(Red Oak, Iowa) –A traffic stop early this (Wednesday) morning, in Red Oak, turned into a pursuit, and resulted in an arrest. According to Red Oak Police, an officer tried to stop a vehicle driven by 42-year-old, of Red Oak, shortly after midnight. The incident began in the 2100 block of Highway 48. When the officer activated his patrol vehicle’s lights and siren, the suspect vehicle failed to stop, and sped-off. During an attempt to elude officers, Trost made a couple of turns onto different city street, before attempting to hide the vehicle in a residential driveway on Oakwood Avenue.

Kim Jack Douglas Trost

Trost was arrested on charges that include Driving While Suspended and Eluding. He also received citations for other, moving violations. He was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $1,000 bond. Montgomery County Sheriff’s deputies assisted Red Oak Police with the incident.

(Lewis, Iowa) – Russell Hansen, Chairman of the United Congregational Methodist Church’s Board, in Lewis, the Mayor and residents of the City of Lewis, have issued a plea for the return of a large, Liberty Bell. As previously reported on KJAN, it’s believed the UCMC bell was stolen sometime last Friday or Saturday. The Cass County Sheriff’s Office continues to investigate theft, include possible door camera footage. A reward is being offered for the bell’s return, no questions asked.

Hansen said in his message sent to KJAN, “To the person or persons who store the bell from our church – We ( the citizens of Lewis and members of the Church) are a community small in size and numbers. We used to have banks and hotels, A school and gas stations , may things left us that time will never return and we’ve adapted. But a simple bell that used to bring us to church on time so we could worship our God together. Meant a lot to us. Your the reason the bell was important, had you heard it’s calling, you would know the difference between right and wrong, good and evil, love and caring for your neighbors. We ask that you return the bell, so that even you can hear it’s message load and clear. Christ is calling you.”

Anyone with information about the theft, is asked to contact the Cass County Sheriff’s Office, at 712-243-2306.

(Radio Iowa) – The chairman of the Iowa Senate’s tax-writing committee is proposing a constitutional amendment that would require a super majority vote in the legislature to raise the state income tax or the sales tax. Senator Dan Dawson, a Republican from Council Bluffs, helped develop the package of tax cuts the governor signed into law this month. Dawson says this proposed constitutional amendment would provide stability in tax policy.

“Politics change over time. How do Iowans make sure that their tax rates aren’t subject to the whims of the populace? So the premise is simple here: it should be a majority to lower the taxes,” Dawson says, “but there should be some type of higher threshold to raise them here in the state of Iowa.” The proposed amendment would require a two-thirds vote in the House AND the Senate to raise the two major taxes collected by the State of Iowa.

Pam Mackey Taylor, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club’s Iowa chapter, says that would make it almost impossible to raise taxes. “We’re making significant changes to the tax rates with the flat tax bill and it could be that we have made too significant of cuts and we may need to roll some of this back,” Mackey Taylor says. “And it should be easy to roll some of this back, not really difficult with a really high threshold.”

Victoria Sinclair is a lobbyist Iowans for Tax Relief, a group that’s been seeking constitutional limits on state SPENDING for decades. The group also supports this proposal to require a larger majority of legislators to support raising taxes. “We expect Iowa’s hardworking families to live within their means,” Sinclair says. “If the legislature can’t live within their means and decides they need to take more from Iowa taxpayers, then the threshold should be higher.”

Mike Owen, deputy director of Common Good Iowa, says the proposed 66 percent super majority for approving future tax increases gives the minority veto power. “One no vote is worth two yes votes,” Owen says. “Try explaining that in social studies class.”

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, a two-fifths or two-thirds majority is required in the legislatures in 15 states to raise taxes or impose new taxes. If Dawson’s proposal clears every legislative hurdle, the earliest Iowa voters would see a similar proposal for Iowa’s constitution would be in 2024 General Election ballot.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – A hearing in the case of an Anita woman facing 1st Degree Murder and Child Endangerment resulting in Death, charges, will now be held in April. The hearing in the case of Iowa vs. Alison Dorsey is was to have taken place Tuesday (March 22nd) in Atlantic, but it won’t take place now, until 10-a.m. April 19th.

Dorsey’s trial remains set for 9:30-a.m. June 20^th. A continuance in the hearing means uncertainty as to if her trial will be held once again in Atlantic, or in another county. A motion requesting a change of venue was filed by Cass County Attorney Vanessa Strazdus on Nov. 11, 2021.

Dorsey’s first trial ending in a mistrial on Nov. 4, 2021, after the jury deadlocked and failed to reach a verdict. The trial was with regard to the death of an infant that was in her care, in October of 2019.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Montgomery County Auditor and Commissioner of Elections, Stephanie Burke, announced Tuesday, that HF2466 (002) (Iowa House File 2466) was enacted on Tuesday afternoon concerning signature requirements for County Supervisor candidate nominations.

According to Burke, “Signature requirements for the offices of Montgomery County Supervisor District 1, District 2 and District 4 shall include at least twenty-one signatures. This is considerably less than the one hundred signatures that the Iowa Secretary of State recommended.”

Only voters living in the supervisor candidate’s respective district are allowed to sign the nomination papers. Nomination papers and any accompanying affidavit of candidacy for the June 7, 2022 Primary Election must be filed with the Montgomery County Auditor’s Office before 5:00 p.m. on March 25.

Supervisor Districts and precincts have changed slightly due to the recent census. Maps can be located on the county’s website www.montgomerycountyia.gov or at the Auditor’s office.

Please contact the Auditor’s office at 623-5127 for more information. Democratic and Republican candidates must run in the June 7 Primary Election, with the winners moving on to the November 8 General Election ballot.

There are no changes to the signature requirements for the offices of County Attorney, County Treasurer and County Recorder.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig says he is concerned about the number of cases of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza — or Bird Flu — that have already been detected and confirmed in Iowa.  “We didn’t start dealing with High Path in Iowa until the middle of April in 2015 and here we’ve already got five cases in the middle of March,” Naig says. “And so it is concerning that as we look at the migration north of wild birds that we still have quite a ways to go this spring before we see the completion of that.”

Naig says they are pretty confident the bird flu is linked to the migration of birds. He says the earlier discovery does not mean we are in for a repeat of the 2015 outbreak. “We are certainly hopeful that we do not see the kind of spread that we did see in ’15. Fifteen was and still is the largest animal disease outbreak in U-S history. And so, we are watching very closely,” he says.

Naig says believes government agencies and the industry are better prepared now than in 2015 to handle the spread of the bird flu. “We’ve been training for this, we know what to do, and we know that we need to act quicker to detect cases of High Path — and then act quickly to detain it. We’ve been working on it hard over the last couple of years,” Naig says.

Naig made his comments during stops in Sioux and Plymouth Counties.