The Audubon County Engineer and Secondary Roads Department reports, Saturday morning Mortensen Construction plans to move a large crane across Pheasant Ave just south of 170th St in Audubon County. Crews hope to have the move completed by noon, and have the road back open. Because they have to place material, boards & crane mats and remove them before the road opens again however, it could vary the time frame for re-opening the road by a little bit.

Flagers will be present, and a detour set up to help traffic get around the work, but you should note the detour is on rock roads. Officials urge you to “Please plan ahead,” and if weather does not cooperate Saturday, the move will be postponed to Monday, instead.

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

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COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — A woman is accused of stealing narcotic pain pills while working for a Council Bluffs assisted living facility. The Daily Nonpareil reports that 31-year-old Mandi Newsom has pleaded not guilty to theft and drug charges. Her trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 15th. Newsom is accused of stealing nearly 1,900 oxycodone and hydrocodone pills from January 2017 to August 2017.
Authorities say Newsom ordered an unusual number of pills from a pharmacy and made false records of their receipt while working at Bethany Heights Assisted Living. Authorities also allege she stole pills from a patient’s locked room.

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

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WASHINGTON, Iowa (AP) — A man accused of stabbing to death his roommate in southeast Iowa has been ruled incompetent for trial. Washington County District Court records say 64-year-old Clarence Pedersen is charged with first-degree murder. The judge issued the ruling last week after Pedersen underwent psychiatric examination in October. The judge ordered Pedersen sent to the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Coralville for treatment.

Washington Police Department officers sent July 11 to check a call about a suspicious death at an apartment complex found the body of 70-year-old Ed Jones , who’d been stabbed in the upper torso. The Iowa Department of Public Safety says Pedersen acknowledged owning a knife that looked like the bloody one found at the crime scene. The department also says officers found a handwritten note among Pedersen’s belongings. It said: “Kill Ed.”

(Radio Iowa) — The president of the Board of Regents laid out their plan moving forward on tuition increases at their meeting Thursday in Cedar Falls. Michael Richards says they will hold the first reading of tuition in April, but wait until June for the final reading so they know how much state money they have available. This will allow them to avoid another tuition increase in the middle of the year.  “This was confusing to families students and Iowans. This is not how we want to treat Iowa students and families. We will set tuition once,” Richards says. He says they are also acknowledging that Iowa State University, the University of Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa are different schools with different needs. “We cannot continue to treat the institutions the same,” Richard says, “For U-N-I, if the state fully funds their request we will begin to take steps to make them more competitively priced with other Midwest comprehensive universities.

The degree and the amount will be determined by their appropriation.” Richards says the board will use what he calls “guardrails” in determining the tuition increases for the U-I and I-S-U. ” If the state provides no additional funding, the base undergraduate rate increase will be three percent plus the projected Higher Education Price Index or HEPI,” he explains. The HEPI is projected to be two percent this year. He says there’s also the possibility the tuition at the two schools could be below the three percent increase. “If the state partially funds our appropriation request, the base undergraduate rate will be somewhere within the defined range,” according to Richards.

He says they are looking to provide students and parents with a stable system for setting tuition. “It is our intention to follow this approach for the next five years. The guardrails will become a part of the Board of Regents five-year plan,” Richards says. “Obviously, unforeseen circumstances could cause us to reevaluate.”  The statement Thursday comes after Richards said at the board’s September meeting that they would look at multi-year tuition increases. The board also determined then that it would ask for an additional 20 million dollars in state funding in the next legislative session.

(UPDATED 10-a.m.) SOLON, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say two people were killed and one injured in an eastern Iowa collision. The crash occurred around 8:30 p.m. Thursday on Iowa Highway 1, just south of Solon in Johnson County. The Iowa State Patrol says a southbound 2013 Dodge Caravan driven by 30-year old Tori Saben Smith, of Mediapolis,  crossed the center line and struck an oncoming 2017 Kia driven by 50-year old Kirk Flom, of Solon.

Smith and Flom died at the scene. A passenger in one of the vehicles, 20-year old Jose Gamez Avila, of Wapello, was injured and was flown to University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics. Authorities say Smith and Flom were wearing their seat belts, but Avila was not.

(Radio Iowa) — A state board has completed its plan for greatly expanding options for Iowa children who need mental health care services. Department of Human Services Director Jerry Foxhoven says he’s optimistic lawmakers and the governor will implement the board’s proposals. “We looked at what is doable quickly and what is most important quickly, so we know we need crisis services,” Foxhoven says. “We know that we need, like, an 800 hotline. We know that we need universal screenings — so some of those steps we require almost immediately.”

The plan calls for mental health screening of Iowa children under the age of 18, so parents and professionals can perhaps intervene earlier — before there’s a crisis. Peggy Huppert, the leader of a mental health advocacy group, says she’s encouraged by the recommendations, but she cautions that lawmakers will have to find money somewhere to make the entire plan a reality. Foxhoven says he’s optimistic lawmakers will make it a priority.  “There’s been such a commitment from the governor and from both sides of the aisle that it’s worth putting money into it,” Foxhoven says.

There’s no estimate, yet, of exactly how much money is needed to implement the plan.

(Reporting for Radio Iowa by Iowa Public Radio’s Katarina Sostaric)

(Radio Iowa) — Leaders of Iowa Wesleyan University in Mount Pleasant say the school will remain open this spring and recruiting for new students will continue. Thursday’s announcement followed word from administrators earlier this month that the school might close because of financial troubles. Annette Scieszinski, chair of the Iowa Wesleyan Board of Trustees, says alumni and residents of Mount Pleasant rallied around the school. “We are so grateful for the support of the community,” Scieszinski said. School officials on Thursday also announced the formation of a “New Directions Team” to address needs beyond this academic year. “I think Iowa Wesleyan University will stand as a leader in higher ed for the prospects that we see and the open-mindedness that we exercise in going forward in a changed environment,” Scieszinski said.

A couple weeks ago, University President Steven Titus said the school needed to find $2.1 million to have a spring semester. Students and faculty were among those who helped raise the money to keep the 176-year-old school in business. “I think it speaks of the commitment of this community,” Titus said. “I also think it illustrates how important institutions like this are to rural communities.” Prior to Thursday’s announcement, Kristi Ray of the Mount Pleasant Area Chamber of Commerce said the loss of Iowa Wesleyan would devastate the local economy. “We’re going to see houses on the markets, you’re going to see sales tax revenue decrease, and we’re going to see students in our public schools that have to leave because their parents were administrators here,” Ray speculated.

Iowa Wesleyan administrators said they’re open to institutional changes, including a potential merger with another school. They say long-term solutions will depend on more donor support and new partnerships with other organizations.

(Reporting for Radio IA by Theresa Rose, KILJ, Mount Pleasant & Kate Payne, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) — Attorney General Tom Miller says the budget for the Iowa Department of Justice has reached a “perilous” point. Miller says there’s not enough money to cover the costs of working with county attorneys on criminal cases, working to uphold criminal convictions that are appealed AND representing the state when it’s sued in civil court. “Pretty vital functions of our office and state government,” Miller says. The situation, Miller says, has been caused by a series of budget cuts over a long period of time. “Earlier this year we really had a crisis or a semi-crisis in representing the state in civil litigation. A whole sort of ‘perfect storm’ came at us,” Miller says. “I was extremely concerned and we worked through that, at least temporarily, but we’re just teetering on what the citizens of Iowa want us to do and expect us to do.”

Miller says “to avert total disaster” over the past two years, lawmakers gave him authority to use payments from legal settlements paid to the state by companies accused of bilking Iowa consumers. Miller says that fund can’t be tapped forever. He’s asking the governor and legislators for a half-a-million dollar boost for the current state budgeting year and a one million dollar increase in his agency’s budget for the following fiscal year.

This past spring, a key Republican lawmaker threatened to cut Miller’s budget by 10 percent — because Miller is joining lawsuits challenging Trump Administration policies. Miller, a Democrat, was just reelected to a 10th term in office. Republicans did not nominate a candidate for attorney general in 2018.