SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Sioux City officials are considering a $16.4 million plan for its riverfront, though there are concerns there’s not enough parking space. The Sioux City Journal reports that architecture company SmithGroup JJR presented council members with the updated plan Monday. Landscape architect Tom Rogers says the plan includes interactive structures that light up and change color. The plan also includes open green spaces, pavilions, overlooks, a basketball court, a dog park, a playground and a fishing pier platform. Rogers says work on the project could begin in 2020 and finish in 2023.

The council has tentatively designated $6 million in city funds for the project. Organizers will have to turn to private fundraising. Mayor Bob Scott says he’s concerned that the current plan for 67 parking spaces doesn’t have enough room.

• 1 1/2 lb. hamburger
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 4 shakes garlic salt
• 2 cups cooked wide noodles
• 1 can tomato soup
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 (15.5 oz.) can spaghetti sauce
• 4 oz. package shredded mozzarella cheese
• 4 oz. package shredded cheddar cheese

Brown hamburger, add onion, oregano, garlic salt, noodles, tomato soup, water and spaghetti sauce.  Put in square casserole dish.  Sprinkle with cheeses.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes.

(Dorothy Alff)

Officials with the Creston Police Department say three people were arrested on Theft charges, Monday night. At around 10:10-p.m., 19-year old Jasmine Grace Aviles, of Crawfordville, FL., 20-year old Madelyn Moya, of Lansing, KS, and 18-year old Paola Tavares, of Creston, were taken into custody at the Wal-Mart in Creston, on charges of Theft in the 5th Degree. All three were being held in the Adams County Jail on $300 bond, each.

And, at around 4:50-a.m. today (Tuesday), Steven White, of Creston, was arrested following a traffic stop, for Driving While Suspended. He was later released from the Union County Jail on a $300 bond. 

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

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FOREST CITY, Iowa (AP) — A Forest City man accused of shooting a pellet gun at a school bus has been given five years of probation. The Globe Gazette reports that 33-year-old Martin Tindall also was sentenced last week to five years in prison, suspended, and told to pay $510 restitution to the Forest City school district. He’d entered an Alford plea to the felony charge of intimidation with a dangerous weapon. In an Alford plea, a person doesn’t admit guilt but acknowledges there is enough evidence for a likely conviction.

No one was injured in the Jan. 5, 2018, incident. A pellet shattered one of the bus windows .

The Iowa Dept. of Transportation reports numerous area highways are partially covered with ice this morning, creating slick driving surfaces, especially on bridges. Some affected roads include:

• Highway 71 from Hwy 141 south to Grant
• Highway 173 from Hwy 44 to Hwy 83
• Highway 83 from Anita to Avoca
• Highway 6 from Anita to Council Bluffs
• Highway 25 from Hwy 141 to I-80
• I-80 from Hwy 25 to the I-680 split
• Highway 148 from I-80 to Hwy 92
• Highway 92 from Cumberland to Treynor
• Highway 59 from Harlan to Henderson
• Highway 44 from Panora to Hwy 30

(Radio Iowa) — Operators of big rigs traveling through Iowa and seven other states are starting to take advantage of a new system designed to make it easier for commercial drivers to locate parking in rest areas and private truck stops. Phil Mescher, with the Iowa DOT’s Office of Systems Planning, says the effort was launched several years ago and went “live” earlier this month. “People can travel all across our interstate system and at certain times see overcrowding of trucks in our rest areas and truck stops,” Mescher said.

Truck drivers can get information on available parking spaces along select interstates through various smart phone apps that access a data feed provided at trucksparkhere.com (trucks park here dot com). Officials in each of the eight states that are part of the “Trucks Park Here” system chose their own state-specific plans. In Iowa, the information is focused primarily on parking spots located along Interstate 80. “In Iowa, we picked the Interstate 80 corridor because that is where most of our truck traffic is. Mescher said also, “We have some sites that are very close to I-80. They go up I-29 and we also have one off of I-235. We go up Intestate 35 all the way to the rest areas that are south of Story City. We go up Interstate 380 as well, up to the Cedar Rapids area.”

Information on the available truck parking spots in Iowa will eventually be included on the state’s 511 system (www.511ia.org). The system should help truckers who need to find a parking space before reaching limits on how many hours they can be on the road. “It will never say that there are no spots available, it will just say the availability is low. But that at least gives them advanced information to make a decision…if they know their hours of service are about up, then they should probably go ahead and park in that first one rather than trying to risk getting to the next one,” Mescher said.

The Trucks Park Here system uses a variety of in-pavement and parking lot entrance/exit sensors. The effort was funded by a $25 million federal grant and involves the states of Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

WAUKEE, Iowa (AP) — The superintendent of the embattled Waukee Community School District will be leaving her post at the end of the school year. The school board voted Monday to accept Superintendent Cindy McDonald’s resignation, effective June 30. The third year of her three-year contract will be voided. A special state audit report released last month said administrators improperly used state credit cards and spent nearly $129,000 on items and services that “were not in the taxpayers’ best interest.”

The report says the items included nearly $28,000 for lounge chairs and furniture for the superintendent’s office and more than $83,000 on district administrators’ retreats. The district’s former chief operating officer, Eric Rose, is charged with two counts of solicitation to commit a felony and one count of felonious misconduct in office. Dallas County court records say Rose has pleaded not guilty.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CST

WASHINGTON (AP) — Iowa Republican congressman Steve King is losing his place on House committees after GOP officials condemned his comments about race. The nine-term congressman had lamented in a recent interview that white supremacy and white nationalism have become offensive terms. House Democrats are pursuing censure and other punishments for King, who has been criticized for his remarks about race over the years.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s top elections official has acknowledged that his office mistakenly derailed a long-sought plan to grant residents more expansive gun rights by forgetting to notify the public of the proposed constitutional amendment. Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate cited a “bureaucratic oversight” for his office’s failure to publish notice of the proposed amendment in newspapers before the November election, which the state constitution requires.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Republicans who control the Iowa Legislature are vowing to continue building the state’s workforce while reducing taxes and government dependence, the kind of reforms they say voters had in mind when returning them to power. Both parties pledged bipartisanship as the legislative session opened but largely laid out priorities unlikely to foster much agreement.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — House Democrats appointed to a committee to review the results of a contested northeast Iowa House seat are vowing to fight any attempt to rush to judgment on whether to count 29 absentee mail ballots. Kayla Koether trails Republican incumbent Michael Bergan by nine votes in the Iowa House district 55 seat. The dispute is the result of a conflict between state law and current practices of the U.S. Postal Service.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Veteran Republican Rep. Steve King will be blocked from committee assignments for the next two years after lamenting that white supremacy and white nationalism have become offensive terms. King, in his ninth term representing Iowa, will not be given committee assignments in the Congress that began this month, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Monday night.

King served on the Agriculture, Small Business and Judiciary committees in the last Congress, and he chaired Judiciary’s subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice. McCarthy, R-Calif., called King’s remarks “beneath the dignity of the Party of Lincoln and the United States of America.”
King’s comments “call into question whether he will treat all Americans equally, without regard for race and ethnicity,” McCarthy said, adding: “House Republicans are clear: We are all in this together, as fellow citizens equal before God and the law.”

The action by the GOP steering committee came after King and McCarthy met Monday to discuss the remarks on white supremacy, the latest in a years-long pattern of racially insensitive remarks by King. King called McCarthy’s decision to remove him from committees “a political decision that ignores the truth.” He vowed to “continue to point out the truth and work with all the vigor that I have to represent 4th District Iowans for at least the next two years.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell denounced King earlier Monday, saying, “There is no place in the Republican Party, the Congress or the country for an ideology of racial supremacy of any kind.” Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, also condemned King, telling CNN Monday that King “doesn’t have a place in our party” or in Congress and should resign.

Meanwhile, House Democrats moved to formally punish King. Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., the third-ranking House Democrat and the highest-ranking African-American in Congress, introduced a formal resolution of disapproval late Monday. Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., said he will introduce a censure resolution, a more serious action by the House, that Rush said would announce to the world that Congress has no home for “repugnant and racist behavior.” A third Democrat, Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio, introduced a separate censure resolution against King.

One Republican did not join the chorus of criticism. Asked about King’s remarks Monday, President Donald Trump said, “I haven’t been following it.”