COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) – Council Bluffs officials are celebrating the expansion of its public internet program and planning to spread free Wi-Fi throughout more of the city. The Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil reports the effort’s second phase was unveiled Wednesday at a school athletic complex located in the 2 1/2-square-mile section of the city where people have free internet access.

At a news conference, students logged onto the internet to check their email and surf the web. The program is being offered through a collaboration of several organizations, including the city, school district, Iowa West Foundation and Google.

David Fringer, the school district’s chief technology officer, says organizers will expand the program in 10 phases, with the next implemented this fall. Private sponsors are paying the $850,000 cost of the first three phases.

(Update 9/9/16 – The Iowa Secretary of State’s Office said [with regard to Lund’s statement as to when campaign signs may be placed on property]There is not a law that specifies how early or late campaign signs can be displayed.   There were restrictions years ago but a court ruling that cited the First Amendment removed them. )

The election season has emotions running high on all fronts, including from the presidential candidates themselves. In Atlantic, a yard sign erected at 3^rd and Maple Streets, has drawn complaints from citizens for its vulgarity.

The sign, which reads “Trump that “B****, before it’s too late,” is with regard to the Trump/Clinton presidential race. City Administrator John Lund tells KJAN News there is nothing in the Zoning Ordinance that allows the City to call for removal of the sign, but there are restrictions on when those signs can be placed, and common sense should prevail with regard to the language.

(Edited for content)

Lund says political signs are not allowed to be placed in yards within the City Limits more than 60 days prior to, or 10 days after, an election, meaning if the property owner in question takes it down now, it could be put back up on Saturday. A new ordinance being drafted is coming, but in the meantime, “People should have a little decency in their standards, and think up what they’re putting up there.”

Lund says in October, the Code will be changed to state “Indecent/vulgar images, or offensive language are not permitted on signage within City limits.” He says there have been some complaints about the sign.

He said he’ll talk with the home owner and ask him to remove the sign, which Lund says is “Not family friendly.” He said also, the end of the election season can’t come soon enough. “It’s a hyper-partisan situation right now. I’ll be glad when the election is over. I think everyone will be.”

CHARITON, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say a pilot has been found dead after the crash of his plane in south-central Iowa. The Lucas County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Thursday that the plane went down in northwestern Lucas County. The release said the pilot was alone in the plane but did not provide other details, including the pilot’s name and the type of plane he was flying.

The Sheriff’s Office says it was advised Wednesday afternoon by air traffic control in Des Moines that radar contact with the private plane had been lost and that officials thought the plane was somewhere in Monroe County. Searches were conducted in Monroe County and adjacent Lucas County, and the plane wreckage was found around 5:30 p.m. in Lucas County.

An accident Wednesday night in Glenwood resulted in damage to property and multiple vehicles, and the arrest of a woman on an OWI charge. Glenwood Police say 60-year old Mary Nissen, of Glenwood, was driving too fast for conditions, and driving in a reckless, erratic, careless, negligent manner. She was charged with OWI/1st offense and later released on a $1,000 cash bond.

Officials say Nissen was leaving her home at 227 Florence Avenue and began to drive south. Her 2013 Chevy Impala struck a 2001 Ford Explorer on the left rear side before continuing south and hitting a a 2003 Ford Crown Victoria on the left rear side. The Crown Vic spun around and came to rest against a 2014 Buick Verano.

Nissen’s Impala continued straight ahead through a yard at 111 W. Florence and hit a 1994 Dodge pickup on the passenger side. The pickup then slid into a 2001 Mitsubishi Galant. Damage from the crash amounted to $45,500.

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

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Police in Creston report the arrest Wednesday evening, of 29-year old Kenneth Williams, of Creston. Williams was taken into custody on a Union County warrant for Probation Violation. He was being held in the Union County Jail on a $10,000 bond.

And, a Creston resident reported to police Wednesday, that sometime around 1-a.m. that day, a person or persons unknown pulled the cable outside of her home. The cable was attached to her television. The action caused the TV to fall and break. The loss was estimated at $278.

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

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CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) – Linn County supervisors have again voted to advance a measure increasing the county’s minimum wage. The board voted 4-1 Wednesday to raise the county rate to $8.25 an hour on Jan. 1. The wage would increase by a dollar in January 2018 and another dollar in January 2019. The current county, state and national rate is $7.25 an hour.

The board is scheduled to vote on the proposal for a third and last time Monday.

OSCEOLA, Iowa (AP) – Seven children and one adult were taken to two hospitals after their school bus toppled off a slick gravel road outside Osceola Wednesday afternoon. The Iowa State Patrol says the 2014 Thomas bus driven by 72-year old Darwin Griffith, of Osceola, was traveling north on 210^th Avenue, just north of Truro, when the bus went out of control and slid into the east ditch, where it struck a bridge railing and overturned, coming to rest in a creek. The accident happened just before 3-p.m., Wednesday.

Griffith and all seven children suffered minor injuries and were transported to the Clarke County Hospital in Osceola and Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines, as a precaution. Clarke County Sheriff’s Deputy Brian Akers says the area had received a heavy downpour that turned the road “all to soup,” shortly before the crash.

Two people were injured during a single-vehicle accident in Pottawattamie County, Wednesday. The Iowa State Patrol reports a 2006 Chevy Colorado pickup driven by 33-year old Rhonda Rodrick, of Maryville, MO., was traveling north on Interstate 29 at around 9:05-p.m., when the vehicle entered the median near the southern city limits of Council Bluffs (44.5 mile marker), and struck a cable barrier.

The pickup took out about 20 barrier posts before it came to rest against the barrier. Rodrick and her passenger, 28-year old Sheila McMichael, also of Maryville, MO., were transported by Lewis Township Rescue to Mercy Hospital in Council Bluffs for treatment of minor injuries. The Patrol says Rodrick was wearing her seat belt, but McMichael was not.