The Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce has announced that Atlantic has been recognized as a “Neighborhood Champion” for the fifth year in a row by American Express. Atlantic will participate in the 8th Annual Small Business Saturday on November 24th, to support small businesses. Bailey Smith, Executive Director at the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce said, “We’re excited to partner with all of the Atlantic Area businesses to create shopping incentives and activities to celebrate Small Business Saturday.”

Founded by American Express in 2010, Small Business Saturday® is a day to celebrate the small businesses that help support our community. American Express created the Neighborhood Champion Program to help rally communities around Small Business Saturday and is working alongside numerous business organizations to support local Small Business Saturday celebrations throughout the country. Participating organizations include: the American Chamber of Commerce Executives, the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA), the International Downtown Association, the Latino Coalition, the National Main Street Center, the U.S. Black Chambers, Inc. and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Smith says American Express recognizes communities that have strong participation. The on-going Shop Local Initiative, presented by First Whitney Bank & Trust, and overall community support has helped Atlantic achieve the national recognition. She added “It’s a great opportunity for Atlantic to receive positive, national exposure. Atlantic has everything you need and this day is just an added reminder for the community how important their support and participation in shopping local is to keeping Atlantic a vibrant place to live.”

November 24th marks the 8th annual Small Business Saturday, a day dedicated to supporting the local businesses that create jobs, boost the economy and preserve neighborhoods around the country. Small business owners can learn more about taking part in Small Business Saturday and download free marketing materials on www.shopsmall.com. Consumers can visit www.atlanticiowa.com to find merchants to shop at on Small Business Saturday.

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

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(Radio Iowa) — A caravan of around seven- thousand Central America refugees continues through southern Mexico on its way to the United States to seek asylum. Some U-S Officials say they aren’t convinced everyone in the group is seeking asylum and President Donald Trump may send our military to the border to deal with the large number of migrants. Iowa Senator Joni Ernst says there is the set process to be admitted to the United States. “We have proper procedures for immigrating into the United States. For those that wish to seek assylum — they need to declare that and they need to go through their proper hearings,” Ernst says.

Ernst says she’s confident federal officials are keeping an eye on the caravan’s progress through Mexico: “We know that Homeland Security is on top of this, they are monitoring it daily, hourly actually,” according to Ernst. “So, I have full confidence that we’ll be able to handle the situation as it might come up. But I know the president is working with Mexico as well to monitor the situation.”

Senators Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Mike Lee of Utah called on the Trump Administration to seek an agreement with Mexico to assist in accommodating the stream of migrants traveling through Mexico seeking asylum. The senators noted acknowledgements by former Obama administration officials that potential security threats are exploiting immigration vulnerabilities to enter the United States. Grassley also said the president is justified in his threat to send troops to defend our nation’s southern border and to stop what Grassley describes as the “attack on national sovereignty” from the caravan.

(Radio Iowa) – A delegation of five Kazakhstani judicial professionals are visiting Iowa this week to observe how the U-S system of justice work. It’s a program of the Iowa International Center, where Janet Norton oversees the International Visitors Programs. “They were selected to come and learn basically a best practices type of program. So, they’re meeting with a broad range of individuals involved in the judiciary in one fashion or another to discuss various aspects of how the courts run here,” Norton says.

They are observing the U-S District Court for the Southern District of Iowa in Des Moines and Iowa 5th District Court in action. They are also meeting with the Iowa State Bar Association and faculty and students from Drake University Law School and the Drake Legal Clinic, and are visiting the Polk County Jail. Norton says they are also sharing some things about their system. She says from what she’s heard there are some similarities in the types of cases that come through the court.

And she says there are some differences in how cases make their way through the court. “They are working on developing more of a juvenile court system in Kazakhstan and focusing on young people’s issue, as apposed to the standard courts,” according to Norton. “They have some type of juvenile system currently, but they are looking at expanding.” Norton says it has been interesting to see them talk with their American counterparts about the system. “They witnessed the sentencing of someone who had been brought up on drug charges. And there was a conversation around the rate of incarceration, the number of people being sent to prison, and the differences between the two countries,” Norton says. “I found it interesting that they said in Kazakhstan their rate of incarceration is lower.”

The group visited Washington, D-C before coming to Iowa and is set to return home on Sunday.

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

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DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — The Davenport School district is investigating reports that a teacher was wearing blackface at a public Halloween party. The Quad-City Times reports that Walcott Elementary teacher Megan Luloff was among people at a Halloween party at the Walcott American Legion who portrayed characters from the movie “Napoleon Dynamite.” She reportedly dressed as Lafawnduh, a character who is black. District Superintendent Art Tate says “the wearing of blackface is never appropriate in any circumstance by any person.”

The district is under state supervision because a disproportionate number of minority students have been identified for special education and subject to disciplinary actions. Betty C. Andrews with the Iowa-Nebraska NAACP Conference of Branches says “the revelation that the woman in blackface is a teacher who is expected to provide a safe and equitable classroom environment for all children is very disconcerting.”

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — No one has won the big Powerball prize, so the estimated jackpot now grows to $750 million — potentially the fourth-largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history. The next drawing will be Saturday. On Wednesday night, when it was at $620 million, the Powerball jackpot looked sort of puny given all the attention lavished on the $1.537 billion Mega Millions jackpot won in South Carolina on Tuesday. But with two giant prizes in one week, it was hard not to compare.

Only three lottery jackpots have been larger than the next Powerball prize. No one has won the Powerball jackpot since Aug. 11, when a man from Staten Island, New York, won $245.6 million.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Officials say a cyberattacker might have taken patient data from a Sioux City vision and surgical practice. The Sioux City Journal reports that officials for Jones Eye Clinic and an affiliated surgery center, CJ Elmwood Partners, discovered a ransomware attack on Aug. 23. In such online attacks, data is locked and payment demanded for the data to be released. The computer systems were put back into service using backup information, and no ransom payment was made.

Officials say the attackers would have had the ability to access patient information contained in billing and schedule software but not medical records. The compromised patient data included some individuals’ Social Security numbers and insurance claim information. Jones Eye Clinic and the surgery center have told patients about the data breach and are paying to enroll the affected patients in a year of credit monitoring.

Red Oak Police Wednesday, arrested a man wanted on a Polk County warrant for Violation of Probation, on an original charge of 1st Degree Harassment.  34-year old Kyle William Chase, of Red Oak, was taken into custody after a brief foot pursuit that began at around Noon, Wednesday, when officers responded to a tip he was at the 4H Apartments, in Red Oak. Upon officers’ arrival, Chase fled the apartment and ran out the back door. He then ran around the building and northbound across East Summit Street into an open field.

Chase was arrested in the field on the warrant, and transported to the Montgomery County Jail where he was held without bond.

(Radio Iowa) — A top ethanol industry official is echoing Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley’s concern about the timeline the Environment Protection Agency has proposed for moving to year-round sales of E15. The recently published agenda by the EPA shows E15 rule making would begin in February. American Coalition for Ethanol CEO Brian Jennings says the process needs to start much sooner than that.

“A proposed rule in February, taking into consideration the comment period, probably a public hearing, how long it has taken EPA to conduct other rule making — it doesn’t appear as if they will be able to get this done in time for the 2019 summer driving season,” Jennings said. Grassley, in a call with reporters this week, said it will “look like the president wasn’t serious in his announcement” if the EPA doesn’t ramp up its timeline.

“We don’t need this sort of bureaucratic red tape with something that’s been discussed in Washington for four or five years and discussed within this administration, and specifically with EPA, and specifically face to face with the president for about a year now,” Grassley said. According to Jennings, it’s up to the Trump Administration to follow through.

“We really need the administration to speed this up,” Jennings said. “We can’t have EPA slow-walk this after the president made such a big splash in announcing it.” Current law restricts the sale of E15 and higher ethanol blends from June 1st to September 15th. President Trump traveled to Council Bluffs two weeks ago and announced he directed the EPA to make E15 available all year.

(Thanks to Amy Mayer, Iowa Public Radio, and Mark Dorenkamp, Brownfield Ag News)