Home News KLEM News AM Update June 23, 2010

KLEM News AM Update June 23, 2010

(UNDATED)–Heavy rain fell in Siouxland as scattered thunderstorms moved across the area in response to a low pressure system and a warm frontal boundary lifting across the state.

KLEM recorded 2.4 inches of rain overnight. Tornado, severe thunderstorm and flood watches and warnings dominated the late night and early morning hours.

In Plymouth County, the National Weather Service in Sioux Falls received reports of a funnel cloud just south of Craig about 11:30 last night with a 60 mile an hour wind gust four miles southwest of Craig at 11:35. At 11:45, winds up to 60 miles an hour were reported with a thunderstorm five miles east of Struble. All the reports were from Plymouth County Emergency Management which provides storm spotter services through volunteers and law enforcement.

At the Le Mars Airport, the peak wind guest was 29 miles an hour at 11:35 p.m. NIPCO recorded a peak guest of 37 miles an hour from the south-southeast at 11:30 p.m.

In Cherokee County, a possible tornado was reported on the ground just after eleven last night three miles south of Marcus. A trained spotter also reported a tornado on the ground one mile south of Marcus.

(Weather Underground contributed to this news story)

(LE MARS)–A Plymouth County resident is needed for a volunteer board that helps guide conservation property and projects.

Clark Goodchild of Le Mars resigned in a letter to the Board of Supervisors dated June 15th. Goodchild wrote he’d enjoyed serving on the Conservation Board in the last year. However, as Supervisors chair Jim Henrich read at Tuesday’s meeting, Goodchild also wrote that he feels his focus seems to differ from the Conservation Board as a whole.

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Individuals who’d like to serve on the Conservation Board should send a letter of interest listing their qualifications. The letter to the board of supervisors should be sent to the courthouse address by July 12th. Supervisors will review the letters and appoint a conservation board member at their Tuesday, July 13th 9:30 a.m. meeting.

Supervisors Tuesday accepted the low bid of H-C-I Construction of South Sioux City for the Courthouse Annex Building. The bid was $637,000. There was about a 100-thousand dollar difference between the low and high bids.

When sales tax and a grant for an emergency shelter are subtracted, the final cost is projected at 550-thousand dollars. The county has budgeted 600-thousand dollars from Local Option Sales Tax for the project.

The board heard an update on the Le Mars Area Dialysis Service Center need for an additional 200-thousand dollars. Mike Donlin is an ex officio member of the dialysis board and said there are prospects for the funds to move the project forward.

(AKRON)-An Akron area farmer is the June winner of the Good Farm Neighbor Award.

Brad Harvey will receive the recognition from Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey on Monday. Northey will be at Harvey’s crop and livestock farm.

Harvey raises about 15-hundred pigs and also has some cattle. He farms 640 acres of land raising corn, soybeans and hay. He and his wife, Chris, have four daughters.

The nomination for the award through WHO Radio was made by Harvey’s neighbor, Julie Madden. Madden noted Harvey is active in the community and is always willing to help his neighbors. She also highlighted how willing he is to open up his farm to tours to help showcase Iowa agriculture.

The Harveys are also active in church, farm and youth organizations.

(DES MOINES)–Students from Akron-Westfield earned honors at the National History Day contest at the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland.

In the junior division, Akron-Westfield’s junior group performance, “The Golden Age of Radio: Changing America with the Turn of the Dial,” won a bronze metal for third place. Team members were Lexi Hageman, Kortney Hedlund, Hannah Koele, Desi Oltmanns and Cali Westergard.

Akron-Westfield’s Emily Meerdink received seventh place for her junior individual performance, “The Innovative Beginning of Conservation in America: The Lacey Acts.” The Akron-Westfield junior group and individual performer were taught by Val Philips and Colleen Westergard.

KLEM News last week reported the gold medal honor to a Le Mars Community High School student in the senior division. Palani Permeswaran received first place in the senior historical paper. His instructor is Jeannie Rust.

Twenty-two Iowa students earned national honors last week during the National History Day competition.

(SIOUX CITY—FOR THE SECOND TIME IN AS MANY WEEKS, CATE BRYAN HAS BEEN VICTORIOUS IN THE RACE FOR THE DISTRICT TWO REPUBLICAN NOMINEE FOR STATE REPRESENTATIVE.
A RECOUNT WAS HELD TUESDAY IN THE RACE BETWEEN BRYAN AND RYAN BEARDSHEAR AND THE NUMBERS STAYED THE SAME WITH BRYAN WINNING BY 13 VOTES.
WOODBURY COUNTY ELECTIONS COMMISSIONER PAT GILL SAYS RECOUNTS ARE RARE IN SIOUX CITY.
GILL SAYS IT’S HIGHLY UNUSUAL, BUT BEARDSHEAR CAN FILE A CONTEST AGAINST THE RECOUNT.
JUST OVER 12-HUNDRED BALLOTS WERE CAST IN THIS SPECIFIC RACE. (Josie Cooper – KSCJ Radio)

(Sioux City)–A northwest Iowa man who was caught with a cache of stolen guns will spend time in a federal prison.  An undercover agent bought nine guns, 616 rounds of ammunition, some meth and some pot from 37-year-old John Daniel Saul of Sioux City. Saul has pleaded guilty to seven counts of firearm violations and one count of distributing meth and marijuana. Saul had removed the serial numbers from several of the guns and used a hack saw to shorten the barrel of a shotgun. Federal officials say Saul stole the guns from a business in Jefferson, South Dakota. Saul faces up to 30 years in a federal prison and a two-million dollar fine on the charges. (News report by Radio Iowa)

(Mapleton)–A bridge project will change traffic patterns near Mapleton next month.  Traffic will be restricted to one lane on Highway 141 over the Maple River in Mapleton beginning July 12th for bridge deck overlay work.

The Iowa Department of Transportation’s Sioux City Construction office says the deck overlay work is expected to be completed by September 30th.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Gov. Chet Culver has issued a disaster emergency proclamation for Ringgold, Union and Taylor counties because of severe storms that hit the area June 1.

The proclamation issued Tuesday allows state resources to be used to help local officials and residents deal with the effects of the storms, including debris removal from damaged structures and trees.

It authorizes the implementation of the State Individual Assistance Grant Program to assist eligible residents in those counties.

The state’s Individual Assistance Program provides up to $5,000 in reimbursements for damages incurred for those whose income is up to 200 percent above the poverty level.

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CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) Legal experts say a former Iowa slaughterhouse executive’s 27-year prison sentence for financial fraud is severe. But it’s not necessarily surprising given crackdowns on white-collar crime.

Former Agriprocessors Inc. vice president Sholom Rubashkin was sentenced Tuesday and also ordered to pay $27 million restitution.

Rubashkin was convicted of 86 federal financial fraud charges. Prosecutors had sought a 25-year sentence. Defense attorneys plan to appeal.

Stanford University law professor Robert Weisberg calls Rubashkin’s 27-year sentence “dubious” in part because the case is not on the same level as that of Enron or others.

But Drake University law professor Robert Rigg says the slaughterhouse case is by no means small, “especially for Iowa.”

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) A Black Hawk County judge has sentenced a teenager from Waterloo to 20 years in prison for shooting three people in what authorities say was retaliation for an earlier fight.

The defendant, 18-year-old Darius Traemon Caston, pleaded guilty to three counts each of intimidation with a dangerous weapon and willful injury.

Police say Caston opened fire last July 13, injuring 16-year-old Edward Degraffinreed, 26-year-old Trevell McCoy and 18-year-old Damarrius Todd.

Todd was hit once in the chest and once in his left arm. McCoy was shot in his left leg, damaging his femur bone, and a bullet struck Degraffinreed in the chest, damaging his kidney, spleen and pancreas.

MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) A 10-year prison sentence has been handed a Mason City convicted of sexual abuse in the third degree.

Kenneth Leonard Ingram was found guilty on April 29 by a jury in Cerro Gordo County District Court. Judge James Drew sentenced Ingram on Monday.

In addition to the prison sentence, Drew ordered Ingram to serve a lifetime supervision following the completion of his prison term. He also must register as a convicted sex offender.

Ingram was convicted in connection with an alleged assault that occurred on May 6, 2009, at a home in Mason City. He was found not guilty of first-degree burglary.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Everyone seems to agree that there’s too much crime at the Park Forest apartment complex on Des Moines’ southeast side.

But police, residents and complex manager Jeanie Arellano can’t seem to agree on how to handle the problem.

Police officers have been called to the two-block stretch where Park Forest is located 469 times in the past year.

But Arellano says troublemakers frequently flee before police arrive and then come back after the officers depart.

Des Moines Police Sgt. Lori Lavorato says the department wants to help, but there’s not much officers can do when the people who witness crimes at the complex refuse to talk to them.

WASHINGTON (AP) U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin has announced $2.4 million in grants from the Federal Aviation Administration to improve airports across the state of Iowa. The Iowa Democrat is a senior member of the panel that funds transportation initiatives.

Harkin said Tuesday that the largest grant for $625,000 would go to Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids for a geographic information system study. A similar study at Dubuque Regional Airport will receive $525,000. Keokuk Municipal Airport will get $545,000 for runway rehabilitation, and $500,000 goes to Boone Municipal Airport for apron rehabilitation.

Smaller grants are going to Clarion Municipal and Lamoni Municipal Airport.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has issued a boil advisory for the city of Garwin in Tama County.

The alert came after a water main break near a school in Garwin on Tuesday.

Officials say that once pressure has been lost within a water system, there is potential for bacterial contamination.

Officials urged Garwin residents not to drink the water without boiling it first. They should bring all water to a boil for one minute and let it cool before using, or use bottled water. Boiled or bottled water should be used for drinking, making ice, brushing teeth and preparing food.

ADEL, Iowa (AP) Farmers say weeks of wet weather are taking a toll on Iowa’s fruit and berry crops.

Kathy Lewis of Berry Fresh Farm in Adel says the berry season looked very promising at first, and even started two weeks early this year, but the repeated rains are causing rot and mold.

Lewis says a lot of the farm’s strawberries are drowning in puddles and have started to rot.

The farm has lost more than half of its strawberry crop, while the black raspberries are dying from the saturated ground that’s causing root rot. The red raspberries that grow higher off the ground are battling mold.

Lewis says the only way to keep mold from spreading is to spray the fields, which is a last resort.

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

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