(Radio Iowa) – The Story County Sheriff’s Department has charged a 17-year-old with setting fires at the Casey’s in Maxwell and in a bus at Collins-Maxwell High School.

The Casey’s fires were set on February 3rd and 6th, and the bus fire on March 9th. The teen is charged with first-degree arson, two counts of second-degree arson, and two counts of first-degree criminal mischief.

The school bus was a total loss, as was the Casey’s building, and the company has said the convenience store won’t reopen.

(Radio Iowa) – After raising nearly four million dollars last year and delivering the G-O-P response to President Biden’s speech last week, Kim Reynolds has formally kicked off her bid for another term as Iowa’s governor. “I want to use the next four years to show how much further we can go when we trust Iowans,” Reynolds said. Reynolds addressed a crowd of supporters on the Iowa State Fairgrounds.

“I am so excited to finally announce tonight my candidacy for governor of the great state of Iowa,” Reynolds said near the end of her remarks. Rather than outline proposals for the future, Reynolds reviewed her recent record, including last week’s tax bill and last year’s ban on mask mandates in schools. “We got our kids back in the classroom and, again, we did it before anyone else. Unlike Democrats, we didn’t wait for bad poll numbers to finally discover science,” Reynolds said, to laughter and applause.

Gov. Reynolds and Lt. Governor Gregg

Her supporters cheered loudly for another action, the law Reynolds approved a week ago that bans trans athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports in Iowa’s schools, colleges and universities. “We’re preserving girls sports for girls,” Reynolds said, to a standing ovation. Reynolds criticized Democrats in general and President Biden in particular, and suggested Democrats were misjudging the problems Americans face.  “The threats facing this nation aren’t from Canadian truckers, Joe Rogan’s podcast or parents who care about their child’s education,” Reynolds said, to loud cheers.

Reynolds offered this assessment of the 2022 campaign: “It is not about liberal versus conservative. It is not about Republican versus Democrat. It is about who is going to fight to keep Iowa and America free.” Reynolds concluded the event by saying Republicans have a good chance to make this the best November ever for the G-O-P.

A Des Moines Register Iowa Poll released this weekend found Democratic gubernatorial candidate Deidre DeJear trailing Reynolds by eight points. DeJear, a Des Moines businesswoman who has never held public office, says the poll is confirmation Iowans are willing to give her a shot. “I knew that we were capable, but the question was whether or not we were willing and whether we could see deep down within if we had more gas in the tank,” DeJear says, “and I’m seeing in that poll that we’ve got it.”

DeJear reported having just 85-hundred dollars in her campaign account at the end of 2021. She told reporters her recent fundraising is on an upward trajectory.  “Fundraising bumps, I mean, we are seeing them and again it’s encouraging,” DeJear said. “We’re able to build this campaign in such a way that it’s being tooled for the General Election.” DeJear is the only Democrat actively campaigning for governor.

(Radio Iowa) – Criminal justice students at Iowa State University will soon have a chance to test their policing skills on a high-tech simulator that features an interactive ten-foot-wide screen. I-S-U Police Chief Michael Newton says his officers are also using the simulator to practice a variety of techniques used to diffuse volatile situations and to better respond to behavioral health issues.

“Training like this puts our officers in real-life-type situations without actually being in real life,” Chief Newton says. “They get a chance to practice. They get a chance to make mistakes in a teaching and learning environment.” I-S-U officers are put through roleplaying training sessions on the simulator which Newton says are designed to mimic different scenarios they could encounter on campus.

“Immediately, you feel like you’re in it. You feel like you’re really there in the situation and you immediately have the physiological response that we do sometimes on our cases,” Newton says. “Our heart rate goes up, what can happen to officers is tunnel vision can set in.” That sort of response can interfere with decision-making, so Newton says simulator training helps officers recognize how their bodies react and practice techniques that may prevent a stressful situation from worsening.

Police officers are often the first responders to a mental health crisis, especially in rural Iowa, but they typically don’t have the resources to get additional training to recognize different disorders or practice de-escalation techniques.  “With the video options, we can run through many more revolutions of training in a really fast time frame,” Newton says. “De-escalation is a huge concern for people in our community, and so the more training we can do on de-escalation, the better off we all are.” I-S-U researchers envision offering additional training with the simulator to rural police departments from across Iowa.

“I really see this as an opportunity for our entire state,” Newton says. “Iowa State University is an asset for everyone. I know some of the smaller departments have smaller, tighter training budgets. This is just another tool that we can use to put them through real-life situations and hopefully learn and develop a better police officer.”

Researchers plan to assemble a focus group with I-S-U students from Alpha Phi Sigma, the national criminal justice honors society, to create a curriculum with the simulator for upper-level classes.

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports a man from Council Bluffs was arrested at around 2-a.m. today (Wednesday), for Possession of a Controlled Substance. 32-year-old Nicholas James Jensen was taken into custody following a traffic stop on Interstate 29. Bond was set at $1,000.