The Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce held its annual dinner and awards program Saturday night. During the event, Mark McNees, who until Jan. 1^st served as Chief of the Atlantic Fire Department, was awarded the Distinguished Service Award for his years of civic and professional service to the community. In addition to having served as fire chief 13 years and being a member of the fire department for over 29-years, Mark is an active member of the Atlantic Elks Club. He’s been with the organization for more than 33-years. McNees has also volunteered his time for countless community events.

Debbie Leistad was presented Saturday, with the 2019 ATHENA Leadership Award. The Distinguished Service Award recognizes an individual, business or organization that has made the community a better place to live. They have rendered special services for the benefit of the community and have demonstrated an active leadership role for the betterment of the community through their involvement in business, civic and social service organizations. The award, sponsored by Deter Motor Company, has been made available locally, since 1986.

Leistad was recognized for her dedicated service to helping women reach their leadership potential. She is an active member of Atlantic Business & Professional Women, and many other civic groups.

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports two arrests. At around 1:16-a.m. today (Monday), 60-year old Michael Francis Anderson, of Omaha, NE., was arrested for being a Fugitive From Justice. His arrest took place following a traffic stop. Anderson was being held without bond in the Mills County Jail. And, Saturday night, 47-year old Gary Edward White, Jr., of Silver City, was arrested for OWI/1st offense. His bond was set at $1,000.

An accident Friday morning in Mills County resulted in the driver of an SUV being transported to the hospital in Red Oak, by Red Oak Rescue. Sheriff’s officials say 75-year old Charles Walker, of Shenandoah, was driving a 2005 Jeep eastbound on Highway 34 at around 10:30-a.m., when, due to the road and weather conditions, he lost control. The Jeep ended-up in the north ditch.

BETTENDORF, Iowa (AP) –  A high school science teacher in Davenport has been accused of secretly recording nude videos of two females who’d stayed at his Bettendorf home. Clinton Van Fossen is charged with five misdemeanor counts of invasion of privacy and with other crimes. It’s unclear whether he has an attorney. Associated Press attempts to reach him Monday were unsuccessful. Davenport Community School District officials say Van Fossen had been placed on administrative leave with pay. He is listed as a science teacher at Davenport West High School. He’s denied knowing about two spy cameras police say they found in his Bettendorf home.

(Radio Iowa) — Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang says he’s enormously proud of his wife for publicly revealing she was sexually assaulted by her doctor. Her gynecologist pleaded guilty to two charges after Yang and 17 other women filed complaints. Andrew Yang says institutions must do more to prevent violence, but there must be a cultural change, too. “First, we have to listen to and respond and protect women,” Yang says. “We also need to work on helping our boys become strong, healthy men because strong, healthy men do not abuse and assault women.”

Yang plans to campaign continuously in Iowa until Caucus Night. Yang’s bus tour is in contrast to the three U.S. senators running for president who must be in D.C. for the impeachment trial. “I wish that the senators didn’t have to head to D.C. for this trial and that they could be here campaigning, too,” Yang says, “but our plan was always to be here and really eager to get our message out to Iowans over the next two weeks.”

Former Vice President Joe Biden and former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg will also be crisscrossing the state. The Iowa Caucuses are two-weeks away from today (Monday).

(Radio Iowa) — A weekend mishap at the Quad City International Airport is being blamed on the icy weather. A Delta Airlines jet slid off a taxiway at the airport on Saturday just before the plane was scheduled to take off for Detroit. There were no injuries reported among the 50 passengers or crew. Airport officials say the runways were clear but there was ice on the taxiway, while winds gusting up to 50 miles an hour were likely a contributing factor. The airport was closed by the snowstorm from Friday afternoon through Saturday morning.

OMAHA, Neb. (Jan. 20, 2020) – Creighton University Professor Guy McHendry, Ph.D. has conducted extensive research that examines the ripple effects of surveillance on our society and bias in surveillance technology. He says people may not realize how often they are observed, or the amount of data collected about them. McHendry, an associate professor in Creighton University’s Department of Communication Studies, teaches a course on surveillance culture, which he describes as the culmination of the ideas, beliefs, values, practices and laws in our society surrounding surveillance. “I have students record every interaction they have with surveillance for a 36-hour period, and the volume is overwhelming,” said McHendry. “We interact with surveillance practices whenever we browse online, make a credit card purchase or walk past a surveillance camera. Much of the surveillance we experience is not even visible to us.”

McHendry says companies build profiles that aggregate tens of thousands of data points to categorize consumers and predict and influence purchases. “It is not an exaggeration to say that most people are under some form of surveillance every minute of their life. If they have a smartphone that records location data, their every movement is tracked – including periods of inactivity while their phone sits next to them as they sleep. In addition, some cities have built large networks of license plate readers which could be used to map individual travel throughout a city.” McHendry said.

While vast amounts of data are collected, the technology and practices in use are frequently biased, and can lead to misidentification and misnomers, McHendry says. “They are designed by humans and reflect human ideas and priorities,” McHendry said. “For example, facial recognition systems struggle to recognize non-white faces because the data sets used to train the programs do not have enough non-white faces to build a predictive model. As a result, these systems are more likely to misidentify People of Color.”

McHendry also highlights bias posing potential dangers to women. “There is an entire stalking economy devoted to surveillance apps and devices. These technologies are disproportionately used by men to target women. Women are particularly at risk because of technology that makes every moment of life and location accessible. The volume of data makes it very difficult for someone to block or hide from an abusive partner.” While some surveillance practices are unavoidable, McHendry says there are some proactive measures that individuals could implement:

• Use a password manager or create unique, complex passwords for each online account.
• Use two-factor authentication whenever possible.
• Regularly review privacy settings on all apps and devices connected to the internet. Many apps and devices could collect data that is not required to use the full functionality.
• Undergo a regular “digital house-cleaning.” Unsubscribe, uninstall, delete and cancel obsolete apps, emails, online subscriptions and services.
• Regularly review web browser privacy settings.

McHendry says another proactive tactic is to educate children about surveillance, privacy and healthy online habits. McHendry is planning to continue additional research in late-2020.