The Creston Police Department reports two recent arrests and a vehicle burglary. Authorities say 43-year-old Jennifer Rose Schaecher, of Greenfield, was arrested at the Union County Law Enforcement Center around 12:10-a.m. today (Friday). She was taken into custody on a Union County warrant for Theft in the 3rd Degree, and Trespass. Schaecher posted a $2,000 bond, and was released.

And, at around 9:20-a.m. Thursday, 27-year-old Marston Shane Randolph, of Alabama, was arrested in Creston for Violation of No Contact Protective Order. He was taken to the Union County Jail and later released on a Promise to Appear in court. Authorities said also, a woman residing in the 900 block of W. Adair Street, in Creston, reported Thursday morning, that someone had stolen keys, gift cards, and a boys baseball bat from her vehicle. The loss was estimated at $500.

The Iowa State Patrol reports two Ringgold County women were injured during an SUV rollover accident Thursday afternoon, in Decatur County. The Patrol says a 1995 Chevy Blazer driven by 50-year-old Debra Sue Percifield and accompanied by 20-year-old Crystal Hughes, both of Mount Ayr, was traveling westbound on Highway 69, west of Davis City, when the SUV drove off the road and onto the right shoulder. Percifield tried to come back onto the road, but she over-corrected and lost control.

The vehicle slid-off the road and entered the left ditch before rolling over and coming to rest on the passenger side. Percifield – who wore a seat belt – was transported by LifeFlight to Methodist Hospital in Des Moines. Hughes was transported by a family member in a third-party vehicle, to the Decatur County Hospital. She was not wearing a seat belt. A report the extent of the women’s injuries was not available.

(Radio Iowa) – The snow is finally gone and what’s now being found along many Iowa roadways isn’t pretty. Hamilton County Sheriff Doug Timmons says he’s hearing frequent complaints from residents about garbage dumping in ditches.

“If we are able to figure out who it is, you will be charged,” Sheriff Timmons says. “We’ve also had complaints of people dumping tires out in the ditches. If we’re able to identify who’s doing that, you will be charged criminally, be put in jail, plus a fine and plus landfill fees.” That can be an expensive, embarrassing predicament when there’s a clear, better option to illegal dumping.

“There’s been a big increase in that,” Timmons says. “Go to the landfill. A pickup load, I believe it’s right around $10. You can get rid of a whole pickup load of stuff at the landfill and keep Hamilton County looking good.”

To report illegal dumping in Iowa, call 800-NOLITTR. The Keep Iowa Beautiful hotline offers options to report littering and information on how to adopt a roadway, park, river, lake or other public area.

(Radio Iowa) – There will be a change in command at Sioux City’s 185th Air National Guard Refueling Wing. Colonel Mark Muckey, the wing’s commander, has been selected to be the next leader of the Iowa Air National Guard.  “I’ll just tell you it’s a truly unbelievable opportunity and I guess most importantly it is a result of the outstanding performance of the Airmen of the 185th,” he says. “It has truly been my privilege to lead this team over the last three years.”

Colonel Muckey will take over as Adjutant General of the Iowa Air National Guard and will be reassigned to the Guard’s headquarters in Johnston. Colonel Sonya Morrison, an Osceola native, will be his successor in Sioux City as the 185th Refueling Wing’s commander. A change of command ceremony is tentatively scheduled in August.

(Radio Iowa) – The only Democrat in this year’s race for governor has adopted a tool former Iowa Senator Tom Harkin used in his campaigns. Harkin, for example, kicked off his 1992 presidential run in New Hampshire with a “work day” at a factory. This February, Deidre DeJear launched what she calls “Workday Wednesdays.”

“If I’m really going to meet Iowans where they are, I’ve got to connect with them in the communities and spaces in which they reside,” DeJear says. This past week, DeJear served lunch, helped with P-E and read to students in a Storm Lake elementary school.

“We’re hearing challenges related to resources in our education system,” DeJear says. “I mean, they want to keep class size small in this class, so the students can have a meaningful experience.” Last week, DeJear worked on a greenhouse on a farm near Carlisle. In early March, she stocked shelves at a bookstore in Ames. DeJear says wherever she goes, she hears similar stories.

“We want parents to get back to work,” DeJear says. “They’re having to make decisions right now and it’s challenging to find access to child care.” DeJear will be in a different setting tomorrow (Saturday) night. She’s among the candidates scheduled to speak at an Iowa Democratic Party fundraiser in Des Moines.

“We started back in August. That’s when we launched and we had small crowds of people that were joining, but now people are really getting into it and really excited about what can happen in November,” DeJear says. “I mean, I had my first overflow crowd in Audubon County, an incredible experience.” The three Democrats who’re running for the U-S Senate are also scheduled to speak Saturday night at the party fundraiser.

(Radio Iowa) – State Auditor Rob Sand, a Democrat, says U.S. Senate candidate Abby Finkenauer’s criticism of a district court judge who ruled against her bid to stay on the June Primary ballot was inappropriate. Finkenauer is one of three Democrats competing to run against Republican Senator Chuck Grassley in November. “That judge did his job,” Sand says. “He worked all weekend to get that ruling issued on a Sunday night in order to give whoever was going to be the losing party a chance to appeal.”

Finkenauer called the judge a Republican who made a partisan decision that made a mockery of our democracy. A few days later, the Iowa Supreme Court overruled the decision that had invalidated three signatures on Finkenauer’s nominating petitions and Finkenauer’s name WILL be on the June Primary ballot. Sand, who is an attorney, says the district court judge Finkenauer criticized is well-respected.

“I’m really proud of Iowa’s court system,” Sand says. “We have one of the country’s crown jewels in a non-partisan judicial nominating system…that sorts out the people who want to go in there and be political, and so what we end up with is a body of judges who do a good job of applying the facts to the law.” Sand discussed the matter during taping of “Iowa Press” which airs Friday night on Iowa P-B-S.

Sand indicated he called Finkenauer to say he found her criticism of Judge Scott Beattie to be inappropriate. “I told her what I thought and, to her credit, she said: ‘Thank you for this. We’re going to step back some of this and tone some of this down,'” Sand says. “Politics is tough. I think sometimes having people that you have a decent relationship who you can call and give a perspective to can be useful and, to her credit, when we had that conversation, she decided that she didn’t want to do that anymore.”

A spokesman for Finkenauer’s campaign has not responded to requests for comment on Sand’s statements.

(Radio Iowa) – It took extra effort to trigger the emergency sirens that warned residents in three northern Iowa towns when a storm system rolled through that produced a tornado that hit nearby Kanawha, earlier this month. Testing in March revealed the sirens in Britt, Crystal Lake and Garner couldn’t be started remotely — and replacement parts hadn’t arrived. Garner Fire Chief Jim Thiele says it meant in the midst of gusty winds and incoming hail and rain and lightning, fire fighters had to get to the boxes on three poles in Garner to turn on the sirens.

“We just assigned fire fighters to do that, groups of two,” he says, “because it took a step ladder to get to them.” The warning sirens — and the ferocity of the storm — prompted about 20 people to take shelter in the Garner City Hall. John Swenson, the chief of the fire department in Britt, faced the same issue with storm sirens that had to be manually triggered.

“We had two different groups of people that went two different ways and opened up the compartments and pushed the buttons,” Swenson says. Swenson’s team didn’t use a ladder, though. The fire chief backed his truck up to the siren pole — so it could be used as the platform to get to the trigger box.

The new remote starters for the sirens in Britt, Garner and Crystal Lake arrived after the storm and have been installed for the next time there’s reason to sound the alarm that a storm is approaching. According to the National Weather Service, the tornado that hit Kanawha on April 12th was on the ground for a mile.

(Sidney, Iowa) – The Fremont County Sheriff’s Office is reporting the possible scam that may affect Great Western Bank accounts. On April 28, 2022, the sheriff’s office received a call that someone was using a fake Great Western Bank Account Notice, that has a “Click Here” link that leads you to a screen to gather your information.

If you receive any messages call your local branch directly if you have any concerns that your account has been compromised.

(Creston, Iowa) – A single-vehicle, rollover accident occurred in Union County, Wednesday morning. The Sheriff’s Office reports 20-year-old Jazmine Kimberly Louise Stoe, of Creston, was driving a 2007 Ford Escape SUV eastbound on 140th Street at around 9:10-a.m. She admitted to authorities that she was driving too fast. The SUV went out of control as it was rounding a curve, and struck a guardrail for the bridge that crosses the Green Valley Lake Spillway.

The SUV rolled over and dropped 20-feet into the bottom of the spillway. Stoe complained of ankle pain and was transported by private vehicle to the hospital in Creston. Damage to the vehicle was estimated at $10,000, and the Union County Secondary Roads Dept. Guardrail sustained $2,000 damage. The Sheriff’s Office was assisted at the scene by the Creston Fire Dept., Union County Emergency Management, Iowa DNR, and two wrecker services.