullivan and 18-year-old Felipe Negron Jr., who both lived in Sioux City. Police say Walker was in a car with the other two on Jan. 28 last year when he began to stab Sullivan because he was upset that she had broken up with him. Police say that when Negron tried to intervene, Walker stabbed him, too.

The Creston Police Department says a woman residing in the 400 block of N. Oak Street, in Creston, reported Wednesday that sometime between 1-and 9-a.m. Wednesday, someone cut the driver’s side rear tire on her vehicle, while the vehicle was parked outside her residence. The loss was estimated at $120. And, a Creston man reported Wednesday evening, that sometime over the course of the past five-to seven-months, someone had attempted to gain entry to his residence in the 500 block of W. Townline Street. Damage to the front and back doors of the home was estimated at $500. It’s not clear if entry into the residence was made.

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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(Radio Iowa) — Figures from the Iowa Association of Realtors show sale prices rose in March while the number of homes sold dropped a little more than 11 percent compared to last year. Association president John Goede says those who sell homes don’t have a lot to complain about. “If you look at our figures this last six years here — we’ve had a little drop in inventory and a little drop in sales made — but actually the last three years, 2016, 2017, 2018, have been like rock stars,” Goede says.  The median sale price for Iowa homes sold in March was up six-point-seven percent compared to last year at 160-thousand dollars. Goede says you have to look at the larger view. “This year’s rate that we have right now — the ten years previous to 2016 — that would have been the high point. So, we have a very, very good year, it’s just coming off an unbelievably stellar year,” Goede says.

Goede, who sells real estate in Spencer, says Iowa’s wage rate has gone up and that has helped the Affordability Index for home buyers. He says to buy a median home you need a median income, and Iowa’s median income is 100 percent more than needed to qualify for a median house. He says our median income is so good that it could actually buy twice the cost of a median priced home. Goede says interest rates remain low too — and that also helps home buyers. He says the drop in sales is also something that has to be seen in the bigger picture. “You know the sales are down….statewide they’re down about 280 homes in total,” Goede says. “That’s less than three a county — so it’s really not a big number — it’s just how statistics can play.”

The number of days a home was on the market before selling dropped by 14 days compared to last year in March. Homes sold in March were on the market for an average of 75 days compared to 89 days last year.

(Radio Iowa) — Republicans in the Iowa legislature have developed a plan they say will bring “transparency” to property taxes. Iowans could check new notices online and in newspapers after the value of local homes, businesses and farms are assessed that show what property tax RATE would be charged if city and county budgets stay the same. Property tax hikes that are greater than two percent would have to be approved by two-thirds of the members of a city council or county board of supervisors. Republicans like Representative Dustin Hite say it means local officials wouldn’t be able to let sizable tax increases automatically go into effect when property VALUES go up.

“When somebody’s property taxes go up — the check to they write to the county treasurer goes up — somebody should have had to vote for that and take responsibility for that,” Hite says. Hite, the former mayor of New Sharon, says this shouldn’t “hamstring” local governments. “What I think it’s going to do is make cities and counties think about what they are doing and think about it in a hard way to make sure that they are only raising those taxes that they think are necessary,” Hite says.

Senator Randy Feenstra, a Republican from Hull, spoke early Wednesday evening just before Republican senators approved the plan. “The bill is all about truth in taxation,” he said. Democrats like Representative Timi Brown-Powers of Waterloo say the bill has changed significantly from its original version and the public has had little chance to examine the final product.  “We went from — in my opinion — a really, really bad bill to, now, a bad bill,” Brown-Powers said.

Senator Pam Jochum, a Democrat from Dubuque, says the bill will make it harder for communities to grow. “I can tell you that in the state of Wisconsin they did something similar a few years ago and listen up rural Iowa, the little towns and villages in Wisconsin are hollowing out,” Jochum said.

If Governor Kim Reynolds signs the bill into law, it would go into effect July 1st of 2020 — impacting the next round of budgeting by Iowa cities and counties.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:38 a.m. CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Republicans in the Iowa Legislature have passed a bill limiting the powers of the state’s attorney general, citing frustration that the Democrat joined lawsuits opposing the actions of President Donald Trump. Attorney General Tom Miller says the bill approved Wednesday makes Iowa the first state to limit the attorney general to such an extreme and he’s not dismissed the possibility of a lawsuit to challenge it.

CHEROKEE, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Republican Steve King says the criticism he has faced from fellow members of Congress over his offensive remarks gives him “better insight” into what Jesus Christ experienced when he was persecuted for his beliefs. The Sioux City Journal reports King was attending a town hall meeting Tuesday in northeast Iowa when someone attending voiced concern about Christianity being persecuted in the U.S. King referenced Christ in talking about facing his “accusers” on the House floor.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds and Democratic congresswoman Cindy Axne were among the 16 state officials to attend the first meeting of a flood recovery advisory board created by Reynolds to help Iowa towns flooded last month. Reynolds invited Axne to be part of the board, which met Wednesday to begin developing a plan for repairing hundreds of miles of levees and helping thousands of home and business owners.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Police have charged a second man in the death of a teenager who was fatally shot in northeast Des Moines. Des Moines police said Wednesday in a news release that 22-year-old Makaveli Depriest Russell has been charged with first-degree murder and robbery in the April 14 shooting of 17-year-old Donzell Martin. Police say Russell was arrested Tuesday in East Hazel Crest, Illinois, and is awaiting extradition to Iowa.

(Radio Iowa) — The need for housing was the primary concern raised today (Wednesday) during the first meeting of the governor’s Flood Recovery Advisory Board. Governor Kim Reynolds says the state is waiting for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to respond to a request for temporary housing trailers.

“Over 25,000 homes have been demolished or have had some kind of damage and over 4200 businesses and my guess is that’s probably still on the short side of the numbers that we’re going to see as we move through the process,” Reynolds said. FEMA is approving some money for individual homeowners to repair “essential living space.” Cindy Axne, who represents southwest Iowa’s third congressional district, says she’s met with flood victims who’ve been told they won’t be getting grants to repair their entire home.

“These homes won’t even be able to be repaired fully with $35,000, let along $17,000 or $20,000,” Axne said. Some flood victims may be able to get federal aid to cover living hotel bills. There’s a meeting tonight (Wednesday) in Glenwood for residents of Pacific Junction. Officials hope to gauge who plans to stay and who plans to leave the flood-ravaged community. Iowa’s Republican governor and Democratic Congresswoman Axne talked after the meeting to discuss collaborating on the flood response. Both opened the meeting by emphasizing bipartisanship.

“It’s going to just require a significant amount of coordination, not only at the local, state and federal level. I’m so appreciative that Congresswoman Axne is here. It’s going to take all of us working together,” Reynolds said. Axne said: “I want everybody to understand this is fully an Iowa issue. This is not a partisan issue. This is something that we’re all working on hard together.”

The head of Iowa Workforce Development reports 95 people have filed for unemployment benefits because they’ve lost their job due to the flooding.

CHEROKEE, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Republican Steve King says the criticism he has faced from fellow members of Congress over his offensive remarks gives him “better insight” into what Jesus Christ experienced when he was persecuted for his beliefs.
King was attending a town hall meeting Tuesday in his home district in northwest Iowa when someone attending voiced concern about Christianity being persecuted in the U.S., the Sioux City Journal reported . King answered, in part, by drawing a comparison to facing his “accusers” on the House floor.

“When I have to step down to the floor of the House of Representatives, and look up at those 400-and-some accusers … you know we just passed through Easter and Christ’s passion … and I have better insight into what he went through for us partly because of that experience,” King said.

The House voted 424-1 in January to rebuke King for remarks he made to The New York Times in which he asked why the terms white nationalist and white supremacist came to be considered offensive. King was also stripped of his committee assignments for two years.

King did not initially deny making the remarks to the Times and even cast a vote in support of his public rebuke. He has since said the Times mischaracterized his comments and on Tuesday said the newspaper had misquoted him. The controversy sparked numerous calls for King’s resignation, including the editorial boards of at least four daily newspapers with circulations in his district.

King has long been known for making caustic comments , especially on issues related to race and immigration. Shortly before his November re-election — the closest contest he has faced in his nine terms — the Washington Post reported that King met in Austria with the far-right Freedom Party, which has Nazi ties.

King also has called for an electrified fence on the U.S. southern border, defended racial profiling as a needed component of law enforcement and has suggested white people made more contributions to civilization than other groups.