(Glenwood, Iowa) – The Mills County Sheriff’s Office is reporting numerous arrests from Feb. 9th through the 22nd. Five people were arrested on separate warrants for Violation of Probation, including: Tera Lee McAtee, of Glenwood; 32-year-old Kassandra Lee Shoemake, Monta Arnell Johnson, Jr., Shanna Marie Black, and Sheena Marie Griffin, all of Omaha.

Authorities say 24-year-old Jacob Lee Reafleng, of Red Oak, was arrested Feb. 14th, on a warrant for Failure to Appear on drug charges, and 46-year-old Brent William Michael, of Malvern, was arrested for Possession of a Controlled Substance, Poss. of Drug Paraphernalia, and Driving Under Suspension.

31-year-old Ryan Jarrett Wright, of Glenwood, was arrested Feb. 11th for OWI/1st offense. 24-year-old Taylor Marie Otis Wright, of Council Bluffs, was arrested Feb. 17th for Driving While Revoked or Denied. And, 30-year-old Shialea Kay Cozad, of Omaha, was arrested Feb. 22nd, for Driving While Barred.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Members of the Atlantic School District’s Board of Education met Wednesday evening at the Schuler Elementary School. The Board received updates and discussed matters pertaining to “Positive Team Culture,” and the Instructional Framework. Superintendent Steve Barber reminded the Board a Public Hearing on the 2022-23 School Calendar will be held 5:30-p.m. March 16^th. (See the tentative calendar posted below)

In addition to the school calendar hearing, March 16^th at 5:30-p.m., is also the date/time for a Public Hearing on the High School South Parking Lot Project. The Atlantic School Board moved discussion with regard to the 2022-23 Certified Budget Review from March 23 to the 16^th, also, due to schedule conflicts. Spring Break in Atlantic takes place from March 21^st through the 25^th.

The Board, Wednesday, approved a Progress Invoice Request with regard to the Atlantic Middle School Fire restoration project. Superintendent Steve Barber said the District still has not received a check from EMC Insurance but is working hard to make that happen. The Board approved an amount of slightly more than $1.7-million to First Onsight, the disaster recovery and property restoration company, once the check is received.

Barber said there are several sub-contractors still waiting to be paid, and it’s hoped that the check will come by March 16^th.In other business, the Board approved a pay application in the amount of $13,089 for the Middle School & Schuler HVAC/Aur Quality Project. The payment will come out of the ESSER funds the District has received. They also approved a bid from Camblin Mechanical in the amount of $132,135, to replace seven HVAC units. This will complete the cycle started a number of years back, and means all original units from 1995 will have been replaced at the completion of the project.

The Board’s final order of business was to approve extra options for the 77 passenger bus they approved last month, the base bid for which was $122,319.

With those added components (Luggage storage and air conditioning), the grand total comes to $135, 719. Mr. Barber said the bus was ordered after last month’s Board decision, but has not yet been built. That process will take several months.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Rescue crews from Marne and Atlantic were dispatched to the scene of a rollover accident late Wednesday night. According to scanner traffic, a 2020 Chevy Traverse rolled over near 590th and Marne Road. The accident happened a little after 11-p.m. The female driver and sole occupant of the vehicle was injured and extricated from the vehicle. She was transported to the Cass County Hospital and then flown by LifeNet3 helicopter to an undisclosed hospital.

Additional details are currently not available.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – The latest COVID-19 information released Wednesday by the Iowa Department of Public Health, indicates the state’s death total has surpassed 9,000 since the start of the pandemic. IDPH reported 9,085 total deaths Wednesday, up 137 since last Wednesday. The health department reports 4,814 positive COVID-19 tests in the last seven days, down from 7,375 one week ago.

U.S. Health and Human Services data show 345 patients hospitalized with the virus in Iowa, down from 446 last week. That’s the lowest that number has been since mid-August 2021. The federal health department is reporting 38 COVID-19 patients in intensive care units in Iowa.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show 1,892,672 Iowans have completed a vaccine series, or 61% of the state. The CDC reports 987,974 Iowans have received a booster shot.

(Radio Iowa) – A survey that was one of a series of recommendations aimed at strengthening efforts to protect free speech rights at the three state universities after lawsuits at all three schools was reviewed by the Board of Regents Wednesday. Regents Chief Academic Officer, Rachel Boon, says the survey found 74 percent of students were comfortable expressing their opinions on campus. “Most students do agree that they’re comfortable expressing their opinions more in campus settings than in our off-campus settings. This was an interesting finding — in fact — in classrooms is where the greatest number of them agreed they feel comfortable,” she says. The survey found 90 percent of students felt they were open to listening to different views and thought only 59 percent of other students were that open.

“We like to see ourselves in our best possible light — I’m sure present company included in that. I would note that the students judged their peers a lot more harshly than the employees were judging how students’ openness was to hearing different views,” Boon says. The survey was completed by just ten percent of the students — with the numbers split fairly evenly between the University of Northern Iowa, University of Iowa and Iowa State University.

“We had over seven-thousand student respondents and that was a big enough number that we can work with it. If you think statistically speaking, seven-thousand is a big enough number that we can feel pretty good about the results we have,” Boon says. Thirty-eight percent of the faculty and staff returned the survey. The survey was done before the free speech training on campus. Boon says these numbers right now give basic results and don’t tell the complete story.

“We can seldom answer the question of why people answer the way they do. So we see how they answered — but we don’t know exactly what was going on that made them say that,” she explains. Boon says they need to do some more analysis of the survey information to get a better idea of what is happening.

(Radio Iowa) – Two Iowa State University freshmen face charges in connection with social media posts warning people to avoid campus buildings. Eighteen-year-old Abdullateef Malallah, and 19-year-old Ty Jerman, both of Ames, were later arrested and have since been charged making terroristic threats in the case. University officials say there is no known connection between the two students and the posts were made separately. While there is no indication that either student planned to enact violence against the campus community, university officials say actions of such nature are treated as a serious crime.

Monday evening, ISU police received a report about an anonymous Yik Yak post, which referenced Carver Hall, an academic building on campus. The post contained a warning advising people not to come to Carver at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday. A second anonymous post was reported a few hours later with a warning to avoid Parks Library. ISU police, with assistance from the FBI and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, worked overnight Monday to identify and monitor the individuals responsible for the posts.

Based on information gathered during the initial hours of the investigation, police determined it was not necessary to close the university and worked with building administrators to implement safety measures as a precaution, the university said in a press release.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak, Thursday morning, arrested a man for Public Intoxication. Authorities say 26-year-old Daniel John Platt, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 12:42-a.m. in the 1200 block of Senate Avenue. Platt was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $300 bond.