w/ Ric Hanson

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Police in Red Oak arrested a woman Tuesday night for alleged illegal possession of prescription drugs. 33-year-old Becky Jo Hegarty, of Red Oak, was arrested just before 11-p.m. on a charge of unlawful possession of a prescription medication. She was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $1,000 bond.

ONAWA, Iowa (AP) – Landowners in Monona County are complaining about a big increase in their property taxes.  The Sioux City Journal reports the landowners gathered Tuesday at the county courthouse to discuss what they could do about the tax increase and to question county assessor Tim Peters and county board members.  Castana farmer William Brink says his taxes have increased by $9,000 in one year. Officials say the change is because of a new way counties value land based on the ability to produce crops. If soil is more fertile, it’s taxed at a higher rate.  The new system also applies to more land, causing increases on property once overlooked.  Some counties adjust taxes for property not used for row crops, but Monona County is among 50 counties that doesn’t make adjustments.

Iowa Workforce Development announced Tuesday it is changing the tax tables for employers which will save millions dollars. I-W-D spokesperson, Kerry Koonce says the tax table that determines how much employers pay into the unemployment trust fund is reviewed every year. “You can either move up into a higher tax table, which reduces employer taxes, or you can move down into a lower numbered tax table, which would increase employer taxes,” Koonce said. “There are eight tables in total and we are moving from table four to table five, which in 2013 will save Iowa employers just under a hundred million dollars in unemployment taxes paid into the system.”

The average employer will see the rate they pay fall from two-point-four-percent (2.4%) to two-percent (2.0%) percent for 2013. Koonce says there are several reasons for the move to lower the taxes required of businesses. “It’s happening because we do a good job managing the trust fund. And it’s happening because Iowa has done a good job compared to other states in coming out of the recession. Our wages being paid are going up, our manufacturing hours are back over to working an average over 40-hours-a-week, our employers have been diligent in paying their taxes,” Koonce says. Iowa also doesn’t have to pay any unemployment money back to the federal government.

“We did not borrow from the federal government to support our trust fund, which most states had to do that, and therefore that causes their tax rates to go up. We didn’t have to do that, so our rates have stayed consistent,” Koonce says. You may wonder how the rates paid in by employers can go down when Iowa’s unemployment rate inched up slightly in the last month. Koonce says the table is not based on a one-month trend.

“It’s not based either on just the unemployment rate…it looks at a several year period the amount of dollars that have been paid out of the trust fund. And it looks at the amount of dollars that have been coming into the trust fund, and it’s a very complicated actuarial formula that says there is more than enough funding to pay out even the highest level of benefits that you have experienced in the last five years,” Koonce explains. Over 52-percent of Iowa businesses do not have to pay in any unemployment taxes under the table.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

A man who lived in Harlan in 1998 has been charged in Pottawattamie County with three-counts of 3rd degree sexual assault, in connection with a case that dates back 14-years. 68-year year old Bobby Ervin Smith, a former youth coordinator was being held in the Pott. County Jail. According to Omaha television station KETV, the alleged victim, who was 12 years old at the time, said Smith was his youth coordinator at First Baptist Church. The victim claimed Smith assaulted him during a fishing trip. Smith and his family moved to Missouri in 2008. He’s due in court in November, and if convicted on all charges, he faces 30 years in prison.

Officials with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources say five deer at a breeding facility in Pottawattamie County have tested positive for chronic wasting disease (CWD), resulting in that operation placed under quarantine. Three of the five deer in Pottawattamie County along with a single white-tail deer at a hunting preserve in Davis County – Iowa’s first confirmed positive CWD sample – have been traced back to a breeding facility in Cerro Gordo County. In addition, 14 deer from the breeding facility in Cerro Gordo County have been sampled for CWD with one yielding a positive result for CWD. The Cerro Gordo facility is also currently under quarantine meaning live animals are not allowed to come or go from the operation.

After the first positive sample of the deer in Davis County was confirmed in July, both the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) have been working to trace back deer that have moved to and from the Cerro Gordo County facility. Once the initial positive detection of CWD was found in Davis County, the DNR worked with several other states that had clients of the facility to determine which deer was the carrier of the disease. Through DNA testing, it was determined that the affected deer had originated from the Cerro Gordo County facility. The DNR has regulatory authority on hunting preserves while IDALS regulates captive breeding herds.

Bruce Trautman, deputy director of the DNR, said “It’s important for us to gather as much information as possible as to where these deer have come from and gone to if we are going to be successful in containing the spread of CWD. Our primary concern is to keep CWD from spreading to the wild herd.”  The 330-acre Davis County facility is currently surrounded by an eight-foot high fence and routine inspections are being conducted by the DNR to ensure the integrity of the fencing system so that no deer are coming or going from the area.

The DNR will increase testing of wild deer in the area by working with hunters and landowners to collect samples from hunter harvested deer beginning this fall. A goal of 300 samples within a five-mile radius of the Davis County facility has been established. There is no evidence that CWD can spread to humans, pets or domestic livestock such as pork, beef, dairy, poultry, sheep or goats. Iowa has tested 42,557 wild deer and over 4,000 captive deer and elk as part of the surveillance program since 2002 when CWD was found in Wisconsin.

CWD is a neurological disease that only affects deer, elk and moose. It is caused by an abnormal protein, called a prion, which affects the brains of infected animals, causing them to lose weight, display abnormal behavior and lose bodily functions. Signs include excessive salivation, thirst and urination, loss of appetite, progressive weight loss, listlessness and drooping ears and head. The prions can attach to soil and spread the disease among deer. Chronic wasting disease was first identified in captive mule deer at a research facility in Colorado in 1967. Prior to the positive detection in Iowa, CWD had been detected in every bordering state.

Authorities in Harrison County say no injuries were reported when a train struck a semi near Dunlap on Friday morning. Dunlap Police Chief Darren Klein says the semi was unable to get across the tracks, “It was an eastbound train and the Quality Liquid Feeds (QLF) was unable to cross the tracks. No injuries at all to either the driver or engineers. The impact drug the truck down about 50 yards and broke the cross arms off. That’s about it.”

The Dunlap Police Department was working with the Union Pacific to estimate the damage. The semi and trailer, owned by Quality Liquid Feeds, were a total loss while there was some damage to the locomotive. The accident happened around 10-am Friday. Traffic had to be re-routed while crews cleaned up the area.

(Joel McCall/KNOD)

The Atlantic City Council will hold its first meeting of the month Wednesday evening, at City Hall. During their session, the Council will receive a report from AMU General Manager Steve Tjepkes. They’ll also possibly act on a resolution awarding a bid for improvements to the traffic signals at 7^th and Walnut, Chestnut and Poplar Streets. Only one bid (amounting to $123,838) was received, from a company out of Oskaloosa. The engineer’s original cost estimate for the project was $93,000, so it’s possible the Council may reject the bid, and stick with the current signals until next year, or conduct what City Administrator Doug Harris calls “Value engineering,” to reduce the cost of the project.

The Council will also hold the third and final reading of an ordinance amending the City Code, with regard to Illegal Dumping, to make the rules consistent throughout the County. And, the Council will hold the first reading of a revised ordinance pertaining to “Private Wells,” with regard to Iowa DNR identified contaminated sites on Commerce, East 7^th and West 2^nd Streets. The ordinance allows closed-loop systems for non-drinking water wells use greater than 1,000-feet from an area of contamination, and drinking water wells greater than 1,000-feet from an area of contamination, and are more than 250-feet from an accessible public water supply.

In other business, the Atlantic City Council, Wednesday, is expected to pass on the second- and third-readings, an ordinance prohibiting parking  on Linn Street, on the east side, from 8^th Street north 100-feet, from 7:45-a.m. to 3:15-p.m., for the purpose of loading buses when school is in session. They’ll also act on an expanded Tobacco Free Policy for City Hall, which was originally enacted in February of 2007, but now includes a tobacco cessation program for City employees.

The Council’s session begins at 5:30-p.m., Wednesday, and is scheduled to be broadcast locally, on Cable Channel 18.