(Radio Iowa) -A 42-year-old Marshalltown man has been charged with voter fraud for registering to vote and casting a ballot in a special election in July. According to the Iowa Attorney General’s Office, 42-year-old Jorge Oscar Sanchez-Vasquez is a legal resident of the U-S, but not a citizen and he’s been charged with two counts of election misconduct. Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate — the state’s top election official — says the law says very clearly you have to be a U-S citizen to vote.

“We have voted ID, so we are establishing a baseline. You have to prove who you are,” Pate says. “We also are working with our partners. We work with the court system. There are various folks who help us identify those folks who are here legally, but not U.S. citizens.” Pate says the role of election workers is to make sure only eligible voters vote.

Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate (RI file photo)

“Even one, two, five, 100 — whatever the number is not acceptable, so we’ll keep trying to make sure we’re protecting and keeping that away,” Pate says. “I don’t believe in Iowa we have any of those types of massive voter fraud. I think the bad boys and girls, the really serious illegals are not looking to be recognized for anything. They’re here just to stay under the radar, so I don’t think we’ll see a lot of it at this time in Iowa.”

Pate made his comments during taping of the Iowa P-B-S program “Iowa Press” — a few hours before the charges against the Marshalltown man were announced.

(Statewide) – The Iowa State Patrol reports one person died and seven others were injured in four separate crashes around the state, Friday.

The Patrol says 35-year-old Dustin B. West, of Hedrick died when his motorcycle struck a pickup truck just before 2-p.m. Friday, in Wapello County. The accident happened when the pickup truck, driven by 75-year-old Billy L. Skinner, of Ottumwa, turned in front of the motorcycle near Ottumwa. West died at the scene. Skinner was injured in the crash and transported to the hospital in Ottumwa.

Two men were injured in a crash that occurred at around 1:20-p.m. Friday, in Wayne County. The Patrol reports 79-year-old’s Roger Stroud and Danny Stubbs, both of Clio, were transported to the hospital in Corydon, after their SUV’s collided and rolled over into a ditch. The accident happened on a curve, when Stroud failed to yield half of the roadway.

A man from Manchester was injured at around 5-p.m. Friday in Delaware County, when his motorcycle failed to negotiate a curve near Hopkinton, and drove off the road and into a ditch. 51-year-old Lonnie Gene Deitrick was flown by helicopter from the scene to the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics.

And, at around 6:20-p.m., Friday, a man on a motorcycle and his passenger were injured in Warren County, when a car turned in front of the motorcycle on Highway G-58/Hwy 65 at 160th Avenue. The operator of the motorcycle, 34-year-old Levi Woldt, and his passenger, 29-year-old Shelby Wambold, both of Lacona, were ejected from the cycle and flown by helicopter to Mercy Hospital in Des Moines. The driver of the car, 22-year-old Finnegan Ritchie, of Traverse City, Michigan, was transported by Milo EMS to Mercy Hospital.

All four crashes remain under investigation.

(Clarinda, Iowa) – Officials with a precision ball bearing manufacturer based in Japan, have announced their facility in Clarinda will be closing at the end of March, 2025. Thursday’s news about the closing of the NSK–AKS plant means the loss of 54 jobs associated with the plant, according to the state’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, website.

Clarinda’s AKS plant primarily manufactures ball bearing components for the automotive and industrial markets. Company officials say many of the markets served by AKS have moved offshore, thereby reducing the manufacturing demand for domestically-produced products.

Clarinda NKS plant (Photo from the company’s website)

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – A Shenandoah man was sentenced today to seven years in federal prison for receipt of child pornography.

According to public court documents, 34-year-old Evaristo Hernandez Flores Carnes uploaded images and videos containing child sex abuse material to a social media application. Law enforcement executed search warrant at Carnes’s residence and seized a cell phone that was later found to contain images and videos of child sex abuse material.

After completing his term of imprisonment, Carnes will be required to serve a five-year term of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system.

United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. This case was investigated by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI), DCI Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, Shenandoah Police Department, and Federal Bureau of Investigations.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – Two Council Bluffs men were sentenced for their roles in conspiring to distribute methamphetamine and fentanyl in the Council Bluffs metropolitan area:

• Douglas Marqueis Louis, 45, was sentenced on August 28, 2024, to a 210-month prison term; and
• Nikolas Alan Koebel, 27, was sentenced on September 20, 2024, to a 100-month prison term.

According to public court documents, in December 2023 during a search warrant a Louis’s Council Bluffs residence, law enforcement located more than three pounds of methamphetamine, more than one pound of marijuana, more than an ounce and a half of cocaine, and more than $13,000 cash. Some of the cash at Louis’s residence came from a controlled purchase of fentanyl that law enforcement made from Koebel. In total, law enforcement arranged six controlled purchases of fentanyl from Koebel.

After completing their terms of imprisonment, Louis and Koebel will each be required to serve a five-year term of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system.