Two area school districts will hold public meetings with regard to their separate, proposed 2017-18 School Year budgets. In Elk Horn, the Exira-EHK School Board meeting takes place in the Conference Room at the Elk Horn building. Their session starts at 6-p.m. with a Public Hearing on the Budget.

New business during their session includes: approval of the 2017-18 School budget; approval of R.L. Craft’s repair proposal for a section of roof on the Elk Horn building; approval of a district van purchase; approval of Master Contract Changes for Teaching Staff, for 2017-18, as well as personnel hires, transfers, resignations, etc.

In Anita, the CAM School Board will open public hearings at 6:30-p.m. in the CAM High School Media Center, on the 2017-18 School Calendar and 2017-18 Certified Budget. Later on during their session, the Board will hear an update and possibly act on a change order for the Elementary Building addition. They’ll also act on: Approving the 2017-18 School Calendar and Certified Budget; Operational Sharing and other matters.

Officials with the Creston Police Department report the arrest at around 1:45-a.m. today (Tuesday), of 32-year old Omasan MaCarthy, of Spencer. MaCarthy was taken into custody at the Union County Law Enforcement Center (LEC) on a Union County warrant for Probation Violation. He was being held in the jail while awaiting a bond hearing.

And, at around 11:55-p.m. Monday, 40-year old Shelby Weis, of Creston, was arrested for Driving While Barred. Weis was brought to the Ringgold County Jail and held on a $2,000 bond for Union County, as well as a warrant out of Dallas County, for Probation Violation.

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

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The U-S Army Corps of Engineers is holding a series of public meetings this week to offer updates on the planned operation of the Missouri River Mainstem Reservoir System. Corps spokeswoman Amy Gaskill says today’s (Tuesday) meeting is in Omaha/Council Bluffs and it’s open to all. Gaskill says, “Anybody who’s interested in learning more about our water operations and can provide input if they have information to help us operate the system differently, or with more information.”

The public meetings will include a presentation on current conditions in the river basin and the Corps’ plans for operating the reservoir system in the year ahead. There will also be time for questions. Gaskill says the system is ready for any possible flooding situation, though no flooding is anticipated on the Missouri this spring.

“We have a lot of space left in our storage in the reservoirs to handle the water that’s going to be coming down from the mountain snow melt, so we’re looking pretty good there,” Gaskill says. “A significant amount of the plains snowpack has already melted and been through the system, so we’re looking pretty good there as well.”

Gaskill says they’ll also provide updates on how the river is being monitored. “We manage the river and keep a close eye on it, working with our partners from the National Weather Service, from NOAA, making sure we can respond as soon as we can,” she says.

Today’s meeting is at 5 PM at the Western Historic Trails Center in Council Bluffs.

(Radio Iowa)

Poultry farmers in Iowa and across the Midwest continue to follow strict biosecurity practices as they try to prevent a repeat of 2015’s devastating avian influenza (AI) outbreak. Russ Yoder, who raises turkeys near Wayland in southeast Iowa, says biosecurity is a part of everything they do on the farm. “Disinfecting boots all the time, washing clothes, washing pickups and tires — it’s a never-ending battle,” Yoder says. “And when you go to town, you don’t wear your boots into the gas station, you don’t wear your boots into the feed mill, or anywhere. Then, when you get out to the farm, you change your boots and you disinfect. You’re only as strong as your weakest link and all it takes is once.”

Yoder, who serves as president of the Iowa Turkey Federation, was able to avoid the disease in his operation in 2015. But, this spring’s A-I outbreaks in the southeastern U.S. have him and other poultry farmers on high alert. Yoder says warmer weather would help alleviate some of those concerns. “A 48-degree, cold, damp day, they say AI can live up to 30 days in those environments. Where, you get an 85-degree, warm, sunny, dry day, it can live up to three hours,” Yoder says. “So, weather is a part of it. This time of the year is the big challenge. So, we just need to keep working on biosecurity.”

Except for one case of low pathogenic avian flu in a Wisconsin turkey flock last month, all of this spring’s outbreaks have been confined to broiler houses in the Southeast. Avian flu can be carried by wild birds as they migrate north. It is NOT a food safety issue for humans.

(Radio Iowa w/reporting by Ken Anderson, Brownfield Ag News)

A Cherokee woman has agreed to plead guilty to two charges of reckless driving causing serious injury by motor vehicle after backing out of another plea deal in January.  Thirty-year-old Melissa Ebert was the driver in a September, 2015 Plymouth County two vehicle accident that injured Ebert’s passenger and the other driver. Monday’s hearing had been scheduled to be on a change of venue in the case where Ebert had threatened to kill herself and her passenger before veering her car into the path of an on-coming car. She had previously agreed to a plea deal to serve a maximum of 12 years in prison.

In the new plea deal, Ebert will serve five years in prison on each count, with the sentences served consecutively for a total of ten years. Five other counts including two counts of attempted murder and willful injury plus second offense O-W-I were dropped. Ebert will be sentenced May 8th at 1 p-m in Plymouth County District Court.

(Radio Iowa)

Authorities in Council Bluffs are investigating the armed robbery this (Tuesday) morning, of a convenience store. Bluffs Police say at around 2-a.m., two black males entered the Speedee Mart at 3624 9th Ave. The first man produced a black pistol and demanded money from the clerk. Both the suspects were described as wearing all black clothing with the hoods up on their jackets.

As the suspects were about to leave the store the first suspect fired a shot striking the wall. The clerk was not injured. The suspects fled on foot to the west and north. If you have any information regarding the incident, please call crime stoppers at 712-328-STOP (7867).

Police in Council Bluffs are investigating a fire in a garage near an apartment complex. At around 1:42-a.m. today (Tuesday), Council Bluffs Police and Fire Departments were dispatched to Parkwild Apartments (1800 Parkwild Dr, CB) for a garage fire. Upon arrival the fire department located the fire in a garage by the 1920 building. Forced entry had to be made into the garage to battle the fire. The fire was quickly suppressed by the fire department.

The cause of the fire is not known at this time. The garage and contents sustained moderate damage. The damage to the garage structure is estimated between $2000 and $3000. The total monetary damage done to the contents is not known.

The Council Bluffs Fire Department – Fire Marshals’ Office is investigating the fire. Anyone with information is urged to contact the Fire Marshals’ Office at (712) 328-4646 or Crime Stoppers at (712) 328-STOP (7867).

A nurse and her husband sat quietly crying in an Iowa House balcony last week as a bill inspired by their daughter cleared its final legislative hurdle. Amanda Devereaux of Des Moines contracted a virus known by the initials C-M-V when she was pregnant. As a result, her 18-month-old daughter, Pippa, cannot walk, talk or feed herself and is undergoing physical therapy.

“She’s moderately affected actually,” Devereaux says. “There’s kind of a spectrum with CMV. There’s kids that are born with the virus and never have a single symptom. There’s kids that maybe have just one symptom and then there’s kids that are very severely impacted, all the way up to dying from the virus.” A bill that has cleared the Iowa House AND Senate unanimously would require hearing tests for newborns, since hearing loss is an indicator a baby may have contracted C-M-V in the womb.

In addition, the state will provide doctors with information to pass along to pregnant women about the dangers of C-M-V. It’s a common virus. By the age of five, about one-in-three kids have had it.  “If I had known when I was pregnant that I could catch something from my toddler that would harm my unborn children, I think I would have done things differently,” she says, “but I just had no idea.” Devereaux caught C-M-V from her toddler, who was in day care.

“I would kiss him on the lips. I would share drinks with him,” Devereaux says. “I didn’t really realize that I could actually do my second child so much harm just by doing things that families do.” And Devereaux hopes by telling her story — AND having this bill become law — more pregnant women with toddlers will take precautions to avoid catching C-M-V. “I’m a nurse,” Devereaux says. “I know a lot of things about staying healthy and I didn’t know about this.”

According to the National C-M-V Foundation, only nine percent of pregnant women know about the virus. Each year, about 40-thousand babies in the U.S. are infected with C-M-V before birth. Experts say women who’ve had the virus BEFORE they’re pregnant aren’t at risk of passing it along to their babies.

However, if a woman contracts it for the first time during the first trimester of a pregnancy, that’s when the brain and other major organs are developing. That’s when the virus can cause devastating abnormalities.

(Radio Iowa)

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

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Republican lawmakers say they want the state to foot the bill for a new family planning program that excludes funding for Planned Parenthood, a move that resulted from the state’s decision to forgo Medicaid funding in the upcoming budget. GOP lawmakers say they plan to use state money to fund the estimated $3 million program. The funding change was required after the loss of federal Medicaid dollars following approval of a bill requiring that no state funding go toward Planned Parenthood..

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa bill that would have eliminated public access to many 911 calls is dead this session. Caleb Hunter, a spokesman for the Iowa Senate’s Republican majority, confirmed Monday the legislation has been taken off the debate calendar. The bill would’ve declared that 911 calls involving injured victims are medical records and exempt from Iowa’s open records law. All calls regarding minors also would have been confidential.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A small-town Iowa newspaper editorial writer won the Pulitzer Prize on Monday for taking on powerful agricultural organizations after a water utility sued the paper’s home county and two others over farm pollution. Art Cullen, who owns the Storm Lake Times with his brother John, says his editorials were about government transparency.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A state senator is back at the Iowa Capitol after a brief illness that resulted in him being taken by ambulance to a Des Moines hospital. Sen. Rich Taylor, a Democrat from Mount Pleasant, says in a statement he was feeling “ill” Monday at the Capitol. He was taken to a hospital as a precaution. He was later back in the Senate for floor debate.