The Atlantic School District’s Board of Education will meet in a regular session this evening at the High School Media Center. Their meeting begins at 5:30-p.m.  During the session, the Board will act on hiring, transfers and resignations, along with approving the 2016-17 Non-Certified staff’s tentative contract agreement.

During the discussion phase of their meeting, the Atlantic School Board will hear presentations with regard to: The Home/School Program; ELL Program, and Spring 2016 Iowa Assessments Board. They’ll also talk more about a proposed Special Election for an income surtax.

During their meeting two weeks ago, the Board agreed they still want to bring an income surtax vote back before patrons of district. Board Secretary/District Business Manager Mary Beth Fast said at the time, that the earliest the surtax could be placed before patrons of the district, is a special election on Sept. 13^th. The Board would need to have a ballot request submitted to County Election Commissioner Dale Sunderman by no later than July 29^th. The next available dates for Special Elections are in December 2016, and February or April, 2017.

Last September, voters rejected a public measure to add an income tax surcharge component to the district’s Physical Plant and Equipment Levy (PPEL). Business Manager Mary Beth Fast has stated in previous meetings, that the maximum surtax the District could impose, if approved by the voters, is 10-percent. She said even if the District requested a nine-percent surtax, that would generate $300,000 and make for 67-cents difference in property tax relief.

The area’s top news at 7:06-a.m., w/KJAN News Director Ric Hanson

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The CAM School District’s Board of Educators is set to meet during a special session Thursday morning in the CAM High School Media Center. The meeting begins at 7:30-a.m. During their session, the Board will discuss and act on several matters, including: Open enrollment applications; Resignations; Contracts; 2016-17 Master Contract, Teacher contracts, Schedule B, Support Staff and Administrative contracts.

The Board will also act on a Resolution adopting the Cass County Hazard Mitigation Plan, and set the date/time for a public hearing on the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), along with the authorizing of bids and setting the date and time for public hearings on the parking lot improvement project and bus lane improvements.

About 200 people who are customers of Atlantic Municipal Utilities (AMU) are or were without power this morning. A person who answered the phone could not say what the problem was, but she did say crews were out trying to get the power restored as quickly as possible. Residents near 8th and Birch, 12th and Chestnut, and the vicinity of Sycamore and Chestnut Streets were in the dark as of 6:45-a.m.

Winds at the time the outages were initially reported, where gusting from 25-to 45-miles per hour. Other utilities were reporting power outages as well:  Southwest Iowa Rural Electric Cooperative reported 119 customers were without power in Adams County (as of 7-a.m.), 28 were without power in Taylor County, and anywhere from 3-to 5 customers were in the dark in Cass and Montgomery Counties; Mid-American Energy reported scattered outages in Griswold, Lewis, Carbon, Red Oak and Villisca.

Officials with the Stuart Police Department issued a somewhat tongue-in-cheek statement on their social media page Tuesday, with regard to a drug bust. Authorities said the Stuart Police Dept. K-9 unit was on a routine traffic stop in the 100 block of N. Adair Street, Tuesday, and that while the officer was speaking with the occupants of the vehicle the driver fled on foot, leaving behind a large quantity of methamphetamine and marijuana.

Kyle Styron (photos from Stuart P-D Facebook page)

Officials said also, “On a side note we would appreciate any information the public is willing to share regarding the location of Kyle Styron. We have some items of his that we would like to speak with him about, but for some reason he has been avoiding us.”

If you know where Styron is, you’re asked to call Stuart Police at 641-747-2214.

Authorities in Montgomery County, Tuesday night, arrested three people in connection with a plot to sell a vehicle for cash at a scrap yard. Officials say 23-year old Amanda Joy Huebner, of Red Oak, faces felony Theft in the 2nd degree charge, after she asked 26-year old Sara Ann Billie and 30-year old Lovelle Joseph Ward, both of Red Oak, to take a 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee to a scrap yard in Omaha, and obtain cash for the vehicle so Huebner could pay some bills. All three suspects knew the SUV did not belong to Huebner.

Instead of taking the vehicle to the scrap yard, Billie and Ward used it for their own personal use. They brought the SUV to the police department after they spoke on the phone with officers. Billie and Ward were arrested for Operating (a vehicle) with the Owners Consent. Their bonds were set at $2,000 each. Huebner’s bond was set at $5,000.

Sheriff’s deputies in Montgomery County early this (Wednesday) morning, arrested a man for Driving While Barred. 42-year old Jerry Lee Dawson, of Hastings, was taken into custody at midnight and brought to the Montgomery County Jail, where he was being held on full bond.

Advocates to expanding Iowa’s limited medical marijuana law held an emotional rally at the statehouse Tuesday afternoon. Michelle Richardson of Norwalk has multiple sclerosis and she wants lawmakers to set up a growing and distribution operation here in Iowa for cannabis oil, pills and vapor. “If I have to cross state lines to get the medication, I’m not going to do that,” Richardson says. “Look at me. I’m not going to go to jail for that.”

Monday night, 31 House Republicans unsuccessfully offered a proposal that would have expanded the list of ailments Iowans can possess cannabis oil to treat. Sally Gaer, of West Des Moines, has been lobbying legislators to set up an Iowa-based growing and distribution system for the cannabis oil her daughter takes to control her chronic epilepsy. “I’m disappointed. I feel misled by members of the Iowa House,” Gaer says. “We’ve been working on this for months and what they did last night shows they have no conscience.”

Bob Lewis of Windsor Heights cried as he described the G-O-P plan. “I’ve been fighting so hard for this. My illness wasn’t even covered in the bill that was diluted,” Lewis said. “I have lived in pain for 42 years.” Thirty-six-year-old Laura Jumper and her family are moving from Mason City to Ankeny to be closer to other relatives. She has ulcerative colitis, Graves Disease and a rare form of arthritis that attacks the spine. Jumper wants to take cannabis because prescription drugs are no longer working. “I used to be a fitness instructor and now I barely can walk and have trouble doing everyday things like showering,” Jumper says. “and just getting in and out of the car.”

House Democrats say they’ll try to force a vote this week, somehow, on a plan to grow and distribute marijuana by prescription in Iowa. Leaders say they’re hoping this is the final week of the 2016 legislative session and a limited number of bills remain eligible for debate.

(Radio Iowa)

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources recently held a public hearing on the rules covering the new apprentice hunting licenses and are moving ahead with implementation. D-N-R hunter education administrator, Megan Wisecup, says it allows people to bypass the hunter education requirement while they learn. She says the program is for people over the age of 16 to try and get them interested in hunting by giving them a chance to go out before they need to invest in any equipment. Providing supervision is a key part of the apprentice license.

“It requires that they have a mentor with them, which is another hunter who is 18 or over and properly licensed as well. And they must maintain direct supervision between that mentor and menteee,” Wisecup says. She says once someone learns more about hunting, they are more likely to continue going out. “There’s 36 states that currently an apprentice license of some sort in place and they’ve attributed over one million new hunters coming into the fold since those programs went out. So, definitely once they have the opportunity to try it, they get hooked and then they come back and meet the hunter education requirements and successfully hunt on their own,” Wisecup says.

She says they already have thousands of people signed up for the hunter safety courses and hope this program brings in more. “There’s around 10 to 12-thousand that kind of fit in that age group that we are trying to reach out to, so we are kind of hoping we might double or triple that number,” Wisecup says. A person may purchase the apprentice hunting licenses two times without having completed hunter education course.

The apprentice program was approved by the Iowa legislature and signed by Governor Terry Branstad during the 2015 legislative session.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An attempt in the Iowa Legislature to expand medical marijuana access in the state may have reached its end this session with a failed vote in the House. Some Democrats said Tuesday they would keep pushing the issue in the days before a possible adjournment. The Monday night debate, which ended with a 31-63 failed vote, highlights the challenges of passing legislation that includes a production system for the drug.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — A competency hearing and murder trial for a 30-year-old man charged with killing his mother and grandmother in Council Bluffs have been delayed. A hearing to determine whether Michael Dieckmann is mentally fit to stand trial was set for Monday but a prosecutor and defense attorney asked for more time. The competency hearing is now set for June 27, and the trial was moved to Aug. 23.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Lawmakers in the Republican-controlled House have passed a bill that could change decision-making within a Des Moines utility that sued three Iowa counties over polluted water. The chamber voted 52-39 Tuesday for the standing bill, which often includes language on unrelated projects. The House bill would change the board that oversees decisions by Des Moines Water Works to ensure representation from different areas the utility serves. The utility has sued three counties over polluted water.

NASHUA, Iowa (AP) — A Mason City man who stopped to change a flat tire on the shoulder of a highway has died after being hit by a pickup truck. Twenty-one-year-old Zachery Gueller stopped because of a flat tire Monday evening on the shoulder of Highway 218, just north of Nashua. An Iowa State Patrol report says he turned on his emergency flashers and got out of the vehicle to change the tire. A pickup hit the vehicle, killing Gueller and injuring three passengers.