The Creston (IA) Police Department reports three recent arrests:

7-22-2024 2:15pm: Zackary Charles Huddleson, 33, Afton was arrested at the Creston Union County LEC. Huddleson was charged on a Union County Warrant for Assault causing Bodily Injury or Mental Illness. Huddleson was taken to the Union County Jail where he was later released on $1000 cash or surety bond.

7-22-2024 10:47pm: Robbie Allen Dohrn, 59, 508 S Birch was arrested at the intersection of Elm and Fremont. Dohrn was charged with Driving Suspended. Dohrn was cited and released on Promise to Appear.

7-23-2024 1:16am: Charles Arthur Hulett, 54, 1706 Osage was arrested at the intersection of Highway 34 and Osage. Hulett was charged with OWI 1st Offense and Carry Weapons while Intoxicated. Hulett was taken to the Union County Jail where he was later released on $2000 cash or surety bond.

SIOUX CITY (KTIV) – City council members approved a request to adopt plans, specifications, and estimated cost for the second phase of a project to reconstruct the roof of the terminal building at Sioux Gateway Airport. KTIV reports the council passed the item 4-to-0. Phase 1 design and construction is already done. Phase 2 addresses the west airfield secure side of the terminal building. Phase 2 will also address the need for drainage and any retrofitting or replacement of the drainage system. A public hearing is set for August 19th. Bids will be received on August 27th. The estimated cost of phase 2 is about $441,000.

The city council also approved a request asking the assistant city manager to apply for an FAA grant to pay for terminal improvements at Sioux Gateway. The grant will cover up to $3.74 million of the project with a 5 percent local match. The project includes the replacement of a passenger boarding bridge and seven remaining HVAC units at the terminal building. All work is contingent upon the airport getting the grant funding. The total estimated cost of the project is $3.6 million.

(Radio Iowa) – The Des Moines City Council has given initial approval to an ordinance that sets a 50 dollar fine for those caught sleeping in public and refuse to leave places like doorways and alleys. Des Moines City Councilman Chris Coleman helped draft the plan. “When the police are asking them to move on, we expect people to obey the police and there has to be some penalty,” Coleman said. “We’ve made it the lowest possible penalty with a way to ensure that people who can’t pay the fine with won’t pay the fine.”

The ordinance also lets the city remove personal belongings from an illegal campsite three days after a notice is given. Des Moines and other cities have begun rewriting regulations after a U-S Supreme Court ruled last month that cities can ban sleeping and camping in public places. Sarah Schuler — the H-R director for a Des Moines ad agency — says she has begun talking with employees about safety outside their office in downtown Des Moines. “We all know that when we live in a city, that we’re going to face challenges,” she said. “We all understand that, but since COVID and since my time with Flynn Wright the incidents have really continued to escalate.”

Alan Callanan of Des Moines says the ordinance criminalizes homelessness. “People with fines and criminal records will have a harder time getting out of homelessness,” Callanan says. “Everyone on city council knows this will not solve the rising rate of homelessness in the city and across the country, but some on council clearly want the council to be able to further punish people who are already in a dangerous situation.”

Tom Hromatka, the treasurer of a non-profit that helps homeless people in Des Moines, says the homeless population in Iowa’s capital city has more than doubled in the past two years and the ordinance is a band-aid. “We need to aggressively seek long term alternatives and permanent solutions to this problem,” he said.

The Des Moines City Council must review and approve the ordinance in two more meetings before it takes effect. The A-C-L-U of Iowa has signaled it will go to court to challenge the ordinance.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Supreme Court has rejected a request to reconsider its recent ruling that outlawing nearly all abortions in legal under Iowa’s constitution. A year ago, Governor Reynolds signed the law banning abortions after fetal activity can be detected, which is around the sixth week of a pregnancy — but even after the Iowa Supreme Court’s ruling the upholding the law, it hasn’t taken effect because attorneys for Planned Parenthood asked the Iowa Supreme Court to rehear the case. Now that the Iowa Supreme Court has said no that, a lower court judge could make the law take effect yet this week.

A Polk County District Court judge issued the injunction last July that has blocked the law. Under court procedures, it has to be a Polk County District Court judge who lifts that injunction.