The Red Oak Police Department reports the arrest of a Nebraska man early this (Thursday) morning. Twenty-year old Timothy Gene Humphrey of Omaha, NE was arrested and charged with Possession with intent to deliver (Meth), Possession of Marijuana, Possession of drug paraphernalia and on a warrant for failure to appear for trespassing. Humphrey’s bond was set at $50,000.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Senator Charles Grassley says a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage essentially returns the issue to states where he hopes the idea of marriage between a man and a woman is upheld. Grassley says the two 5-4 high court rulings issued yesterday stand as the law of the land and he realizes his opinion makes no difference.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Republican businessman Mark Jacobs says he’s exploring a run for U.S. Senate in 2014. Jacobs, the former CEO of the Texas-based Reliant Energy, says today he’s forming an exploratory committee to review running for the seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Senator Tom Harkin. The 51-year-old native Iowan moved his family to Iowa last year.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Des Moines police say a man has been found shot to death in his house. Police and medics were called to the home about 2:30 p.m. yesterday. Sergeant Jason Halifax says they found a man identified as 20-year-old Christopher Byers inside the residence with a gunshot wound. Byers was rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – Iowa State will host the Iowa women’s basketball team on December 12th, according to a schedule released yesterday by the Hawkeyes. The matchup with the Cyclones is one of three true road games in non-conference play for Iowa. The Hawkeyes will face Colorado and Northern Iowa in back-to-back road games in late November.

The Atlantic Police Department reports an accident today at 22nd and Palm Streets. James Sievers of Audubon was traveling eastbound on 22nd Street when his vehicle left the road and entered the south ditch, struck a utility pole and then bounced back 50 feet. Sievers was transported to Cass County Memorial Hospital with non life threatening injuries. Damage to his vehicle was estimated at $10,000.

It was the Riverside School District’s fifth attempt to pass a $15.1 million dollar bond issue that would result in a new 7th-12th grade facility and it has passed. Superintendent Jim Sutton is glad the bond has passed after all this time.

“We are thrilled. This is the fifth attempt I’ve been involved in, in the last 9 years. It’s been a continuing, changing thing as far as the plan is concerned and as far as the support is concerned. It’s grown each time.”

Leading up to the vote, school officials made appeals to the public stating that renovating the existing building would require more than $11 million.

A 60% super majority was required by law for the bond issue to pass, 1,805 people voted and of that, 1,096 voted yes. That is less than one percent of the number of votes needed.

Jim Sutton: “We passed it last night with a rather narrow margin. Even though there were 1,096 yes votes to 709 no votes, that’s still only 60.72% or a .72 margin as far as the number of yes votes that we needed.”

Absentee votes played a key role in this decision. 501 absentee ballots were cast with 367 of them voting in favor of the issue. Votes were counted in the Pottawattamie County Auditor’s Office on Tuesday night.

Jim Sutton says they are still making plans but they do have an idea of when things will be completed and they will begin moving forward soon.
“Well the architects now get in there and work with our staff and our board and put details to the concept that they had proposed. We know its going to be a 7th-12th grade building, we know that we have an auditorium included in that, all of our athletic complexes on one site and now we have to work on what the details are going to look like for that. That is probably going to take 4-6 months and then they can put those plans out for bidders and we should have the bidder selected by November or December. We’ll break ground in the spring of 2014 and plan on moving into the new building in the fall of 2015.”

The new 7th-12th grade facility will be south of Oakland near the intersection of Highways 6 and 59.

On Tuesday residents of the Exira and Elk Horn-Kimballton school districts voted in favor of reorganizing into one school district. According to the Audubon County Auditor’s Office, Public measure A passed in Exira 343-32 and 285-50 in Elk Horn-Kimballton. Public measure B passed in Exira 335-37 and 269-60 in Elk Horn-Kimballton.

Public measure C, which changes how Elk Horn-Kimballton school board members are elected, passed with a vote of 232-92. And lastly, John Leader was voted in to fill a vacancy term with 291 total votes.

Reorganization will take effect July 1st, 2014.