Officials with ISU Extension in Montgomery County have announced Casey Wenstrand will be working as a Summer Assistant at the office. Casey was a 9 year 4-Her in the Grant Spitfires.

Casey Wenstrand

He just graduated from Iowa State University with a Bachelors of Liberal Studies degree. In addition to fair preparation, Casey will also be a big help with the extension’s summer day camps. You can meet Casey at the 2015 Montgomery County Fair.

The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) today (Friday), has confirmed the presence of highly pathogenic H5N2 avian influenza (HPAI) in four additional flocks in Minnesota and Iowa. No human infections with the virus have been detected at this time. CDC considers the risk to people from these HPAI H5 infections in wild birds, backyard flocks and commercial poultry, to be low.

USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories confirmed HPAI H5N2 in two Minnesota Counties, and two in Iowa, including Adair County, where 974,500 chickens are affected at the Rose Acre Farms facility near Stuart.

The affected premises have been quarantined and birds on the property will be depopulated to prevent the spread of the disease. Birds from the flock will not enter the food system.

According to USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, in 2014, the U.S. poultry industry produced 8.54 billion broiler chickens, 99.8 billion eggs, and 238 million turkeys. Officials say the United States has the strongest AI surveillance program in the world. As part of the existing USDA avian influenza response plans, Federal and State partners as well as industry are responding quickly and decisively to these outbreaks by following these five basic steps:

1) Quarantine – restricting movement of poultry and poultry-moving equipment into and out of the control area;

2) Eradicate – humanely euthanizing the affected flock(s);

3) Monitor region – testing wild and domestic birds in a broad area around the quarantine area;

4) Disinfect – kills the virus in the affected flock locations; and

5) Test – confirming that the poultry farm is AI virus-free. USDA also is working with its partners to actively look and test for the disease in commercial poultry operations, live bird markets and in migratory wild bird populations.

A Creston man was arrested Thursday evening on a Union County warrant for Violating a Protective Order. Police say 52-year old Kirby Konkler was taken into custody at his residence at around 5:15-p.m. Konkler was being held in the Union County Jail while awaiting a bond hearing.

The 8-a.m. Newscast w/KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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A report recently released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows there are plenty of jobs in ag-related fields, but not enough college graduates to fill them. Krysta Harden is Deputy Secretary of Agriculture. “Folks don’t really realize the variety of jobs and the availability of the jobs in science and technology, in education, in communication, food production, all the way through the entire chain, frankly,” Harden says.

The report from the USDA and Purdue University states there are nearly 60,000 ag related job openings expected annually in the U.S., but only a little over 35,000 graduates available to fill them. Sonny Ramaswamy, director of the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, says that means there are some great opportunities for recent college graduates.  “For some majors like agribusiness, animal science, crop science, the young people are being offered two to three job offers and signing bonuses,” Ramaswamy says.

The report projects almost half of the ag job opportunities in the next five years will be in management and business. Another 27 percent will be in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) areas. According to the report, more than half the grads in agriculture and ag-related fields are women.

(Radio Iowa)

A new study finds almost two-thirds of people injured or killed in crashes involving a teen driver are people -other- than the teen behind the wheel. Rose White, traffic safety director at Triple-A-Iowa, says we’re now in what’s considered the “100 Deadliest Days,” the period between Memorial Day and Labor Day when teen crash fatalities historically climb. Kids are out of school, White says, and often have access to vehicles.

“As a result, we always see a big increase in crashes and, unfortunately, fatalities and injuries involving young teen drivers,” White says. “Looking at stats over two decades, we are noticing that in those fatality crashes, it’s usually a person in the other vehicle or possibly a passenger that’s killed in the car crash.”

Since teens spend more time behind the wheel during the summer than any other season, White is reminding everyone, including drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists, to be mindful when sharing the roads with young drivers. “Driving is the most dangerous activity a teen will undertake,” White says. “What that means is, they need to have practice time behind the wheel. So, we encourage parents to spend more time with their teenager. Some helpful tools are available at the website teendriving.aaa.com.”

While great strides are being made to improve driver safety, motor vehicle crashes remain the leading cause of death for drivers between the ages of 15 and 19. “In Iowa, the most current statistics available which are gathered from the year 2013, that year 27 fatalities were reported in which a teen driver was at fault,” White says. “In those situations, 11 teen drivers died, seven passengers died and nine occupants of other vehicles.”

Nationwide in 2013, the Triple-A report found teen driver-involved crashes claimed nearly three-thousand lives and injured 371-thousand people. Crash rates for teens are higher than any other age group. White says keeping teen drivers safe is the shared responsibility of parents, policy makers, other motorists and the teens themselves.

(Radio Iowa)

The 7:06-a.m. report w/KJAN News Director Ric Hanson

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A Red Oak man was arrested Thursday afternoon, for allegedly Trespassing on railroad property. Police say 29-year old Joshua J. Pedersen was observed walking along the Burlington Northern Railroad tracks just east of J. Avenue, on the east side of Red Oak.

Pedersen was taken into custody without incident at around 4:20-p.m. and brought to the Montgomery County Jail, where he was being held on $300 bond.

A Council Bluffs man was arrested on a felony Willful Injury charge Thursday evening, following an incident at 1435 North 15th Street that resulted in a stabbing. Bluffs Police Sgt. Dave Dawson says officers were dispatched to the home at around 7-p.m. for a reported stabbing. When they arrived, they found the victim, 40-year old Alphonso Wesley, of Council Bluffs, suffering from three stab wounds to his lower back.

Wesley, and the suspect in the case, 52-year old Bernard Lucas, of Council Bluffs, were staying at the house and are known to each other. Dawson says the men were in a sleeping area, when Lucas allegedly began to push Wesley. As Wesley was walking away from Lucas, Lucas pulled out a black folding knife and allegedly stabbed Wesley from behind, in the back.

Wesley was taken to Mercy Hospital for treatment of Non-life threatening injuries. Lucas was booked into the Pottawattamie County Jail. An investigation into the incident continues.

Gardeners have the opportunity this summer to learn about theme gardens, planting trough gardens, water features and conservation, attracting butterflies and bees, and growing herbs. The Iowa State University Extension and Outreach “Growing Season” webinar series will be offered at multiple locations across Iowa during June, July and August. The Cass County Extension Office is one of the locations hosting these webinars.

This is the sixth year for the Iowa Master Gardener program annual summer series. It is open to all interested gardeners; participants are not required to have completed master gardener training to attend. Each of the three webinars feature an Iowa Master Gardener and ISU Extension and Outreach faculty or staff member presenting the two-hour course at an ISU Extension and Outreach county office. Course topics and speakers include:

JUNE: Design from Yard to Trough, with Iowa State University Department of Horticulture lecturer Lisa Orgler and Fayette County Master Gardener Gary Whittenbaugh. Participants will learn how to add spark to landscape designs and trough planters filled with conifers and their companions.