w/ Ric Hanson

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City officials in Council Bluffs said this (Monday) morning, that high water has reduced a portion of Interstate 80 to one-lane, numerous power lines were down, and there have been several incidents of street flooding due to heavy rain overnight. The City remains at “Alert Level 1,” which is unchanged from Sunday, and was announced following flooding along the Missouri River earlier this Summer.

The City says western and southern portion of Council Bluffs received significant rainfall early this morning. And, while numerous area in the community experienced street flooding, Public Works crews were working to maintain pumping stations and were using temporary pumps to draw-down the water levels. Still, numerous streets remained barricaded, due to flooding. One-lane of Interstate 80 westbound, west of South 24^th Street, was closed this morning, due to flooding.

City officials said also, Police and Fire Department personnel had responded to numerous calls regarding street flooding, and evacuation assistance. By eight-a.m., five persons had been assisted with evacuation from their homes, two of the evacuees were transported to a shelter. On that note, the American Red Cross has re-opened the shelter at the Community of Christ Church at 140 West Kanseville Blvd. Anyone impacted by the storm is urged to go to a Red Cross shelter for a hot meal, minor first aid, and shelter, along with counseling.

The City has also received numerous reports of trees down over power line or in right-of-ways. If you see a downed electric line, you’re asked to report it to MidAmerican Energy at 1-800-799-4443. You should always assume electric lines are energized, and never touch them.

And, due to last week’s storms, the Council Bluffs Recycling Center continues to accept tree debris from Council Bluffs residents, free of charge. The debris will be accepted during normal business hours beginning today, and will continue until further notice. The center is open from 8am-6pm, M-F, and from 8am-Noon, on Saturday. The service is available to Council Bluffs residents only, not commercial businesses, or persons living outside of the community.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) – An Iowa National Guard transport truck has been deployed to rescue around 30 children from their stranded school bus in Council Bluffs. Heavy rain overnight and Monday morning flooded some streets and basements in far western Iowa and eastern Nebraska. The bus had stalled in about 4 feet of water south of downtown Council Bluffs, near 30th and Atlantic Avenue.

The heavy truck made it slowly through the water to reach the bus. The children soon were loaded into the truck and taken to safety. No injuries were reported.

Across the Missouri River, in Omaha, Neb., some streets just north of downtown were closed. Power outages were reported in Fremont, which is northwest of Omaha.

w/ Ric Hanson

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COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) – Heavy rain has flooded some streets and basements in far western Iowa and eastern Nebraska. Standing water blocked streets early Monday morning in Council Bluffs and across the Missouri River in Omaha, Neb. Council Bluffs officials asked residents in the Playland Park neighborhood on the west side of the city to remain in their homes until the rain runoff had dropped to safe levels. No evacuations were ordered. The American Red Cross says it was opening a shelter at Community of Christ Church on the east side of the city so people have a place to stay.

In Omaha, some streets just north of downtown were closed, and golfball-sized hail was observed.  Two- to three-inch diameter hail which fell at around 3:45-a.m. ,broke out several automobile windows in the Bellevue, NE.,   No injuries or deaths have been reported.

The National Weather Service in Valley, NE, reports 2.79-inches of rain had fallen near Glenwood, with three separate waves of hail ranging from pea to quarter-sized having fallen, as well. In Carter Lake, 3.31-inches of rain had fallen by 5-a.m., and anywhere from two-to three-inches of rain had fallen in the Omaha/Council Bluffs metro area.

The Southwest Iowa Senior Golf event in Oakland is cancelled for today, due to the weather.

The trial in the case of a Griswold woman charged with vehicular homicide was set to begin Tuesday, in Atlantic, but Cass County Attorney Dan Feistner said today (Monday) it‘s instead been continued until December 13th. 45-year-old Christine Annette Riedemann was charged with Vehicular Homicide and Possession of Marijuana, following an investigation into a June 2010 accident near Atlantic, that claimed the life of 44-year old Katrina L. Christensen, of Atlantic.  Earlier this month, Judge Jeffrey L. Larsen denied the defenses’ motion to suppress evidence or testimony in the case.

Reidemann was allegedly behind the wheel of an SUV that went out of control the evening of June 4^th, 2010, as it was traveling west on Highland Road. The vehicle entered a ditch, hit a utility pole and overturned. Both women were brought to the Cass County Memorial Hospital in Atlantic, where Christensen died from her injuries. The State Patrol says both women were wearing their seatbelts.

Two separate blood-alcohol tests each indicated Riedemann was above the legal limit to drive. She was also found to have allegedly been in possession of marijuana.

A telephone scam that cropped up in Iowa several months ago is resurfacing and reportedly cost a north-central Iowa man 25-thousand dollars. Webster City Police Chief Brian Hughes explains how the scam works.

“We’ve had numerous calls from citizens in the community that have received phone calls from people pretending to be their grandson or granddaughter, telling them that they are in need of money due to a variety of reasons,” Chief Hughes says. “They were arrested or they were in some kind of accident in a foreign country and they needed money.” He says the scam might seem unlikely to succeed but the con artists can be very convincing.

“They’ll actually have them talk to different people representing themselves as a police sergeant or a bail bondsman or someone in some type of official capacity,” Hughes says. “They’ll ask the grandpa or grandma to wire the money to an account so their grandson or granddaughter can be released.” Hughes has advice for those who may receive this type of phone call.

“We have had one person file a police report for a large sum of money and we’ve had several others call,” he says. “A few, we’ve had to plead with them to call their grandson or granddaughter and check with their son or daughter to see what the situation is before they go ahead and forward any money.” He strongly urges people not to give out financial information to someone they don’t know over the phone.

The scam has been reported in southwest Iowa, as well. Most recently, this past June, the Cass County Sheriff’s Office warned residents about similar calls residents had been receiving. The same scam popped up about a year ago in this area, as well.

(Radio IA/KJAN News)

Law enforcement officers from throughout the state will join their comrades across the nation beginning this Thursday, in an effort to crack down on impaired drivers, leading into the Labor Day weekend. The Special Traffic Enforcement Program (STEP) runs August 25^th through September 7^th, and will be an intensive crackdown on impaired driving and other offenses.

Across the country, it is illegal to drive with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of .08 (point-oh-eight) or greater. According to the latest data, nearly one-third of the fatalities in motor vehicle crashes involved a driver or motorcycle rider with a BAC above the legal limit, or an average of one fatality every 48-minutes.

Officials say while the number of alcohol-related fatalities dropped from 2008 to 2009, the number of fatalities related to impaired driving, are still too high. In Iowa, 92 out of the 371 fatalities recorded in 2009, were the result of an alcohol-related crash. Nationwide, the age group with the highest percentage of alcohol-impaired driving fatalities, were those who were 21-to-24.

During last year’s Labor Day STEP period, there were seven fatalities in Iowa, two of which were alcohol-related. And, nearly 35,500 traffic violations were recorded by law enforcement officers throughout the state, during the reporting period.

For more information on the STEP program, or how to stop an impaired driver before they get behind the wheel, log on to www.stopimpaireddriving.org.

SAC CITY, Iowa (AP) — A Nebraska woman has pleaded not guilty in a 2001 shooting death in Iowa. A trial was ordered for 45-year-old Tracey Richter-Roberts, of Omaha, Neb., although no date has been set. Richter-Roberts is charged with first-degree murder in the 2001 shooting death of 20-year-old Dustin Wehde.

Richter-Roberts shot Wehde – a family friend – multiple times in her home on Dec. 13, 2001. She had told authorities at the time that she and her three children were in the home when Wehde and another man broke in and attacked her. No charges were brought against Richter-Roberts at the time but the investigation was reopened in 2009.

Richter-Roberts was arrested last month and is being held in the Sac County jail on $1 million bail.