Iowa Senator Jonie Ernst, a Republican from Red Oak, says she is still trying to sort through the information before taking a stance on repealing labeling of meat products so you can tell which country they come from. It’s called the Country of Origin Labeling or “COOL.”

“Member of our delegation are kind of split on this, so we’re working through those issues and figuring out where we need to go with this. We know we have been hit hard by the W-T-O (World Trade Organization) and they will continue to come after us as long as we have the labeling in place,” Ernst says. She says she likes the idea of know where products come from.

“I would love a way to highlight our American products — be able to label them as American — and make it work for the W-T-O. We’ve got to find some sort of compromise there,” Ernst says. The labeling covers beef, pork, and chicken, but she says the issue is much broader.

“It’s not just our agricultural industry which will be hit. It’s going to be many, many other industires, manufacturing and agriculture and the types of products that we are sending into Canada or into Mexico,” Ernst says. “So, we really need to take a look at what the W-T-O is saying and then decide how we want to move forward.” The repeal of COOL passed on a 300 to 131 vote in the U-S House. It’s future in the Senate is uncertain.

(Radio Iowa)

A Red Oak woman was arrested Friday, in Montgomery County. Authorities say 23-year old Amanda J. Huebner was taken into custody at around 1:40-p.m. at the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center, on a warrant for Interference with Official Acts. Huebner was being held in the jail on a $300 bond.

Authorities say a man’s body found Wednesday in a burned vehicle in Missouri with an infant is the father wanted in connection with an Iowa AMBER Alert. The man has been identified as 33-year-old Elvis Habibovic. Police in the Des Moines suburb of Urbandale had been looking nine-month old Logan Habibovic. An Amber Alert was issued for him early Wednesday morning with the belief that he’d been abducted by his father, Elvis. The alert matched the description of a burned vehicle found Tuesday evening in a conservation area in Harrison County, Missouri.

They are still waiting on D-N-A testing to identify the burned remains of the infant in the car. “We’ve been able to identify Elvis through dental records,” said Josh Eckerson, Harrison County Sheriff. “The child’s D-N-A has been sent to Jefferson City to the Highway Patrol Lab along with D-N-A from the mother to get a positive I-D on the child.” Eckerson said the official cause of death is still undetermined. “We speculate he piped in the fumes from the tailpipe into the car,” Eckerson said. “The actual cause of the fire is still undetermined.”

(Radio Iowa)

Police in Council Bluffs are asking for the public’s help in locating two men who allegedly used an SUV to tear electrical wiring from a transformer located near a restaurant. Authorities say the incident happened today (Friday) at around 6:40-a.m.

Officers were dispatched to Ruby Tuesday, at 3150 24th Avenue. A witness saw two men pulling electrical wiring from a transformer box located on the south side of the business. The men were using a black SUV to pull the wires from the box. The two suspects saw the witness observe them, and sped out of the parking lot, traveling southbound on Bass Pro Drive, dragging the wiring behind.

At the intersection of Bass Pro Drive and 24th Avenue, the wires became entangled with a stop sign post, pulling the sign out of the ground. The suspect vehicle stopped in the 2500 Block of Mid America Drive and placed two sections of the wiring into their vehicle. Video from a traffic camera, then shows the suspect vehicle turning southbound onto So. 24th Street and then getting onto I-80 westbound from 24th Street.

The suspect vehicle is a black Lincoln Navigator with Nebraska license plates on it. The suspects were described as white males, with one of them being tall and thin and the other short and stocky. Both men were wearing hard hats at the time of the theft.

The cost to replace the copper wiring is expected to be in excess of $10,000. Anyone with information about the suspect’s vehicle or the suspects, is urged to contact the Council Bluffs Police Department at 328-STOP. You can remain anonymous and your tip could be eligible for a cash reward.

Below are two still shots of the suspect vehicle  as it was traveling eastbound on Mid America Drive.