The Atlantic City Council, Wednesday evening, passed an Amendment to the Fiscal Year 2017 budget that incorporated changes in the areas revenue, interest revenue and expenditures. In the end, the result is an increase in revenues amounting to $34,500 and an increase in expenditures of $25,700, or an increase of $8,800 in excess revenue and other sources over the expenditures/transfers out in the fiscal year. The total budget as amended is $14,416, 608., leaving the City with an ending fund balance on June 30th, 2017 of $5,332,130, as opposed to the certified budget of $5,323,300.

The Council also approved an amendment to the City’s Code of Ordinances with regard to the sale and use of fireworks, the specifics of which we’ve previously mentioned on KJAN. Fire Chief Mark McNees expressed concerns however, that a provision was removed in the Ordinance regarding gross weight limits for the amount of fireworks at any given location, where permanent and temporary structures are used to sell the devices.

City Administrator John Lund said the State Fire Marshal’s Office never returned calls from the City with regard to guidance on the matter, and other Cities have given-up trying to further regulate the sale of fireworks until they have better guidance.

McNees said there is guidance available from the National Fire Protection Association, in the form of NFPA 101, a Life Safety Code used as a consensus standard and widely adopted in the United States and used in the State of Iowa. The State bases their inspections on NFPA 1124. The same goes for the checklist McNees will be required to use for inspections. He said the requirements don’t apply to vendors who have less than 500 pounds in a building not covered by sprinklers, or less than 1,000 pounds for a building equipped with sprinklers. McNees said “We have very few sprinkled buildings, in Atlantic. We have a whole lot of unsprinkled ones.”

He suggested the City leave the weight limits as they were, using the 500 and 1,000 pound limits as a safety factor. He said “Our problem is, if something happens with one of these, we do not have the equipment, we don’t have the manpower. If it goes up, most likely we’re going to sit there and watch it from a distance. But to try to protect buildings, and/or people, and/or roadways…that initial fire/explosion…is the problem.”

City Clerk Barb Barrick says she’s received at least six inquires from fireworks vendors, and one transient merchant application, which was sent back to be corrected. In other business, City Administrator John Lund said on the first day of three City Clean-up Days, 3 loads of junk left by the curbs was removed and sent to the landfill. There would have been more, but one of the City workers had a family emergency. It’s estimated 25% of the City was covered, Wednesday.

Mayor Dave Jones reminds residents, if the neighbors along your street have had their junk picked up and yours was not, you will be responsible for putting it back on your property in accordance with the Ordinance.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — A Council Bluffs mother who admitted to police that she shoved her 1-year-old child’s arm into hot coffee, causing severe burns, has pleaded guilty and been sentenced to five years in prison. The Daily Nonpareil reports that 36-year-old Rebecca Brahier pleaded guilty Tuesday to child endangerment resulting in injury. She received credit for time already served in jail since her November arrest.

Hospital medical staff called police after the boy was brought in for treatment. Doctors say the boy suffered blistering and that his skin was sloughing off on his left hand and arm. Police say Braheir told officers the baby kept reaching for her coffee cup, so she intentionally submerged the baby’s arm in the hot coffee to “teach him a lesson.”

The Cass County Board of Supervisors met Wednesday morning (June 7th) in a regular session. During the meeting, the Board discussed the position on the Cass County veteran affairs commission which ends June 30th. The Veteran Affairs commissioners had recommend the re-appointment of Terry Duggan, of Griswold, and the Supervisors concurred. Duggan was unanimously re-appointed to the Cass County Commission of Veteran Affairs for a three-year term that begins July 1st, 2017.

The Board also discussed the positions on the Cass County Compensation Board which end June 30th. The discussion was followed by action on re-appointing Maynard Hansen and Phyllis Nichols as members on the Cass County compensation board for four-year terms that begin July 1st.

In other action the Cass County Supervisors approved requests from the Cities of Anita and Atlantic to abate penalty and interest on two parcels owned in each city by those respective cities. And, by a vote of 4-to 1, the Board approved a request for a Bible Reading Marathon on the courthouse grounds. The event, which was also held last year, will take place from June 26th through July 2nd. The lone Nay vote came from Supervisor Frank Waters.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Omaha authorities have released the name of a man whose body was found floating down the Missouri River. Boaters spotted the body around 2:15 p.m. Sunday. An Omaha Fire Department river rescue team recovered it near Eppley Airfield on the northeast corner of the city. Omaha police said Wednesday that the man’s been identified as 32-year-old Tyler Owen.

Police say no foul play is suspected in Owen’s death, but their investigation is continuing. It’s unclear whether an accident was involved.

A man who appealed his conviction of first-degree murder in Pottawattamie County has had his appeal for Post Conviction Relief (PCR) denied. The Iowa Court of Appeals heard the request from David Gonzales-Becerra, who was convicted in the fall 2003 beating death in Council Bluffs, of 35-year old Oscar Flores. The incident happened at a party. Becerra, who was 25-year old at the time, was one of three men convicted in the case. He had appealed his conviction to the Iowa Supreme Court, which denied further review. A district court determined Becerra’s claims were time-barred, and denied the application for relief.

In its opinion, the Appeals Court said Post Conviction Relief applications must be filed within three-years of the date of conviction. Becerra initiated his PCR on Dec. 5th, 2013, which fell outside the rules for timely application.

The Appeals Court said the district court was correct in its decision, based on the Statute of Limitations, and affirmed their decision to deny PCR.

The Iowa Court of Appeals has denied an appeal for a new trial in a Pottawattamie County murder case. The court heard an appeal from Jodie Marie Sherman with regard to her bench trial conviction on a charge of second-degree murder. She was convicted of the July 2014 stabbing in Council Bluffs, of Douglas Richt. Richt was stabbed in the neck with a 12-inch knife during an argument in a vehicle, he later died from massive blood loss.

Sherman was initially found incompetent to stand trial due to mental illness. In October 2014, she was sent to the Medical Classification Center in Oakdale for further evaluation. She was found competent to stand trial despite some reservations by a licensed psychologist. During trial, she used the insanity defense but the court but was found guilty. Sherman filed a motion for a new trial, but was denied and appealed the decision.

The Appeals Court affirmed the verdict, ruling that she did not prove her defense of insanity by a preponderance of the evidence, as required by statute. They said the verdict was supported by substantial evidence, and, that the trial court did not commit error by denying Sherman’s request for a new trial.

The Iowa Court of Appeals has reversed one conviction of a man in a Taylor County case and upheld another conviction in the same case. The ruling was with regard to an appeal from Charles Hall, of Chicago, who, in July 2015, was convicted of murder in the first degree and child endangerment causing serious injury.

Authorities on May 22nd, 2015, responded to a 911 call for a child not breathing at 806 Washington Street in Bedford.  Deputies found a 3-year-old girl, Janiya King, unresponsive. She was pronounced dead by the medical examiner. Court documents indicate Janiya had severe burns on her face and right shoulder. The girl had been staying with Hall’s girlfriend in Bedford. April Clair plead guilty to child endangerment resulting in bodily injury. She was charged because she had not sought medical help for the child when she first noticed the abuse.

In an appeal of his convictions, Hall maintained the district court abused its discretion when it denied his motion for mistrial after one of the State’s witnesses vomited outside of the courtroom following a 911 call that was played for the jury.  He also said there was insufficient evidence to support his conviction for child endangerment resulting in serious injury.

After reviewing the record, the Appeals Court said they could not confirm the district court abused its discretion in denying Hall’s motion for mistrial. Therefore, they affirmed his conviction for murder in the first degree. However, the Court found there was insufficient evidence to support Hall’s conviction for child endangerment causing serious injury, and ordered that conviction reversed.

Because the jury necessarily found the State established all the elements of the lesser-included offense of child endangerment causing bodily injury and sufficient evidence supports that conviction, the Appeals Court instructed the district court to enter an amended judgment of conviction and to re-sentence Hall accordingly.

The State of Iowa is paying nearly half a million dollars to settle the lawsuit filed after a boy in foster care was beaten with a brick and drowned. The birth mother of Dominic Elkins filed the lawsuit. Elkins had been placed with a foster family in Logan (Iowa). Another foster kid in the home who was 17 years old killed the five-year-old when the foster parents were not in the house. That teenager was charged and found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Attorneys for the five-year-old’s mother argued state officials should not have placed the two boys in the same foster care home. Last fall the state agreed to pay 300-thousand dollars from the “Foster Home Insurance Fund.” This week the State Appeal Board approved another 175-thousand dollar payment from the state to settle the case out of court.

On Monday, the legislature’s Oversight Committees held a hearing to examine the state’s child welfare system, including foster care.

(Radio Iowa)