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Man killed after motorcycle hits jeep in eastern Iowa

News

July 6th, 2018 by Ric Hanson

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say one man is dead after the motorcycle he was riding collided with a jeep in eastern Iowa. The Quad-City Times reports that the crash happened shortly after 7 p.m. Thursday in Davenport. Davenport police say the motorcyclist was riding through an intersection when his bike struck the side of a Jeep Wrangler that was also traveling through the intersection.

The motorcyclist was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Authorities say they were not releasing the man’s name until his family was notified. No one in the jeep was injured. Police are still investigating the crash.

Man convicted in 1976 Iowa murder now eligible for parole

News

July 6th, 2018 by Ric Hanson

ORANGE CITY, Iowa (AP) — A man serving life in prison for killing a northwest Iowa woman when he was 14 years old is now eligible for parole after he was re-sentenced in accordance with a recent Iowa Supreme Court ruling. The Sioux City Journal reports that John Mulder was re-sentenced Thursday to life in prison, but with no mandatory minimum number of years to serve before he can ask the Iowa Board of Parole to release him. The board will still decide whether Mulder will ever be released.

The Supreme Court in April ruled that Mulder’s previous sentence failed to meet juvenile sentencing standards established by a court decision last year. Mulder was originally sentenced a mandatory life in prison without parole for the 1976 shooting death of 55-year-old Jean Homan, of Alton.

Serious jet ski accident in northeast Iowa on the 4th of July

News

July 6th, 2018 by Ric Hanson

A man is being treated for suspected head injuries after the jet ski he was riding collided with a boat on a river in northeast Iowa. It happened Wednesday afternoon on the Shell Rock River, about two miles north of Greene. Authorities say Tad Schneider, of Allison, got too close to a boat that was pulling someone on an inner tube and his jet ski struck the boat. Schneider was wearing a life jacket and was briefly unconscious in the water before he was rescued by others on the river. A third boat took Schneider to a park in Greene, then an ambulance took him to the hospital in Waverly for treatment. Officials say the jet ski AND the boat involved in the accident are owned by Brian Cole, of Nashua.

(Radio Iowa)

King says White House now favors ‘rifle shot’ approach on immigration bills

News

July 6th, 2018 by Ric Hanson

Iowa Congressman Steve King says he’s getting signals from the White House on the president’s preferred path on immigration policy. “I talked to the White House about three or four days ago. They said: ‘We’re done with amnesty,’ but they’re interested in going forward with rifle-shots of immigration reform, which is what I’ve always been for,” King says. “Let’s set ’em up one bill at a time. Let’s not crowd them all together and confuse the American people. Let everybody see what we’re doing.”

King suggests with a “rifle-shot” approach, there would be bills that address just one topic, like border wall funding in one bill and another that addresses so-called “DACA” recipients who were illegally brought into the country by their parents when they were children. “If we can’t move anything because all of the oxygen is sucked out of the political atmosphere by the upcoming announcement of an appointment to the impending vacancy on the US Supreme Court, I guess that’s alright because that’s the most important thing right now,” King says, “to get a constitutionalist seated on the court who will rule on the text and the original understanding of the Constitution and the text of the law rather than legislate from the bench.”

President Trump is scheduled to reveal his nominee for the Supreme Court vacancy on Monday night. Last month, Congressman King was among the Republicans who helped defeat two immigration bills advanced by House G-O-P leaders. King says the failure of those bills improves the chances future proposals will be in line with his views. “I think they are better than I expected they would be at this point,” King says. “My major concern on immigration, the thing that has animated me on the immigration issue — and I don’t think anyone out there would question whether I am animated on that issue or not — it has aways been for restoring respect for the rule of law.”

J.D. Scholten of Sioux City, King’s Democratic opponent, says it’s time to “modernize” the country’s immigration policies. “We absolutely have to have secure borders, but then beyond that we’ve got to have an immigration court that is functional and not months and even years behind,” Scholten says. “And then we need to have a visa program that matches our economy and then a pathway to residency and a pathway to citizenship that should be earned.”  Scholten says it’s frustrating to watch the D.C. debate on this topic. “I mean what isn’t happening is something being done,” Scholten says.

Trump tweeted Thursday that Congress should “FIX OUR INSANE IMMIGRATION LAWS NOW.”

(Radio Iowa)

Survey: 68% of Iowa’s top employers expect to hire more workers

News

July 6th, 2018 by Ric Hanson

A survey of 22 of the state’s largest employers indicates most of them should be growing between now and the end of the year. Georgia Van Gundy is executive director of the Iowa Business Council (IBC), which released its second quarter Economic Outlook Survey, Thursday. “Sixty-eight of our members are anticipating adding employees over the next six months,” Van Gundy says.

The positive economic outlook is tempered by a familiar concern among the state’s top employers. Eight-four-percent of I-B-C members cite “attracting, developing and retaining a quality workforce” as their primary business challenge. Van Gundy says the organization is launching an initiative, called Vision to Vitality, in hopes of addressing those workforce needs.  “And that (involves) going out to our communities and actually getting a community viewpoint on what are your barriers to growth? What are the best practices you have?”

The first Vision to Vitality forum is scheduled for July 17 in Boone. “We’ll be highlighting a partnership between business and education, Boone EDGE and Fareway, in which the businesses are partnering with the Boone School District to have work-based learning opportunities for students, so they can learn about some of the job opportunities early on in high school and hopefully will move into them after they graduate,” Van Gundy said.

Two more Vision to Vitality forums are scheduled for September 11 in Muscatine and October 9 in Le Mars. In addition to the expectation of adding employees, the new IBC survey shows 90-percent of the members anticipate higher sales and 63-percent project an increase in capital spending in the next six months.

(Radio Iowa)

Flood hit more than 1,500 Des Moines-area properties

News

July 6th, 2018 by Ric Hanson

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An unofficial tally shows that more than 1,500 properties in the Des Moines area were affected by weekend flooding, and authorities expect that number to increase. The Des Moines Register reports that officials still need to inspect many of the properties. Hundreds of residents were caught in Saturday night’s storm that dumped up to 9 inches on the area and caused flash flooding. One man was killed when he left his stranded van and was swept away by flood waters.

A map released by Polk County emergency management officials shows 1,501 unconfirmed reports of damaged properties in Des Moines and its suburbs. Des Moines appears to have taken the brunt of the flood, with at least 655 homes reported to be affected.

Iowa Bike Coalition leader says ADT bike survey inaccurate

News, Sports

July 6th, 2018 by Ric Hanson

The executive director of the Iowa Bicycle Coalition has some issues with a survey out this week by A-D-T that showed five Iowa communities are in the top ten for the most dangerous to ride a bicycle. Webster City was ranked number three on the list behind New York City and Los Angeles. Mark Wyatt is with the Iowa Bicycle Coalition. “I think the results of this study are incomplete and inaccurate — but I don’t want to underemphasize that we have some work to do as far as making bicycling safer in this state,”Wyatt says.

Wyatt said the coalition is addressing the issue of bike safety. He says they have been working in the Iowa Legislature to get a safe passing distance bill approved and they have been working with the D-O-T to complete a state bike plan by this fall.  Wyatt says there are a lot of other efforts underway to improve the safety of bicyclists. “One city in Iowa — Hudson, Iowa — has adopted a local ordinance on safe passing and we’re working on more cities to join that city to upgrade their local ordinance,” according to Wyatt. “And then finally, as of July first we are launching a 20-thousand dollar media campaign addressing the safe passing of bicycles.”

Wyatt says the A-D-T study overlooks the work the coalition has been doing with other bike groups in making bike safety a key issues. “Unfortunately I don’t think the study from a home security company really reflected that amount of work that’s going on in the state,” Wyatt says. “Or the amount of fatal crashes in comparison to per capita rankings to say Florida and California, where it seems much more dangerous.” While he thinks the rankings aren’t accurate, Wyatt again says Iowa is by no means done when it comes to work to improve safety for bikers. “One death is too many in this state and we need to get to zero fatalities,” Wyatt says.

The other four Iowa communities listed among the most dangerous for bicyclists are Waterloo (7th) , Sioux City (8th), Johnston (9th) and Des Moines (10th).

(Radio Iowa)

2 arrests in Red Oak

News

July 6th, 2018 by Ric Hanson

Red Oak Police, early this (Friday) morning, arrested 26-year old Cody Dean Johnson, of Red Oak. Johnson was taken into custody at around 12:30-a.m. for Simple Assault. His bond was set at $300. And, at around 12:15-a.m., 31-year old Katie Marie Pierce, of Red Oak, was arrested on two Pottawattamie County warrants for Violation of Probation. Pierce was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $10,000 cash bond, pending transfer to the Pott. County Jail.

Skyscan Forecast for Atlantic & the area, 7/6/18

Weather

July 6th, 2018 by Ric Hanson

Today: Mo. Sunny, High 84. NE @ 10.

Tonight: Fair to Partly Cloudy. Low 60.

Tomorrow: P/Cldy. High 86. SE @ 10.

Sunday: P/Cldy. High 89.

Monday: P/Cldy w/isolated showers & thunderstorms. High 91.

Yesterday’s High in Atlantic was 83. Our Low this morning was 58. Last year on this date our High was 90 and the Low was 64. The record High in Atlantic on this date was 106 in 1937. The Record Low was 47 in 1967 & 2006.

Regional Softball Scores from 7/5/18

Sports

July 6th, 2018 by Ric Hanson

CLASS 4A

Region 1

Lemars 9, Bishop Heelan 3
Storm Lake 6, Spencer 2

Region 2

Des Moines Hoover 5, Bondurant 2
Glenwood 2, Harlan 0

Region 3

Carroll 3, Perry 1
Boone 12, Webster City 2

Region 4

Dallas Center-Grimes 12, Knoxville 0
Pella 5, Grinnell 4

CLASS 5A

Region 1

Sioux City North 10, Sioux City West 0

Region 2

CB Thomas Jefferson 10, CB Abraham Lincoln 3