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

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FORT MADISON, Iowa (AP) — Officials say the Sheaffer Pen Museum has reopened in Fort Madison. The museum closed in May last year amid financial concerns and worries about the fate of company archives. The Fort Madison Daily Democrat reports that the archives had been on loan from A.T. Cross, Sheaffer’s owner.

The museum board president, Tim Gobble, says Cross has agreed to donate virtually all of the company archives to the museum. Grants and other financial pledges of support since have allowed the museum to reopen.

Plans are being made for new and refreshed exhibits, as well as video from the company archives. The museum’s regular hours are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday or by appointment for larger groups.

This weekend, September 7th & 8th, smoke, steam, straw and family fun will fill the air at the Carstens 1880 Farmstead, during the 37th Annual Carstens Farm Days show.  Farm Days is an event that aims to preserve and celebrate Iowa’s Farm History through live demonstrations of antique farm equipment and a blend of unique exhibits and crafts.  It’s a tractor and threshing show and so much more.  The two-day show is held on the historic Carstens 1880 Farmstead just south of I-80 Exit 34, Shelby, Iowa.  The hours are 6:30 am – 7:00 pm both days. A parade of classic cars, implements, tractors and trucks will take place both days at 2 pm.

Farm Days Weekend is fun for all ages.  Over 250 vintage tractors and implements will be on display for visitors to enjoy.  A variety of steam engines, gas “hit and miss” engines and one-of-a-kind implements will be in operations across the farm grounds.  Joining the power equipment will be many antique/classic cars and trucks. Minneapolis-Moline tractors, engines and implements will be featured at this year’s show.  Over 100 carefully restored Minneapolis-Moline tractors will be on display.  Anyone who would like to add his or her Minneapolis Moline to the exhibit is welcome.  Register at the registration building near the front gate when you arrive.

1919 Russell

Carstens 1880 Farmstead, Inc. President Mel Hursey says “People are invited to come here and re-live old memories and make some new memories with their family. Farm Days will not only showcase the progress of agriculture, it will also showcase the progress our community has made here on this farm.” Traditional demonstrations will be on-going throughout the weekend.  Visitors can expect to see threshing machines in action, antique tractor plowing, corn picking, straw baling, blacksmithing, corn binding, and a working sawmill.  Admission to Farm Days also allows visitors to wander through the four-acre corn maze which contains nearly two miles of pathways.  There will be a number of musical acts under the shade trees.  On the main stage near the Carstens’s family home, colorful and talented cloggers will kick up their heels to entertain the crowd.

Nearly 100 vendors are expected to be selling a wide range of crafts, tools, toys and novelty items.  A colorful display of quilts, wall hangings, wearable art and other types of quilting projects will be featured in the special event building at the farm.  Many talented quilters from around the area will allow their works of art to be displayed for all to enjoy.  Raffle tickets for the beautiful hand-stitched quilt, which will be raffled during Farm Days will be available during the quilt show.

This (Friday) evening, a pulled pork sandwich dinner will be hosted by the Friends of the Shelby Stone Arch Trail Committee.  Proceeds of the Friday evening dinner will go to the trail committee.  The dinner will be served from 5:30 – 7:30 pm.  All good days begin with a good breakfast and to start Farm Days off right, a pancake breakfast is planned at 6:30 a.m. both Saturday and Sunday.  Snacks and lunch options will also be available.  Various non-profit local groups will be offering refreshments and delicious desserts all weekend.  On Saturday beginning at 5:30 p.m. enjoy Staley’s Chicken for a delicious dinner at the farm.  Proceeds from the dinner will go toward on-going maintenance at Carstens 1880 Farmstead. Admission to Farm Days remains one of the best values for any show of its kind.  Admission is $5 per day for everyone nine years and older.

Carstens 1880 Farmstead, Inc., a non-profit group of local volunteers, oversees an 80-acre working farm museum exhibit located between Minden and Shelby, Iowa in Pottawattamie County.  The farmstead is the home of Carstens Farm Days, which is held the first weekend after Labor Day each September.  It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  For more information visit the web site: www.carstensfarm.com

Rex Pharmacy’s locations on Chestnut Street in downtown Atlantic and at the Atlantic Medical Center will be closing next week, in preparation for their move to the former Sears Store at 1607 E. 7th Street. On March 1st, Josh Borer, the President and owner of Rex Pharmacy in Atlantic, announced plans for its two current Atlantic locations, Rex Pharmacy downtown and the Atlantic Medical Center Pharmacy, to merge and become one pharmacy located in the former Sears building across the street from the Atlantic Shopping Plaza. Borer says progress on the refurbished building has been progressing nicely.

He says they’re on-track for a “go-live” date on Sept. 16th. The current Atlantic locations will be closing late next week, beginning with the Atlantic Medical Center site. Borer said they will do everything they can to minimize a disruption in service. The AMC Pharmacy site will remain open until 5-p.m. Thursday, Sept. 12th. Afterward, all the data will be merged to the downtown store. Prescriptions can be filled from that location by calling 243-2110.)

The downtown store will close at Noon on Friday, Sept. 13th, in preparation for technology transfers the to new location. The pharmacy will still be available for emergency needs, but if you see you are running low on prescriptions or medical supplies, be sure and order those as soon as possible, in advance of the closing. The new pharmacy at the former Sears store will be open for business Sept. 16th. As for the downtown pharmacy, Borer said they’re still exploring options for the building so it doesn’t stay vacant too long.

In March, Borer said the plans were the result of Rex Pharmacy’s desire to make community pharmacy a more viable part of patient outcomes in Atlantic and the surrounding area. Rex Pharmacy has been in it’s current 6,000-square feet location on Chestnut Street in downtown Atlantic, for more than 75-years, which is why, Borer says, it was a tough decision to make the change. He said they’ve had a lot of feedback since their announcement of the move. He said the new location at 7th and Hospital Drive will open-up more opportunities to serve their current and future customers. He said he always thought that would be a good location for a pharmacy, and they wanted to improve their overall access to the community, including a drive-thru prescription pick-up window.

The new Rex Pharmacy/Atlantic Medical Center Pharmacy will also offer private clinical rooms for patient medication reviews, education, consultations and immunizations. It will be a full-service pharmacy with all the over-the-counter medications and supplements as well as in-home medical equipment and supplies.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a Sioux City man looted the checking account of a nursing home resident. Woodbury County court records say 52-year-old Ronald Taylor is charged with dependent adult abuse. Taylor’s next court hearing is scheduled for Sept. 13.

Court records say Taylor held a power attorney for the man, who has dementia and can’t handle his finances. The records say Taylor spent nearly $23,000 of the man’s money since July 28, 2017, wiping out the man’s account.

(Radio Iowa) — The Iowa Economic Development Authority awarded more than two million dollars to seven towns Thursday in what are called Community Development Block Grants. Authority spokesperson, Nicole Hansen, says the grant money is provided by the federal government for water and sewer system improvements. “It is a competitive program — we do receive more requests than we are able to fund — unfortunately,” Hansen says. She says they always try to fund as many projects as they can because there is a big need for water and sewer improvements.

Anthon, Blairstown, Fontanelle, Guttenberg, Lake Park, Massena and St. Olaf all were awarded the grants in this round. Fontanelle received a $300,000 grant for a local match of $1,627,500 for Wastewater Treatment Plant improvements. Massena’s grant of $300,000 plus a local match of $1,852,000 is also for Wastewater Plant Improvements.

Hansen says there are several factors involved in the selection process. “We take a look at project need, we take a look at project impact and readiness. We also take a look at the benefit to low and moderate income persons,” according to Hansen. “One of the national objectives with the federal C-B-G program is benefit to low and moderate income individuals.” The grants are targeted to the smaller communities in the state. “The largest communities in Iowa, Davenport, Des Moines — those communities with populations over 50-thousand — they receive their own Community Development Block Grant allocation from the federal government. So, they are not able to apply for the state program because they receive their own allocations,” Hansen explains.

Communities that didn’t get grants this time have another chance before the end of the year. “We are accepting applications currently. That application window will close on October 1st. And then we’ll make awards in November for the fourth quarter,” Hansen says. “And then we’ll open it up again on January first for 2020.” Hansen says they usually have around ten million dollars to award each year.

(Radio Iowa) — A new analysis from an Iowa City think tank suggests Iowa’s weather is hotter and wetter due to climate change. James Boulter, a chemistry professor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, reviewed weather data and prepared the report for the Iowa Policy Project. “Iowa is seeing, actually in a much clearer trend than most of the rest of the country…a significant increase in average annual rainfall,” Boulter says.

Boulter says the atmosphere is “amped up” and the conditions that led to the massive 1993 floods may become the “new normal.”  He says “The idea is simply that as the Gulf of Mexico warms and you get increased evaporation, that can collide with this mid-latitude jet or this air mass that moves west to east across the United States,” Boulter says.

According to Boulter’s calculations, there’s been a five percent increase in average temperatures in Iowa over the past four decades and the amount of rain that fell in Iowa this spring shattered records set 116 years ago. Boulter says the data indicates there’s been an “uptick” in extreme or heavy rainfall events in Iowa and the upper Midwest over the last decade — causing billions of dollars in flood damage.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:30 a.m. CDT

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — Police in western Iowa have charged a man with kidnapping and abusing a 4-year-old girl. Council Bluffs police say officers were investigating a report of a missing child when 28-year-old Michael Brandstrom brought the girl to officers, saying he had found her outside and brought her into his apartment to keep her safe. But police say Brandstrom had kept the girl in his apartment for more than an hour without called authorities and that he had taken several nude photos of the girl.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The U.S. Agriculture Department has announced the award of $36 million to buy conservation easements on Iowa agriculture land damaged by flooding this year. The funds are available through the flood plain easement component of the Emergency Watershed Protection Program. Iowa Natural Resources Conservation Service field offices are accepting applications through Oct. 18.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Texas health and human services official has been named the new director of the Iowa Department of Human Services. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds says Thursday she has appointed Kelly Kennedy Garcia to head the department that oversees the state’s Medicaid program, mental health centers and child welfare services. Former DHS Director Jerry Foxhoven was ousted from the job in June for reasons Reynolds has not fully disclosed. He’s filed a $2 million wrongful termination claim.

GREENFIELD, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a pilot suffered minor injuries when his airplane crashed in a south-central Iowa cornfield. The Adair County Sheriff’s Office says a 911 caller reported Wednesday that a man had walked to the caller’s home, saying the small plane he’d been flying had gone down. First responders found the single-engine plane lying on its top about a mile northwest of Greenfield. The pilot was taken to a hospital and soon released. He’s been identified as 59-year-old Eric Chrystal, of Jefferson.

(NBC News via Radio Iowa) — Iowa Congressman Steve King says he drank from a toilet tank at a migrant detention center recently to show the water was safe for drinking. N-B-C News recorded King during a town hall yesterday (Wednesday) in Eagle Grove as he talked about touring detention facilities for asylum-seekers.

Still frame image from NBC video

“I actually went into that cell where it was reported they were advised they had to drink out of the toilet,” King said. “I took a drink out of there and it was actually pretty good, so I have a video tape and I smacked my lips.”

King told the crowd in Eagle Grove he hadn’t posted the video online, to help put complaints about conditions in the detention centers “in the rear view mirror.” But after N-B-C’s reporter posted King’s comments online, King tweeted out the video . He described the system this way in the audio recorded by N-B-C News:

“These toilets in these prisons are solid stainless steel. They’re built so that they are semi-indestructible by the inmates that are there,” King says. “And in the back, where the lid would be on our toilet, that’s also sealed and there’s a water fountain there and you push the button and the water comes out and you take a drink,” King said. “That’s how it is. It’s not drinking out of the toilet. It’s drinking out of the water fountain that’s integral with the back of the toilet.”

King says he believes a “language barrier” prevented those being held in the cells from understanding the words “potable water” printed on a sign above the tank. A Democrat in congress who visited the detention centers criticized King. She said migrants told her the guards directed them to drink out of the toilet because the water fountain was broken.

The Cass County Auditor’s Office said Thursday, Thomas R Harris has filed to run for the office of the Mayor for the City of Anita. Two other men are running for City Council seats in Anita: Kevin Littleton and Mark Harris.