(CHEROKEE)–Farmers may find out next week what new spill prevention measures will be required for their operations.
Farm Bureau will host a Spill Prevention, Control and Counter Measures Workshop at Western Iowa Tech’s Cherokee campus next Tuesday.
The free workshop is open for all Farm Bureau members. According to the farm group, the goal of the new regulation is to prevent fuel and oil spills into waters of the United States and adjoining shorelines.
Farm Bureau officials expect farmers will need to have an oil spill prevention plan known as an S-P-C-C Plan.
Based on federal E-P-A requirements, many farmers will need to have their plan certified by a professional engineer if they have 10-thousand gallons or more of fuel or oil in storage.
The regulations will affect farms in operation on or after August 16th of 2002. The regulations also apply to a farm which stores more than one-thousand gallons in above ground containers or more than 42-thousand gallons in buried containers.
(UNDATED)–The Plymouth and Sioux County Sheriff’s Office and other law enforcement agencies around the state will be out in full force beginning today (Thursday) looking for traffic violators as part of the “Special Traffic Enforcement Program” also known as “sTEP”.
Locally authorities are stressing the importance of people buckling up, slowing down, driving sober and obeying all traffic laws.
Randy Hunefeld with the Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau says the traffic safety projects have been going on for over a decade.
He says the program was developed in Iowa in 1996 to encourage seatbelt usage, and the first survey of seatbelt usage in 1997 showed usage was 75-percent (75%). Hunefeld says the use of the special programs have gradually helped to increase seatbelt usage.
Hunefeld says we are currently at 93-percent seatbelt usage, which puts us in the top 10 percent in the country.
Hunefeld said that we still have a ways to go as a state to get safer.
Hunefeld says we still have about 150 He says they are targeting that last seven percent (7%) to get them to buckle up and let them know that “seatbelts help save lives.” Seatbelt usage isn’t the only violation law enforcement will be watching for though. Hunefeld says the statewide project will help change driver behavior and encourage motorists to obey all traffic laws, with an emphasis on slowing down and driving sober. For more information visit: www.IowaGTSB.org. (Portions of this report were provided by Radio Iowa)
(SIOUX FALLS)–Flood warnings for Siouxland rivers follow warm temperatures causing snow melt.
The National Weather Service flood warning for the Big Sioux River at Hawarden began this (Thurday) afternoon. The river was about a foot and a half below flood stage this (Thursday) morning. The river is expected to crest above flood stage by Monday. The crest will be about five-and-a-half feet above flood stage. At that point, the National Weather Service reports farm houses on the South Dakota side of the river are isolated by high water.
In Akron, the flood warning will begin this evening. The Big Sioux is forecast to rise above flood stage by ten tonight and crest about five feet above flood stage by Monday. The high point for water at Akron is forecast to be slightly below the point at which Highway 12 and the intersection of Highway 48, north of Akron, begins to flood.
(ORANGE CITY)–Two rural Hawarden burglaries are being investigated by the Sioux County Sheriff’s Office.
L-G Everest which is located one mile north of Hawarden on Highway 10 reported the loss of cash, pop machine keys and a trouble light on Monday morning. A door to the business had been forced open.
A second burglary report was made as deputies were investigating the L-G Everest burglary. Cash and checks were reported stolen from the West Sioux Veterinary Clinic. There was no forced entry at the vet clinic which is just north of L-G Everest.
The sheriff’s office written information states both burglaries occurred sometime after nine Sunday night and before six Monday morning.
Hawarden Police assisted the sheriff’s office.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) An Iowa House subcommittee has approved a bill that would ban virtually all abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy.
Supporters say the measure was carefully drafted to meet constitutional muster, while critics worry about the unintended consequences.
A subcommittee of the House Government Oversight Committee approved the bill on Thursday. The full committee is to debate it next week.
Abortion opponents gathered at the Statehouse on Wednesday to press lawmakers to act, saying they helped give Republicans big gains in the Legislature and want to see action on their issues, including abortion restrictions.
Windsor Heights Republican Rep. Chris Hagenow says abortion opponents have worked for weeks on details of the measure to fit definitions in U.S. Supreme Court opinions.
MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) A Mason City kidnapping suspect has been captured in Lake Mills.
Mason City police say 23-year-old Demetrius Flores Jr. was arrested around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.
The arrest warrant says he’s charged with second-degree kidnapping and aggravated domestic assault.
The Mason City Globe Gazette says the charges stem from an incident on Monday. Details and the name of the alleged victim have not been released.
Flores is being held in Cerro Gordo County Jail, pending bail of $29,000. It’s unclear whether he has retained an attorney. Online court records don’t yet list the case.
Lake Mills is 28 miles north-northwest of Mason City.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) The Iowa City mother of a soldier whose funeral was picketed by members of a Kansas church wants the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling that such protests are constitutionally protected.
Patty Sourivong (SOO’-lay-vahn) has started a petition campaign. She says she has no lawyer and knows that persuading the court to take another look at its 8-1 ruling earlier this month is a long shot.
She said she’d collected 72 signatures by Thursday morning.
The court ruling favored members of the Westboro Baptist Church, who have picketed hundreds of military funerals. They say the soldiers’ deaths are divine retribution for the nation’s tolerance of homosexuality.
Sourivong’s son, Kampha (kuhm-PAHL’), was killed in Iraq in 2006.
ALTOONA, Iowa (AP) Adventureland amusement park in Altoona says it’s begun to begin checking season-pass holders against the Iowa sex offender registry.
The new policy comes after two girls were molested at the park last year.
The Des Moines Register says 59-year-old Ronald Steen had bought a season pass last year. Prosecutors say he inappropriately touched a 9-year-old and a 14-year-old at the park on Aug. 5. On Monday he was sentenced to 12 years in prison. He had been convicted of lascivious acts with a child in 1996.
The new Adventureland policy would not have snagged Steen’s name, because it was not on the sex offender registry. It had been more than 10 years since that conviction, so it was removed. But under newer laws, he would have to register for life.
WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) A Waterloo police officer arrested for drunken driving had been given a deferred judgment and probation.
Gus Farmer was arrested in December after being pulled over for speeding by a Black Hawk County sheriff’s deputy.
Farmer was scheduled to go to trial this week on a charge of first-offense operating while intoxicated. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier says Farmer pleaded guilty last week and a judge granted him a deferred judgment. That means the conviction will be removed from his record if he successfully completes the probation.
Police say Farmer remains on duty.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) A hasty mortgage approval has led to an almost-free house for an Ankeny couple.
Matt and Jamie Danielson own their $278,000 Ankeny home outright after making one payment to the lender and winning a court fight waged over a 123-year-old Iowa law.
The law’s original intent was to protect a husband or wife from the foolishness or evil intent of a spouse. It requires the voiding of mortgages that aren’t signed by both spouses. The Des Moines Register says Jamie Danielson didn’t sign when she and Matt bought the home in May 2007.
They moved in, made one payment and then his business went under. They went to their attorney to file bankruptcy. He noticed that Jamie’s signature was missing from mortgage documents, so he took their case to court.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) An Iowa company is buying a Nebraska branch of a charter bus company.
Kincaid Coach Lines’ Lincoln operations will be the first out-of-state acquisition by Windstar Lines, Inc. of Carroll, Iowa. Terms are not being announced.
According to the Lincoln Journal Star, Windstar says it plans to add more buses to the Lincoln location.
Windstar President Jeff Greteman says the purchase will let Windstar reach new customers.
Kincaid Coach Lines is based in Edwardsville, Kan. It also has terminals in Oklahoma, Florida and Texas.
Windstar operates more than 40 vehicles in four Iowa markets: Carroll, Cedar Rapids, Des Moines and Dubuque.
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) A West Des Moines clinic’s ad campaign hits below the belt by urging sport fans to indulge in some alternative March madness: Have a vasectomy on Thursday or Friday then spend the weekend recovering while watching NCAA tournament basketball.
Iowa Clinic marketing executive Jessica Grant tells the Des Moines Register that the campaign is designed to appeal to men whose partners want them to get the snip and who complain they spend too much time in front of the TV.
The ad reads, “After your vasectomy: Stay on couch. 32 games in two days. Return to work on Monday.”
Urologist Dr. Mark Kellerman says he thinks the campaign is “a great idea.”
The clinic performed 102 vasectomies in March 2010 when the ads debuted. This month, 129 are scheduled.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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