With Ric Hanson.

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A pursuit early this (Tuesday) morning in Fremont County resulted in an arrest. Sheriff’s officials say deputies in Fremont County were called to assist an Atchinson County, MO., Deputy in pursuit of a vehicle traveling north on Interstate 29.  Upon entering Fremont County, deputies were able to box the suspect vehicle-in at the 11-mile marker of I-29 northbound. Taken into custody was 18-year old Jesse Calvin Rondell.

Rondell was charged with assault on a Peace Officer, Felony Eluding, OWI, and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. He was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $7, 300 cash bond.

Atlantic School District Technology Coordinator Roger Warne, Monday, updated the School Board on technology-related matters. Warne said his department has been very busy, with maintenance and looking ahead to future equipment upgrades. One of the things on his wish-list for the next budgeting session is some additional surveillance cameras. Last year, 25 cameras were added to the high school and middle school, in Atlantic. He says in 2015-16 they need to plan for more cameras to “keep ahead of the game.”

Atlantic School District Technology Coordinator Roger Warne talks to the School Board. (11/24) Ric Hanson, photo.

Warne deferred to the school principals as to whether or not replacement or additional cameras will be needed in their respective buildings. Middle School Principal Josh Rasmussen said the cameras installed helped him “tremendously this year.”  Washington Elementary Principal Stacey Hornung and Schuler Principal James Northwick said their schools have the old, analog cameras, instead of the clearer, digital versions. Warne acknowledged they do have their drawbacks.

He said it wouldn’t be difficult at all to add more digital cameras to the system the district already has in-place. Warne said also, they updated the slide-card access controls to each of the district’s buildings, and as an added security measure, over the Thanksgiving break, the locks will be changed so there is one lock and one-key used to get into the buildings. A limited number of people will have access to those keys.

He also spoke about the 1-to-1 laptop computer initiative which began in August, with 465 of the devices being used throughout the district. He says a cart they bought last year that was meant as a “contingency.” It had 475 computers, which means he has more than enough computers now, to rollover into the Freshman classes during the coming years.

Warne says there were some accidents including liquids spilled on three of the machines and two broken screens caused by earbuds that were left on the keyboard when the lids were slammed shut. Those computers had to be sent in for repairs. The warranty service covered those repairs, but Warne said the kids are learning that the devices are expensive, and they need to take better care of them, or else their teachers can take the machines away.

With KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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Members of the Atlantic School District’s Board of Education Monday night, approved the hiring of Head Girls Swimming Team Coach Dean Junker, as the head Boys Varsity High School Swimming Coach for the current, Winter season, which started Monday. The recommendation came from High School Activities Director/Assistant Principal Matt Alexander, and was forwarded to the Board by Superintendent Mike Amstein. The Board however, had many questions about the program, before approving the hiring of Junker.

They asked f the number of students participating in the program could be sustained throughout the season. Alexander said they are “locked-in” to the current season, so regardless of whether they lose a couple of members along the way, they will still be able to participate in district events.  Board member Phil Hascall said told Alexander he has trouble approving programs and positions more than three months after the school year began, given the fact they are looking at ways to cut the budget.

Hascall told Alexander “You come to us after the season started, with no discussion about any of this.” Alexander said the Swim Team was approved by the Board last year, but acknowledged they probably really wanted to see what the number of participants were before the agreed in total to having the program. He said there originally more than a dozen students interested in the team, but later found it a struggle to sign-up more than eight.

Alexander said there are currently 10 students participating in the program. Board member Rod Hartwig said they agreed to the program if a minimum of 10 Atlantic students were involved. He asked, since it was difficult to sign-up kids this first year, if it wouldn’t be better to look to surrounding districts for participants.  Alexander said Junker has looked to the areas to our north and east – Exira and Audubon, for instance – that are farther away from Lewis Central. They might look at approaching Red Oak, Griswold and CAM, at prior to next year’s season.

He says he’s already had initial talks with some of the district officials.

During Friday’s Iowa-Nebraska football game, the American Red Cross will honor two men, one from each state, who went above and beyond in the face of crisis. Red Cross spokeswoman Kara Kelly says the Iowan who’s being singled out for recognition as a “citizen hero” is 18-year-old Austin Benson of Winterset, a senior at Winterset High School. “Austin acted with great bravery when his friend was thrown from her horse,” Kelly says. “The horse rolled on top of her and the saddlehorn punctured her leg. It ended up being very critical injuries. Austin applied pressure to the wound and kept her awake while waiting for the ambulance. According the medical professionals, he reallys saved her life.”

The honoree from Nebraska is Gene Willers, the president of the Midwest Bank Branch in Pilger, a town that was forever changed on June 16th. “You may remember, there was a very large tornado that went through that town this summer,” Kelly says. “Gene put eight people in the bank safe. It only locks from the outside so he locked them inside and then went into the basement. The bank was in fact destroyed but luckily, everybody survived.”

Benson and Willers will be honored during the Hawkeye-Cornhusker game at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City. “We have a great presentation that will happen during halftime at Friday’s game,” Kelly says. “We have two videos that will show their stories. They’ll also have their names engraved on the Hy-Vee Heroes game trophy and then they’ll receive honorary plates from both athletic directors. It’s really a wonderful tribute to these two men.”

Benson, Willers and members of their families will be guests of the Hawkeyes and the Huskers at the game and will participate in a variety of special pregame activities. Fans of both schools were invited to nominate residents of Iowa and Nebraska who have performed extraordinary acts of heroism and service in their communities. Staff and volunteers from the Red Cross selected the winners.

(Radio Iowa)

An SUV reported stolen late Monday afternoon in Montgomery County was recovered about 3-hours later, in Nebraska. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office was notified at around 7:33-p.m. by officials with the Nebraska State Patrol, that authorities in Nebraska has located a 2003 Ford Escape that had been reported stolen in Iowa at around 4:30-p.m., Monday.

The SUV was found on Highway 75 in Douglas County, NE., and the owner (Richard McAlpin), was informed of its locating. An investigation into the incident was on-going.

The Ankeny-based Casey’s convenience store chain announced Monday an inadvertent accounting error that caused them to miss paying more than 31-million dollars in tax during a 31-month period.
Casey’s chief financial officer, Bill Walljasper, talked about the issue during a conference call with reporters.”The error pertained to excise taxes owed since January 1st of 2012 on ethanol the company purchased separately, and then blended with gasoline. Commonly known as splash blending,” Walljasper explained. He says a tax credit for splash blending expired and was not updated in the company’s accounting process.

“This credit of 45 cents per gallon of ethanol more than offset the excise tax of 18-point-four cents per gallon,” Walljasper says. “Casey’s was correctly accounting for the excise tax on form 720, and the credit up to the point in time when the blending credit expired on December 31st, 2011.” Walljasper says the company immediately reported the failure to pay the proper taxes once it was discovered.

“The aggregate impact of the unrecorded excise taxes from period of January 1st of 2012 through July 31st of 2014 — including accrued interest — is approximately 31-point-five million. During over that period, the impact on Casey’s fully diluted share is approximately four-and-a-half cents in each of the affected quarters,” Walljasper says.

Casey’s has paid the I-R-S paid 30-point-four-million dollars in taxes due, along with one-point-one million dollars in interest to resolve the issue. Casey’s Chairman and C-E-O Robert Myers, says the company is modifying its information technology system to be sure something like this does not happen again. “The company does not believe that there has been a default of the note promise agreements relating to our outstanding senior notes. Additionally, our long-term growth plans remain intact,” Myers says. “Moreover, this does not impact our financial goals. As such, we remain committed to achieving our 2015 goals, including the margin on our fuel gallons sold.”

The fiscal year goals for Casey’s include increasing same-store fuel gallons sold by one percent with an average margin of 15point-three cents per gallon; increasing same-store grocery & other merchandise sales by five-point-three percent, with an average margin of 32-point-one percent; increasing same-store prepared food & fountain sales nine-point-five percent with an average margin of 60-percent, and building or acquiring 72 to 108 stores and replacing 25 existing locations.

“We want to emphasize that Casey’s business remains fundamentally strong as evidenced by our October same store sales numbers,” according to Myers. Casey’s operates roughly 18-hundred stores, with three of them here in Atlantic.

(Radio Iowa)

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has resigned after serving as the Pentagon chief since early 2013 when he succeeded Leon Panetta. Hagel is a former Republican U-S Senator from Nebraska. Iowa Republican Congressman, Steve King, says Hagel and the president appear to have been at odds over handling military policy in the middle east. “Chuck Hagel might have spoken out a little too boldly about what we needed to do beef up our forces against ISIS. And it doesn’t fit very well with the president’s no boots on the ground promise,”King says. “And it doesn’t fit so well with the deconstruction of the U-S military, the weakening of the military that the president has pushed so hard for.”

King says it looks like there is a significant disagreement at the root of Hagel’s resignation. Hagel was the third person to serve as President Obama’s defense secretary following Robert Gates and Panetta. King says there has been a pattern of politics in defense briefings since President Obama took office, going back to some staffers who were holdovers from the Bush administration.

“They would be sitting there briefing us and it changed dramatically one president to the next. Same faces of the briefers, it became political responses instead of tactical and factual classified briefing. And that is very troubling if you are going to push your military into a political operation,” according to King. Hagel has agreed to remain in office until his successor is confirmed by the Senate. King made his comments during an appearance on K-S-C-J radio in Sioux City.

(Radio Iowa)

A corn crib that’s caused some controversy in the western Iowa town of Carroll is being put to good use. The corn crib was being used by a couple in town as a backyard gazebo. Several neighbors have complained about the wire and metal structure, calling it an eyesore. Monday evening, Carroll residents were being challenged to fill the corn crib with canned food to be donated to the local Food Bank. Summer Parrott helped organize the food donation drive.

“Carroll is community where we help our neighbors and I really just wanted to bring everything together so we could focus on something positive during the holiday season,” Parrott said. A Girl Scout group that Parrott teaches will help collect the donations. Parrott said she was bothered by the negativity that seemed to be swirling around the community over the gazebo issue. “When I first read the news story about what was going on with the gazebo, I just immediately thought this is such a first world issue,” Parrott said. “There are so many bigger things to be worried about within the community, let alone the world, that we don’t need to keep perpetuating all of the negativity going back and forth.”

Parrott said the owners of the corn crib/gazebo, Jeff and Cindy Heuton, were quick to agree to the food drive idea when she approached them about the idea of filling the structure with canned goods.

(Radio Iowa)