The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:07-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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Patrons of the CAM and Nodaway Valley School Districts are being asked to head to the polls today, to approve a new Revenue Purpose Statement (RPS). The purpose of the statement is to specify how the District may use revenues it receives from the State of Iowa Secure an Advanced Vision for Education (SAVE) Fund. Superintendent Paul Croghan says the vote does not impact your property taxes.

The Polling Center for ALL voters in Adair County or Audubon County, and ALL voters residing in the Cass County Townships of Grant, Benton, Franklin or Lincoln, is: The Anita Community Center. The Polling Center for ALL voters residing in Adams County, and all other voters residing in the Cass County Townships of Massena, Union, Bear Grove, Noble, Edna, or Victoria, is: The Cumberland Community Center.  The Polling place for Nodaway Valley School District patrons in Adair or Madison County, is: The Adair County Health & Fitness Center, in Greenfield (202 N. Townline Road).

Polls are open from 7-a.m. until 8-p.m. at all precincts. (Here is a sample ballot with wording adapted at the polls, to reflect the separate districts: 2021 CAM CSD Special Election SAMPLE Ballot)

For additional information on the change in law and the revenue purpose statement process, visit the district’s web site at camcougars.org

(Radio Iowa) – A bill that would no longer require Iowans to get permits to carry a concealed weapon has made it past initial review in the Iowa House and is scheduled for committee action today (Tuesday). Representative Steven Holt, a Republican from Denison, says it means Iowans would no longer have to get a permission slip for something that’s a constitutional right. “Let’s bear in mind, we are not plotting new ground here. This is not some revolutionary thing here,” Holt said. “Eighteen states already have constitutional carry, what some would call permitless carry.”

Richard Rogers of the Iowa Firearms Coalition calls the move historic. “Essentially any person who may lawfully possess a dangerous weapon will be able to carry it openly or concealed or in a vehicle,” Rogers says. “…The right to keep and bear arms is the natural extension of the universally recognized right of self-defense.”

Rogers says the change will benefit people who’ve been threatened and want to buy a gun, knife or some other weapon immediately. “Outright bans and ‘may issue’ permit schemes were created and used by the powerful to keep the less powerful in their place. This is so even here in Iowa,” Rogers says. “Until 10 years ago, Iowa’s 99 county sheriffs had absolute discretion over whether and how to issue permits to carry weapons. Many refused to issue such permits and others frankly abused the system at their whim. Thanks to these roadblocks, just a dozen years ago, only 30,000 Iowans held such permits.”

Current law says sheriffs shall issue a permit if the person meets all legal requirements — and today more than 400-thousand Iowans have a permit to carry a concealed weapon. Leslie Carpenter of Iowa Mental Health Advocacy says making it easier to get a weapon quickly is the wrong move in a pandemic when mental health problems have escalated. “Suicides make up 79% of all gun deaths here in Iowa,” she says.

Carpenter says no one would know her intelligent, charismatic son was diagnosed with a psychiatric illness. “The prospect of him being able to purchase a gun…fills me with a gut-wrenching dread that I would wish on no other person,” she said. Representative Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, a Democrat from Ames, says the bill will be a deterrent to efforts to attract new businesses and new workers to Iowa. “We have a lot of controversial bills that are affecting Iowa’s image right now,” she said.

If the bill becomes law, Iowans could still get a permit to carry a concealed weapon, so they’d have a document to show in other states that DO require gun permits. A similar bill is scheduled for a subcommittee hearing in the Iowa SENATE today (Tuesday).

(Radio Iowa) – Another drive is underway in the Iowa Senate to ban most traffic enforcement cameras. For the past decade, Republican Senator Brad Zaun, of Urbandale, has been trying to outlaw the cameras used to issue tickets for speeding and running red lights.

“I am not promoting that people break our traffic laws,” Zaun said during a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting Monday. “Unfortunately, I think these cities and towns and counties have I think really taken advantage of a situation and they’ve become more about revenue than actual safety.”

Senator Kevin Kinney, a Democrat from Oxford, said the fines paid on traffic camera tickets are required by law to be spent on police and sheriff’s departments, but there’s no money in Zaun’s bill to replace that lost revenue. “I have listened all summer long how the Democrats want to defund the police,” Kinney said. “This bill in Des Moines alone is going to cost them $3 million of revenue that goes back to the police department.”

Zaun’s latest bill on this subject would let speed cameras remain on the S-curves on Interstate 380 in downtown Cedar Rapids. Zaun said the Cedar Rapids police chief has data proving the cameras help reduce speed in that area and prevent accidents.

(Radio Iowa) – The Ethics Committee in the Iowa House has dismissed a complaint against a Republican legislator over a comment he posted on Facebook. Representative Dean Fisher of Montour wrote in January that Republicans would prevail in election disputes because — in his words — “our side has the guns.” Representative Jon Jacobsen of Council Bluffs says to sanction Fisher would set a dangerous precedent. “I would say it’s always good to err on the side of free speech. I think that the comments in this particular situation were still sufficiently ambiguous…It didn’t seem to rise to the level of any sort of incitement.”

The committee’s vote was unanimous, with all three Republicans and all three Democrats voting to dismiss the complaint against Fisher. One of the Democrats called Fisher’s words “regrettable” and “a shade past” the kind of integrity House of Representatives should exhibit, but she agreed Fisher had the First Amendment right to make the remarks. Fisher, who has rejected calls from the top Democrat in the House to apologize for his comments, sent a written statement to the committee. Fisher says there is nothing in House Rules or state law that polices speech. And Fisher says the complaint was filed by a former opponent for political reasons.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:35 a.m. CST

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Meatpacking workers across the country have started receiving coronavirus vaccines and thousands more will have a chance to get their shots this week, offering some peace of mind in an industry that was ravaged by COVID-19 a year ago. Officials with the United Food and Commercial Workers union say interest in the vaccine is high among workers after the industry took a heavy toll from the virus. The major meatpacking companies — JBS, Cargill, Tyson Foods and Smithfield Foods — say a number of states plan to begin vaccinating meat plant workers this week, including in Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado and Kansas.

WINTERSET, Iowa (AP) — A 27-year-old Norwalk man is facing life in prison after being convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend in 2019. A Madison County jury convicted Jerome Moyer III on Friday in the death of 23-year-old Roseanna Otto. She was shot to death in her Winterset home in May 2019. Moyer was the father of two of Otto’s three children. Family members said their were several instances of domestic abuse during the relationship but he was charged only once. The family said Moyer shot Otto because he wanted to get back together with her but she refused.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Police in Des Moines have identified a man fatally shot last week in the city’s first homicide of the year. The Des Moines Police Department said Monday in a news release that 52-year-old Darrell Merriwether, of Clive, died early Saturday after being shot late Friday night in a residential area several blocks southeast of Drake University. Police say officers and firefighters called to the scene found Merriwether around 11:20 p.m. Friday with gunshot wound and rushed him to a local hospital, where he later died. Police did not announce any arrests or suspects in the Monday release.

MARENGO, Iowa (AP) — The Pride of Iowa sandwich-making facility in east-central Iowa has been destroyed in a fire. Television station KCRG reports that firefighters were called to the plant in Marengo around 9 p.m. Saturday for the fire. Officials say the facility was closed and that no one was working in the building at the time of the fire. No injuries were reported. Fire officials say crews were able to salvage one freezer, but the rest of the plant was destroyed. The Pride of Iowa makes sandwiches for sale in vending machines and at convenience stores.

(Radio Iowa) – A Madison County jury has found a 27-year-old man guilty of murdering his ex-girlfriend as his two young children slept in the next room. Twenty-three-year-old Rosanna Otto was found shot to death in her Winterset home in May of 2019. Jerome Moyer the third of Norwalk — who goes by the name Jerry — was arrested the next day during a traffic stop in Dubuque County.

Moyer had pleaded guilty to misdemeanor domestic abuse in 2014 for an attack on Otto. The next year, he broke into another ex-girlfriend’s home and threatened her with a knife. Moyer was sentenced to 15 years in prison for that attack, but the sentence was suspended in 2015.

Moyer was found guilty of first degree murder, which carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

DES MOINES, Iowa, March 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Back in November 2020, “Above + Beyond Cancer” announced a nicotine-cessation contest, called the “Cold Turkey Challenge,” which offered a $50,000 community betterment grant for an Iowa small town that could gather a group of tobacco users in their community and work with them to stop using nicotine during an eight-week contest.

The Cold Turkey Challenge was open to all Iowa communities with populations of 5,000 or fewer. The eight-week contest officially kicked off January 1, 2021 and ends today, February 26, 2021. It was created to celebrate the 50-year anniversary of the release of the 1971 Norman Lear movie, “Cold Turkey,” which was filmed in Greenfield, Iowa.

It was the brainchild of long-time Iowan Doug Reichardt, and the Reichardt Family Foundation, in conjunction with Dr. Richard Deming, the Founder of Above + Beyond Cancer. Each community established a team of “Fighters” who pledged to not use tobacco for the duration of the eight-week contest, the team that was most successful became immeasurably more healthy and earned the betterment grant for their community.

Mt. Vernon was most successful! The dedicated team of “Fighters” from Mt. Vernon was the most successful group of tobacco users to give up nicotine for the 8-week Cold Turkey Challenge. For their success, the community of Mount Vernon will earn a community betterment grant of $50,000. The grant funds will be used to create beautiful Main Street Pocket Parks and establish an Exercise Trail near their newly constructed Lester Buresh Family Community Wellness Center.

Governor Kim Reynolds and Above + Beyond Cancer Founder Dr. Richard Deming will present the community of Mt. Vernon with their $50,000 community betterment grant check during a ceremony to be held in the Governor’s Formal Office, at the Iowa State Capitol, at 11 a.m., on Tuesday, March 2. Representing the Mt. Vernon community will be the chair of the Mt. Vernon Cold Turkey Challenge committee Joe Jennison, the executive director of the Mt. Vernon-Lisbon Community Development Group. He will be joined by fellow organizing committee members Amy Haney and Matt Siders.

Three members of the team of former smokers, known as “Fighters” from Mt. Vernon will also be in attendance, as will State Representative Charlie McClintock, from District 95. To learn more about Above + Beyond Cancer please go to: https://aboveandbeyondcancer.org.

A man from Walnut was arrested early Sunday morning, followed a pursuit in Adams County. According to the Adams County Sheriff’s Office, just before 5-a.m., Sunday, Deputies attempted to stop a Chevy truck that was speeding 80mph in a 55mph zone on Highway 34. They engaged in a pursuit that ended when the truck failed to stop at a T intersection of 210th Street and Adams/Montgomery Avenue, and got stuck in a field.

The driver of the vehicle fled the scene on foot, while a passenger – 36-year-old Adam Carter, of Carson, was found injured, inside the truck. Carter was transported to CHI Hospital by ambulance. The driver – 32-year old Robert Carter, of Walnut – was initially tracked unsuccessfully by a K9 but was located a little more than three hours later, at United Farmer Cooperative Gas Station, in Corning. Carter was also taken to CHI for treatment of injuries. Charges in the case are pending. Multiple agencies assisted with the pursuit, search, and arrests.

Saturday evening, Adams County Deputies were called to a domestic situation. 21-year-old Lyndon Bright, and 20-year-old Mia Maxwell, both of Corning were arrested. Bright was charged with Domestic Abuse Assault, while Maxwell was charged with Domestic Abuse Assault Causing Bodily Injury.

Other arrests in Adams County include: 42-year-old Jill Currin, of Villisca, who was arrested Feb. 24^th on a warrant for Harassment, and, on February 22^nd, 64-year-old Richard Swartz, of Corning, was arrested on warrants for Failure to Appear. He was taken to the Adams County Jail and held on $25,300 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – A group in the Iowa House is working on legislation that would erase the lowest level, non-violent felony convictions from a person’s record after a decade — if they aren’t convicted of another crime. The person would have to complete their sentence and pay all fines and court fees in order to have a Class D felony expunged. Drew Klein of Americans for Prosperity is urging legislators to pass the bill. “You’ve probably all heard me use that Ralph Waldo Emerson quote that, ‘If we treat people as they are. If we treat them as they could be, they become hopefully what they should be,'” Klein said. “And I think this bill moves us in that direction.”

Others say expunging non-violent felony convictions from decades ago can help Iowans qualify for professional licenses, get loans and sign leases. Representative Mary Wolfe, a Democrat from Clinton, says it would apply to non-violent offenses like criminal mischief, second degree theft or third offense drunken driving. “It is a piece of criminal justice reform that I think is important,” Wolfe says. “Many other states allow felonies to be expunged. This bill is more restrictive than several of those other states. Obviously, if somebody has a felony back in 2010 and they have another felony, they wouldn’t be eligible under this.”

Wolfe, who is an attorney, has been working on the bill after trying to help clients get their gun rights back.  “Primarily so they could hunt with their children or grandchildren,” Wolfe says. “I had no luck assisting them in doing that and I just think there should be a path forward for non-violent offenders to get their firearms’ right back without having to kind of plead with the governor’s office.”

Under current law, Iowa’s governor reviews and decides upon applications from felons seeking restoration of second amendment rights after they’ve completed their sentences.