With News Director Ric Hanson.

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A house fire that occurred early this (Friday) morning in Massena has claimed a life. Massena Fire Chief Drew Williams told KJAN News a call about the fire at 208 Pine Street came in just before 1-a.m. When firefighters arrived, the house was already fully engulfed in flames. Crews were on the scene until about 5:30-a.m.

Williams would not release other details or the name of the victim. An investigator with the State Fire Marshal’s Office was expected to be on the scene later today. No other details are available.

The recent decrease in temperatures has led to an increase in home fires across Iowa. The Red Cross reports, since November 1, the agency has sent disaster teams to 28 home fires around the state. State Fire Marshal Jeff Quigle says a lot of fires at this time of year are sparked by the improper use of space heaters. He advises people to turn off the space heater when they leave the room and to use a newer model that shuts off automatically if it’s knocked over. “Make certain that you maintain at least a three foot area around the space heater, so it’s not up close to upholstered furniture or on a carpet,” Quigle said.

Space heaters should also be plugged directly into the outlet, rather than using an extension cord, according to Quigle. He’s also reminding Iowans to have smoke alarms installed on every level of their home and make sure they have fresh batteries. So far this year, 31 people have died in structure fires in Iowa. “This is a sharp increase over the same time period last year when we had 20 reported fire deaths,” Quigle said. “The big thing we see is 25 of the 31 reported fire deaths (this year) occurred in (homes or apartments) and only three had working smoke detectors.”

There were 25 fire-related fatalities reported in Iowa over all of 2013. That was down from 42 in 2012.

(Radio Iowa)

A traffic stop late Thursday night in Red Oak resulted in the arrest of a local man on drug charges. Red Oak Police say 45-year old Robert Joe Coddington, of Red Oak, faces Possession of Controlled Substance/Methamphetamine – 2nd offense, and OWI/1st offense, charges.

After Coddington was pulled over at around midnight at intersection of Eastern Avenue & Birch Streets, in Red Oak, officers found him to allegedly be in possession of Meth. Deputies with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office assisted in making the arrest.  Coddington was taken into custody and brought to the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center, where he was tested for OWI by the Cass County Sheriff’s Office’ Drug Recognition Expert.

Coddington was being held in the jail on $2,000 cash bond.

The Atlantic Police Department Thursday, issued a reminder to the public about numerous telephone scams being perpetrated against citizens every day. In recent weeks these scams have been escalating to the point that police are receiving several complaints per week.

Two of the most frequent types of calls claim to be from either the I.R.S. or from publishers clearing house. Some of the calls even use automated calling systems in order to sound legitimate.  Neither publishers clearing house, nor the IRS will use a telephone call to contact you with prizes won or taxes owed. Under no circumstances should you give any personal information (such as name and address or date of birth or social security number), financial information, (credit card numbers or bank account numbers) nor should you send cash or money orders to the caller. The only true way to handle the calls is to simply hang up. Any new calls should either not be answered if they show from that number, or if caller ID shows no number and it is the same type of call, simply hang up.

The scammers on the other end are experts at gaining your confidence or compliance by tempting you to win something or by threatening you with arrest. Police say you should simply hang up the phone. Authorities are aware of these scams and individual police reports are unnecessary.

If you have elderly family members that are unaware of these scams, sit down and explain the process with them. The scammers tend to prey especially on the elderly.

(Press Release)

More snow is in the weekend forecast as colder-than-normal temperatures persist for much of Iowa in the teens, 20s and low 30s. Many of us still have leaf raking and other yard work to do before winter arrives, but midwest educator John Fech says the best thing you can do for your lawn is to keep off the grass.  “When you’ve got that layer of ice out there, it’s really best to just lay off of it,” Fech says. “If you’ve got a big pile of leaves, you’ve got a big pile of leaves and you can get to it when we get some warmer days. You can get some crunching on that ice and break off a lot of crowns of the grass. To be on the safe side, wait until it warms up a bit.”

Many Iowans’ evergreen trees emerged with brown needles after a tough winter last year, so he says preventative care may be called for if you have those trees. “Our broadleaf evergreens really took it on the chin last year,” Fech says. “On days when we get above freezing, say when we get above 35 or 40 degrees, there is a material called an anti-dessicant, an anti-drying agent that you can apply to them. Typically, three times over the winter. Pick out a day when we do perk back up into the high 30s and go from there.”

If you’ve planted trees on your property in the past year, you’ll likely want to protect those, too, for the winter ahead.  “Put some sort of tree protector on the trunk, a stiff piece of PVC that you split down the middle,” he says. “That would work real well to protect it against rabbit damage, squirrel damage, mouse damage.”

Parts of Iowa may see one or two more inches of snow fall on Saturday though forecasters say we should see more seasonable, warmer temperatures -perhaps- by late next week.

(Radio Iowa)

The passage rate for Iowans taking the Bar Exam fell 11-percent when compared to the previous year. The country’s average score dropped four points. The National Conference of Bar Examiners sent a memo asking law schools to better prepare their students for the test. Drake University Law School associate dean, Andrea Charlow, says she doesn’t agree that the schools are to blame for a decline in scores.

“I do not believe that the claim of the National Bar Examiners that the problem was that the students were not as good or not as prepared. I don’t believe that claim, it doesn’t make any sense, “ according to Charlow. Charlow says the students who took the exam this year are of similar quality based on their law school admissions test scores or G-P-A from last year’s students. She also says the curriculum hasn’t changed.

“I do believe what happened this year was an anomaly. It’s too big of a drop, not a big enough change in the quality of students or any difference or any substantial difference in what we teach or how we teach. So that says to me that something else was very wrong,” Charlow says. Charlow says since the N-C-B-E is a private organization, Drake’s law school will not know what went wrong until an objective third party reviews the committee. The Iowa Supreme Court heard testimony earlier this year on a proposal to allow graduates of the Drake and University of Iowa laws schools to practice law in the state without passing the Bar Exam, but eventually decided to keep the requirement in place.

(Radio Iowa)

The union that represents nearly 600 state law enforcement employees is asking for a four percent pay increase in each of the next two state fiscal years. This month state government managers have begun negotiations with a variety of unions that represent state workers. The State Police Officers Council is the union for Iowa State Troopers, special agents in the Division of Criminal Investigation and the Division of Narcotics Enforcement as well as state fire inspectors, Iowa conservation officers and state park rangers.

Representatives of the union for those workers call their pay hike proposal “very reasonable” because for many years state law enforcement officers did not take pay increases. This union was the only bargaining unit in state government that began paying 20 percent of their health insurance premiums after Governor Branstad took office in 2011 and state law enforcement officials are hoping that is taken into account by Branstad’s negotiators when considering the pay hike request.

On Monday, the union that represents tha largest share of state workers filed its initial contract offer. AFSCME is asking for an eight percent across-the-board pay raise for 18-thousand state workers over the next two years. Negotiations between the unions and Branstad’s top managers will resume in two weeks.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

ALTOONA, Iowa (AP) — A trade group has been given the greenlight to move ahead with plans to keep dog racing alive in Iowa. The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission approved a racetrack license for pari-mutuel wagering yesterday to the Iowa Greyhound Association. It gives the group authority to operate the Dubuque Greyhound Park at Mystique Casino.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Hospital Association says the number of patients without health insurance has plunged, largely because the state has expanded its Medicaid program. Hospital leaders tell the Des Moines Register in the first six months of this year, the number of uninsured people treated in Iowa hospitals has dropped by nearly half compared to same period last year. The association says about 4,500 patients lacking health insurance were hospitalized from January through June of this year. That’s a 46 percent decline from the almost 8,200 uninsured patients treated last year.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A court is upholding a minimum 35-year prison sentence for one of two Iowa men convicted of robbing a bank and shooting two officers during an attempted getaway. The Iowa Court of Appeals rejected 21-year-old William Clayton’s argument yesterday that the punishment was too severe.

JAMESTOWN, N.D. (AP) — Waldorf College in Iowa is joining the Dakotas-based North Star Athletic Association. The Warriors football team was an associate member of the NAIA conference this fall. The other 13 Waldorf sports programs will begin conference play next fall.

The Cass County Board of Supervisors met earlier this week at the courthouse, in Atlantic. According to Auditor Dale Sunderman, the Cass County Library Association, represented by the librarians from all six city libraries in the county, met with the board to present a report on services provided in FY2014 for each and all libraries. The association requested that the current county funding ($60,600) be
increased by 10.7 percent (cumulated rate of inflation from 2008-2014) plus $500 for each library for FY2016. The request was taken under advisement.

The Board approved a motion to award the contract for bridge replacement project on Jackson Road one-eight of a mile east of 648th St. to Cunningham-Reis Co., in the amount of $565,461.68.  They also approved a motion to approve Federal-aid Agreement for the replacement of a bridge on Akron Road three-tenths of a mile west of 770th St., at an estimated cost $360,000.

In other business, the Board discussed waterproofing the County’s building at 707 Poplar Street, but tabled action on the matter until additional quote(s) were received. They also discussed the VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) telephone system proposals. Cass County E-911 Director Rob Koppert reported that only one proposal was received. Part of the Request For Proposal (RFP) was that system would provide redundancy telephone system to one brand. At training session it was learned that a VoIP system could not provide same. Therefore, the recommendation was to reject all bids and reissue an RFP and open it to other brands.

A motion was made and approved to reject all bids and reissue an RFP for replacement of a telephone system for the courthouse.