(Radio Iowa) – For the second time in a week, a teacher in the Marshalltown Community School District has been arrested on charges of sexual exploitation by a school employee. Adam Edgington turned himself in to Marshalltown Police on the charge yesterday. The 42-year-old English teacher at Miller Middle School is accused of starting a relationship with a 13-year-old student. Edgington was released pending a court appearance on Monday. A statement from the school district says Edgington has been placed on administrative leave. ]

This is the second arrest of a district employee on the charge of sexual exploitation in recent days. Marshalltown High School instructor Mark Esquivel was arrested on June 30th on the same class D felony.

(Radio Iowa) – New vehicle registrations in Iowa are up 28 percent in the first six months of this year compared to the first half of last year when the pandemic hit. Bruce Anderson is president of the Iowa Automobile Dealers Association. “We’ve caught up and surpassed last year’s sales,” Anderson says. The number of vehicles sold in Iowa so far THIS year is 17 percent ABOVE the pre-pandemic level of vehicle sales in the first half of 2019. There are about 300 auto dealerships in Iowa and Anderson says showrooms have turned into empty dance floors and there’s no longer a sea of cars out in the lots. Anderson says it’s not entirely due to supply chain issues. “Manufacturing hasn’t stopped, but it has significantly slowed and, interestingly, demand hasn’t,” Anderson says.

Dealers are getting up to 70 percent of the vehicles they normally receive, according to Anderson. “Dealers are still getting inventory, but more and more of it is pre-sold,” Anderson says. “You can get a car. You can get a truck. There’s just not a lot to look at on the lot.” Because of supply and demand issues, there’s been a double-digit increase in the price of USED cars and trucks, too.  “Your trade has literally never been worth more and might be worth more than when you bought it,” Anderson says.

The pandemic has accelerated the move to online sales and customer service for Iowa car dealerships, according to Anderson. “Expectations have changed,” Anderson says. “Everyone of the 300 franchised new car dealerships in Iowa have got a website with a more robust virtual experience than ever before. We’re talking multiple photographs, detailed reports, even videos of the inventory before you ever take that test drive.”

About 86-hundred cars and more than 64-thousand pickups and S-U-Vs were sold in Iowa in the first six months of the year. Vehicles that Iowa dealers sold to out-of-state residents are not included in the data.

ALGONA, Iowa —  Officials with the Division of Criminal Investigation, Wednesday night, confirmed that a man and his two sons Monday, died in an apparent murder-suicide that took place in Algona.

Authorities received a 9-1-1 call at around 7:51-p.m. Monday, to the 400 block of South Harlan Street in Algona. When they arrived police found brothers, 6-year-old Logan Phelon, 3-year-old Seth Phelon and their father, 32-year-old Christopher Phelon. Following an investigation, the DCI said that Logan and Seth died as a result of gunshot wounds. Their deaths have been declared homicides.

Authorities said Phelon died from a gunshot wound and is considered a suicide. The Algona Police received assistance from the Kossuth County Sheriff’s Office, the Iowa State Patrol, Algona EMS, the Kossuth County Medical Examiner’s Office, the Kossuth County Attorney’s Office and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.

Christopher Phelon

Logan Phelon

Seth Phelon

Three people from Rock Springs, Wyoming were injured during a collision between a car and a semi tractor-trailer Wednesday evening, in Adair County. The Iowa State Patrol reports the crash happened at around 7:52-p.m. on Interstate 80 eastbound, near mile marker 75.

Authorities say a 2013 Toyota Camry driven by 68-year-old Pamela Willey, of Rock Springs, rear-ended a 1999 Peterbilt semi, which was disabled on the roadway due to an accident that had occurred a few minutes earlier. The car came to rest partially under the trailer of the semi. Pamela Willey, and her passengers, 85-year-old Harold Willey, and 68-year-old Faye Frolic, were injured. All three were transported to Iowa Methodist Hospital in Des Moines.

Pamela Willey and Faye Frolic were flown by Lifeflight to the hospital. Harold Willey was taken there by Adair Rescue. None of the crash victims were wearing seat belts. The driver of the semi, 64-year-old Robert Johnson, of Crescent, was not hurt. Assisting the patrol at the scene, were Deputies from the Adair and Cass County Sheriff’s Departments, Adair Police, numerous local rescue units, and Life Flight.

The Atlantic City Council, Wednesday evening, passed by a vote of five-to-one, with Councilperson Garrett voting no, and Councilperson Somers absent, the second reading of an amended Ordinance pertaining to elections. The Ordinance needs one more reading in order to go into effect. If that happens, it would change the method by which elections (in particular, the Mayoral and Parks and Rec Board), are decided. The current system is a “Plurality takes all,” whereby one only needs to get the most votes on the first and only ballot, in order to win. That means less than 50% is required to be elected.

The City’s Personnel and Finance Committee supports the alternative, Primary System approach to elections, where by a super majority of the votes are needed to win. It could also result in a run-off election if the votes are too close to call. The disadvantages are that the Primary System adds an additional cost, it could mean extended campaigning, and the inconvenience of having to vote a second time, not to mention confusing or conflicting results.

Mayor Dave Jones said Wednesday, “We have researched and researched, and basically, it’s always they way we were going to change it to, but somewhere it got codified, I think, when Doug Harris was City Administrator. Basically, no one paid a lot of attention to it, they just kind of did what some of the [other] cities do, which a lot of time happens.”

Councilman Gerald Brink said during discussion, “A lot of people don’t understand that.” Councilman Pat McCurdy agreed, and said he had conducted an informal poll of about 30 people. “Three out of four – they want it 50 plus one – especially for Mayor.” The final vote takes place July 21st. The Council passed by a vote of 6-0, an ordinance amending the Code, with regard to changing the term for Park Board Members from six-years, to four. And, they passed a Resolution authorizing final transfers for FY 2021.”

City Clerk Barb Barrick explained, after City Administrator John Lund looked at the budget, and what was in the ending fund balances for FY21, we wanted to have a good idea of where those fund balances were before we proposed the final transfers.” The City routinely transfers money between its one-hundred separate funds.

In other business, the Atlantic City Council set July 21st as the date for a Public Hearing with regard to the sale of City-owned property at 101 Cedar Street. The City’s Personnel and Finance Committee has agreed to sell the parcel to Cook Sanitation, in exchange for the refuse company paying $2,000. The agreement says the property will be sold as-is, dilapidated house included. Cook Sanitation is required to have the home demolished by no later than Dec. 31, 2021, and have an industrial building on the site within five-years (Aug. 2026).

They also approved an Order limiting street parking to the east side of Palm Street on July 31st, for the Cass County Fair Association. The move will make it easier for large farm equipment to enter the fairgrounds for special events that day.