Officials with the McDonald’s Corporation report franchise owner-operators from across Nebraska and western Iowa are coming together to rally behind #NebraskaStrong and #IowaStrong flood relief efforts in honor of #NebraskaStrongDay on Friday, March 22nd.  McDonald’s restaurants in Nebraska and western Iowa participating in this fundraiser on Friday will be donating 10 percent of the day’s sales to local American Red Cross chapters and other organizations in need – including schools and local charities – to further support communities devastated by the flood.

Nate Leonard, who, along with his father Steve and brother-in-law Blake Zogleman, owns McDonald’s restaurants in Omaha, Fremont, Norfolk, Missouri Valley, Shelby and Atlantic, says “Everyone is doing their part to lift our communities because it’s the right thing to do. Volunteers are working around the clock, schools are short on water and sanitizer, some of our employees are without homes. We want to do all we can do to support those in need.”

Nearly two dozen McDonald’s owner-operators of the Great Plains Co-op live and work within the regions affected by the flood. They’ve seen the heartbreak and are working alongside their neighbors to rebuild their communities, choosing to give back in a big way. Sales collected from open to close at participating restaurants in Nebraska and western Iowa will go back to the community through donations to local disaster relief organizations. Anticipated proceeds from the fundraiser are expected to exceed $100,000.

The Great Plains Co-op is made up of 238 restaurants and 55 owner-operators spanning the state of Nebraska, western Iowa, St. Joseph, Missouri, and the greater Kansas City metro area.
The owner-operators in Kansas City and St. Joseph will hold a similar fundraiser on Wednesday for communities in that region, as well as to help Nebraska and Iowa communities. That fundraiser is also expected to raise more than $100,000 for the cause.

Shelby County Engineer Brandon Burmeister announced this morning that the embargo on Shelby County Roads has been lifted. If the weather becomes inclement, you’re asked to use common sense when traveling on the rural roads. The City of Harlan has announced also, crews have temporarily closed Maple Road, from Highway 44 to 900th Street, just east of Harlan. The road will re-open tonight, but will be closed again during the day Friday, for flood-related repairs.

The CAM School Board met Monday evening in Anita, and approved the 2019-2020 School Calendar, which is not much different from the current school year calendar, according to Superintendent Casey Berlau. He said the school year will start on Aug. 23^rd 2019 and end May 27, 2020. Berlau said the administration presented a budget for publishing and will hold a public hearing before acting on approving it during their meeting next month. The budget calls for a levy of $10 per $1,000 assessed valuation, which is up a couple of pennies from the current school year. Berlau calls it a “Pretty status quo budget.”

In other business, the CAM Education Association (CAMEA) presented their opening offer for contract negotiations. Basically, Berlau says they asked for a 4% increase in salary for next year, along with a one-year contract. The next step is for the School Board to present its opening offer in the next ten days during an open meeting. The Board also approved the seeking of bids for a facilities study.

Berlau said “That’s kind of a big deal, because we’re like a lot of districts with aging facilities. It just seems like we have a lot of different projects that are coming towards us or actually need looking at in the near future. We just that discussion about the need to have a ‘bigger picture’ look at all of our facilities so we can make better decisions going forward.” He said they hope to have some of those proposals for th Board to consider, in the next couple of months.

(Radio Iowa) — The water plant in Glenwood was shut down after being overtaken by floodwaters and a spokesman with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources says it is not known when the plant can be back up and running. D-N-R Environmental Specialist, Keith Wilken, is working with others to try and get the plant going again — but says there’s not quick answer. “There is not estimated time frame at this point in time,” Wilken says. Wilken says he hasn’t been able to even get to the plant and with floodwaters still remaining, it is tough to know what needs to be done.”There’s a lot of unknowns that can’t even be answered at this point, and that probably won’t be known until crews can get access to the wells and treatment plant,” according to Wilken. “You know, are there pumps and motors that will need repaired and replaced? How is all the electrical equipment and the monitoring equipment.”

Wilken says the status of the wells used to supply the water is another big question. “We’re going to probably have to assume that they got inundated with flood waters. The wells will probably have to be pumped to waste for a significant amount of time. They will probably have to be shock chlorinated,” Wilken says. “And then we will have do testing on the wells to verify that the water in the wells is safe.” They’ll go through the same process in reviewing the treatment plant to see how much damage was done to equipment. “You’ll have to work at getting those flood waters out, getting new water in. Getting that water within the treatment plant tested,” Wilken explains. “Then it will be the same thing out in the distribution system. Once the water leaving the treatment plant is confirmed being safe — then the distribution system will need to be flushed.”

Wilken says they have to be very meticulous in testing the water to make sure that none of it is contaminated in any step of the process of bringing the plant back online. “If at any point in time those samples are failing — restart the process — do more shocking, do more testing, with the ultimate goal of confirming that water will be safe for the residents to drink,” Wilken says.

Trucks are hauling water from Red Oak and Shenandoah to Glenwood, and Wiken says they are asking residents to boil that water to avoid any possible contamination. Glenwood’s water treatment plant connection to the city of Pacific Junction was shut off to conserve what water is remaining. Hamburg’s water treatment plant was also inundated by floodwaters and was shut down. Water will be trucked in from the City of Shenandoah to Hamburg and a bottled water advisory is in effect for residents.

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — The Waterloo Commission on Human Rights is pushing for an ordinance that would bar employers from including questions about criminal histories on job applications. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports that the agency is asking City Council to once again consider the ordinance that is designed to ensure applicants with criminal records get a fair chance at employment. The commission’s proposal also applies to private employers, which is a less common policy nationally.

Employers would still be allowed to conduct a criminal background check before extending a job offer. Commission Executive Director Abraham Funchess says the measure seeks to eliminate disparities in the city. Some council members expressed support for the measure, while others say they want legal input. The council turned down similar ordinances in 2012 and 2015.

(Radio Iowa) — Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says the president’s criticism Wednesday of the late Senator John McCain may have been inappropriate but Grassley doesn’t think Trump needs to apologize. Grassley was asked about the president saying McCain had pushed for a war, failed America’s veterans, and Trump complained he wasn’t thanked for how the Arizona Republican’s funeral was handled. Grassley says, “I would think that it would be best to let a person that has served his country, like John McCain has, to respect that service and not criticize somebody who’s passed away.”

Following a town hall meeting in DeWitt, Grassley simply said “no” when asked if Trump should apologize to the McCain family for his negative comments. When pressed for elaboration, Grassley said, “You better ask the president that.”  “You’re asking me all of these things about Trump and you’re asking me about apologizing and all that, you know, I’m a member of the United States Congress,” Grassley says. “We don’t spend much time in Congress worrying about what the president says. We’ve got our own work.”

Grassley says it makes him “irritated” when he’s asked to respond to something — like a comment from the president — which he doesn’t know anything about. “I don’t want to comment on what you tell me somebody else said. I want to comment on what I read, if I’m going to comment on it,” Grassley says. “But I’d rather comment on stuff I’m doing as chairman of the Finance Committee, what I’m doing on Government Oversight, what I’m doing as a member of an individual branch of government.”

Grassley says his committee priorities include trade deals with Canada and Mexico and getting drug prescription prices down. McCain was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2017 and died last August. Trump and McCain had long been rivals. Speaking in Ames during the presidential campaign in 2015, Trump said of McCain: “He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” McCain served in the U-S Navy. His plane was shot down in Vietnam in 1967, he was captured, held prisoner and tortured for more than five years.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Lottery officials say the Powerball jackpot has climbed to an estimated $625 million. The jackpot on Saturday would be the seventh-largest in U.S. history, with an estimated lump sum payout of $380.6 million before taxes. The odds of winning are extremely long, at 1 in 292.2 million, but they do get beaten.

The buyers of three tickets shared the country’s largest jackpot — a $1.586 billion Powerball prize drawn on Jan. 13, 2016. Meanwhile, a South Carolina purchaser won a $1.54 billion Mega Millions jackpot — the nation’s second-largest lottery prize ever.