A traffic stop late Thursday night in Red Oak resulted in the arrest of a local man on drug charges. Red Oak Police say 45-year old Robert Joe Coddington, of Red Oak, faces Possession of Controlled Substance/Methamphetamine – 2nd offense, and OWI/1st offense, charges.

After Coddington was pulled over at around midnight at intersection of Eastern Avenue & Birch Streets, in Red Oak, officers found him to allegedly be in possession of Meth. Deputies with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office assisted in making the arrest.  Coddington was taken into custody and brought to the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center, where he was tested for OWI by the Cass County Sheriff’s Office’ Drug Recognition Expert.

Coddington was being held in the jail on $2,000 cash bond.

The Atlantic Police Department Thursday, issued a reminder to the public about numerous telephone scams being perpetrated against citizens every day. In recent weeks these scams have been escalating to the point that police are receiving several complaints per week.

Two of the most frequent types of calls claim to be from either the I.R.S. or from publishers clearing house. Some of the calls even use automated calling systems in order to sound legitimate.  Neither publishers clearing house, nor the IRS will use a telephone call to contact you with prizes won or taxes owed. Under no circumstances should you give any personal information (such as name and address or date of birth or social security number), financial information, (credit card numbers or bank account numbers) nor should you send cash or money orders to the caller. The only true way to handle the calls is to simply hang up. Any new calls should either not be answered if they show from that number, or if caller ID shows no number and it is the same type of call, simply hang up.

The scammers on the other end are experts at gaining your confidence or compliance by tempting you to win something or by threatening you with arrest. Police say you should simply hang up the phone. Authorities are aware of these scams and individual police reports are unnecessary.

If you have elderly family members that are unaware of these scams, sit down and explain the process with them. The scammers tend to prey especially on the elderly.

(Press Release)

The passage rate for Iowans taking the Bar Exam fell 11-percent when compared to the previous year. The country’s average score dropped four points. The National Conference of Bar Examiners sent a memo asking law schools to better prepare their students for the test. Drake University Law School associate dean, Andrea Charlow, says she doesn’t agree that the schools are to blame for a decline in scores.

“I do not believe that the claim of the National Bar Examiners that the problem was that the students were not as good or not as prepared. I don’t believe that claim, it doesn’t make any sense, “ according to Charlow. Charlow says the students who took the exam this year are of similar quality based on their law school admissions test scores or G-P-A from last year’s students. She also says the curriculum hasn’t changed.

“I do believe what happened this year was an anomaly. It’s too big of a drop, not a big enough change in the quality of students or any difference or any substantial difference in what we teach or how we teach. So that says to me that something else was very wrong,” Charlow says. Charlow says since the N-C-B-E is a private organization, Drake’s law school will not know what went wrong until an objective third party reviews the committee. The Iowa Supreme Court heard testimony earlier this year on a proposal to allow graduates of the Drake and University of Iowa laws schools to practice law in the state without passing the Bar Exam, but eventually decided to keep the requirement in place.

(Radio Iowa)

The union that represents nearly 600 state law enforcement employees is asking for a four percent pay increase in each of the next two state fiscal years. This month state government managers have begun negotiations with a variety of unions that represent state workers. The State Police Officers Council is the union for Iowa State Troopers, special agents in the Division of Criminal Investigation and the Division of Narcotics Enforcement as well as state fire inspectors, Iowa conservation officers and state park rangers.

Representatives of the union for those workers call their pay hike proposal “very reasonable” because for many years state law enforcement officers did not take pay increases. This union was the only bargaining unit in state government that began paying 20 percent of their health insurance premiums after Governor Branstad took office in 2011 and state law enforcement officials are hoping that is taken into account by Branstad’s negotiators when considering the pay hike request.

On Monday, the union that represents tha largest share of state workers filed its initial contract offer. AFSCME is asking for an eight percent across-the-board pay raise for 18-thousand state workers over the next two years. Negotiations between the unions and Branstad’s top managers will resume in two weeks.

(Radio Iowa)