COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa reports 44-year-old Jeffrey Scott Gundersen, of Logan, was sentenced yesterday (Tuesday), in federal court, to 60 months (5-years) in prison, for being a Prohibited Person in Possession of a Firearm. His prison term will be followed by three years of supervised release. According to court documents, Gundersen pleaded guilty to the charge on November 18, 2021.

On October 2, 2020, Gundersen visited a confidential source and provided them with a dismantled .22 caliber pistol. Gundersen stated he purchased the pistol for $200 but he could not get it to fire. The confidential source agreed to get the firearm fixed and took the gun from Gundersen – then reported the gun to law enforcement. The firearm was swabbed for DNA and lab results confirmed the DNA belonged to Gundersen. Gundersen is a prior convicted felon and prohibited from possessing a firearm.

The Council Bluffs Police Department, Southwest Iowa Narcotics Enforcement Task Force, and Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement investigated the case. This case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Atlantic Police Department reports three recent arrests. Two people were arrested on separate charges, Sunday: 33-year-old Callie Faulkner, of Prairie Du Chien, WI, was arrested for OWI/1st offense. And, 29-year-old Jason Mark, of Atlantic, was arrested for Disorderly Conduct, Interference with Official Acts, and Public Intoxication.

On Saturday, 27-year-old Philip Thompson, of Atlantic, was arrested for OWI/2nd offense.  All three subjects were booked into the Cass County Jail and later released.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa is seeing more young children in crisis, so the state is launching a new ad campaign which aims to bring awareness to children’s mental health. The campaign starts this month and will run on social media and traditional media platforms, targeting both kids and adults. The ads urge kids who are struggling to seek help. “So, if you’ve been thinking about suicide, talk to a friend, talk to a parent…”

The ads also urge adults to reach out to kids who seem down. Iowa Department of Human Services Director Kelly Garcia says the state is trying to provide direction and resources to parents who may not know how to address mental health with their children.”Because there are spaces in parenthood that you’re not really given those clear toolkits,” Garcia says, “and so this is something that we wanted to provide. So it’s really practical conversation starters.”

Garcia says the state is launching the campaign as it’s been seeing an increase in younger children experiencing mental health crises. “We’re seeing really small children in distress – crisis – mobile crisis response and crisis stabilization utilization for really little kids,” Garcia says, “and we’re seeing really young children attempt and complete suicide, which is horrifying.”

Iowans who need help can find resources at YourLifeIowa.org.

(reporting by Natalie Krebs, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – Two weeks after contract negotiations began, union workers at Arconic have decided to vote on whether to authorize a strike. Local 105 of the United Steelworkers represents 18-hundred hourly workers at the Davenport Works in Riverdale. Lee Shaffer, Local 105 spokesman, says negotiations have been slow, so union workers hope to speed them up, and emphasize their “essential” status during the pandemic.  “We were essential back then, so we want to be treated as essential now,” Shaffer says.

“We feel like we deserve pay that’s essential. Our benefits, health care and things of that nature, need to stay the same. We have good health care and we’d like to keep it, and our retirement. We’d like more put into our retirement so that we can enjoy better lives when we retire.”

The strike authorization vote will affect more than three-thousand workers at four locations — the Quad Cities, Tennessee, Indiana, and New York. Union workers will vote Thursday at the Isle of Capri in Bettendorf. The current, three-year contract expires Sunday at noon. The Davenport Works manufactures aluminum sheet and plate for aerospace, automotive, and industrial applications.

(Council Bluffs, Iowa) – A man from Omaha was arrested early this Wednesday morning on an OWI charge, after he was seen traveling at a high rate of speed in Shelby and Pottawattamie Counties. The Pott. County Sheriff’s Office says 31-year-old Chuong Q Thai was traveling south on Highway 59 at around 12:30-a.m.  A Deputy responding to a Shelby County broadcast about the suspect vehicle, encountered the 2021 Range Rover that passed Interstate 80 to the south and made a U-turn to head back north.

The vehicle then stopped in the middle of the left lane of travel for a short time, before taking-off at a high rate of speed. The deputy initiated a traffic stop on the SUV near Avoca, and conducted an OWI investigation, which resulted in Thai being charged with OWI/1st offense. His bond at the Pott. County Jail, was set at $1,000.

The Pott. County Sheriff’s Office reports also:

• 22-year-old Maggie Ann Baker, of Omaha, Nebraska, was transported Tuesday from Douglas County (Nebraska) Corrections to the Pottawattamie County Jail, to address a warrant in Pottawattamie County for Child Endangerment, Abandon – Bodily Injury. Bond was set at $5,000.
• and, 59-year-old William Douglas Coffman, of Omaha, Nebraska, was transported from Douglas County Corrections to the Pottawattamie County Jail to address a warrant in Pottawattamie County for Harassment 1^st Degree – Threaten Forcible Felony. Bond was set at $2,000.

(Iowa State Patrol/District 4 – Denison): The Iowa State Patrol, on Tuesday, said a pursuit earlier this week in Harrison County, ended with a car on fire in the ditch, and a driver taken directly to jail. In a Facebook post, troopers said the incident happened when a driver tried to elude troopers on Interstate 29. The Patrol used stop sticks to flatten the tires of the suspect vehicle, but according to the Patrol’s Facebook post, “The driver continued to drive on their flat tires which caused their vehicle to catch fire.”

Photo from the ISP Facebook page

Troopers then helped pull the driver out of the burning vehicle and took them to jail. The Iowa State Patrol did not identify the driver or say what charges they could face.

(Creston, Iowa) – The Creston Police Department reports four arrests took place Tuesday (May 10). Early Tuesday morning, 18-year-old Damian Joseph Gibbons, of Creston, and 18-year-old Hunter James Tullis, of Corning, were arrested at 319 Sumner Street in Creston. Both men were charged with three counts of Burglary in the 3rd Degree, and Attempted Burglary in the 3rd Degree/1st offense. Gibbons was being held in the Adams County Jail on a $2,000 bond. Tullis was being held on bond amounting to $7,000.

Tuesday afternoon, 36-year-old Jackie Lee Marler, of Creston, was arrested for Domestic Abuse Assault/Strangulation. Marler was being held without bond in the Union County Jail, pending an appearance before the magistrate. And, Tuesday evening, 34-year-old Wesley Gene Keeler, Jr., of Creston, was arrested on two Union County warrants for: Possession of Drug Paraphernalia; Poss. of a Controlled Substance/2nd offense – Marijuana; and Poss. of a Controlled Substance/2nd offense – Methamphetamine. Bond was set at $2,300.

Creston Police said also, Monday afternoon, a woman residing in the  200 block of S. Peterson reported that sometime between 1-a.m. and 9-a.m., Monday, someone entered her son’s vehicle and took a P.Mauliat saxophone, and a large container of change. The loss was estimated at about $5,655.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources says they’re receiving reports of moderate to severe winter burn damage to some trees across the state. Forestor Tivon Feeley, says they see the damage in the arborvitae, white pine, and a little bit in Scotch and Red Pine. “And what’s going on is, you know, we had kind of an unusual spring where the ground stayed frozen, but we got pretty warm outside and then would go right back to freezing. And then you couple that with the strong winds that we had — these trees have dried out — they couldn’t absorb the water because the ground was frozen, and strong winds dried them out even faster,” Feeley says. He says the damaged trees are easy to spot.

“Some of them are completely brown. It depends on the conifer, but some of the like the red pine of Scotch Pine, there are kind of bleached we call it bleaching where the needles are kind of a light, light, light tan to a mostly white color. And those trees mostly are dead,” He says. He says partially damaged trees may still be saved. ” If you get a few random branches the tree might pull out of it. If you looking at that top third dead, it’s gonna have to be kind of a wait and see if the buds are completely dead,” according to Feeley. “if the buds are alive, you might have a chance. This is really on the newly planted trees that are less than let’s say 10 years of age and younger, that we’re seeing the majority of the damage on.” Feeley says the dead trees might have been saved by mulching watering and around the base of the tree halfway through the frost. But, he says the conditions were really tough to overcome.

“I don’t think we’ve seen winds like this for quite some time. And that was a very unusual weather pattern — so I’m not sure would have solved it all,” he says. Feeley says many of these trees were brought into Iowa and that is part of the issue when this happens. “When we look at conifers native to Iowa, eastern red cedar to all 99 counties, eastern white pine, all the way down to Hardin County in the northeast quadrant of Iowa, and then balsam fir in Allamakee County,” he says, “and everything else is not native, and not well adapted or it’s planted out of its range. And so when you have these weather events, they’re just not used to it. ” Feeley says though, he has even seen some of the native conifers suffer this year too because of the unusual spring we’ve had.

(Radio Iowa) – Counterfeit medications are showing up in Iowa which federal authorities say are not only dangerous, they’re deadly. Mike Casele, a special agent with the U-S Drug Enforcement Administration’s Omaha office, says the fake pills are becoming all too common. “In these areas, as in many areas of the United States, we see a lot of meth,” Casele says. “We’re also seeing a lot of counterfeit pills. People are not getting these from lawful or legal means, through their doctor or pharmacy, and you just never know what you’re going to get with these.” Casele says most of the pills being found in Iowa originated across the southern U-S border.

“Typically, we’re seeing a lot of these counterfeit pills coming up from Mexico,” Casele says. “From there, they just scattered throughout the United States. They are landing literally everywhere. I’ve worked in many offices throughout the country and talked to agents across the country and there doesn’t seem to be an area where we’re not seeing them at least at some level.” More often, Casele says, the pills they’re finding contain very hazardous ingredients.

“It’s incredibly dangerous,” he says. “Out of the pills that the DEA seizes and that we send to our labs for analysis, four out of every ten of those pills test positive for a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl, which is for an average person, about two milligrams.” Casele says the D-E-A is working with state and local law enforcement in an effort to slow the distribution of these illegal pills.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest at around 8:30-p.m. Tuesday, of Kyla Smith, from Villisca. Smith was taken into custody in Villisca, on an active Montgomery County warrant for Violation of a No Contact Order. She was transported to the Montgomery County Jail, and later posted a $300 cash bond before being released.