The head of the Iowa Department of Public Safety plans to replace retiring state troopers, but the budget outline Public Safety Commissioner Larry Noble has drafted does not call for expanding the ranks of the Iowa State Highway Patrol. The union for state troopers argues about 100 more officers should be hired to adequately patrol the state’s highways and respond to emergencies at all hours of the day and night.

Noble acknowledges some troopers may have to travel greater distances or work more overtime. “I think that we will sustain coverage,” Noble says. “…We are going to provide services to the citizens of Iowa.” Noble expects 19 troopers to retire within the 18 months — and he says it takes a year to 18 months to train a replacement. “We’re going to have an academy this summer so that way we can prepare for that,” Noble says.  As of today, there are 348 state troopers on the payroll.

“We do more than just write tickets,” Noble says. “We go beyond the stop and we work in criminal interdiction, such as drugs (and) human trafficking. We’ve had instances of that where people are taken against their will.” Noble says. The patrol is now a “stable” organization, according to Noble, a former state trooper who says deep budget cuts in the past have been gradually restored.

Noble presented a budget outline for his entire agency to Governor Branstad on Tuesday afternoon. He proposes NO increase, but the same level of spending as the current year.

(Radio Iowa)

Sheriff’s officials in Adams County report the arrest Tuesday night, of Tommy Watters, from Corning. Watters was taken into custody at around 8-p.m. after his vehicle was stopped on Corning Carl Road for having a headlight out. During an investigation, deputies learned Watters had a suspended license. He was taken into custody for Driving Under Suspension and brought to the Adams County Jail, where Watters was released later on $566 bond.

Police in Red Oak arrested a local woman Tuesday night on a valid Montgomery County warrant for Contempt of Court. 40-year old Tiffany Lea Palmer, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 9:45-p.m. in the 1800 block of Highway 48. She was brought to the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center and held without bond.

Firefighters from Shelby and Avoca were on the scene of a grain bin fire early this (Wednesday) morning, east of Shelby, north of Interstate 80. The bin was located at 33804 400th Street. The Harlan and Minden Fire Departments were requested at 3:50-a.m., to send their tanker and pumper trucks, to help fight the blaze. Defiance Fire was requested to send their Rehab truck to the scene, just after 4:30-a.m.

No other details are immediately available.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The foreclosure rates in Nebraska and Iowa are continuing to improve. Real estate data provider CoreLogic said Tuesday that in September Nebraska’s foreclosure rate improved to 0.66 percent from last year’s 0.86 percent and Iowa’s was 1.61 percent, down from 2.11 percent. The national rate was 2.29 percent in September, down from 3.25 percent a year earlier.

In the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area that straddles the Nebraska-Iowa border the foreclosure rate was 0.87 percent in September, down from 1.21 percent in 2012. In Des Moines, Iowa, the foreclosure rate improved to 1.82 percent over last September’s 2.47 percent.

The foreclosure rate reflects the percentage of home loans involved in some stage of the foreclosure process. CoreLogic says its data covers about 85 percent of the foreclosure data nationwide.