The City of Harlan Public Works Department will be snow plowing throughout the day today, Tuesday, March 6th. The City is asking for voluntary off-street parking today AND tomorrow to assist the Public Works Department with snow removal. City Administrator Gene Gettys said “The City of Harlan appreciates your cooperation.”

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Senate wants to require Iowa grocers in a supplemental food program to offer conventional eggs if they sell eggs from chickens housed in cage-free, free-range or enriched colony cage environments. The Des Moines Register reports that senators passed the measure Monday and sent it to the governor.

The legislation would apply to grocers that participate as vendors in the federal program for Women, Infants, and Children, known as WIC. The measure would allow state officials to seek a federal waiver if necessary. Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, says the bill amounts to “direct interference in the marketplace,” but Sen. Dan Zumbach, R-Ryan, praises the legislation for ensuring that a lower-cost choice for protein is available to people in the program. Cage-free chicken eggs typically are more expensive than conventional eggs from large operations.

The Iowa Dept. of Transportation reported at 7:17-a.m. today (Tuesday), that Highway 25, about three-miles north of Greenfield, is blocked in both directions, due to a crash.  Additional details are currently not available. Plan an alternate route of transportation. Near Redfield, a rollover accident was reported to have occurred on Highway 44. And, I-80 eastbound through Omaha to I-680 was temporarily closed due to an accident, along with snow and blowing snow restricting visibility.

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

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OSCEOLA, Iowa (AP) — An Osceola businesswoman has announced her Republican candidacy for the U.S. House seat representing Iowa’s 2nd District. Ginny Caligiuri said in her news release Monday that she’ll hold a campaign starting event Thursday in Osceola. She says she’s a “a pro-life, pro-2nd Amendment, pro-Israel, and pro-Constitution conservative.” She says that in Congress she’d also focus on religious liberty, veterans services and increasing opportunities for small- and medium-size businesses.

Caligiuri is a former bank vice president who has a history of activism with political prayer and evangelical advocacy groups. Coralville surgeon Christopher Peters announced his GOP candidacy last summer. The incumbent is Democrat Dave Loebsack. The 2nd District covers most of southeastern Iowa.

Governor Kim Reynolds seems to be leaving the door open to a bill that would cut the state income tax on corporations as well as reduce income taxes for individuals. “I feel confident that we’re going to get something done with tax reform this legislative session,” Reynolds says. “This is part of the process. I started with a bill. The Senate has a bill and now the good work starts to take place where we can find consensus and things that we don’t agree on.”

In January, Reynolds used part of her “Condition of the State” message to ask legislators to delay any decision on corporate tax cuts until next year. In mid-February, Reynolds unveiled a bill to gradually cut individual income tax rates by 23 percent. Last week, a House subcommittee endorsed the governor’s plan, while Senate Republicans voted to reduce corporate taxes as well as income taxes for individuals. On Monday, Reynolds was asked by reporters if she was open to the Senate G-O-P’s more expansive list of tax cuts. “I just want to make sure that it’s sustainable and that we can honor our commitments for education and some of our priorities and we’re doing it in a fiscally responsible manner and, within that parameter, we can have a discussion about a lot of things,” Reynolds said.

A three-member state panel meets this Friday to re-evaluate the official projection of state tax revenue for the current year. If the panel INCREASES it prediction of tax collections between now and June 30th, that would reduce or eliminate the legislature’s plan to cut the current year’s state budget to deal with LOWER than expect tax revenue.

(Radio Iowa)

Iowa’s Republican governor and the state ag secretary who just resigned to join the Trump Administration both say there’s concern in “farm country” about changes in U.S. trade policies. On Monday, President Trump tweeted that the only way Canada and Mexico get exempted from new tariffs on steel and aluminum will be if the North American Free Trade Agreement is renegotiated. Governor Kim Reynolds says she’s made it clear to members of Trump’s cabinet that “instability” in trade relationships will have a negative impact on Iowa’s farmers. “I’ve made it pretty clear where we stand on that,” Reynolds says. “….Especially, the fragile economy that we’ve had with the farm economy. With commodity prices under input costs, this is something that we monitor very, very closely.”

Reynolds, a Republican who became governor last May, says she is “o.k with” renegotiating trade deals, but since Canada and Mexico are Iowa’s two leading trade partners, she opposes abandoning NAFTA.”The impact that would have on our state and Midwestern states and, really, states all across the country — but I’m focused on Iowa, would be devastating,” Reynolds says. She says when she and the governors of Michigan, Tennessee and Arkansas met with Trump Administration officials in October, they suggested ways the president could “win” at trade. Reynolds also is warning any economic growth from the federal tax cuts would be erased if NAFTA is dissolved. President Trump often mentioned the federal trade deficit as he campaigned for the White House and he’s recently tweeted that a “trade war” would be easy for the U.S. to win. According to the governor, comments like that create “uncertainty” in the economy and Reynolds says she has “tremendous concern” about a trade war. “Our farmers are the first target…and we know that’s where the unintended consequences will fall…on our farmers and our manufacturers,” Reynolds says.

Bill Northey resigned as state ag secretary yesterday (Monday) and will be sworn in this (Tuesday) evening as an undersecretary in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Northey told reporters yesterday President Trump’s tweets won’t be in his “field of vision.” Instead, Northey indicated he’ll be taking direction from U.S. Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue.  “Certainly you’ve heard the secretary continue to say, and the president as well, that trade is important,” Northey says. “We need to improve trade. We need to increase trade. We need to do it in a fair way. There (are) concerns…when you have uncertainties, about where everything’s going in the future.”

And Northey says everyone “in farm country” understands the importance of trade — and the threat posed if other countries retaliate with tariffs on raw commodities like soybeans and on made-in-Iowa products like grain bins and tractors.

(Radio Iowa)

The Iowa Department of Transportation is studying Interstate 80 from the Illinois to Nebraska border as it plans for the future. The D-O-T’s Brad Hofer says they are looking at the busy highway in segments as they put together what he calls a “vision document.” “It’s a pretty big animal to think about reconstructing — especially in terms of funding. So, we knew we couldn’t do it all at once. We knew we had to kind of take it as the infrastructure sort of aged,” Hofer says.  They have been gathering input in online public forums and from transportation groups as part of an overall study. “This study was to sort of develop a plan with which all those little pieces, all those sections could be built with that end vision, end goal in mind,” he says. Hofer says one thing stood out as they talked to people. He says some five-thousand people have given input, and a lot of the feedback has dealt with all the trucks on the highway and the need for more lanes.

Hofer says they are looking down the road into the future with this study. “Something new that we did with this study that we haven’t really done before is look at technology and how technology will play a part in future improvements,” Hofer says. ” I know everybody has been talking about automated vehicles and connected vehicles — and this will be the first time that we have really looked at what those kind of technological improvements would do for capacity gains on the roadways.” People from all across the country travel the east-west route. “Some parts of western Iowa are pretty low and you get towards the eastern side of the state and it’s significantly higher. Some of the projections were up to 55-thousand vehicles a day,” Hofer explains. “So, it’s pretty significant.”

Hofer says the process is getting underway as they prepare the overall plan. He says they’ve already started a more traditional study from Iowa City out to West Branch, kicking off a traditional study with the overall picture in mind. The D-O-T plans to hold another public meeting to gather more input. “We’ll also kind of put together that vision document and get it out ahead of that meeting. And then we’ll also kind of augment that in-person meeting with another online meeting to give people the chance to comment on that vision document,” according to Hofer.

The details on the public meeting have not yet been set. To read more on the I-80 study, go to the Department of Transportation’s webpage.

(Radio Iowa)

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office, Monday afternoon, issued a report on recent arrests. Officials said there were four arrests Monday: 61-year old Donald Ray Golden, of Hamburg, was arrested for OWI/1st offense. Bond was set at $1,000; 42-year old Jessica Lynn Brooks was arrested at the Pottawattamie County Jail, on a Mills County warrant for Probation Violation. Bond was set at $5,000; 35-year old Sherice Nicole Dismang, of Omaha, was also arrested Monday in Mills County, on a warrant for Probation Violation. Her bond was set at $15,000; and, 23-year old Dylan Lee Conn, of Plattsmouth, NE., was arrested on a warrant charging him with two counts of Failure to Appear in court. His bond was set at $10,000.

On Sunday, 38-year old Patrick Lynn Darren, of Glenwood, was arrested on I-29, for Driving Under Suspension and Possession of a Controlled Substance. His bond was set at $1,300. And, last Saturday, 38-year old Rusty Ervin Meinke, of Emerson, was arrested for Domestic Abuse Assault. He was being held without bond, in the Mills County Jail.

The Shelby County Emergency Management Agency, in conjunction with Fire Chiefs in Shelby County, has begun to issue their bi-weekly, local outdoor fire danger updates. The updates will continue until ground conditions improve. As of Monday, the Fire Danger in Shelby County was “Low.”  The next update will be on Thursday.