Atlantic Mayor Dave Jones administered the Oath of Office to Atlantic Police Officer Spencer Walton, Wednesday night. (click on the left side of the audio bar to play the cut)

The event took place as part of the regular City Council meeting. Walton, who has been an Officer with the A-PD for nearly 9-years, was promoted to Sergeant in order to fill a vacancy on the Atlantic Police force created by the resignation of Cody Eckles.

Atlantic Police Officer Spencer Walton (Left) becomes Sgt. Walton, after taking the Oath of Office from Mayor Dave Jones. (Ric Hanson/photo)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Pork industry experts say U.S. consumers shouldn’t worry about a bacon shortage. The reassurance comes amid news that demand for bacon depleted frozen pork belly supplies in the U.S. to a record low for December. Pork bellies are the cut of the hog from which bacon is derived.

But the industry is confident it can boost hog production enough to avoid any serious shortages. Steve Meyer is a pork industry economist for Express Markets Inc., which tracks industry trends for retailers and foodservice companies.

He expects pork production to increase about 3 percent this year. So if prices do climb, they should stabilize once the industry catches up. Bottom line: A pound of bacon may cost a little more as winter wears on, but prices should stabilize by summer.

There’s still time to register! Food, Family and Fun kicks off tomorrow night- but we have some open spaces in the kitchen! Bring the family and join us for this 6 week, hands-on family cooking class. Each week we will make a basic meal to eat as a family, and another to take home and freeze. Food, Family and Fun is open to anyone interested in cooking healthy, family-friendly meals on a budget!

Food, Family and Fun is a six session course, held once a week, where families will come together to have a little fun while learning how to cook and eat good food! Cass County ISU Extension and the Kiwanis Club of Atlantic are excited to offer this program in Cass County. The class meets at the Atlantic Middle School for 6 weeks in February and March, and will utilize the Family and Consumer Science classroom so participants can get hands-on practice in a kitchen environment. Open to any family interested in improving their skills in family meal-planning and preparation, this program is geared towards families with children aged 5-18.

At each weekly session, families meet with class mentors from 6-8 PM to prepare healthy meals through hands-on cooking experience. Families will make TWO meals at each session- one to enjoy during the class, and a second meal to take home and freeze or eat later in the week. Families will also participate in activities on communication, meal-planning, and health and nutrition.

A small fee of $5 per session will be charged per family to help cover grocery costs. For a family of 5 this costs $1 for two full meals! In addition, families completing at least 5 of the 6 classes will receive a kitchen “supply kit” full of kitchen essentials to put those new skills to use at home, and a new programmable crockpot to make healthy winter meal prep a snap.

Spaces are still available in the class, starting Thursday February 2^nd, but pre-registrations are required to allow planning for food and materials. To register, or for more information on class content, dates, etc.- find a brochure and registration form on the Cass County Extension website at www.extension.iastate.edu/cass, call the Cass County Extension office at 712-243-1132 or email keolson@iastate.edu.

(Press Release from ISU Extension/Cass County)

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Nearly 200 people turned out at a southeast Omaha intersection to remember a Council Bluffs woman killed a year ago in a crash police say was caused by a drunken driver in the country illegally. Friends and family of 21-year-old Sarah Root release balloons Tuesday night in her memory.

Investigators say 20-year-old Eswin Mejia was in the country illegally when he was driving drunk last February and crashed into Root’s car, killing her. Authorities haven’t seen Mejia since he posted $5,000 bond and was released from jail.

Iowa and Nebraska lawmakers have introduced legislation to require federal immigration officials to keep any person in the country illegally in custody when charged with a crime involving serious injury or death. President Donald Trump mentioned the Omaha case during his campaign rallies to bolster support for a crackdown on illegal immigration.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Gov. Terry Branstad has signed into law the Iowa Legislature’s plan to eliminate a shortfall in the state’s current $7.2 billion budget. Branstad signed a bill Wednesday that cuts about $117 million in spending from the budget that began last July. Various Iowa agencies will collectively cut about $88 million. An additional $25 million will be taken from other funds used for programs ranging from economic development to the arts. About $4 million was saved from unused tax credits.

Some affected Iowa departments — including corrections, higher education and public safety — will determine where those cuts will be made. Branstad says he is pleased the GOP-controlled Legislature exempted K-12 education, Medicaid and certain property taxes cuts from the reductions. Democrats have said the cuts will hurt state government.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa lawmaker has asked the state’s top lawyer to review the legislative procedures surrounding Gov. Terry Branstad’s plans to resign and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynold’s expected ascension to governor. Sen. David Johnson, an independent from Ocheyedan, sent a letter Wednesday to Attorney General Tom Miller seeking an opinion on language in the Iowa Constitution that explains what happens when a governor steps down.

Johnson’s letter asks several questions, including whether the Iowa Legislature must approve a change in executive office. Branstad has said he will resign from his job pending a U.S. Senate confirmation to become the next ambassador to China.

Ben Hammes, a spokesman for the governor’s office, says Miller has already stated that Reynolds will become governor and has the power to appoint a new lieutenant governor.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – Hundreds of volunteer fire departments in nearly every pocket of Iowa have members who were improperly awarded nationally-recognized certifications by the state fire academy. The Fire Service Training Bureau has sent letters to 560 mostly volunteer agencies notifying them that “one or more firefighters on your department may have been” improperly granted one or more certificates, despite failing their exams.

The Iowa Department of Public Safety announced last week that 1,706 firefighters and emergency responders were improperly granted 2,278 certifications between 2012 and 2016. Those individuals will be required to retake the tests before June 30 or be faced with starting the certification process from scratch. The bureau is offering free refresher courses and retests across the state starting Feb. 11.

The bureau’s former accreditation manager, John McPhee, was arrested last week and charged with misconduct and tampering with records. A complaint accuses McPhee of failing to grade tests and simply assigning random scores. He pleaded not guilty last week.

Bureau officials identified the improper certifications after rescoring tests for which the exams and answer keys were still available. An undetermined number of other tests could not be rescored.

Firefighters from Atlantic were called to a gas-line incident this (Wednesday) morning in the vicinity of Redwood Drive and Aspen Drive. Officials say they were dispatched just before nine-a.m., after a company’s boring machine accidentally clipped the Alliant Energy gas line. Alliant also responded and was in the process late this morning of repairing the leak. Fire crews remained on stand-by at the scene for about 45-minutes. No evacuations were needed and no injuries were reported.

Legislators have tabled a bill that would have required minors to have parental permission to pierce anything BUT their ears. Representative Ashley Hinson, a Republican from Marion, says the bill isn’t specific enough in describing what actually would be covered as a forbidden-for-teens piercing. “One of our fellow representatives brought up gauging as covered in this because it involves your earlobe,” Hinson says.

Gauging is the process of stretching the earlobe. It widens the hole in a pierced ear. Hinson says other states regulate businesses that pierce other parts of the body, but it’s unclear whether this bill is needed in Iowa. “A lot of the regulation has surrounded what are tattoo artists held to for their standards and I think a lot of people are good practitioners and they are double-checking before they…do something like that, making sure that it’s the right decision and that maybe the parents are involved,” Hinson says.

But Hinson says legislators will continue to investigate the issue, since that may not be standard practice for all body-piercing businesses. It is illegal for tattoo shops in Iowa to give tattoos to minors. Supporters of the bill say body piercing needs to be policed, like tattoo parlors, for health and safety. Critics say the bill infringes on freedom of expression.

“These are decisions that can impact your body for a long time and I also respect the idea that you own your body,” Hinson says, “so I think we need to be mindful of all those concerns going forward and that’s why we decided to just indefinitely postpone the bill.”

Hinson says the bill, as currently written, doesn’t make it clear whether the minor or the person who did the body piercing would be fined if a parent hadn’t given permission for piercing.

(Radio Iowa)

Umbrellas got more use than shovels or snowblowers in January across Iowa. State climatologist Harry Hillaker saysthe average snowfall for the month was just a little more than half the normal amount we get for the first month of the year. “Very little snow except — one big except in this case– the big storm that we had the 24th and 25th across northern Iowa. But other than that one big event,very little snow. Only averaging about a half inch of snow outside that one single storm,” Hillaker says.

The statewide snow total for the month was four-and-a-half inches. There wasn’t much snow, but there was a lot of precipitation in other forms. “Overall precipitation averaged one-point-six-four inches — which is not quite double the usual amount for January,” according to Hillaker. “But it would be our wettest January since 1996, so you’d have to go back 21 years to find a wetter beginning to the year than this year.”

And when it rained it poured. We had several big rain events. On the 10th, rain over just about all of the state and then an ice storm on the 15th and 16th across much of Iowa as well. And we had fairly unseasonably heavy precipitation with both of those events,” Hillaker says.

In Atlantic, rain and melted snowfall for the month amounted to 1.27-inches, which was more than .4″ above average. Snowfall for January amounted to 5.4-inches. Warmer temperatures were behind the abundance of rain and lack of snow in January. “If you average out the whole month together statewide — about four-and-a-half degrees warmer than a typical January. Averaging about 24 (degrees), four-point-six degrees above normal,” Hillaker says. “It would be our warmest January in five years, going back to 2012,” Hillaker explains.

In Atlantic, the average High for January was 33 degrees (4 degrees warmer than normal), while the average Low was 19 (9 degrees warmer than normal). The warmest day was Jan. 30th, when we hit 49 degrees. The coldest mornings were Jan. 5th and 6th, when the thermometer bottomed out at -6. Hillake says while there were a few days of sub-zero temperatures in the first half of the month, we enjoyed warm days to finish out the month.

“Didn’t’ have any temperatures zero degrees or lower the second half of the month. Nothing after the 15th,” he says. “So, a very mild end of the month and the next to last day on the 30th, down in Shenandoah it got all the way up to 58 degrees.”

The warmer weather in January continues the trend from 2016 which ended up being the fifth warmest year on record.

(Radio Iowa)