Atlantic Fire, Cass County Sheriff’s Deputies, Atlantic Police, Cass County EMS personnel stand in honor under Old Glory above I-80 westbound at Exit 57, north of Atlantic, while a procession of law enforcement escorts Fremont County Sheriff’s Deputy Austin Richardson from the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Ankeny, to a funeral home in Hamburg. The Deputy died Tuesday, June 14th, in a collision between the SUV he was driving, and a combine. The accident took place on a narrow two-lane highway in Fremont County.

(Radio Iowa) – The Board of Regents will meet Monday and consider an increase in tuition and fees at the three state universities. The Regents will hold the first reading of a proposal to raise tuition by four-point-two-five percent for in-state undergraduates. That translates to an increase of 355 dollars at the University of Iowa, 354 at Iowa State University, and 331 dollars at the University of Northern Iowa.

The Board says the increase is needed after they requested an additional 15 million dollars from the Iowa Legislature and lawmakers gave them a five-and-half million dollar increase for the next year. I-S-U is asking for the largest increase in mandatory fees at 145 dollars, the U-I requests 56 dollars, and U-N-I 27 dollars.

The proposed tuition increases come after the Board of Regents approved 50-thousand dollar salary increases for the presidents of the University of Iowa and Iowa State University. The Board of Regents also approved deferred compensation packages for I-S-U president Wendy Winterstein, U-I president Barbara Wilson and for U-N-I president Mark Nook, and Regents executive director Mark Braun.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s insurance commissioner says a cryptocurrency company will pay a 943-thousand dollar fine to the State of Iowa for selling unregistered securities and misrepresenting the level of risk associated with its product. BlockFi Lending has offered interest-bearing accounts to customers with cryptocurrency, promising to make variable interest payments each month. Two and a half years ago, BlockFi and its affiliates held about 267-thousand dollars worth of crypto from Iowans. By the end of 2021, that had ballooned to 14-point-six million. The company was accused of selling securities in Iowa without being registered as a broker-dealer or agent.

The Iowa Insurance Commissioner’s announcement is part of a joint investigation by a federal agency and state regulators. BlockFi has agreed to pay 50 million dollars to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Iowa’s insurance commission says the company is paying another 50 million dollars to 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

BlockFi agreed to the 100 million dollar settlement without admitting or denying the S-E-C’s allegations.

(Council Bluffs, Iowa) – The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa reports a man from Cass County (IA) was sentenced Tuesday, to serve seven-years in prison for the Receipt of Child Pornography. 34-year-old Aaron William Butcher must also serve a seven-year term of supervised release after the prison term and register as a sex offender. There is no parole in the federal system. Butcher was also ordered to pay $12,000 in restitution.

In February of 2021, a cybertip was sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) regarding child pornography being uploaded to a Dropbox account. The email address was traced to Butcher and law enforcement obtained and executed a search warrant for his Dropbox account and his residence in Atlantic, Iowa. Butcher’s electronic devices were forensically analyzed and contained images and videos of child pornography. Forensic examination also located numerous conversations between Butcher and individuals he believed to be teenagers. Butcher asked for images and videos of child pornography in exchange for money.

The Cass County Sheriff’s Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, Internet Crimes Against Children Unit investigated the case, which was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Offices for the Southern District of Iowa.

(Council Bluffs, Iowa) – A man from Harrison County was sentenced to prison, Tuesday, on a Child Pornography charge. A judge ordered 47-year-old Curtis Lee Jensen, of Woodbine, to serve 12-years in prison, for Receipt of Child Pornography. He must also serve an eight-year term of supervised release after the prison term and register as a sex offender. There is no parole in the federal system.

Authorities say in January of 2021, a cyber tip was sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) regarding child pornography being uploaded to a KIK Messenger account. The email address was traced to Jensen and law enforcement obtained and executed a search warrant for Jensen’s email and KIK account. The investigation revealed that Jensen received and distributed child pornography using his KIK account.

The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, Internet Crimes Against Children Unit investigated the case, which was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Offices for the Southern District of Iowa. The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.

For more information about Project Safe Childhood and resources about internet safety, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Montgomery County Auditor Stephanie Burke reports the County conducted a post- election audit today (June 15th), under the law designed to monitor and protect election processes. Burke said the audit was a perfect match to the results canvassed for the 2022 Primary Election.

The law requires the Secretary of State to call for a post-election audit in a randomly chosen precinct in each county. County Auditors supervise a hand count of votes in a given race on the ballots from that precinct. By random selection, Precinct 1 was audited. The polling place location for Precinct 1 is the Gold Fair Building. Burke said “We have high confidence in the security measures we take for elections, but the post-election audit is a good way to prove that the confidence is well-founded.”

Pictured: Left to Right
Will Lester, Chris Stephens, Connie Mccunn (Photo courtesy Auditor Stephanie Burke)

Questions about the post-election audit and other election matters may be directed to the Montgomery County Auditor’s office at 712-623-5127.

(Radio Iowa) – A Vietnam veterans exhibit known as “The Wall That Heals” will make one stop in Iowa this summer — in Tama. The three-quarter size replica of the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington D-C will arrive by truck and be set up as a free exhibit that’ll be open around-the clock, according to wall spokesman Randy Zimmerman. “It travels around the country to about 20 to 22 stops throughout the year,” Zimmerman says, “and it’s set up in various locations so that people that can’t make it to Washington D.C. can actually experience the wall, see the names, feel the closeness, and do it locally.”

Zimmerman says he was taken back by the experience of seeing the wall for the first time several years ago. “I’d never been close to the memorial and after you see it, it is really inspiring,” he says. “It takes your breath away when you think about the enormity of it, the amount of names on the wall, the people that gave their life defending America.”  Everyone is encouraged to visit the wall first-hand, from the elderly to children. “We invite everybody to come out and view the wall,” Zimmerman says. “There’s also a mobile education center that has artifacts from the Vietnam War that people have left for the memorial in Washington D.C.”

The wall will be on display from August 4 thru 7 at the Meskwaki Settlement School in Tama. Learn more at: twthtama.org.

(Radio Iowa) – The latest Iowa Association of Business and Industry Quarterly Business Survey shows continued optimism among the 15-hundred organizations it represents. A-B-I President Mike Ralston says businesses are not wavering despite some tough economic conditions. “What we see from the respondents in the survey is the business people are still pretty confident in the state of the business cycle,” Ralston says. ” It’s been pretty constant that somewhere around half expect to hire. And that’s the same in this survey, it’s also been pretty constant that somewhere around half expect their sales to grow. That’s pretty constant.”

There was one thing in the survey that Ralston didn’t expect.  “The big surprise was that 70 percent of those who responded expect to make a capital expenditure in the third quarter — and that’s huge,” he says. He says capital spending now is huge in the face of high inflation, the high cost of materials, and the trouble getting get materials on time.  ” So that means multi-million-dollar piece of equipment, a plant expansion, something that’s going to involve all those strings. So they’re pretty confident, number one in the state of their business that they can afford to make an investment like that. And number two, they obviously must feel like they need to make it to continue to grow. But either way, it’s a good thing for I would see those kinds of expenditures happen in the third quarter this year,” according to Ralston.

Ralston thinks some of the potential capital spending is to deal with the worker shortage. “They’ve got to make sure they have the latest equipment, the most high-tech processes, and this also could be related to robotics. manufacturers are adding robots wherever they can,” he says. “They’re certainly not letting anybody go. They’re adding them because they can’t find enough workers.” He says the pandemic has caused businesses to sort of change the way they handle inventory.

“Everybody has heard about just in time inventory, where folks would only manufacture products, when there was an order. But what manufacturers have found, since the pandemic is that when they do that, they’re not able to get the parts they need on time to make those orders,” Ralston says. “And so what they’ve done is they order more parts than they need. Or they also make more finished products so that they have it on the shelf or in the warehouse or on a lot somewhere so that they can ship it when they need to.”

Ralston says they’ve got a little increase in inventory costs — but it’s better to be able to fill that order in the end and get paid. Around half of the A-B-I members are manufacturers.

(Creston, Iowa) [**UPDATED 6/17/22] – A teen on a motorcycle was injured during an accident Tuesday evening, in Union County. According to law enforcement, 17-year-old William John Clayton, of Creston, was traveling north on a 2001 Harley Davidson motorcycle at around 8-p.m.  A 2002 Chrysler van driven by 20-year-old Brandon William David Hammons, of Creston, was traveling west on Howard Street.

Hammons stopped at the controlled intersection with Sumner. He looked, but did not see the motorcycle. When Hammons failed to yield the right-of-way and proceeded into the intersection, his van was hit by the motorcycle.

Clayton was ejected from his motorcycle and suffered minor injuries. He was transported by EMS to the Greater Regional Medical Center, in Creston. Damage to the motorcycle was estimated at $2,500. The van sustained $1,000 damage.

**Hammons was issued a written warning for Failure to Yield the right-of-way**