OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A man who ran to help an Iowa couple during the deadly Florida airport shooting this month attended the funeral for the man who was killed. The Omaha World-Herald reports Mark Lea flew down from Minnesota to attend the Wednesday service at Council Bluffs’ Bayliss Park Chapel for 57-year-old Mike Oehme.

Lea says he found the couple while trying to aid the shooting victims at the airport. Mike and his wife Kari Oehme were both shot, but Kari is currently recovering from her wounds. Lea says he was tending to Kari’s wounds when he noticed Mike Oehme nearby with a head wound.

Oehme was one of five people killed in the baggage claim area of the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Jan. 6 when a gunman opened fire.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Bankers across Middle America say depressed farm commodity prices are the biggest threat to the economy this year in rural parts of 10 Plains and Western states. The overall economic index in a monthly survey of bankers for the region remained in negative territory at 42.8 in January, down slightly from December’s 42.9. Survey officials say any score below 50 suggests an economic decline.

Creighton University economist Ernie Goss says livestock commodity prices have tumbled by 7.3 percent and grain commodity prices by 11.7 percent in the last year. Bankers from Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming were surveyed.

Goss says the rural economy is improving in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, and South Dakota, while all the other states are trending lower.

Police in Clarinda are investigating a hit-and-run property damage incident that took place at the Clarinda Cemetery. Police Chief Keith Brothers says at around 5-a.m. today (Thursday), Officers discovered several cemetery monuments had been damaged at the Clarinda Cemetery, located on the north side of Clarinda.

An investigation revealed that a 2006 Chevrolet Equinox had entered the cemetery at the 16^th & Walnut Street entrance, careened out of control on one of the access roads, striking several monuments causing an estimated $20,000 in damages to the monuments and totaling the Chevrolet Equinox with an estimated worth of $5,000.

The driver of the Chevrolet Equinox left the scene of the accident on foot. The accident remains under investigation and officers are pursuing numerous leads and collecting evidence at the accident scene in an attempt to identify and locate the driver.

Clarinda Cemetery damage. (Photos provided by Clarinda P-D)

In an update to our earlier report, officials with the U-S Environmental Protection Agency said today (Thursday), that the location for a meeting planned for next Tuesday evening in Atlantic has been changed. The EPA had planned to hold a public session at the AMU Building on Jan. 24th from 6-until 7:30-p.m., but the location of the meeting instead has been changed to the Cass County Community Center.

The session will provide updates on efforts to mitigate PCE contamination from a former dry cleaning business site near 7th and Plum Streets, and the PCE site on Chestnut Street. The former dry cleaning facility and IDOT laboratory facility no longer exist at the location (1205 E. 7th St). The EPA has said some municipal drinking water wells have been impacted due to groundwater contamination associated with the former dry cleaner. Those wells were shut down, and the City’s drinking water wells are NOT affected.

Additional site information is available online at https://www.epa.gov/superfund/pceformerdrycleaner

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – An Iowa woman charged with first-degree murder in the death of someone who allegedly dated the same man as her will go to trial. A judge bound 41-year-old Shanna Golyar over to district court Wednesday for the 2012 disappearance-turned-homicide case of 37-year-old Cari Farver. Golyar was arrested in December of 2016 in connection to Farver’s disappearance, who was last seen in Omaha.

Attorney for Golyar, James Davis, says there is no real evidence proving his client murdered Farver, citing police have no body or murder weapon. Officials testified Golyar posed as Farver online and by phone for years after the disappearance, and also posed as other people confessing their murder of Farver. A sergeant testified Farver had been dating Golyar’s ex-boyfriend for some weeks.

The prosecution and Farver’s family declined to comment after the hearing.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – National Guardsmen from Nebraska and Iowa have been assigned security and other duties for Friday’s presidential inauguration of Donald Trump. The Omaha World-Herald reports that members of the Des Moines-based 71st Civil Support Team are looking for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons. Most of the Nebraska Guardsmen are operating a field kitchen to feed some of the 7,500 soldiers and airmen from the National Guards of 44 states and three territories who will support inauguration activities.

Airmen from the 185th Air Refueling Wing in Sioux City and the 132nd Wing in Des Moines will join Martin’s team representing Iowa. A Kansas Air Guard jet flew the Nebraska troops to the Washington area Tuesday. They’re scheduled to return Sunday on a Hawaiian Air Guard jet.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – An Iowa institution for residents with intellectual disabilities has been ordered to reinstate a high-ranking official who was fired for alleged safety lapses two years ago. The Public Employment Relations Board says the firing of Glenwood Resource Center administrator Douglas Wise wasn’t justified and he must be returned to a similar job with back pay.

A settlement is expected to be finalized soon. It will likely cost taxpayers around $200,000 and result in Wise’s reinstatement, just as Glenwood faces a scandal involving incidents of verbal and physical abuse against numerous residents.

Wise’s attorney, Charles Gribble, said his client’s pleased with the ruling and looking forward to returning to work, “notwithstanding the problems at Glenwood.” Wise had been faulted for failing to carry out directives to remove batteries from a home where residents had swallowed them on three occasions. But he said that he trusted his subordinates’ claims that the batteries were gone.

Iowans who have kids are making a serious financial commitment. A new report from the U-S-D-A estimates what it costs to raise a child from birth through age 18. Kevin Concannon, a former Iowan and the agency’s Undersecretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services, says the costs are growing every year. Concannon says, “A middle-income, two-parent family with a child born in 2015 will likely spend between $12,350 and $13,900 each year on food, health care, housing, transportation, child care and other expenses related to child-rearing.”

Concannon is the former director of the Iowa Department of Human Services. The projected total cost from cradle to college-age is more than $233,000. Angie Tagtow, director for the U-S-D-A’s Center for Nutrition Promotion and Policy, says the list of expenses for raising a child is lengthy.  “Child care accounted for 16% of expenses, while transportation came in at 15%,” Tagtow says. “Health care expenses accounted for 9% while clothing was 6% and other expenses, like sports equipment and personal care items, came in at 7%.”

U-S-D-A economist Mark Lino says the total cost is up from the previous year, but it was less of an increase than what’s typical. “From 2014 to 2015, we had a 3% increase which is below the historic annual norm of 4.3%,” Lino says. “One of the main reasons for that is transportation expenses actually declined on a child in line with the drop in the price of gas. Those trips you make to soccer games, driving children around, they became cheaper.”

The study found biggest annual expense for raising a kid is housing, which accounts for 29%, while food came in second at 18%.

(Thanks to Karla James, Omaha)

The Griswold Community School District’s Facilities Committee will meet this evening at the Middle School/High School Library, beginning at 5-p.m. The Committee will continue with discussions on assessing the current educational facilities in the District.

And, the Griswold School Board will hold its regular meeting in the Central Office, at 6:30-p.m.  On their agenda is information to be presented by the Facilities Committee, the second reading of Board Policies, and discussion with regard to the structure of the Transportation Department, as well as the hiring of a Construction Manager.

Action items on the Griswold School Board agenda include those pertaining to Auditor Bids and Chemical Application Specifications. The Board will then consider entering into a closed session for the purpose of evaluating the professional competency of an individual whose appointment, hiring, performance or discharge, is being considered.

They may also hold a closed session with regard to Certified Bargaining Unit negotiations.

More area and State news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (5.1MB)

Subscribe: RSS