A bill that passed the Senate this week more than triples the charge for getting a duplicate Iowa driver’s license. It now costs just three-dollars to replace a lost or destroyed Iowa driver’s license. Senator Rich Taylor, a Democrat from Mount Pleasant, says the bill would raise the fee to 10-dollars. “The purpose is to recover actual state costs to produce the I.D.,” Taylor says. Senator Mark Chelgren, a Republican from Ottumwa, voted against the bill.

“I do not wish to stick it to the people of Iowa,” Chelgren said. “…We should not be putting additional fees, financial burdens on the hard-working people of Iowa.” Senator Taylor responded. “This bill does not raise the fee of obtaining your license,” Taylor said. “It raises the fee on replacing your license.”The bill passed the Senate by a 37 to 11 vote.

The proposal now goes to the House for consideration.

(Radio Iowa)

The Cass County Sheriff’s Office says no injuries were reported following a collision between two semi’s Wednesday evening. The accident happened on Highway 92 at the intersection with Highway 71, at around 5:10-p.m. Officials say a 2006 Freightliner driven by 33-year old Brandon Jay Frank, of Griswold, was eastbound on Highway 92 when it struck a 2005 Freightliner driven by 24-year old Stefan Dimoski, of Woodridge, IL, as Dimoski was traveling northbound on Highway 71.

Damage to the semi’s totaled $50,000. The Sheriff’s Departmetn says Frank was cited for Failure to Obey Stop Sign and Failure to Yield Right of Way.

The way severe weather warnings are issued in Iowa will be changing a bit this spring. Jeff Johnson, warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in metro Des Moines, says watches and warnings will be accompanied by what he calls a tag, or a more descriptive statement. “The tornado tag will have an option between ‘radar indicated’ and actually a ‘tornado observed’ tag,” Johnson says. “With the damage threat tags, we’ll be able to say in terms of a large catastrophic tornado moving toward a metropolitan area, we’ll put that into the warning itself, that way decision makers can make quicker responses.”

The changes come, in part, following the fact 2011 was a historic year in terms of tornado deaths nationwide. Recent studies found some people don’t always understand what severe weather warnings mean, so the tags aim to make it more clear what’s coming down the road. “Nothing’s changing with our watches and warnings, all the coding will be the same, what a Tornado Warning means will be the same, and a watch,” Johnson says. “It will add a little more information on the bottom of the warning so if you just picked it up and saw the warning, you can quickly ascertain what the overall threat of that warning is.”

The changes in the warnings may seem minor, but Johnson says it’s hoped the slight differences may provide vital information that could ultimately save lives. “You might hear a sense of urgency in the announcer’s voice if it’s a ‘catastrophic’ tag, because it’s going to give that person knowledge that this is a significant, major tornado event and to go all out on the dissemination,” Johnson says. “Each tag has a corresponding call to action statement which will be placed in the warning for weather radio listeners.”

The new series of “impact-based” warnings were tested last year in Missouri and Kansas. Now, starting April 1st, they’ll be rolled out in Iowa and ten other states across the Midwest, encompassing 38 National Weather Service offices. Learn more at www.weather.gov.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Nearly two-thirds of Iowa’s counties lost population between 2011 and 2012 even as the state gained 10,089 overall. The latest U.S. Census estimates show that Iowa had 3,074,186 residents last year, but the population of 65 of the state’s 99 counties declined between 2011 and 2012.

Many of the population declines were in rural areas where aging populations are dying off while younger residents move to urban areas in search of work. Fifty-five Iowa counties had more deaths than births in 2012.

The biggest population gains in the state were reported in Polk, Johnson, Dallas, Scott and Linn counties, which are home to Des Moines, Iowa City, Davenport and Cedar Rapids.

Officials at the Cass County Memorial Hospital in Atlantic, have announced some additional work is schedule to occur in the new Inpatient Services area of the hospital.  According to Pat Markham, CEO, the zero entry showers in the Medical/Surgical and Intensive Care patient rooms are not containing water as intended.  Markham says they became aware of the problem immediately upon occupying their new patient rooms last summer. She says ” Since that time we have been working with the design firm to arrive at an agreeable resolution to the problem, while utilizing temporary measures to prevent falls,” and they are “Now going to proceed with the necessary changes to eliminate this safety risk.”

Markham says the process will, at times, be quite loud and potentially disruptive to patients.  Four patient rooms at a time will be taken out of service – two for repair work, and one on each side to help buffer construction noise.   Additional steps will be taken to reduce the noise for patients, including providing noise-reducing headphones and ear plugs. Markham said they apologize for the inconvenience, “But in the interest of patient and staff safety,” they have to move forward with correcting the situation.

Hospital officials continue to negotiate with the design firm to determine financial liability for the corrective measures.  Work will begin Monday, March 18, 2013 and is expected to be completed by December 31, 2013.

No injuries were reported after a semi tractor-trailer went out of control and crashed Tuesday afternoon, just north of Audubon. According to the Sheriff’s Department, 24-year old Justin Michael Steffen, of Albert Lea, MN, was driving a 2003 Peterbilt semi pulling an empty livestock trailer. When Steffen lost control of the rig on a slush covered Highway 71, the semi went into the east ditch, hit a small tree and continued across a small stream before coming to rest against the north bank of the creek. Neither Steffen nor his passenger, Clinton Helget, of Comfrey, MN, were injured. Damage to the semi was estimated at $60,000. No citations were issued.  Officers with the Audubon Police Department assisted at the accident scene.