Fairfield News

The nation?s largest food companies say they will cut back on marketing unhealthy foods to children, proposing their own set of advertising standards after rejecting similar guidelines proposed by the federal government.A coalition of food companies ? including General Mills, ConAgra Foods and Kellogg ? announced the guidelines Thursday. The companies said the effort will vastly change what is advertised, ...

About one-third of the nearly 3,000 Iowa Army National Guard soldiers deployed to Afghanistan are back in the United States and awaiting reunions with their families and friends.The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier says the soldiers have returned to Fort McCoy, Wis., with homecoming ceremonies planned over the next month, including those planned for Thursday in Cedar Rapids, Boone and Johnston, where 185 soldiers ...

An ordinance prohibiting edible landscapes in the city right-of-way is one of several adopted by the Fairfield City Council after passing through their third and final readings Monday evening.Ordinance No. 1067 was expanded since its second reading to ban fruits, as well as vegetables, in any city right-of-way. The ordinance also prohibits plantings taller than 24 inches in the right-of-way and taller then 18 ...

Charles Ruby motions for a truck to continue backing toward Jacob?s Ladder Antique Mall to load chunks of concrete this morning on the west side of the square in front of the Elks Lodge building. Sometime in the night of July 2, a 6-inch iron pipe off the city main into the Elks building burst underground. In the morning of July 3, a passerby reported water bubbling up out of the sidewalk. The city shut off the ...

The Fairfield Community School District Board of Directors approved a contract for services with Christamore Family Treatment Center in Mount Pleasant during its meeting Monday.Christamore is an alternative placement for middle school and high school students, which provides treatment services for at-risk adolescents and their families. The contract will reserve three slots for the district for the 2011-2012 ...

IOWA CITY (AP) ? The president of the Iowa Farm Bureau will lead the board that governs Iowa?s public universities after his colleagues voted Tuesday to carry out a personnel shake-up orchestrated by Republican Gov. Terry Branstad.One day after David Miles, the Board of Regents president, and Jack Evans, its president pro tem, announced they were stepping down at the governor?s request, the board voted 7-0 to ...

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Budget talks between President Barack Obama and his GOP rivals are at a frustrating standstill, leading a top Republican to launch a long-shot proposal to give Obama sweeping new powers to muscle through an increase in the government?s debt limit without the approval of a bitterly divided Congress.Lawmakers return to the White House Wednesday for their four negotiating session with the ...

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) ? The popularity of farm-to-school programs that put locally grown food on cafeteria trays has exploded in recent years ? so much so that the federal agency in charge of school lunches is giving them a new stamp of approval.Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan said the programs have become so popular so fast that her agency doesn?t have solid figures on how many schools are serving ...

DES MOINES (AP) ? Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney?s campaign said Tuesday that he will not sign a conservative Iowa Christian group?s far-reaching pledge opposing gay marriage, making him the first Republican presidential candidate to reject it.Two of Romney?s rivals for the Republican nomination, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, have signed the The Family ...

Packing a guitar case on his back that is nearly as big as he is, 12-year-old Shane Welty heads off to his weekly guitar lesson this morning.

The Jefferson County Sheriff?s Office responded to an accident at 1:39 a.m. today, 1 mile west of Lockridge on Highway 34. A 2008 Kenworth truck driven by Jimmy Donald Rodgers, 58, of Hartselle, Ala., was eastbound when it struck a deer. Estimated damages to the vehicle are $5,000.

The Fairfield Fire Department investigated smoke inside 601 S. 23rd St. at 6:23 p.m. Tuesday.