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(Podcast) KJAN Morning News & funeral report, 4/11/2018

News, Podcasts

April 11th, 2018 by Ric Hanson

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

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High school teacher suspected of teaching while drunk

News

April 11th, 2018 by Ric Hanson

MAYNARD, Iowa (AP) — Authorities have charged a 49-year-old man suspected of teaching while drunk at a high school in northeast Iowa. Court records say Daniel Reisner, of Sumner, is charged with public intoxication. His next court hearing is scheduled for Tuesday. An officer sent Monday to the West Central Community School District school in Maynard says Reisner smelled of alcohol, had bloodshot and watery eyes and failed field sobriety tests.

Court records also say Reisner’s breath test at the Fayette County Jail showed his blood alcohol level was over the legal limit to drive. The district superintendent says Reisner has been suspended.

Bluffs man arrested after trying to update his Sex Offender Registry

News

April 11th, 2018 by Ric Hanson

A Council Bluffs man who showed up at the Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office, Monday, to update his sex offender registry, was arrested on a warrant. Records indicated 27-year old Zachary Dekota Olson was wanted on a current active warrant for Failure to Comply with the Iowa Sex Offender Registry/2nd or subsequent offense. Olson was taken in to custody and transported to Corrections where he was read the warrant. He was then handed over to Corrections Staff.

Former lawmaker wins special election to replace Sen. Dix

News

April 11th, 2018 by Ric Hanson

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A former Iowa House member has won a special election to replace state Sen. Bill Dix, who resigned after a video surfaced showing him kissing a lobbyist. Officials say 60-year-old Republican Annette Sweeney won 56 percent of the votes Tuesday for the Senate District 25 seat against 44 percent for 35-year-old Democrat Tracy Freese. The district is composed of Grundy and Hardin counties, and portions of Butler and Story counties. Sweeney was a member of the Iowa House from 2009 to 2013.

Dix was Senate majority leader until he quit on March 12. He stepped down after a video was published on the website Iowa Starting Line that showed the married Shell Rock Republican kissing a Statehouse lobbyist at a bar.

Senator Grassley questions Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg

News

April 11th, 2018 by Ric Hanson

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, chair of the Judiciary Committee, led a hearing Tuesday that featured testimony from Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The online social network is at the center of a data scandal in which Cambridge Analytica gained access to personal information of 87-million Facebook users. In his opening statement, Grassley raised the possibility of legislation to protect consumers. “Our policy towards data privacy and security must keep pace with these changes,” Grassley said. “Data privacy should be tethered to consumer needs and expectations.”

Grassley also called on Facebook and the operators of other social networks to do more to protect users’ privacy. “The tech industry has an obligation to respond to widespread and growing concerns over data privacy and security and to restore the public trust. The status quo no longer works,” Grassley said. Later in the hearing, Grassley questioned Zuckerberg directly. “Why doesn’t Facebook disclose to its users all the ways that data might be used by Facebook and other third parties? And what is Facebook’s responsibility to inform users about that information?” Zuckerberg responded, “Mr. Chairman, I believe it’s important to tell people exactly how the information that they share on Facebook is going to be used.”

Zuckerberg said his company and others in the tech industry have “found it challenging” to draft privacy policies that are easy for users to understand. “And if you make it long and spell out all the detail, then you’re probably going to reduce the percent of people who read it and make it accessible to them,” Zuckerberg said. “So, one of the things that we’ve struggled with over time is to make something that is as simple as possible so people can understand it, as well as giving them controls in line in the product in the context of when they’re trying to actually use them, taking into account that we don’t expect that most people will want to go through and read a full legal document.”

Zuckerberg, who faced nearly five hours of questioning, called legislation that would require Facebook to automatically let users “opt out” of having their data collected or shared “the right principle,” but added “the details matter.”

(Radio Iowa)

Farm Bureau to begin selling health plans

Ag/Outdoor, News

April 11th, 2018 by Ric Hanson

The Iowa Farm Bureau is moving ahead with plans to sell new “health benefit” plans to perhaps tens of thousands of Iowans through Wellmark after legislation was signed into law last week by Governor Kim Reynolds. Iowa Farm Bureau President Craig Hill says the new law corrects a problem that was created by the federal government’s Affordable Care Act. “It provides us the opportunity to bring benefits to our members in health care,” Hill says. “We’ve done this for nearly 50 years as a partner with Wellmark but the Affordable Care Act eliminated our options and took us out of the market because of that legislation.”

Hill says one of the most pressing issues for farmers has been the inability to buy affordable health care. “Premiums have risen 300% since 2014 and many families are paying 20- and 30- and sometimes $35,000 a year for a policy with a large deductible,” Hill says. “It’s taken them out of the market. They’re going without insurance because they can’t afford it. They’re borrowing money to pay the premium.” Hill sees the new health benefit package becoming available by the end of this year or early next year. “We think there’s 20-to-30,000 Iowans who quickly will move toward this,” Hill says. “They’re on the individual marketplace and are either without a policy or are on an unaffordable policy. There will be more next year. We’re working with Wellmark to get the underwriting prepared and get the policies out.”

The Iowa Farm Bureau plan is under the rules for association plans offered by groups that have something in common, such as belonging to an association or a small employer. The Trump administration is drawing up new rules to offer health benefits outside the Affordable Care Act.

(Radio Iowa)

Iowa early News Headlines: Wed., April 11 2018

News

April 11th, 2018 by Ric Hanson

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:50 a.m. CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has signed into law an immigration enforcement bill that bans so-called sanctuary cities. The Republican governor signed the bill privately Tuesday. The news was tucked into a press release about 16 other bill signings. The legislation will require law enforcement to follow requests from federal agents to hold a jailed person suspected of being in the country illegally. Local governments risk losing state funding if they don’t comply with the law.

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa (AP) — The University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls is proposing an undergraduate resident tuition increase of 2.8 percent for the upcoming academic year. The Courier reports that the Iowa Board of Regents will provide the first of two readings on the proposed rates for all three of Iowa’s public universities on Wednesday and Thursday in Council Bluffs.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa board has put on hold plans to require public workers in the state to preregister to vote in key union elections. The Public Employment Relations Board announced Tuesday it would not move ahead with proposed administrative rules that would have required a registration process before so-called recertification elections. Representatives for several unions said at a legislative committee meeting last week that such a system would suppress voter participation.

AMES, Iowa (AP) — An Ames manufacturing plant has been fined following the workplace death in January of an employee. Des Moines television station KCCI reports that the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has fined Danfoss Power Solutions $12,000 following an investigation into the Jan. 18 death of 45-year-old John Lavery.

UNI proposes 2.8 percent hike in resident tuition

News

April 10th, 2018 by Ric Hanson

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa (AP) — The University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls is proposing an undergraduate resident tuition increase of 2.8 percent for the upcoming academic year. The Courier reports that the Iowa Board of Regents will provide the first of two readings on the proposed rates for all three of Iowa’s public universities on Wednesday and Thursday in Council Bluffs.

UNI’s proposed rate, which comes to a $209 jump, is below the maximum 4 percent threshold established by the board earlier this year. With 90 percent of its undergraduate students coming from Iowa, UNI enrolls the highest proportion of resident undergraduates of all three public universities, which include the University of Iowa and Iowa State University.

Fuel tanks stolen from Ag company in Afton

News

April 10th, 2018 by Ric Hanson

The Union County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday, that officials with Agriland FS, Inc., of Winterset, reported Monday morning, that sometime between Sunday and Monday,  someone stole fuel from their bulk tanks in Afton.  The loss was estimated at $1,600.

Cass County Sheriff’s report (4/10)

News

April 10th, 2018 by Ric Hanson

The Cass County Sheriff’s Office reports Brian Todd Rink, of Atlantic, turned himself in to the Sheriff’s Office Tuesday, on a DCI charge of Assault. Rink plead guilty to an amended charge of simple assault, was fined and placed on placed on six-months unsupervised release before being released.