(Red Oak, Iowa) – Officials with the Iowa Firefighters Association, Saturday night, presented The Fire Department of the Year Award, to members of the Red Oak Fire Department. The award – which was presented in Ames – is given to a department that significantly supports the Iowa Firefighters Association and the Fire Service in at least one of many areas such as fire prevention, legislation, convention, membership, etc.

The nomination addressed several attributes that the Red Oak Fire Department contributes:

• The ever-growing response area for Fire/EMS coverage of service.
• The extraordinary level of competency and assistance exhibited on Mutual Aid Fire Responses
• The overall contribution to the Fire Service through the continued support of training, logistical assistance to other departments, as well as fire ground competency.
  

  (Photo: L-R-Red Oak Fire Chief John Bruce, Captain Kenny Hamman, and Lt. Brian Hamman)

The Red Oak Fire Department is partnered with the Iowa Fire Service Training Bureau as one of the seven testing locations in the state, which allows firefighter students in the southwest Iowa portion of the state, a location to come to for certification testing to help eliminate the need to travel to Des Moines for testing. The partnership also allows our location to be available for various training events. The Red Oak Fire Department has also been able to assist a few other departments with logistical information. They are developing their department operations to be very similar to how Red Oak is designed (staffing, funding, response guidelines, etc.)

The award directly reflects every member of the Red Oak Fire Department. The amount of time each member dedicates to the department is astonishing. This is a combination of training, shift work, emergency responses, and special events. Each Firefighter possesses a mastery of expertise, and when you bring all those folks together, you have a genuinely outstanding fire department. This is also demonstrated by all the other departments that we get to work with. The Fire Department of the Year award is a direct reflection of each Firefighter and their families for the massive amount of sacrifice and support that they invest in making sure our communities are protected.

This is also a reflection of the support the Fire Department receives from the Red Oak Community, City Administration and Council, the surrounding communities, and the surrounding fire departments. The Red Oak Fire Department extends a heartfelt thank you to all of you for everything you have and do for our department!!!!

(Red Oak, Iowa) – A grain elevator fire in Red Oak, late Monday morning caused an undisclosed dollar amount of damage to an exterior dryer stack. No injuries were reported. According to officials, the incident happened at the Bunge Corporation on Fernwood Avenue, a little after 11-a.m.

When the first crews arrived on the scene they observed fire coming from the northeast stack, as well as a field fire directly north of the facility. The employees had been safely evacuated.
Firefighters fought the dryer stack and a nearby field fire at the same time. There efforts concluded at around 1-p.m., with both fires extinguished and hot spots cooled off.

Photo via Red Oak Fire Dept.

Bungee staff said the dryer stack unit could be repaired. Fire officials said Bunge safety staff and maintenance personnel were instrumental in their tackling the ground operations.

The Montgomery County’s Emergency Management Agency, the Montgomery County Sheriff Office, Montgomery County Communications and the Red Oak City Water Department assisted Red Oak Fire at the scene.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – One person suffered minor injuries, and one person was arrested, following a three-vehicle accident at around 11:06-p.m. Monday, just outside of Red Oak. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports 26-year-old Daniel James Wilson, Jr., of Red Oak, was in a Chevy Impala, and stopped at the red light for the construction zone on the River Bridge, just east of Highway 34 and G Avenue. A Pontiac G6 driven by 20-year-old Alyssa Anne Bartmess, of Clarinda, was stopped behind Wilson’s vehicle, when an eastbound Chevy pickup driven by 55-year-old Steven Lynn Henderson, of Oakland, NE., struck the Pontiac from behind.

The impact pushed the car into the Chevy Impala. Authorities say Bartmess was transported to the Montgomery County Memorial Hospital for treatment of her injuries. Henderson was arrested for OWI/1st offense, and was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $1,000 bond. All three vehicles were totaled.

Sheriff’s deputies were assisted at the scene by Red Oak Police and Fire personnel.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – A traffic stop Monday evening in Red Oak, resulted in the arrest of man from Nebraska. According to Red Oak Police, 48-year-old Rafael Hernando the 4th, of Omaha, was pulled over at around 7-p.m. in the 2300 block of N. Broadway Street. An investigation determined Hernando had a suspended driver’s license. It was further determined that the vehicle he was driving, had been reported stolen out of Omaha. Hernando was charged with Driving While Suspended, with bond set at $491. Additional charges are pending.

(Radio Iowa) – Republicans in the Iowa House are proposing a new 12 million dollar scholarship program for students at Iowa’s three public universities. House Speaker Pat Grassley says it’s an effort to address workforce shortages in specific occupations. “I think it’s a really creative idea and something new that we definitely want to have on the table,” Grassley says.

Half of the money would go to juniors and seniors studying to be teachers. The other six million would go juniors and seniors seeking degrees in other occupations which are in high demand. Grassley says it’s a way to put money into the three state universities to directly address a lack of qualified employees. “This put us in a position for the Regents to compete for those students to go into those high demand occupations,” Grassley says, “to get more money into each of the Regents institutions.”

Each student could get up to 10-thousand dollars over two years in scholarship money. Grassley says the final 25-hundred dollars would be paid if the student stays and works in Iowa for a year after graduation. “To try to encourage folks not only to enter high demand jobs, but to stay in the state and work,” Grassley says.

Republican Representative David Kerr of Morning Sun is chairman of the House subcommittee that drafts a budget for the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa. “It’ll be a great recruiting tool here in Iowa for each of the regent universities to attract students and they need students because of the enrollments are decreasing,” Kerr says, “but I think this is a great plan that they’ll jump on board with.”

A spokesperson for the Board of Regents says the board is very appreciative”of any proposal to provide additional financial aid to students. The board that governs Iowa, Iowa State and U-N-I has asked legislators to provide a general budget boost of 15 million dollars for the three state schools.

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds says the U.S. Supreme Court is on the brink of overturning Roe v Wade, the ruling that legalized abortion — but she says banning the procedure in Iowa requires a complex set of moves. “There’s never been a more important moment in the history of the pro-life movement,” Reynolds said. “Decades of organizing, voting and above all praying are paying off.”

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling this summer on a Mississippi law that bars abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Reynolds cautions Iowa cannot adopt a similar law here under current conditions. Reynolds has appointed a majority of the Iowa Supreme Court’s justices. She’s asking the court to overturn a 2018 ruling that said women have a right to an abortion under IOWA’s constriction. Reynolds also is backing a proposed constitutional amendment that says the state’s constitution does not guarantee abortion rights.

“As a movement we’re closer than ever to one of our foremost goals,” Reynolds says. “…I won’t rest until our laws and our society recognize that all people, no matter how small, are entitled to the right to life.”

Reynolds made her comments during a rally in the statehouse rotunda. Planned Parenthood Advocates of Iowa says there’s a long fight ahead to keep abortion rights in Iowa. The group says if Reynolds is reelected in November, there is a very real possibility abortion will be outlawed in a few short years.

(Radio Iowa/updated) – Senator Chuck Grassley says the confirmation hearing for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson is off to a good start this (Monday) morning. ) “I’ve continually emphasized the need for a thorough, respectful process by the committee,” Grassley says. Grassley says Democrats turned the opening hours of the 2018 hearing for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh into a spectacle and Republicans are taking a different approach.

“What we will do, however, is ask tough questions about Judge Jackson’s judicial philosophy,” Grassley says. “In any Supreme Court nomination, the most important thing we look for is the nominee’s view of the law, judicial philosophy and view on the role of a judge in our Constitutional system.” Grassley is the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“We depend on judges to interpret laws as we write them,” Grassley says. “If judges impose their own policy preferences from the bench and, essentially, revise the laws we pass, it makes it harder for us to write good laws.” Grassley has said if he’s reelected in November and Republicans regain control of the U.S. Senate, he’d be able to return as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

(Atlantic, Iowa) The City of Atlantic’s Parks and Recreation Department Board held a brief Zoom meeting, Monday evening. Parks Director Bryant Rasmussen discussed several matters, including the Sunnyside Tennis Courts.

He mentioned also works continues on the Bull Creek improvement project, and on that note, that Parks and Rec was approved for a $300,000 Water Infrastructure Grant he had applied for, which will help with the costs of the Bull Creek Project. Board Chair Jolene Smith was elated to hear the news.

Bryant said also, the Atlantic Lions Club applied for a grant on behalf of the Parks and Rec Department, and were awarded $5,000 to update the Community Gardens as Mollett Park at the end of E. 3rd Street Place.

The Lions Club’s pancake breakfast benefited the Parks Department in that there will be Inclusive Playground equipment at the Schildberg Recreation Area.

In other business, Rasmussen reminded the Board, that, in conjunction with the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce, they’re bringing back the Easter Egg Hunt in the City Park, on April 16^th, and one other event the week before.

The Parks and Rec Department will also hold an “Easter Egg Cruise.”

There are 75 eggs currently out, plus 60 more available for painting and decoration by the public. Just call or stop by the Parks & Rec Department on Sunnyside Lane to pick up one of the wooden egg cutouts.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Atlantic School District’s Board of Education will hold a special meeting at 8-a.m. on Wednesday, to act on an Atlantic Middle School Principal’s contract recommendation for Scot Aden, who is currently the Middle School Principal in the Cherokee Community School District.  Mr. Aden has worked with the Cherokee District for more almost eight-years. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Education from St. Ambrose University, in 1992.

Mr. Scot Aden

The process to hire a new Middle School Principal in Atlantic began with the announcement Josh Rasmussen had accepted the Superintendent’s job with the AC/GC Community Schools.

The Board of Education’s Special meeting will be held Wednesday in the Central Office Conference Room at 1406 S. 7^th Street in Atlantic.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa State University researchers are studying the production of blood stem cells in zebrafish in hopes of eventually growing cells to fight diseases like cancer and anemia in humans. I-S-U’s Raquel Espin Palazon says she’s found inflammatory signals from cells — triggered by illness or an injury — which could be the missing ingredient to generate usable blood stem cells in a lab.

“We know they’re needed, but we just don’t know what they’re doing,” she says. “We don’t know when to add them.” Espin Palazon says those inflammatory signals in cells are also seen in embryonic development. “People were not looking at, ‘Oh, actually, you need to add these inflammatory signals,’ you need to activate the inflammatory pathways during embryonic development or in the dish to make blood stem cells,” she says. “You need those.”

Zebra Fish used in research

Finding a matching human donor to transplant healthy stem cells, which are formed in embryos, is extremely hard and scientists can’t yet generate quality cells in the lab. The team will start by studying zebrafish because their embryos develop externally and are transparent, plus, they share more than 70-percent of their genes with humans. The research underway in Ames recently received a grant of around two-million dollars from the National Institutes of Health.

(reporting by Natalie Krebs, Iowa Public Radio)