Firefighters from Harlan are on the scene of a residential structure fire this evening. They were paged-out to 1510 Erie Drive at around 5:25-p.m. Westphalia Fire was dispatched for mutual aid at around 5:38-p.m.

According to realty sites, the structure is a 1,220 square foot three-bedroom, ranch-style home, with a basement. Reports on social media indicated the home was vacant. No other details are currently available

An author who grew up in the noisy New York City borough of Brooklyn says he found his writing voice by coming to the quiet woods of rural eastern Iowa. Marc Nieson calls his memoir, “Schoolhouse,” a modern-day “Walden,” but with a love story. In the early 1990s, Nieson attended the Iowa Writers’ Workshop as he was “on the lam” from a failing relationship and took up residence in an old schoolhouse some 15 miles from Iowa City.

“I ended up finding myself there,” Nieson says. “It was really the woodlands and the pasture and the fields of corn and soybeans that somehow stabilized me and gave me a sense of roots that I’d never had before.”The full title of the book is: “Schoolhouse, Lessons on Love and Landscape.” The book is about nature and -human- nature, he says. The nature part is the focus on his daily “woods walks” on the 500-acre plot of forestland that surrounded the Johnson County schoolhouse.

“The human nature was just really starting to learn about myself and learn about why I had difficulties creating a lasting relationship with someone and why I was on the run,” Nieson says, “and why I was hiding out ultimately in a little schoolhouse on the top of a hill in what, for me, was not just the middle of the country but the middle of nowhere.”

Nieson is 56 and while he says the word “memoir” may have once conjured an image of an octogenarian, that’s no longer the case. “There’s all ages of people writing memoirs these days and the period I’m writing about was when I was even younger, I was around 32 or so,” Nieson says. “It’s just a question of whether you have a piece of a story or a swath of your life that, hopefully, has something to say to other people and has some kind of communal exchange that can happen.”

The book is being published by North Liberty-based Ice Cube Press. Each chapter is named for a subject in school, like Geography, History and Social Studies. He notes: “In school they give you the lessons before the test, in life, it’s the other way around.” Nieson is on the faculty at Chatham University in Pittsburgh.

(Radio Iowa)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A buying spree in the Midwest spurred new U.S. home sales last month to the fastest pace since July. The Commerce Department says new-home sales in November rose 5.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate 592,000. It was the fastest pace since July’s 622,000. Sales were up 16.5 percent from November 2015.

Utility officials who serve small town Iowa are lobbying legislators to keep money for their towns in any water quality plan that may emerge in 2017. Tim Whipple, the general counsel for the Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities, say “With all the talk about farmers and drainage districts, lawsuits and nitrates, it’s easy to forget that our state also has a multi-billion dollar municipal infrastructure problem as well and right now that burden is falling squarely on rate-payers and taxpayers in our small, rural communities.”

The plan to finance water quality projects that was approved by House Republicans nearly a year ago included money to help small communities finance required improvements to sewage systems and water treatment plants. “As the legislature moves forward with water quality funding, I hope you will remember that small communities need funding assistance every bit as much as farmers for the costly infrastructure upgrades that they need to remain attractive places to live and work,” Whipple says.

Whipple grew up in rural Franklin County. He went to elementary school in Hampton. In addition to lobbying for more state money to city-owned water treatment plants, the Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities has been seeking more options in how cities are allowed to finance waste-water projects.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the number of hogs and pigs on Iowa farms has reached a new record high. As of Dec. 1 Iowa had 22.4 million hogs and pigs, the largest inventory ever reported. That is up 1 percent from the previous quarter and 7 percent higher than the same date a year ago.

Iowa is the nation’s leading hog producer by far. North Carolina had 9.3 million head, Minnesota was at 8.3 million and Illinois had 5.1 million as of Dec. 1. The national inventory was 71.5 million, 4 percent higher than a year ago.

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) – The weather outside will be frightful for some holiday travelers this weekend, with snow stretching from the Rocky Mountains to the upper Midwest on Christmas Eve and possible severe weather in the middle of the U.S. on Christmas Day. Forecasters cautioned travelers to keep alternate routes in mind and prepare for possible delays.

There is a blizzard watch posted for much of the Dakotas and a winter storm watch in effect from Montana to Lake Superior. The Storm Prediction Center cautioned that warm, humid air would bring possible severe weather to the Plains states on Sunday – reaching as far north as Omaha, Nebraska.

A lesser threat of severe weather extended southward into Arkansas and Oklahoma, where the atmosphere would be warm but more stable.

A traffic stop Thursday morning in Pottawattamie County resulted in the arrest of a passenger in the vehicle on drug and weapon charges. Sheriff’s officials say 33-year old Kyle James Yost, who has no known address, was taken into custody for carrying a loaded Ruger handgun, a small baggie of marijuana, and a small glass multicolored drug pipe. Yost was charged with Carrying a Concealed Weapon, Possession of a Controlled Substance and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. He was booked into the Pott. County Jail.

And, Thursday afternoon, Pottawattamie County Deputies arrested on a Trespassing charge, 32-year old Jeremy Theron Harriman, of Avoca. His arrest took place following an altercation between Harriman and two other individuals in the area of an apartment complex in Avoca. Harriman admitted to authorities he wasn’t allowed in the apartment complex because of his issues involving the use of alcohol. He said he was there, because he had nowhere else to go.

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

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There’s a dramatic “uptick” iun number of Iowans showing up in an emergency room because of a brain injury. Geoffrey Lauer is executive director of the Brain Injury Alliance of Iowa. “The Department of Public Health is reporting more than 30,000 Iowans in 2014 were seen in emergency rooms, compared with only 13,000 emergency department visits in 2009,” Lauer says, “so it’s more than doubled.”

Lauer says there’s growing public awareness about brain injuries due to the news about sports concussions and soldiers who’ve suffered brain injuries. “Awareness is good,” Lauer says. “However, we have more people surviving with long-term disabilities.” More than 90-thousand Iowans have a long-term disability because of a brain injury, according to Lauer.

Patients who’ve been treated for a “traumatic” brain injury in an Iowa hospital get a letter from the state about two months later, explaining the Brain Injury Service program. “The primary service…is resource facilitation…in which skilled brain injury professionals reach out, connect to people and help explain what’s going on both medically, cognitively and help people connect and stay connected to necessary services and supports,” Lauer says, “so they don’t get lost.”

Lauer is asking state officials to at least continue taxpayer support of that program. Lauer says the data shows case managers who work with people who’ve suffered a traumatic brain injury help those patients keep their job or stay in school, stay out jail and stay out of the psych ward. “The death rate for brain injury in Iowa has been decreasing, The Department of Public Health has been noticing a trend, which is great, because our prevention efforts have been succeeding,” Lauer says. “However, Iowans who are surviving moderate to mild brain injury as well as severe are on the uptick.”

More than three million Americans have a life-long disability due to a brain injury or stroke. Early next year, every Iowa school district will get a new “protocol” for dealing with students they suspect have suffered a concussion.

(Radio Iowa

The transportation director for the state’s largest school district is pleased with student reaction to the addition of seat belts in buses. The Des Moines School District is the lone district in the state taking part in a bus seat belt study. The trial, launched in late October, is being paid for by the Iowa Department of Education, school bus seat manufacturer SynTec and Thomas Bus Sales. Des Moines Schools transportation director Todd Liston says he’s thrilled with the student response.

“The kids haven’t had any real push back or, you know, hesitation to put the belts on,” Liston said. “The kids are hopping on the bus, sitting down, and buckling up without any real hesitation at all.” The district has two buses outfitted with lap-shoulder belts for 65 passengers. One of the bus drivers told Liston he’s now able to focus more of his attention on the road, rather than on students. “What he told me was, ‘I am definitely less distracted by the kids when they’re in their seat belts.’ Man, I thought that was just huge,” Liston said.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recommended for the first time in 2015 that seat belts be added to school buses. But, it remains unclear if Iowa or others states will move in that direction. A big factor is the price tag: it costs about $8,000 per bus to add seat belts.

(Radio Iowa)