(Creston, Iowa) – The Creston Police Department say two people were arrested on separate charges, Thursday. Just before 11-a.m., 44-year-old Kari Lynn Wilkinson, of Red Oak, was arrested at the Creston Walmart Store. She was charged with having outstanding warrants for Failure to Appear. Wilkinson was transported to the Union County Jail and subsequently transported to the Adams County Jail, where her bond was set at $600 after serving a two-day jail sentence.

And, a little before 7-p.m. Thursday, 53-year-old James Leroy Jones, of Creston, was arrested at his residence on charges that include: Domestic Abuse Assault/1st offense; Interference with Official Acts, and Tampering with a witness or juror. He was being held without bond in the Union Jail, pending an appearance before a magistrate.

A woman from Creston reported to Police, Thursday evening, that her purse had been stolen. The purse was last seen at around 4:30-p.m. Thursday, outside the Iowana Hotel, in Creston. The loss was estimated at $1,460.

(Radio Iowa) – The Board of Regents got a detailed look Thursday at the numbers behind what has been a five-year decline in enrollment at the three state universities. Analyst Jason Pontius, says they’ve looked at a lot of numbers. “The big story here honestly is no college. More and more of our high school graduates are choosing not to go to college after graduation,” Pontius says. He says that does raise a concern looking ahead. “And one of the areas that is probably most concerning is that this is all pre-COIVD numbers. We had seen over a six-year period a five percentage point decline in the percentage of the high school classes that are deciding to go to college,” Pontius says.

There’s been a concern that a drop in births will catch up to states for high school and college enrollment –but he says Iowa shouldn’t see as big an impact as other states. He says the numbers are going to go up and then come back down again, but there won’t be a big difference from where they are at now. Pontius says another question is whether more Iowa grads are going to college in other states. “Pretty definitive answer there is no,” according to Pontius. “We’ve consistently kept about 87 percent of our Iowa high school graduates, and signs are that we are actually improving on that a little bit.”

He says there was one exception to the out-of-state loss of students. “You can see at one point there was a big uptick for students going to South Dakota. Most of those students are in the western part of Iowa,” he says. “That happened when South Dakota started offering in-state tuition (to Iowans). And those numbers are coming back down again.” Pontius says the three schools have also lost some foreign students. He says recent small sophomore and junior classes also contributed to the decline in enrollment. But, he says all three schools saw an increase in first-year students this fall and that is a good sign. “It’s going to take a little bit of time, but if we can keep the growth on these first-year classes coming in — we are going to start bringing those numbers back up again,” Pontius says.

Iowa State’s overall enrollment dropped three-point-five percent this fall, the University of Northern Iowa saw a three-point-one percent drop, and the University of Iowa’s fall enrollment fell one-point-three percent.

(Ft. Madison, Iowa) – Officials in southeast Iowa report an arrest has occurred in connection with the fatal shooting Wednesday evening, of a 15-year-old male. Police in Fort Madison say 17-year-old Dimari D.J. Meredith, of Ft. Madison, faces a felony charge of Murder in the 1st Degree in the shooting of the unidentified victim, who died at the hospital, from a single gunshot wound.

Meredith was arrested at the scene of the incident at a residence in the 4200 block of Avenue L. He was questioned and later transferred to the Lee County Juvenile Detention Center, pending arraignment. Pursuant to a search warrant, a weapon was recovered from the victim’s home, along with other items of evidence. The Iowa DCI is now assisting with the investigation.