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

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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A major winter storm dropped more than a foot of snow on parts of Nebraska and Iowa, disrupting traffic and shuttering some schools, while blanketing other parts of the middle of the country. There were early closures of several coronavirus testing sites on Monday in Nebraska and Iowa, and both states saw 12 or 13 inches of snow in places by Tuesday morning.

At least 4 inches of snow was expected into Tuesday across most of an area stretching from central Kansas northeast to Chicago and southern Michigan. Elsewhere in the U.S, a storm buried northern Arizona in snow on Monday while sending flurries to the outskirts of Las Vegas and Phoenix.

A lawsuit filed by the former Shelby County Emergency Management Coordinator against the Shelby County Board of Supervisors and Shelby County EMA was settled on Friday, January 22nd. The settlement provides plaintiff Jason Wickizer with a total of $860,000. Wickizer will receive a payroll check in the amount of $58,701 for wages, with all standard withholdings. A check will be made payable to the Wicker’s attorneys, Skinner and Paschke, PLLCE in the amount of $801,299, for damages which include physical injury, emotional distress, attorney’s fees and costs.

The County Emergency Management Commission and County EMA had authorized their legal counsel with the Iowa Communities Assurance Pool (ICAP), to resolve claims against the county. The settlement concludes a case that had been was transferred to, and pending in, Page County District Court. Wickizer’s Attorney, Kellie Paschke, told KJAN News the suit was filed to clear her client’s name and prove his innocence in an alleged case of improper payroll disbursements. The lawsuit was filed in July 2019. Paschke said “Jason, through the course of his employment was not your typical 9-to-5 employee (due to the nature of his Emergency Management position).”

(She says he was always on-call for natural and other emergency situations, he had to cover dispatcher shifts when necessary. Which resulted in many hours of overtime.)

The overtime was compensated through either an overtime rate as an hourly employee (at time and 1/2), or “Comp time,” in lieu of overtime, allowing him to take time off at a later date.

(When Wickizer discovered he wasn’t being compensated on a time-and ½ basis for Comp Time, he began to question why he wasn’t receiving that on a regular basis.)

The Supervisors, she said decided “Maybe Jason was just earning too much, and so they took away his Comp time altogether,” which led to the lawsuit. The petition alleged that the defendants knowingly and intentionally failed to compensate Wickizer for his labor, services and paid leave. The County went to the State of Iowa’s Auditor’s Office and requested an audit, which led to the County hiring its own auditing firm: RSM U-S, LLP, out of Indianapolis, IN., to conduct an internal audit of the time-off policies within the EMA. A special investigation was released in March 2019 where Wickizer was named in the audit report. Wickizer was named among the others for allegedly receiving improper payroll totaling $13,494.62. His employment was then terminated.

Paschke says the auditing firm failed to include Wickizer’s Comp Time in their analysis.

She says “It’s incredibly frustrating that Jason’s good name has been dragged through the mud in the community, all because somebody had a bone to pick with how much he worked, apparently. Paschke noted that it seems “A little unusual, that rather than vote themselves (The EMA Commission/Supervisors) on the settlement agreement, they authorized their legal counsel to do it.”

Creston Police, early this (Tuesday) morning, arrested a man following a traffic stop. Authorities say 31-year old Andrew Long, of Creston, was arrested at around 3:50-a.m. at Elm/Adams Streets, for OWI 1st Offense. He was being held in the Union County Jail on a $1,000 bond.

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) The Department of Natural Resources is preparing to release the results of a study of the fees charged for using state parks next month. The Chief of the State Parks, Forests and Preserves Bureau, Todd Coffelt, says they did the study at the direction of lawmakers. “The direction was for us to compare prices with other public utilities that provide camping services similar to what we do in state parks,” according to Coffelt. “And we have gone through that and compared each location to a 60-mile radius. We have identified the amenities that a visitor will be able to experience and utilize And we’ve kind of identified some of our lower use areas in order to focus and promote the amenities that visitors can use.”

Coffelt says this comes after a period when parks were shut down by the pandemic and there were concerns about the future. “There were a lot of questions if we are not making money then how are we going to survive. And as we regained our composure and brought it back — people really engaged with the idea of getting out and doing more with their families in the new found time that they had,” Coffelt says.

Coffelt says the comeback included 16-and-a-half million visitors to the state parks. “Camping revenue is higher than it was last year even though we were closed for a month — just to put that into perspective,” Coffelt says, “our revenue for cabins and overnight accommodations has increased.” He says the pandemic has helped them focus on how to best operate the system. “We continue to look at what we can do differently, we continue to experience challenges similar to the states around us of what do we expect in 2021,” Coffelt says. “We are ready for what the future has to offer because we’ve learned a lot of what we can do — we’ve learned a lot of what needs to be done — but those are the things we are working on.”

Coffelt made his comments during the Natural Resources Committee meeting last week.

(Radio Iowa) There are new guidelines for participation in Iowa Senate subcommittee hearings after a brief pornographic incident on Monday. The hearings are being held online this year, so members of the public don’t have to trek to the statehouse during the pandemic to testify for or against bills. Internet trolls tried to disrupt a virtual meeting Senator Amy Sinclair moderated yesterday (Monday). “What is happening is disgusting,” Sinclair said, “and if that’s what you think is a good idea to have included on a subcommittee on educational topics, then you honestly don’t deserve to be part of that conversation.”

The new guidelines require participants to provide some sort of on-screen identification before they’ll be allowed into the virtual forum. Monday’s subcommittee hearing had nearly 300 participants. Sinclair ordered the removal of the few who were laughing and making inappropriate gestures. “I will not tolerate pornography or hidden insults,” Sinclair said.

So called “Zoombombers” began disrupting government meetings and even online classes as use of the platform soared during the pandemic. Zoom recommends against sharing details of meetings on social media and notes there is a way to disable cameras and mute the audio of participants.

(Radio Iowa) – Seventeen Republicans in the Iowa Senate are co-sponsoring a bill that would force every Iowa business to use the federal E-verify system to ensure every person they hire is a citizen or legal U.S. resident. Senator Julian Garrett, a Republican from Indianola, has tried since 2012 to get this bill passed in the Iowa legislature. “We ought to be I would think more concerned about the welfare of our citizens than people who are not citizens and who are not here legally,” Garrett says.

Garrett says the immigration plan President Biden has proposed makes this kind of state-level action more important. “If we do nothing, we’re probably very likely going to see an influx of new people coming in who are not here legally,” Garrett says, “and you know we can be overwhelmed — our institutions, our medical care and education and our welfare system.” Brad Hartkopf, a lobbyist for the Iowa Association of Business and Industry, says identity fraud is an issue in the E-Verify system, so it isn’t a fool proof way for businesses to discover if a potential employee is in the country illegally. “The penalties are very concerning to us, the second being a revocation of all business licenses,” Hartkoff says. “…We believe that’s pretty draconian.”

Dustin Miller, a lobbyist for auto dealers and other business interests, is raising concerns about a portion of the bill calling for state investigation of all citizen complaints that a business has hired an undocumented worker.  “That can really be used as a sword against competitors,” Miller says. Erica Johnson of the American Friends Service Committee says her group just helped a woman who was inaccurately flagged by the E-Verify system as an undocumented immigrant. “Rather than actually working to push federal leaders to reform our immigration system in a way that benefits our economy and treats immigrants and refugee workers with the dignity and respect that they deserve, ” she said, “it’s a divisive, anti-immigrant proposal that will end up harming minority communities in Iowa.”

Senator Jason Schultz, a Republican from Schleswig, says the bill levels the playing field for businesses doing the right thing. “We have folks who are flouting the law and getting away with a competitive advantage they should not have,” Schultz says.  The bill is eligible for debate in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Members of the Atlantic School District’s Board of Education will hold an electronic work session 6-p.m. Wed., Jan. 27th, via livestream on You Tube. During their meeting, the Board will discuss:

• A Board interface with District Leadership Teams
• Upcoming Dates, including:
  • IASB Webinars: COVID-19 Remediation for Student Achievement – Feb. 2nd, 2021
  • Mental Health – February 9th, 2021
  • IASB Virtual Lobby Days: (Same topics as above, with dates set for Feb. 4th and 11th respectively)
  • The Board’s Regular Meeting – Feb. 10th, 2021 at 6-p.m.

(Radio Iowa) – Even with today’s (Monday) heavy snow across a wide portion of Iowa, the soil is frozen and when this snow melts, it’ll likely run off and not be absorbed into the soil. Weather experts are predicting continued drought conditions for the region, with the troubles spreading across Iowa’s western third. Illinois state climatologist Trent Ford moderated the North-Central Region Climate update for the National Weather Service.

“Most areas from the Central Plains westward are still dealing with drought issues,” Ford says. “Forty-five percent of this entire area is in moderate drought or worse. Some places in Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, and parts of northwestern Iowa are still dealing with severe to extreme or exceptional drought.” Ford says the dry conditions started early last fall and they’ll continue well into the spring planting season.

“Because of that dry 2020 and the carryover to 2021, we’re still dealing with drought conditions,” Ford says. “Given the mild temperatures for winter so far and the fact that nobody is pushing the record books for precipitation, we really haven’t seen much improvement.” Ford says the outlooks don’t offer much relief and many Iowa farmers could be facing critical problems in just a few months.

“This big block of brown here that we’re showing from western Iowa all the way through California, that is the area where the highest likelihood is drought persistence,” Ford says. “Drought is currently present there, at least moderate drought if not worse, and the prediction is the highest probability of drought persistence, at least through the end of April.” Soil moisture is also depleted across much of the region after several years of above-normal precipitation and record or near-record flooding.