(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Atlantic Police Department reports 10 arrests took place from March 11th through the 18th.

Officers with the Atlantic P-D arrested two people on separate charges, March 18th: 25-year-old Agnes Koki, of Atlantic, was arrested for Disorderly Conduct; and 42-year-old Melanie Stoural, of Atlantic, was arrested for OWI/1st offense.

On the 16th, 38-year-old Brandon Hammer, of Atlantic, was arrested in Atlantic for Public Intoxication. Hammer was also arrested March 13th, for Disorderly Conduct and Public Intoxication.

On the 12th of March, officers with the A-PD arrested 28-year-old G Love Kovac, of Atlantic, for Violation of a No Contact Order. And, there were five arrests in Atlantic on March 11th:

• 38-year-old Winser Ekiek, of Atlantic,was arrested for Accessory After the Fact.
• 58-year-old Michael Turnbaugh, of Altoona, was arrested for Driving While License Denied or Revoked.
• 30-year-old MJ William, of Atlantic, was arrested for Disorderly Conduct.
• 21-year-old Easter Sakate, of Atlantic, was arrested for being an Accessory After the Fact.
• and, 39-year-old Rosita Rikar, of Atlantic, was arrested March 11th on a Active Fugitive Warrant out of Oregon.

All above subjects were taken into custody and transported to Cass County Jail and Booked in.

(Iowa DNR; Des Moines, Iowa) – Several Iowa state parks are still looking for campground hosts for the 2024 season. If you enjoy the outdoors, camping and meeting new people, consider becoming a volunteer campground host and spend your summer in a park! Campground hosts volunteer 20 – 40 hours per week, including weekends and holidays, while living in a free campsite in the park or forest.

Campground host positions available at:

• Backbone
• Clear Lake (May 1 – July 8 and August 1 – October 31, due to renovations that will close the campground in July)
• George Wyth
• Maquoketa Caves
• McIntosh Woods
• Springbrook

Learn more about how to apply on the DNR’s volunteer page.

Or for more information, email or call Elizabeth Thacker: Elizabeth.Thacker@dnr.iowa.gov; phone number (515) 444-9164.

The DNR is also hiring seasonal park aides to work in Iowa state parks and forests this summer. If you have a passion for the outdoors, are looking for an active job and enjoy helping people, consider spending your summer in one of Iowa’s most beautiful natural spaces. Learn more on the DNR’s employment web page or contact a specific state park office to inquire about summer jobs at that location. Come join our team!

Parks needing seasonal employees:

• Brushy Creek State Recreation Area, Lehigh
• Clear Lake State Park, Clear Lake
• Dolliver State Park, Lehigh
• Elk Rock State Park, Knoxville
• Geode State Park, Danville
• Honey Creek State Park, Moravia
• Lacey-Keosauqua State Park, Keosaqua
• Lake Ahquabi State Park, Indianola
• Lake Anita State Park, Anita
• Lake Manawa State Park, Council Bluffs
• Lake of Three Fires State Park, Bedford
• Lake Wapello State Park, Drakesville
• Maquoketa Caves State Park, Maquoketa
• McIntosh State Park, Ventura
• Nine Eagles State Park, Leon
• Springbrook State Park, Guthrie Center
• Walnut Woods State Park, West Des Moines
• Wilson Island State Recreation Area, Missouri Valley

Application deadline is March 31, 2024, or when positions are filled.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) – Narcan is now available in every residence hall on the University of Iowa’s campus, as well as the Iowa Memorial Union. Narcan, also known as Naloxone, is a medication that can reverse the effects of opioid overdoses. That includes prescription drugs like hydrocodone, as well as heroin and fentanyl.

Student Wellness Associate Director Trisha Welter says they’re implementing it to keep up with Iowa’s growing opioid crisis. Though she says overdoses, especially opioid overdoses, are not common on campus. But even though overdoses aren’t common on campus, Dr. Heidi Wood with the UI’s Addiction and Recovery Collaborative says the problem of opioids is happening close to home.

According to a survey by research institute RAND Corporation, about 42% of Americans know someone who’s died of a drug overdose. Because of this, the Wood hopes to be able to expand this program even further in the future. Wood says that there’s no risk of endangering someone with the medication, as it won’t have any adverse effects on someone not experiencing an opioid overdose.

AMES, Iowa — Thousands of Iowans will be part of another round of public service loan forgiveness. Thursday morning, the Biden-Harris administration announced an additional $5.8 billion in student debt/loan debt relief for 78,000 public service workers. Next week, Biden will send emails to 78,000 people, letting them know if they continue public service work they will be eligible for loan forgiveness.

DAVENPORT, Iowa – An Iowa City man was sentenced Wednesday (March 20th) to 25 years in federal prison for Conspiracy to Distribute a Mixture and Substance Containing a Detectable Amount of Heroin Resulting in Death and Distribution of a Mixture and Substance Containing a Detectable Amount of Heroin Resulting in Death.

The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa says according to public court documents and evidence presented at trial, on January 23, 2021, Iowa City Police Officers were dispatched to a residence related to a suspected overdose. After investigation, Lugene Shipp, 43, and Dione Dante Mobley, 43, were arrested related to the conspiracy to distribute and distribution of heroin.

Shipp and Mobley were both convicted after a trial last fall. This week, Shipp was sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment. After completing his term of imprisonment, Shipp will be required to serve 5 years of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system. Mobley is scheduled to be sentenced on April 23, 2024.

The case was investigated by the Iowa City Police Department, the University of Iowa Police Department, and the Johnson County Drug Taskforce.

INDIANOLA, Iowa — Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig has announced that the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship has awarded 26 ‘Choose Iowa’ Value-Added Grants to Iowa farmers, small businesses and non-profits in 22 counties totaling $463,000. Those grants will help leverage a total investment by grant awardees of $1,993,190.47. The announcement came at the Cortum Farms & Co. Barn just north of Indianola. This farm was a recipient of a $25,000 grant, which is part of a $51,000 project to work on the barn structure and electrical system, so it can be used to sell ag products.

This year’s grants will support a wide variety of projects including delivery and cold storage for direct-to-consumer meat sales, fruit production and processing, vegetable processing, packaging equipment, cider and wine canning and bottling, farm store and food hub construction, honey production, culinary herb, lavender and cut flower production, warehouse capacity, cover crop seed distribution, agri-tourism opportunities, and much more according to a news release from the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship.

“Consumers are continually looking for more Iowa food, beverages, and ag products to enjoy and these Choose Iowa Value-Added Grants will help Iowa farmers, small businesses, and non-profits build that supply,” said Secretary Naig in a news release. “We are so pleased to provide these Choose Iowa cost-share investments because they will enhance the availability of Iowa products while creating positive economic activity in communities, big and small, across our state.”

Choose Iowa Value-Added Grants awarded this week include the following projects in western/southwest Iowa (for a listing of the other projects, click HERE) :

Breda Ag Solutions | Carroll | $25,000.00
Increase seed and grain packaging capacity with new palletizing and specialty bagging equipment to reach new export markets.
Total project budget: $954,350.84

Champion Steaks LLC | Creston | $25,000.00
Add on-site cold storage and refrigerated transportation for value-added cattle feed to produce premium-grade beef.
Total project budget: $99,250.00

Ebersole Cattle Co. | Kellerton | $25,000.00
Develop a new food hub in Southwest Iowa and offer home deliveries of beef, pork and poultry.
Total project budget: $60,000.00

Golden Outdoors LLC | Adel | $25,000.00
Customize an existing building for aquaculture and add infrastructure to raise Pacific white shrimp.
Total project budget: $70,000.00

Long Walk Farm | Council Bluffs | $25,000.00
Construct an on-farm store to increase sales of Iowa ag products and build market access for multiple Iowa farms.
Total project budget: $68,948.22

One Farm LLC | Logan | $3,590.00
Expand frozen and refrigerated retail display space to offer additional local ag products.
Total project budget: $7,180.00

Vintage Beef by Gress Family Farms | Charter Oak | $20,000.00
Convert a historic railroad depot into a community farm store with cold storage, packaging and retail space.
Total project budget: $49,130.00

Wills Family Orchard | Adel | $22,927.00
Convert a portion of an existing warehouse into cold storage to extend the seasonal availability of apples.
Total project budget: $45,854.00.

MARION, Iowa (KCRG) – On Thursday, the Linn-Mar School District confirmed that 50 full-time staff positions in the district would be cut for the 2024/2025 school year. At Monday’s board meeting, the district announced that even though they made approximately $3 million in cuts this school year, another $2.5 million would have to be made for the next one as well. 19 full-time teaching positions and 31 full-time classified staff positions would be cut as part of the budget cuts.

The district has cited a combination of expiring COVID-19 relief funding, low funding from the state legislature, and declining enrollment as factors in the financial shortfall.

VAN WERT, Iowa [KCCI] — Authorities in Decatur County say one person was killed in a house fire Thursday morning. A 911 call reporting the fire in the 200 block of West First Street first came in around 10:30 a.m., according to Decatur County Sheriff Chris Lane, who confirmed that one person was dead but did not release the identity. Officials have also not said what they believe caused the fire, which is still under investigation.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Supreme Court heard oral arguments Thursday in the dispute linked to the construction of the University of Iowa’s Children’s Hospital. Modern Piping won a judgment of nearly 13 million dollars after alleging the U-I wrongly used an injunction to delay arbitration in a dispute so they could gain early access to the building. University lawyer, Tessa Register, says the injunction did delay the process, but the benefit of the delay was overstated. “The university has not retained the benefit of that delay. When the only arbitration proceeding that has ever been enjoined in this case resumed and completed, the university paid nearly a million dollars in interest to dating back to the date of the initial demand before the injunction,” she says. Register says the U-I settled the claim and Modern should not gain any of the benefit for use of the building.

“The university is still not in possession of any property of Modern Piping that it received because of the injunction, nor has it retained any benefit received because of the injunction. So modern piping is not entitled to any unjust enrichment in this case,” Register says. Modern Piping’s lawyer, Mark Weinhardt, says the U-I used the illegitimacy of the injunction to get into the building early and that produced more than 12 million dollars in profit. “Until the project is complete and Modern is off the job, it is Modern’s property,” he says.

The Justices questioned that assertion, saying Modern Piping never had any entitlement to profits or revenue that the university from the hospital facility, and Modern would not take it over and operate the hospital. Weinhardt says the U-I didn’t want to follow the contract. “The parties entered into a contract that gives them that exclusive right to the property unless they, A negotiate a agreement that allows early occupancy or B, Modern completes the job,” Weinhardt says. “And the university didn’t want either one of those things. And so as a consequence, they got this illegal injunction instead.”

The Supreme Court will issue a ruling on the case at a later date.

(Radio Iowa) – A dairy industry official from Iowa who works in Washington D-C is urging members of Congress to get moving on the creation of a new Farm Bill. Matt Wohlman is senior director of state and industry affairs for the farmer-owned cooperative Land O’ Lakes. “The 2018 Farm Bill has been a really pretty good farm bill for farmers and rural communities and we need to get that Farm Bill reauthorized,” Wohlman says. “It did expire in September of last year and then Congress did a continuing resolution on it until September of this year, but we need to move forward and get this Farm Bill passed.” Wohlman, who’s a fifth-generation family farmer, says there’s little “new money” in the Farm Bill but some tweaks are needed.

“Folks are wanting to make some adjustments to the farm safety net programs, particularly the Price Loss (Coverage) and our PLC programs, adjusting those reference prices that are in the Farm Bill,” Wohlman says, “and then bringing some of the conservation investments that were made over the last few years, bringing those into the Farm Bill programs.” He says the nutritional programs also need to be brought into the conversation.

There’s much partisan bickering in Congress that’s led to an impasse on the Farm Bill over issues like the limiting of climate funding and social safety net programs.