COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) – A former schoolteacher has left her $2.5 million estate to the Council Bluffs Public Library Foundation.  The Daily Nonpareil says  Ann Cook died Dec. 16, 2012. She was 70.   Cook was a Council Bluffs resident who taught school across the Missouri River in Omaha from 1964 to 1997. After retirement she volunteered more time to the Friends of the Library organization.

Library Foundation President Steve Krohn says the money will help the organization’s efforts to supplement book collections, fund various programs and buy new technology. Cook’s attorney, Gary Faust, is a member of the foundation board, too. He says Cook “had a great deal of love for the library. She wanted to see it continue to prosper.”

Faust says Cook inherited much of her wealth and lived frugally.

(8-am News)

w/ Ric Hanson

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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Officials say the Drake University bulldog mascot has died.  The university says the owners of Porterhouse, Kevin and Erin Bell, announced his death through his blog  on Sunday. They’d shared Porterhouse with the school since he was crowned Beautiful Bulldog during the Drake Relays-week competition in 2009.

Drake athletic director Sandy Hatfield Clubb says “no bulldog has had such a meaningful and lasting impact on the Drake community.”

Two Red Oak men were arrested Sunday on separate charges. Red Oak Police say 28-year old Robert Earl Otis was arrested a little after 6-a.m. at a residence in the 700 block of North Broadway Street, on a Possession of Drug Paraphernalia charge. And 33-year old Luke Daniel Rinehart was arrested at around 12:30-p.m. in the 300 block of 2nd Avenue, on a charge of Simple Domestic Assault. Both men were brought to the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center and held on $300 cash bond, each.

Police in Red Oak arrested a woman early this (Monday) morning. Officials say 43-year old Shelby JoAnn Olivares, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 2:50-a.m. on a charge of Domestic Abuse Assault. She was taken into custody at a residence in the 100 block of East Maple Street and booked into the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center where she was held without bond.

The record high in Iowa in 2013 was 106 degrees — back in May — and the record low a minus 27 just last week. State Climatologist Harry Hillaker says temperatures in Iowa for 2013 have averaged out to slightly below normal. “Rainfall wise, almost right at normal, but as usual, that doesn’t tell the whole story,” Hillaker says. This past spring was very wet and the late summer and early fall were dry, which means precipitation levels for 2013 in Iowa average out to be average, according to Hillaker.

“Overall, though, this year was quite a bit wetter than 2012, thanks to that wet spring,” Hillaker says. “…Going into winter this year with more soil moisture in the ground than we had at this point last year and actually even at this point two years ago as well, so we’re in a little bit better shape in soil moisture now than the last couple of years, but still quite a bit drier than what would be usual going into the winter season.” The months of May and April were the wettest ever recorded in Iowa, while August and September were very dry, but don’t rank as some of the driest ever.

Hillaker says there were pockets of southeast Iowa that were exceptionally dry this summer. “The Burlington area, for example, had just a trace of rainfall for the full month of August which was easily a record low for that area of the state,” Hillaker says, “and there were, you know, scattered areas of the state that set some records as far as low totals in July and August and maybe in a few cases in September, but nothing where the state average was quite that low.” Hillaker uses the phrase “consistently cool” to describe the temperatures recorded in Iowa this past year.

“Got off to a January-February period that was a little bit milder than unusual for mid-winter, but still nothing really out of the ordinary, but then a really cold spring season — especially March and April — and a relatively mild summer as well ’til we got rather late into August where the summer heat finally returned and had a rather warm end to the summer into the early fall,” Hillaker says. “More recently, November and December, of course quite a bit colder than usual once again.” The temperature dropped to 27 degrees below zero on Christmas Eve in Osceola.

“That was easily our lowest temperature of the calendar year and actually, our lowest temperature anywhere in Iowa in almost three years,” Hillaker says. The year’s record high — of 106 degrees — was recorded in Sioux City on May 14th. “Which is about two weeks earlier than we’ve ever seen a temperature that high in the state, but that ended up being the highest reading of the whole year, actually by quite a ways,” Hillaker says. “Most of the state didn’t see triple-digit temperatures.” Hillaker says that 133-degree variation between highs and lows is unique on the planet.

The only other place besides the upper Midwest that sees such wide temperature swings is in Russia. Hillacer says the climates in these two areas are “so contrasting” because they in the middle of a large land mass, without the “moderating” influence of oceans or large lakes. Russia actually straddles two continents and Hillaker says South America isn’t as large as North America, so that’s why temperatures in the southern hemisphere don’t vary that much.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press…

GRINNELL, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa college known for liberal activism is welcoming an unlikely neighbor: one of the nation’s largest suppliers of high-capacity ammunition magazines and accessories for assault rifles. With demand for gun products booming, Brownells Incorporated is building a large distribution and retail center along Interstate 80 in Grinnell. One downtown business owner says the development will bring jobs, income and visitors to Grinnell.

GRINNELL, Iowa (AP) — A Georgia man has been accused of stabbing another man multiple times in Grinnell. Local police say 28-year-old Braxton Alan Hoover was arrested following a report of a stabbing Saturday afternoon at an apartment complex. Authorities tell the Des Moines Register Hoover and a 31-year-old man were fighting prior to the stabbing and it escalated in the complex’s parking lot.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A woman in Des Moines is in custody accused of attacking police officers as she and another man tried to flee from them. Des Moines police say Patricia Howe kicked and punched officers as she and Gabriel Boettger were being chased Saturday. Des Moines television station KCCI reports Howe is accused of stealing credit cards and cash from an apartment and Boettger is accused of trying to flee with her.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Des Moines man has been accused of attacking six people inside an apartment. Police tell the Register they found 21-year-old Demarco Moore bloody and distraught early Sunday at an apartment complex. They say he was at an apartment hanging out with friends when he began attacking the people there with him.

Firefighters from Cumberland and Massena were called to a reported grain bin drier fire at the 21-st Century Co-Op elevator, in Cumberland, Sunday. The call went out at 11:27-a.m.  According to reports, about 1,000 bushels of corn was lost in the blaze, the cause of which remains under investigation. A bad drier motor and/or grain dust particulates may be to blame, according to officials.

Photo’s by Doug Evans/KJAN

The Adams County Sheriff’s Office reports an arrest early this (Sunday) morning. 24-year old Katherine L. Coleman, of Corning, was arrested at around 12:45-a.m., on charges of Theft of a Motor Vehicle, OWI, Assault on Persons engaged in certain occupations and Interference with Official Acts.

Coleman was arrested following a traffic stop on Highway 34, after authorities received word a possibly stolen vehicle was traveling west on Highway 34 towards Corning. Deputies located the vehicle and stopped it at 306 6th Street, in Corning.

Upon investigation, it was determined Coleman allegedly took the vehicle without the owner’s permission, and that she was under the influence. She was brought to the Adams County Jail and held pending an appearance before the Magistrate.