Home News KLEM News PM Update September 30, 2010

KLEM News PM Update September 30, 2010

(ORANGE CITY)–The Sioux County Sheriff’s Office and Iowa State Patrol responded to a traffic accident north of Orange City.

Early reports indicate there were injuries from the farm combine and truck accident.

Information is not available from law enforcement at this time.

Powell Broadcasting GM is one of nine broadcasters honored

(WASHINGTON, DC)–A Siouxland business leader and general manager of KLEM and five sister stations was honored today (Thursday). Dennis Bullock of Sioux City is one of nine semi-finalists for the Radio Wayne award given to top sales and management in radio broadcasting.

KLEM Radio/Powell Broadcasting Director of Sales Dave Grosenheider reports on the honor from the Radio Advertising Bureau/National Association of Broadcasters convention.

Listen here
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Bullock is general manager of KLEM 1410 AM and 96.9 FM in Le Mars and KSCJ 1360 AM; KSUX 105.7 FM; Y101.3 FM; KOOL 99.5 FM and New 102.3 FM, all in Sioux City.

 The Sioux Citian has worked in sales and management positions in broadcasting for 28 years. He’s been general manager of Powell Broadcasting since December of 2001

Property tax payments due today

(LE MARS)–The hours and minutes are winding down for a payment. Today is the deadline to make property tax payments without paying a penalty.

The Plymouth County Treasurer’s Office collects payments for cities, schools, and the county and distributes the amounts due to the other local governments

Treasurer Linda Dobson reminds property owners that first half taxes are due now and can be paid at the treasurer’s office at the Courthouse by five this afternoon to avoid delinquent interest.

According to Dobson, mailed payments must be postmarked with today’s date to avoid a penalty.

Taxpayers have the option to pay online at www.iowatreasurers.org until midnight September 30th. Paying by echeck on the treasurer’s website costs $.40 per transaction which Dobson says is less than a postage stamp. There is a non-refundable service delivery fee for credit card payments made online.

Anyone with questions may contact the treasurer’s office by stopping at the Courthouse or by calling 546-7056.

The treasurer’s office collects payments for cities, schools, and the county and distributes the amounts due to the other local governments.

Recycling adds up at Le Mars Schools

(LE MARS) Students and staff at Gehlen Catholic and Le Mars Community are going green this school year.

At Gehlen Catholic, Van’s Sanitation delivered five blue recycling containers and a cardboard dumpster for recycling by students and staff. They’re placing used paper, newsprint, cardboard and similar items in recycling containers instead of garbage containers.

Fifth and sixth grade instructor Kathy Neary revitalized recycling at Gehlen Catholic last year by asking T-K through sixth grade students and staff to recycle discarded items as part of the sixth grade Science class.

With the help of Scott Vandersluis of Van’s Sanitation of Le Mars and principal Lorie Nussbaum, the recycling program became a schoolwide project.

So far this school year, Gehlen Catholic has recycled between 350-400 pounds of paper products and between 800 and 1000 pounds of cardboard.

Vandersluis credited the students in telling them, the best recycling teachers are not the adults–it’s the students. He encouraged them to teach adults, their parents and others how to recycle at home and in the community.

According to Vandersluis, Van’s Sanitation has provided blue recycling containers to expand recycling efforts at Le Mars Community Schools.

Sioux City has another Lottery winner

(DES MOINES) A couple of people who bought Mega Millions tickets in Mason City and Sioux City will be much wealthier soon. A ticket for last night’s drawing, sold at Mills Fleet Farm in Mason City, is worth one-million dollars ($1 million). Lottery spokeswoman Kim Vore says the ticket holder took advantage of a new rule that upped the prize for matching five white balls from 250-thousand ($250,000) to one-million dollars ($1 million).

 “Earlier this month, we made a change to the Mega-plier option, which now states that the ‘match five prize’ will always be one-million dollars. So, when you buy a Mega Millions ticket, as long as you bought the Mega-plier for an additional dollar and you match all five white balls but miss the Mega Ball, you win a million dollars,” Vore said. Another ticket in Sioux City was among the five sold nationwide that matched the first five white balls but missed the Mega Ball for at least a $250-thousand ($250,000) prize. The Iowa Lottery has already written several big checks this year.

 Vore says the ticket in Mason City is the 8th million dollar winning ticket sold in Iowa this year. That’s double the number of million dollar prizes awarded in the state over the previous two years.

www.ialottery.com

Conlin plans second “empty chair” Senate debate

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Roxanne Conlin will apparently hold her second “empty chair” debate Sunday.

Conlin says she’s organizing the event at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art because Republican Sen. Charles Grassley has declined to debate her. Conlin held a similar event Sept. 19 in Des Moines.

Conlin and Grassley have appeared together for a joint interview on Iowa Public Television, and they are scheduled to meet in an Oct. 26 radio debate on WHO-AM in Des Moines. They haven’t agreed to any televised debates.

Grassley spokesman Eric Woolson said Thursday that Conlin is “desperately looking for attention.”

Iowa awaits action on heating help

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) Officials say inaction by Congress has made planning heating help for low-income Iowans uncertain as winter approaches.

Jerry McKim is the chief of the Bureau of Energy Assistance in the Iowa Department of Human Rights. He told The Gazette that the uncertainty is the worst it’s ever been.

Last year, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program delivered an average benefit of $600 per household to over 101,000 households.

The current federal budget cycle ends Oct. 1. Without a replacement budget, Congress will have to adopt a continuing resolution to keep the government running.

McKim expects to start out the program this year planning for an average benefit of $440 per household. But it could mean freezing enrollment if federal funding is at the low end.

Murder trial of Iowa inmates delayed

CLARINDA, Iowa (AP) The trial of four inmates accused of killing another inmate at a state prison in Clarinda has been delayed.

According to The Daily Nonpareil, the trial was delayed Tuesday following a pretrial hearing.

Martin Dahlke, Richard Martin Jr., Jeremy McIntosh and Rolland Jacobson are charged with second-degree murder in the death of Alfred Myre in June.

Myre was found dead at a picnic table in the prison yard at the Clarinda Correctional Facility. He was serving a 50-year sentence from Pottawattamie County for second-degree murder. He had been in prison since 1991.

The inmates’ trial, which was set for Oct. 12, has been rescheduled for Feb. 8.

Des Moines says most students must take gym class

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Gym class is a must for most Des Moines high school students.

School officials say most students who are opting out of physical education classes have been told they must take the course.

The Des Moines Register says school officials are telling families that students, for the most part, will no longer be able to receive waivers exempting them from gym class. Officials are also scaling back contract physical education. That’s where students exercise on their own outside the school day, log the activity and turn it in.

State officials told the district last spring that it was not in compliance with Iowa law regarding the waivers and contract classes. The state says students have to take physical education all four years of high school.

Iowa boy trapped in grain wagon dies

DYERSVILLE, Iowa (AP) The family of a 10-year-old Dyersville boy who was trapped in a grain wagon says he died of injuries suffered in the accident.

John Kramer fell into the grain wagon on Monday at his family’s farm. Family members rescued him before emergency crews arrived around 7 p.m. He was taken to an area hospital, then flow to University Hospitals in Iowa City.

The Telegraph Herald says the boy’s parents, Neil and Ellen Kramer, released a statement on Wednesday saying their son died on Tuesday.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

Justice Alito to deliver Opperman lecture at Drake

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito Jr. is scheduled to speak at Drake University Thursday.

Alito will give the Dwight D. Opperman  Lecture in Constitutional Law. The lecture series is named after Opperman, a 1951 Drake Law School graduate. He endowed the lecture series in 1988 to recognize the importance of constitutional law to the U.S. and enhance it’s emphasis at Drake Law School.

It will be held in the Knapp Center on the Drake University campus in Des Moines beginning at 3 p.m. It is free and open to the public.

Alito was appointed to the Supreme Court by President George W. Bush and was sworn in on Jan. 31, 2006. He is the 11th current or former Supreme Court justice to deliver the Opperman Lecture.

Principal Financial cuts health insurance, jobs

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Des Moines-based Principal Financial Group Inc. says it’s getting out of the health insurance business and will eliminate 150 jobs initially and more later.

The health insurance division employs 1,500 workers but some will be considered for other jobs in the company. Principal is an insurance, retirement and financial services company that employs 14,000 workers.

CEO Larry Zimpleman on Thursday noted the business has been declining in size in recent years. He says to remain competitive the company would have had to invest more capital, which doesn’t make sense now.

Shares rose 38 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $26.33.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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