Sheriff’s deputies in Montgomery County, Thursday, arrested 30-year old Dustin Ray Aherns, of Red Oak. He was taken into custody on a Mills County warrant for Failure to Appear on a Driving While Suspended, case. Aherns was transported to the Mills County Jail and held on a $300 bond.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:25 a.m. CDT

UNDATED (AP) — Gender reveal parties that were once considered private gatherings are becoming social media spectacles, sometimes with dangerous consequences. The death of a 56-year-old Iowa woman this weekend highlights a small but growing trend of families who use flashy gimmicks to announce the gender of their soon-to-be-born child. Pamela Kreimeyer was killed instantly Saturday when a homemade device that was meant to spray colorful powder into the air instead exploded like a pipe bomb.

MORAVIA, Iowa (AP) — Law enforcement officials in southern Iowa have identified a woman who died following an explosion in a home involving an oxygen tank. The Appanoose County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Thursday that 58-year-old Diane Golos died in the Wednesday incident. Officials say Golos was found on the kitchen floor and pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators say she had been using an oxygen machine for medical purposes when an unknown ignition source caused an explosion and fire.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A man who has long been suspected of involvement in the death of an Iowa man who disappeared last year has been charged with murder, obstruction of justice and abusing a corpse. Linn County Sheriff Brian Gardner says a grand jury hearing evidence in the death of Christopher Bagley has indicted 32-year-old Drew Blahnik on those charges. Investigators testified earlier this year that Blahnik had allegedly confessed to stabbing Bagley in retaliation for his robbery of a large-scale drug trafficker.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds says she is appointing a committee to focus on getting as many Iowans as possible to participate in the 2020 Census. She says the goal of the Iowa Census Complete Count Committee is to increase awareness among Iowans about the importance of participating. The 2020 Census will determine how many congressional seats each state gets and guide the allocation of hundreds of billions of dollars of federal funding. Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg will chair of the committee.

(UPDATE: SPECIAL SESSION CANCELLED) The Cass County Board of Supervisor’s will hold a special session 1-p.m. Friday. The purpose of their meeting is to interview an applicant for the County Engineer’s position. The Board is then expected to enter a closed session to consider hiring an applicant for the position formerly held by Charles Bechtold.

The Union County Sheriff’s Department says for the second time in less than a week, a man from Thayer reported Tuesday, someone entered his property on that date, and took his 9 month old female Red Merle French Bulldog. The dog was valued at $4,000. Last week, we told you the same man, William Davenport, reported on October 24^th that his pregnant French Bulldog had been taken. The value of that dog and unborn puppies was $30,000.

Sheriff’s deputies in Page County, Wednesday, arrested a rural Coin resident on a Missouri Felony warrant. 63-year old Robert Lewis Stevens was taken into custody at his home, on an Atchison County Missouri Felony warrant for Misappropriation of funds of Elderly Nursing Home Residence.

Stevens was transported to the Page County Jail where he was being held on a $5,000 bond. Stevens is currently awaiting extradition to Atchison County pending his bond payment.

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports two arrests today (Thursday). 42-year old Amber Lucille Pina, of Glenwood, was arrested at the Mills County Jail on a warrant for Violation of Probation. Her bond was set at $20,000. And, 37-year old Dustin Lee Harriman, of Council Bluffs, was arrested at the Sarpy County, Nebraska Jail, on two Mills County warrants for Failure To Appear. His bond was set at $11,000.

DES MOINES – Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, today (Thursday), signed a proclamation temporarily suspending certain regulatory provisions pertaining to hours of service for the delivery of propane. Early winter weather conditions, late harvest, and high demand for petroleum products throughout the Midwest have resulted in low supplies of propane. The proclamation temporarily suspends provisions of Iowa Code § 321.449 pertaining to hours of service for crews and drivers delivering propane.

The proclamation is effective November 1, 2019 and will expire at midnight on November 30, 2019.

(Radio Iowa) — A panel of lawmakers met yesterday (Wednesday) to review the dozens of state tax credits that are available. Republican Representative Pat Grassley of New Hartford, a member of the committee, is also Speaker-Select of the Iowa House. He says some credits are decades old and it’s hard to know how they’ll impact the budget from year to year.  “We want to show that we’re trying to make sure we’re modernizing these tax credits, that we’re getting value in our tax credits,” Grassley says. “I think that’s something that we need to be looking at.”

But Grassley cautions that any changes to tax credits will be hard to pass because he expects strong opposition from interest groups. The State of Iowa paid out more than 200 million dollars in tax credits during the last state fiscal year. Some of the largest awards go to large companies through tax credits for research, employment and training programs. Representative Chris Hall, a Democrat from Sioux City, says that cuts into revenue that could go toward education or health care. “We need to give serious attention to it and we can’t just say an introduction to the topic is good enough,” Hall says.

It’s unclear how the committee will move forward from here. The Republican co-chairs of the group would not commit to another meeting before the 2020 legislative session starts in January.

(Reporting by Iowa Public Radio’s Grant Gerlock)

(Radio Iowa) — A fire Wednesday in a homeless camp damaged a downtown Interstate 29 bridge in Sioux City. D-O-T spokesman, Dakin Schultz, says traffic on the mainline bridge over Perry Creek has been cut to one lane. “The fire occurred toward the outside of the structure or toward the outside shoulder of the structure. So, we have reduced traffic northbound to one lane is running on that bridge — and we’ve got it up against the median barrier,” Schultz says.

DOT photo

Southbound traffic is also one lane and shifted into the new construction area for now. Schultz says the thick black smoke and heat from the fire caused a major traffic jam and damaged the bridge. “We are in the process of having that area cleaned for an inspection. We’ll have a bridge inspection crew come in and do a review on that,” Schultz says. “We would then have that information provided to our structural engineers for a full evaluation to try and determine what type of repairs are required.”

He says they can’t take action until finding out exactly how much damage happened. “We do know there is damage to the bridge. Through the initial inspection it’s obvious we have some of the concrete pulling away from the structure. We just have to determine what ultimately needs to be done to get this bridge back into service,” Schultz says.

Police and fire investigators believe the fire was likely started by people using propane.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds says she is appointing a committee to focus on getting as many Iowans as possible to participate in the 2020 Census. She says the goal of the Iowa Census Complete Count Committee is to increase awareness among Iowans about the importance of responding. Next year’s census will be the first to allow people to respond online.

The 2020 Census will determine how many congressional seats each state gets and guide the allocation of hundreds of billions of dollars of federal funding. Reynolds said Thursday Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg will chair of the committee. Reynolds says Iowa had a 79% voluntary response rate in 2010, the third highest in the nation. Iowans may apply to serve on the commission at the governor’s website until Nov. 22.