STORM LAKE, Iowa (AP) — A northwestern Iowa school librarian and art teacher has been accused of stealing more than $2,000 from two school fundraising events.
The Sioux City Journal reports that 50-year-old Susan Slagle-Boyd, of Storm Lake, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of theft. Police say officers were called to St. Mary’s Catholic School on Thursday after school officials discovered money collected from two book fairs missing.

Police say Slagle-Boyd is accused of using $630 from a fall book fair and $1,500 raised from a spring book fair for her personal use. The money was supposed to go to the school system for curriculum supplies.

Slagle-Boyd was booked into the Buena Vista County Jail and her bond set at $5,000.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A man accused of fatally punching a Sioux City resident is scheduled to enter a plea in the case.

The Sioux City Journal reports that a plea and sentencing hearing has been set Monday for 25-year-old Ray Avila. He had been scheduled to stand trial on Aug. 20.
In June, Avila pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter, assault and flight to avoid prosecution. Avila was arrested in May in Jalisco, Mexico, where he had relatives.

Sioux City police say Avila became involved in an altercation on July 29, 2018, between Juan Espinoza and Peter Johnson. Police say Johnson suffered a skull fracture when Avila knocked him to the pavement. Johnson later died.

A power outage that struck Griswold and Lewis early this (Saturday) morning, was restored to most residents in the Griswold area by around 3:10-p.m., according to Cass County Emergency Management Coordinator Mike Kennon. Power was restored to Lewis by around 4-p.m., according to citizen reports.

Kennon said earlier, that a utility pole fire was reported at around 11-p.m. Friday, with the power going out for most customers in Griswold and Lewis, at around 3-a.m. At the time, he thought the power would be restored to both communities by around 4-p.m., Saturday.

About 300-to 600-MidAmerican Energy customers were without power in the Griswold area.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Democratic presidential candidates on Saturday placed responsibility for inaction on gun violence in the hands of President Donald Trump and the National Rifle Association, in the face of broad national support for some gun-control measures.

“If most Americans insist that something be done and it doesn’t happen, it means we need fundamental reform,” Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, said at a presidential forum on gun violence in downtown Des Moines.

New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, in response to a question on how to avoid stigmatizing mental illness when the president has repeatedly highlighted that issue in response to mass shootings, called Trump a liar.

“It’s just President Trump lying to the American people again, being inauthentic about what the problem is . trying to distract, and trying not to take responsibility for what is happening in this nation,” she said.

Most people with a mental illness are not violent. The forum comes a week after a pair of mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, shook the nation and reignited a debate surrounding gun rights in America. Seventeen candidates were due to speak and answer questions from members of the gun-control group Moms Demand Action in the crowd, some of whom teared up while emotionally describing the ways gun violence had affected their families.

A number of candidates have released gun-control policies in the week since the shootings. On Saturday, the Democrats largely agreed on the broad contours of the policy debate, emphasizing the need to close background check loopholes, ban assault weapons and fund research into gun violence. Most of the candidates also called on campaign finance reform as a solution to combat the influence of the NRA on elections.

A trio of more moderate candidates — Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar — all called on gun owners to get involved in the gun-control effort. “If we can ever look at this issue as not a political issue but a public health issue, we know what to do. The majority of gun owners, the majority of NRA members, all of us think universal background checks make a heck of a lot of sense,” Bullock said, noting he uses guns and has taken his son hunting.

A 2017 Pew Research Center poll showed a slight majority of NRA members — and more than three-fourths of gun-owners polled — support stronger background checks.

Buttigieg, who recently dealt with a police shooting of a black man in his home city, was asked how he’d address the issue of police shootings. He proposed deescalation training, equipping police officers with nonlethal weapons, and more accountability so that “officers who do the wrong thing live with justice.”

But a number of the candidates expressed optimism that there was momentum in favor of gun reform because of the growing political pressure from the public on lawmakers to act. “There’s a tipping point that’s been reached. I feel it out there,” Klobuchar said.

Members of the City of Atlantic’s Planning and Zoning Commission will meet 5:30-p.m. Tuesday (Aug. 13) to review a site plan for a proposed drive-thru coffee business. Dan Forslund, construction manager for Scooter’s Coffee will be on-hand during the meeting at City Hall, to discuss the development and address any issues the Commission may have.

East Atlantic Holdings, LLC., of Urbandale, owns the lot where the Verizon building is located, at 1508 E. 7th Street. City Administrator/Zoning Administrator John Lund reports the company has agreed to lease part of their property to Scooter’s Coffee, which is proposing a drive-thru coffee kiosk, only. It would situated in the grassy area in front of the Verizon Store, immediately east of Oinker’s, with a physical address of 1500 E. 7th.

The store would offer a variety of coffee and smoothies, along with breakfast food.

(Site plan photo’s) Typical Scooters drive-thru

w/ Chris Parks

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(Update 8-a.m.) A power outage that struck Griswold and Lewis overnight is expected to last until late this (Saturday) afternoon. Cass County Emergency Management Coordinator Mike Kennon says a utility pole fire was reported at around 11-p.m. Friday, with the power going out for most customers in Griswold and Lewis, at around 3-a.m.

About 300-to 400-MidAmerican Energy customers will be without power until at least 4-p.m., according to Kennon.

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — A Waterloo woman has pleaded guilty for her role in her 4-year-old daughter’s death and has been sentenced to 25 years in prison.

The Courier reports that 34-year-old Kristi Amber Buss pleaded guilty Friday to three felony charges: neglecting a dependent person, child neglect resulting in serious injury and involuntary manslaughter. She had originally been charged with child endangerment causing the death of her daughter, 4-year-old Gracie Buss, and had faced 50 years in prison.

Kristi Buss’ boyfriend, 35-year-old Chad Allen Little, was convicted in May of first-degree murder in the death and sentenced in June to life in prison.
Prosecutors say Little abused his Buss’ two children, and delivered a fatal head injury to Gracie in May 2015.

FORT DODGE, Iowa (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris said Friday that President Donald Trump “seems to derive joy” from provoking some Americans to hateful speech and actions, and she says that goes to issues deeper than whether the president is a white supremacist.

“I’ve not said this out loud, but I think it and I feel it,” Harris told The Associated Press during an interview traveling across Iowa. “He seems to derive joy from the response he gets when he talks this way. It seems he derives some element of joy in inciting people around, around outrageous and hateful rhetoric.”

Trump’s recent series of racist remarks toward women of color in Congress, as well as the ties between his anti-immigrant rhetoric and the deadly mass shooting in El Paso, have sparked a debate in the 2020 Democratic field over whether the president is a white supremacist.

Harris, like former Vice President Joe Biden and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, has stopped short of using the label. Meanwhile, former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg have said it applies.

Harris, on a weekend-long campaign trip to the early caucus state, said that debate misses the point. “It literally oversimplifies the issue, because it’s almost that the conversation begins and ends with that,” Harris said on her tour bus traveling across rural northwest Iowa. “The lens through which I think about it is so much broader than a label.”

Harris cited Trump’s 2017 ban on travelers from six largely Muslim countries, his 2018 order banning transgender individuals from serving in the armed forces except under limited circumstances, and his constant degradation of immigrants entering the U.S. from the Southern border. She said they are part of a pattern Trump has followed to feed his own psyche instead of encouraging acceptance at a time of increased hate crimes.

By ascribing personal motives to Trump’s rhetoric, Harris’ comments go further than most candidates, who have not shied from connecting Trump’s rhetoric and the El Paso shooting Saturday, when 22 people were killed by a man who admitted to police he had targeted Mexicans.

CLEAR LAKE, Iowa (AP) — Nearly all the Democrats running for president are descending on northern Iowa to make personal pitches to hundreds of would-be supporters in the state that kicks off presidential primary voting.

Around 20 candidates are speaking at Friday night’s Wing Ding, an annual fundraiser featuring chicken wings in Clear Lake, population about 8,000.
The event coincides with the state fair in Des Moines, and most White House hopefuls have been crisscrossing Iowa for days, some by bus or RV.

Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke canceled his planned Iowa visit to remain in his hometown of El Paso, Texas, where a mass shooting killed 22 people. O’Rourke said Friday on Facebook that he’ll attend more funerals and continue hospital visits, but will rejoin the campaign “at some point” and “sooner or later.”