The Audubon County Sheriff’s Office reports one person was arrested early this (Wednesday) morning, on an assault charge. 19-year old Samantha Christine Malloy, of Audubon, was taken into custody at around 1-a.m., following an investigation into an incident which allegedly occurred in the 200 block of south Fairview, in Exira. Malloy was charged with Assault, and brought to the Audubon County Jail where she was later released on a signature bond. She’s scheduled to appear in court Thursday at 9-a.m.

The Shelby County Board of Supervisors is exploring options for use of the Hotel/Motel Tax Money. During their regular meeting on Tuesday, Supervisor Roger Schmitz reported that the new Hotel/Motel Tax Fiscal Agent, the Shelby County Auditor, has not received the funding from the Shelby County Chamber of Commerce. Back in January 8th, the Supervisors and Harlan City Council agreed to a resolution to make the Shelby County Auditor the fiscal agent of the Hotel/Motel Tax Money. According to Schmitz, the Chamber was supposed to transfer the money on January 9th. However, during the meeting, Schmitz said that has not happened.

He said “According to their rules, they have to have a Chamber meeting to transfer the money. They had the meeting on the 28th. And what I get out of it, [is that Shelby County Chamber Director Dawn Cundiff] did not have the necessary paper work to do that so they did not transfer the money.” Schmitz asked Shelby County Attorney Marcus Gross if the chamber could write out a check from the tax money. Gross said “We’ve notified their bank that the fiscal agent has changed and that they honor any checks made out by the Chamber at their peril. We don’t know whether there have been any. I guess we will see. I think from an audit standpoint…hey couldn’t write a check out. From a legal standpoint…because they are still the signatory of the account, they probably could. That is why we sent the letter to their bank.”

Gross says that is not the only letter he wrote out as he sent one directly to the Chamber. He said “I also wrote a letter to them to give them a short time to transfer those funds to the Auditor. You’ve previously indicated that you were not going to collect any monies owned to the fund by the chamber: That would be something you could reconsider if you do not receive the current funds in the account. There are other legal options as well that you could consider.”

If the money has not been transferred by Friday, the Shelby County Supervisors will be taking action on the Hotel/Motel Tax money at their next meeting on Tuesday, February 12th.

(Joel McCall/KNOD)

The U-S Postal Service announced today (Wednesday) that it will stop delivering mail on Saturdays starting in August, in a plan to save two-billion dollars a year. It’s unfortunate, but not a surprise to Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, who says the financially-struggling, quasi-governmental agency has been hemorrhaging billions.  “There are some things that we can do here,” Grassley says. “We could modify their health benefits plan, their unemployment plan. We can allow them to raise postal rates at more than the CPI.”

That’s the Consumer Price Index, the benchmark that’s used in determining the fairness of price hikes. The Postal Service reported nearly 16-billion dollars in losses for its last budget year and expects even larger losses in 2013. The losses last year were triple the losses from the previous year. The problem isn’t just the popularity of e-mail, but also the costs for future postal retirees’ health benefits, which made up for 11-billion dollars of the near-16-billion in losses.

“The post office is a business and they have to seek their own revenue and if Saturday delivery is part of their efficiency,” Grassley says. “They’ve already got their employment down below a half a million. How much further it has to go down, I don’t know.”

While Saturday mail delivery to homes and businesses across Iowa and nationwide will end in August, the Postal Service will continue to deliver packages six days a week. P-O boxes will still get mail on Saturdays and post offices that are now open Saturdays will remain open on Saturdays.

Officials with the Shenandoah Police Department report the arrest this (Wednesday) morning of Jeff Ponton. The 35-year old from Shenandoah faces a misdemeanor charge of Theft in the 3^rd degree. Ponton was being held at the Page County jail.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – State lawmakers continue to debate what Iowa should do with surplus budget dollars. Should they put the money into services and programs or give it directly to taxpayers? A House subcommittee today (Wednesday) discussed Republican-sponsored legislation that would use the state’s surplus funds to provide credits to taxpayers.

Rep. Peter Cownie of West Des Moines says individual taxpayers would get $369 income tax credits. He says the plan would cost over $500 million and calls it the fairest way to deal with the money.  But Democrats and advocates questioned whether this was the best use of state funds, saying it would be better to spend the money on services and infrastructure.

The subcommittee approved the bill. It now goes to the full committee for deliberation.

DAKOTA CITY, Neb. (AP) – A woman from northwest Iowa has been charged with vehicular homicide for the Nebraska crash deaths of a 57-year-old woman and her 3-year-old granddaughter.  Twenty-seven-year-old Heather Reisdorph, of Sioux City, has pleaded not guilty to two misdemeanor counts.

Authorities say her vehicle ran into the back of one that was waiting to turn left off U.S. Highway 75/77 south of Dakota City on Jan. 6. The impact pushed the vehicle into oncoming traffic, where it was struck by another vehicle.   Patricia Oldenburg, of Homer, Neb., and her granddaughter, Regan Coenen, of Sioux City, Iowa, died. Eight-year-old Braden Coenen was injured.